THE SATURDAY MAGAZINE. [Illustration: Seal, with a picture of a human figure holding a cross, and the text: COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE & EDUCATION] No 65. JULY 6TH, 1833. {PRICE {ONE PENNY. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SILK. [Illustration: FEEDING THE SILK WORMS.] [Illustration: CLEARING THE COCOONS.] The culture and manufacture of Silk, appears originally to have been confined to the Empire of China, and even at the present time, no country produces this useful material in such large quantities, or of so fine a description. When silk was first brought into Europe, so little was known of its origin, that the most absurd tales were told respecting it; by some it was said to be a kind of fleece, which adhered to the branches of trees; by others, the bark of the tree itself, and by another party, the production of a flower. The scarcity and consequent value of silk, when it was first introduced at Rome, may be estimated by the fact, that more than two hundred years after that time, the Emperor Aurelian refused his Empress a garment of this material, on account of its immense price, twelve ounces of gold being the charge for one pound of Silk. It was not till the year 552, that the eggs of the insect, by which the silk is produced, were brought into Europe. Two monks employed as missionaries, had succeeded in penetrating into the Chinese Empire, and having obtained a thorough knowledge of the whole process of rearing the silk-worm, and manufacturing the silk, they on their return, repaired to Constantinople, and gave an account of their enterprise to the Emperor Justinian. Induced by the offer of a great reward, they once more returned to China, and succeeded, after many efforts, in eluding the vigilance of that suspicious people, and bringing to Constantinople a number of the eggs of the silk-worm, concealed in the head of a walking-cane; these were hatched by the heat of a hot-bed, and being afterwards carefully fed and attended to, the experiment, which had cost these enterprising men so much toil, was perfectly successful, and the cultivation of the silk-worm became very general over the whole of Greece. In the year 1146, we still find the management of these useful creatures, and the manufacture of their spoils, in Europe, confined to the Greek Empire.