to Mentz and her three first printers, adopted and embellished the tradition, and borrowing certain ideas from Virgil as well as from Bergel, gave in his _Batavia_ an account of the first conception and ultimate realization of the idea, which should stand as a rival to the account given in the _Encomion Chalcographiæ_. The documents upon which the Haarlemese mainly rely, prove of themselves that the tradition grew within the space of a few years almost as rapidly as the pillar-like flower-stalk of the gigantic American aloe, and effloresced as abundantly in the narrative of Junius--the prolific progenitor of a host of subsequent writers:--for first, (in say 1555,) the art only “became the companion of a certain stranger;”[101]--then (1561) it “was carried to Mentz by an unfaithful servant;”[102]--next, (1567) “the author of the invention _happening to die before the art was brought to perfection_ and had acquired repute, his servant they say went to reside at Mentz:”[103]--finally, (1568) the foresworn workman, the thief John, _while his master was still alive_ ... seizes the collection of types, and all the implements his master had got together ... marches off to Amsterdam, thence to Cologne, and at last settled at Mentz;--and Coster, lamenting his losses, tells his woes to the little boy Cornelis, who used to help the book-binder; and Cornelis is so powerfully affected by the tale, that seventy-two years after, whenever he was asked to repeat it, he would fall into passionate weepings, and curse and execrate the miscreant John, and vow nothing would please him more, were he but alive, than with his own hands to hang him outright.[104] These are the bases upon which are built “the accumulated and still accumulating evidence in favour of Coster,”--the “vast mass of unanswerable evidence in his favour,”--in presence of which “the advocates of Gutenberg’s claim to priority are slow to give way;” and for which slowness they are accused of “closing both eyes and ears to testimony of every kind, refusing to acknowledge that there is the slightest ground for the claims of _Holland_ as against the, asserted, overwhelming evidence in favour of Germany.”[105] With such writers, the array of facts on the Gutenberg side of the question goes for naught. Pinning their faith to Junius they ... “with power (their power was great) Hovering upon the waters what they met Solid or slimy, as in raging sea Toss’d up and down, together crowded drove From each side shoaling.” Labouring thus, they from Meerman to Van Meurs[106] ... “following his track Paved after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length.”