HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE, - Horntip

47
Solomon, when he fpeaks of a virtuous woman, Pro-
verbs XVI.—She girt her loins with courage. In St.
Peter's epiftle, too, chap. I. ver. 19, To be girt on the
loins of the mind, fignifies—as Montuus, in the place
before cited, obferves—to drive luxurious thoughts
from the foul. I am miflaken, too, if the Romans had
not this meaning in view, when they accounted a per-
(on girt as an inftance of modefty, regularity, and a
good mind ; and ungirt, as a token of diffolute morals
—upon which head I have faid more in my life of
Mecxnas. At this very day it is the cuftom in France
to prefent thofe who carry the prize of poetry with a
filken girdle, as a trophy to gird their loins with. To
this purpofe Ranchinus, in his commentary upon
Hippocrates's oath, remarks the neceffity of a phyfician
being chafte ; becaufe a girdle fignifies a binding of
the reins, and an abftinence from an immoderate ufe
of the loins. From hence the ancients thought Diana,
the goddefs of chaftity, always wore a girdle; and
from hence the words to unloofe the girdle, in the
conjugal ceremony, denotes the lofs of virginity and
Xtius rightly obferves, That the ufe of venery is pre-
judicial to fuch who have weak reins and loins, and
fuch perfons are therefore called broken-loined.
Euftathius,