No other invention has been productive of such divine objects, as Gutenberg’s idea and the graphical departments in connection with it, if properly applied. But in like manner an illegal application of them may act in the most destructive mood. It is like the lancet in the hand of a clever surgeon, where it becomes the means of saving the life of the patient, whilst in the hand of a person who does not understand to handle it, it turns out to be the most destructive weapon. It is sad, however, to perceive that the pernicious tendency is so near at hand, wherefore its nobler endeavours are easily ignored, especially if problems are undertaken to be solved by which blame is easily excited: that by multiplying artistic-scientific objects by means of an ennobled press — though it cannot be denied that they are destined by nature to become the joint property of man — the value of a unicum would become less, or some people might lose their trade.
This sentence was passed on the press already more than 400 years ago, and is renewed to this day with unchanged zeal. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at, if under such circumstances only a very few of the graphical departments of art are known among the public, and even those only by name. Many a one can scarcely distinguish a lithographic production from a wood-cut, from a copperplate-engraving etc., and yet no technical employment deserves more the attention of man than this, for it is to every one of use, from the earliest youth up to the latest age, at all hours and times.
