advances which had in the mean time been made in engraving and type or
letter cutting. It will be seen that the material elements of printing
were by degrees converging to a culminating point. The evidences of
engraving, both in relief and intaglio, are of very ancient date. I need
hardly remind you of the exquisite workmanship on coins, cameos, and
seals, many centuries before the Christian era, to illustrate the high
state of cultivation at which the arts must then have arrived. The art of
casting and chasing in bronze was extensively practised in the twelfth
century, and I have seen a specimen with letters so cut in relief that
they might be separated to form movable type. The goldsmiths were
certainly among the greatest artists of the early ages, and were
competent to execute forms or moulds of any kind to perfection.

In the British Museum is a brass signet stamp, more than two thousand
years old, on which two lines of letters are very neatly engraved
in relief, in the reversed order necessary for printing; and as the
interstices are cut away very deeply and roughly, there is little doubt
but that this stamp was used with ink on papyrus, parchment, or
linen, for paper was not then known. Indeed, the experiment of taking
impressions from it in printing-ink has been tried, and found to answer
perfectly. A large surface so engraved would at once have given to the
world an equivalent to what is now regarded as the most advanced state of
the art of printing; that is, a stereotype plate. Vergil mentions brands
for marking cattle with their owner's name; probably this kind of brass
stamp, but larger.

I could cite many more examples of ancient engraving which would yield
impressions on paper, either by pressure or friction. But our business is
with printing rather than engraving; I will, therefore, go back to the
subject, and cite a very early and interesting example of stamping