Of course there have been occasions when certain portions of the Scriptures were very beautifully inscribed (more particularly of the New Testament) sometimes in letters of gold, on parchment of the richest purple. Still they were _manuscript_, and as such, not unfrequently occupied the labour of individuals for years. Instances are upon record, of fifty years in the life of one man being engaged in the execution of a single copy of the Scriptures. In the present day it is, perhaps, impossible for us properly to appreciate the skill, the labour, and the immense expenditure employed in such productions. For now, by the aid of the printing machine, we have an entire copy struck off in the space of one minute; and such were the almost miraculous efforts of the British and Foreign Bible Society last year, that they actually issued, in nearly 150 known languages, an average circulation of a copy for every minute throughout the year. It is much to be regretted that in tracing the origin of so curious an art as that of the manufacture of modern paper, any definite conclusion as to the precise time or period of its adoption should hitherto have proved altogether unattainable. The Royal Society of Sciences at Gottingen, in 1755 and 1763, offered considerable premiums for that especial object, but unfortunately all researches, however directed, were utterly fruitless. The most ancient manuscript on _cotton paper_ appears to have been written in 1050, while Eustathius, who wrote towards the end of the 12th century, states that the Egyptian papyrus had gone into disuse but a little before his time. To reconcile, however, in some measure contradictory accounts, it may be observed, that on some particular occasions, and by some particular persons, the Egyptian paper might have been employed for several hundred years after it ceased to be in general use, and it is quite certain, that although the new invention must have proved of great advantage to mankind, it could only have been introduced by degrees. Amongst the records which are preserved at the Tower of London I have seen a letter addressed to Henry the Third, and written previously to 1222, which appears to be upon strong paper, of mixed materials. Several letters of the following reign, which are there preserved, are evidently written on _cotton_ paper. Were we able to determine the precise time when paper was first made from cotton, we should also be enabled to fix the invention of the art of paper making as it is now practised. For the application of cotton to the purposes of paper making, requires almost as much labour and ingenuity as the use of linen rags. Some have conceived, and I think with sufficient reason, that China originally gave birth to the invention. Certain it is, that the art of making paper from vegetable matter reduced to pulp was known and understood there long before it was practised in Europe, which did not take place until