296 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

which were supplied from China, the original country of
the silkworm moth: for it is a well-known fact, that “ As.
syria, understood of Babylonia in the large sense, was the
source from which the Romans continued to derive their
silk even in the time of Pliny; and this is always men-
tioned previously, as the country from which silk was
brought, although the nations of Eastern Europe were
not ultimately unaware that it came from a remote country
which they called Serica, by which China appears to have
been vaguely understood. From this it will appear, that
the question as to the existence of silk in Babylon is merely
one of date, and although it may not be possible to find
any positive statement to indicate its presence there at the
time when Ezekiel wrote, there is every probability in favour
of this conclusion, as, when we first find it in these interme-
diate countries, there is not the least intimation that it had
there only newly become known; and we can come neat
enough to show, that if it had not been newly introduced,
it must have been known there in the time of Ezekiel. It
is a remarkable fact, that the first persons who brought
wrought silk into Europe were the Greeks of Alexander's
army, which conquered the Persian empire, in which Baby-
lon was then included. In other words, about two hundred