INTRODUCTION.
BY THE REV. GEORGE CROLY, LL. D.
Having been present at the delivery of these Lectures, and feeling an interest in them, as the performance of my intelligent friend, and parishioner, Mr. Herring, I have added, at his request, a few preliminary observations, on the chief employment of paper in our day, namely, inPrinting.
It is a striking, and perhaps a significant, coincidence, that the art of making paper from linen fibre, and the art of printing, were discovered nearly at the same time, and were coeval with the first preaching of the Reformation; by Huss and Jerome of Prague, of whom Luther was only the more eminent successor—the whole three events dating from the fifteenth century.
It is certain, that printing was the great instrument of the Reformation in Germany, and of spreading it through Europe; and it is equally certain, that the making of paper, by means ofthe cotton or flaxen fibre, supplied the only material, which has been found extensively available for printing. Whether this coincidence was simply accidental, or was the effect of that high arrangement for high purposes, which we so often find in the history of Providence, may be left to the consideration of the Christian.
But, it is evident, that if printing had been invented in any of the earlier ages, it would have been comparatively thrown away. The Chinese bark of the bamboo, or the rice straw; the Egyptian papyrus, and the Greek or Roman parchment, would have been too feeble, or too expensive, for the rapid demands of the Press. But, at the exact period, when Printing was given to the world, the fabric was also given, which was to meet the broadest exigency of that most illustrious invention.
That the Chinese, in ages almost beyond history, had made paper of cotton, and even of hemp; and that the Arabians either borrowed, or invented, the manufacture, in the eighth century, is known. But, the discovery perished for wantof the Press; as the Press would have perished for want of the vigour, yet to be created in every faculty of human advance, by the Reformation.
It should not be forgotten, that thefirstprinted works were religious; as the “Biblia Pauperum,” a small folio, of forty leaves, each with a picture, and a text of Scripture under it; and the “Speculum humanæ Salvationis,” a similar work of pictures and texts, in Latin; and that the last, and noblest, achievement of Printing, has been the renewed publication of the Gospel, in nearly every language of the globe!
The actual origin of Printing has been matter of learned controversy. From the earliest ages, impressions had been taken from seals. There are in the British Museum blocks of lead, impressed with the name or stamp of the Roman authorities. The Chinese, who seem to have had a glimpse of every invention of Europe, produced blocks of wood-engraving, with which they multiplied copies, by impression at least, so early as the tenth century; and even appear to have applied it to a species of bank note. Whether the invention was introduced into Europe by MarcoPolo, (who visited China in the thirteenth century), or by others, it is known, that printed playing cards and devotional tracts, (though of the simplest structure, generally a single page), were not infrequent, from the yearA.D.1400. Still, the operation was so expensive, and, also, so insufficient, that the Art of Printing cannot be said, to have been yet discovered. For this discovery, the essential was the use ofmoveable types.
The honour of this most simple, yet most comprehensive, change, has been warmly disputed by Holland, and Germany. But, though Coster, a Hollander, adopted it early; general opinion gives it to Gutenburg, a printer at Strasburg, between 1436 and 1442. Gutenburg was originally a block-printer; at length the fortunate idea occurred to him, of getting rid of the solid page, and making his types separate; those, in the first instance, were cut out of wood. Returning to Mayence, his native city, a partnership with Faust supplied him with capital. Faust made a second step in the mechanical portion of the art, by casting the types in metal. A subsequent partnership with Schoeffer, Faust’sson-in-law, supplied all that was wanting to the art, in his invention of the Punch for making the types. The partners subsequently quarrelled, and Gutenburg, in 1458, formed a new establishment in Mayence. The storming of the city by Adolphus of Nassau, in 1462, dispersed the workmen, and thus spread the art through Europe. It was thenceforth practised in Italy, in France, in Spain, and in England, (at Westminster, in 1475.)
TheCologne Chronicle, printed in 1474, states, that the first large volume produced by printing, was the Bible, (an edition of the Vulgate,) a work which cost a preparation of ten years. This edition is without date, or printer’s name, but is supposed to have been completed in 1455.
In an age, when the European mind was only emerging from a thousand years of darkness, everything was tinged with superstition. Theprintingof the Bible shared the general charge; and the comparative cheapness, and still more, the singular fidelity of the copies to each other, were attributed to sorcery. Faust, who probably had no objection to a report, by which so much wasto be gained, and which was favoured by the absence of date and name; has since been made the hero of German mysticism; and is immortalized, as the philosopher, and master of magic, in the celebrated poem of Goethe.
The Newspaper, the most influential of all human works, is thecreationof Printing. It is to the honour of England, that in this country, it approaches nearest to excellence, in intellectual vigour, in variety of knowledge, in extent of information, and in patriotic principle. It has, like all the works of man, occasional imperfections, and perhaps among the most prominent, are its too minute details of offences against public purity. But, there is scarcely a newspaper in this age, which would not have been regarded as a triumph of ability, in the last. In fact, the newspaper of England is the great practical teacher of the people. Its constant and universal teaching alone accounts for the superior intelligence of the population. Schools, lecture-rooms, and universities, important as they all are, altogether fall behind it in public effect, or find, thatto retain their influence, they must follow its steps. Those steps may now and then turn from the right road, but their native tendency is, forwards and upwards! This intellectual giant always advances, and carries the country with him to a height, which no other country, ancient or modern, ever attained, or perhaps, ever hoped to attain.
I speak of this form of publication, in no literary favoritism; but, as a great instrument, offered to nations for the safety, the speed, and the security of national progress; an intellectual railroad, given to our era, to meet the increased exigencies of intellectual intercourse; and equal to any weight, and any rapidity.
The most hopeless feature of foreign governments appears to me, their hostility to thepress. Thus, they prohibit the mental air and exercise, which would rectify the “peccant humours” of their people; thus, they aggravate popular stagnation into political disease; thus, casual passion is darkened into conspiracy, and passing disgust is compressed into rebellion.
England has her ill-humours, but the press ventilates them away; the vapours are not suffered to lie on the ground, until they condense into malaria. There may be folly, and even faction, among us, and the press may be the trumpet of both; but, the width of the area is the remedy. Awholenation is always right. No sound can stir it, but the sound which is in accord with its own feelings; the trumpet which is overwhelming within four walls, is unheard at the horizon!
If, in an age of foreign convulsion, England has undergone no catastrophe; if, in the fall of monarchies, she has preserved her hereditary throne; if, in the mingled infidelity and superstition of the Continent, which, like the mingled frenzy and fetters of a lunatic hospital, have, in our day, exhibited the lowest humiliation of human nature; she has preserved her freedom and her religion; I attribute all, under God, to the vigour, and intelligence of public investigation; the incessant urgency of appeal to the public mind; the living organization, of which the heart is thePressof England!