"
Thus we ought to--should we not?--regard our beards as
the offshoots of what divines term "original sin"; and
cherish them as mementoes of the Fall of Man. Think of
this, ye effeminate ones who use the razor!
[58] The notion of man being at first androgynous, or
man-woman, was prevalent in most of the countries of
antiquity. Mr. Baring-Gould says that "the idea, that
man without woman and woman without man are imperfect
beings, was the cause of the great repugnance with which
the Jews and other nations of the East regarded
celibacy." (_Legends of the Old Testament_, vol. i, p.
22.) But this, I think, is not very probable. The
aversion of Asiatics from celibacy is rather to be
ascribed to their surroundings in primitive times, when
neighbouring clans were almost constantly at war with
each other, and those chiefs and notables who had the
greatest number of sturdy and valiant sons and grandsons
would naturally be best able to hold their own against
an enemy. The system of concubinage, which seems to have
existed in the East from very remote times, is not
matrimony, and undoubtedly had its origin in the
passionate desire which, even at the present day, every
Asiatic has for male offspring.
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