236 On the Spirit 
tion, there is. even among the other apart- 
ments, though not clofed with fach dread- 
ful fecrefy, a difpiriting gloom reigning 
through the whole manfion of mind, which 
tends to reprefs enquiry, and chills curio- 
fity into filence. 
At firft view, it might be fuppofed that 
the {pirit of enquiry being fo completely 
taid at reft in one department of know- 
ledge, the fearch after unknown truth 
would be invigorated in other branches ; 
but experience proves an emulative. prin- 
ciple to be, in every art and fcience, the 
true excitement of excellence, and nothing 
deadens ths fo much as a reftraint on the 
Hiberty of {peaking our thoughts and day- 
yg cpenourfentiments. Avprinciplémay 
exercife‘a tyranny as wellas a perfon, and 
the ip/# dixit of Aviftotle was as defpotic 
and mortal to che mind, as thofe reigns of 
terror,;where all the freedom left was a 
choice in death. ** Liberum et mortis ar- 
Litrium permifit° 
‘The truth is, that, even among the 
learned world, enquiry becomes lefs popu- 
lar, when it is not onty difcouraged, but 
dreaded; among the vulgar. ‘* Keep 
henceforth (faid one of the tyrants of 
Athens to Sccrates};’ keep-at a proper 
diftance from the carpenteys, fmiths, and 
fhoemakers, and let us ne more have your 
examples from among them."? When this 
maxim of government is put into action, 
learned men, who in general are timid 
men, adopt an obedience to the rule, anda 
fear of innovation feems to fpread through 
every region of the mind. ‘* Podulare 
nunc nibil tam eff, quam edium popula- 
vin.” 
E have a flrong fufpicion, that, when 
the priefthood wiftied to fecure to them- 
felves the choicett fruit in the garden, 
they contrived a terrible tale about the 
mortality of the ‘Tree of Kuowledge, of 
which the alphabet may be called the 
leaves; and the. Pagan prieithoed, with a 
fimilan with ef making Paradiie a privi- 
leged place, {pread a Yimilar report of the 
Dragon which guarded the golden apples 
of te Garden of the Hefperides. 
Azreaque Hefperidum fervans fulgentia 
mala, 
acerga tugns, immami corpore fer- 
Hees i 
' Arboris ampiexus flirpem. 
This was the doétrine of thofe who with- 
ed, in theseride of ‘philofophy, to cover 
knowledge wiih religious myttery, the bet- 
ter to fecrete it from the bulk of mankind; 
and the feditious fpirit of refearch and dif- 
covery is at prefent equally ‘difcountenan- 
a 
of Enquiry. 
ced by the miniiters of the fate and of the 
church, not from the pride of philofophy, 
but the intereft of their refpe€tive orders. 
_ In Treland, for example, the general dif- 
fufion of knowledge and civility has, been 
effeétually repulfed-by. the A& of Union, 
which has locked up the printing-prefs in 
that country. The progrefs of improve- 
ment depended upon cheap editions of the 
beft publications which iffved from the ~ 
Irifh prefs; and a lucrative trade was car- 
ried on by a large exportation of fuch edi- 
tions, which was made to the United States. 
of America; but, from the fir of July, 
this branch of bufinefs will be annihilated 
by the eftablifhment of copy-right. No 
new work will ever be printed in Freland; 
for what author would be fo abfurd as to 
print his performance.in Dublin rather 
than in_London. In London, bocks are 
‘printed in fo expenfivea manner, that lite- 
rature will be foon as effeétually fecluded 
from the common people as before the art 
of printing was invented, when warks - ' 
-were laborioufly wriften on vellum, and 
tepofited in monafteries, or chained dowa 
in college-libraries. = _- 
It was a happy revolution (fimilar te 
the one that diminifhed the power, by di- 
viding the property, of the proud feudal 
Barons), which reduced to a portable and 
popular fize the’German jfolio, and the 
Scotch quarto, the haughty ariftocracy of 
literature, that built their fyfems (as the 
chieftains did their caftles), entrenched ia 
terms of art, and rendered inacceflible ta . 
the vulgar underftanding. But the price, 
of publicatioas, as they at prefent iffue 
forth, with every embellithment that can 
recommiend them to the eye of the reader, 
has operated as a counter-revolution ia 
the commonwealth of letters, and again 
intreduced the misfortune of a manuleript 
age’. fy ith : 
America will vindicate the genuine 
character of the Press, its publicity: 
the pudlic will, its guide; the public 
good, itsehd. The confequence of the 
abolition. of printing in Ireland, will be 
the fpeedy eftablifiment of an- American 
prefs, witch may fupply this part of Eu- 
rope with cheap publications, at leaft un- 
til the Imperial Legiflature thinks proper 
{o prohibit an impcrtation of fuch a na- 
ture. The lesiflature of the flate of New 
Hampihire has pafled thirty acts, of which 
fifteen were for incorperating library-foci- 
eties in different towns of that ftate ;—fa 
little is it thought that a general paffion 
for literature and fiudy forms, on that 
continent,-any obftacle to the {peed of th 
plough, or the progreis of commerce. In 
Ireland 
[Nov. 1, 
