BOOK AND JOB FACES.

7 POINT NO. 12.
PRINTING is the art of producing impressions, from charac-
ters or figures, on paper or any other substance. There are
several distinct branches of this important art-as the
printing of books with movable types the printing of en-
graved copper and steel plates, and tie taking of impres-
sions from stone, called lithographing. We have now to
describe the printing of books or sheets with movable types,
generally called letterpress printing, and which may un-
doubtedly be esteemed the greatest of all human inventions.
The art of printing is of comparatively modern origin, only
four hundred years having elapsed since the first book was
issued from the press; yet we have proofs that the princi-
ples upon which it was ultimately developed existed among
the ancient Assyrian nations. Entire and undecayed bricks
of the famed city and tower of Babylon have been found
stamped with various symbolic figures and hieroglyphic
characters. In this, however, as in any similar relic of
antiquity, the object which stamped the figures was in one
block or piece, and could therefore be employed only for one
distinct subject. This, though a kind o  printing, was
totally useless for the propagation of literature, on account
both of its expensiveness and tediousness. The Chinese
are the only existing people who still pursue this rude mode
of printing by stamping paper with blocks of wood. The
work which they intend to have printed is, in the first
place, carefully written upon sheets of thin transparent pa-
per; each of these sheets is glued, with the face downwards,
upon a thin tablet of hard wood, and the engraver then,
with proper instruments, cuts away the wood in all those
parts on which nothing is traced, thus leaving the tran-
scribed characters in relief, and ready for printing. In this
way, as many tablets are necessary as there are written
pages. No press is used; but when the ink is laid on, and
the paper carefully placed above it, a brush is passed over
with the proper degree of pressure. A similar kind of print-
ing by blocks, for the production of playing cards and rude
pictures of scripturul subjects, was in use in Europe to-
wards the end of the fourteenth century. But in all this
there was little merit. The great discovery was that of

7 POINT No. 64.
PRINTING is the art of producing impressions, from char-
acters or figures, on paper or any other substance. There
are several distinct branches of this important art-as the
printing of books with movable types, the printing of en-
graved copper and steel plates, and the taking of impres-
sions from stone, called lithographing. We have now to
describe the printing of books or sheets with movable types,
generally called letter-press printing, and which may un-
oubtedly be esteemed the greatest of all human inven-
tions. The art of printing is of comparatively modern
origin, only four hundred years having elapsed since the
first book was issued from the press; yet we have proofs
that the principles upon which it was ultimately developed
existed among the ancient Assyrian nations. Entire and
undecayed bricks of the famed city and tower of Babylon
have been found stamped with various symbolic figures and
hieroglyphic characters. In this, however, as in any simi-
lar relic of antiquity, the object which stamped the fgures
was in one block or piece, and could therefore be employed
only for one distinct subject. This, though a kind of print-
ing, was totally useless for the propagation of literature,
on account both of its expensiveness and tediousness. The
Chinese are the only existing people who still pursue this
rude mode of printing by stamping paper with blocks of
wood. The work which they intend to have printed is, in
the first place, carefully written upon sheets of thin trans-
parent paper; each of these sheets is glued, with the face
downwards, upon a thin tablet of hard wood. and the en-
graver then, with proper instruments, cuts away the wood
in all those parts on which nothing is traced, thus leaving
the transcribed characters in relief, and ready for printing.
In this way, as many tablets are necessary as there are
written pages. No press is used; but when the ink is laid
on, and the paper carefully placed above it, a brush is
passed over with the proper degree of pressure. A similar
kind of printing by blocks, for the production of playing
cards and rude pictures of-scriptural subjects, was in use
in Europe towards the end of the fourteenth century. But
in all this there was little merit. The great discovery was

FOR ITALICS, STANDARDS AND PRICES, SEE PAGES 2 AND 17