296 Recapitulation. 



fact, in increasing the sum of public intelligence, 

 arid in keeping the minds of men awake and ac- 

 tive, fcannot but be noticed by the most superii- 

 cial dbserver of the character of the period under 

 consideration. Printing presses have not onl}'- 

 become numerous in the populous cities, in every 

 literary portion of the world ; but also in remote 

 parts of the country these engines for the diftu- 

 sion of information are found : thus furnishing the 

 good with the means of sowing the seeds of truth 

 and virtue, and the wicked with the means of 

 scattering poison to an extent never before wit- 

 nessed in human society. 



7. The last century is entitled to distinction 

 above all others, as the age OF BOOKS ; an age 

 in which the spirit of ruriti?ig, as well as of publi- 

 cation, exceeded all former precedent. Though 

 this is closely connected with the foregoing par- 

 ticular, it deserves a more distinct and pointed 

 notice. Never assuredly did the world abound 

 with such a profusion of various works, or pro- 

 duce such an immense harvest of literary fruits. 

 The publication of books in all former periods 

 of the history of learning laboured under many 

 difficulties. Readers were comparatively few * ; 



zincs. Newspapers, &c., the estimate above stated will probably 

 be thought rather to fall below than to exceed the truth. 



* " To prove the paucity of readers," in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, " it may be sufficient to remark, that the British nation 

 had been satisfied from 1623 to 1664, that is, a period of forty- 

 one years, with only txvo editions of the works of Shakspeare, 

 which probably did not together make one thousand copies." 

 Life of Miltoti, 1)1/ Johnson. 



Whereas, in the eighteenth century, from 1733 to 1778, that 



