208 MORAL ASPECT OF SLEEP, 



The recumbent posture and the ni^lit season should be selected for 

 sleep. With the head somewhat elevated, the arms so located as not to 

 interfere with the functions of the body — not thrown over the head, nor 

 wound around the body. The side posture is better than the back. To 

 sleep sitting is regarded by physicians as injurious, because interfering 

 with the operations of the abdominal viscera. More than two in a small 

 room is objectionable, and it would be preferable if there were but one. 

 MacNish on the Philosophy of Sleep, gives some interesting facts upon 

 Ihe habits of distinguished men in respect to sleep. "Almost all men 

 who have distinguished themselves in science, literature and the arts, 

 have been early risers. The industrious, the active-minded, the enthu- 

 siast in the pursuit of knowledge or gain, are up betimes at their respec- 

 tive occupations ; while the sluggard wastes the most beautiful period of 

 life in pernicious slumber. 



Homer, Virgil and Horace, are all represented as early risers ; the 

 same was the case with Paley, Franklin, Priestly, Parkhurst and BufTon, 

 the latter of whom ordered his valet de chambre to awaken him every 

 morning, and compel him to get up by force, if he evinced any reluc- 

 tance : for this service the valet was rewarded with a crown each day, 

 which recompense he forfeited if he did not oblige his master to get 

 out of bed before the clock struck six. Bishops Jewel and Burnet, rose 

 regularly every morning at four o'clock. Sir Thomas More did the 

 same thing ; and so convinced was he of the beneficial effects of getting 

 up betimes, that, in his Utopia he represented the inhabitants as attending 

 lectures before sunrise. Napoleon was an early riser; so was Frederick 

 the Great, and Charles XII; so is the Duke of Wellington; and so, in 

 truth, is almost every one distinguished for energy and indefatigability 

 of mind. 



The same law which regulates our desire for food, also governs 

 sleep. As we indulge in sleep to moderation or excess, it becomes a 

 blessing or a curse — in the one case recruiting the energies of nature, 

 and diffusing vigor alike over the mind and frame : in the other, deba- 

 sing the character of man, stupifying his intellect, enfeebling his body, 

 and rendering him useless alike to others and himself Tlie glutton, the 

 drunkard, and the sloven, bear the strictest affinity to each other, both in 

 the violation of nature's laws and the consequences. What in modera- 

 tion is harmless and beneficial, in excess is a curse ; and sleep carried 

 to the latter extreme, may be pronounced an act of intemperance almost 

 as much as excess in eating and drinking." 



