1 827.] Historical and Literary. 603 



very passage which the friends of the Abbe de la Bleterie adjured him, 

 in the name of the French nation, not to translate, on account of its 

 extreme offensiveness to their fastidious notions of delicacy and decorum. 

 To render it intelligible, I ought to premise that, throughout the work, 

 Julian's method of attacking the people of Antioch is by accusing himself 

 of folly and incapacity in not adopting their customs, which he " defends 

 after a sort," as praiseworthy and excellent. The extract is as follows: 

 "There is no law which prohibits a man from either praising or blaming 

 himself. Now, though I am very anxious to praise myself, I find it 

 impossible; but, when I strive to blame myself, 1 iind a thousand ways in 

 which I can do it. I will begin first with my face. As it is not, I think, 

 either very handsome, or very comely, or very youthful, I have added to 

 it, out of pure churlishness of temper, a long thick beard, taking that ven- 

 geance upon it for no other cause than its want of beauty. For the same 

 reason I let the lice disport themselves in it, just like animals in a forest, 

 and I disable myself from either eating largely, or drinking greedily for 

 I must needs be always on my guard, lest 1 unintentionally eat my beard 

 along with my bread. I care not a straw about it on the score of kissing 

 or getting kissed and yet the beard appears to have this as well as other 

 inconveniency, that it does not permit its possessor to fasten a smooth lip 

 on the soft, and therefore sweeter, lip of woman, to borrow an expression 

 from a poetical eulogist of Daphne. You say. however, that ropes 

 ought to be made of it. I am willing to let you try to make them, pro- 

 vided you can extract its hairs, arid are not afraid that their rough edge 

 should break the skin of your soft and delicate ringers. Do not however 

 fancy that 1 am vexed at your scoffs for I give rise to them myself, by 

 keeping my chin bearded like a goat, when I might have it, I suppose, as 

 smooth as that of a lad, or of a woman, on whom nature has bestowed her 

 most bewitching attraction. But you, even in your old age, imitate your 

 own young sons and daughters, and owing to the refinement of your lives, 

 and to the simplicity of your manners, carefully polish your chins, display- 

 ing your manhood by your features, and not, as 1 do, by my beard. But 

 not content with the magnitude of my beard, I take no pains in cleaning 

 my head I seldom cut my hair 1 let my nails grow long and I have 

 my fingers generally dirtied and blackened by ink." 



So frank a confession takes away our surprise at the peremptory dis- 

 missal, which he gave to the thousand barbers of the palace at Constanti- 

 nople, immediately after he became master of it. Marcellinus's account 

 of the immediate circumstance, which brought about that sweeping 

 retrenchment in the imperial household, is amusing. It happened that, on 

 one occasion, when Julian had sent for a barber to cut his hair, an officer 

 entered his apartment, ambitiously and sumptuously drest. On seeing 

 him, Julian was astonished, or as Gibbon says, in direct contradiction to 

 the writer from whom he got the story, affected to be astonished. " It 

 was not," said he, " a receiver-general of the finances that I wanted, but 

 a barber." He questioned the man, however, concerning the profits of 

 his employment, and was informed, that, besides a large salary, and some 

 valuable perquisites which he had derived from presenting petitions to 

 the emperor, he enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty servants and as 

 many horses. Think of that, ye barbers of the present day, and mourn 

 in obscurity over the diminished gains and glories of your ancient profes- 

 sion. Julian, concludes Marcellinus, was so indignant at this waste of 

 the public treasure, that he turned this fellow and all his crew out of the 



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