ATLANTIC JOURNAL, 
AND 
wmsw® Hu sa ia 
A CYCLOPEDIC JOURNAL AND REVIEW 
UNIVERSAL SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE : — HISTORICAL, NATURAL, AND MEDICAL ARTS 
AND SCIENCES: — INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE, EDUCATION AND EVERY KIND OF USEFUL 
INFORMATION: 
WITH NUMEROUS FIGURES. , 
EDITOR , a S. RJFINESQUE, 
Professor of Historical and Natural Sciences , &c. 
Vol. L] PHILADELPHIA* Summer of 1832. [No. 2. 
Knowledge is the mental food of man. 
1. Article. 
CHEAP BOOKS. 
Books are the vehicles of know- 
ledge. The cheaper books are, the 
more accessible and diffusible be- 
comes the knowledge which they 
convey. 
Before printing was invented, 
manuscripts were few and costly, 
knowledge scanty and limited. 
Since printed books have become 
common, knowledge has increased 
100 fold, libraries have multiplied, 
and mankind have acquired new 
means of enjoyment, of happiness, 
and mental attainments. 
But books which had been rather 
cheap 100 years ago, had within. 50. 
years become again very deaf, owing 
to a fanciful luxury in paper, embel- 
lishments, and splendid bindings. 
This was one of the means, partly 
contrived by the oligarchy of Know- 
ledge, to exclude the people or bulk 
of mankind from the acquirement of 
knowledge. 
Happily however since the begin- 
ning of this century, by the enlight- 
ened enterprize of some friends of 
mankind and the invention of ste- 
reotype printing, both arisen in 
France, a new era has begun in 
printing and producing again very 
cheap books; without precluding 
embellishments: which the restora- 
tion of wood engraving and the in- 
vention of lithography, have enabled 
to add at a cheap rate. 
This new system, which promises 
such happy results for the gradual 
and universal spreading of know- 
6 
ledge, has lately been adopted also 
in Germany, England and America. 
But unfortunately chiedy applied 
(as at the discovery of printing) to 
restore or reprint old books, rather 
than producing new works. But 
some useful compilations, libraries 
of knowledge, manuals, &c„ have 
been produced accessible to all the 
classes of the people. 
It is a positive fact that in general 
mental acquirements and public hap- 
piness, are now every where in pro- 
portion to the average price of books, 
and the facility, or cheapness of this 
manufacture of knowledge! of this 
fact the following table may be a 
proof. 
Average price of } Vol. 8vo. of Vol.lSmo. 
books in retail. 5 400 pages. of 200 p. 
Before printing ) 
was invented, l §100.00 S25.00 
towards 1400, j 
Towards 1700, 
LOO 
0.25 
Towards 1800, ? 
in England, ) 
5.00 
1.00 
in France, 
1.50 
0.50 
In 1830. 
In England, 
3.00 
0.75 
In the U. States, 
2.00 
0.50 
In Germany, 
1,25 
0.25 
In France, 
1.00 
0.20 
Therefore in France where books 
are the cheapest, the people are the 
most enlightened, and they stand at 
the head of the actual civilization of 
polished nations. 
But why could not the same 
prices and results be attainable wiih 
us? A great fall in the price of print- 
ing and paper has happened within 
