203
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
" Now flood* of daf Cinunciian gloom socceed ; The clergr think, and Ujmcn daie to read. Fair tomes enrich the cnltiit'd stodent's room. And the trinun'd lamp* their mldolcht oil eousom Now, to Invent new aits, or old to And, Become* the glory of th* logenlons mind. Leam'd oittc* rise, explore the sense perplezt. And fe-e*tabll*h the collated text i Prescribing role* to Judge the old, the new. The Just, the false, the spniloas, and the true. Now libraries are seardi'd throogh donds of dust; And medals inore hiitcrie truths in nut. Hence, for assurance that the sacred code Wears the Chaldean, not its native mode. On vet'ian shekel* antlqaaries pore, Studloo* primasval Hebrew to restore."
Hid NO anired at the sixteenth century, we find llMt the press had extended itself over a great ponion of Eoippe ; and also that it had been, in ■oatcatesintrcKlucedb^ the clergy, who thought, bycoofiniiig it to the cloister, it would ever remain at thdr bidding ; but, in the course of this cen- tmy, it will be found that the professors of the "IJinne Art" maintained a severe warfare with llidi former patrons, and arbitiarjr princes. Tol- lention was not admitted into the vocabulary of the priesthood ; the right which every man hid to ntter his sentiments was dreaded as if its
3mtion was the forerunner of plague and ence. The invention of printing, to which w owe so much, even to this day, was held as a judgment inflicted upon them for their sins. Such WIS its power, that when it threw off the ihackles of intolerance, and men began to avail themselves of their privileges, by avowing senti- ments which in Germany had been propagated nsderthe cloud of night — which had been nursed in alence and solitude, and burst forth in the Refbnnation, it was then, that the awful dread o( confiscation of propertv, of imprisonment in loathsome dungeons, and loss of life, compelled the humble typographer often to work in con- cahnent The press had but a precarious exist- ace. The light of liberty began to dawn upon it, and that was all. The rays of knowledge it diffused were fitful, feeble, languishing, and iometimes apparently extinguished altogether. But still the embers remained — the flame was bsnei afresh — the minds of men became en- Hj^tened — inveterate prejudices and revolting superstition no longer held them in bondage. The press acquired strength unobserved ; it ob. tiinea an ascendancy over ignorance and injus- tice, which no earthly power would be rash enough now to attempt to destroy. It must, however, be admitted, and we have given many instances to prove, that a great number of indi- ndoals, eminent for their literary attainments and exemplaiy piety, nobly stepped forward and
devoted their talents to the propagation of knowledge, by means of the press. Many con- sidered the advantages resulting from this incom- parable invention, like Fox, the martyrologist, who thus enumerates them, — " Hereby tongues are known, knowledge groweth, judgment in- creaseth, books are dispersed, the scripture is seen, the doctors be reaa, stories be opened, time compared, truth discerned, fidsehooa detected, and with finger pointed, and all (as I said) through the benefit of printing."
The press found a sure asylum in Britain ; and a great deal was done for public instruction by the course which our early printers took ; for, as one of them says, " Divers famous clerks and learned men translated and made many noble works into our English tongue. Whereby there was much more plenty and abundance of Eng- lish used than there was ii* times past." The English nobility, with many of the clergy, were, probably, for more than the first half century of English printing, the great encouragers of our press : they required translations and abridg- ments of tiie classics — versions of French and Italian romances — old chronicles, and helps to devout exercises. Caxton and his successors abundantly supplied these wants : and the im- pulse to most of their exertions was given by the growing demand for literary amusement on the part of the great. Caxton, speaking of his Boke of Eneydot, says " This present book is not for a rude uplandisn man, to labour therein, nor read it ; but only for a clerk and a noble gentleman, that feeleth and understandeth in feats of arms, in love, and in noble chivalry." But soon after- wards, a new source of employment for the press arose — A.B.C'8,or Absies, Primers, Catechisms, Grammars, and Dictionaries, were multiplied in every direction to supply the wants of the people.
A new demand very soon followed upon the first demand, which was even more completely the demand of the people. The doctrines of the reformation had proclaimed the bible as the best
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