To draw it to a fine point, as was done under the Empire… is to give the face of the wearer a factitious and evanescent expression, since the points cannot be kept stiff without the use of a cosmetic, easily detected and soon melted. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875

If you think that to grow a beard is to acquire wisdom, a goat with a fine beard is at once a complete Plato. – Lucian of Samosata, in The Greek Anthology, Volume IV, “Book XI: The Convivial a

[H]e hath a most remarkable Beard, the largest and blackest I ever saw. – Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1749