friendship. Let the nerves of prudence be braced up in your minds, and generously afpire to a fuperiority in the conduct of life. Sacrifice to the graces; and let the graces and the mufes ever be found accompanied by the christian virtues. Let the former decorate and adorn the latter; and fhow continually your full perfuafion, that thefe derive their only merit from their fubferviency to the grand objects of morality and religion. Religion and virtue attended by the graces will render you independent, happy, venerable. They will prove a rich spring of joy arifing in your hearts, which will flow in an uniform current: even when, amidst the flux and reflux of tranfitory things, every leffer ftream is dried up, this alone will run on through all the viciffitudes of life, amidst the pains of diffolution, and the joys of immortality; for they partake of the nature of those rivers of pleasures which flow from under the throne of God for evermore.'

The following letters contain a plan of female education, on the fame general principles with the former; and another of parochial education, defigned for the benefit of the poor. R-s. ART. XIII. The Origin of Printing: in two Effays: 1. The Substance of Dr. Middleton's Differtation on the Origin of Printing in England. 2. Mr. Meerman's Account of the firft Invention of the Art. An Appendix is annexed, 1. On the first printed GREEK Books. 2. On the first printed HEBREW Books, with Observations on some modern Editions; and a Collation, from WALTON'S Polyglott, of a remarkable Paffage, as printed in Kings and Chronicles. 3. On the early POLYGLOTTS. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Bowyer. 1774.

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F the many treatifes concerning the origin of printing, there are few, if any, which will be found more fatisfactory than the prefent, and there is no one that contains so much information in the fame compafs. The Author profeffes only to give the fubftance of two books; but he goes much farther. He has interfperfed, through the whole piece, a number of valuable notes, which will greatly increase the general ftock of knowledge upon the fubject, and correct the mistakes of the works he has abridged: this is remarkably the cafe with regard to Dr. Middleton's Differtation.

Caxton is conftantly fuppofed by our hiftorians to have introduced printing into England. But this fuppofition has been rendered doubtful by the appearance of a book at Oxford, dated 1468, the printer of which was named Frederick Corfellis. Dr. Middleton has called in queftion the authenticity of this account, and hath urged several ingenious and learned objections to it, with the view of fupporting Caxton's title to precedency, with respect to the introduction of the art into this country. The Doctor's objections are confidered by our Author, and are obviated in such a manner as feems to prove, fatisfactorily, that Corfellis did indeed print at Oxford, in 1468, the book afcribed to him, and which was intitled, " Expofitio Sandli Jeronimi in Simbolum

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Simbolum Apoftolorum ad Papam Laurentium." It is a fmall volume of forty-one leaves in quarto. Nevertheless, this fact does, by no means derogate from the honour of Caxton, who was the first person in England that practised the art of printing with fufile types, and confequently the first who brought it to perfec tion: whereas Corfellis printed with separate cut types in wood, being the only method which he had learnt at Harleim. In the courfe of the Effay, many circumftances are related concerning Caxton, and the other early printers in this kingdom.

The fecond Effay contains, in as concife a manner as poffible, the fubftance of the Origines Typographica of the very learned and ingenious Mr. Gerard Meerman, penfionary of Rotterdam; and may be confidered as the outlines of that curious publication, with fupplementary notes on fome interesting particulars.

Without pretending to exhibit a complete hiftory of the origin .2 of the art, our Author ventures to affert, that he has here given a clearer account of it than is to be met with in any book hitherto published in England; and we are fully fatisfied of the truth of his affertion.

It would not be easy to prefent our Readers with an abridgement of an abridgement; nor will the limits allotted us permit us to do it: and therefore we fhall content ourselves with barely hoticing fome few of the principal facts relative to the invention of printing, the authenticity of which may be confidered as fufficiently afcertained in the treatife before us.

