The ladies, in their baths, made no scruple of admitting men amongst them, and moreover made use of their serving-men to rub and anoint them: 

          “Inguina succinctus nigri tibi servus aluta
          Stat, quoties calidis nuda foveris aquis.”

     ["A slave—­his middle girded with a black apron—­stands before you,
     when, naked, you take a hot bath.”—­Martial, vii. 35, i.]

They all powdered themselves with a certain powder, to moderate their sweats.

The ancient Gauls, says Sidonius Apollinaris, wore their hair long before and the hinder part of the head shaved, a fashion that begins to revive in this vicious and effeminate age.

The Romans used to pay the watermen their fare at their first stepping into the boat, which we never do till after landing: 

               “Dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur,
               Tota abit hora.”

     ["Whilst the fare’s paying, and the mule is being harnessed, a whole
     hour’s time is past.”—­Horace, Sat. i. 5, 13.]

The women used to lie on the side of the bed next the wall:  and for that reason they called Caesar,

“Spondam regis Nicomedis,”

["The bed of King Nicomedes.”—­Suetonius, Life of Caesar, 49.]

They took breath in their drinking, and watered their wine

                   “Quis puer ocius
                    Restinguet ardentis Falerni
                    Pocula praetereunte lympha?”

["What boy will quickly come and cool the heat of the Falernian
wine with clear water?”—­Horace, Od., ii. z, 18.]

And the roguish looks and gestures of our lackeys were also in use amongst them: 

“O Jane, a tergo quern nulls ciconia pinsit,
Nec manus, auriculas imitari est mobilis albas,
Nec lingua, quantum sitiat canis Appula, tantum.”

["O Janus, whom no crooked fingers, simulating a stork, peck at behind your back, whom no quick hands deride behind you, by imitating the motion of the white ears of the ass, against whom no mocking tongue is thrust out, as the tongue of the thirsty Apulian dog.”—­Persius, i. 58.]

The Argian and Roman ladies mourned in white, as ours did formerly and should do still, were I to govern in this point.  But there are whole books on this subject.

CHAPTER L

OF DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS

The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar in everything:  which is the reason, that in these Essays I take hold of all occasions where, though it happen to be a subject I do not very well understand, I try, however, sounding it at a distance, and finding it too deep for my stature, I keep me on the shore; and this knowledge that a man can proceed no further, is one effect of its virtue, yes, one of those of which it is most proud.