2. A Wig and a Conscience
BY SAMUEL SEWALL (1701)
HAVING last night heard that Josiah Willard had cut off his hair (a
very full head of hair) and put on a wig, I went to him this
morning.[4] When I told his mother what I
came about, she called him. Whereupon I inquired of him what
extreme need had forced him to put off his own hair and put on a wig?
He answered, none at all; he said that his hair was straight, and that it
parted behind.
He seemed to argue that men might as well shave their hair off
their head, as off their face. I answered
that boys grew to be men before they had hair on their faces; and that
half of mankind never have any beards. I told him that God seems to
have created our hair as a test, to see whether we can bring our minds
to be content at what he gives us; or whether we would be our own
carvers and come back to him for nothing more We might dislike our
skin or nails, as he disliked his hair; but in our case no thanks are due
to us, that we cut
them not off; for pain and danger restrain us. Your
duty, said I, is to teach men self-denial. I told him,
further, that it would be displeasing and burdensome to good men for
him to wear a wig; and they that care not what men think of them, care
not what God thinks of them.
I told him that he must remember that wigs were condemned
by a meeting of ministers at Northampton. I told him of the solemnity
of the covenant which he and I had lately entered into, which put upon
me the duty of discoursing to him.
He seemed to say that he would leave off his wig when his
hair was grown again. I spoke to his father of it a day or two afterwards
and he thanked me for reasoning with his son.
He told me his son had promised to leave off his wig when his
hair was grown to cover his ears. If the father had known of it, he
would have forbidden him to cut off his hair. His mother heard him
talk of it; but was afraid to forbid him, for fear he should do it in spite
of her, and so be more faulty than if she had let him go his own
way.
[[4]]
The fashion of big, curly wigs came into England
about 1670. Good old Sewall thought it was wicked, and tried to
prevent his neighbors from having wigs.
