Again, there are the
arts which make the weaver's tools. And if we say that the weaver's art is
the greatest and noblest of those which have to do with woollen garments,--
this, although true, is not sufficiently distinct; because these other arts
require to be first cleared away. Let us proceed, then, by regular steps:
--There are causal or principal, and co-operative or subordinate arts. To
the causal class belong the arts of washing and mending, of carding and
spinning the threads, and the other arts of working in wool; these are
chiefly of two kinds, falling under the two great categories of composition
and division. Carding is of the latter sort. But our concern is chiefly
with that part of the art of wool-working which composes, and of which one
kind twists and the other interlaces the threads, whether the firmer
texture of the warp or the looser texture of the woof. These are adapted
to each other, and the orderly composition of them forms a woollen garment.
And the art which presides over these operations is the art of weaving.
But why did we go through this circuitous process, instead of saying at
once that weaving is the art of entwining the warp and the woof? In order
that our labour may not seem to be lost, I must explain the whole nature of
excess and defect.
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