On this subject, Mr. Bryant says, he cannot help forming a judgment of the learning of a people where such materials were employed; " for it is impossible to receive any great benefit from letters when they are obliged to go to a shard,t or an oyster-shell for information."

bricks were used at Babylon for preserving astrono- | the time of Demosthenes, there still existed a law of nomical observations.* Theseus written on a pillar of stone; they must, at least, have had pillars of brick; for Democritus is said to have transcribed his moral discourses from a Babylonish pillar. And that pillars of brick were usual in those times, we have the testimony of Josephus respecting two pillars being erected by the descendants of Seth before the flood, one of which was of stone, and the other of brick; which, though not to be entirely depended upon, confirms at least the ancient practice of erecting "pillars of brick" for inscriptions, and for preserving matters relating to the sciences and literature.‡

But Mr. Niebuhr states, that he has seen in Persia, where there is an abundance of marble, and sufficient knowledge of letters, inscriptions on bricks; that he had found inscriptions still legible after six or seven hundred years; and that the Babylonian astronomers, in all probability, inscribed on bricks such observations only as they wished to be preserved from alteration by copyists, or from the injuries of time.

The Chaldeans also might have continued the ancient custom of stamping and engraving on bricks, even when they had better materials for. writing upon. Thus we find the Chinese, though well acquainted with writing, and though the use of paper, ink and pencils has been long known among them, still they employ their abacust for reckoning, as the Greeks and Romans did in ancient times; and the Bramins, in India, though sufficiently learned, and possessing a copious alphabet and cyphers, perform their astronomical calculations and mathematical problems without either pen or pencil. For this purpose they use a kind of shells, called Le Gentil, cauris; by means of which, he says, they calculate eclipses of the sun and moon with astonishing speed and accuracy.

Amongst the Egyptians the most ancient learning was inscribed on columns. The columns of Hermes, near Thebes, are famous in antiquity; and it is certain that many things were borrowed from them by the Egyptian historians and the Greek philosophers. Sanchoniathon and Manetho made use of them for their histories. Pythagoras** and Platoff both read them, and borrowed from them their philosophy. In Crete, also, there were very ancient pillars, on which was inscribed an account of all the ceremonies practised by the Corybantes, in their sacrifices. In

§ Martin.

A Phoenician historian, born at Berytus; or, according to others, at Tyre. He flourished a few years before the Trojan war, B. c. 1184. He wrote, in the language of his country, a history of the antiquities of Phoenicia and neighbouring places. This history was translated into Greek, but a few fragments of which are extant.

¶ Manetho, a celebrated priest of Heliopolis in Egypt. He wrote in Greek a history of Egypt, which has often been quoted by the ancients; the subject matter of which he asserts to have collected from the annals preserved on pillars in the Egyptian temples. The author maintained, that all the gods of the Egyptians had been mere mortals, and had all lived upon earth.

The object of the barrel-shaped figure which is annexed, is evident from its appearance; and that it was a work of great public importance at the time it was executed there can be no doubt; but whether the characters on it are engraved or impressed, is now unknown. Besides employing pillars for recording historical annals, astronomical observations, and the laws, it was an almost universal practice among ancient nations to write upon them. The pillars erected by Osiris, Bacchus, and Hercules, in the course of their expeditions, to perpetuate the remembrance of them, were very famous in antiquity. Sesostris, says Diodorus, erected in all the countries which he conquered, columns inscribed with the sacred characters of the Egyptians. Darius HysPlato was a celebrated philosopher of Athens. He travelled tapes ordered to be engraved in Greek and Assythrough Italy and Egypt in search of knowledge. He returned rian characters, on two columns, the names of all to Athens, where his lectures were soon attended by a crowd of the nations which he commanded; and Germanicus illustrious pupils. During forty years he presided over Academy," and there composed those Dialogues which have been * Goquet, Origin of Laws, Arts, &c. + Goquet. the admiration of the world. He died B. c. 348. #Josephus. 9 Goquet. Diodorus Siculus. T Herodotus.

