418 Recapitulation . 



this state of things were many and gfeat. It re* 

 pressed and discouraged talents, and rendered the 

 number of readers extremely small. The inven- 

 tion of printing gave a new aspect to literature, 

 and formed one of the most important eras in the 

 history of human aff?irs. It not only increased 

 the number, and reduced the price of books, but 

 it also furnished authors with the means of laying 

 the fruits of their labours before the public, in the 

 most prompt and extensive manner. Considering 

 this art, moreover, as a great moral and political 

 engine, by which an impression may be made on a 

 large portion of a community at the same time, it 

 assumes a degree of importance highly interesting 

 to the philanthropist, as well as to the scholar. 



The extension of this art in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury forms one of the leading features of the age. 

 In the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, especi- 

 ally in the former, printing presses were few, and, 

 of course, publication was by no means easy. The 

 century under review exhibited an immense exten- 

 sion of the art. This extension was not only gene- 

 ral, but so great, that the most moderate estimate 

 presents a result truly stupendous. There was 

 probably a thousandfold more printing executed in 

 the course of this century, than in the whole pe- 

 riod that had before elapsed since the invention of 

 the art/ The influence of this fact, in increasing 

 the sum of public intelligence, and in keeping the 

 minds of men awake and active, cannot but be 

 noticed by the most superficial observer of the cha- 



x This will appear a moderate calculation, when it is considered that 

 there is a prodigious increase, not only in the number of new works an- 

 nually issued from the press, but also in the extent and number of edi- 

 tions constantly demanded by the public. And when to this is added the 

 amount of printing which has been continually going forward, particu- 

 larly within the last fifty years, in furnishing the whole literary world with 

 such a number and variety of periodical publications, as Reviews, Maga- 

 zines, Newspapers, 8cc. the estimate above stated will probably be thought 

 rather to fall below than to exceed the truth. 



