[Frontis]
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THE
HISTORY
OF
SILK, COTTON, LINEN, WOOL,
AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;
INCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON
SPINNING, DYEING AND WEAVING.
ALSO AN ACCOUNT OF THE
PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS, THEIR SOCIAL STATE
AND ATTAINMENTS IN THE DOMESTIC ARTS.
WITH APPENDICES
ON PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY; ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE
OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER; ON FELTING, NETTING, &C.
DEDUCED FROM
COPIOUS AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES.
ILLUSTRATED BY STEEL ENGRAVINGS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET.
1845.
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,
BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States,
for the Southern District of New York.
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TO THE
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,
THIS VOLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY
INSCRIBED.
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PREFACE.
History, until a recent period, was mainly a record of giganticcrimes and their consequent miseries. The dazzlingglow of its narrations lighted never the path of the peacefulHusbandman, as his noiseless, incessant exertions transformedthe howling wilderness into a blooming and fruitful garden, butgleamed and danced on the armor of the Warrior as he rodeforth to devastate and destroy. One year of his labors sufficedto undo what the former had patiently achieved through centuries;and the campaign was duly chronicled while the laborsit blighted were left to oblivion. The written annals of a nationtrace vividly the course of its corruption and downfall, butare silent or meagre with regard to the ultimate causes of itsgrowth and eminence. The long periods of peace and prosperityin which the Useful Arts were elaborated or perfected arepas