raw material was procured, and spun into continual increase in these divisions of yarn on the big wheel. Coarse linens are,|| American enterprise. also, extensively manufactured in families, especially among the German population.

29. The manufacture of cloth, from wool, was introduced into Britain by the Romans, some time in the Augustan age. At Winchester they conducted the business on a scale sufficiently large to supply their army. After the Romans withdrew from the island, in the fifth century, the art was comparatively neglected, and gradually declined until the reign of Edward III. This monarch invited into his dominions workmen from Flanders, in which country the manufacture had, for a long time, been in a flourishing condition.

30. Shortly after the first immigration of the Flemish manufacturers into England, an act was passed prohibiting the wearing of cloths made in any other country; and, in the time of Elizabeth, the manufacture had become so extensive, that the exportation of the raw material was forbidden by law.

THE SILK-WORM.

1. Silk is the production of a worm, of the caterpillar species, which, in due course, passes through several transforma tions, and, at length, becomes a butterfly, like others of the genus. It is produced from an egg, and when about to die, or rather again to change its form, spins for itself an envelope, called a cocoon. The worm then changes to a chrysalis, and, after remaining in this state twenty days, the butterfly, or math, comes out, forcing its way through the cocoon. The moths, or butterflies, eat nothing; and die as soon as they have provided for the propagation of their species. Enough of these are suf fered to come to maturity, to provide a sufficient stock of eggs. The rest are killed, in a few days after they have spun their task, either by heating them in an oven, or by exposing them to the rays of the sun.

31. It is supposed that there are now in 2. The fibres are wound upon a reel. Great Britain, thirty millions of sheep; To render this practicable, the cocoons are whose annual produce of wool is worth, on put into water heated to a suitable tempean average, about seven millions of pounds rature, which dissolves the gummy substerling to this may be added, five mil-stance that holds the fibres together. A lions of pounds weight from foreign coun- number of threads being detached, and tries. This amount is increased in value, || by manufacturing skill, to twenty or thirty millions of pounds. Not less than three millions of persons are supposed to be employed in this branch of British industry.

passed through a hole in an iron bar, form, by the aid of the remaining glutinous matter, one thread, which is wound upon a reel into skeins.

3. The raw silk, thus produced and prepared, is sold to the manufacturers, who twist and double the fibres variously, and finally form them into threads, for sewing; or weave them into a great variety of fabrics, which are too well known to need particular description here.

4. According to the ancients, the silk

worm was originally a native of China, and the neighbouring parts of Asia, and had there been domesticated for a long time before it was known in Europe. For many years after silk was sold among the nations of the West, even the merchants were ignorant both of the manner and place of its production.

5. The Greeks became acquainted with silk, subsequently to the time of Alexander the Great; and the Romans knew little of the article, until the reign of Augustus. Dresses composed entirely of this material, were seldom worn; but the fabrics which had been closely woven in the East, were unravelled, and recomposed in a looser texture, intermixed with linen or woollen yarn.

nant at the rapacity of the silk-merchants, determined, if possible, to supply his people from the insect itself.

9. After many unsuccessful attempts, he, at length, obtained a small quantity of the eggs from India, by the assistance of two Persian monks, who had contrived to conceal them in the hollow of their canes. The seeds of the mulberry tree, on the leaves of which the worm feeds, were also procured at the same time, together with instructions necessary for the management of the worms.

10. For six hundred years after the period just mentioned, the rearing of these worms in Europe was confined to the Greek empire; but, in the twelfth century, Roger, king of Sicily, introduced it into that island, whence it gradually spread into Italy, Spain, France, and other European countries.

