This conviction has been forced upon us by a train of reasoning which will so readily suggest itself to the mind of all our readers, that we content ourselves with naming the result, assured that it is unnecessary to trouble them with the intervening steps. One only link in the chain of "circumstantial evidence" will we adduce, and that is afforded by the ancient engraving to which we have before alluded in our remarks upon Eve's needle and thread. There whilst our "general mother" is stitching away at the fig-leaves in the most edifying manner possible, our "first father," far from trying to "put in a stitch for himself," is gazing upon her in the most utter amazement. And while she plies her busy task as if she had been born to stitchery, his eyes, _not_ his fingers, "Follow the nimble fingers of the fair," with every indication of superlative wonder and admiration. In fact, it is no slight argument in favour of the original invention of sewing by women, that men very rarely have wit enough to learn it, even when invented. There has been no lack of endeavour, even amongst the world's greatest and mightiest, but poor "work" have they made of it. Hercules lost all the credit of his mighty labours from his insignificance at the spinning wheel, and the sceptre of Sardanapalus passed from his grasp as he was endeavouring to "finger the fine needle and nyse thread." These love-stricken heroes might have said with Gower--had he then said it-- "What things she bid me do, I do, And where she bid me go, I go. And where she likes to call, I come, I serve, I bow, I look, I lowte, My eye followeth her about. What so she will, so will I, When she would set, I kneel by. And when she stands, then will I stand, _And when she taketh her work in hand_, Of _wevyng or of embroidrie_. Then can I _only_ muse and prie, Upon her fingers long and small." Our modern Hercules, the Leviathan of literature, was not more successful. _Dr. Johnson._--"Women have a great advantage that they may take up with little things, without disgracing themselves; a man cannot, except with fiddling. Had I learnt to fiddle I should have done nothing else." _Boswell._--"Pray, Sir, did you ever play on any musical instrument?" _Dr. Johnson._--"No, Sir; I once bought a flageolet, but I never made out a tune." _Boswell._--"A flageolet, Sir! So small an instrument? I should have liked to hear you play on the violoncello. _That_ should have been your instrument." _Dr. Johnson._--"Sir, I might as well have played on the violoncello as another; but I should have done nothing else. No, Sir; a man would never undertake great things could he be amused with small. I once tried knotting; Dempster's sister undertook to teach me, but _I could not learn it_." _Boswell._--"So, Sir; it will be related in pompous narrative, 'once for his amusement he tried knotting, nor did this Hercules disdain the distaff.'"