became acquainted with all the arts of men in working up its productions
into such a variety of elegant fabrics. The prospect of gain, or perhaps
an indignant zeal excited by seeing this lucrative branch of commerce
engrossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them to repair to
Constantinople. There they explained to the emperor the origin of silk,
as well as the various modes of preparing and manufacturing it--mysteries
hitherto unknown, or very imperfectly understood in Europe, and encouraged
by his liberal promises, they undertook to bring to the capital a
sufficient number of those wonderful insects to whose labours man is so
much indebted. This they accomplished by conveying the eggs of the
silk-worm in a hollow cane. They were hatched by the heat of a dunghill;
fed with the leaves of a wild mulberry-tree, and they multiplied and worked
in the same manner as in those climates where they first became objects of
human attention and care. Vast numbers of these insects were soon reared
in different parts of Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus. Sicily
afterwards undertook to breed silk-worms with equal success, and was
imitated from time to time in several towns of Italy. In all these places
extensive manufactures were established and carried on with silk of
domestic production. The demand for silk from the East diminished, of
course. The subjects of the Greek emperors were no longer obliged to have
recourse to their enemies, the Persians, for a supply of it; and a
considerable change took place in the nature of the commercial intercourse
between Europe and India.

Before the introduction of the silk-worm into Europe, and as often as its
production is mentioned by the Greek and Roman authors, they had not, for
several centuries after the use of it became common, any certain knowledge
either of the countries to which they were indebted for this favourite
article of elegance, or the manner in which it was produced, By some, silk
was supposed to be a fine down adhering to the leaves of trees or flowers;