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 metaphysicians. "Intense thought, (says a writer in the Lady's Magazine) spoils a lady's features; it banishes les ris et les graces which make all the enchantment of a female face. I am not sure (he adds) whether in time it may not perfectly masculate the sex; for a certain woman, named Phatheusa, the wife of one Pytheus, thought so intensely during her husband's absence, that at his return she had a beard grown upon her chin."

Rabbi Solomon Duitsch owed his conversion to his beard. This Jew was remarkably affected by a text which perhaps never affected any other person. "Son of man, take thee a sharp knife; take thee a barber's razor and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard; then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair." Ezek. v. 1.

"I could not but wonder (says he) why the Lord, who in the xixth of Leviticus had expressly prohibited the children of Israel from shaving the beard, should