till he was a father himself.* A similar story is told of Socrates,† and in modern times of one of the kings of France. * Elian, lib. xII, c. 15. + Valerius Maximus, lib. vIII, c. 8. SOCRATES. SCULPTURE has preserved to us that repulsive cast of features from which the physiognomist Zopyrus pronounced that Socrates was a man addicted to many vices, a judgment which drew from the Athenian philosopher that admirable observation, that he was indeed inclined to these vices, but had corrected his evil propensities by reason. What makes this anecdote the more interesting is, that we know that Socrates was one of those who held that the outward comeliness of the person was an evidence of the inward beauty of the soul. Socrates in the first place was bald, and the ancients held baldness of itself to constitute ugliness. Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, who, according to Elian, had "a most ridiculous and base head," out of which the hair fell by little and little, was so ashamed of his baldness, that he wore a myrtle crown to conceal it.* We know also that of all the honours conferred upon him, there was none that Cæsar accepted more gratefully than the right of wearing the laurel-crown which concealed his baldness. With the ancients, baldness had a moral repulsiveness about it, as it was associated in their ideas with licentiousness of life; and the Roman soldiers, who gibed at Cæsar in the midst of his Gallic triumph, took care not to lose sight of this connexion. Amongst the other effects of his increasing years, Tacitus represents Tiberius as ashamed of his baldness.‡ He occasionally wore a crown of laurel on his head, but this was to protect him from the * Elian, x1, c. 4. + Suetonius, "Julius," c. 45. Annales Iv, c. 57. lightning.* Domitian also, who had higher pretensions to personal beauty, could not suffer any allusion to be made to his baldness; but he might be the more concerned about the loss of his locks, as he had written a treatise on the care of the hair.t The history of Elisha, mocked by the children, teaches us that the prejudice is of extreme antiquity. In addition to his baldness, Socrates had a dark complexion, a flat nose, protuberant eyes, and an ungracious expression. His health and his strength, however, were good. He served as a soldier in his country's wars; and in marching and enduring the fatigues of military discipline, was without a rival. He could also suffer well both hunger and thirst; and when the time for fasting was past, and the time for feasting arrived, he was noted for being able to hold a larger quantity of drink than any of his comrades without being the worse of it. As the wisest of the ancients believed occasional * Suetonius, "Tiberius," c. 69. + Suetonius, "Domitian," c. 18. Plutarch, "Symposium." debauches to be commendable, the capacity for enduring them was regarded as a valuable accomplishment. So also in Christian times, thought Montaigne. In his remarks on education, addressed to Madame Diane de Foix, Countess of Gurson, and intended for the benefit of the child with which the Countess was then pregnant, and which Montaigne assured her would be a boy, as "you are too generous not to commence with a male;"* he recommends that his pupil should be taught to stand drink well. "I wish," he says, "that even in debauchery he should surpass his companions in vigour and firmness; and that he do not forego the doing evil either from want of power or of science, but from want of will." This ability for hard drinking, Montaigne thought absolutely necessary for great statesmen. Pitt, with his vast capacity for port, would have been a minister of state quite to his mind. Socrates learned to play on the pipe in his old age; he also got himself taught singing, * Montaigne," Essais," lib. 1, c. 19. Paris, 1657. |