Antiquity of Printing among the Chinese . . . Statement of Du Halde . . . Its Perversion . . . First Chinese Method, the Gouging of Letters . . . Didot’s Hypothesis . . . Second Method, of Xylography . . . Third Method, a Combination of Xylography and Typography . . . A Peculiarly Chinese Invention . . . Method now used . . . Its Advantages over Types . . . Chinese Paper . . . Performance of Pressmen . . . Curious Method of Binding . . . Expense of Engraving no hindrance to Chinese Printing . . . The Xylographic Method necessary . . . Chinese Practice in Typography . . . Cheapness of Chinese Books . . . Similarity between the Chinese and the European Methods of Block-Printing . . . The Hypothesis of its Transmission to Europe through Marco Polo, or other Venetian Travelers. * * * * * In both arts, writing and printing alike, the Chinese have remained stiff, stolid, and immovable at the first step, With the characteristic unchangeability of the yellow races of Eastern Asia. _D. F. Bacon._ * * * * * Many eminent authors are of the opinion that we are indebted to China not only for playing cards, but for the means of making them. They tell us that playing cards could not have been popular, as they were at the beginning of the fifteenth century, if they had not been made by a cheaper process than drawing by hand. The inference attempted is that block-printing and playing cards were brought to Europe together. The reasons presented in support of this opinion are far from conclusive, but they are based on many curious facts which deserve consideration.