Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

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Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman

Some of the great carry delicacy to a great height themselves, and yet real cleanliness is not generally promoted. Dyes being invented partly to please the eye and partly to hide dirt, I have felt in this weak state, when traveling in dirtiness, and affected with unwholesome scents, a strong desire that the nature of dyeing cloth to hide dirt may be more fully considered. Washing our garments to keep them sweet is cleanly, but it is the opposite to real cleanliness to hide dirt in them. Through giving way to hiding dirt in our garments a spirit which would conceal that which is disagreeable is strengthened. Real cleanliness becomes a holy people; but hiding that which is not clean by coloring our garments seems contrary to the sweetness of sincerity. Through some sorts of dyes cloth is rendered less useful. And if the value of dyestuffs, and expense of dyeing, and the damage done to cloth, were all added together, and that cost applied to keeping all sweet and clean, how much more would real cleanliness prevail. A few days after writing these considerations, our dear friend [John Woolman] in the course of his religious visits came to the city of York and attended most of the sittings of the Quarterly Meeting. During the four months of his labors in England he visited the Quarterly and subordinate meetings of Friends in seven counties, and found time to write essays upon “Loving our Neighbours,” “A Sailor’s Life,” and “Silent Record of Woolman’s Last Days (September–October 7, 1772) 5

5 This section was written after Woolman’s death.