Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/119

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 101 speech. In our present state of existence, the body is CHAP. so inseparably connected with the soul, that it seems to 1 J be our interest to taste, with innocence and moder- ation, the enjoyments of which that faithful companion is susceptible. Very different was the reasoning of our devout predecessors : vainly aspiring to imitate the perfection of angels, they disdained, or they affected to disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight'. Some of our senses indeed are necessary for our preservation, others for our subsistence, and others again for our in- formation ; and thus far it was impossible to reject the use of them. The first sensation of pleasure was marked as the first moment of their abuse. The unfeeling can- didate for heaven was instructed, not only to resist the grosser allurements of the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with indifference the most finished pro- ductions of human art. Gay apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture, were supposed to unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality : a simj)le and mortified appearance was more suitable to the christian, who was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial " ; and among the various articles which excite their pious indig- nation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows, (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone,) white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according to the expres- sion of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator*. When Christianity was introduced among the rich and ' Lactant. Institut. Divin. 1. vi. c. 20, 21, 22. " Consult a work of Clemens of Alexandria, entitled the Paedagogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as they were taught in the most ce- lebrated of the christiiin schools. ''Tertullian De S])ectaculis, c. 23; Clemens Alexandrin. Paedagog. 1. iii. c. 8.