[42]. “It is at the time the Devil is in a passion that the beard begins to bud; and if ever a man has occasion to show some sign of courage or make some sensible observation, ’tis then his beard begins to come. Pogonologia.”
If it is evident that a long beard, by the equal heat which it maintains, procures glandulous bodies a mild perspiration, and that it draws away the humours intended by Nature for its nourishment, it cannot be denied but that, the beard being cut off, and neither the perspiration nor secretion having place, the humours, which ought to have produced both, take a different course and become prejudicial to the parts through which they are obliged to circulate. This is the sentiment of a very learned writer, who has examined the beard under this interesting point of view. “It is incontestable,” says he, “that a long beard contributes greatly to health, because, whilst it draws off the superfluous humours which nourish this mark of manhood, it preserves the teeth a long time from rotting, and strengthens the gums, an advantage which those who shave are generally deprived of, who, almost all, are tormented with a dreadful pain in the teeth, and lose them all before they are any way advanced in age. The beard, in summer,” continues the same author, “defends the face from the burning rays of the sun; and in winter from rimes. In short, it preserves a man from a number of disorders, such as the quinsy and the decay of the palate, &c.”[[43]] Adrian Junius, a physician who lived in the sixteenth century, in his commentary on the hair of the head, asserts that the beard is a preservative against several disorders. Gentien Hervet, in one of his discourses on beards, relates, that after the council of Trent, several ecclesiastics, being obliged to shave, were some time after seized with a violent tooth ach. I may add to these authorities what I have been told by very credible persons. A German gentleman, having been a long time tormented with a violent pain in his teeth, was advised to let his beard grow out, and he was entirely indebted to this remedy for his cure.
[43]. Pierius Valerianus, Pro Sacerdotum barbis.
The ancients seem to have been more sensible than we of the particular virtue of this ornament of manhood. It was not without reason that they represented Esculapius, the God of Physic, ornamented with a bushy, golden beard, whilst his father, Apollo, had a shaved chin.
This symbolical beard proclaimed to the Greeks, not only that they should wear their beards, but moreover, by the richness of its metal, how necessary the beard was to their health. It was not with impunity, say several writers, that Dionysius the tyrant took away this golden fleece from the God of Physic: among others, they regard, as a chastisement for this sacrilege, his being obliged, through his mistrust, to have his children burn his beard with hot nut-shells, rather than trust himself in the hands of the barbers of Syracuse.
The denomination which the Latins give the beard proves that they were thoroughly persuaded of its preserving them from defluxions and other disorders to which the nudity of our chins is exposed: they called it vestis (clothing), and investis (without clothing), any one not of the age of puberty.
As to us, slaves to the odd customs which we have ourselves invented, we are still very far from thinking that it is proper to look like a man. A manly, vigorous look is not fashionable, and even health is no longer in vogue. I see very clearly that the beard, should it be again admitted in its turn, may very well cause the destruction of some disagreeable customs, among others, that of taking snuff; but, in order to give an idea of this loss, I will here place the sentiment of a contemporary on this sternutative powder. “Snuff,” says he, “gives a kind of slovenly appearance to those who make use of it, and which they are incapable of avoiding: their breath has a disagreeable smell, their noses are almost always foul, their clothes very often dirty, their faces disgusting, their tongues dry, especially after sleep, &c. But all this is nothing to the disagreeable disorders which the use of this powder produces; and after the enumeration which I’m going to make of them, people will be astonished still more that such a bad custom is not laid aside.” He then continues: “Snuff is hurtful to dry, bilious, and hot constitutions; it intoxicates and discomposes the functions of the brain, brings on vomiting, weakens the stomach, irritates the nerves, impairs the faculties of the understanding, destroys the memory, takes off all sense of smelling, heats, disturbs the sleep, causes vapours and swimmings in the head, and at length brings on an apoplexy or a lethargy.”[[44]]
[44]. Discours preliminaire des Tables néologique & météorologiques, by M. Bazoux. Mr. Buc’hoz has just published a work on the use of snuff, which corroborates this opinion.
If this account is just, and we may be permitted to add to it the disgusting marks which this powder imprints on the beauty of the fair, it must be confessed that great obligation would be due to whatever should cause it to be disused.
In ripe age, the beard is the sign of physical powers: in old age, the symbol of veneration. What sight is there more reverend than an old man with a venerable, long, white beard, receiving the caresses of his grand-children, the sole consolation of his burthensome years! Surrounded by his family, he is the image of wisdom and divinity. Is there any thing more noble than Nestor appeasing the rage of Achilles, lamenting the misfortunes of that division, giving advice to all the kings of the camp of the Greeks, and seeing himself the object of general veneration? Where is there to be found a more striking example of majestic sweetness than that of the sage Mentor? Is there a more moving picture than that of old Priam at Achilles’s feet, kissing the terrible hands of the murderer of his son; and to see this venerable old man beg with tears the sad remains of the unfortunate Hector? All these different sketches may give some idea of the majesty and nobleness which a long beard and hoary locks stamp on the person of an old man. But let any one fancy Mentor and Nestor shaved, and old king Priam without his beard and white hair, having each of them a wig with three tails; this allusion, at first so flattering, will disappear; ridicule will succeed to respect, and he will no longer see in these heroes, but the figure of our neighbour the churchwarden, the overseer of the poor, and the auctioneer.