Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/510

504 LINDSEY LINEN Meldrum," " The Monarchic," and " Satyre on the Thrie Estaitis," a play directly attacking the clergy, constructed on the principle of the mysteries or miracle plays of an earlier age. Many of his productions are indecent and se- verely satirical. His works, with a life, intro- duction, and glossary by George Chalmers, were published in London in 1806, in 3 vols. LINDSEY, Theophilns, an English theologian, born at Middlewich, Cheshire, June 20, 1723, died in London, Nov. 3, 1808. He was edu- cated at St. John's college, Cambridge, re- ceived orders, and held various preferments. In 1769 he formed an intimacy with Dr. Priest- ley, then Unitarian minister at Leeds, the re- sult of which, combined with doubts which he had long previously entertained, was that Lind- sey surrendered his living in 1773, and made public profession of Unitarianism. He then went to London, and in April, 1774, began to officiate as a Unitarian minister in a room in Essex street. After four years his congrega- tion erected a chapel for him, where he con- tinued till age and failing health compelled him to resign in 1793. Among his writings are an apology for his abandonment of Anglicanism, and several controversial and historical works on Unitarianism. A memoir of his life, with extracts from his works, by the Rev. Thomas Belsham, was published in London in 1812. LINEN (Gr. Aivov, Lat. linum, flax, linen), a fabric made of flaxen threads. The manufac- ture is very ancient, and no record is preserved of its early history. It was old in the time of Herodotus ; and in his day linen was exported from Egypt to the ports of the Mediterranean. The ancient Egyptians, celebrated for their textile products, not only consumed the fabric largely for their own uses, but supplied it to foreign markets. Its use was particularly con- nected with their religious and funeral services. The priests were forbidden to enter the tem- ples robed in other than linen garments, and the dead were always shrouded in this mate- rial. It has indeed been questioned whether the bandages of the mummies are not of cot- ton; but microscopical examinations show that the threads have the jointed cylindrical form of the flaxen fibre, and not the flat and spirally twisted shape of the fibre of cotton. The inner wrappings of the mummies are of coarse tex- ture, but the outer are much finer. Some of the work of the rude looms of the ancient Egyptians was extremely delicate; and it is probable that the " fine linen" mentioned in Scripture would compare favorably with that produced by the most perfect machines of the present time. In the British museum are speci- mens of mummy cloths thin and transparent like the muslins of India. Some of these even contain 270 threads to an inch in the warp, and 110 in the woof, while the finest work of the Decca looms has only 100 threads to an inch in the warp and 84 in the woof. In all the Egyptian linens the number of threads in the warp is much greater than of those in the woof, owing to the difficulty of working in the latter when the shuttle was thrown by hand. The coarser fibres of the flax appear to have been employed by the Egyp- tians for nets, ropes, and sail cloths. The Greeks obtained linen from Egypt, and adopted for it the name of b66vij applied in that country to fine linen, as also the more general term aivS&v but as the cotton of India came to be also intro- duced into Greece, the names appear to have been applied to this product also ; and finally the term fivaaoc;, byssus, supposed to be of sim- ilar origin and to designate the plant which pro- duced the linen, came to be used with the same ambiguity. But this last word, of frequent oc- currence in the Greek classics, is most common- ly applicable, it is supposed, to fabrics of linen rather than to those of cotton. So Josephus used it in speaking of the garments worn by the Jewish priests ; and several of the early fathers speak of byssus as an Egyptian plant, while cot- ton is known to have been chiefly of Indian growth. In both the Old and New Testaments the use of linen garments, by the priests partic- ularly, is often alluded to ; and the fibre, we are told, was applied to the manufacture of cords, lamp wicks, and measuring lines. From this last use of the material, linum, comes the word linea, line, as explained by Isidorus of Seville : Linea genere suo appellata, quia ex lino fit. Linen was in high repute among the more wealthy Romans, and it is recorded in the life of Alexander Severus, by ^Elius Lampridius, that this emperor preferred that which was plain to such as was interwoven with flowers, feath- ers, and gold ; and the emperor Carinus is said to have extolled in high terms the linen cloths brought from Egypt, and those from Tyre and Sidon, transparent from their thinness, glowing with purple, and most precious for the perfec- tion of their embroidered work. Pliny refers to the production of flax in Spain and other parts of Europe, and says that in all parts of Gaul it was woven into sail cloth, and that in some of the countries beyond the Rhine the most beautiful apparel of the women was linen. For the culture of the plant, and its prepara- tion for spinning, see FLAX. It was not until the machine processes of spinning and weav- ing cotton had been for some time in success- ful operation, that similar improvements were applied to the manufacture of linen. The spinning wheel and hand loom were employed throughout the linen districts of Europe even into the present century, affording to the fe- males of every family a most useful and ge- nial occupation. In the quality of the fabrics the highest excellence was attained by the French and Flemings, and among commercial products the linen of Flanders and the noi of Europe long maintained a high rank. Ire- land, too, was celebrated for the general diffu- sion of the manufacture, especially among the families of the province of Ulster, and the heavy linens of that country, in the form of table cloths and sheeting, have long held