14 HISTORY OF 



The famous Philip Barretiere, who was consi- 

 dered as a prodigy of learning at the age of four- 

 teen, was known to sleep regularly twelve hours 

 in the twenty-four ; the extreme activity of his 

 mind when awake in some measure calling for an 

 adequate alternation of repose : and I am apt to 

 think, that when students stint themselves in this 

 particular, they lessen the waking powers of the 

 imagination, and weaken its most strenuous exer- 

 tions. Animals that seldom think, as was said, 

 can very easily dispense with sleep ; and of men, 

 such as think least, will very probably be satisfied 

 with the smallest share. A life of study, it is 

 well known, unfits the body for receiving this 

 gentle refreshment ; the approaches of sleep are 

 driven off by thinking : when, therefore, it comes 

 at last, we should not be too ready to interrupt 

 its continuance. 



Sleep is, indeed, to some a very agreeable period 

 of their existence : and it has been a question in 

 the schools, which was most happy, the man who 

 was a beggar by night, and a king by day ; or he 

 who was a beggar by day, and a king by night ? 

 It is given in favour of the nightly monarch by 

 him who first started the question ; for the dream, 

 says he, gives the full enjoyment of the dignity, 

 without its attendant inconveniencies ; while, on 

 the other hand, the king who supposes himself 

 degraded, feels all the misery of his fallen for- 

 tune, without trying to find the comforts of his 

 humble situation. Thus by day both states have 

 their peculiar distresses ; but by night the exalt- 

 ed beggar is perfectly blessed, and the king com- 



