Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character.  A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin; but still it is silver.  Some men’s characters are excellent, yet not without alloy.  Others base, yet tend to great ends.  Bad men are made the same use of as scaffolds; they are employed as means to erect a building, and then are taken down and destroyed.

If a man has a quarrelsome temper, let him alone; the world will soon find him employment.  He will soon meet with some one stronger than himself, who will repay him better than you can.  A man may fight duels all his life if he is disposed to quarrel.

A person who objects to tell a friend of his faults, because he has faults of his own, acts as a surgeon would, who should refuse to dress another’s wound because he had a dangerous one himself.

Some evils are irremediable, they are best neither seen nor heard; by seeing and hearing things that you cannot remove, you will create implacable adversaries; who being guilty aggressors, never forgive.

W.J.

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Manners & Customs of all Nations.

Customs relating to the beard.

(For the Mirror.)

It was a custom among the Romans to consecrate the first growth of their beard to some god; thus Nero at the Gynick games, which he exhibited in the Septa, cut off the first growth of his beard, which he placed in a golden box, adorned with pearls, and then consecrated it in the Capitol to Jupiter.

The nations in the east used mostly to nourish their beards with great care and veneration, and it was a punishment among them, for licentiousness and adultery, to have the beard of the offending parties publicly cut off.  Such a sacred regard had they for the preservation of their beards, that if a man pledged it for the payment of a debt, he would not fail to pay it.  Among the Romans a bearded man was a proverbial expression for a man of virtue and simplicity.  The Romans during grief and mourning used to let their hair and beard grow, (Livy) while the Greeks on the contrary used to cut off their hair and shave their beards on such occasions.[4](Seneca.) When Alexander the Great was going to fight against the Persians, one of his officers brought him word that all was ready for battle, and demanded if he required anything further.  On which Alexander replied, “nothing but that the Macedonians cut off their beards—­for there is not a better handle to take a man by than the beard.”  This shows Alexander intended close fighting.  Shaving was not introduced among the Romans till late.  Pliny tells us that P. Ticinias was the first who brought a barber to Rome, which was in the 454th year from the building of the city.  Scipio Africanus was the first among the Romans who shaved his beard, and Adrianus the emperor (says Dion,) was the first of all the Caesars who nourished his beard.