162 SILK. 



ranked rather among the dangerous than the useful gifts of 

 nature ? We think not ; for assuredly, if Silk-worms and silk 

 had never been, some other production, how coarse soever, 

 would have served just as well to keep human vanity alive 

 and warm. In ancient times, that light- winged passion nestled 

 quite as snugly in the folds of fine linen, and the same fact is 

 sufficiently attested by modern instances. To say nothing of 

 Ticmd-handkerchiefs, those laced and broidered abominations 

 displayed by our countrywomen in token of a human infirmity, 

 we may notice those curiously wrought stockings of Lisle 

 thread (for which enormous prices have been given), and 

 which prove clearly enough that the feet of Eve's daughters 

 can be tangled quite as easily in vanity -nets of vegetable 

 growth, as in those of the worm's weaving. 



How entirely conventional has been the value attached to 

 silk apparel, Montaigne gives us, in his Essays, a striking 

 instance. Speaking of the worse than uselessness of sump- 

 tuary laws to restrain the luxury of dress, which, by making 

 it an exclusive badge of rank, they rather tended to encourage, 

 he recommends for the much more effectual repression of 

 expensive indulgences, the adoption by princes and nobles of 

 the simplest habits both of dress and living, which would then, 

 forthwith, become the mode in most repute. In support of 

 this position, he adduces the contempt into which silk dresses 

 fell on the following occasion. " When," says he, " in conse- 

 quence of the mourning for King Henry 11^, cloth was ordered 



