The Country Gcntlcivoviau 



211 



^he Coimtni Souse. 



HOUSEHOLD CLEANING. 



P.V THE I.ATK MRS PARKED 



CLEANLINESS, wliether household or 

 personal, may be considered as one 

 of the unalloyed advantages derived from 

 civilization. If it may not be ranked as a 

 virtue, it is at least the parent of virtues, and 

 not unadvisedly, was the old saying first pro- 

 nounced, " Cleanliness is next to godliness." 



As a habit, it has moral as well as physical 

 advantages, personal as well as domestic; 

 hence its claims on our approbation and 

 daily observance. It evinces an absence of 

 slothfulness ; for without activity and exertion, 

 cleanliness cannot be practised : it is an em- 

 blem, if not a characteristic, of purity of 

 thought and propriety of conduct. It seems 

 as if it could not be associated with vicious 

 pursuits ; so rarely, in the habitually profli- 

 gate character, are the active and wholesome 

 habits of cleanliness perceptible. The squalid 

 wretchedness, which sometimes engages the 

 pity of the philanthropist, is oftener found, 

 on investigation, to be the effect of vicious 

 idleness rather than of unmerited misfortune ; 

 while cleanliness, if it cannot totally indemnify 

 us from the evils of poverty and disease, can 

 keep them far removed from utter wretched- 

 ness and misery. 



Cleanliness is an unequivocal good ; and 

 accordingly we find that it confers a species 

 of rank on all its votaries, to whatever class 

 in the scale of society they may belong. The 

 cleanly family, whether living in the cottage 

 or the hall, is "respectable" "creditable" — 

 a distinction which serves as capital or stock 

 in trade to members of the industrious work- 

 ing class, and is not without its value in the 

 higher Avalks of life, Avhere honour and dis- 

 tinction are sought. 



In the former class, the respectability of a 



family (and we can scarcely allow respecta- 

 bility to be claimed where cleanliness does 

 not prevail) is a sufl:icient recommendation to 

 honest and creditable employments. An 

 opposite term, given to an idle slovenly 

 family, would be an equal impediment to the 

 worldly advancement and welfare of its mem- 

 bers. Doubt and suspicion must inevitably 

 cloud the prospects of all whose domestic 

 habits could not promise for them, that, in 

 the world, when called upon to act, they 

 would be diligent and energetic, not self- 

 indulgent, or wanting in attention to any of 

 the proprieties of life. 



We shall first consider cleanliness in the 

 house, together with the modes of cleaning 

 everything within its walls. 



Whatever may be the exciting causes of 

 infectious diseases, cleanliness has in its 

 keeping the specific by which their progress 

 is checked. Under its influence infectious 

 complaints are often confined to some solitary 

 instance in a family, and do not spread, as 

 formerly they Avould have done, with the fatal 

 rapidity of a pestilence. This specific allays 

 the scourge, as well as giving exemption from 

 contagion to all who practise it. Many other 

 effects of cleanliness on health might be 

 stated, with considerations of much import- 

 ance in other points, relative to fomily com- 

 fort and prosperity. 



The economy of cleanliness is another re- 

 commendation to its observance ; the uniform 

 cleaning of house and furniture are amongst 

 the best means of preserving both : we can 

 neglect no wholesome practice in the whole 

 cycle of domestic cleaning without inflicting 

 an injury on some part of our property. We 

 may even incur an entire loss, by neglecting 



