Elihu Burritt

“ He needed the copartnership of a man like Boulton, whose mind should supplement the qualities which his own lacked; a man of clear, collected, working sense, who could not only grasp intellectually all the principles and philosophy of Watt's dynamics, but could render the inventor just the assistance he needed to utilize them and bring them into the great work which they are now performing for the world. ”

“ Not ten in ten thousand of educated men, who read and admire the most beautifully-printed books of the present day have the slightest idea how much the art that so delights them is indebted to the genius and indomitable and ill-requited perseverance of John Baskerville. ”

“ Several minds of vivid speculation have essayed to give some approximate estimates or conceptions of the value of this motive power to various countries; some have measured it against the small standards of horse-power and man-power; but it is almost like gauging infinity with a yard-stick, to attempt to measure and value the new capacities which this force has given to mankind. ”

“ But there is still another coincidence worthy of note and admiration in the productive history of Birmingham. In speaking of the invaluable agencies which Watt and Boulton brought into operation, and especially of the new light they elaborated for the great cities and private dwellings of the people, a predecessor in a collateral and co-working science of illumination should have had a prior notice. This was John Baskerville, who was to the printing-press what Watt was to the steam-engine. Indeed, from Caxton's day to this. England has not produced such another hero of typography. ”

“ At Soho they elaborated and gave to the world gas-power; for it really belongs to one of the utilitarian forces that are now working for human comfort and progress. There was a happy coincidence in the advent of this new illumination. Not only was it a mechanical or material but a moral coincidence of pleasant augury. It was natural that such men as Watt and Boulton should find in a lump of coal the two great properties of the sun—heat for steam and light for illumination ”

“ THE BIRMINGHAM MEN OF SCIENCE—INVENTORS—PIONEERS IN THE MECHANIC ARTS—BASKERVILLE, WATT, BOULTON, COX, ETC.
NOT only the moral and material worlds but their prime forces run parallel to each other. What the power of public opinion is in the one, the power of steam is in the other. We have noticed how public opinion was first "improved," applied and utilized in Birmingham. What it did to and through this force for the moral world, it did to and through steam for the world of matter and mechanics. ”

“ The celebrated letter-founder, William Caslon, had won a world-wide reputation for the beautiful type he produced at his foundry in Finsbury, and Baskerville, who admired his genius as well as coveted his fame, determined to enter the lists with him as a competitor. To this end he went to work with extraordinary energy and enthusiasm. He spared no money or labour in bringing the art to its highest perfection. As Boulton expended £50,000 on Watt's steam-engine before it was fully developed, so Baskerville, it is said, expended £600 before he produced a letter to satisfy himself. ”

“ May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind from the fears of superstition and the wicked arts of priestcraft." Whether this epitaph drew upon him the fury of the mob that set upon Priestley, or whether the illumination emanating from his printing press had been too bright for the eyes of bigots jealous of popular blindness, his monument was destroyed and not a stone was left to indicate where his ashes lay. ”

“ Like them he had exhausted his means in the development of principles which he saw-what he could make few believe—would double the wealth of the world, and up to its last ages work for the well-being of mankind. ”

“ Considering his brave and unwavering patience, and his life-long, self-sacrificing efforts in raising the art to its highest perfection, he well deserves an appellation too exclusively monopolized by military careers. ”