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CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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contents , and , some of the poor foot passengers , the walkinggentlemen of old toryism or family whiggisrn are very much of the same opinion ; nevertheless ,, we go on with oiir pickaxes , theodolites , old road mending , new ; road surveying 1 , as the case maybe , here levelling : a hill , here taking the cord instead of the ai * c , and cutting through , a vested intei-est to avoid interminable winding 1 , hoping to receive encouragement from some of the old travellers , and feeling pretty certain of most of the new ones . It is hard work , heaven knows ; but when a bit of good new road is levelled , there are few triumphs like it , for those ( rarely royal or noble personages ) who have raised the first sod . Let us cease our grumbling , and give a hearty cheer when some venerable obstruction , long held sacred , is levered and tumbled over the precipice once and has of these achievementand
for ever . The present day seen one s , to the eyes of common sense and common honesty the obstacle has long been an eyesore , and a heartsore to the deserving . Its clearance is the one * grand work of our day ; yet many of those who have laboured at it seem to us to fail in self-gratulatipn , arid in seeingwith clear vision the full purport of all they have helped to accomplish . Nothing but some remains of distrust can have prevented a general " Io triumphe . " We refer , in general terms , to the substitution of merit for patronage , as the path to preferment—the adoption of a grand self-evident principle into actual practice ; sucli a full recognition of this principle , that no political party , no power of a section , can ever prevail to overthrow it , and that , for a great deal of the working of our executives , in all departments , we are likely to be as sate from the inefficient cousin , of a Manchester manufacturer , as from the foolish scion of some branch of the
Peerage . This work is the work of no party ; , it is rather , against them all . It is the long interest-ridden and insulted sense of the nation that has insisted on the change , and the better part of the press has freely given A pice to this reclamation against tyranny , inefficiency , and absurdity . Individuals , countless in number , have felt the evil as an oppression to themselves , and the nation has-felt that this one reform would be the ¦ " fertile mother of a thousand more . " To this seeking put , honouring , and empowering , positive , practical capacity , every other reform'is subordinate , except that of the elevation of moral . merit , which / 'too , has , in some meastire , it ? tests here , thoxigh not its highest ; in other words , we can teli whether a man is orderly , punctual , active , conscientious , ' by his work , scarcely whether , he is noble , generous , and self-sacrificing ; of some , at least , of his working morals we may make pretty sure . Let us not seek for what we cannot attain ; the loftiest attributes of character have other tests aiid other honours ; and scorn alike
office and salary . " Whom these niusfc follow , on whoso head must fall Honours , like manna , if tliey . come at all , " as Wordswohth ' s says in his " Happy , Warrior . " We are far from affirming that England has disregarded , or that , any country < could afford to djsregaid , practical efficiency all the men who have really governed England have been , in some way or other , able . Designedl y or incautiously , the fiercest political opponents have given praise , or let praise escape , of and to each other ; our Parliamentary annals are full of acknowledgements of this kind , forced or free ; it would be useless to cite , every one must remember instances ; but the only real strife of the talents has been in the highest arena , where the combatants were in some
measure equalized by kings' special favour , by aristocratic birth , by aristocratic patronage , by vast money power , by popular notor iety , not always ot the purest . Out of these classes have come the combatants ; as a general rule the sti'ife has boon confined , to them , and as a general rule the ablest among them have won the day , "but in nine cases out of ten the use of power has been to gain , jiowor or to keep it , and concessions have been made to win jjopnlar support , rather than from , motives of patriotism ; and when plebeians or men of no factitious note having been called into the fray , they have been raised or titled as good swordsmen , chiefly to make them worthy to act as seconds to patrician combatants , otherwise they might , as non-noble combatants were forced to do in . the old days of trial of right t > y battle , have fought with oak 1
. quarter-stafla , in some vestry , or lower field all the days of their natural life . A hundred writers might be quoted who have congratulated England on the institution of an aristocracy , into which Tthe humblest might % ht or find his way ; it is true , an eompiwcd with continental systems , but the scrambling has been hard where the way ought to have been more open , and accident and favour have both too oftonlont tho helping hands whioh liuve enabled the aspirant to surmount the barrier , and the noblonuui has too often h « 4 the claim of gratitude to allow tho occupants of his rotten , boroughs ( of which there arc still too rnuny ) , to allow the latter to take a thoroughly independent part . Tt is only in tho highout department , and to a certain extent , ttbat tho rule iwis been , " tho bost men for the best places , " the
subordinates havo boon place-rnon strictly , and nothing more . Walpolm would havo scoffed at our demands for official capacity in , the lower departments of the public servicej Newcastle would have been incapable of comprehending | t ; "Prsn the elder might Juive ^ dmitlod it , and Pitt tho younger , in his noviciate , when nix uulvocato of political roibrm , tfto \ , igli in his fAdl power ho would have downed at it . Even BuAkts might hiivo roooivocl it as a dangorous no volt )}' , though , but for the , opposito principle , ho might himself have stood upon the summit ,, ln » toud of holding a pay-master's place : and tho Whigs , generally , hayo boon as intolerant of simple personal fitness i \ h tho Tories ; Palwehston , at firat , sneered at Examinations to prove capacity for , services , but it wns tho most foolish snoer of Uih political Uftvoml public opinion lms forced him to view tho mutter grayolv . ¥ o have often spoken of these
Examinations ; we have read most of the arguments against them , containing 1 , generally , an ounce of truth to a pound of party spirit arid prejudice ; to the country they will be a benefit , to _ men of mei-it , whether in the army or the civil service , or destined for either , they will be , . we will not say a boon , but a simple act of justice , long denied . The generalisation of the system is the most important political advance of our day .
