12 HISTORY OF 



relief. However, man finds it more difficult than 

 any other animal to procure sleep ; and some are 

 obliged to court its approaches for several hours 

 together, before they incline to rest. It is in 

 vain that all light is excluded, that all sounds are 

 removed, that warmth and softness conspire to 

 invite it ; the restless and busy mind still retains 

 its former activity ; and reason, that wishes to 

 lay down the reins, in spite of herself is obliged 

 to maintain them. In this disagreeable state, the 

 mind passes from thought to thought, willing to 

 lose the distinctness of perception, by increasing 

 the multitude of the images. At last, when the 

 approaches of sleep are near, every object of the 

 imagination begins to mix with that next it ; their 

 outlines become in a manner rounder ; a part of 

 their distinctions fade away ; and sleep, that en- 

 sues, fashions out a dream from the remainder. 



If then it should be asked from what cause this 

 state of repose proceeds, or in what manner sleep 

 thus binds us for several hours together, I must 

 fairly confess my ignorance, although it is easy to 

 tell what philosophers say upon the subject. Sleep, 

 says one of them,* consists in a scarcity of spirits, 

 by which the orifices or pores of the nerves in the 

 brain, through which the spirits used to flow into 

 the nerves, being no longer kept open by the fre- 

 quency of the spirits, shut of themselves ; thus 

 the nerves, wanting a new supply of spirits, be- 

 come lax, and unfit to convey any impression to 

 the brain. All this, however, is explaining a 



Ilohault. 



