{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with\r\na razor, for the sake of fine effect, to arrange his hair at the\r\nlooking-glass, to shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_286\">[286]</span> of them, and\r\nsmooth them, how womanly! And, in truth, unless you saw them naked,\r\nyou would suppose them to be women. For although not allowed to wear\r\ngold, yet out of effeminate desire they enwreath their latches and\r\nfringes with leaves of gold; or, getting certain spherical figures of\r\nthe same metal made, they fasten them to their ankles, and hang them\r\nfrom their necks. This is a device of enervated men, who are dragged to\r\nthe women’s apartments, amphibious and lecherous beasts. For this is\r\na meretricious and impious form of snare. For God wished women to be\r\nsmooth, and rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a\r\nhorse in his mane; but has adorned man, like the lions, with a beard,\r\nand endowed him, as an attribute of manhood, with shaggy breasts,—a\r\nsign this of strength and rule. So also cocks, which fight in defence\r\nof the hens, he has decked with combs, as it were helmets; and so high\r\na value does God set on these locks, that He orders them to make their\r\nappearance on men simultaneously with discretion, and, delighted with\r\na venerable look, has honoured gravity of countenance with grey hairs.\r\nBut wisdom, and discriminating judgments that are hoary with wisdom,\r\nattain maturity with time, and by the vigour of long experience give\r\nstrength to old age, producing grey hairs, the admirable flower of\r\nvenerable wisdom, conciliating confidence. This, then, the mark of the\r\nman, the beard, by which he is seen to be a man, is older than Eve, and\r\nis the token of the superior nature. In this God deemed it right that\r\nhe should excel, and dispersed hair over man’s whole body. Whatever\r\nsmoothness and softness was in him He abstracted from his side when He\r\nformed the woman Eve, adapted to the reception of seed, his help in\r\ngeneration and household management, while he (for he had parted with\r\nall smoothness) remained a man, and shows himself man. And to him has\r\nbeen assigned action, as to her suffering; for what is shaggy is drier\r\nand warmer than what is smooth. Wherefore males have both more hair and\r\nmore heat than females, animals that are entire than the emasculated,\r\nperfect than imperfect. It is therefore impious to desecrate the\r\nsymbol of manhood, hairiness. But the embellishment of<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_287\">[287]</span> smoothing (for\r\nI am warned by the Word), if it is to attract men, is the act of an\r\neffeminate person,—if to attract women, is the act of an adulterer;\r\nand both must be driven as far as possible from our society. “But the\r\nvery hairs of your head are all numbered,” says the Lord;<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_646\" id=\"FNanchor_646\">[646]</a> those\r\non the chin, too, are numbered, and those on the whole body. There\r\nmust be therefore no plucking out, contrary to God’s appointment,\r\nwhich has counted<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_647\" id=\"FNanchor_647\">[647]</a> them in according to His will. “Know ye not\r\nyourselves,” says the apostle, “that Christ Jesus is in you?”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_648\" id=\"FNanchor_648\">[648]</a>\r\nWhom, had we known as dwelling in us, I know not how we could have\r\ndared to dishonour. But the using of pitch to pluck out hair (I shrink\r\nfrom even mentioning the shamelessness connected with this process),\r\nand in the act of bending back and bending down, the uncovering openly\r\nof nature’s unmentionable parts, stepping out and bending backwards in\r\nshameful postures, yet not ashamed of themselves, conducting themselves\r\nwithout shame in the midst of the youth, and in the gymnasium, where\r\nthe prowess of man is tested: the following of this unnatural practice,\r\nis it not the extreme of licentiousness? For those who engage in such\r\npractices in public will scarcely behave with modesty to any at home.\r\nTheir want of shame in public attests their unbridled licentiousness in\r\nprivate. For he who in the light of day denies his manhood, will prove\r\nhimself manifestly a woman by night. “There shall not be,” said the\r\nWord by Moses, “a harlot of the daughters of Israel; there shall not be\r\na fornicator of the sons of Israel.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_649\" id=\"FNanchor_649\">[649]</a></p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK III.","CHAPTER III. AGAINST MEN WHO EMBELLISH THEMSELVES."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_647","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-510"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"1151c16640ab1098ac61fff9bd1c6bf3cc953ae2c6c7d0d2453125d2e94add82","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_647","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_647","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_647\" id=\"Footnote_647\">[647]</a> ἐγκαταριθμημένην seems to be here used in a middle, not\r\na passive sense, as καταριθμημένος is sometimes.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_647","text_sha256":"754508a8853256513012aa4ea668f4584e99185178e4b11477bc65fc6e711699","verified":false,"work_id":null}