ESSAYS-1 [12]
success might encourage others to follow my example! If it were generally known how little trouble, and how little expence, are required to do much good, the heart-felt satisfaction which arises from relieving the wants, and promoting the happiness of our fellow-creatures, is so great, that I am persuaded, acts of the most essential charity would be much more frequent, and the mass of misery among mankind would consequently be much lessened.
Having taken my resolution to make the COMFORT of the poor people, who were to be provided for, the primary object of my attention, I considered what circumstance in life, after the necessaries, food and raiment, contributes most to comfort, and I found it to be CLEANLINESS. And so very extensive is the influence of cleanliness, that it reaches even to the brute creation.
With what care and attention do the feathered race wash themselves and put their plumage in order; and how perfectly neat, clean and elegant do they ever appear! Among the beasts of the field we find that those which are the most cleanly are generally the most gay and cheerful; or are distinguished by a certain air of tranquillity and contentment; and singing birds are always remarkable for the neatness of their plumage. And so great is the effect of cleanliness upon man, that it extends even to his moral character. Virtue never dwelt long with filth and nastiness; nor do I believe there ever was a person SCRUPULOUSLY ATTENTIVE TO CLEANLINESS who was a consummate villain[7].
Order and disorder--peace and war--health and sickness, cannot exist together; but COMFORT and CONTENTMENT the inseparable companions of HAPPINESS and VIRTUE, can only arise from order, peace, and health.
Brute animals are evidently taught cleanliness by instinct; and can there be a stronger proof of its being essentially necessary to their well-being and happiness?--But if cleanliness is necessary to the happiness of brutes, how much more so must it be to the happiness of the human race?
The good effects of cleanliness, or rather the bad effects of filth and nastiness, may, I think, be very satisfactorily accounted for. Our bodies are continually at war with whatever offends them, and every thing offends them that adheres to them, and irritates them,--and through by long habit we may be so accustomed to support a physical ill, as to become almost insensible to it, yet it never leaves the mind perfectly at peace. There always remains a certain uneasiness, and discontent;-- an indecision, and an aversion from all serious application, which shows evidently that the mind is not at rest.
Those who from being afflicted with long and painful disease, suddenly acquire health, are best able to judge of the force of this reasoning. It is by the delightful sensation they feel, at being relieved from pain and uneasiness, that they learn to know the full extent of their former misery; and the human heart is never so effectually softened, and so well prepared and disposed to receive virtuous impressions, as upon such occasions.
It was with a view to bring the minds of the poor and unfortunate people I had to deal with to this state, that I took so much pains to make them comfortable in their new situation. The state in which they had been used to live was certainly most wretched and deplorable; but they had been so long accustomed to it, that they were grown insensible to their own misery. It was therefore necessary, in order to awaken their attention, to make the contrast between their former situation, and that which was prepared for them, as striking as possible. To this end, every thing was done that could be devised to make them REALLY COMFORTABLE.
Most of them had been used to living in the most miserable hovels, in the midst of vermin, and every kind of filthiness; or to sleep in the streets, and under the hedges, half naked, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the seasons. A large and commodious building, fitted up in the neatest and most comfortable manner, was now provided for their reception. In this agreeable retreat
Having taken my resolution to make the COMFORT of the poor people, who were to be provided for, the primary object of my attention, I considered what circumstance in life, after the necessaries, food and raiment, contributes most to comfort, and I found it to be CLEANLINESS. And so very extensive is the influence of cleanliness, that it reaches even to the brute creation.
With what care and attention do the feathered race wash themselves and put their plumage in order; and how perfectly neat, clean and elegant do they ever appear! Among the beasts of the field we find that those which are the most cleanly are generally the most gay and cheerful; or are distinguished by a certain air of tranquillity and contentment; and singing birds are always remarkable for the neatness of their plumage. And so great is the effect of cleanliness upon man, that it extends even to his moral character. Virtue never dwelt long with filth and nastiness; nor do I believe there ever was a person SCRUPULOUSLY ATTENTIVE TO CLEANLINESS who was a consummate villain[7].
Order and disorder--peace and war--health and sickness, cannot exist together; but COMFORT and CONTENTMENT the inseparable companions of HAPPINESS and VIRTUE, can only arise from order, peace, and health.
Brute animals are evidently taught cleanliness by instinct; and can there be a stronger proof of its being essentially necessary to their well-being and happiness?--But if cleanliness is necessary to the happiness of brutes, how much more so must it be to the happiness of the human race?
The good effects of cleanliness, or rather the bad effects of filth and nastiness, may, I think, be very satisfactorily accounted for. Our bodies are continually at war with whatever offends them, and every thing offends them that adheres to them, and irritates them,--and through by long habit we may be so accustomed to support a physical ill, as to become almost insensible to it, yet it never leaves the mind perfectly at peace. There always remains a certain uneasiness, and discontent;-- an indecision, and an aversion from all serious application, which shows evidently that the mind is not at rest.
Those who from being afflicted with long and painful disease, suddenly acquire health, are best able to judge of the force of this reasoning. It is by the delightful sensation they feel, at being relieved from pain and uneasiness, that they learn to know the full extent of their former misery; and the human heart is never so effectually softened, and so well prepared and disposed to receive virtuous impressions, as upon such occasions.
It was with a view to bring the minds of the poor and unfortunate people I had to deal with to this state, that I took so much pains to make them comfortable in their new situation. The state in which they had been used to live was certainly most wretched and deplorable; but they had been so long accustomed to it, that they were grown insensible to their own misery. It was therefore necessary, in order to awaken their attention, to make the contrast between their former situation, and that which was prepared for them, as striking as possible. To this end, every thing was done that could be devised to make them REALLY COMFORTABLE.
Most of them had been used to living in the most miserable hovels, in the midst of vermin, and every kind of filthiness; or to sleep in the streets, and under the hedges, half naked, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the seasons. A large and commodious building, fitted up in the neatest and most comfortable manner, was now provided for their reception. In this agreeable retreat