Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), December 13, 1845, vol. 2, no. 23, p. ???, col. ?

[page 355, column 1, continued:]

The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and other Fibrous Substances; including Observations on Spinning Dyeing Dyeing and Weaving. Also, an Account of the Pastoral life of the Ancients, their Social State and Attainments in the Domestic Arts. With Appendices on Pliny's Natural History; on the Origin and Manufacture of Linen and Cotton Paper; on Felting, Netting, etc. Deduced from Copious and Authentic Sources. Illustrated by Steel Engravings. New-York: Harper & Brothers.

This is a large and valuable octavo of 464 pages. We have given the title in full as the most succinct mode of conveying the nature and purpose of the work — one which no scholar can afford to do without, and which needs no recommendation from us to those engaged in manufacturing pursuits.

This able work supplies, in fact, a desideratum whose need has been long felt. No methodical treatise on Fibrous Substances has hitherto existed — and even the topic itself has very remarkably eluded the investigation of the learned. The Textrinum Antiyuorum of Yates is almost the sole work devoted to the ancient history of the theme, and the nature of that treatise places it altogether out of popular reach.

We quote a paragraph from the Preface:

That a topic of such interest deserved elucidation will not be denied when it is remembered that, apart from the question of the direct influence these important arts have ever exerted upon the civilization and social condition of communities, in various ages of the world, there are other and scarcely inferior considerations to the student, involved in their bearing upon the true understanding of history, sacred and profane. To supply, therefore, an important desideratum in classical archæology, by thus seeking the better to illustrate the true social state of the ancients, thereby affording a commentary on their commerce and progress in domestic arts, is one of the leading objects contemplated by the present work. In addition to this, our better acquaintance with the actual condition of these arts in early times, will tend, in many instances, to confirm the historic accuracy and elucidate the idiom of many portions of Holy Writ.

Among the engravings which illustrate the work, is one of the Chinese Loom, a reduced fac-simile copied from a picture recently [column 2:] obtained from the Celestial Empire and now in the possession of the N. Y. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. There is, also, a representation of an Egyptian Weaving Factory — a reduced fac-simile from Champollion.