DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

a ae ee ( 20 ) the stupendous influence they exercised put an end for ever to the darkness, misery, and ignorance of the Middle Ages. These were the invention of Printing, the discovery of America, and the Reforma- tion. Not the least potent factor in the new era of progress and civilisation was the invention of Printing. At a time when the inhabitants of Europe were still wild and savage barbarians, the Chinese were a prosperous and cultivated nation, and had antici- pated for themselves many of the great inventions and discoveries of our forefathers. They boast of having used gunpowder long before it was known in Europe, and claim to have discovered the art of printing some 3000 years ago. This is a disputable point ; but it is certain that in the tenth century a Minister of State named Foong Taon, being desirous . of multiplying the copies of a favourite book without | the labour of writing them, contrived the following process :— He placed a page of writing, while the ink was | wet, on the face of a smooth piece of wood, making . an impression on the wood in the same way as a letter does when it is turned down on a pad of blotting-paper, the letters being reproduced, as in the case of the blotting-paper, in reverse order. He then cut away all that part of the surface of the wood which was not touched by the writing, and