Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-02

Books are spectacles with which to read M.
ture. They teach us to understand and feel what
we see, to decipher and syllable the hieroglyphics
OF the senses" Dryden.
Books are an essential element Of Our social
economy. The best minds of every age are train
ed by
Those dead but sceptred sovereigns who still
rule
Our spirits from their urns."
From books they receive most Of their culture:
and by them are disciplined 10 youth, stimulated
in manhood, and solaced in age. when l am
reading q book" said Swift, whether wise or
silly, it seems to me TO be alive and talking to me-"
Such is the feeling of every student who appreci
ates the author he reads.
There are those who desire q book as a living
companion of the mind; and TO such, q good work
is society to his loneliness-a balm to his troubles
"a friend to the triendless--wealth to the poor.
and moreover. can keep the mind in action, though
The body dies. 1t was Plato who went to play
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 word like q 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 thoughts wilderness are
around us, in toll, and suffering, and Joy; mitiga-
ting labor, soothing care, giving a kecner relish to
delight; touching the heroic string in our nature
with a noble sentiments; kindling our hearts, lifting
our imaginations, and lowering alike over the
couch of health, and the sick pillow, to bless and
cheer, and animate and console"
B~ook-making, once a science, acquired by long
laborious toll, has, by the appliances of modern
machinery, become a m mercantile pursuit of almost
unlimited extent. In olden times the stylus ard
parchment were the mechanical essentials of a
book, and years were often devoted to its produce
fion. nw nv tho maria of natal typa onI tIo
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 labor-the author
writes it, the steam press prints it, and the pub
Usher is its purveyor to the public.
By this expedient, the universal diffusion of
knowledge has been promoted, and each depart
ment of the labor been rendered more perfect
But for this, ,he light of learning would not have
been reflected from the luminous page, while the
Cimmercan gloom of the dark ages" would have
still cast deep shadows over the nations.
1.-THE Pen and the Press, bless'd alliance COM
bined
To soften the heart and e~nlighten the mind;
For thut 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,
geose invincible brothers-the PEN and the Press"
A book has been curiously defined 'brain pre-
served IN NIX ana wnen there IS plenty OF the
fruit, it is a conserve to tempt the most capricious
palate. In ancient times, books were written on
zhe bark of trees; hence the Latin word tiber, from
which We derive our English term "library."-
Book" is from the Saxon. Doc, a beech.tree.
A tablet MADE from the main body of a tree was
called codex or caudex. Scipio Mafei distinguish
es square and round books by the terms codex and
liber respectively. 1t is doubtful whether barks
or stones were first written on; although the Deca-
logue, the first writing of which We have any au-
thentic account, was on the latter. The leaves of
plants were long used for writing on-chiefy those
CT the palm, papyrus, tiles, etc. Leather and
g~oat-skins were used by the Egyptians. Plates of
copper and lead were also used in the East. Ac-
cording to J~osephus, the children of Seth wrote
their inventions in Astronomy, ETC., on stone pill
lars. Hesiod's works were first written on tables
of lead-Solon's Jaws on wooden planks. The
wood was sometimes covered with wax, so that the
writing could not be easily efaced. Pliny thinks tina,
writing on lead succeeded that on bark.
The term volume" is from rolrO, to roll, the
earlier manuscripts being in the form of a scroll
or roll.
The Chinese manufacture paper of linen, the
fbres of the young bamboo of the mulberry, the
envelope of the silkworm-of a native tree called
chu OF kochu-but especially of cotton. They
we're in possession of the art long before it was
known in Europe; and, rs Mecca was a sort of de-
pot for the products of China, it is by some very
reasonably supposed, that the paper was brought
from that country. Whatever nigh. have been its
origin, the art was undoubtedly employed and i'm
pTObeQ Nv the ATdUS, VINO, III NltlT CtTtt1 Oh CUH-
quest, 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 con-
troversy.
Cotton paper was called chdrta b~ombycino il
was very white and strong, but not equal to that
in which linen is a constituent.
With regard to linen paper, authorities dife:
Wildly RU nma accounts its mannfopfura wa
rot introduced into Europe until the latter part OF
the fourteenth century, a mill having been in 1890
established at Nuremburg. In 1866, 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 fax and hemp, substituted the
latter material in its preparation. Their first
manufactures were at Xativa, now San Felipe.
Forty years ago, three men, by handiwork could
scarcely manufacture 1000 small sheets of paper
n day, while now they can produce GO, 900 in the
same time. 1t has been calculated. that if the pa
per produced yearly could be put together, the
sheet would encircle the world.
Nowhere is paper so much used rs in the United
States. In France with 80, DOC, 900 Of inhabitants
only 10000 tons are produced yearly, of which
'oBe-seventh is for expectation. In England, with
$4,000, 600 of inhabitants, 66, 900 tons are produced
while in this country the amount is nearly rs great
as in France and England together. Salad .Jor
the Social.
We copy the subjoined article in relation to
Book Making in the United States, at the present
time, from the Boston Transcript:
1t is somewhat surprising to know that the mum
Der of houses now actually engaged in the publish
ing Of books, not including periodicals., amounts
TO more than 300. About three-fourths Of these
are engaged in New York, Boston Philadelphia
and Baltimore, the balance being divided between
Cincinnati, Buffalo, Auburn, Louisville, Chicago
st. Louis, and n few other places. There are
more than three thousand booksellers who dis
pense the publications Of these 800, besides six OF
seven thousand apothecaries. grocers, and hard
xare dealers. who connect literatnra with drnes