[ \ 9 * 3 
in the rude manner thefe are, can be expe&ed to per- 
form : X have therefore exhibited the Impreffion of 
it, at the Head of this Paper, as the moft antient Sample 
of Printing we know of 5 for by the Appearance of 
the Metal it feems to be of the Upper Empire. 
We fee by this Stamp of two Lines, that the very 
Effence of Printing was known to the Romms , and 
they had nothing to do but to have made a Stamp 
with Lines three or four times as long, and con- 
taining twenty inftead of two Lines, to have form'd 
a Frame of Types that would have printed a whole 
Page, as well as Cafter’s wooden Blocks, which he 
ufed in printing the Speculum Salutis . 
In the firft Volume of a Collection of feveral 
Pieces of Mr. John Toland , printed Lond. 1726. in 
8 °. p . 297. is a fmall Traft of his intituled, Conje - 
Slur a verofimilis de prima Typographic Invent ione y 
which is founded upon the following Paffage in Cf- 
cero y in cap . 20. Lib. II. de Natural) eorum\ where 
Balbus the Stoic ufes the following Words in an 
Argument againft Velleius an Epicurean : 
Hie ego non mirer effie aliquem , qui fibi perfua- 
deaty corpora quedam folida atque individua vi & 
gravitate ferri y mundumque effici ornatijjimum & 
pulcherrimum , ex eorum concurfione fortuita ? Hoc 
qui exiftimet fieri potuijfiey non intelligo cur non 
idem put ety (i innumerable s rnius & viginti forme 
liter arum {vel aurec vel quales libet) aliquo conji - 
ciantury poffe ex his in t err am excujfis annales 
Enniiy ut deinceps legi pojfinty effici s quod nefcio 
anne in mo quidem verju poffit tantum valere for- 
tma» 
