SO Cause and Progress of Cleanliness. 



The luxuries and refinements of superiors are 

 generally regarded with prejudice ; while those 

 introduced by persons in the same rank of life 

 provoke a desire to excel. Whatever advance 

 might be made by one member of such a com- 

 munity was soon adopted by the rest, and hence 

 arose what we now call fashion. This operated 

 as a premium on improvements. Cleanliness 

 appears to be communicated by imitation, and 

 is not the result of any fixed or inherent prin- 

 ciple ; nor can it be considered as the fruit or re- 

 ward of knowledge, or the Scotch would, at this 

 day, have been as distinguished for cleanliness 

 as for their other acquirements. Wealth flowing 

 in from the channels of productive labor, pre- 

 disposed all orders in England to improvement. 



The poorest laborer evinced on the Sabbath 

 the pride he took in imitating that cleanliness 

 he saw so much prized by his rich employer. 



In confirmation of the principle to which I 

 am disposed to attribute our taking the lead 

 in cleanliness, I would refer to every country 

 in which the property of the soil is exclusively 

 vested in the higher orders. The common peo- 

 ple in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy are 

 shockingly dirty 5 while the Swiss are cleanly. 



