A PENAL SENTENCE. 175 



course of decomposition in organic substances, the 

 abrasion of inorganic surfaces by friction, the laws of 

 motion, of gravitation, and the likd. I know that all 

 this may be said, and said truly ; and yet I doubt 

 much if this perpetual round of strife with dirt, that 

 makes the poet's lamentable ditty, — 



" There is nae luck aboot the hoose 

 Upon a washin' day," 



applicable to all the world and co-extensive with all 

 time, would have been our lot, if we had maintained a 

 Paradisiacal condition of existence. 



Be it so ! judgment in neither case is unmingled 

 with mercy. It is not an unmitigated curse under 

 which Creation groans. A Father's hand is manifest 

 in the wisdom and love, which has made the pro- 

 nounced and inevitable sentence to be a corrective 

 discipline, and not a vindictive punishment. What 

 crimes have been prevented, what proficiency in ini- 

 quity cut short by the necessity of labour for the sup- 

 port of life ! And in like manner tens of thousands 

 are daily kept out of idleness, and its concomitant 

 temptations, by the incessant demands of cleanliness 

 upon toil. The condition of existence being what it 

 is, a fallen condition, a state in which a proclivity to 

 sin is the universal rule, how merciful is the appoint- 

 ment of a discipline which should directly minister 

 blessing to the mass of mankind in several ways ! 

 Preventively, by limiting our opportunities of evil; 

 temporally by giving support, directly or indirectly, 

 to myriads of persons ; and spiritually, by reminding 

 us of an inward uncleanness, which must be effectually 



