"A scout is clean. He keeps clean in body and thought, stands for clean speech, clean sport, clean habits, and travels with a clean crowd."
Physical cleanliness is absence of dirt, but we must distinguish emphatically between clean and unclean dirt. Clean dirt is that which we unavoidably collect upon our hands and bodies in doing our work. It is honorable dirt so long as it is the result of useful employment, and all we need do about it is to protect our clothes as much as possible for the sake of thrift, and then carefully wash our hands and face several times a day.
The whole body should be washed every morning, and the hands and nails carefully scrubbed before every mean. It only requires a little strictness with ourselves at first to get the habit of doing this as a matter of course; and when we have got used to it, it becomes a refreshment and a pleasure.
It is not only physical pleasure to wash off the dirt of labor. When we are going to sit down at the table with other people, it is also a mark of respect and consideration for them which gives us pleasure of another kind, in proportion as we have learned to enjoy the pleasantness and cheer of courtesy.
Useless hands, no matter how clean they are, are always uninteresting, because they lack the character that useful work brings with it. On the other hand, good, useful hands may be a source of offence, if the dirt upon them conveys the idea of lazy indifference and lack of thoughtfulness for others.
Whenever two or three people sit down to enjoy their food, it should be made a little festivity at which every one should try to make himself as agreeable as possible. We should try and supply mental entertainment as well as physical, and the suggestion of car and courtesy implied in cleanliness and also, when possible, in a change of clothing, add very much to the sense of refreshment and social enjoyment which should always accompany eating and drinking among civilized men. Animals have no sense of conviviality but are content to absorb their food in solitude when they do not quarrel over it.
The most important part of the subject of this law has been dealt with in the chapter headed " To Keep Myself Physically Strong, Mentally Awake, and Morally Straight"; but when we realize that chastity springs directly out of unselfishness and reverence, we see also that the same principles apply to everything else in life, and especially to our speech, sports, habits and companions.
Reverence for truth in speech and thought is closely allied to unselfishness, because almost all our temptations to lying and prevarication come from a desire to excuse ourselves when we have done wrong, or to cover up our tracks so that we shall not be found out. The worst of this sort of weakness is that one lie leads to another; when we have once started on the path of deception, it is very difficult to stop, and we get the habit of lying or prevarication as a matter of course. This makes us untrustworthy and so prevents our being useful members of society. The uprightness of men and women is what gives confidence and makes social relations happy; the liars and the swindlers would, if they had their own way, destroy all order and eventually turn society into a dreary pig-sty.
The subject of clean sport was dealt with in the chapter on " The Rules of the Game"; but it just as well to point out again the fact that sport ceases to do good to any one when players cease to be upright and respectful to law. The temptation to unclean sport comes from the desire to win at whatever cost, without realizing that loss of honor is a disaster compared to which the loss of a game is a mere trifle. Here again, clean sport means unselfish sport and playing the game for the fun of it first, and only secondly to win. The honor of sportsmen tends to make not only generous winners and good losers, but it also tends to make better sport; for, when a game or race, or whatever it may be, is altogether fair and aboveboard, good sportsmanship or strength and legitimate skill are the only things that count; and rivalry, no matter how keen it may be, is always friendly and cheerful.
The force of habit, as has been said before, is one of the greatest elements of strength in human life, and the steady casting out of unclean thoughts whenever they arise cuts off possibilities of evil both of speech and action and so creates an atmosphere of fresh air and sunshine in which character grows strong. There is an old Latin saying "obsta principliis", or "oppose beginnings," which means that every dirty, irreverent, or dishonest thought should be strangled at its birth. Self-indulgence, even when it is confined to evil thoughts alone, is a most corrupting influence; and this watchword, habitually acted on, is a great protection.
We shall naturally travel with a clean crowd if we are clean ourselves; for we shall work our way out of any unclean crowd that we happen to fall in with, as soon as possible, and shall not rest until we find the associates to whom we properly belong. One boy alone can very rarely make headway against a gang; and his own honor requires that he should, at whatever cost, shake himself free from the influence of an unclean crowd.
It is different when one of our associates goes wrong for a time by yielding to some evil influence. In such a case, our first duty is to try to steer him right; if he himself is willing to try, we should stand by him until he is firmly on his feet again, -- not in a condescending or priggish manner, but because we all need one another to keep us strong in obedience to law. If, however, a boy persists in doing what he knows is wrong and exerts an evil influence on those about him, duty allows us no choice in the matter but requires that we should withdraw ourselves from him entirely, and force him into the position of either doing what is right or forfeiting our friendship. When evil is impenitent and contemptuous, it is mere foolishness or sentimentality to imagine that gentle measures can do any good; but it is very different in the case of a boy who is sincerely struggling against evil.
The best of a man is the real man, an loyalty to his real self may require us to turn against him when he is being bossed by evil. Loyalty in friendship means that we are loyal to the best in our friends, for which they themselves have the most respect. When they turn traitor to their own best selves, we can serve them only by dropping them entirely, hoping that they may come back some day with a different spirit.
Those who forsake their friends when falsely accused, because they themselves fear to suffer in the same way, are just the ones who will remain friendly with a man who is untrue to himself. This matter of friendship is very important, because so much power and happiness depends upon it; but it cannot be handled rightly unless all selfish considerations are set aside and everything is subordinated to the truth as it really is in the sight of God.
Cleanness is unselfishness, and unselfishness prepares us to receive constantly growing strength for
use and happiness.