**Pythagoras, a celebrated philosopher, was a native of Samos, an island in the Mediterranean sea. He was greatly celebrated for his skill in musick, medicine, mathematicks, and natural philosophy. He was also distinguished by his discoveries in geometry, mathematicks, and astronomy. His system of the universe, in which he placed the sun in the centre, and all the planets moving in elliptical orbits round it, was deemed as chimerical, till the philosophy of the sixteenth century proved it to be incontestable. He flourished B. c. 500.

VOL. III.-44

"The

saw in Thebes columns on which the different kinds | people to purchase, and those were very scarce; of tribute, raised by Rameses from his subjects were consequently, the greater part of the population was engraved.* It is not then to be wondered at, if the compelled to remain in ignorance. Even the grand writing of the ancients was perpendicular rather design of revelation, and the truth of the gospel, but than horizontal; columns and pillars being much for this art, must, at this period, have been shut out fitter for the former manner of writing than for the from the multitude, and known to none but the rich, latter; and this original way of writing on columns or the religious orders, whose impositions on the or pillars may be the reason why we find the Baby-ignorant might have continued as they were practised lonian writing preserved on the bricks, of which we previous to the use of this very important invention. now treat, and of which engravings are here given, The communication of mind and thought, without to be perpendicular rather than horizontal. This, this art, must still have been confined to a very small indeed, seems to have been the most ancient manner circle; and had the works of our early reformers of writing, as we see from the example of the Egyp- been limited to the number of books that the slow tians and the Chinese. These nations, and, accord-progress of writing could produce, superstition and ing to Diodorus, the Ethiopians also, wrote perpen- priestcraft might still have held dominion over a bedicularly from the top to the bottom; and this is the nighted world, and science been the portion of a seproper direction of the Babylonian inscriptions, as is lect number only; but the rapidity with which books proved by the previous engravings. We find, then, have issued from the press, has rendered it impossia wonderful conformity among these three ancient ble to obstruct the current of intelligence that now learned nations, the Babylonians, the Chinese, and runs down from generation to generation, and, rethe Egyptians. They all wrote perpendicularly; ceiving tributary streams, has already increased in and, that the words of one column might not be con- its course to a majestick tide of information and founded with those of another, they separated the knowledge. columns by parallel lines, as may be seen not only on the Babylonian bricks, and on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphical monuments, but also in any Chinese book or writing to this day. It is likewise very remarkable that the Syrians still write perpendicularly, like the Babylonians, their ancestors. They turn the paper indeed, when they have done, so as to read horizontally; but, in writing, they begin at the top, and write straight down to the bottom. The Moguls and the Tartars in China, having derived their alphabet from the Syriack, write also perpendicularly; not from the right to the left, like the Chinese, but from Antiquarians of different nations have endeavoured the left to the right, like the Syrians. In this they to decide this point, but they have neither agreed in differ not only from the Chinese, Japanese, and all their opinions, nor been successful in their researches; those nations who make use of the Chinese charac- consequently it yet remains a mystery, and probably ters, but also from the Babylonians. As the ancient it will be impossible to fix any precise date for the Babylonian characters agree with the Chinese in re-origin of printing, or to mention any particular pergard to direction, they appear to have agreed also in son to whom the art may be justly ascribed. regard to their value; for, as the Chinese express An ingenious writer attempts to account for this whole words by a single character, or, at least, by a uncertainty in the following manner: "Two reasons group of simple characters, this seems to have been may be assigned for this obscurity; namely, the imthe practice of the Babylonians. Indeed, the in-perfect state of printing while it remained in the posscriptions on the Babylonian bricks cannot be composed of alphabetick or syllabick characters; for, if they were, the same forms must soon recur, which is not here the case. On the contrary, we find single groups, composed of different kinds of nails, just like the various strokes in the Chinese characters, which are all different from each other.

Before the use of printing with types,t learning was necessarily limited to a very few persons in every country; books in manuscript could only be obtained at a price beyond the means of the common

*Tacitus.

