We value books in our time, but we do not ornament them so very much,
because we would rather have twenty interesting books on our shelves to
read by turns, than one precious volume locked up with clasps, and kept
in a box only to be taken out on particular occasions; and instead of a
man spending half his life over the writing of such a book, letter by
letter, word by word, and page by page, a man who in the course of a
little time has set the small metal letters together, which we call
printing types, so as to form a number of pages, can print those pages
if he likes on ten thousand sheets of paper, which will form a part of
ten thousand books of the same kind, and which when finished can be read
by _ten times ten thousand_ human beings!
But we will return to little Hans. We have said that he lived not far
from the town of Mainz, in Germany, and we must mention that one of the
most pleasant things he had to do in his little life was to pay a visit
occasionally to this great town and see all the busy and wonderful
things that were going on there. Mainz was a rich and important town at
that time, and was governed by an Archbishop, who was called an Elector,
because he was one of those who had the right of choosing an Emperor for
Germany, when one was wanted.
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