monarch, could presume to look more virile than their master.
Immediately all the courtiers appeared beardless, with the exception of
such few grave old men as had outgrown the influence of fashion, and who
had determined to die bearded as they had lived. Sober people in general
saw this revolution with sorrow and alarm, and thought that every manly
virtue would be banished with the beard. It became at the time a common
saying,--

"Desde que no hay barba, no hay mas alma."
We have no longer souls since we have lost our beards.

In France also the beard fell into disrepute after the death of Henry IV.,
from the mere reason that his successor was too young to have one. Some of
the more immediate friends of the great Bearnais, and his minister Sully
among the rest, refused to part with their beards, notwithstanding the
jeers of the new generation.

Who does not remember the division of England into the two great parties
of Roundheads and Cavaliers? In those days every species of vice and
iniquity was thought by the Puritans to lurk in the long curly tresses of
the monarchists, while the latter imagined that their opponents were as
destitute of wit, of wisdom, and of virtue, as they were of hair. A man's
locks were the symbol of his creed, both in politics and religion. The
more abundant the hair, the more scant the faith; and the balder the head,
the more sincere the piety.

[Illustration: PETER THE GREAT.]

But among all the instances of the interference of governments with men's
hair, the most extraordinary, not only for its daring, but for its
success, is that of Peter the Great, in 1705. By this time fashion had
condemned the beard in every other country in Europe, and with a voice
more potent than popes or emperors, had banished it from civilised
society. But this only made the Russians cling more fondly to their
ancient ornament, as a mark to distinguish them from foreigners, whom they
hated. Peter, however, resolved that they should be shaven. If he had been
a man deeply read in history, he might have hesitated before he attempted
so despotic an attack upon the time-hallowed customs and prejudices of his
countrymen; but he was not. He did not know or consider the danger of the
innovation; he only listened to the promptings of his own indomitable
will, and his fiat went forth, that not only the army, but all ranks of
citizens, from the nobles to the serfs, should shave their beards. A
certain time w