In an age, when the European mind was only emerging from a thousand years of darkness, everything was tinged with superstition. The _printing_ of the Bible shared the general charge; and the comparative cheapness, and still more, the singular fidelity of the copies to each other, were attributed to sorcery. Faust, who probably had no objection to a report, by which so much was to be gained, and which was favoured by the absence of date and name; has since been made the hero of German mysticism; and is immortalized, as the philosopher, and master of magic, in the celebrated poem of Goethe. The Newspaper, the most influential of all human works, is the _creation_ of Printing. It is to the honour of England, that in this country, it approaches nearest to excellence, in intellectual vigour, in variety of knowledge, in extent of information, and in patriotic principle. It has, like all the works of man, occasional imperfections, and perhaps among the most prominent, are its too minute details of offences against public purity. But, there is scarcely a newspaper in this age, which would not have been regarded as a triumph of ability, in the last. In fact, the newspaper of England is the great practical teacher of the people. Its constant and universal teaching alone accounts for the superior intelligence of the population. Schools, lecture-rooms, and universities, important as they all are, altogether fall behind it in public effect, or find, that to retain their influence, they must follow its steps. Those steps may now and then turn from the right road, but their native tendency is, forwards and upwards! This intellectual giant always advances, and carries the country with him to a height, which no other country, ancient or modern, ever attained, or perhaps, ever hoped to attain. I speak of this form of publication, in no literary favoritism; but, as a great instrument, offered to nations for the safety, the speed, and the security of national progress; an intellectual railroad, given to our era, to meet the increased exigencies of intellectual intercourse; and equal to any weight, and any rapidity. The most hopeless feature of foreign governments appears to me, their hostility to the _press_. Thus, they prohibit the mental air and exercise, which would rectify the “peccant humours” of their people; thus, they aggravate popular stagnation into political disease; thus, casual passion is darkened into conspiracy, and passing disgust is compressed into rebellion. England has her ill-humours, but the press ventilates them away; the vapours are not suffered to lie on the ground, until they condense into malaria. There may be folly, and even faction, among us, and the press may be the trumpet of both; but, the width of the area is the remedy. A _whole_ nation is always right. No sound can stir it, but the sound which is in accord with its own feelings; the trumpet which is overwhelming within four walls, is unheard at the horizon!