when he was elected to the consulship, but the evening before he died, he read. Mind lives by mind as it has been developed and preserved; and man, by this medium, has shown himself in action like an angel, in words like a god. Take this from him and he is nothing.'

"In books we have friends for every mood-comforters for every sorrow; a glorious company of immortals, scattering their sweet influences on the worn and beaten paths of our daily life. Shapes 'that haunt thought's wilderness' are around us, in toil, and suffering, and joy: mitigating labour, soothing care, giving a keener relish to delight; touching the heroic string in our nature with a noble sentiment; kindling our hearts, lifting our imaginations, and hovering alike over the couch of health and the sick pillow, to bless and cheer, and animate and console."

Book-making, once a science, acquired by long laborious toil, has, by the appliances of modern machinery, become a mercantile pursuit of almost unlimited extent. In olden times, the stylus and parchment were the mechanical essentials of a book, and years were often devoted to its production; now, by the magic of metal type and the steam-press, volumes are multiplied almost by the hour. Formerly, a book, both as to its mind and mechanism, was the sole work of the monk or scribe; now, there is a division of labour-the author writes it, the steam-press prints it, and the publisher is its purveyor to the public.

By this expedient, the universal diffusion of knowledge has been promoted, and each department of the labour been rendered more perfect. But for this, the light of learning would not have been reflected from the luminous page, while the Cimmerean gloom of the "dark ages" would have still cast deep shadows over the nations.

The PEN and the PRESS, bless'd alliance! combined
To soften the heart and enlighten the mind;
For that to the treasures of knowledge gave birth,
And this sent them forth to the ends of the earth;

Their battles for truth were triumphant, indeed,
And the rod of the tyrant was snapped like a reed.
They were made to exalt us, to teach us, to bless,

Those invincible brothers-the PEN and the PRESS. *

A book has been curiously defined, "brain preserved in ink," and when there is plenty of the fruit, it is a conserve to tempt the most capricious palate. In ancient times, books were written on the bark of trees; hence the Latin word liber, from which we derive our English term "library." "Book" is from the Saxon, "boc," a beech-tree.

A tablet made from the main body of a tree was called codex or caudex. Scipio Maffeï distinguishes square and round books by the terms codex and liber, respectively. It is doubtful whether barks or stones were first written on; although the Decalogue, the first writing of which we have any authentic account, was on the latter. The leaves of plants were long used for writing on-chiefly those of the palm, papyrus,† tiles, &c. Leather and goat-skins were used by the Egyptians. Plates of copper and lead were also used in the East. According to Josephus the children of Seth wrote their inventions in Astronomy, &c., on stone pillars. Hesiod's works were first written on tables of lead-Solon's laws on wooden planks. The wood was sometimes covered with wax, so that the writing could be easily effaced. Pliny thinks that writing on lead succeeded that on barks.

* J. C. Prince.

The invention of parchment is ascribed to Eumenes, who reigned more than two thousand years ago. He was the founder of an extensive library, into which the new manufacture was largely introduced. Parchment volumes were commonly rolled on a round stick, with a ball at each end, and the composition began at the centre. These were called volumes, and the outsides were inscribed just as we now letter books. The Greek MSS., in Herculaneum, consist of papyrus, rolled, charred, and matted together by the fire, and are about nine inches long, and one, two, or three inches in diameter, each being a volume or separate treatise.

Cotton and silk paper were in use at an early period, but linen rags were not used till A.D. 1200. This invention has been placed earlier by some good authorities, but it would appear that they have confounded the cotton with the linen paper. The first paper-mill was erected in England, towards the

end of the sixteenth century.

The term "volume" is from volvo, to roll, the earlier manuscripts being in the form of a scroll or roll.

The Chinese manufacture paper of linen, the fibres of the young bamboo-of the mulberry; the envelope of the silkworm-of a native tree called chu or ko-chu-but especially of cotton. They were in possession of the art long before it was known in Europe; and, as Mecca was a sort of depot for the fabrics of China, it is by some very reasonably supposed, that the paper was brought from that country. Whatever might have been its origin, the art was undoubtedly employed and improved by the Arabs, who, in their career of conquest, carried it into Spain, about the beginning of the tenth century. Other accounts ascribe the invention of cotton paper to Greece; indeed, not only its origin, but the various improvements in its manufacture, and the different substitutions of new materials, have long been the subject of controversy.