6. The prodigal Heliogabalus is said to have been the first individual in the Roman empire, who wore a robe of pure silk. It is also stated, that the Emperor Aurelian 11. The silk-worm was introduced into refused his wife a garment of this descrip- || England, by James the First; but it has tion, on account of its exorbitant price. never succeeded well in that country, on At that time, as well as at previous pe-account of the dampness and coldness of riods, it usually sold for its weight in gold. the climate. The manufacture of fabrics 7. A kind of gauze, originally made by || the women on the island of Cos, was very celebrated. It was dyed purple, with the substance usually employed in communicating that colour in those days; but this was done before it was woven, as in that state it was too frail to admit of the process. Habits made of this kind of stuff, were denominated "dresses of glass," for the reason, that the body could be seen through them.

from silk, however, is there very extensive; the raw material being obtained, chiefly, from Bengal, and Italy. In the latter of these countries, in France, and other parts of Europe, as well as in Asia, the manufacture is also extensive.

12. Some attention has been paid to the rearing of silk-worms in the United States, and attempts have been made to introduce the manufacture of silks. The mulberry has been planted, in various parts of the 8. The Roman empire had been supplied Union; and it is highly probable that, in a with silk through the medium of the Per-few years, we shall be able to obtain exsians, until the time of Justinian, in the year cellent silks, without sending for them to 555. This emperor, having become indig- foreign countries.

worn.

iron, the muriate of tin, and nutgalls, are themselves to certain colours, such as scarprincipally employed. The mordant not || let and blue. The principal profits of the only fixes the colour, but, in many cases, dyer, when unconnected with manufacturalters and improves the tints. It is always ing establishments, arise from dyeing gardissolved in water, in which the stuffs arements, or stuffs, which have been partly immersed, previously to the application of the dye. Dyeing substances are also very 10. The origin of the art of dyeing is numerous; but a few of the most import- involved in great obscurity, as the ancients ant have, in practice, taken precedence of have not furnished even a fable, which the others. might guide us in our researches. It is 6. Blue, red, yellow, and black, are the evident, however, that the art must have chief colours, for which appropriate colour-made considerable progress, long before ing substances are applied; but, by a judi- authentic history begins. Moses speaks cious combination of these same materials, of stuffs dyed blue, purple, and scarlet, and by a proper application of mordants, and of sheep-skins dyed red. The knowintermediate hues of every shade are pro-ledge of the preparation of these colours, duced: thus, a green is communicated by implies an advanced state of the art at forming a blue ground of indigo, and then that early period. adding a yellow, by means of quercitron bark.

11. Purple was the favourite colour of the ancients, and appears to have been the first which was brought to a state of tole

7. The blue dye is made of indigo; the red dye, of madder, cochineal, archil, Bra-rable perfection. The discovery of the zil-wood, or safflowers; the yellow dye, of quercitron bark, turmeric, hickory, weld, fustic, or saffron; the black dye, of the oxide of iron, combined with logwood, or the bark of the common red, or soft maple, with the sulphate, or acetate of iron. The dyes made of some of these substances require the aid of mordants, and those from others do not.

8. In communicating the intermediate hues, the different dye-stuffs forming the leading colours are sometimes mixed; and, at other times, they are made into separate dyes, and applied in succession.

mode of communicating it, is stated to have been accidental. A shepherd's dog, while on the sea-shore, incited by hunger, broke a shell, the contents of which stained his mouth with a beautiful purple; and the circumstance suggested the application of the shell-fish as a colouring substance. This discovery is thought to have been made about fifteen hundred years before the advent of Christ.

12. The Jews esteemed this colour so highly, that they consecrated it especially to the service of the Deity, using it in stuffs for decorating the tabernacle, and for the sacred vestments of the high-priests. The Babylonians, and other idolatrous nations, clothed their idols in habits of purple, and even supposed this colour capable of appeasing the wrath of the gods.

9. In this country, the business of the dyer is often united with that of the clothier; but where the amount of business will justify it, as in manufactories, and in cities or large towns, it is a separate business. The dyers sometimes confine their attention to particular branches: some dye wool only, or silk, while others confinel of kings and princes, while their subjects

13. Among the heathen nations of antiquity, purple was appropriated to the use

were debarred the use of this favourite principally by means of the intercourse colour. In Rome, at a later period, purple || arising from the Crusades.