if monuments have been found with Egyptian hieroglyphics, with Pelasgic, with Runic, characters on them; this does not prove that the ancients had not more convenient materials to write on. The quaint Dr. Arbuthnot says, that Augustus Cesar had neither glass to his windows, or a shirt to his back; but however that may have been, linen was made in very ancient times. There is mention made of flax, and fine linen, in the writings of Moses.*

* Although Varro ascribes the manufacture of the papyrus to the time of Alexander; yet, it is certain, they had paper in much more ancient times; and from their great ingenuity in the manufacture of the linum, or flax, in which they excelled all people, both ancient and modern, we may presume they had linen paper. The making of fine linen was a very important branch of manufacture among the Egyptians, who were so expert at the business, that they carried it to a most wonderful degree of perfection. It is related, that they could draw out threads which were finer than the finest web of the spider. The priests were always habited in linen, and never in woolIen; and, not only the priests but generally all persons of distinction wore linen garments. The fine linen of Egypt was renowned through all antiquity, and a most extensive trade in it was carried on; much of it being exported into foreign countries. The making of it employed a great number of hands. Fine linen is the first article of Egyptian commerce, mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. xxvii. 7, and the women were much employed in the manufacture of it, as appears from a passage in Isaiah, chap. xix. 9, in which the prophet menaces Egypt with a drought of so terrible a kind, that it should interrupt every description of labor. Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that weave net work, shall be confounded. We find that one consequence of the plague of hail, brought upon Egypt by Moses and Aaron, Exodus ix. 31, was, that

The following is the best evidence I have been able to collect, respecting the invention of paper, made from linen, in Europe; which the reader will see is not entirely free from contradiction.

Scaliger ascribes the invention to the Germans, Maffei to the Italians, others to some Greek refugees at Basil, who took the hint from the manner of making cotton paper in their own country; Coringius thinks we received it from the Arabs. Linen paper appears to have been introduced into Europe, about the fourteenth century, according to the Count Maffei, who found no traces of it before the year 1300. Some go much farther back, and take the libri lintei mentioned by Livy, and other Roman writers, to have been written on linen paper. Others, make the invention more modern than it is, as can be clearly proved, for they date its origin only about three hundred years ago: but Mabillon has shewn the contrary, from many manuscripts about four hundred years old, written on linen paper; and Balbinus has produced divers instances of such manuscripts written before the year 1340. To this we may add, that there are writings on linen paper, in the Cottonian Library at Oxford, in the times of most

the flax was smitten, because it was bolled. The embroidered work from Egypt, mentioned by Ezekiel, was made from the finest of the linen, and frequently died purple. This, in Pliny's estimation, held the second rank; the first place he gives to the Asbestos, or Asbestinum, or incombustible flax. As there was so much trade in flax and linen in Egypt, it is not unlikely paper was made from it; and this may account for the difficulty the moderns have met with in tracing the origin of linen paper.

of the kings and queens of England, as high as the year 1335. That celebrated historian and divine, Dr. Humphrey Prideaux, wrote as follows, on this subject.

"The invention of making linen paper, Mr. Ray puts very late. For he tells us in his Herbal, that it was not known in Germany till the year of our Lord 1470; that then two men, named Anthony and Michael, brought this art first to Basil, out of Gallicia, in Spain, and that from thence it was learnt and brought into use by the rest of the Germans. But there must be a mistake in this, there being both written and printed books, as well as manuscripts, of this sort of paper, which are certainly ancienter than the year 1470. There is extant a book called Catholicon, written by Jacobus de Janua, a monk, printed on paper, at Mentz, in Germany, anno 1460; and therefore the Germans must have had the use of this sort of paper long before Mr. Ray saith. And there are manuscripts that are written on this sort of paper, that are much ancienter, as may be especially evidenced in several registries within this realm [England] where the dates of the instruments or acts registered prove the time. There is in the Bishop's registry at Norwich, a register book of wills, all made of paper, wherein registrations are made which bear date so high up as the year of our Lord 1370, just an hundred years before the time that Mr. Ray saith the use of it began in Germany. And I have seen a registration of some acts of John Cranden, prior of Ely, made upon paper, which bear date in the fourteenth year of king Edward the second, that is,

Anno Domini 1320. This invention seems to have been brought out of the East. For most of the old manuscripts in Arabic, and other oriental languages, which we have from thence, are written on this sort of paper, and some of them are certainly much ancienter than any of the times here mentioned about this matter. But we often find them written on paper made of the paste of silk, as well as of linen. It is most likely the Saracens of Spain first brought it out of the east into that country; of which Gallicia being a province, it might, from thence, according to Mr. Ray, have been from thence first brought into Germany; but it must have been much earlier than the time he says."

This passage from that learned author, makes it sufficiently clear, that the invention of linen paper was earlier than the period marked by several of the authors I have mentioned. His supposition, that it "came from the east," favors the opinion that it was known in the east, and most likely in Egypt, from very ancient times.

It is not only possible, but probable, that the Egyptians made it some thousands of years since, perhaps long before they manufactured the papyrus from the fragments of their linen; and, that they made the papyrus for ordinary purposes, to which it would have been extravagant to apply the paper made from their fine linen.

Paper was, for near three hundred years, manufactured on the continent of Europe in a much better manner than in England. I have seen books, printed at Paris about two hundred and fifty years ago, on paper which appears to have been chiefly

made from silk. It resembles the Chinese paper in regard to its strength, delicacy of texture, and want of whiteness. This shews that the French, as well as the Dutch, had made great progress in the business of papermaking, near three centuries back. Till within the last century the English did very little in this line of business; but they now manufacture paper in greater perfection than the Dutch, from whom they formerly purchased the greatest part of their fine paper.

From the preceding remarks it appears, that books were originally written on stone, bricks, bones, wooden planks, bark, leaves, wax, leather, lead, linen, silk, horn, skins and paper. The forms of books were almost as different as the materials of which they were made. When bark was introduced, it was rolled up, in order to be removed with greater ease; the roll was called volumen, a volume; the name was continued afterwards to written rolls of paper and parchment, which were composed of several sheets fastened to each other, "and rolled upon a stick, or umbilicus; the whole making a kind of column, or cylinder, which was to be managed by the umbilicus as a handle, it being reputed a crime to take hold of the roll itself; the outside of the volume was called frons; the ends of the umbilicus, cornua, which were usually carved, and adorned with silver, ivory, or even gold and precious stones; the title, cuλaabos, was struck on the outside; the whole volume, when extended, might make a yard and a half in width, and fifty feet in length. The form, which obtains among us, is the square, composed of separate leaves; this form was known,