construction. Accompanying the gradual narrowing of its sphere there
was a steady development with the general increase of intelligence and
skill so that with the cultured nations of to-day it takes an
important, though unobtrusive, place in the hierarchy of the arts.

Woven fabrics include all those products of art in which the elements
or parts employed in construction are largely filamental and are
combined by methods conditioned chiefly by their flexibility. The
processes employed are known by such terms as interlacing, plaiting,
netting, weaving, sewing, and embroidering.

The materials used at first are chiefly filiform vegetal growths, such
as twigs, leaves, roots, and grasses, but later on filiform and then
fibrous elements from all the kingdoms of nature, as well as numerous
artificial preparations, are freely used. These are employed in the
single, doubled, doubled and twisted, and plaited conditions, and are
combined by the hands alone, by the hands assisted by simple devices,
by hand looms, and finally in civilization by machine looms.

The products are, first, individual structures or articles, such as
shelters, baskets, nets, and garments, or integral parts of these;
and, second, "piece" goods, such as are not adapted to use until they
are cut and fitted. In earlier stages of art we have to deal almost
exclusively with the former class, as the tailor and the house
furnisher are evolved with civilization.

In their bearing upon art these products are to be studied chiefly
with reference to three grand divisions of phenomena, the first of
which I shall denominate _constructive_, the second _functional_, and
the third _esthetic_. The last class, with which this paper has almost