Some persons suppose the razor to be an instrument, of comparatively modern invention, and barbers to have sprung up, at farthest, within the Christian era. It is written, in Isaiah vii. 20, "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor, that is hired," &c. Ezekiel began to prophecy, according to Calmet, 590 years before Christ: in the first verse of ch. v. he says--"take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard." To cause a razor _to pass upon the beard_ seems to mean something very different from _shaving_, in the common sense of that word. Doubtless, it does: the _culter_ or _novacula_, that is, _the razor_, of the ancients, was employed, for _shearing_ or _shortening_, as well as for _shaving_ the beard. Barbers were first known, among the Romans A. U. C. 454, i. e. 298 years before Christ. Pliny says, vii. 59--Sequens gentium consensus in tonsoribus fuit, sed Romanis tardior. In Italiam ex Sicilia venere post Romam conditam anno quadringentessimo quinquagessimo quarto, adducente P. Ticinio Mena, ut auctor est Varro: antea intonsi fuere. Primus omnium radi quotidie instituit Africanus sequens: Divus Augustus cultris semper usus est. Then barbers came into use, among the nations, but more slowly among the Romans. In the year of the city 454, according to Varro, P. Ticinius Mena introduced barbers into Italy from Sicily: until that time, men wore their beards. The latter Africanus first set the example of being shaven daily. Augustus constantly used razors. The passage of Varro, referred to by Pliny, showing, that, before A. U. C. 454, men wore their beards, states the fact to be established, by the long beards, on all the old male statues. That _passing of the sharp knife or razor, upon the beard_, spoken of, by Ezekiel, I take to be the latter of the two modes, employed by the Romans--"vel strictim, hoc est, ad cutem usque; vel paulo longius a cute, interposito pectine"--either close to the skin, or with a comb interposed. That both modes were in use is clear from the lines of Plautus in his play of the Captives, Act ii. sc. 2, v. 16-- Nunc senex est in tonstrina; nunc jam cultros adtinet; Sed utrum strictimne adtonsurum dicam esse, an per pectinem, Nescio. Now the old man is in the barber's shop and under the razor; but whether to be close shaved, or clipped with the comb, I know not.