DYEING: 



209 



History. 



At what pe- 

 riod disco- 

 vered. 



Causes why 

 the method 

 of dyeing 

 it was lost. 



Heriralof 

 thcpcoeew. 



and on that account received the name of Tyrian pur- 

 pie j more particularly, as the epithet Sarranus, * from 

 Sarra, the ancient name of Tyre, was frequently ap- 

 plied to it. 



12. The more ancient writers differ no less with re- 

 spect to the time when the Tyrian purple was discover- 

 ed, than with respect to the circumstances which led to 

 its discovery ; some stating it to have been 1500 years 

 before the, commencement of the Christian aera, and 

 others nearly a centuiy later, at the time Minos reigned 

 in Crete. Frequent mention is made of purple in the 

 books of Moses ; but whether the colour alluded to was 

 the Tyrian purple, or communicated by a different pro- 

 cess, is difficult to determine. At any rate, the frequen- 

 cy (Exod. xxv. 4; xxvi. 1.) with which it is mentioned, 

 implies that some method of dyeing purple was common 

 among the Israelites soon after they quitted Egypt, 

 which was nearly about the period already stated (1491 

 B. C.) The great antiquity of this colour is also con- 

 firmed by the testimony of Homer, who represents his 

 heroes to have been dressed in purple. 



13. This colour was so highly valued by the ancients, 

 that it was either consecrated to the worship of the Deity, 

 or conceived to be fit only for the garments of royalty. 

 Under the Mosaic dispensation, the stuffs for the service 

 of the altar, and the habits of the high priest, were en- 

 joined to be of purple. The Babylonians devoted this 

 colour to the dress of their idols, and most of the other 

 nations of antiquity seem to have done the same thing. 

 Pliny informs us, that it was used by Romulus, and the 

 succeeding kings of Rome, as well as by the consuls, 

 and first magistrates under the republic. The Roman 

 emperors at last appropriated it entirely to their own 

 use, and denounced the punishment of death against 

 those who should dare to wear it, though covered with 

 another colour. This absurd and tyrannical restriction 

 confined the dyeing of the Tyrian purple to a few indi- 

 viduals ; and in a short time the knowledge of the pro- 

 cess was completely lost. In the twelfth century, nei- 

 ther the shell fish which furnished the dye, nor the me- 

 thods which the ancients employed to communicate to 

 cloths the rich and beautiful purple which it afforded, 

 were at all known ; and on the revival of learning, it 

 was even suspected by many, that the accounts which 

 have come down to us respecting this celebrated colour, 

 were entirely fabulous. 



14. Notwithstanding the very high esteem in which 

 the Tyrian purple was held by the ancients, and the 

 great encomiums which have been bestowed on it by 

 many of the moderns, the loss of it is perhaps scarcely 

 an object of regret. The shell fish which furnished the 

 purple dye probably exist now, says Berthollet, in as 

 great abundance as formerly. They have been so accu- 

 rately described, that they may be recognized ; and, in 

 fact, Thomas Gage informs us, that shell fish have been 

 found near Nicoya, a small Spanish town in South Ame- 

 rica, which possess all the properties described by Pliny, 

 and other ancient writers. These shell-fish, it appears, 

 arc at present used in dyeing cotton on the coasts of 

 Guayaquil and Guatimala. Cole, in the year 1686, dis- 

 covered some of them on the English coast, and Plu- 

 mier found a species of them at the Antilles. Reaumur 

 has made many experiments on the whelks which he ob- 

 tained from the coasts of Poitou, and Duhamel has mi- 



State of 

 dyeing a- 

 mong the 

 Greeks 



nutely examined the colouring liquor of the purple shell History, 

 fish which he found in great abundance on the coast of S "~Y~ < " 

 Provence. He observed, that this liquor does not take 

 a purple colour without the action of light, a circum- 

 stance which Reaumur had before remarked respecting 

 that of the whelk ; that though at first white, it be- 

 comes of a yellowish green, which deepens to a sort of 

 blue ; that it afterwards reddens, and in less than five 

 minutes becomes of a very fine deep purple. In all 

 these respects, the colour produced possessed the charac- 

 ters of the ancient purple. If this method, therefore, of 

 dyeing purple is no longer practised, it is not on ac- 

 count of our ignorance of the process, but because we are 

 acquainted with more beautiful, as well as much less ex- 

 pensive dyes; though, as Dr Bancroft remarks, the 

 purple afforded by the shell-fish in question, may still 

 be applied with advantage in topical dyeing, for which 

 but little colouring matter is required. 



15. The art of dyeing seems to have made but little 

 progress among the Greeks; a fact which must undoubt- 

 edly be ascribed to the little estimation in which the arts 

 that contribute to conveniency or luxury were held by that 

 warlike and high-minded people. Public opinion placed 

 the fine and the useful arts at an immense distance from 

 each other ; for while the highest glory was connected 

 with the former, the latter were degraded among the 

 dishonourable and servile employments. Accordingly 

 we find, that though the more opulent inhabitants of 

 Athens preferred coloured clothes, the dress of the com- 

 mon people was made of cloth which had received no 

 dye. The art of dyeing linen appears to have been un- 

 known in Greece before Alexander the Great invaded 

 India ; where, according to Pliny, his captains, in skir- 

 mishing on the banks of the Indus, first saw, to their 

 astonishment, the enemy changing the ensigns of their 

 vessels, and suddenly displaying others of different co- 

 lours. Even the dyeing of woollen stuffs seems to have 

 made little progress at that time, as the same author, 

 after declaiming against the luxury of his cotemporaries 

 for wearing clothes dyed of colours which rivalled those 

 of the finest natural flowers, observes, that none of these 

 flowery colours were in use during the time of Alexan- 

 der. It is probable, however, that the companions of 

 that conqueror brought back from Persia and India some 

 information respecting the rich dyes employed in those 

 countries, which they afterwards diffused among their 

 countrymen. 



1 6. The Romans borrowed almost all the knowledge 

 of dyeing which they possessed from the Greeks, toge- 

 ther with the same contemptuous notions with regard to 

 the art. The sentiments of the Greeks and Romans in 

 this respect, afford a remarkable contrast to the more liberal 

 and enlightened vie'.vs of the present day, and furnish 

 one of the most striking characters by which the philo- 

 sophy of the ancients is distinguished from that of the 

 moderns. The ancients appear to have undervalued 

 every thing that contributed to domestic comfort and en- 

 joyment ; and while they professed the most enthusiastic 

 regard for the public good, to have forgotten that the 

 grand aim of all patriotism ought to be the promotion of 

 individual happiness. They accordingly degraded the 

 useful employments, and reserved their esteem for arts 

 whose productions could seldom be brought in contact 

 with ordinary affairs. The moderns, less actuated by 



and Ro- 

 mans. 



VOL. VIH. PART I. 



ITt gemma bitat, tt Sarra.no dormiat Oitro. VUG. Gcorg. lib. ii. 506. 



2D 