The invention of an art so valuable, must, as to its origin, form an interesting inquiry, and will be worth the investigation of the learned and the curious; but, like the invention of letters, the first projector of the scheme cannot be positively ascertained; and, like that grand discovery also, it was probably brought into use progressively, in different parts and by various persons. In England we have no record of printing before the fifteenth century, and though so recently established, we have no authentick account of who was actually the first practical operator.t

session of its inventor. 2d. Pecuniary motives induced the first printers, from the large sums which were usually paid for manuscripts, to sell their works as such; so that printing was for a period as much

Pope Nicholas V. bid for St. Matthew's Gospel, in Hebrew, no less a sum than 5000 ducats. In the year 1462, copies of the manuscript copy having before cost from 400 to 500 crowns. Bible, printed by Faust, were sold in France at 60 crowns-a

+Mr. Meerman ascribes the first rudiments of printing to Laurentius, aditus, or custos of the cathedral at Haarlem. But he supposes that Laurentius carried the art no farther than the use of separate wooden types, fastened together by threads: and that his first essay was made about the year 1430. He attributes the improvement of the art, by cut metal types, to Geinsfleich, senior, and his brother Guttenberg, assisted with money by Faustus, or Faust, at Mentz, at about the year 1444; and, lastly, he proves that the honour of completing the discovery, by the invention of

+ Before the invention of this art, the efforts of literary ingenuity were entirely confined within the very narrow limits of the pen. Fifty years were sometimes employed to produce one sin-cast types, is due to Peter Schoeffer, servant, and afterwards songle volume!-an evidence of which occurred at the sale of the late Sir William Burrel's books, in 1796; among which was a MS. bible, on vellum, beautifully written with a pen, and illuminated, which had taken up half a century to perform. The writer, Guido de Jars, began it in his 40th year, and did not finish it until he had accomplished it in his 90th year, A.D. 1294, as appeared by the writer's own autograph at the front of the book; and it is evident, by the inspection of many MSS., that a very considerable length of time was necessary to finish what, by this curious art, is now multiplied in an astonishing degree.

in-law, to Faust, in the same city, about the year 1452. Faust and Schoeffer concealed this new improvement by administering an oath of secrecy to all whom they intrusted, till the year 1462, when, by the dispersion of their servants into different countries, at the sacking of Mentz by Archbishop Adolphus, the invention was publickly divulged. The first book printed with these improved types was in 1459. From this time to 1466, Faust and Schoeffer continued to print a considerable number of books; particularly the two famous editions of Tully's Offices,-one in 1465, the other in 1466.

"Thou first, Laurentius,* to supply the defect of wooden tablets, adaptedst wooden types, and afterwards didst connect them with a thread to imitate writing. A treacherous servant surreptitiously obtained the honour of the discovery. But truth itself, though destitute of common and widespread fame truth, I say, still remains."

the counterfeit of, as the substitute for writing, it | teenth century a Dutch poem, entitled "Hertspiegel," being a fac-simile of the most approved scribes. expresses himself thus:The few persons concerned kept the art a secret for some time, till their funds not being sufficient to answer the necessary expenses, these ingenious men were thus compelled to associate with persons of property, from the union of whose names a degree of doubt has arisen to whom the merit really belongs." And like the Grecian cities contending for the birth of Homer, so do the Germans for the invention of printing; and the cities warmest on this point of honour, are Mentz, Haarlem, and Strasburg; but the opinion that Strasburg was the native place of the art has been plausibly disputed; the main contention, therefore, seems to lie between Haarlem and Mentz. To each of these cities, however, it may be ascribed in a qualified sense, as they made improvements upon one another.

No mention being made in the poem of metal types, is a circumstance that, had he been robbed of such, as well as of wooden ones, would scarcely have been passed over in silence. When Coster first advertised his first specimen of the art can only be guessed at. He died in 1440, after having published the Speculum Belgicum, and two editions of Donatus, all with different wooden types, which, it is probable, (considering the difficulties he had to encounter, and the many artists whom he must necessarily have had occasion to consult,) cost him some years to execute; so that the first essay might be about 1430, which nearly agrees with Petrus Scriverius, who says the invention was ten or twelve years before 1440.

