ime among the nations of
the earth, has ever since kept pace with the march of her sister,
Knowledge, up through the centuries. Yet how simple was the thought
which has borne such a rich harvest of benefit to mankind.

As he carved the names of his prattling children it occurred to him
that if the letters were made in separate blocks, and wet with ink,
they would make clear printed impressions better and more rapidly than
would the pen. So he made blocks, tied them together with strings, and
printed a pamphlet with the aid of a hired man, John Gutenberg. People
bought the pamphlets at a slight reduction from the price charged by
the monks, supposing that the work was done in the old way. Coster
died soon afterward, but young Gutenberg kept the secret, and
experimented with metals until he had invented the metal type. In an
obscure chamber in Strasburg he printed his first book.

At about this time a traveler called upon Charles VII. of France, who
was so afraid somebody would poison him that he dared eat but little,
and made his servants taste of every dish of food before he ate any.
He looked with suspicion upon the stranger; but when the latter offered
a beautiful copy of the Bible for only seven hundred and fifty crowns,
the monarch bought it at once. Charles showed his Bible to the
archbishop, telling him that it was the finest copy in the world,
without a blot or mistake, and that it must have taken the copyist a
lifetime to write it. "Why!" exclaimed the archbishop in surprise, "I
bought one exactly like it a few days ago." It was soon learned that
other rich people in Paris had bought similar copies. The king traced
the book to John Faust, of Strasburg, who had furnished Gutenberg money
to experiment with. The people said that Faust must have sold himself
to the devil, and he only escaped burning at the stake by divulging the
secret.

William Caxton, a London merchant who went to Holland to purchase
cloth, bought a few books and some type, and established a
printing-office in Westminster Chapel, where he issued, in 1474, "The
Game of Chess," the first book printed in England.

The cry of the infant Moses attracted the attention of Pharaoh's
daughter, and gave the Jews a lawgiver. A bird alighting on the bough
of a tree at the mouth of the cave where Mahomet lay hid turned aside
his pursuers, and gave a prophet to many nations. A flight of birds
probably prevented Columbus from discovering this con