tnd  weftving  them  into  a  convenient  fabric,  must  have  been
made  at  a  much  hter  epoch  in  the  history  of  clothing,  yet
the  progrees  from  the  looee  skin  mantle  to  the  woolen  tunio
la  very  obscure.  Oertain  it  is  that  the  use  of  hair  and  wool
in  the  manufacture  of  clothing  antedates  by  far  that  of  flax
or  cotton*  Still  both  thesci  and  particularly  the  f ormeri  have
had  a  very  ancient  origin.
Neariy  all  human  clothing,  not  composed  of  the  skins  of
animals,  is,  and  always  has  been,  derived  from  four  natural
sources,  two  of  which  are  vegetable  and  two  animal.  These
are  flax  and  cotton,  wool  and  silk.
These  four  great  natural  resources  seem  to  be  inexhaust-
ible, since  they  all  belong  to  the  oiganic  creation,  and  may  be
reproduced  ad  libitum.  But  the  discovery  of  their  adapta-
bility to  human  wants  was,  doubtless,  as  slow  as  it  was  im-
portant The  passage  from  the  skin  of  animals  to  a  fabrie
composed  of  the  wool  by  which  it  was  covered  must  have
suggested  itself  at  an  early  day,  but  the  necessary  means  of
reducing  this  wool  to  the  proper  state  for  clothing  were  the
result  only  of  protracted  study.  This  study  must  have  been
both  analytic  and  synthetic.  The  fibers  of  the  wool  could
not  be  made  to  lie  together  and  adhere  to  form  a  useful  fab-
ric. They  must  be  thoroughly  changed  in  their  nature  to
render  them  adhesive.  An  instrument  for  carding  had  to  be
first  devised,  then  a  machine  for  spinning,  and  finally  a  de-
vice for  weaving,  before  any  thing  like  cloth  could  be  elabo-
rated from  wool  All  this  was  not  too  much,  however,  for
the  fertile  brain  of  man,  and  at  least  one  great  source  of
clothing  was  thus  early  discovered.
