[1253] Raspe on Oil-painting. London, 1781, 4to, p. 145.
[1254] Speculum Naturale, vii. cap. 13, p. 432.
[1255] Lib. vii. cap. 88, p. 480.
[1256] Symbola Aureæ Mensæ. Francof. 1617, 4to, lib. vii. p. 335.
[1257] De Asse, 1556, fol. lib. iii. p. 101.
[1258] Les Anciens-Minéralogistes de France, par Gobet. Paris, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. xxxiv. i. p. 51, 284; ii. p. 847.
[1259] [The celebrated chemist Baron Berzelius, professor at Stockholm, states in his Manual of Chemistry (edit. 1835, vol. iv. p. 86), that every possessor of land in Sweden is still compelled to deliver a certain quantity of saltpetre yearly to the state, and gives directions for testing its goodness.]
BOOK-CENSORS.
“On account of the great ease,” says M. Putter, “with which, after the invention of printing, copies of books could be multiplied and dispersed, it was necessary that some means should be devised to prevent a bad use from being made of this art, and to guard against its being employed to the prejudice of either religion or good morals, or to the injury of states. For this reason it was everywhere laid down as a general maxim, that no one should be allowed to establish a printing office at pleasure, but by the permission and under the inspection of government; and that no work should be suffered to go to press until it had been examined by a censor appointed for that purpose, or declared by a particular order to be of a harmless nature[1260].”