Ace By 
‘London and its Environs, in a Letter from 
ASTL2’S*ORIGIN: AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 
the introduction of the-art; they pasted the 
lank sides together, which made them ap- 
pear as one leaf. f 
“« The European blocks were carved upon 
beech, pear tree, and other soft woods, which 
soon failed, and the letters frequently broke ; 
this put them upon the method of repairing 
the block by carving new letters, and placing 
them in, which necessity seems to have sug- 
ested the hint of moveable types of metal ; 
fee were not so liable to break as the soft 
European woods, which had been before 
used. One great and obvious advantage of 
moveable types was, that by separating them 
they would sérve for any other work ; where- 
as the blocks of wood served only for one 
work; though the use of moveable metal 
i was a very fortunate discovery, yet they 
erived their origin rather to the imperfection 
or unfitness of our woods for printing blocks, 
than from any great, ingenuity of those who 
first used them. In short necessity, the mo- 
ther of all arts, introduced oe ie types. 
(It has been a matter of contest, who 
first practised the art of printing in Europe. 
Faust or Fust of Mentz, Gutenburg of Stras- 
burg, and Coster af Haerlem, have each their 
advocates, ‘The pretensions in favour of 
Fust seem to be the best supported ;, but we 
shall not trespass upon the patience of our 
readers by entering into a discussion of this 
matter, because such a discussion would, in 
ur opinion, be of little importance, it having 
been generally agreed, that priuting with 
moveable types was not practised till after the 
middle of ¥ fifteenth century, although 
pp. 234, 
THERE is some merit in the mere 
compilation of phenomena respecting 
the vernacular and idiomatic dialect of 
the multitude. They may serve, like 
insulated facts in chemistry, to prepare 
the generalizations ot philosophy. The 
. grammarian may deduce from them im- 
jortant contributions to the theory of 
Ramsar: the author may find among 
them expressions worthy of being in- 
grafted into the phraseology of compe- 
sition. 
‘The compilation of mere blunders is, 
however, the least useful department of 
philological industry. Mis-utterings and 
Besepcliines of words, whose derivation. 
and orthography are notoriously settled, 
may, by being recorded, warn the care- 
less and the ignorant against such in- 
tolerable repetition: but they can at most’ 
be employed to assist a farce writer in 
making his cockneys ridiculous. To 
enumerate them with apologetic compla- 
cence, is to endanger the purity of the. 
GB, 
prints from blocks of, wood are traced as far 
back as the year 1423, 00 2 “ 
_ "It seems probable, that, the art of print-,, 
ing might have heen introduced in Europe 
by some European who. had. trayelled into , 
China, and had seen some of their printing . 
tablets, as it is known that several Europeans | 
had been over-land into China before this, 
time; and what strengthens this probability 
is, the Europeans first printed on one side of | 
the paper only, in the same, manner as: the. 
Chinese do at present, but, howeyer this may 
be, the progress of the art was as follows : 
«© First, pictures from blocks of wood with- 
out text. Peay: yale 5 | { 
“€ Secondly, pictures with text = + « . 
-“ Thirdly, whole pages of textcuton blocks , 
of wood, sometimes for the explanation of. 
ptints, which accompanied them. And, . 
«« Fourthly, moveable types, Specimens of 
all which are given in, the Jdée generalé des 
Estampes just referred to,” 
An appendix concerning the radical’ 
letters of the Pelasgians ifs Eh vo- . 
lume. The domestic erudition is the. 
most valuable part of it.. The printing, 
is exquisitely beautiful. ‘The Gintrimasel’ 
engravings, the vellum. paper, display» 
to advantage: the allied arts., The.au-> 
thor will descend’ to posterity as) an 
adept in diplomatic science, and a tasté-' 
ful cultivator and patron of the con; 
nected branches of literature.) ~ ">" 
Anecdotes of the English Languages chiefly regarding thes Local ‘Dialect of ; 
Samos Preece, L£sqii Ff. Si As Svos» 
[Gg a or iii 
received diction... Too, much of, this) 
blunder-mustering- occurs im these anec-» 
dotes: they consist chiefly of. vitious'ex-" 
pressions, enumerated without censure.’ 
The form of réviewal most‘adapted 
to guard our speech against the intrusion 
of these metropolitan , provincialisms, . 
would be a perpetual. commentary, .a, 
discussion, word by word, of. the claims. 
of each to retainal or dismissal. But. , 
this would-be too. voluminous for us, too, 
tedious for our readers, We must re-. 
strict ourselves therefore to desultory- 
annotations». . _ en ey 
P. 22, The etymology of cockney is, 
discussed. Junius. had. already settled, 
the point: it is originally Welsh, con. 
nected with the root cocr, indulgent, and! 
means a spoilt child. In Brittany. the. 
woad, whence,a sort of European indigo: 
is made, -is called cocagae, and, as-it re- 
quires a loamy fertile soil, the name pays’ 
de cocagne is come to signify a plentiful; 
country. This cocogne was used for, ta.’ 
Ss 4 : 
