incere and ardent love,
of long duration, where personal neatness is wholly neglected. I do not
say that there are not those who would live peaceably and even
contentedly in these circumstances. But what I contend for is this:
that there never can exist, for any length of time, ardent _affection_,
in any man towards a woman who neglects neatness, either in her person,
or in her house affairs.

Men may be careless as to their own person; they may, from the nature
of their business, or from their want of time to adhere to neatness in
dress, be slovenly in their own dress and habits; but, they do not
relish this in their wives, who must still have _charms_; and charms
and neglect of the person seldom go together. I do not, of course,
approve of it even in men.

We may, indeed, lay it down as a rule of almost universal application,
that supposing all other things to be equal, he who is most guilty of
personal neglect; will be the most ignorant and the most vicious. _Why_
there should be, universally, a connection between slovenliness,
ignorance, and vice, is a question I have no room in this work to
discuss.

I am well acquainted with one whole family who neglect their persons
from principle. The gentleman, who is a sort of new light in religious
concerns, will tell you that the true Christian _should_ 'slight the
hovel, as beneath his care.' But there is a want of intelligence, and
even common refinement in the family, that certainly does not and
_cannot_ add much to their own happiness, or recommend religion--aside
from the fact that it greatly annoys their neighbors. And though the
head of the family observes many external duties with Jewish
strictness, neither he nor any of its members are apt to bridle their
tongues, or remember that on _ordinary_ as well as _special_ occasions
they are bound to 'do all to the glory of God.' As to the connection of
mind with matter--I mean the dependence of mind and soul on body, they
are wholly ignorant.

It is not dress that the husband wants to be perpetual: it is not
finery; but _cleanliness_ in every thing. Women generally dress enough,
especially when they _go abroad_. This _occasional_ cleanliness is not
the thing that a husband wants: he wants it always; in-doors as well as
out; by night as well as by day; on the floor as well as on the table;
and, however he may complain about the trouble and the 'expense' of it,
he would complain more if it were neglected.

The indicat