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occasionally favored with visions of better times, past and
to come.*
To the reign of false curls, succeeded that still more
egregious outrage—that climax of coxcombry—powder,
pomatum, and pigtails! The former to give the snows of
age to the ruddy face of youth ; the latter being, I suppose,
an attempt of some bright genius to outdo nature,
* That Soutliey had the same compunctious visitings as Addi-
son, appears clearly enough, for while in his Doctor he compares
"shaving at home" with "slavery abroad;" states that " a good
razor is more difficult to meet with, than a good wife;" denotmces
the practice " as preposterous and irrational," as " troublesome, in-
convenient," and attended with "discomfort, especially in frosty
weather and March winds;" places it on an equality with the curse
pronounced on Eve; and concludes with the opinion that "if the
daily shavings of one year cotdd be put into one shave, the opera-
tion would be more than flesh and blood could bear;" he has
nothing to say in favotu of shaving, but that it encourages
Barbers, compels the shaver to some moments of calm thought
and reflection, and enables bim to draw lessons from the looking
glass that nobody with razor in hand ever thought of. These words
in another place give a key to his real opinion. " If I wore a
Beard," he writes, " I would cherish it as the Cid Campeador did
his, for my pleasure. I would regale it on a Summer's day with
rose-water, and without making it an idol, I should sometimes offer
incense to it with a pastile, or with lavender and sugar. My chil-
dren, when they were young enough for such blandishments, would
have delighted to comb and stroke and curl it, and my grandchil-
dren in then time would have succeeded to the same course of
mutual endearment."
See also Leigh Hunt's humourous paper on Lie-abeds in the
Indicator, where he calls " shaving a villainous and unnecessary
custom."
