S04 Recapitulation. 



us. But there is surely no extravagance in say- 

 ing, that there never was an age in which know- 

 ledge of various kinds was so popular and so ge- 

 nerally diffused, or in which so many publications 

 were circulated and read. The elements of li- 

 terature and science have descended from the 

 higher classes of society, and from universities, 

 to the middle, and in some instances to the lower 

 orders of men. Speculations which were once, 

 in a great measure, conhned to the closets of the 

 curious, have gradually miD2;led themselves with 

 the most prevailing and familiar doctrines of the 

 day. Many modern females arc well informed, 

 and a few extensively learned. The common 

 people read and inquire to a degree that would 

 pnce have been thought incredible. Seminaries 

 of learning are multiplied beyond all precedent. 

 The numbfcr of students which they contain is, in 

 general, much greater than formerly. Modern 

 books, even those on subjects of science, are now 

 divested of their former envelopment of dead 

 languages, and presented in a plain and popular 

 dress. Booksellers, more rich, active, and enter- 

 prising, than they were a century ago, now find 

 it tlieir interest to scatter books in every direction, 

 and to convey some knowledge of them to every 

 door. Libraries have become far more numerous, 

 and are placed on a more popular footing than 

 formerly. Circulating libraries* have been in- 



* Circulati7ig Libraries, it is believed, were first instituted in. the 

 eighteenth century. The first establishment of this kind in Lon- 

 (Jon was commenced by one Wright, a bookseller, about the 

 year 1740. In 1800 the number of these libraries in Gr-eat Bri- 

 tain was not less than one thousand. 



