ESSAY IX. 443 wood of different colours ? Whence these fair pannals of wain- scot, and the cornish that encompasses and adorns the room ? Whence this lofty roof of cedar, and the carved ornaments cf it ? Are they not all the spoils of the trees of the forest? Were not these once the verdant standards of the grove or the moun- tain ? What are your hangingsof gay tapestry y Are they not owing to the fleece of the sheep which borrowed their nourish- ment from the grass of the meadows ? Thus the finery of your parlour once was grass ; and should . you favour me with a turn into your bed-chamber, I could shew that the curtains, and the linen, and the costlycoverings, where you take your nightly re- pose were someyears ago all growing in the field. But I need not retire from the room where we are seated to give you abundant discoveries of this truth. Is not the hair of camels a part of the materials which compose those rich curtains which hang down by the window, and the easy chairs which accommodate your friends ? and if you think a little, you will find that camels with their hair were macle of grass as well as the sheep and their wool. I confess the chimney and the coals, with the implements of the hearth, the brass and iron, were dug out of the ground from their beds of different kinds, and you must go below the surface of the earth to fetch them : But what think you of those nice tables of mosaic work ? They confess the forest their parent. What are the books which lie in the win- dow, and the little implements of paper, and , wax, pens, and wafers, which I presume may be found in the scruitoire ? And may 1 not add to these, that inch of wax-candle, which stands ready to seal a letter, or perhaps to light a pipe 1 You must grant they have all the saine original, they were once mere ve- getables. Paper and books owe their beingto the tatters of linen, which was woven of the threads of flax or hemp : The paste- board covers are composed of paper, and the leather is the skin of the calf that drew its life and sustenance from the meadows. The pen that you write with was plucked from the. wings of the goose, which lives upon the grass of the common : The ink- horn.was borrowed frem the front of the grazing ox ; thewafer is made of the paste of bread-corn ; the sealing-wax is said to be formed chiefly of the gum of a tree, and the wax for the can- dle is originally plundered from the bee, who stole it out of a thousand flowers. Permit me, ladies, said the philosopher, to mention your dress: Too nice a subject indeed for a scholar to pretend any skill in it : But I persuade myself your candour will not resent mynaming the rich materials, since i leave those more important points, the fashion and the air, to be decided entirely by your superior skill. Sball'i enquire then, who gave Persis the silken habit which she wears ; did she not borrow it from the worm that spun those shining threads ? And whence did the worm
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