PRINTING MARINER S COMPASS. 



improvement of this art, and its application to 

 the diffusion of knowledge, a new era was formed 

 in the annals of the human race, and in the pro 

 gress of science, religion, and morals. To it we 

 are chiefly indebted for our deliverance from ig 

 norance and error, and for most of those scien 

 tific discoveries and improvements in the arts 

 which distinguish the period in which we live. 

 Without its aid, the Reformation from Popery 

 could scarcely have been achieved ; for, had the 

 books of Luther, one of the first reformers, been 

 multiplied by the slow process of handwriting 

 and copying, they could never have been diffused 

 to any extent ; and the influence of bribery and 

 of power might have been sufficient to have ar 

 rested their progress, or even to have erased their 

 existence. But, being poured forth from the 

 press in thousands at a time, they spread over the 

 nations of Europe like an inundation, and with 

 a rapidity which neither the authority of princes, 

 nor the schemes of priests and cardinals, nor the 

 bulls of popes, could counteract or suspend. To 

 this noble invention it is owing that copies of the 

 bible have been multiplied to the extent of many 

 millions that ten thousands of them are to be 

 found in every Protestant country and that the 



the low price (as was then thought) of sixty crowns, 

 the number and the uniformity of the copies he pos 

 sessed created universal agitation and astonish 

 ment. Informations were given to the police against 

 him as a magician, his lodgings were searched, and 

 a great number of copies being found, they were 

 seized ; the red ink Avith which they were embel 

 lished was said to be his blood ; it was seriously 

 adjudged, that he was in league with the devil ; and 

 if he had not fled from the city, most probably he 

 would have shared the fate of those whom ignorant 

 And superstitious judges, at that time, condemned 

 for witchcraft. From this circumstance, let us learn 

 to beware how we view the inventions of genius, 

 and how we treat those whose ingenious- contri 

 vances may afterwards be the means of enlightening 

 and meliorating mankind. See Appendix, No. VII. 

 Various improvements have been made, of late 

 years, in the art of printing. That which has lately 

 been announced by Dr. Church of Boston, is the 

 most remarkable ; and, if found successful, will 

 carry this art to a high degree of perfection. A prin 

 cipal object of this improvement is, to print con 

 stantly from new types, which is effected by simpli 

 fying the process for casting and composing. The 

 type is delivered perfect by machinery, and laid as 

 it is cast, in separate compartments, with unerring 

 order and exactness. The composition is then ef 

 fected by other apparatus, directed by keys like 

 those of a piano-forte, and the type may then be ar 

 ranged in words and lines, as quickly as in the per 

 formance of notes in music. No error can arise 

 except from touching the wrong key: and hence an 

 expert hand will leave little labour for the re;vder. 

 It is then found less expensive under Dr. Church s 

 economical system of re-casting, to re-melt the types, 

 and re-cast them, than to perform the tedious opera 

 tion of distribution. The melting takes place with 

 out atmospheric exposure, by which oxydation and 

 waste of metal are avoided. It calculated that 

 two men can produce 75,000 new types per hour, and 

 in re-composing, one man will perform as much as 

 three or four compositors. In the production of 

 types, the saving is ninety-nine parts in a hundred ; 

 and in the composition, distribution, and reading, is 

 three parts in four. In regard to press-work, Dr. C. 

 has invented a machine to work with plattens, in 

 stead of cylinders, from which he will be enabled to 

 take SO fine impressions per minute. 

 40 



poorest individual who expresses a desiie for it s 

 may be furnished with the vt word of life&quot; which 

 will guide him to a blessed immortality. That 

 divine light which is destined to illuminate every 

 region of the globe, and to sanctify and reform 

 men of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, is 

 accelerated in its movements, and directed in its 

 course through the nations, by the invention of 

 the art of printing ; and ere long it will distri 

 bute among the inhabitants of every land, the 

 &quot; law and the testimony of the Most High,&quot; 

 to guide their steps to the regions of eternal hliss. 

 In short, there is not a more powerful engine in 

 the hands of Providence, for diffusing the know 

 ledge of the nature and the will of the Deity, 

 and for accomplishing the grand objects of re 

 velation, than the art of multiplying books, and 

 of conveying intelligence through the medium of 

 the press. Were no such art in existence 5 we 

 cannot conceive how an extensive and universal 

 propagation of the doctrines of revelation could 

 be effected, unless after the lapse of an indefinite 

 number of ages. But, with the assistance of 

 this invention, in its present improved state, the 

 island of Great Britain alone, within less than a 

 hundred years, could furnish a copy of the Scrip 

 tures to every inhabitant of the world, and would 

 defray the expense of such an undertaking, with 

 much more ease, and with a smaller sum, than 

 were necessary to furnish the political warfare in 

 which we were lately engaged. 



These considerations teach us, that the in 

 genious inventions of the human mind are under 

 the direction and control of the Governor of the 

 world are intimately connected with the ac 

 complishment of the plan of his providence, and 

 have a tendency, either directly or indirectly, to 

 promote, over every region of the earth, the pro 

 gress and extension of the kingdom of the Re 

 deemer. They also show us. from what small 

 beginnings the most magnificent operations of 

 the divine economy may derive their origin. 

 Who could have imagined that the simple cir 

 cumstance of a person amusing himself by cutting 

 a few letters on the bark of a tree, and impress 

 ing them on paper, was intimately connected 

 with the mental illumination of mankind ; and 

 that the art which sprung from this casual pro 

 cess was destined to be the principal means of 

 illuminating the nations, and of conveying to the 

 ends of the earth, &quot;the salvation of our God 1* 

 But, &quot; He who rules in the armies of heaven, and 

 among the inhabitants of the earth,&quot; and who sees 

 &quot; the end from the beginning,&quot; overrules the most 

 minute movement of all his creatures, in subservi 

 ency to his ultimate designs, and shows himself, 

 in this respect, to be &quot; wonderful in counsel, and 

 excellent in working.&quot; 



The Mariner s Compass. Another invention 

 which has an intimate relation to religion, is, 

 the art of Navigation, and the invention of the 

 Mariner s Compass. Navigation is the art oi 



