The broad ax., 1896-09-12
ourENsERo.s INVENTION.
what the Printing Press Has Done for
Msnkia8

Msnkiad
Five hundred years ago the literary
Zeitgeist, inky-hngered and foriorn'
cried out for help, and his cry was
heard in Germany and answered by the
birth of Gutenberg in 1897, who gave
TO the world, in 145o. its frst COM
plated printing press. says the New
York world. -Four men," writes the
German historian Kapp, Guten oers'
Columbus. Luther and Copernlcus'
stand at the dividing line Of the middle
ares and serve as boundary stones
marking the entrance Of mankind into
q higher and finer epoch Of its develop
mest" From centers Of discovery arg
invention in Overwhelming circles u l
DEVELOPMENT has gone on. But OF an
the means by which the divine nal
Let there be light" has been tulnlleo
i'm its inner sense-through the-lone
ages, there has been none in the maze
rial realm that has exerted an lnnuence
as powerful and far-reaching as tne
printing press. Compared with TINS
discovery, which has evolved from tnt
nebular chaos of mans thoughts anu
smotions the vast solar system Oh
books. even the finding OF new con
tinent, pales in significance. Inc prl-
ority of Gutenberg's discovery over tnal
of Columbus is in itself evidence OF lts
yaster and more urgent import How
ever II may be now, there was a tme
when we needed a printing press more
than we needed another hemisphere
For there has never been any mlscai-
culation in the order of the discoveries
and inventions of the universe. Inc
Edisons and Maxims never could have
been born before the Newions ano
Watts any more than man could nave
made his appearance in the early pro
tozoan eras. The wonders Of electricity
and Roentgen rays are the eliminating
iuxuries of invention, so to speak, and
not its first necessities. Added to al
the bare utilitarian services II has rem
dered mankind, the printing press ha:
enabled man to repeat in a spiritual
sense the divine drama of creation
And many an ink-begotten hero is al
living and effectual an inspiration Il
noble deeds as though he had livet
and breathed in human form 1t is
moreover, by means Of their typograph
ical cerements that the real heroes o.
every land and cline have escaped OBJ
livion.' Better than all the promises o.
Immortality offered to Ulysses by Calyp
30 has been the Immortality conferred
upon him and his comrades by the NJ
less magical wand Of the printer. ''Wer'
our mother island sunk beneath tn,
sea" wrote Lowell, Shakespeare voult
still be an immortal England" o.
the other hand, candor compels tn,
admission that sinful man has mad,
use of typNas of every other inven
ton-for base and ignoble ends. Blu
the most pig-headed pessimist woult
hardly maintain that the evil result
thus obtained could be more than al
infnitesimal part OF the good ones
For the printing press has demonstrat
ed in a most convincing manner tina
only what is good and beautiful is per
manent. Every vile and morbid bool
has died, or eventually will die, of ii
own diseases, till at length authors an
publishers will have learned the foil
Of printing such things. It is not mer
fancy that sees in the steady externa
improvement that has been made Of
the first book models a symbol of Al
internal progress in the matter betweel
the covers of bookdom. However muc
antiquarian rapture we may feel whe
We buy a worm-eaten old book in fl
teenth century print, we cannot den
that in their superb typographical war
robes the books Of to-day as far SUI
pass the first Gutenbergen attempts a
the dainty tinted gowns of a moder
belle outyie the impromptu makeshii
Of our fig-leayed mother Eve. Con
corning the respective claims of Guteu
berg and Roster to the discovery q
movable types, We have no desire {
bubble. If they had not invente
something OF the kind somebody els
would have done so about the sam
time or a little later. Be that as
may, in recognition of his service I
mankind We are willing to pledge Nj
Gutenberg's health-he surely woul
excuse us from drinking 1t unless "
followed it up by swallowing a blotte
in trimming bumper of ink.