The honour of having given rife to this art has been claimed by the cities of Harleim, Mentz, and Strasburgh.-To each of thefe cities it may be afcribed in a qualified fenfe, as they made improvements upon one another.-But the real inventor of printing was Laurentius of Harleim, who proceeded, however, no farther than to feparate wooden types. His firft effay was about the year 1430; and he died about 1440, after having printed the Horarium, the Speculum Belgicum, and two different editions of Donatus. Some of Laurentius's types were ftolen from him by one of his fervants, John Geinsfleich fenior, who became the first printer in Mentz, and published, in 1442, ALEXANDRI GALLI Doctrinale, and PETRI HISPANI Tractatus, These works were executed with wooden types, cut after the model of those which he had ftolen. In 1443, Geinsfleich fenior entered into partnership with Fuft, (who fupplied money,) Meidenbachius, and others; and, in 1444, they were joined by John Geinsfleich junior, who was diftinguished by the name of Gutenberg. Gutenberg, by the affiftance of his brother, Geins fieich the elder, firft invented cut metal types, with which was

* See Review, vol. xxxiv. p. 498.

printed

printed the earliest edition of the Bible. This edition appeared in 1450, and the completing of it took up feven or eight years. utenberg ufed nang ut wooden or cut metal types.

The carrying of the art to perfection was owing to Peter Schoeffer, the fervant and fon-in-law of Fuft, who invented the mode of cafting the types in matrices; and who was probably the firft engraver on copper-plates. The first book printed with the improved types was DURANDI Rationale, in 1459. More copies of the earliest books were printed on vellum than on paper. This method, however, was foon changed; and paper was introduced for the greatest part of the impreffions, a few only being printed on vellum, for curiofities, and for the purpose of being illuminated. With regard to the claim of Strafburgh, it appears, that Gutenberg had endeavoured to introduce printing into that city before he joined his brother at Mentz; but without fuccefs. The firft actual printers at Strafburgh were Mentelius aud Eggeftenius; and there is no certain proof of a fingle book having been printed there, till after 1462. The difperfion of the Men:z Printers, in that year, occafioned the art to fpread rapidly through Europe; and, in 1490, it reached even to Conftantinople.

From the appendix, No. 1. we learn, among other things,' that the first Greek printing was a few fentences of Tully's Offices, at Mentz, 1465, which were miferably incorrect; and that the first whole Greek book was the grammar of Constantine Lascaris, at Milan, in 1476. The Roman type was introduced at Rome, in 1467, and was foon after brought to great per fection in Italy.

The Appendix, N°. 2, acquaints us, that the Pfalms, in the original, were firft printed in 1477, the Pentateuch in 1482, the Prior Prophets in 1484, the Pofterior Prophets in 1486, the Hagiographia in 1487, and the whole Hebrew text in one volume, in 1488. The Hebrew text continued to be printed, for twenty or thirty years, without marginal Keri or Mafora. The whole of the New Teftament was first published in Hebrew, in 1599.

No. 3. contains a history of the early Polyglotts, intermixed with feveral curious particulars. The first Polyglott work was printed at Geneva, by Porrus, in 1516. It was a Pentaglott Pfalter, in Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldaic, and Greek, with the Latin verfions, Gloffes, and Scholia. Arabic was then printed for the first time. The Complutentian edition of the Bible, by Cardinal Ximenes, appeared in 1522. A Polyglott Pentateuch was published at Conftantinople, in 1546, and another, at the fame place, in the next year.

We apprehend that the public is indebted, for this valuable account of the origin and progrefs of the art of printing, to one of the laft of our learned printers; a race of men whom we have obferved,

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obferved, with concern, to be almost extinct in Europe, or, at leaft, in our own country.

K.

ART. XIV. The Works of Mr. George Lillo; with fome Account of his Life. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6 s. fewed. Davies.

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HE lovers of the Drama are obliged to Mr. Thomas Davies, not only for an edition of the works of the moral, the feeling, the natural, and the fenfible George Lillo, but for a more critical and more perfect account of the life of that efteemed and popular bard, than had before been given by any of our biographical compilers.

