INVENTION Of WEAVING. 



29 



against the weather ; while fashion, then unthought of, 

 or only as a sport, failed to interest the simple-minded 

 races in the cut or texture of the coverings they wore. 

 That the first dresses of mankind were formed from 

 vegetable materials, we have the highest authority fcr 

 believing ; and even at present, the garb of the natives 

 of some of our lately discovered islands, consists of a 

 simple girdle formed from rough-cut reeds. But as 

 the dawn of knowledge smiled upon the savage, and 

 animal sacrifice tutored him in the uncouth rudiments 

 of acoarse anatomy, the superior comfort, even of the un- 

 tanned hide would be remarked, and the clumsy mantle 

 of the Caflfre hordes welcomed as a change. Time 

 would not long elapse till roving dispositions, and the 

 encounter of unstable climates, would show the wander- 

 er the necessity of a fabric better adjust^id by shape 

 and pliancy, to the nature of his wants; while the 

 cUnging of lock to lock of woolly fibre would plainly tell 

 the superfluous nature of the supporting skin, and point 

 the way to make an ill-closed cloth. 



(38.) Invention of Weaving. — Weaving is not abso- 

 lutely necessary for the manufacture of cloth, since wool 

 will felt, though far from evenly, without the prehminary 

 process of being laid in threads, so that cloth may have 

 been almost coeval with mankind without our being 

 required to assign much mechanical ingenuity to its 

 inventors. But we have tolerably clear evidence in 

 the inspired writings, that weaving was known in the 

 earliest ages, and that it was trusted principally to the 

 women : — Thus Delilah wove Samson's hair when he 

 slept in her lap ; and a short time after, it is written, 

 that the mother of Samuel *' made him a little coat. 



