The Essays and Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene, Vol. 2

thickly bundled together. It would seem that there is a conflict going on between hair and brains, for they never exist in the same body at the same time.

And huntsmen also must needs contribute something to the 5 argument, for these men are dear to me, as is the art they pursue. The cleverest hounds are those whose ears and bellies are bare; the hairy ones are stupid and rash and are better kept away from the chase. And if Plato, the sage, speaks of the unjust horse, attached to the chariot driven by the soul, 10 as being deaf and having ears covered with hair Plato, Phaedrus 253 E., how can he think any good of hair? Of course, even if Plato did not tell us so, it would necessarily follow that he would be deaf who had hair in that organ by which we hear, just as one would also be blind who had hair in the organ whereby we see. That would be a mon-15 strosity, if it ever came to pass. Already cases have occurred of the growth of a double row of eyelashes, and it seems the greatest of calamities that hair has made its home close to the eye; against such hairs every violent means is set in motion lest they precipitate the undermining of the eye. Nature does not permit 20 the baser elements to grow with the nobler, and the noblest parts of an animal are its perceptive faculties; for in these parts of the body resides, most of all, the principle of life, and to these, the soul first distributes its own powers. Now, sight is the most divine of all faculties Plato, Phaedrus 250 D., but at the same time, the least hairy.

25 Again, as in an individual the noblest parts are the baldest, so must the best elements of the race itself be related to the race itself. This was shown a little while ago to be the case throughout the whole human race, which is as far removed from the brutes as it is from hair. Now, if man is really the most sacred of 30 all animals Plato, Laws 766 A., of those men who have had the good fortune to lose their hair, the bald man would be the most divine thing upon earth.