The first testimony of the inventor is that recorded by Hadrian Junius, in his "Batavia," page 253, edition of 1588; which, though it had been rejected by many, is of undoubted authority. Junius had the relation from two respectable men, Nicolaus Galius, who was his schoolmaster, and Quitinius Talesius, As the "Donatus" has been several times menhis intimate friend and correspondent. He ascribes tioned by the writers of the controversy, it may be the invention to Laurence Coster, (ædituus, or custos, necessary, lest it should be supposed to have someof the cathedral at Haarlem, at that time a respecta-thing excellent in it, to say, that its merits, as well as ble office,) upon the testimony of Cornelius, some that of the History of the Apocalypse, the History time a servant to Coster, and afterwards bookbinder of the Bible, the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, to the cathedral, an office which had before been and the Spiegel, consists only in being among the performed by Franciscan friars. His narrative runs very first essays in the art of printing, before the thus: "That walking in a wood near the city, he invention of fusil or metal types. began first to cut some letters upon the rind of a beech tree, which, for fancy's sake, being impressed on paper, he printed one or two lines as a specimen for his grandchildren, the sons of his daughter, to follow. This having happily succeeded, he meditated greater things, as he was a man of ingenuity and judgment; and first of all, with his son-in-law, Thomas Peter, who left three sons, (all of whom attained the consular dignity,) invented more glutinous writing ink, because he found the common ink sunk and spread; and then formed whole pages of wood, with letters cut upon them."*

Coster printed only on one side of the paper, and in binding up the leaves the blank sides were pasted together, in order to make an unbroken continuity of the pages. There are several specimens of this mode of printing still remaining in Holland.

The author of the "Colongne Chronicle," who wrote in the year 1499, almost fifty years after the discovery of printing, and who had his information from one Uric Zell, an old bookseller then living in Cologne, says: "Although the art of printing had been found out at Mentz, in the manner we now have it, yet the first hint or pattern was taken from the Donatus,' of Holland, which had been printed there : that the aforesaid art took its origin from them, though the latter invention is much superiour in contrivance and ingenuity."

It creates our surprise to find that this art, which has been styled "the nurse and preserver of the arts and sciences," should be so negligent of itself as not to leave the smallest record of its own origin; the inventors having been more ambitious of deserving, than of purchasing praise. Faust, indeed, when he From the above it will be observed, the letters could no longer prevent a discovery, gives an account were first made of wood, but afterwards of metal. of the inventors, and the manner in which the books According to tradition, printing was carried on in the were done, and throws some light upon this affair same house long after the time of Coster, and after by placing at the end of his books the following colthe use of metal types became universal. But Cos-ophon or inscription: "This present work, with all ter seems to have carried the art no further than sep- its embellishments, &c., was done, not with pen and arate wooden types. What is a remarkable confirm- ink, &c., but by a new-invented art of casting letters, ation of this, Henry Spiechel, who wrote in the six-printing, &c., by me, John Faust, and my son-inlaw, Peter Schoeffer, in the famous city of Mentz, upon the Rhine."

* Other authors have ascribed the invention of this art to J. Regiomontanus, a celebrated mathematician, who was contemporary with Faust and Guttenberg, and lived pretty near them; but As many cities have contended for the honour of he removed to Nuremberg. It is said of Regiomontanus, that he this invention, and engaged the learned in defence of made an iron fly spring from under his hand, fly round the room with a humming noise, and return to its first position; he is like their respective claims, it cannot be deemed improwise reported to have made a wooden eagle, which flew from Nu- per in this place to select the most considerable tesremberg to meet the emperor, hovered over his head, and went timonies from those authors who wrote soon after the back the same way with him!!! It was no wonder that some authors should give so universal an artist the repute of inventing discovery, and were better acquainted with this matprinting. It is certain, however, he was a very early printer, alter than those who lived at some distance of time though not the inventor. Many who have treated on this sub- after it, and may be supposed to have followed their ject forbear to mention either the name of the inventor, or the place of his residence, yet unanimously give the honour to Germany.

