that generous affection, though his heart was fufceptible of the warmeft and pureft friendship. His attachment to Patroclus was fo heroically disinterested, that he willingly facrificed his own life to revenge the death of his friend; but when Agamemnon threatened to rob him of his favourite female captive, though he felt the infult offered to his pride, he never fpoke of the woman but as a flave whom he was concerned to preserve in point of honour, and as a tellimony of his glory. Hence it is that we never hear him mention her but as his fpoil, the reward of war, or the gift which the Grecians gave him:

“And dar'st thou threat to snatch my prize away,

Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?

A prize as fmall, O tyrant! match'd with thine,

As thy own actions if compar'd with mine.

Thine in each conquest is the wealthy

Accordingly he yields up Brifeis, not in grief for a miftrefs whom he lofes, but in fullennefs for an injury that is done him. Nor let it be imagined, that this coldness proceeded from the pride of the hero, which would not permit him to acknowledge his love of a captive. With the generous affection of love captives and princeffes were equally incapable of infpiring him. He repeatedly affirmed indeed that he delighted in his fair Lyrneffian flave, but it was only as an instrument of fenfual gratification; for as to every thing else in a woman, he was fo totally indifferent, that he declared he would not, when he fhould be difpofed to marry, give himself the trouble to make a choice, but leave the whole matter to his father:

"If heav'n reftore me to my realms with life,

"The rev'rend Peleus fhall elect my wife."

and Madam Dacier think more faEven Agamemnon, of whom Pope vourably as a lover, fpeaks the very fame language when mentioning his favourite captive Chryfeis. In his furious debate with Achilles he calls her indeed

"A maid, unmatch'd in manners as in face,

"Skill'd in each art, and crown'd with ev'ry grace."

And adds,

"Not half fo dear were Clytemnestra's charms,

"When her first blooming beauties bleft my arms.

"

But this was faid merely to enhance the value of the prize, which for the public good he was about to refign; for that fhe was dear to him only as miniftri to his pleasure, is paft difpute from the language which he had previously held with her father, as well as from his requiring grateful Greece to pay a juft equivalent, and to repair his private lofs. A man who really loved would have thought nothing an equivalent for the object of his love; much less would he have infinuated to her father a possibility of his difmiffing from his embrace a woman whom he esteemed, when time should have rob.. bed her of every youthful grace.

Since, then, it is fo apparent, that in the heroic age of Greece even prin

ces

ces and kings were strangers to the generous affection of love, it needs not occafion much furprise that the fame affection has very little influence upon mankind in the lowest ranks of the most polished focieties of modern Europe. That this is actually the cafe, that among the generality of uneducated men and women there is no other bond

of attachment than the fenfual appetite, every year furnishes multiplied proofs. We daily fee youths, rejected by their mistrelles, paying their addreffes without delay to girls who, in looks, temper, and difpofition, are diametrically oppofite to thofe whom fo lately they pretended to love: we daily fee maidens, flighted by their lovers, receiving the addresses of men, who, in nothing but their fex, resemble thofe to whom a week before they wished to be married: and we know it is not very uncommon to find a girl entertaining feveral lovers together, that if one or more of them fhould prove falfe, the may ftill have a chance not to be totally deferted. Did esteem and benevolence, placed on manners and character, constitute any part of vulgar love, thefe people would act very differently; for they would find it impoffible to change their lovers and their mistreffes with the fame ease that they change their cloaths.

To this account of love, as it appears in favage nations, fome one may perhaps oppofe the paintings of the fofter paffion in the poems of Offian. That bard defcribes the female character as commanding refpect and esteem, and the Caledonian heroes as cherithing for their mistresses a flame so pure and elevated as never was furpaffed, and has feldom been equalled, in those ages which we commonly call most enlightened. This is indeed true and it is one of the many reasons which have induced Johnfon and others to pronounce the whole a modern fiction. Into that debate we do not enter. We may admit the authenticity of the poems, without acknowledging that they furnith any exception to our general theory. They furnish, indeed, in the manners which they defcribe a wonderful anomaly in the general hiftory of man. All other nations of which we read were in the hunter-state, faVOL. I. No. 1.

