bodies, could also give it to the internal mechanism of society. We
will see the advantages of this invention escaping from the
individual, to become for ever the common patrimony of mankind.

The process finally becomes known. Guttenberg is no longer alone in
his art; others imitate him. Their profits are at first considerable.
They are recompensed for being the first who made the effort to
imitate the processes of the newly-invented art. This again was
necessary, in order that they might be induced to the effort, and thus
forward the great and final result to which we approach. They gain
largely; but they gain less than the inventor, for _competition_ has
commenced its work. The price of books now continually decreases. The
gains of the imitators diminish in proportion as the invention becomes
older; and in the same proportion imitation becomes less meritorious.
Soon the new object of industry attains its normal condition; in other
words, the remuneration of printers is no longer an exception to the
general rules of remuneration, and, like that of copyists formerly, it
is only regulated _by the general rate of profits_. Here then the
producer, as such, holds only the old position. The discovery,
however, has been made; the saving of time, labor, effort, for a fixed
result, for a certain number of volumes, is realized. But in what is
this manifested? In the cheap price of books. For the good of whom?
For the good of the consumer--of society--of humanity. Printers,
having no longer any peculiar merit, receive no longer a peculiar
remuneration. As men--as consumers--they no doubt participate in the
advantages which the invention confers upon the community; but that is
all. As printers, as producers, they are placed upon the ordinary
footing of all other producers. Society pays them for their labor, and
not for the usefulness of the invention. _That_ has become a
gratuitous benefit, a common heritage to mankind.