The following passage is also deserving of attention: “Le papillon de ces vers sauvages, dit le Père d’Incarville, est à ailes vitrées.” This information, if correct, would prove that there was at least one kind of wild silk-worms in China, which was a different species from the Phalæna Mori; for that has no transparent membranes in its wings, and would not be likely to receive them in consequence of any change in its mode of life. We now proceed to take the Christian authors of the fourth and following centuries in the order of time. ARNOBIUS (A. D. 306.) thus speaks of the heathen gods: They want the covering of a garment: the Tritonian virgin must spin a thread of extraordinary fineness, and according to circumstances put on a tunic either of mail, or silk[62]. [62] Adv. Gentes, l. iii. p. 580, ed. Erasmi. GREGORIUS NAZIENZENUS, CL., A. D. 370. The following passage contains, we believe, the earliest allusion to the use of silk in the services of the Christian Church. Ἄλλοι μὲν χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον, οἱ δὲ τὰ Σηρῶν Δῶρα φέρουσι θεῷ νήματα λεπταλέα. Καὶ Χριστῷ θυσίην τὶς ἁγνὴν ἀνέθηκεν ἑαυτον· Καὶ σπένδει δακρύων ἄλλος ἁγνὰς λιβάδας. _Ad Hellenium pro Monachis Carmen._ _tom._ ii. _p._ 106. _ed. Par._ 1630. Silver and gold some bring to God Or the fine threads by Seres spun: Others to Christ themselves devote, A chaste and holy sacrifice, And make libations of their tears. Yates’s Translation. BASIL, CL., A. D. 370. Although this celebrated author was a native of Asia Minor, and had studied in Syria and Palestine, he appears to have known the silk-worm only from books and by report. His description of it in the following passage, in which we first find the beautiful illustration of the doctrine of a _resurrection_ from the change of the chrysalis, is chiefly copied from Aristotle’s account as formerly quoted. Τί φάτε οἱ ἀπιστοῦντες τῷ Παύλῳ περὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἀλλοιώσεως, ὁρῶντες πολλὰ τῶν ἀερίων τὰς μορφὰς μεταβάλλοντα; ὁποῖα καὶ περὶ τοῦ Ἰνδικοῦ σκώληκος ἱστορεῖται τοῦ κερασφόρου· ὃς εἰς κάμπην τὰ πρῶτα μεταβαλὼν, εἶτα προϊὼν βομβυλιὸς γίνεται, καὶ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ ταύτης ἵσταται τῆς μορφῆς, ἀλλὰ χαύνοις καὶ πλατέσι πετάλοις ὑποπτεροῦται. Ὅταν οὖν καθέζησθε τὴν τούτων ἐργασίαν ἀναπηνιζόμεναι αἱ γυναῖκες, τὰ νήματα λέγω, ἃ πέμπουσιν ὑμῖν οἱ Σῆρες πρὸς τὴν τῶν μαλακῶν ἐνδυμάτων κατασκευὴν, μεμνημέναι τῆς κατὰ τὸ ζῶον τοῦτο μεταβολῆς, ἐναργῆ λαμβάνετε τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔννοιαν, καὶ μὴ ἀπιστεῖτε τῇ ἀλλαγῇ, ἣν Παῦλος ἅπασι κατεπαγγέλλεται.--_Hexahemeron_, _p._ 79. _A. Ed. Benedict._