Such was the practice of the Egyptians; and it is highly important to
take the Jews next, because at the period of our first knowledge of them
as a people, they appear in bondage to the former nation; and it is now
generally believed that most of the usages established by Moses had more
or less reference to Egyptian customs, from which he was desirous of
weaning them. As might be expected from the inspired Lawgiver, whose
sublime books start with the grand assertion, that man was made “in the
express image of God,” any attempt to alter the natural features of the
“human face divine,” was denounced and emphatically interdicted. Twice
is the commandment issued—first to the whole people, “thou shalt not mar
the corners of thy Beard,” in other words, thou shalt not alter the form
thereof, which I thy God have appointed! Then to the Priests, with the
addition, that they should not make baldness upon their heads. It is of
the utmost consequence to recall the superstitious practice of the
Egyptian Priests, and to remember that Moses issued this command to the
Aaronites, fresh from Egypt, because it most convincingly shews that the
practice of shaving, even when resorted to with the view of pleasing the
Deity, by an extreme degree of external purity, in approaching His
mysterious presence, was directly and most absolutely forbidden. It is
as if God had said, “What art thou, O man! who thinkest in thy vain
imagination that I, thy Creator, knew not how to fashion thee! and
blasphemously supposest that thou canst please me, by superstitiously
sacrificing what I, in my Almighty wisdom, had endowed thee with, for
protection and ornament!” And, as if to mark the distinction more
strongly, Moses enjoined in the strictest manner every ordinary and
natural method of purifying the person.
It cannot but be instructive to note, that thus on the very threshold of
history, we have two customs so opposite brought into contrast—the one
strongly condemned, the other most awfully sanctioned. And it is the
more necessary to mark this, because there are many religious persons
who have by custom acquired the Egyptian notion, and forgotten its
emphatic condemnation. There are many who, though told that certain
diseases to which the more active of the clergy are specially liable,
might be prevented and may be cured, by simply wearing the Beard, will
still insist upon their ministers paying the penalty invariably
attaching to a violation of God’s laws, because their prejudices lead
them to fancy a smooth face rather than a manly one.
As further confirmation of our idea that the object of this law of Moses
was to prevent any of the natural features from being materially
altered—he objected not to trimming the Beard, which was a common Jewish
practice—is to be found in the first verse of the 14th chapter of
Deuteronomy, where the people are commanded not to shave their eyebrows;
which was a customary mark of grief among some bearded nations. The Jews
too, unlike the Persians and others, instead of shaving the Beard in
time of mourning—though in the violence of oriental grief they sometimes
plucked it—usually left it merely untrimmed or veiled, till the days of
mourning were passed.
You all remember the fearful vengeance David took when his ambassadors
were disgraced by shaving their Beards.
The Beard continued to be worn in all its glory by these chosen people,
and it would be impossible for us to imagine to ourselves the appearance
of any of their patriarchs, judges, priests, prophets, or mature
kings—or of the sublime founder of our religion—or of the chosen
twelve—save the youthful John, without this venerable and venerated
feature. What painter would dare such an offence to our most sacred
associations, as to represent any of these with the smirking smoothness
of razored neatness!
That in Mahomet’s time, the Jews still held to their primitive custom,
is evident from that lawgiver’s command to his followers to clip the
whiskers and Beard, in order to distinguish themselves from the Jews.
Indeed the latter, in every way most remarkable people, have clung to
the prescribed custom with all the force of religious feeling and firm
conviction. And however in modern times some of the laity, impelled by a
desire to mix unobserved amongst the populations of Western Europe, may
have sacrificed conviction to convenience, their Rabbies have remained
invariably consistent in their testimony to truth and nature; and one of
the most enduring impressions of my youth is the remembrance of the
Chief Rabbi Herschel treading the streets of London, like the last of
the prophets, in dark robes, with long pale face and flowing Beard,
And eyes, whose deep mysterious glow,
Disdainful of each fleeting show,
Dwelt in the old and sacred past,
Or Seer-like scann’d the future, vast.