Touching Pitch

When Long John Silver’s parrot, Cap’n Flint, swore “blue fire,” “’There,’ John would add, ‘you can’t touch pitch and not be mucked, lad.’” While not a part of the Biblical canon inspired by God, the Apocrypha’s ECCLESIASTICUS 13 : 1 offers memorable advice: “He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith; and he that hath fellowship with a proud man shall be like unto him” (KJV).