Such was predicted of old, and the result is notorious: the whole earth has now become full of fornication and wickedness. I admire the ancient legislators of the Romans: these detested effeminacy of conduct; and the giving of the body to feminine purposes, contrary to the law of nature, they judged worthy of the extremest penalty, according to the righteousness of the law.
For it is not lawful to pluck out the beard, [1610] man's natural and noble ornament.
"A youth with his first beard: for with this, youth is most graceful."
By and by he is anointed, delighting in the beard "on which descended" the prophetic "ointment" [1611] with which Aaron was honoured.
And it becomes him who is rightly trained, on whom peace has pitched its tent, to preserve peace also with his hair.
What, then, will not women with strong propensities to lust practice, when they look on men perpetrating such enormities? Rather we ought not to call such as these men, but lewd wretches (bataloi), and effeminate (gunides), whose voices are feeble, and whose clothes are womanish both in feel and dye. And such creatures are manifestly shown to be what they are from their external appearance, their clothes, shoes, form, walk, cut of their hair, look. "For from his look shall a man be known," says the Scripture, "from meeting a man the man is known: the dress of a man, the step of his foot, the laugh of his teeth, tell tales of him." [1612]
For these, for the most part, plucking out the rest of their hair, only dress that on the head, all but binding their locks with fillets like women. Lions glory in their shaggy hair, but are armed by their hair in the fight; and boars even are made imposing by their mane; the hunters are afraid of them when they see them bristling their hair.
"The fleecy sheep are loaded with their wool." [1613]
And their wool the loving Father has made abundant for thy use, O man, having taught thee to sheer their fleeces. Of the nations, the Celts and Scythians wear their hair long, but do not deck themselves. The bushy hair of the barbarian has something fearful in it; and its auburn (xanthon) colour threatens war, the hue being somewhat akin to blood. Both these barbarian races hate luxury. As clear witnesses will be produced by the German, the Rhine; [1614] and by the Scythian, the waggon. Sometimes the Scythian despises even the waggon: its size seems sumptuousness to the barbarian; and leaving its luxurious ease, the Scythian man leads a frugal life. For a house sufficient, and less encumbered than the waggon, he takes his horse, and mounting it, is borne where he wishes. And when faint with hunger, he asks his horse for sustenance; and he offers his veins, and supplies his master with all he possesses--his blood. To the nomad the horse is at once conveyance and sustenance; and the warlike youth of the Arabians (these are other nomads) are mounted on camels. They sit on breeding camels; and these feed and run at the same time, carrying their masters the whilst, and bear the house with them. And if drink fail the barbarians, they milk them; and after that their food is spent, they do not spare even their blood, as is reported of furious wolves. And these, gentler than the barbarians, when injured, bear no remembrance of the wrong, but sweep bravely over the desert, carrying and nourishing their masters at the same time.
Perish, then, the savage beasts whose food is blood! For it is unlawful for men, whose body is nothing but flesh elaborated of blood, to touch blood. For human blood has become a partaker of the Word: [1615] it is a participant of grace by the Spirit; and if any one injure him, he will not escape unnoticed. Man may, though naked in body, address the Lord. But I approve the simplicity of the barbarians: loving an unencumbered life, the barbarians have abandoned luxury. Such the Lord calls us to be--naked of finery, naked of vanity, wrenched from our sins, bearing only the wood of life, aiming only at salvation.
[1595] [Heathen manners are here depicted as a warning to Christians. We cannot suppose Christians, as yet, to any extent, corrupted in their manners by fashion and frivolity; for to be a Christian excluded one from temptations of this kind.]
[1596] [Query, De re Nicotiana?]
[1597] [Smelling of Nicotine?]
[1598] Dan. vii. 9. [A truly eloquent passage.]
[1599] Matt. v. 36.
[1600] Ecclus. xxv. 6.
[1601] Eph. iv. 20-24.
[1602] [On the other hand, this was Esau's symbol; and the sensual "satyrs" (Isa. xiii. 2) are "hairy goats," in the original. So also the originals of "devils" in Lev. xvii. 7, and 2 Chron. xi. 15. See the learned note of Mr. West, in his edition of Leighton, vol. v. p. 161.]
[1603] Matt. x. 30.
[1604] enkatarithmenen seems to be here used in a middle, not a passive sense, as katarithmemenos is sometimes.
[1605] 2 Cor. xiii. 5.
[1606] [Such were the manners with which the Gospel was forced everywhere to contend. That they were against nature is sufficiently clear from the remains of decency in some heathen. Herodotus (book i. cap. 8) tells us that the Lydians counted it disgraceful even for a man to be seen naked.]
[1607] Deut. xxiii. 17.
[1608] Rom. viii. 28, 29.
[1609] Lev. xix. 29.
[1610] [When the loss of the beard was a token of foppery and often of something worse, shaving would be frivolity; but here he treats of extirpation.]
[1611] Ps. cxxxiii. 2.
[1612] Ecclus. xix. 29, 30.
[1613] Hesiod, Works and Days, i. 232.
[1614] Of which they drink.
[1615] [He took upon him our nature, flesh and blood. Heb. ii. 14-16.]