THE MIND'S TRUE SOLACE. 43 



accompaniment, we would naturally think should 

 be the best means of procuring sleep. She sings 

 her lullaby ; and it is well worthy of remark that 

 the sweeter her voice is, and the more musical 

 and modulated its tones, the sooner does her 

 smiling charge sink into that balmy rest, which 

 is so essential to its present health and its future 

 growth. The ticking of the clock too, the slow 

 dropping of water from the eaves of the house, 

 the chirping of the cricket at the hearth, and the 

 booming of the wind, and especially its soft music 

 in the chinks and crannies where it is murmuring 

 in promise of rain, all lead us to that comfortable 

 state of tranquillity which is the preface to balmy 

 sleep. 



In all these cases, it is really observation which 

 is the solace of the mind the all-healthful medi- 

 cine, which drugs the body to a state of whole- 

 some and invigorating repose ; so also, in the 

 contrivances to which we have recourse in order 

 to procure sleep, if it is not direct observation, it 

 is something very much resembling it, which is 

 the real cause why we obtain that refreshing sleep 

 which mere quietude will not bring us. Ordinary 

 people have recipes for sleep, which are all but 

 infallible, in slowly repeating the letters of the al- 

 phabet, or counting the numbers upward from 

 one, until sleep puts an end to the monotonous 

 repetition. Those who know a little more may 

 be proof against these very simple contrivances ; 

 but they, too, have their resources, and they all, 

 in so far resemble observation, they are all 

 operations of the mind, upon something which 

 stands out clear and graphic, as if there were a 

 picture of it before the eyes, and only one step 



