The silk manufacture, though originating in the secretion of a
tiny caterpillar, is perhaps equally extraordinary. Hundreds of
thousands of pounds weight of this slender thread, no thicker
than the filaments spun by a spider, give employment to millions
of workers throughout the world. Silk, and the many textures
wrought from this beautiful material, had long been known in the
East; but the period cannot be fixed when man first divested the
chrysalis of its dwelling, and discovered that the little yellow
ball which adhered to the leaf of the mulberry tree, could be
evolved into a slender filament, from which tissues of endless
variety and beauty could be made. The Chinese were doubtless
among the first who used the thread spun by the silkworm for the
purposes of clothing. The manufacture went westward from China
to India and Persia, and from thence to Europe. Alexander the
Great brought home with him a store of rich silks from Persia
Aristotle and Pliny give descriptions of the industrious little
worm and its productions. Virgil is the first of the Roman
writers who alludes to the production of silk in China; and the
terms he employs show how little was then known about the
article. It was introduced at Rome about the time of Julius
Caesar, who displayed a profusion of silks in some of his
magnificent theatrical spectacles. Silk was so valuable that it
was then sold for an equal weight of gold.
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