* Laurence.

predecessors in the account they have given us of the origin of printing.

AND

PETER SCHOEFFER,

THE IMPROVER.

The writers in favour of Haarlem have managed the controversy with great warmth, and charged Faust, one of the inventors, with robbing his supposed master, Laurence John Coster,* of many thousand weight of his materials on Christmas eve, when the family and most of the city were in prayer in church, with other such ridiculous stories, fabricated merely to deprive this great man of the honour which he had so long incontestably enjoyed. Had this been published in his lifetime, when he might have defended himself, or presently after his death, when his son-in-law, or some of his friends, might have done it for him, he had undoubtedly been cleared; but such an accusation was not hinted at till 125 years after, and then grounded only on suspicion, as Dr. Junius owns, who was the first to transfer this discovery from Mentz to Haarlem. Faust's name, however, died not with him, though some Dutch writers made use of his art to asperse his memory; but others, of several nations, rose immediately in THOUGH LAST, YET NOT LEAST, STANDS JOHN GEINSFLEICH, OR his defence-in particular the learned Mallinkrott, dean of Munster, who, in his treatise, "De Ortu et Here presented, that posterity may know the men to whom Progressu Artis Typographicæ," has not only refuted what was advanced on the other side, but made such researches after the old monuments of the art, is severally ascribed by their respective countrymen, The persons to whom the honour of this invention and collected so great a variety of testimonies, sup- are Laurence John Coster, of Haarlem ; John Gutported by undeniable facts, as seem at once to deter-tenberg, John Faust, and Peter Schoeffer, of Mentz; mine the controversy.

Mallinkrott, who handles his subject with great skill and discernment, has, with indefatigable industry, collected testimonies from both sides of the question, from the promulgation of the art to the time in which he wrote, (1640,) and placed them in the following order in the beginning of his work:

For Mentz, before the dispute was started by Dr. Junius,

. . 62

Those who have written on the same side, since Junius,

47

109

.

13

11

they stand so much indebted.

and John Menteel, of Strasburg. Their first essays, however, were all made on wooden blocks, after the manner of the Chinese. The first books published at Haarlem were all printed in this manner; but they soon found the inconvenience of this method, and therefore bethought themselves of an improvement, which was by making single letters distinct from one another, and these being done in wood, gave room for a second improvement, namely, that of making them in metal; and, in order to that, forming punches, moulds, and matrices, for casting them. It is from this ingenious contrivance that we ought to date the origin of the present "art of printing," as contradistinguished to the method practised in China. The mode of impressing figures upon silk and cotton, which, according to the accounts given us by the Jesuits, had been practised by the Chinese many centuries before printing was known in Europe, seems, however, to have been the first step towards the introduction of this art to the knowledge of mankind. The invention of cards, which took place towards the latter end of the fourteenth century, was an intermediate step between block and letter-press printing. They were originally painted; but about the year 1400, a mode was discovered of printing them from blocks. The books of images succeeded; they are likewise printed from blocks, and the text is placed below, or on each side of the print. The bards are said to have carved their poems upon bars of wood, arranged like a gridiron. All these, which appear to be so many degrees of stereotype printing, naturally prepared the way for letter-press; but the origin and history of this invention are involved in great obscurity, as also is its introduction into England.

From what is said above, there is little doubt but the invention of taking impressions from wooden blocks is due to Haarlem; but the greater improvement and perfection of the art is certainly due to Mentz. (To be continued.)

MEDICAL. Luther V. Bell, M. D., is the author of a dissertation on the Boylston prize question, for 1835:"What diet can be selected which will ensure the greatest probable health and strength to the labour in the climate of New England? Quantity and quality, and the time and manner of taking it, to be considered."

