itions in which they live.

We need scarcely refer to the moral as well as the physical beauty of
cleanliness--cleanliness which indicates self-respect, and is the root
of many fine virtues--and especially of purity, delicacy, and decency.
We might even go farther, and say that purity of thought and feeling
result from habitual purity of body. For the mind and heart of man are,
to a very great extent, influenced by external conditions and
circumstances; and habit and custom, as regards outward things, stamp
themselves deeply on the whole character,--alike upon the moral feelings
and the intellectual powers.

Moses was the most practical of sanitary reformers. Among the eastern
nations generally, cleanliness is a part of religion. They esteem it not
only as next to godliness, but as a part of godliness itself. They
connect the idea of internal sanctity with that of external
purification. They feel that it would be an insult to the Maker they
worship to come into His presence covered with impurity. Hence the
Mahommedans devote almost as much care to the erection of baths, as to
that of mosques; and alongside the place of worship is usually found the
place of cleansing, so that the faithful may have the ready means of
purification previous to their act of worship.

"What worship," says a great writer, "is there not in mere washing!
perhaps one of the most moral things a man, in common cases, has it in
his power to do. Strip thyself, go into the bath, or were it into the
limpid pool of a running brook, and there wash and be clean; thou wilt
step out again a purer and a better man. This consciousness of perfect
outer pureness--that to thy skin there now adheres no foreign speck of
imperfection--how it radiates on thee, with cunning symbolic influences
to thy very soul! thou hast an increased tendency towards all good
things whatsoever. The oldest eastern sages, with joy and holy
gratitude, had felt it to be so, and that it was the Maker's gift and
will."

The common well-being of men, women, and children depends upon attention
to what at first sight may appear comparatively trivial matters. And
unless these small matters be attended to, comfort in person, mind, and
feeling is absolutely impossible. The physical satisfaction of a child,
for example, depends upon attention to its feeding, clothing, and
washing. These are the commonest of common things, and yet they are of
the most essential importance. If the child is not