"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"; so runs the witty aphorism; and
modern bacteriologists "explain clearly the reason, _and_ show why it is
so,"[1] the italics not being in the original. The use of water is an
effectual element in cleanliness. Men have been known to brush their
teeth with it. Of soaps there are many; but water is practically one.
"Πάντα ῥεῖ," said THALES. And, again, "There is a tide in the affairs of
men,"[2] as Lord BYRON put it, in confirmation of SHAKSPEARE'S previous
statement.
[1] Lubbock.
[2] Don Juan.
Fresh air contributes largely to the health. "_In aëre salus_," said the
Romans; though some, for want of knowledge, have rendered this, "There
is safety in flight"; and others, for want of the diæresis, have
supposed it to mean, "Tip a policeman, and he will carry you over the
crossing."
Yes, indeed, how wonderful is the air! Not only confined, as in aërated
bread or waters, but in the open. By it we breathe and smell and sail on
ships. Also the fields are full of buttercups. And then the weather! How
much of true happiness depends on conversation, and how much of this on
the weather! Yet "there is really no such thing as bad weather, only
different kinds of good weather."[3] This true thought has often helped
me in a London fog.
[3] Ruskin.
Again, the open air suggests games and railways. "Games are
admirable."[4] Did not Lord NELSON rightly say that the battle of
Trafalgar was "won in the playing-fields of Eton?" He referred of course
to the floods. Railways take us about through the air. RUSKIN speaks of
the advantage of increasing the "range of what we see," forgetting for
the moment his views about locomotives.
[4] Sir James Paget.
Among other forms of recreation men reckon Art and meals and their
wives' relations. I say nothing of the Drama, though the other day I
came across the statement that "All the world's a stage."[5]
[5] Shakspeare.
Another recreation is letter-writing. Lord CHESTERFIELD wrote letters.
But be careful. If you have written a cruel letter, put a stamp on it,
lest it come back upon your own head.
I have spoken of a man's wife's relations. This implies marriage. "The
wise choice of female friends is ... important."[6] "Grapple them to thy
soul with hoops of steel,"[7] as a writer lately put it, thinking,
perhaps, of the Elizabethan skirt. There are risks in marriage. It is
"for better for worse."[8] This distinction is well brought out in the
two following passages--"And oh! if there be an Elysium on earth, it is
this, it is this!"[9] and "Wedlock's a saucy, sad, familiar state."[10]
[6] Lubbock.
[7] Lubbock adapting Shakspeare.
[8] Marriage service.
[9] Tom Moore.
[10] Peter Pindar.
One might throw out some thoughts on the question of selection, but, as
a friend aptly and originally expressed himself to me--"Silence is
golden"; and I remember to have read that "talking should be an exercise
of the brain and not of the tongue."[11] Substitute "writing" for
"talking," and "pen" for "tongue," and I really wonder why I have
written all this. Can it be that I regard the reading public as "mostly
fools"?[12]
[11] Lubbock.
[12] Carlyle.
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