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of representation were rare, and the civil history of every people, without a single exception, is, in its' first periods, dark and incoherent, such indeed as might be expected from oral authority.

The inventor of means to supply the defects of memory, and to preclude the opportunity of deceit, it is obvious to conclude, would be considered as a great benefactor to mankind, and elevated by the exuberant gratitude of a rude age above the rank of humanity. To Theuth, the inventor of letters among the Egyptians, and to the same personage, under the name of Hermes among the Greeks, divine honours were paid; an apotheosis surely more justifiable on principles of reason than that of Bacchus, the cultivator of the vine, or of Hercules, the cleanser of a stable.

To communicate their discovery, the inventors of literary symbols found it necessary to mark them on some substance susceptible of impression or penetration. What that substance was is a subject of curious, but unimportant inquiry. The original mode of inscribing the newly discovered characters, however conducted, was probably very imperfect; but as it happens in all discoveries of momentous consequence, the idea of it once started, was pursued with that general ardour and attention which never fails to produce a great improvement. The stone, the palm leaf, the biblos or bark of the linden tree, the leaden tablet, the papyrus manufactured into the charta, the parchment, and the pugillares, respectively served, as progressive advancement suggested, or as convenience required, to receive the written lucubrations of the ancient poet, philosopher, legislator, and historian.

That many of the noblest efforts of ancient genius, though committed to writing on substances so frail as the papyrus, and so subject to erasure as the waxen tablet, should have reached the present age, is an

event only to be accounted for by supposing, that their conspicuous beauties occasioned uncommon vigilance and solicitude in their preservation.

At a very late period, a substance formed of macerated linen, was found superior in beauty, convenience, and duration, and better adapted to the purposes of literature, than all the prior devices of mechanical ingenuity. It derived its name from the flag that grew on the banks of the Nile, which, though it in some degree resembled, it greatly excelled. Porous, yet of firm contexture, it admitted the inscription of characters with a facility, equalled only by the retention with which it preserved them. By the ease with which it is procured and inscribed, it rescued the ancient authors from the possibility of oblivion, and may strictly be said to have formed that monument more durable than brass, which a celebrated poet prophesied to himself with a confidence, justified at length by the accomplishment of his prediction.

No. CXXXVII.

On the Circumstances which led to the Discovery of the Art of Printing, with Miscellaneous Remarks on it.

THE business of transcribing the remains of Grecian and Roman literature became a useful, an innocent, and a pleasing employ to many of those who, in the dark ages, would else have pined in the listless languor of monastic retirement. Exempt from the avocations of civil life, incapable of literary exertion

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from the want of books and opportunities of improvement, they devoted the frequent intervals of religious duty, to the transcription of authors whom they often little understood. The servile office of a mere copyist was not disdained by those who knew not to invent; and the writers in the scriptorium were inspired with an emulation to excel, in the beauty and variety of their illuminations, the fidelity of their copy, and the multitude of their performances.

But when every letter of every copy was to be formed by the immediate operation of the hand, the most persevering assiduity could effect but little. They appear not to have been written with the rapidity of a modern transcriber, but with a formal stiffness, or a correct elegance, equally inconsistent with expedition. They were therefore rare, and consequently much valued, and whenever sold, were sold at a great price. Few, indeed, but crowned and mitred heads, or incorporated communities, were able to procure a number sufficient to merit the appellation of a Library; and even the boasted libraries of princes and prelates, were such, as are now easily exceeded by every private collection. To be poor, with whatever ability or inclination, was, at one time an insurmountable obstacle to literary improvement; and, perhaps, we indulge an unreasonable acrimony in our general censure of Monkish sloth and ignorance, not considering that an involuntary fault ceases to be blamable; that ignorance is necessary where the means of information are scarce; and that sloth is not to be avoided, where the requisites of proper employment are not attainable without great expense, or earnest solicitation.

It was, perhaps, less with a view to obviate these inconveniences, than from the interested motives of deriving greater gain by exacting the usual price for copies multiplied with more ease and expedition,

that a new mode was at length practised, derived from the Invention of the Art of Printing, a discovery which, of all those recorded in civil history, is of the most important and extensive consequence.

That the first productions of the press were intended to pass for manuscripts, we are led to conclude from the resemblance of the type to the written characters, from the omission of illuminations which were to be supplied by the pen to facilitate the deception, and from the inventor's concealment of his process, so far as to incur suspicion of witchcraft or magic, by which alone the first observers could account for the extraordinary multiplication of the transcripts or copies.

But the deceit was soon detected. The perfect resemblance in the shape of the letters, in the place and number of the words on every page, the singular correctness, and above all, the numerous copies of the same author, inevitably led to a discovery of the truth. To conceal it, indeed, was no longer desired, when experience had suggested the great lucrative advantages, and the practicability of multiplying books without end by the process newly invented. It soon appeared, though it was not obvious at first, that the new mode would be more agreeable to the reader, as well as easier to the copyist, and that printed books would universally supersede the use of manuscripts, from a choice founded on judicious preference. The art was soon professed as a trade, and the business of copying, which had once afforded only amusement or gain to the curious and the idle, became the constant employment and support of a numerous tribe of artisans, and constituted a very considerable source of mercantile advantage.

Of an art, which, though it had yet acquired but small degrees of perfection, appeared of most extensive utility in religion, in politics, in literature,

and even in commerce, no labour has been spared to investigate the history; but unfortunately, the inquirers into the origin of arts, instigated by the zeal of minute curiosity to push their researches too far, often discover them so rude, obvious, and inartificial at their commencement, as to reflect very little honour on those whom they ostentatiously exhibit as the earliest inventors. Such has been the result of the investigations of those who, dissatisfied with the commonly received opinions on the date of the invention of Printing, pretend to have discovered traces of it many years before the first production of Faustus, in 1457: and it is true, that the Speculum Salutis, and a few other books are extant, which are, on good reasons, judged to have been stamped, not printed secundum artem, long before the erection of a press at Mentz: but the mode in which they are executed, like the Chinese, bears but little resemblance to the art of printing, properly so called: it appears not, by any historical memoir, to have suggested the first hint of it, and is too imperfect to deserve notice as even the infant state of this momentous invention.

National pride, like the pride of individuals, is often founded on slight or dubious pretensions. Thus have Germany and Holland contended, with all the warmth of party, for the imaginary honour of giving birth to the Inventor of Printing, who, after all, was probably led to the discovery, not by the enlarged views of public utility, but by fortunate circumstances concurring with the desire of private and pecuniary advantage: but though the history of Printing, like all other histories, is in some degree obscure and doubtful at its earliest period, though Strasburg has boasted Mentel, and Harlaem Coster, as the inventor: yet is there great reason to conclude, that the few arguments advanced in their favour are supported only by forgery and falsehood:

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