The dissertation leads to the following conclusions,

which we believe are sound and rational :

1. A diet of both animal and vegetable food, is adapted to the condition of the New England la

bourer.

2. No grand errours exist in his present system of diet, and no radical change is demanded to ensure a greater amount of health and strength, though many minor, but still important errours exist.

For my own part, I never

Mrs. Custis has never suggested in any of her letters to Mrs. Washington, (unless ardent wishes for her return, that she might then disclose it to her, can be so construed,) the most distant attachment to D. S.; but if this should be the case, and she wants advice upon it, a father and mother, who are at hand, and competent to give it, are at the same time the most proper to be consulted on so interesting an event. did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a woman who is sitting out on a matrimonial voyage : first, because I never could advise one to marry without her own consent; and, secondly, because I know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain when she has obtained it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires advice on such an occasion, till her resolution is formed; and then it is 4. The amount of food in general, customarily with the hope and expectation of obtaining a sancused, is more than is necessary for the maximum of tion, not that she means to be governed by your dishealth and strength, though a more specifick state- approbation, that she applies. In a word, the plain ment of this abuse is also impossible. It must be English of the application may be summed up in left for each individual to attempt to reduce his quan- these words: "I wish you to think as I do; but, tity of food to that point at which he finds his mental and bodily powers most energetick. In search- if unhappily you differ from me in opinion, my heart, ing for this point, the New Englander may be almost I must confess, is fixed, and I have gone too far now certain that he must look for it in a descending ratio. 5. The great principle in regulating diet, is to regard quantity rather than kind.

3. The proportion of animal food usually customary is too great, and a considerable reduction would be expedient and advantageous, though it is impracticable to make a precise statement of the extent to which this is required, which must depend upon circumstances, as the amount of labour performed, climate, season, bodily constitution, habits of life, &c. A general statement of this fact can alone be made.

6. Perfect mastication and slow deglutition are important auxiliaries to the proper digestion of food. 7. A great variety of alimentary substances taken into the stomach at once, are calculated to do injury on several accounts.

to retract."

If Mrs. Custis should ever suggest any thing of this kind to me, I will give her my opinion of the measure, not of the man, with candour, and to the following effect: "I never expected you would spend the residue of your days in widowhood; but in a matter so important, and so interesting to yourself, children, and connexions, I wish you woul make a prudent choice; to do which, many consid9. The times of taking food, the state of the men-erations are necessary; such as the family and contal and moral functions, the quantity and times of nexions of the man, his fortune, (which is not the exercise, &c., are all subjects of importance in the most essential in my eye,) the line of conduct he general subject of dieteticks; in these particulars, has observed, and the disposition and frame of his the habits of the New England labourer do not vary much from a healthful standard.

8. The employment of alcoholick stimulants, and hot aqueous drinks, is deleterious to the functions of the stomach and to the general health.

WASHINGTON ON MATRIMONIAL ADVICE.

We accidentally fell upon the following excellent epistolary essay of General Washington, upon the subject of advising ladies in relation to matrimony, in Spark's 8th volume of Washington's Letters.We recommend it to our readers as an interesting evidence of the complete discretion and wisdom that always characterized Washington's mind. Its plain sense and familiar knowledge of human nature is admirable; while at the same time it discloses the versatility of a mind that could unbend itself from the graver matters of war and state, and thus playfully and affectionately commune with the

mind. You should consider what prospect there is of his proving kind and affectionate to you; just, generous, and attentive to your children, and how far his connexions will be agreeable to you; for when they are once formed, agreeable or not, the die being cast, your fate is fixed." Thus far, and no farther, I shall go in my opinions.

I am, dear Lund, &c.

Corruption is like a ball of snow, when once set a rolling it must increase. It gives momentum to the activity of the knave, but it chills the honest man, and makes him almost weary of his calling: and all that corruption attracts, it also retains; for it is easier not to fall, than only to fall once, and not to yield a single inch, than having yielded, to regain it