scana.

Matters went on quietly at the Grange. One evening, Mr. Gryll said
quietly to the Reverend Doctor Opimian--

'I have heard you, doctor, more than once, very eulogistic of hair
as indispensable to beauty. What say you to the bald Venus of the
Romans--_Venus Calva_?'

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Why, sir, if it were a question whether
the Romans had any such deity, I would unhesitatingly maintain the
_negatur_. Where do you find her?

_Mr. Gryll._ In the first place, I find her in several dictionaries.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ A dictionary is nothing without an authority.
You have no authority but that of one or two very late writers, and
two or three old grammarians, who had found the word and guessed at its
meaning. You do not find her in any genuine classic. A bald Venus! It is
as manifest a contradiction in terms as hot ice, or black snow.

_Lord Curryfin._ Yet I have certainly read, though I cannot at this
moment say where, that there was in Rome a temple to _Venus Calva_, and
that it was so dedicated in consequence of one of two circumstances: the
first being that through some divine anger the hair of the Roman women
fell off, and that Ancus Martius set up a bald statue of his wife, which
served as an expiation, for all the women recovered their hair, and the
worship of the Bald Venus was instituted; the other being, that when
Rome was taken by the Gauls, and when they had occupied the city, and
were besieging the Capitol, the besieged having no materials to make
bowstrings, the women cut off their hair for the purpose, and after the
war a statue of the Bald Venus was raised in honour of the women.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I have seen the last story transferred to the
time of the younger Maximin.{1} But when two or three explanations, of
which only one can possibly be true, are given of any real or supposed
fact, we may safely conclude that all are false. These are ridiculous
myths, founded on the misunderstanding of an obsolete word. Some hold
that _Calva_, as applied to Venus, signifies pure; but I hold with
others that it signifies alluring, with a sense of deceit. You will find
the cognate verbs, calvo and calvor, active,{2}

1 Julius Capitolinus: Max. Jun. c. 7.

2 Est et Venus Calva ob hanc causam, quod cum Galli
Capitolium obsiderent, et deessent funes Romanis ad tormenta
facienda, prima. Domitia crinem suum, post caeterae matron",
imitatae earn, exsecuerun^, unde facta