PRINTING 87 



These manuscript books required years of work, and 

 hence were very rare and high-priced. Large for- 

 tunes were necessary to acquire a library of several 

 volumes. To-day books find their way everywhere, 

 spreading in profusion, even among the lowest 

 classes, the sacred bread of intelligence. Printing 

 has been known for four hundred years: its inven- 

 tion is due to Gutenberg. " 



4 ' That is a name I shall never forget," said Jules. 



"It deserves,- above all, to be remembered, for with 

 the printed book Gutenberg rendered impossible 

 henceforth the ignorant times through which man 

 has miserably passed. Our intellectual treasures, 

 resources for the future, are better than engraved 

 on stone or metal; they are inscribed on sheets of 

 paper, in copies too numerous to be all destroy ed." 



