Additional Notes, 509 



may be reasonably questioned, ho\y for this idea be just : for, 

 although it should be allowed that the invention of printing 

 was accidental, with respect to the individual who made it, it 

 may, with truth, be considered as, the natural result of a state 

 of the world, when a number of great and contiguous nations 

 are all engaged in the study of literature, in the pursuit of 

 science, and in the practice of the arts : insomuch, that I do 

 not think it extravagant to affirm, that, if this invention had 

 not been made by the particular person to whom it is ascribed, 

 the same art, or some analogous art, answering a similar pur- 

 pose, would have infallibly been invented by some other per- 

 son, and at no very distant period. The art of printing, there- 

 fore, is entitled to be considered as a step in the natural history 

 of man, no less than the art of writing ; and they who are 

 sceptical about the future progress of the race, merely in con- 

 sequence of its past history, reason as unphilosophically as the 

 member of a savage tribe, who, deriving his own acquaint- 

 ance with former times from oral tradition only, should affect 

 to call in question the efficacy of written records, in accele- 

 rating the progress of knowledge and of civilization. 



" What will be the particular effects of this invention, 

 (which has been, hitherto, much checked in its operation, by 

 the restraints on the liberty of the press in the greater part of 

 Europe) it is beyond the reach of human sagacity to conjec- 

 ture; but, in general, we may venture to predict with confi- 

 dence, that, in every country, it will gradually operate to 

 widen the circle of science and civilization ; to distribute more 

 equally, among all the members of the community, the ad- 

 vantages of the political union, and to enlarge the basis of 

 equitable governments, by increasing the number of those who 

 understand their value, and are interested to defend them. 

 The science of legislation, too, with all the other branches 

 of knowledge which are connected with human improve- 

 ment, may be expected to advance with rapidity ; and, in 

 proportion as the opinions and institutions of men approach to 

 truth and to justice, they will be secured against those revo- 

 lutions to which human affairs have always been hitherto sub- 

 ject. Opinionwn mini commenta delet dies, natura judicia 

 confirmat" 



" Nor must we omit to mention the value which the art of 

 printing communicates to the most limited exertions of literary 

 industry, by treasuring them up as materials for the future ex- 

 amination Of more enlightened inquirers. In tin's respect the 

 press bestows upon the sciences an advantage somewhat ana- 



