The invention of printing is the greatest event in history. It is the mother of revolution.It is the mode of expression of humanity which is totally renewed; it is human thought stripping off one form and donning another ; it is the complete and definitive change of skin of that symbolical serpent which since the days . In its printed form, thought is more imperishable than ever; it is volatile, irresistible, indestructible.It is mingled with the air.In the days of architecture it made a mountain of itself, and took powerful possession of a century and a place.Now it converts itself into a flock of birds, scatters itself to the four winds, and occupies all points of air and space at once . We repeat, who does not perceive that in this form it is far more indelible?It was solid, it has become alive. It passes from duration in time to immortality.One can demolish a mass; bow can one extirpate ubiquity?If a flood comes, the mountains will have long disappeared beneath the waves, while the birds will still be flying about; and if a single ark floats on the surface of the cataclysm, they will alight upon it, will float with it, will be present with it at the ebbing of the waters; and the new world which emerges from this chaos will behold, on its awakening, the thought of the world which has been submerged soaring above it, winged and living .
