On the other hand, Nature adapts her supplies to the exercise of these principles; or, to speak more correctly, the God of Nature follows out, in this department, the wise and far-extended plans of his providence, for the training and discipline of the human mind. We shall afterwards examine the details of this providential system; but let us at present inquire into its nature.

All our articles of clothing are, as regards the fabric itself, derived from the vegetable or animal kingdom. The same living principle which elaborates our food, prepares also our clothing. This is assuredly an intended arrangement, and it is of some importance in that economy, which regards man as a being whose faculties require to be stimulated. It affords additional employment to his mind, in the pursuits of agriculture. Vegetables have to be cultivated, and animals reared, to supply human wants, in articles of clothing, as well as of food. Here, again, we see the operation of that remarkable law, which dooms man to laborious exertion, and, by that exertion, gives power and enlargement to his faculties.

The variety of the articles of clothing which civilized man requires to supply his wants, or satisfy his taste or ambition, is another element which must not be overlooked. The constitution of Nature favors, or rather cherishes, this desire for variety. There are numerous plants, which furnish the raw material for manufacture; the sheep gives its wool; the goat and the camel their hair; the ermine, the beaver, and the bear, their fur; while various animals afford their hides for a similar purpose. The skins of animals appear, indeed, to have been very early and very extensively used for clothing, in the temperate regions of the earth. It was a natural thought, to transfer the dress, with which Providence had furnished the brute, to the purpose of warming or ornamenting that higher species, whose rational powers had given him dominion and skill, and whose wants demanded a supply.

It is interesting to trace the progress of each of the arts, and of none more than of that which affords a covering to the human frame. We can no where more dis

tinctly trace the workings of the rational mind, nor observe unfolded that remarkable system by which its faculties are developed and called into action.

SIXTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

CLOTHING.-ITS PRIMITIVE STATE.

THE earliest history of the progress of that art, which depends on the necessity of an artificial covering for the human body, is derived from the oldest and most authentic of all records,—the writings of Moses, the inspired servant of God. From that sacred book it appears, that the first clothing of our race was leaves of trees and skins of beasts. In the third chapter of Genesis, it is said of Adam and Eve, that "they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons ;" and afterwards in the same chapter, it is said, “Unto Adam also and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." Thus early were both kingdoms of organic nature made subservient to this department of man's wants; as it is from these that his far more varied and extended desires of the same kind are still supplied.

Wherever man is found in a civilized state, clothing is esteemed essential to his comfort, and even to his necessities. The sense of modesty has rendered this law universal, and seems even to have operated more generally than the vicissitudes of climate. There are few parts of the world, exclusive of the regions verging on the poles, where custom might not have rendered an entire destitution of dress compatible with life. This might, perhaps, be inferred from the familiar custom of baring not only the face and hands, but also the legs and neck, which is done with impunity, in the very depth of winter. But history puts the fact beyond dispute; for Julius Cæsar, when he invaded Britain, found our savage forefathers, the Picts of Scotland, living unclothed amidst the vicissitudes of this northern and severe climate. Like other wild tribes, they

had lost the arts of our earliest common ancestors, and had fallen into a state of rude barbarity. It is curious to remark, in passing, that the nation which, about the commencement of the Christian era, was among the most uncivilized of all the inhabitants of Europe, should now take the lead in improvement; and especially that the art of manufacturing articles of clothing, for which they are now so remarkable, should then have been utterly unknown, even in its rudest state, among some of their tribes.

In tracing the history of this art, we must look to Egypt and Asia, as the quarters in which its progress was at the earliest period remarkable. We do not know to what extent the antediluvian world had advanced in their preparations of dress; but I think we may safely conclude, that they did not confine themselves to the mere use of skins and the leaves of trees. They had assuredly made very considerable advances in several of the other arts of life; and those, who had discovered the method of extracting the metals from the bowels of the earth, and converting them to use, not to speak of their skill in music, in the mechanic arts, and in the domestication of the lower animals, could scarcely be ignorant of the art of manufacturing into clothing, various other substances, besides those I have mentioned.

