de in shrines and idols was very extensive,
being spread through all known lands. There the magical arts were
remarkably prevalent, and notwithstanding the numerous converts made by
the early Christians, the <gr 'Efesia grammata>, or little scrolls upon
which magic sentences were written, formed an extensive trade up to
the fourth century. These "writings" were used for divination, as a
protection against the "evil eye," and generally as charms against all
evil. They were carried about the person, so that probably thousands of
them were thrown into the flames by St. Paul's hearers when his glowing
words convinced them of their superstition.

Imagine an open space near the grand Temple of Diana, with fine
buildings around. Slightly raised above the crowd, the Apostle,
preaching with great power and persuasion concerning superstition, holds
in thrall the assembled multitude. On the outskirts of the crowd are
numerous bonfires, upon which Jew and Gentile are throwing into
the flames bundle upon bundle of scrolls, while an Asiarch with his
peace-officers looks on with the conventional stolidity of policemen
in all ages and all nations. It must have been an impressive scene, and
many a worse subject has been chosen for the walls of the Royal Academy.

Books in those early times, whether orthodox or heterodox, appear to
have had a precarious existence. The heathens at each fresh outbreak of
persecution burnt all the Christian writings they could find, and the
Christians, when they got the upper hand, retaliated with interest upon
the pagan literature. The Mohammedan reason for destroying books--"If
they contain what is in the Koran they are superfluous, and if they
contain anything opposed to it they are immoral," seems, indeed,
_mutatis mutandis_, to have been the general rule for all such
devastators.

The Invention of Printing made the entire destruction of any author's
works much more difficult, so quickly and so extensively did books
spread through all lands. On the other hand, as books multiplied, so did
destruction go hand in hand with production, and soon were printed books
doomed to suffer in the same penal fires, that up to then had been fed
on MSS. only.

At Cremona, in 1569, 12,000 books printed in Hebrew were publicly burnt
as heretical, simply on account of their language; and Cardinal Ximenes,
at the capture of Granada, treated 5,000 copies of the Koran in the same
way.

At the time of the Reformation in