The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.—Diogenes Laertius: Lib. vi. sect. 63.
Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur (The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light: although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted).—Saint Augustine: Works, vol. iii., In Johannis Evang. cap. i. tr. v. sect. 15.
The sun shineth upon the dunghill, and is not corrupted.—Lyly: Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit (Arber's reprint), p. 43.
The sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in his beam.—Taylor: Holy Living, chap. i. p. 3.
Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.—Milton: The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.
[170:1] Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.—John Wesley (quoted): Journal, Feb. 12, 1772.
According to Dr. A. S. Bettelheim, rabbi, this is found in the Hebrew fathers. He cites Phinehas ben Yair, as follows: "The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into guiltlessness; guiltlessness into abstemiousness; abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness,"—literally, next to godliness.
[170:2] Whose life is a bubble, and in length a span.—Browne: Pastoral ii.
Our life is but a span.—New England Primer.
[170:3] This line frequently occurs in almost exactly the same shape among the minor poems of the time: "Not to be born, or, being born, to die."—Drummond: Poems, p. 44. Bishop King: Poems, etc. (1657), p. 145.