Hbd
HISTORV OF PRINTING.
mance — old chronicles, and helps to devout exer- cises ; while, on the other hand, the people found a new source of emplo^rmentin printing A,B,C's, or Ahsies, primers, catechisms, grammars, and dictionaries. Caxton and his successors, abun. dantly supplied these wants. The priests strove with the laity for the education of the people ; and not only in Protestant, but in Catholic countries were schools and universitieseverywhere founded. By the influence of the press, men were soon taught the exercise of thought and reason, in which lies their greatest strength, and which power no external force can destroy. Many mstances hare we given of the rulers of the earth attempting to crush it, and in doing so, they have not only shut up men in prison, but burnt them at the stake; yet all the torments of the inquisition, or the powers of the star chamber, could not annihilate the energy of thought, or the liberty of the press. The activity of the press of England from the period of its introduction to the close of the sixteenth contuiy, was very re- markable. Ames and Herbert have recorded the names of three hundred and fifty printers in England and Scotland, or of foreign printers en- gaged in producing books for England, who flourished between 1471 and 1600. The same authors have recorded the titles of ten thousand distinct works printed amongst us during the same period. Many of these works, however, were only single sheets ; but, on the other hand, there are, doubtless, many not here registered. Dividing the total number of books printed during these one hundred and thirty years, we find that the average number of distinct works pro- duced each year was seventy-five. The exclusive privileges that were given to individuals for print- mg all sorts of bookR, during the reigns of Henry VIII. Mary, and Elizabeth, were in accordance with the spirit of monopoly which characterized that age, and were often granted to prevent the spread of books. But it must be acknowledged, that Elizabeth was both learned herself, and nad the art of filling her court with men qualified to shine in almost every department of intellectual exertion. The dissemination of the scriptures in the vulgar tongue in the reign of James, while it greatly affected the language and ideas of the people, was also of no small avail in giving new directions to the thoughts of literary men, and finding abundant labour for the press.
No sooner had printing taken firm footing in England but there immediately rose a phalanx of imperishable names, in poetry, philosophy, history, and theology, which have bequeathed to posterity such treasures of what may be called genuine English literature, that whatever may be the transmigrations of taste, the revolutions of style, and the iashions in popular reading, these will ever be the sterling standard. The first era of our modern literature, extending from the reign of Elizabeth to the close of the protectorate of Cromwell, has been justly stvled the age of nature and romance, and rankea as " by far the mightiest in the history of English literature, or indeed of human intellect and capacity." A
succession of minds' of all order, and hands of all
work, which arose during the second grand eraof our literature, extending from Dryden to Cowper, have raised the literature of England second to none in the world for a combination of originality, simplicty, elegance, and grandeur.
" It is in the issues from the periodical press," says Mr. James Montgomery, "that the chief influence of literature in the present day con- sists. Newspapers alone, if no other evidence were to be adduced, would prove incontrovertibly the immense and hitherto unappreciated so- periority in point of mental culture of the existing generation over all their forefathers, since Britain was invaded by Julius Csesar. The talents, learning, ingenuity, and eloquence employed in the conduct of many of these ; the variety of information conveyea through their columns from every quarter of the globe to the obscurest 'Cottage, and into the humblest mind ui the realm, render newspapers not luxuries, whidi they might be expected to be among an indolent and voluptuous people, but absolute necessaries of life — the daily food of millions of the most active intelligent labourers, the most shrewd, indeiatigable, and enterprising tribes on the iace of the earth." Macneil jusUy observes
" Bnt in thl« Tcfoimio nation Wha can apeak without the iraws."
Nothing is more demonstrative of the great " march of intellect," which has taken place in the existing generation, than the improvement in the newspaper press of Great Britain within the last twenty years ; but more particularly in the provincial press, which in point of literary taleat and mechanical execution, is an honour to the British empire. The editors of the greater por- tion of them are men of education, of no ordi- nary talent, and possessed of extensive inform- ation. If we look back upon the newspapeis published about fifty years ago, the step whidi refinement has made in the interval will at once appear, not only in matter, but size and circola- lation ; from the small "folio of four pages," to the gigantic dimensions of a square yard; from the mere detail of local events, to articles whidi may vie with the common run of essays whid appeared in the Toiler, Spectator, Gvarduai, and their successors, increasing an eager relish for elegant literature, as well as rendering the most useful and popular kinds of knowledge accessible to every individual, from the palace to the remotest cottage in the empire. Of higher rank, though far inferior potency, are maga- zines ; a few of these, indeed, have considerable sale ; but they rather reflect the image of the public mind, than contribute towards forming its features, or giving it expression. Reviews not only rank higher than magazines in literature— rather by usurpation than right — but they rival newspapers themselves in political influence, while they hold divided empire with the mightier classes of literature — books of every size, and kind, and character, on which, moreover, they exercise an authority peculiar to the present age,
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