Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/412

Chap.XI. O F «M A N C RENTER. yjf ■ i CHAP. XL I. • WHEN guilt had introduced the foreign principle of fhame into the human mind, and had made the foreign covering of cloaths requisite to the decencies of the human body ; .* when vengeance had charged the feafons with inclemency and had armed the elements with unkmdhefs againft the votary of fin, and had macfe an artificial warmth often neceffary to the health of his frame; the lkins of beafts muft naturally have been the firft clothing of man. The flocks and the herds around him prefented their wooly or their hairy garments 'to his hand. And the Mofaical records demonftrate him to have ufed them This {pedes of cloathing continued regularly among the defend- ants of Adam for a long focceflion of ages. And our own Britons in particular retained it to the days of Caefar *• But this muft have been prepared in various manners and modelle4 into various fliapes. And even in {kins elegance muft have na- turally fucceeded to convenience. The next improvement in the drapery of man would be to feparate the fleece from the hide, to confign the latter to the^ covering of tents or the lining of couches,, and to combine the former by itfelf into vefts. And this confiderable improvement appears to have been a&ually made within few ages after the difperfion Made originally in the eaft, it muft have afterwards taken its courfe into the weft. But the mere refinements of drefs will always fpread very {lowly through nations military and roving. This in particular appears not to fyave'madiq its entrance tCC ltKO