270 ON THE HUMAN FACULTIES. 



their attacks. Possessed of this knowledge, he 

 would soon ascertain that their skins even in an 

 undressed state would suit his purpose better than 

 the flimsy covering of an assemblage of leaves; 

 and advancing in acquirements, he would pro- 

 gressively discover the means of preparing those 

 skins so as to render them subservient to orna- 

 mental as well as protective purposes. The 

 mode of converting vegetable substances into simi- 

 lar uses, by which flax and cotton have since 

 been so variously applied, and afterwards of 

 availing himself of the labours of the silk worm, 

 were of course of much later dates; but they all 

 serve to show the progress of the human mind 

 from its earliest efforts, to a period when a taste 

 for luxury had increased its energies to a degree 

 of which, comparatively, we could have hardly 

 supposed it susceptible. 



Thus our woollen, cotton, linen, and silk 

 manufactures, with all their appropriate machin- 

 ery, have each originated in the necessity in 

 which man was placed to provide himself with 

 clothing; and this he could not have effected, 

 had not his attention been directed to the arts 

 and to agriculture; though the attainment of 

 other very important objects, have intermingled 

 themselves with those pursuits. 



The same observations which apply to the 

 want of clothing, are also referable to the 

 deficiency in the means ot defence. All other 



