tended territories subdued by their arms. It is recorded of the fanatical Omar, the immediate successor of the Arabian impostor, that "he preached in a tattered cotton gown, torn in twelve places ;" and of Ali, his contemporary, who assumed the caliphate after him, that, "on the day of his inauguration, he went to the mosque, dressed in a thin cotton gown, tied round him with a girdle, a coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand, and his bow in the other, instead of a walking-staff."*

In those lively pictures of Eastern manners, 'the Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' muslins are occasionally mentioned; but it appears that the fabrics which first received the name of muslins, from being made at Mosul, in Mesopotamia, were not cotton, or at least not exclusively so, as Marco Polo says, "All those cloths of gold and silk, which we call muslins, (mossoulini,) are of the manufacture of Mosul." It must not be supposed that cotton fabrics have, at any time, wholly superseded the use of linen in Mohammedan countries, or that they were esteemed as comparable in beauty with silks. Linen is still extensively used in Egypt and Arabia, as is shown. by many passages in the works of Pococke, Niebuhr, and Burckhardt; but it is also evident, from the travels of Thevenot, Burckhardt, Hamilton, and many others, that cotton is the principal article of clothing, even in those two countries, and still more in Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Asia Minor.

Marco Polof traces the progress of the cotton manufacture, with minute industry, through the various countries of the East, and dwells especially on the excellence of the art in India, from a very early period, notwithstanding the comparative inferiority of the raw material. As a proof of the skill of the Indian weaver, in the use of the very imperfect loom already described, an account is given of webs of extreme fineness manufactured in that country. From Tavernier, a mercantile traveller, he quotes the following passages :-" Some calicuts are made * Crichton's History of Arabia.'

† A Venetian traveller, who visited nearly all the countries of Asia, at the close of the 13th century.

so fine you can hardly feel them in your hand; and the thread, when spun, is scarcely discernible." "There is made at Secouge, (in the province of Malwa,) a sort of calicut, so fine, that when a man puts it on, his skin shall appear as plainly through it as if he were quite naked.” The same writer, speaking of the turbans of the Mohammedan Indians, says, "The rich have them of so fine. cloth, that twenty-five or thirty ells of it put into a turban, will not weigh four ounces. Another author, Mr. Ward of Serampore, a missionary, mentions, that, in two places in Bengal, muslin is made so exceedingly fine that, when the web is laid upon the grass, and the dew has fallen upon it, it is no longer discernible. Such works of art have been poetically called "webs of woven wind." In the India-house is preserved a specimen of Dacca muslin, of exquisite delicacy, softness, and transparency, brought by Sir Charles Wilkins from India, in 1786, to which is affixed a note, in the handwriting of Sir Joseph Banks, of the following tenor :

"The portion of skein which Mr. Wilkins gave to me, weighed 34 three-tenths grains; its length was 5 yards 7 inches; and it consisted of 196 threads. Consequently its whole length was 1018 yards and 7 inches. This, with a small allowance for fractions, gives 29 yards to a grain; 203,000 to a pound avoirdupois, of 7000 grains; that is, 115 miles, 2 furlongs, and 60 yards."

With British machinery, cotton yarn has been spun about a third finer than this, so that a pound weight of the thread would extend to 167 miles; but none which would stretch further than 119 one-third miles, was ever formed into a web. It cannot but seem astonishing that, in a department of industry where the raw material has been grossly neglected, where the machinery is so rude, and where there is so little division of labor, the result should be fabrics of such exquisite fineness and beauty as to be almost unrivalled by any other nations, with all the assistance of the mechanic arts. Mr. Mill thus accounts for this remarkable fact :-" Weaving is a sedentary occupation, and thus in harmony with the Indian's predominant inclination. It requires patience, of which he has an

inexhaustible fund. It requires little bodily exertion, of which he is always exceedingly sparing; and the finer the production, the more slender the force which he is called upon to apply. But this is not all. The weak and delicate frame of the Hindoo, is accompanied with an acuteness of external sense, particularly of touch, which is altogether unrivalled, and the flexibility of his fingers is equally remarkable. The hand of the Hindoo, therefore, constitutes an organ adapted to the finest operations of the loom, in a degree which is almost, or altogether, peculiar to himself." To this may be added, what is perhaps not the least important element in the case, though not mentioned by Mr. Mill, the hereditary continuance of a particular species of manufacture, in families, through many generations, which leads to the careful training of children, from their very infancy, to the processes of the

art.

