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:niate alternation oi repose : and, I am a|)t to think, that when 

 istudents stmt 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 witn sleep ; and of men, such as think least, will, very 

 jirobably, be satisfied with th* smallest share. A life of study, 

 it is well known, unfits the body for receiving this gentle re- 

 freshment; the a])proaches of sleep are driven off by thinking: 

 when, therefore, il 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 inconvenien- 

 ces ; while, on the other hand, the king, who supposes himself 

 degraded, feels all the misery of his fallen fortune, without try- 

 ing to find the comforts of his humble situation. Thus, by day, 

 both states have their peculiar distresses : but, by night, the ex- 

 alted beggar is perfectly blessed, and the king completely miser- 

 able." All this, however, is rather fanciful than just; the plea- 

 sure dreams can give us, seldom reaches to our waking pitch of 

 happiness : the mind often, in the midst of its highest visionary 

 satisfactions, demands of itself, whether it does not owe them 

 to a dream ; and frequently awakes with the reply. 



But it is seldom, except in cases of the highest delight, or the 

 most extreme uneasiness, that the mind has power thus to dis- 

 engage itself from the dominion of fancy. In the ordinary course 

 of its operations, it submits to those numberless fantastic images 

 that succeed each other, and which, like many of our waking 

 thoughts, are generally forgotten. Of these, however, if any, 

 by their oddity, or iheir continuance, aftect us strongly, they are 

 then remembered ; and there have been some who felt their 

 imjjressions so strongly, as to mistake them for realities, and to 

 rank them among the past actions of their lives. 



There are others upon whom dreams seem to have a very 

 diiicrent efFcct; and who, without seeming to remenilscr their 

 impressions the next morning, have yet shown, by their actions 



