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Excerpt from The Chinese, Vol. 3 of 3: A General Description of China and Its Inhabitants
Tana appear to be reasonable grounds for the belief, that what are justly considered in Europe as three of the most im rtant inventions or discoveries of mo dern times, e art of printing, the composition of gun powder, and the magnetic com ass, had their first origin in China. However muc we may have out stripped them in the use and application of these in strumenta or agents, the Chinese can urge claims to the priority of possession, which are sufficient to con vince any unprejudiced person; and it seems fair to conclude that the knowledge, or tradition of these contrivances travelled slowly westward through the channels of Oriental commerce, and were obscurely de rived, by those who first impprted them to Europe, by the way of Asia Minor or t e Red Sea. There can not be the least doubt of the art of printing having been practised in China during the tenth century of our era. The precise mode in which they operate is certainly different from ours; but the main rinciple, that of multiplying cheapening books y saving the time and labour of transcription, is altogether the same.
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