CLEANLINESS. 167 



CLEANLINESS. 



Many contemplative minds have been exercised on 

 the immense amomit of energy and time that are 

 expended in the mere procuring of food and clothing ; 

 and the pious have bowed to the necessity as part of 

 the curse under which the earth still groans on account 

 of sin. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 

 bread " was the righteous sentence on fallen man ; and 

 we know assuredly that if innocence had remained, 

 other clothing would have been unneeded. 



But possibly it may not have struck every one that 

 almost as much of time and labour are consumed in 

 cleansing away impurities. Our bodies, our garments, 

 our fomiture, our houses, our streets, are perpetually 

 being cleaned : it is clean, clean, clean, — wash, scrub, 

 scour, brush, sweep, — from morning to night, from 

 week to week, from year to year, a constant unre- 

 mitting war with dirt ; a war hopeless because 

 endless, a war with an enemy that may be kept in 

 check, but can never be conquered. No sooner by 

 herculean efforts have we made a successful onslaught 

 on the foe, and apparently subdued him so that he 

 cannot show his face again, and begin to sit down in 

 complacency, than lo ! we descry his unsightly sappers 

 and miners retaking all the points we thought we 

 had secured, and we exclaim, in disappointment and 



despair, — 



" The creature's at his dirty work again!" 



I incline to think that this necessity is as much a 

 judicial sentence as the other ; that it also is part of 

 the curse. It is true we may trace it to the laws of 



