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 FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

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offices within the walls of monasteries ; and, in feet, they were the most proper persons for such an undertaking. Possessing more knowledge than the laity, and having more leisure, they were the better calculated to produce works of learning."

Earing given every authority that may tend to elucidate this important controversy, without venturing an opinion of my own ; yet I cannot lefirain from stating my conviction to Mentz as the city where the art took its rise, and that to Gutenberg, Faust, and Schoeffer, is due the high honour already awarded them by more competent judges. I shall conclude this portion of my labour with quoting from an high authority, the advantages and blessings derived from the divine art, and then proceed in the chronological order as first laid down.

"To the art of printing," says Dr. Knox, " it is acknowledged we owe the Reformation. It has been justly remarked, that if the books of Luther had been multiplied only by the slow process of the hand-writinf^, they must have beeu few, and would have been easily suppressed by the com- bination of wealth and power : but, poured forth in abundance from the press, they spread over the land with the rapidity of an inundation, which acquires additional force from the efforts used to obstruct its progress. He who under- took to prevent ibi dispersion of the books once issued from the press, attempted a task no less uduous than the destruction of the hydra. Re- si^nce was vain, and religion was reformed ; and we, who are chiefly interested in this happy lerolntion, must remember, amidst the praises bestowed on Luther, that his endeavours had been ineffectual, unassisted by the invention of Faostus.

" How greatly the cause of religion has been promoted by the ait, must appear, when it is considered, that it has placed tnose sacred books in the hand of every individual, which, besides that they were once locked up in a dead language, and could not be procured without great difficulty. The numerous comments on them of every kind, which tend to promote piety, and to form the Christian philosopher, would probably never have been composed, and certainly would not have extended tieir beneficial influence, if typography bad still been unknown. By that art, the light, which is to illuminate a dark world, has been placed in a situation more advantageous to the emision of its rays : but if it has been the means of illustrating the doctrines, and enforcing the practice of religion, it has also, particularly in the present age, struck at the root of piety and moral virtue, by propagating opinions favourable to the sceptic and voluptuary. It has enabled modern authors wantonly to gratify their avarice, their vanity, and their misanthropy, in dissemi- nating novel systems subversive of the dignity and happiness of human nature : but though the perversion of the art is lamentably remarkable in those volumes which issue, with offensive profu- sion, from the vain, the wicked, and the hungry, yet this good results from the evil, that as truth is great and will prevail, she must derive fresh

lustre, by displaying the superiority of her strength in the conflict with sophistry.

" Thus the art of printing, in whatever light it is viewed, has deserved respect and attention. From the ingenuity of the contrivance, it has ever excited mechanical curiosity ; from its intimate connection with learning, it has justly claimed historical notice; and from its extensive influence on morality, politics, and religion, it is now become a subject of very important speculation.

" But, however we may felicitate mankind on the invention, there are perhaps those who wish, that, together with its compatriot art of manu- facturing gimpowder, it had not yet been brought to light. Of Its effects on literature, they assert, that it has increased the number of books, till they distract rather than improve the mind ; and of its malignant influence on morals, they com- plain, that it has often introduced a false refine- ment, incompatible with the simplicity of primi- tive piety and genuine virtue. With respect to its literary ill-consequences, it may be said, that though it produces to the world an infinite num- ber of worthless publications, yet true wit and fine composition will still retain their value, and it will be an easy task for critical discernment to select these from the surrounding mass of absur- dity ; and though, with respect to its moral efiects, a regard to truth extorts the confession, that it has diffused immorality and irreligion, divulged with cruel impertinence the secrets of private life, and spread the tale of scandal through an empire; yet these are evils which will either shrink away unobserved in the triumphs of time and truth over falsehood, or which may, at any time, be suppressed by legislative interposition."

The most munificent patron of learning at this period, was Humphrey duke of Gloucester, whose character is so amiable in our civil history, that he has received the appellation of good ; and who shines with extraorainary lustre in the annals of literature, that his name is still remembered with gratitude as a singular promoter of learning, and the common patron of the scholars of the times. Perhaps there never was a more zealous encou- rager of literature than the duke; and we are not a little indebted to Mr. Warton for being the first person who has enabled the literary world fully to be sensible, in this respect, of the excellence and lustre of his character. In 1440, he gave to the university of Oxford a library containing six hundred volumes, only one hundred and twenty of which were valued at more than £ 1 000. These booLs are called NoiH Tractatut, or New Treatises, in the university register, and said to be admirandi apparatui. They were the most splendid and costly copies that could be procured, finely writ- ten on vellum, and elegantly embellished with miniaturesand illuminations. Among them was a translation into French of Ovid's3f«ta»u)rpA(»e>. Another, and the only remaining specimen of these valuable volumes, is a magnificent copy of Valerius Maximus, enriched with the most ele- gant decorations, and written in duke H umphrey's age, evidently with a design of being placed in

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