In respect to the invention of clepsydræ, we should think the original inventor took his first idea from the use of an instrument common in Egypt, which that people called a _Canob_, or Nilometer, being a large stone vessel of the shape of a sarcophagus, into which water was daily poured, by proper officers, during the increase of the Nile, to show the people whether they had a prospect of plenty, or were to expect a scarcity in the ensuing year. As the fall of the water, after it had risen to a due height, was of equal importance to them; so the water was suffered to run out proportionably to its decrease in the river, being ascertained by just and equal marks which they generally well understood. _Vitrum horae_ had also been invented to describe the progress of time. These were conical hour-glasses, in which were placed a portion of sand; the glasses were joined together at the apex of the cone, with a small aperture of communication between the two.--From the glass, in which the sand is deposited, it dropped, grain by grain, into the sand below, standing upon its flat basis. These machines are called hour-glasses, and well known. We have been unable to discover any account of the origin of this instrument; but, from its simplicity, it admits of no improvement. It is also believed this had its origin in a convent. SPINNING. The necessity for human clothing must be so obvious, we should think, at nearly the first existence of our race, that two opinions upon that subject cannot exist. For, admitting the region where our first parents were stationed was more genial to life than these, our northern countries, yet the difference in temperature between the heat of noon-day, and the chilly damps of night, must be obvious to every one who has resided in, or has read of, tropical climates. Therefore, from necessity, we contend, our first parents could not have dispensed with the benefit of clothing. However, independent of the necessity of the thing, the Jewish History informs us that the first man, Adam, and his wife, in consequence of their unfortunate disobedience and positive violation of the commands of their Divine Creator, knew of their own nakedness; and, therefore, they were ashamed to answer to the sacred summons. This they confessed, with a simplicity congenial to truth, and in the same moment, frankly owned the cause; answering to the awful interrogatory of “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”--“The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” However, we are previously informed that, “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”