The manufacture of four or five hundred square feet of paper per minute, and 12,000 impressions per hour, are now matters of every day occurrence, although it should be borne in mind, that without the paper machine, pouring forth its miles of web, these corresponding advantages in printing could not have been developed.
We may take as an instance, that book of books, which Pollok very beautifully describes as—
“The only star
By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss
Securely!”
Although now a handsome copy, printed on tolerably fine paper, gilt edged, and bound in embossed roan, may be purchased for one shilling, in the reign of Henry the Third, it is recorded that two arches of London Bridge were built for a less sum than that for which a Bible could be procured. And, as we continue the search still further back, the contrast becomes increasingly interesting. For let it be remembered, that the sixty-six books of which the Bible is composed, were not always contained in so convenient a form. During the sixteen centuries which were occupied in making known this revelation to man, not only were the advantages which we possess altogether unknown, even in their rudest form, but substitutes, apparently far less promising than many we have referred to, were also at one period and another directed to be employed. As for instance, to Ezekiel, Jehovah once said, “Thou also son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem.” And elsewhere, “Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, for Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions.”
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.