The world, as Mr. Davies remarks, in his dedication, to Mr. Garrick, is indebted to this writer for the invention of a new fpecies of dramatic poetry, which may properly be termed the inferior or leffer tragedy.

• Otway, Southern, and Rowe, had indeed taught the tragic muse a fofter tone, and had lowered the bufkin, to adapt it to characters beneath the rank of kings, and demigods; but ftill the perfons of their dramas, though lefs illuftrious, were of the noble and elevated order: Lillo formed his plots from private hiftories, and his characters feldom rofe higher than the middle clafs of life.

In justification of his attempt to make tragedy of more general ufe, Lillo + has obferved, "that this fpecies of dramatic poetry is fo far from lofing its dignity by being accommodated to the circumftances of the generality of mankind, that it is more truly auguft in proportion to the extent of its influence, and the number that is properly affected by it, as it is more truly great to be the inftrument of good to many who ftand in need of our affiftance, than to a very fmall part of that number."

I have no doubt, continues our dedicator, of your being convinced of the utility of this lower kind of tragedy, as you have established the firength of Lillo's argument by your own practice. The encouragement you gave to More's tragedy of the Gamefter will be an acknowledged proof of what I affert, and I have reason to believe that fome fuccefsful fcenes in that pathetic play were indebted to you for more than their reprefentation.'

Lillo's, indeed, was not a brilliant, or elevated genius; but he had excellencies to which many writers of fuperior fame, had not equal pretenfions. Our Editor, very justly, obferves, that the mufe of Lillo was more adapted to an humble than a lofty theme, to plots not fo intricate, nor fo overcharged with episode, to characters lefs elevated, and fituations more familiar.'

On the whole, the portion of fame which has fallen to this

† Dedication to Barnwell.

writer's

writer's lot, feems to have been very inadequate to his merit. His works are lefs known, and less read, than they deserve to be; and Mr. Davies is, therefore, much to be commended for his endeavours to draw this worthy bard into more confiderable notice. It is to this end that he has given, in the life of Lillo, a cursory review of the feveral dramatic productions of an author known to the world, in general, only by his affecting tragedy of George Barnwell. At the close of these sketches, the Editor relates a fingular anecdote respecting the manner in which Lillo left his fortune, at his decease.

Mr. Hammond, in the prologue to Elmeric, a tragedy, (which Lillo juft lived to finish, and which, after his death, was acted with fuccefs) had, unaccountably, afferted that the author wrote under the depreffions of want. On this strange mifrepresentation of the poet's circumftances, our Editor has the following remark:

• Surely it was not very credible, that a man who was in the practice of a reputable and generally profitable bufiness, such as the art of jewelling; and who befides, in the fpace of feven years, had accumulated by his plays a fum not much less than 8001. could poffibly die furrounded with diftrefs; especially if we take into this account, what was certainly true, that the man was very temperate, and addicted to no one vice or extravagance!

By great good fortune I was directed to a perfon who has juftified my doubts upon this matter, and has, very politely, furnished me with fome materials which farther illuftrate our Author's character.

"This gentleman was formerly partner in the fame business with Mr. Lillo; he now lives at Chelsea, and in an advanced age has retired from the fatigues of bufinefs.

From him I learn, that George Lillo was the fon of a Dutch jeweller, who married an English woman; that he was born fomewhere near Moorfields, and brought up to his father's business; that he himself was his partner in the fame trade feveral years; that Lillo was a most valuable and amiable man; that in his moral conduct, and in the candour, generosity, and openness of his temper, he resembled the character of Thorow. good in his own BARNWELL; that, so far from being poor, he died in very eafy circumstances, and rather in affluence than want; that he bequeathed feveral legacies, and left the bulk of his fortune to Mr. John Underwood his nephew, in which was included an estate of 60 1. per annum *.’

Mr.

• Mr. Underwood, a jeweller in the city, fon of Mr. John Underwood, favoured me with a fight of Mr. Lillo's will; by which it

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appears