With piles of rich treasure the storehouse she spreads, J. H. MERIvale. It was an admitted opinion amongst the classical nations of antiquity, that no less a personage than Minerva herself, "a maiden affecting old fashions and formality," visited earth to teach her favourite nation the mysteries of those implements which are called " the arms of every virtuous woman;" viz. the distaff and spindle. In the use of these the Grecian dames were particularly skilled; in fact, spinning, weaving, needlework, and embroidery, formed the chief occupation of those whose rank exonerated them, even in more primitive days, from the menial drudgery of a household. The Greek females led exceedingly retired lives, being far more charily admitted to a share of the recreations of the nobler sex than we of these privileged days. The ancient Greeks were very magnificent-very: magnificent senators, magnificent warriors, magnificent men; but they were a people trained from the cradle for exhibition and publicity; domestic life was quite cast into the shade. Consequently and necessarily their women were thrown to greater distance, till it happened, naturally enough, that they seemed to form a distinct community; and apartments the most distant and secluded that the mansion afforded were usually assigned to them. Of these, in large establishments, certain ones were always appropriated to the labours of the needle. "Je ne dirai" (says the sarcastic author of Anacharsis) "qu'un mot sur l'éducation des filles. Suivant le différence des états, elles apprennent à lire, écrire, coudre, filer, préparer la laine dont on fait les vêtemens, et veiller aux soins du ménage. En général, les mères exhortent leurs filles à se conduire avec sagesse; mais elle insistent beaucoup plus sur la nécessité de se tenir droites, d'effacer leurs épaules, de serrer leur sein avec un large ruban, d'être extrêmement sobres, et de prévenir, par toutes sortes de moyens, un embonpoint qui nuirait a l'élégance de la taille et à la grâce des mouvemens." Homer, the great fountain of ancient lore, scarcely throughout his whole work names a female, Greek or Trojan, but as connected naturally and indissolubly with this feminine occupation-needlework. Thus, when Chryses implores permission to ransome his daughter, Agamemnon wrathfully replies "I will not loose thy daughter, till old age And Iris, the "ambassadress of Heaven," finds 66 weaving there a gorgeous web, Inwrought with fiery conflicts, for her sake Wag'd by contending nations." Hector foreseeing the miseries consequent upon the destruction of Troy, says to Andromache "But no grief So moves me as my grief for thee alone, Doom'd then to follow some imperious Greek, A weeping captive, to the distant shores Of Argos; there to labour at the loom And again he says to her "Hence, then, to our abode; there weave or spin, And afterwards— "Andromache, the while, Knew nought, nor even by report had learn'd She in her chamber at the palace-top All dazzling bright with flow'rs of various hues.” Though "Penelope's web" is become a proverb, it would be unpardonable here to omit specific mention of it. Antinoüs thus complains of her : "Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hope to all, and all with hope deceives. : The spacious loom, and mix'd the various thread; The Greek costume was rich and elegant; and though, from our familiarity with colourless statues, we are apt to suppose it gravely uniform in its hue, such was not the fact; for the tunic was often adorned with ornamental embroidery of all sorts. The toga was the characteristic of Roman costume : this gradually assumed variations from its primitive simplicity of hue, until at length the triumphant general considered even the royal purple too unpre tending, unless set off by a rich embroidery of gold. The first embroideries of the Romans were but bands of stuff, cut or twisted, which they put on the dresses: the more modest used only one band; others two, three, four, up to seven; and from the number of these the dresses took their names, always drawn from the Greek: molores, dilores, trilores, tetralores, &c. Pliny seems to be the authority whence most writers derive their accounts of ancient garments and needlework. "The coarse rough wool with the round great haire hath been of ancient time highly commended and accounted of in tapestrie worke: for even Homer himself witnesseth that they of the old world used the same much, and tooke great delight therein. But this tapestrie is set out with colours in France after one sort, and among the Parthians after another. M. Varro writeth that within the temple of Sangus there continued unto the time that he wrote his booke the wooll that lady Tanaquil, otherwise named Caia Cecilia, spun; together with her distaff and spindle: as also within the chapel of Fortune, the very roiall robe or mantle of estate, made in her own hands after the manner of water chamlot in wave worke, which Servius Tullius used to weare. And from hence came the fashion and custome at Rome, that when maidens were to be wedded, there attended upon them a distaffe, dressed and trimmed with kombed wooll, as also a spindle and yearne upon it. The said Tanaquil was the |