make

It is worthy of remark, that the cotton manufacture was found existing, in considerable perfection, in America, on the discovery of that continent by the Spaniards. It formed, indeed, the principal article of their clothing; as they had neither wool, hemp, nor silk, and did not for this use, of the flax which they pospurpose, sessed. We are informed by the Abbé Clavigero, that "of cotton the Mexicans made large webs, and as delicate and fine as those of Holland, which were, with much reason, highly esteemed in Europe. They wove their cloths of different figures and colors, representing different animals and flowers. Of feathers, interwoven with cotton, they made mantles and bed-curtains, carpets, gowns, and other things, not less soft than beautiful. With cotton also they interwove the finest hair of the belly of rabbits and hares, after having made and spun it into thread. Of this they made most beautiful cloths, and, in particular, winter waistcoats for the lords."t

Among the presents sent by Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, to Charles V., were cotton mantles, some all

66

* Mill's History of British India, book ii. chap. 8.

+ History of Mexico, book vii. sect. 57, 66.

white, others mixed with white and black, or red, green, yellow, and blue; waistcoats, handkerchiefs, counterpanes, tapestries, and carpets of cotton ;" and the colors of the cotton were extremely fine, as the Mexicans had both indigo and cochineal among their native dyes. They also used cotton in making a species of paper; one of their kinds of money consisted in small cloths of cotton, and their warriors wore cuirasses of cotton, covering the body from the neck to the waist.

"It is scarcely to be doubted," says Mr. Baines, after detailing this information, "that the cotton and indigo plants are indigenous in America, as well as in India; but the arts of spinning and weaving were probably carried over by the wanderers, whoever they may have been, by whom that continent was first peopled. The manufacture of cotton must therefore be supposed to be coeval with the original settlement of America; but learned men are much divided as to the date of the invention, some carrying it nearly as high as the deluge,* and others contending for a much later period. The American manufacture may, at all events, claim a high degree of antiquity.

Whatever obscurity may rest on the origin of the manufacturing art, it is striking to observe how universally materials were, from the earliest times, distributed over the world, fit to gratify the natural propensity of man, for furnishing himself with clothing. Flax appears to have been indigenous in Egypt, and probably in other countries; the sheep is supposed to be a native of the mountainous ranges of Asia; the silkworm was given to China; and the cotton-plant to India and America.

*This is the opinion of the Abbé Clavigero. Dr. Robertson offers no opinion on this subject, owing to its extreme difficulty.

EIGHTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL ENJOYMENTS OF HEAVEN.

THE situation in which man is placed on earth, has, in all ages, been a theme of wonder to philosophers; and to those who are destitute of religion, an inexplicable mystery. He is formed, indeed, "wiser than the beasts of the field, and with more understanding than the fowls of heaven." The extent to which his powers and faculties have been developed by the circumstances in which he is placed, is one of those causes of astonishment, which, however the subject may be regarded by others, fills the pious mind with gratitude and adoration, while it impresses more deeply on his mind, a sense of an overruling Providence. We have seen the surprising effects of the training which man undergoes by the correspondence of the natural world to his wants, and the stimulus which it affords to his mental and bodily exertions, which convert him into an agriculturist, a manufacturer, and a mechanic; and the further we proceed in the investigation, the more cause shall we find for admiration. But it is impossible to conceal from ourselves, that these very advantages frequently prove curses instead of blessings. We are doomed to sigh for pleasures which we cannot enjoy, to be conscious of powers which we cannot exercise, and to long for perfections which we cannot attain. We feel ourselves confined in a prison, which restrains our liberty, and contracts our knowledge; and where we see through an obscure glass, which darkens our prospect, and excites our curiosity without gratifying it.

But revelation explains the mystery. Christ has brought life and immortality to light. By Him we are assured that this world is not our final abode, but a state of preparation for a higher existence. We are in the