A French writer, who published an elaborate work in twelve books upon the subject of glass manufacture, after it had been introduced into France, gives an interesting account of the rise and progress of the art in that country, the encouragement it received, and the high estimation in which it was held. After stating that it was introduced into France from Venice, he says:-- "The workmen who are employed in this noble art are all gentlemen, for they admit none but such. They have obtained many large privileges, the principal whereof is to work themselves, without derogating from their nobility. Those who obtained these privileges first were gentlemen by birth; and their privilege running, that they may exercise this art without derogating from their nobility, as a sufficient proof of it, which has been confirmed by all our kings; and in all inquiries that have been made into counterfeit nobilities, never was any one attainted who enjoyed these privileges, having always maintained their honor down to their posterity." Baron Von Lowhen states, in his "Analysis of Nobility in its Origin," that, "So useful were the glass-makers at one period in Venice, and so considerable the revenue accruing to the republic from their manufacture, that, to encourage the men engaged in it to remain in Murano, the Senate made them all Burgesses of Venice, and allowed nobles to marry their daughters; whereas, if a nobleman marries the daughter of any other tradesman, the issue is not reputed noble." From this statement a valuable lesson can be drawn, viz., that a strict parallel is constantly observable between the progress of this art and the intellectual and social elevation of its possessors. Those engaged in it now do not indeed occupy the same social position; still it is probable that in foreign lands the blood of noble ancestors still runs in their veins; and even in our own democratical land, with all the tendencies of its institutions, workers in glass claim a distinctive rank and character among the trades; and in the prices of labor, and the estimate of the comparative skill involved, are not controlled by those laws of labor and compensation which govern most other mechanical professions; and similarity of taste and habit is in a degree characteristic of the modern artisan in this department, as in the case of those who, for their accomplishment in the art, were ennobled in the more remote period of its progress. The same writer says:--