294 Recapitulation. 



theories/and systems, while it has served to keep 

 the scientific world more than ever awake and 

 busy, has done mischief by perplexing the mind 

 Avith too many objects of attention, and by ren- 

 dering the labour of the student more extensive, 

 difficult, and tedious. If, in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, the inquirer had reason to complain, that 

 the shifting aspect of science rendered necessary 

 the most unremitting vigilance, and an endless 

 repetition of his toil, this complaint might have 

 been urged with a hundred fold more reason in 

 the eighteenth. The advantages, however, of this 

 state of things may be considered, on the whole, 

 as predominant. The ardour, the competition, 

 and the diligence in the pursuit of knowledge 

 which it has inspired, deserve at once to be re- 

 cognised as beneficial, and to be noticed as dis- 

 tinguishing characteristics of the age. 



6. The last century is preeminently entitled to 

 the character of THE AGE OF PRINTING. It is ge- 

 nerally known, that this art is but little more than 

 three centuries old. Among the ancients, the 

 difficulty and expense of multiplying copies of 

 works of reputation were so great, that few made 

 the attemi:>t ; and the author who wished to sub- 

 mit his compositions to the public was under the 

 necessity of reciting them at some favourable 

 meeting of the people *. The disadvantages at- 

 tending this state of things were many and great. 

 It repressed and discouraged talents, and rendered 

 the number of readers extremely small. The in- 

 vention of printing gave a new aspect to litera^ 



* See Additional Notes (P). 



