ls that
of the United States, either on the score of its moral or its
intellectual power, or for the exertion of that manly independence of
thought and action, which ought to characterize the press of a free
people. What a prophet would the great wizard novelist of Scotland have
been, had the prediction which he put into the mouth of Galeotti
Martivalle, the astrologer of Louis the Eleventh, in the romance of
Quentin Durward, been written at the period of its date! Louis, who has
justly been held as the Tiberius of France, is represented as paying a
visit to the mystic workshop of the astrologer, whom his Majesty
discovered to be engaged in the then newly invented art of multiplying
manuscripts by the intervention of machinery--in other words, the
apparatus of printing.

'Can things of such mechanical and terrestrial import,' inquired the
king, 'interest the thoughts of one before whom Heaven has unrolled her
own celestial volumes?'

'My brother,' replied the astrologer, 'believe me, that in considering
the consequences of this invention, I read with as certain augury, as by
any combination of the heavenly bodies, the most awful and portentous
changes. When I reflect with what slow and limited supplies the stream
of science hath hitherto descended to us; how difficult to be obtained
by those most ardent in its search; how certain to be neglected by all
who love their ease; how liable to be diverted or altogether dried up,
by the invasions of barbarisms; can I look forward without wonder and
astonishment, to the lot of a succeeding generation, on whom knowledge
will descend like the first and second rain, uninterrupted, unabated,
unbounded; fertilizing some grounds, and overflowing others; changing
the whole form of social life; establishing and overthrowing religions;
erecting and destroying kingdoms--'

'Hold, hold, Galeotti,' cried the king, 'shall these changes come in our
time?'

'No, my royal brother,' replied Martivalle; 'this invention may be
likened to a young tree, which is now newly planted, but shall, in
succeeding generations, bear fruit as fatal, yet as precious, as that of
the Garden of Eden; the knowledge, namely, of good and evil.'

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote A: For the benefit of the curious reader, I would state that a
perfect file of the _Boston News Letter_ is still preserved in the
Worcester Historical Library. There is also an imperfect file in the New
York Historical Society Library.]

R