Scarcely had the art of printing appeared when the governmental rights of regulation were invoked to destroy it, fortunately without success. Most important inventions deprive certain workmen of their occupation. The invention of printing was no exception. It necessarily meant the economic ruin of the copyists and threatened the illuminators. By the middle of the fifteenth century the copying of books had to a considerable extent come out of the monasteries and become a regular occupation. In 1472 there were in France ten thousand of these copyists, to say nothing of the illuminators. These copyists were organized into guilds with charter rights and a definite legal position. Seeing their livelihood threatened, they attempted in every way to prevent the introduction of printing. They invoked their charter rights and attempted to protect themselves thereby against the invasion of their field by the printer. Not only that, but they were probably back of the popular clamor which raised the accusation of witchcraft against Fust and drove him out of Paris in 1465. Their opposition, however, was unsuccessful. A few of them retained their work. For a long time the manuscript book retained the esteem which is so often felt for hand work as compared with machine work. Long after the invention of printing there were many eminent collectors of books who would not have a printed book in their libraries. To this day there are a few people who live by engrossing and illuminating, although not generally by the copying of books. An admirable illustration of the beauties and disadvantages of this kind of work may be found in the Congressional Library at Washington. There is there displayed in a series of frames a very wonderful engrossed and illuminated copy of the Constitution of the United States. The text is beautifully engrossed and the illuminated borders and the illustrations are in the finest style of modern art. At first sight it is a wonderful piece of work, but it requires but a slight examination to see that the text is full of errors. Words are omitted and misspelled so that the whole thing is practically worthless so far as its content is concerned. A few of the copyists became printers. Probably the greater number of them lost their distinctive occupation and became absorbed in some way or other into other industries or, if they were too old for this, suffered the evils incident to permanent loss of occupation.