16 THE PHENOMENON OF 



up, as it were a new draught from the proper source of 

 life, a renewed recollection of the specific purpose, or a 

 renovation of the conception of the typical ideal, which is 

 to be represented in the outward organism. This gives 

 to Rejuvenescence its definite relation to development, 

 which can only bring into gradually perfected repre- 

 sentation, that which lies in the essence of the creature, 

 that which is inwardly its own. 



This inner part of the process of Rejuvenescence may 

 be rendered more clearly comprehensible by sleep, for 

 this also is a phenomenon of periodical Rejuvenescence, 

 the Rejuvenescence of the consciousness. In sleep the 

 mind is relaxed from the tension in which it is held 

 towards the outward world while awake. All images 

 and shapes of thinking life vanish, or appear only as 

 reflected pictures in dreams ; the mind sinks back into a 

 condition comparable to that in which it was before it 

 first awoke to consciousness, therefore, externally regarded, 

 to a lower condition of development, for sleep is older 

 than waking in the history of development of human life. 

 But the mind does not lose itself in sleep, it rather 

 gathers itself up into new force, new comprehension of 

 its purpose, and much that crossed the waking thoughts, 

 scattered and entangled, becomes sifted and arranged 

 through this recollection. 



Sleep, a necessary recreation for the mind, is equally 

 required by all the powers of the body immediately 

 serving the mind. The inner formative processes, on the 

 contrary, through which the body itself is .preserved, do 

 not rest during this time of retreat, they rather act the 

 more undisturbedly and concentratedly. Hence the 

 rejuvenising power of sleep also for the body, which 

 appears so wonderful to us in many cases, as when sleep 

 occurs at the crisis in severe diseases. But the most 

 remarkable instance of the connexion of sleep with bodily 

 Rejuvenescence, is seen in the pupa-sleep of insects. Here, 

 where occur the most important metamorphoses we know 

 in the Animal kingdom, that of the sluggish caterpillar 