Be this as it may, the perfection to which this art was carried, in the East, at a very early period, is matter of some surprise. Men had soon begun to feel the inconveniences, arising from the stiffness of the skins taken from the larger animals, and the great destruction of life, necessary for their supply from the smaller sorts, and had found out some of the resources, which the Creator had supplied, by other means. The first kind of stuff, which mankind contrived to manufacture, was probably that which goes by the name of the mattrass. This is a com

position of hair, wool, or fur, plaited together, and fastened down by the assistance of some natural threads, such as hairs that were longer than ordinary, or tough grasses, or vegetable fibres, separated from trees or other plants. The mattrass squeezed, flatted, and fastened together for the intended use, either to serve as a covering, or to lie upon,

naturally gives the idea of felt, and this was perhaps the next step in the progress of manufactures. Felt is a composition of the hairs of fur or down, which, being prepared and soaked in some fatty or glutinous matter, lose their elasticity, intermix, and adhere so to one another, that they cannot readily be separated, forming a substance somewhat flexible, and of a pretty uniform thickness. A remnant of this species of manufacture, is still common among us, in the form of hats; and the cloth made in the islands of the South Sea, appears, from the descriptions of Captain Cook, and other circumnavigators, as well as from the specimens which have been brought to Europe, to be somewhat of a similar nature.

These, however, were but imperfect improvements in the art; and a much further advance in manufacturing skill was necessary, to give the desired lightness, flexibility, and softness to dress. But the appetite for melioration, once felt, could not be expected to cease here. Nature had furnished too many useful substitutes, to suffer the ingenuity of man to be so soon exhausted. The simple principle of the mattrass, that of plaiting one substance with another, came quickly to be extended. As soon as it was ascertained that threads could be formed by the twisting of wool, of hair, or of fibrous substances, the advance was easy from the mattrass to the cloth. It was but the interlacing of one thread with another, instead of employing the threads as fastenings to a plaited, but untwisted substance. This method of making stuffs, is perhaps the most useful invention, known in human society, and has gradually risen to a perfection, which exhibits, in an astonishingly favorable light, the inventive powers of man.

The most simple method of weaving, and probably the earliest, is that of which we still have an example, in the act of darning. It consists of a number of long threads, stretched side by side, and fastened at the ends, through which a needle, with a loose thread attached, is made transversely to pass alternately above and below, so as to interweave itself with them. This, however, is a tedious operation, and the ingenious device of the loom would not be long wanting, after the inventive faculties of man were

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awakened, and a demand for woven stuffs had become general. The loom is an instrument, so framed, that each alternate thread, stretched upon a common roller, may, by means of a simple and ingenious mechanism, be alternately elevated and depressed. This is called the warp, which forms the foundation of the stuff, and hence is called stamen by the Romans. The intention is to receive and catch hold of another thread, called the woof, which is thrown through them by a shuttle, an instrument with two points, swelled in the middle to receive a pirn, or quill, as it is commonly called. By this invention, the very same operation is performed, as by darning, but with immensely greater quickness and precision. The fabrics thus manufactured, can be made of any fineness or delicacy, which the necessary strength of threads will admit ; and great variety, also, can be introduced into the workmanship; so that the principle of the loom, though so simple, may be considered as the perfection of art. That there are substances, capable of being formed into threads of great fineness and tenacity, depends on qualities which the Creator, doubtless for this very purpose, has bestowed on various modifications of vegetable and animal nature. These have already been adverted to in the Spring' volume, but must again come under our notice, with a special view to the particular object in question.

SEVENTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

THE EMPTINESS OF HUMAN ATTAINMENTS.

THE wonderful discoveries, which human ingenuity has made, and the astonishing results of human industry, have a tendency to make us lose sight of our defects and weaknesses. Every one who knows any thing of his own heart, must be sensible of this. We are apt to cherish sentiments of self-dependence and self-sufficiency, totally