Cotton paper was called charta bombycina: it was very white and strong, but not equal to that in which linen is a constituent.

With regard to linen paper, authorities differ widely. By some accounts, its manufacture was not introduced into Europe until the latter part of the fourteenth century, a mill having been, in 1390, established at Nuremberg. In 1366, however, the Republic of Venice granted a patent to the town of Treviso, for the exclusive manufacture of linen paper; and it is also stated, that the Arabs, when in Spain, on account of the scarcity of cotton, and the abundance of flax and hemp, substituted the latter material in its preparation. Their first manufactories were at Xativa, now San Felipe.

Forty years ago, three men, by handwork, could scarcely manufacture 4,000 small sheets of paper a day, while now they can produce 60,000 in the same time. It has been calculated, that if the paper produced yearly by six machines could be put together, the sheet would encircle the world.

Nowhere is paper so much used as in the United States. In France, with 35,000,000 of inhabitants, only 70,000 tons are produced yearly, of which one-seventh is for exportation.

In England, with 28,000,000 of inhabitants, 66,000 tons are produced; while in this country the amount is nearly as great as in France and England together.

A large proportion of this consumption of paper is directed to the 2,000 newspapers which are incessantly springing up in all sections of this country-some to flourish, but more born but to die, and make room for the succession.

When first the art of Printing was discovered, only one side of a page was impressed: the printers had not yet found out the expedient of impressing the other. When the editions were intended to be curious, they omitted to print the first letter of a chapter, for which they left a blank space, that it might be painted or illuminated, at the option of the purchaser. Several ancient volumes of these early times have been found, where these letters are wanting, as they neglected to have them painted. It was the glory of the learned, when the art was first established, to be correctors of the press, to the eminent printers. Physicians, lawyers, and bishops, as well as authors, occupied this department. The printers then added frequently to their names those of the correctors of the press; and editions were valued according to the abilities of the corrector.

About the close of the fourteenth century, the world was blessed with the invention of this art. Three German citiesHaarlem, Mentz, and Strasburg-claim, each one, the honour of having been the place of the original discovery, but the evidence rather inclines to favour the claim of Mentz; for, at this city, either by John Gutenberg or Peter Schoeffer, in the year 1440, were invented movable types; with which movable types, the first book printed was the Bible, and that in the year 1450, though some authorities declare that the Latin Bible, or Vulgate, was first printed on the Continent, in 1462. Lawrence I. Coster, of Haarlem, discovered the art of impressing characters on paper, by means of wooden blocks, in the year 1430; and we may here remark that the ground of doubt between Gutenberg and Schoeffer seems to be an opinion pretty well authenticated, that the types of the former

were of wood-those of the latter of metal; and that while the invention of the one happened in the year 1440, that of the other was consummated at some time during the following ten years.

John Faust, or Fust, was only concerned as a patron of Schoeffer, but as such he was sincere and energetic. Some writers declare that Fust went to Paris, carrying with him for sale a number of printed Bibles. That the similarity of all these books caused the French to distrust him as a conjuror. That at first they threatened to indict him, and thus extorted the secret. And they add that from this affair, the popular story of Dr. Faustus took its rise. This, however, is false. Haywood tells us (see Goethe's "Faust,") that "Johann" (or John) "Faust" (or Faustus-that is, the conjuror) "was born at Kunklingen, within the territory of Würtemberg, of parents 'low of stock' (as Marlow expresses it), some time towards the fifteenth century. He must not be confounded with Faust (or Fust), the printer, who flourished more than half a century before."

To the German triumvirate belongs the honour of having been the first to employ movable types, matrices, and punches in printing.

Trithemius, a contemporary, ascribes the invention of movable types jointly to Gutenberg and Faust, and an ancient chronicle at Cologne notes that, after ten years' preparation, the art of printing began to be practised in the year 1450. The former authority further states that the parties expended in the printing of the first twelve sheets of the Bible, 4000 florins. The Bible in question is the Latin Vulgate, commonly known by the name of the Mazarin Bible, from a copy of it having been discovered, in the middle of the last century, in the Bibliothèque Mazarine.*

It is worthy of note that the advent of the "divine art was sanctified by religion. It was fitting that it "should thus first

* In Timperley's amusing volume on "Printers and Printing," it is stated that John Muller (surnamed Regiomontanus) who died at Rome, in the year 1476, was for some time suspected of being the inventor of printing.