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fTVHE truth of the proverb that cleanliness is next to godliness I is daily brought home to us in a variety of familiar examples . We all know that cleanliness conduces to n healthy body , and though it does not always follow that the corpus sanum begets the mentem sanam , the one , as a general rule , cannot exist without the other . The familiar examples of which we speak are within the ken of all who reflect and think . Who has not discovered the effects of cleanliness upon the spirits ? Who that is accustomed to live " cleanly and like a gentleman " does not know the exhilirating influence of a good wash after a day of travel or of toil V Who has not been inspired to high thoughts by a clean shirt ? Imagine the calamity which would befal a well-regulated family if the supply of soap and water were suddenly to come to an end ! The children might bear
it -with resignation for a day or two , hut the grown-up portion ot the family would be panic-struck . They could not eat their breakfast comfortably , to begin with . The lady of the house , after a brief contemplation of the situation , would probably faint , and the good mail , unshaven and unwashed , would sneak into the city and sp ' a wretched day in trying to avoid his customers and clients . He would have felt far less uncomfortable , and in a much less degree incapacitated for his day ' work , 'if he had simply been deprived of his breakfast . A person of cleanly habits feels something like degradation when any circumstance , either of chance or the res dugustos domi , compels him to live in a state of filth . We cannot conceive anything more painful than the feeling of such a person when he suddehlv finds himself , through some xintoward
circumstance , attacked by a loathsome disease or infested with vermin The first impulse of a man in this situation is to separate himseli from his fellows , and bury himself out of-sight . Misfortunes ot this kind have sxiggested suicide to highly sensitive natures . These facts being- so well understood by the better classes of society , we ai * e somewhat surprised that their influence has been , so little recognised in connection With the social improvement of the poor . Philanthropists have exerted themselves in many ways to make the lower classes godly , but it has occurred to few to proceed upon the principle of first making- them cleanly . The very few who have
recog'nised this principle are well aware that nearly all the ills which the poor are heir to spring 1 from the uncleanly and uncomfortable state of their homes . This to beg-in with is the chief cause of the great amount of drunkenness Ayhich prevails , in this country , and which we are told by judges and social reformers , is the greatest curse of the land . It is a great mistake to suppose that the habit of frequenting the public-house is engendered by a vicious . or inordinate taste for liquor . When teetotal lecturers draw vivid pictures of the drunkard ' s progress , and exhibit him being led on to misery and ruin by an insatiable thirst for liquor , they entirely fail to perceive the sources of the evil . In nine cases out of ton it is not drink
that draws- the working man to the public-house ; but the dirty squalid , and uncomfortable condition of his home that drives him into the streets to seek a more pleasant resort . And whore is there a more attractive place for tliis class than tho public-house P It is a sort of palu . ee ; the bar is roully a magnificent place . The decorations of a woat-end club are not more glittering or more costly than the appointments of a modern gin palace . There are flashing mirrors in every panel , a tempting array qf . bottles , an attractive display of plate glass , plenty of ' , company of every kind , and above all there are light and warinth . The light and warmth , and bright aspect of tho place are the chief charm of tho public-house ; and thbso are tho very comforts which tho poor man cannot havo at home . No amount of coal and candle that tho working man can afford will mako his dingy lodging-room look bright and pleasant . A thrifty and careful wife- may do much to mnko tho placo tidy , but
she can . scarcely mako it cheerful . Insufficiency of accommodation produces evils of another kind , which toll with equal disaster upon society . In largo towns , lilce London , whole iiimilioH sloop together , mono room ; grown men avid womon , young boys and girls , all together , ol ' ton promiscuously in thcHfuno beds . This is a fertile source of tho no-called grout * " social evil" of . tho day . If any of our active philanthropists will take tho trouble to enquire into the matter they will find that in almost ; ovory Inunblo fuuiily whore the children of both soxes havo lieon in tho habit of sleeping together , after tho ago of puberty , ono , if not moro , of the girls , have gone wrong , very young . Many instances might bo given , where ovory girl in tho family has turned out badly . And it in a lamentable fact , that parents of this china often regard the fall of their daughters with an indifforonco almost amounting to approval . Tho girls go on tho streets , bub wro still received by their parents without sham © and without roproach .
With regard to intomporanoo , it has uhnost ; become an siccoptcd fact that it is moro prevalent in Englund than in any other countryi Uut wo huvo only wanted accurate and reliable statistics to dispel this fallacy . M . J vxam timo-x shows us , that in tho manufacturing towiiB of France , that hithorto accoptod model of a temperate country , the working cUiHuen who inhabit tho squalid lodgings ot tho back h 1 \ utjs , are as violently addicted to liquor as the most degraded of tho same olasH in England . Wp can find no parallel in London to the picture drawn by M . Sijeon of a Rouen wine
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798 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . 15 , 1860
Cleanliness And Godliness.
CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1860, page 798, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2365/page/6/
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