wish to impress on the mind of the reader is the long continuity of
the art of needlework.

The sense of antiquity induces reverence, and I claim for the needle
an older and more illustrious age than can be accorded to the brush.
While the great pendulum of Time has swung art in sculpture, painting,
and architecture, from its cradle as in Mycenae, to its throne in
Athens in the days of Pericles, and then back again to the basest
poverty of decaying Rome--needle work, continually refreshed from
Eastern inspiration, never has fallen so low, though it had never
aspired as high as its greater sister arts.

The stuffs and fabrics of various materials of the Egyptians, Chinese,
Assyrians, and Chaldeans are named in the earliest records of the
human race. How much these decorations depended on weaving, and how
much on embroidery with the needle, may in each case be disputed. The
products of the Babylonian looms are alluded to in the Book of Joshua.
Their beauty tempted Achan to rescue them when Jericho fell;[5] and
Ezekiel speaks of the embroideries of Canneh, Haran, and Eden, as well
as of their cloths of purple and blue, and their chests of garments of
divers colours[6].

All these fabrics are named as merchandise, and were carried to the
sea-coast, and thence over the ancient world, by the Phoenicians,
the great shipowners and dealers of the East.

Indian needlework and design is 4000 years old; and the long
perspective of Egyptian art, while leading us still further back into
unlimited periods, shows it changing so slowly, that we feel as if it
had been all but stationary from the beginning.

The Chinese claim 5000 years as the life of their history; but if, as
is now suggested, their civilization is Accadian or Proto-Babylonian,
their wonderful artistic and scientific knowledge may have been
fragments of the great dispersal, secreted and preserved behind the
wonderful wall[7] of stone, silence, and law, where it has lain
fossilized ever since. One cannot but wonder at the perfection of the
textile manufactures of the Chinese, their marvellous embroideries,
and the peculiar modes of construction and design throughout their
arts, which have shown but few moments of change in growth--scarcely a
sign of evolution. And we may fairly surmise that this Accadian
culture (if such it be) is reflected from antediluvian tradition.

The archaeology of Oriental art is most interesting. We contemplate
with awe the vast splendou