Constantine republican. [volume] (Constantine, Mich.) 1836-1838, 1837-06-07

ming, manufactured into paper and printed
before night! The Comprehensive Com
mentary is now printed at this establish
ment. When it is completed it will have
consumed fifteen thousand reams of paper.
Think not that the wooden or the cotton
manufacturers are, the only one for whose
benefit sheep are raised, or cotton import.
ed; for this ones work will use up the amount
OF a thousand bales Of cotton in paper--and
will require the skins Of sixty thousand sheep
for its binding.
The most extensive printing establish.
ment in England at the present time, is
that Of the "Society for the diffusion of Use.
full knowledge" 1t gives regular employ.
ment to thiry-six type founders, seven men
| damping paper, and l60 compositors. Be.
sides 10 common presses, two steam en-
gines are employed in driving 10 printing
machines, which can throw off from 700 to
1000 impressions per hour. There are in
the establishment about one thousand works
in stereotype, among which are rs differ
ent sets of plates for the Bible. The first
cost of these plates was not far from 81 500,
OOO.- The average quantity of paper prin-
ted amounts weekly to 1000 reams; equal to
half the quantity used in all the twelve hun.
dred newspaper establishments in the Uni
ted States.
We shall only ADVERT to one more extern
sive establishment, which is probably the lar.
gest in the world, it is the Royal Printing
House at Paris. Ii contains a sufficient
quantity of types to have standing at the
same time $4,000 octave pages or 500
volumes of $50 pages each. 1t consumes
about the same quantity of paper annually
as the London establishment and gives en-
ployment to $50 persons.
Leaving these greater disseminators Of
light, we shall only take general glance
at the lesser luninaries which surround
them. We see them scattered throughout
the earth-each shedding light in its own
sphere the pure and beautiful advance of
science and morality, or the volcanic bech-
ling Of political and sectarian enthusiasm
the responding of each to the other uncheck-
ed by intervening oceans, or that babel Of
languages which once checked the COM
munlcation between the nations of the
earth. These are the ten thousand bea-
cons which have sprung in modern times,
warning Of the shoals of ignorance and SER
Witty and guides to the way of knowledge,
of power and to that general freedom which
is the brthnght Of man. Cast back your
thoughts for moment to the feuda times
which have been so frequently referred to
by lecturers the present season.
That age was before the discovery of
printing. Then the privileged few only
received instruction, and the great body
of the people were but vassals to the
lords Of the soil, and their slavish chains ri.
veted by the igno ance in which they were
kept.
Had the art Of printing been earlier prac-
ticed, the additional light it would have
thrown upon the past history of the world,
can scarcely be conceived. We are prone
to consider the present age the most enght-
ened, as also the most populous-and that
the inhabitants of former ages were as few
| as unenlightened. If history is TO be cred
| tied, however, such was not the fact. The
dominion of ancient Gaul, which now con-
tain about thirty millions inhabitants, has in
| formertimes contained two hundred millions
and so great has been the depreciation
in other sections of the earth, that it has
been estimated there is scarcely one filtieth
part of the number of men upon the earth
that there was in the time of julius Cesar
and that at the same ratio Of decrease,
| it would take but ten centuries to leave the
world without an inhabitant Had the art
of printing been earlier practced, and an
cient history received as full q record as
the passing occurrences Of the present day
instead ofthe few volumes which are now
the remains of five thousand years,wc should
| have left to us millions of incidents which
have died with the age in which they trans
PRED records of arts which have been lost
from the want Of proper recording medi-
um and lexicons Of words which are now
for ever gone for it is computed that from
William the conqueror TO the 18th century,
between two and three thousand words were
lost by their meanings having been forgot
ten!
Whether o. not the early practice ofprint-
| ing would have been blessing to our age,
is point which some may be disposed to
question.
Our own country as yet has not made
that advancement in the accumulation OF
books which has been made in the seat of
observation-disclosures. The 81 largest Ii
braries in the United States, contain togeth.
err only 100000 volumes, while the same
number of libraries in Germany contains,
! 100000! Look at these vast assemble
ges for q moment-thc growth of four hum
dred years only! If they continue to in
crease in the same ratio, to grasp their con-
tents the age of man will again have to be
extended to the antediluvian length, and
perhaps after all be drowned in second
deluge from the portentous clouds OF litera'
ture We have, however, little to fear. Lit
erature, like trade, will regulate Itself. The
wheat will be siiod out and the chaff thrown
to the wind.
AS it is only by the deprivation of bless
, ngs that we are enabled TO estimate 'heif
worth, LET US for moment contemplate the
extinction of the Press at this time, IN oul
, land and throughout the world. Yes-o'
pen the flood gates of Vandalism, and witt
5 the press and types let every printed work
|. he swept TO destruction, but not with them
j the recollection that they ever existed. lie
. nothing be found for the reading world blu
! such manuscript as may be purchased o
9 its scribblers, or copied by our hands. AL
n though the arts generally might be practlcct