The necessity for human clothing must be so obvious, we should think, at nearly the first existence of our race, that two opinions upon that subject cannot exist. For, admitting the region where our first parents were stationed was more genial to life than these, our northern countries, yet the difference in temperature between the heat of noon-day, and the chilly damps of night, must be obvious to every one who has resided in, or has read of, tropical climates. Therefore, from necessity, we contend, our first parents could not have dispensed with the benefit of clothing. However, independent of the necessity of the thing, the Jewish History informs us that the first man, Adam, and his wife, in consequence of their unfortunate disobedience and positive violation of the commands of their Divine Creator, knew of their own nakedness; and, therefore, they were ashamed to answer to the sacred summons. This they confessed, with a simplicity congenial to truth, and in the same moment, frankly owned the cause; answering to the awful interrogatory of “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”—“The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” However, we are previously informed that, “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”

It should be observed, that the leaf of the Banyan, or Indian fig, is probably here meant; if it is, the luxurious leaf of this tree is about three feet long, and proportionably wide; therefore, we may rationally conclude, much art was not required; probably a thorn might supply the place of a needle, and a blade of grass would do for a thread.

Afterwards, we are told, in the same chapter,—“Unto Adam, also to his wife, did the Lord Jehovah make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The preceding is the earliest account of humanity; at the same time, it also furnishes the most ancient relation of the original of human clothing. From hieroglyphical inscriptions still extant, the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt wore sometimes clothing made of feathers, fastened together; sometimes of shells, also attached to each other; but the most general ancient clothing consisted of the skins of various animals. So is Hercules, and many of the heroes, clothed, in antique statuary. Although the sacred history is silent on this head, we may, perhaps, by inference, arrive at some clue or thread to guide us through the labyrinth of uncertainty.

Accordingly we find in the first passages, which will admit of constructive inference, that thread, of some sort, must, of necessity, have had existence:—“And Ada bare Jubal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.”—Gen. iv., 20. Now, we submit, the inference of not only spinning, but also of weaving, and even sewing, must be conceded, before we can conceive the existence of tents. The cloth whereof they were made at that period, it is probable, was of the fleece of sheep; because of the early existence of woollen cloth among the Greeks, we have no doubt, from the following and numerous other passages in their poets; and also from the practice of Tyrian artisans, who were, we know, generally and confessedly eminent for their dying the imperial purple, and other scarce, valuable, and beautiful colours; and no substance better receives, or so well retains the most splendid of colours than does wool. But Homer speaks expressively in point, where, in his “Iliad,” he expresses the truce which took place between the belligerent armies of Greeks and Trojans. After the defeat of Paris by Menelaus, and where the laughter-loving goddess, Venus, is said to have rescued her favourite from the fate he deserved to find; after she had conveyed the recreant hero from the field to his apartment, she then, like a true friend to matrimonial infidelity, goes in search of the Spartan queen, for the purpose of bringing the lovers together. She discovered the beautiful adultress on the walls of the city, where she had been describing to Priam, and his ancient nobles, the Trojan councillors, the various persons of the heroes of Greece. Upon this occasion, Venus, to use the language of the poet (as translated by Pope), assumes a disguise.

The labours of Penelope, Helena herself, and innumerable passages in the works of the poet, all tend to confirm the fact.

That linen had also an early existence is proved at a very anterior period of the Jewish history. They had even fine linen previous to the construction of the utensils used in sacred worship; as, in Exodus, an ephod of linen is expressly mentioned; likewise in the xxvth chapter, 4th verse of that book, fine linen is expressly enumerated among those presents that the people were expected to offer freely to the Lord Jehovah. Whence we are justified in inferring they had most probably learned in Egypt to carry its structure to great perfection.

We have linen mentioned likewise, in Homer, upon the breach of the truce between the Grecians and Trojans with their auxiliary forces. On Menelaus having been wounded by an arrow from the bow of Pandarus, where the poet sweetly sings—

From what appears in the subsequent, as well as the former, part of this article, we submit, that the general manufacture of cloth, both woollen and linen, has been established; and if this is made out, the prior existence of the other subsidiary arts of spinning, weaving, &c. cannot be denied.

There are hieroglyphical symbols in the British Museum, which denote the various operations of the manufacture of cloths; and upon a monument upwards of three thousand six hundred years old.

Numerous arts have been discovered by mere accident. We are told, the very valuable operation of feldtmaking was discovered by a British sovereign, whose feet being always cold in the winter, he had wool put into his shoes; the moisture there contracted, the natural heat of the body, with the action to which this wool was exposed, between the foot and the shoe, caused the fleecy substance to consolidate; whence the origin of that very necessary article, the Hat.