Not less interesting than the study of the life of Gutenberg, is the contemplation of the effects which the Art he invented almost immediately produced. These can scarcely be more eloquently or succinctly stated, than in the words of the distinguished historian Sir EDWARD S. CREASY, Chief Justice of Ceylon. After speaking of the excitement occasioned throughout Europe by the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese, and other causes of intellectual movements in the Fifteenth century, he adds:--“Still more strongly was the advancement of intellectual activity aided during the last half of the fifteenth century, by the discovery and rapid progress of the art of printing. The power of swiftly and cheaply multiplying copies of a book, in a more conveniently transmissible, and a more easily legible form, than that of the best manuscript, gave now to an author an increase of mental and moral authority over his fellow men, somewhat resembling the increase in importance, and the extension of operations, which the steam engine has in our age given to invention in mechanics and manufactures. The circulation of printed books created hosts of readers, who otherwise would have remained ignorant of any kind of literature, ancient or modern. It gave an immeasurable increase to the weight of public opinion. It stimulated discovery. It promoted discussion. It made the suppression of opinion difficult, and generally impossible. It shook to the very base every institution that was founded on fraud, or upheld by unjust force. It gave also weapons to those who seek violent changes merely from the love of innovation and violence. Among the numerous causes which co-operated in giving European history the altered character which we discover in it during and after the close of the fifteenth century, none have been more operative than the invention of moveable types.”[82] [combined, we take the liberty of adding, with the invention of the printing press.] FOOTNOTES: [32] Variously named in contemporary documents, Johannes Gutenberg; Johannes de Moguntia, dictus Gutenberg; Johannes dictus Gensefleisch, junior, dictus Gutenberg; Johannes Gansefleisch, dictus Sulgeloch vel Sorgenloch; Henne Gensfleisch, genant Sulgeloch; Hans Genzefleisch von Mentz, genant Gutenberg. In English _Gansefleisch_ would be written _Gooseflesh_; in Latin, _Ansicarus_.