B

vage and cruel. The Caledonians, as exhibited by Offian, are gentle and magnanimous. The heroes of Homer fought for plunder, and felt no clemency for a vanquished foe. The heroes of Offian fought for fame; and when their enemies were fubdued, they took them to their bofoms. The first of Greeks committed a mean infult on

the dead body of the firft of Trojans. Among the Caledonians, infults offered to the dead, as well as cruelty to the living, were condemned as infamous. The heroes of Offian appear in no inftance as favages. How they came to be polished and refined before they were acquainted with agriculture and the most useful arts of life, it is not our business to enquire; but fince they unquestionably were fo, their treatment of the female fex, instead of oppofing, confirms our theory; for we never conceived rich cloaths, fuperb houses, highly-dreffed food, or even the knowledge of foreign tongues, to be neceffary to the acquifition of a generous fentiment. Luxury, indeed, appears to be as inimical to love as barbarifm: and, we believe, that in modern nations the tender and exalted affection which deferves that name is as little known among the highest orders of life as among the lowest. Perhaps the Caledonian ladies of Offian resembled in their manners the German ladies of Tacitus, who accompanied their husbands to the chace, fought by their fides in battle, and partook with them of every danger. Iffo, they could not fail to be refpected by a race of heroes among whom coutrage took place of all other virtues: and this fingle circumftance, from whatever caufe it might proceed, will fufficiently account for the estimation of the female character among the ancient Germans and Caledonians, so different from that in which it has been held in almost every other barbarous nation.

But if among favages and the vulgar love be unknown, it cannot poffibly be an inftinctive affection: and therefore it may be afked, How it gets poffeflion of the human heart; and by what means we can judge whether in any particular inftance it be real or imaginary? These questions are of im

portance,

famous for any one to have his beard cut off, than among us to be publickly whipt or branded with a hot iron. There are abundance in that country, who would prefer death to this kind of punishment. The Arabs make the prefervation of their beards a capital point of religion, because Mahomet never cut his. Hence the razor is never drawn over the Grand Signior's face. The Perfians, who clip them, and fhave above the jaw, are reputed heretics. It is likewife a mark of authority and liberty among them, as well as among the Turks. They who ferve in the feraglio, have their beards fhaven, as a fign of their fervitude. They do not fuffer it to grow till the fultan has fet them at liberty, which is bestowed as a reward upon them, and is always accompanied with fome employment.

The most celebrated ancient writers, and feveral modern ones, have fpoken honourably of the fine beards of antiquity. Homer fpeaks highly of the white beard of Neftor, and that of old king Priam. Virgil describes Mezentius's to us, which was fo thick and long as to cover all his breast; Chryfippus praises the noble beard of Timothy, a famous player on the flute. Pliny the younger tells us of the white beard of Euphrates, a Syrian philofopher; and he takes pleasure in relating the refpect mixed with fear with which it infpired the people. Plutarch speaks of the long white beard of an old Laconian, who, being asked why he let it grow fo, replied, ""Tis that, feeing continually my white beard, I may do nothing unworthy of its whitenefs." Strabo relates, that the Indian philofophers, the Gymnofophifts, were particularly attentive to make the length of their beards contribute to captivate the veneration of the people. Diodorus, after him, gives a very particular and circumftantial history of the beards of the Indians. Juvenal does not forget that of Antilochus the fon of Neftor. Fenelon, in defcribing a priest of Apollo in all his magnificence, tells us, that he had a white beard down to his girdle. But Perfius feems to outdo all thefe authors: this poet was fo convinced that a beard was the symbol of wisdom, that he thought he

could not bestow a greater encomium on the divine Socrates, than by calling him the bearded mafter, magiftrum barbatum.

While the Gauls were under their fovereignty, none but the nobles and Chriftian priefts were permitted to wear long beards. The Franks, having made themselves masters of Gaul, affumed the fame authority as the Romans: the bondfmen were expressly ordered to fhave their chins; and this law continued in force until the entire abolishment of fervitude in France. So likewise, in the time of the first race of kings, a long beard was a fign of nobility and freedom. The kings, as being the highest nobles in their kingdom, were emulous likewife to have the largest beards: Eginard, fecretary to Charlemain, fpeaking of the last kings of the first race, fays, they came to the affemblies in the Field of Mars in a carriage drawn by oxen, and fat on the throne with their hair difhevelled, and a very long beard, crine profufo, barba fubmiffa, folio refiderent, et. Speciem dominantis effingerent.

