



THE WINDOWS. 145 



In France, besides oiled paper, they used talc or 

 isinglass, white horn, and thinly shaved leather. 

 In ancient Rome, the rich sometimes used 

 very precious stones. Those in their bathing 

 houses were often of agate or marble. The 

 Chinese used a very fine cloth, covered with a 

 shining varnish ; and, afterwards, split oyster 

 shells. They had also the art of working out 

 the horns of animals into large and thin plates, 

 which they used in the place of glass for their 

 windows. 



The first windows of common glass, that is, 

 sand, potash, &c., melted together and formed 

 into plates, were made in the time of Con- 

 stantine the Great, in the fourth century after 

 Christ. But it was not till the fifteenth or 

 sixteenth century, that glass was brought into 

 common and general use. 



THE HUMAN EYE. The windows of the 

 human frame are made neither of paper, isin- 

 glass, agate, marble, horn, leather, cloth, oyster 

 shells, or common glass. Nor are they con- 

 fined to the back part of the house, like those 

 of some eastern nations. Nor are they 

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