424 Recapitulation. 



merit. The number of those who engage in this 

 business, is probably increased, taking the literary- 

 world at large, more than an hundredfold* The 

 extent and profits of their trade have grown in a 

 still greater proportion. These circumstances have 

 enabled them to become the patrons of learning; 

 to pay generously for literary labours; and to put 

 it in the power of authors to appear more spee- 

 dily and advantageously at the bar of the public. 

 Hence the ease of publication. And hence the 

 countless number of volumes, which could never 

 have found their way to the press in a different 

 state of society. 



8. The eighteenth century is distinguished for 



the UNPRECEDENTED DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE, 



Not only has a greater number of books issued 

 from the press, during this period, than the accu- 

 mulated product of all preceding ages can display; 

 but these books have had a more general circula- 

 tion than in any former period. To read, a little 

 more than a century ago, was by no means a ge- 

 neral object of attention. At that time, neither 

 the middle classes of society, nor oftentimes per- 

 sons of high rank, thought ignorance a disgrace. 

 The Female sex seldom resorted to books, either 

 for amusement or instruction; and many respect- 

 able habitations scarcely contained a volume ex- 

 cepting the Bible, and one or two devotional 

 books of standard value. In fact, as books of sci- 

 ence then rarely appeared, so " those which did 

 appear, containing the accumulated stores of pro- 

 found research, and entensive reading, were nei- 



d The increase in the number of Printers and Booksellers in America, 

 during the period in question, was at least in this proportion. And there 

 can be no doubt, that a similar increase has taken place in most other parts 

 of the literary world. In the city of Paris, there are said to be four hun- 

 dred and fifty-five Booksellers, and three hundred and forty Printers. In 

 London, the number, though not so large, is very great. In Germany, 

 these classes of tradesmen are probably more numerous, but more scat- 

 tered through the empire. 