To touch any one's beard, or cut off a bit of it, was, among the first French, the moft facred pledge of protection and confidence. For a long time all letters that came from the fovereign had, for greater fanction, three hairs of his beard in the feal. There is fill in being a charter of 1121, which concludes with the following words: Quod ut ratum et ftabile perfeveret in pofterum, præfentis fcripto figilli mei robur appofui eum tribus pilis barbæ meæ.

Several great men have honoured themfelves with the furname of Bearded. The Emperor Constantine is diftinguifhed by the epithet of Pogonate, which fignifies the Bearded. In the time of the Crufades, we find there was a Geffery the Bearded: Baldwin IV. earl of Flanders, was furnamed Handfome-beard; and, in the illuftrious house of Montmorenci, there was a famous Bouchard, who took a pride in the furname of Bearded: he was always the declared enemy of the monks, without doubt because of their being fhaved.

mous for his exploits than for his long white beard. In order that it might be more confpicuous to the foldiers when he was in the field, he used to let it hang down outfide his cuirafs: this venerable fight encouraged the troops in battle, and ferved to rally them when they were defeated.

Á celebrated painter in Germany, called John Mayo, had fuch a large beard that he was nicknamed John the Bearded it was fo long that he wore it fastened to his girdle; and, though he was a very tall man, it would hang upon the ground when he ftood upright. He took the greatest care of this extraordinary beard; fometimes he would untie it before the Emperor Charles V. who took great pleasure to see the wind make it fly against the faces of the lords of his court.

In England, the famous chancellor Thomas More, one of the greatest men of his time, being on the point of falling a victim to court intrigues, was able, when on the fatal fcaffold, to procure respect to his beard in presence of all the people, and faved it, as one may fay, from the fatal ftroke which he could not escape himfelf. When he had laid his head on the block, he perceived that his beard was likely to be hurt by the axe of the executioner; on which he took it away, faying, "My beard has not been guilty of treafon; it would be an injuftice to punith it."

But let us turn our eyes to a more flattering object, and admire the everprecious beard of the great Henry IV. of France, which diffused over the countenance of that prince a majestic fweetness and amiable openness, a beard ever dear to pofterity, and which fhould ferve as a model for that of every great king; as the beard of his illuftrious minifter fhould for that of every minifter. But what dependence is there to be put on the stability of the things of this world? By an event, as fatal as unforeseen, the beard, which was arrived at its highest degree of glory, all of a fudden loft its favour, and was at length entirely profcribed. The unexpected death of Henry the Great, and the youth of his fucceffor, were the fole caufe of it.

Louis XIII. mounted the throne of

his glorious ancestors without a beard. Every one concluded immediately, that the courtiers, feeing their young king with a smooth chin, would look upon their own as too rough. The conjecture proved right; for they presently reduced their beards to whiskers, and a fmall tuft of hair under the nether lip.

The people at first would not follow this dangerous example. The duke of Sully never would adopt this effeminate cuftom. This man, great both as a general and a minifter, was likewise so in his retirement: he had the courage to keep his long beard, and to appear with it at the court of Louis XIII. where he was called to give his advice in an affair of importance. The young crop-bearded courtiers laughed at the fight of his grave look and old-fashioned phiz. The duke, nettled at the affront put on his fine beard, faid to the king, "Sir, when your father, of glorious memory, did me the honour to confult me on his great and important affairs, the first thing he did was to fend away all the buffoons and stagedancers of his court."

The Czar Peter, who had fo many claims to the furname of Great, feems to have been but little worthy of it on this occafion. He had the boldness to lay a tax on the beards of his fubjects. He ordered that the noblemen and gentlemen, tradefmen and artifans (the priests and peasants excepted), fhould pay 100 rubles to be able to retain their beards; that the lower clafs of people fhould pay a copeck for the fame liberty; and he established clerks at the gates of the different towns to collect thefe duties. Such a new and fingular impoft troubled the vast empire of Ruffia. Both religion and manners were thought in danger. Complaints were heard from all parts; they even went fo far as to write libels against the fovereign; but he was inflexible, and at that time powerful. Even the fatal fcenes of St. Bartholomew were renewed against these unfortunate beards, and the most unlawful violences were publickly exercifed. The razor and fciffars, were every where made ufe of. A great number, to avoid thefe cruel extremities, obeyed with reluctant fighs. Some of them carefully preferved the

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