Songs of the Press; And Other Poems Relative to the Art of Printers and Printing, Also of Authors, Books, Booksellers, Bookbinders, Editors, Critics, Newspapers, Etc. Original and Selected. with Notes, Biographical and Literary (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SONGS OF THE PRESS. TO THE FATHERS OF PRINTING, GUTTEMBERG, SCHOEFFER, AND FAUST. Sire of our Art, t whose genius first designed This great memorial of a daring mind, And taught the lever with unceasing play To stop the waste of Time's destructive sway, The Verse -- 0 great progenitor ! be thine, Late, but sincere, where all thy worth shall shine; What Printer, ever since thy distant days, Hath touch'd the strings responsive to thy praise ? With trembling hand the boon let me bestow, -- Hear, then, ye nations ! what to him ye owe. Say, what was man ere by the Press refined ? What bonds his glorious energies confined ? Did Genius, thro' the dull chaotic waste, Court the fair forms of beauty and of taste ? From all the arguments and opinions which have been adduced in the important controversy on the origin of Printing, the conclusion may be satisfactorily drawn -- that to JOHN GUTTEMBERG is due the appellation of the Father Of Printing; to PETER SCHOEFFER, that of Father Of Letter-founding; and to JOHN FAUST that of the Generous Patron by whose means the wondrous discovery of the art yt Printing was brought rapidly to perfection. t Addr