Nazarite vow was of home origin in Mosaism; an argument whose force we cannot discern, for a foreign practice, once introduced, must of necessity be conformed to its new abode.

he was then to shave his head and offer a sinoffering and a burnt-offering; thus making an atonement for himself, for that he sinued by the dead.' A lamb also, of the first year, was to be offered as a trespass-offering. The days too that had gone before his defilement were to be lost, not reckoned in the number of those during which his vow was to last. On the termination of the period of the vow the Nazarite himself was brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, there to offer a burnt-offering, a sinoffering, a peace-offering, and a meat and a drinkoffering. The Nazarite also shaved his head at the door of the tabernacle, and put the hair grown during the time of separation into the fire which was under the sacrifice of the peace-offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them in the hands of the Nazarite after the hair of his separation is shaven; and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering.' 'After that the Nazarite may drink wine.'

It is not least among the merits of Judaism that in general it is eminently of a practical character. Though admitting a multitude of observances, some of which, being of a very minute kind, and relating to every-day life, must have been troublesome, if not vexatious, yet the ordinary current of existence was allowed to run on unimpeded; energy was not directed from its proper channel; and life was spent in the active discharge of those offices which human wants require, and by which human happiness may be best advanced. There was no Indian self-renunciation; there was no monkish isolation; yet the vow of the Nazarite shows that personal privations were not unknown in the Mosaic polity. This vow we regard as an instance and an exemplification of that asceticism which, wherever human nature is left free to develope itself, will always manifest its tendencies and put forth its effects. No age, no nation, no religion has been without asceticism. There are not wanting individual instances Self-mortification is, with some minds, as natural which serve to illustrate this vow, and to show that as self-enjoyment with others. The proneness to the law in the case went into operation. Thus, ascetic practices is a sort of disorder of tempera- Samson's mother, became a Nazarite that she ment. It is in part a question of original con- might have a son. Samson himself was a Nazastitution. As some individuals are inclined to rite from the time of his birth (Judg. xiii.). melancholy, to brood over their own states of In his history is found a fact which seems to mind, so they tend to become morbid in their present the reason why cutting the hair was forfeelings, intensely self-dissatisfied, over-thought-bidden to the Nazarite. The hair was considered ful, full of personal solicitudes; then gloomy; then still more dissatisfied with themselves, till at length they are led to think that nothing but severe mortifications and self-inflicted penalties can atone for their guilt, and placate a justly offended God. This general tendency of a certain physical temperament may be checked or encouraged by religious opinions or social institutions, as well as by the peculiar hue which the fortune of an age or a country may bear. The disease, however, is eminently contagious; and, if, owing to unknown circumstances, there was in the days of Moses a tendency, whether borrowed from Egypt or merely strengthened by Egyptian practices, which threatened, in its excess, to become in any degree epidemic, it was wise and patriotic in that lawgiver to take the subject into his own remedial hands, and to restrain and limit to individuals that which might otherwise infect large classes, if not reach and so weaken the national mind.

The law of the Nazarite, which may be found in Num. vi., is, in effect, as follows:-male and female might assume the vow; on doing so a person was understood to separate himself unto the Lord; this separation consisted in abstinence from wine and all intoxicating liquors, and from everything made therefrom: From vinegar of wine, and vinegar of strong drink; neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried; he was to eat nothing of the vine-tree, from the kernels even to the husks.' Nor was a razor to come upon his head all the time of his vow; he was to be holy, and let the locks of the hair of his head grow.' With special care was he to avoid touching any dead body whatever. Being holy unto the Lord, he was not to make himself unclean by touching the corpse even of a relative. Should he happen to do so,

VOL. II.

the source of strength; it is, in fact, often connected with unusual strength of body, for the male has it in greater abundance than the female. Delilah urged Samson to tell her where his strength lay. After a time, 'He told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unte God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man' (Judg. xvi. 15 sq.). The secret was revealed; Samson was shorn, and accordingly lost his strength and his life.

This conception led to the prohibition in question; for as the Nazarite was separated to the Lord, so was it proper that he should be in full vigour of body (secured by the presence of his hair) and of mind (secured by abstinence from strong drink). As animals offered in sacrifice were to be faultless and spotless, so a man or a woman set apart to God was to be in full pos session of their faculties.

From the language employed by Samson, as well as from the tenor of the law in this case, the retention of the hair seems to have been one essential feature in the vow. It is, therefore, somewhat singular that any case should have been considered as the Nazaritic vow in which the shaving of the head is put forth as the chief particular. St. Paul is supposed to have been under this vow, when (Acts xviii. 18) he is said to have shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow' (see also Acts xxi. 24). The head was not shaven till the vow was performed, when a person had not a vow.

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Carpzov, Appar. p. 151 sq. p. 799 sq.; Reland, Antiq. Sacr. ii. 10; Meinhard, De Nasiraeis, Jen., 1676; Zorn, in Miscell. Lips. Nov. iv., 426 sq.; Spencer, De Leg. Heb. Rit., iii. 6;

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