(i) By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment. (ii) Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule. (iii) Louise-sebastian Mercier, a novelist in Prance declared. “The printing press is most powerful engine of progress and public- opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.”