174 CLEANLINESS 



CLEANLINESS. 



Many contemplative minds have been exercised on 

 the immense amount of energy and time that are ex- 

 pended in the mere procuring of food and clothing ; 

 and the pious have bowed to the necessity as paxt 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 un-needed. 



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 furniture, 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 unremitting 

 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 efEbrts 

 have we made a successful onslaught on the foe, and 

 apparently subdued him so that he cannot shew 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 

 matter ; to the excretions of living beings, the natural 



