VI. 



SLEEP. 



Man is certainly to a. marvellous degree a 

 creature of habit. Every clay at a fixed hour — 

 barring accidents — the vast majority of us sit 

 down to the domestic board and proceed inconti- 

 nently to eat our dinners, without having ever 

 once paused to inquire, " Why on earth should we 

 always go through this remarkable and somewhat 

 monotonous daily proceeding?" To be sure, we 

 do not mean to assert that man is more a crea- 

 ture of habit and less incjuisitive in this respect 

 than other animals, for we do not for a moment 

 suppose that a philosophic tiger, in full sight of a 

 nice, juicy, tender antelope, ever stopped and eyed 

 his victim abstractedly, while he asked himself tiie 

 metaphysical question, "What is the ultimate end 

 of eating ? " Still it is a fact that most of us do 

 actually go on consuming food all on/; lives long, 

 without any except the veiy vaguest i)ossible idea 

 that it is in some way necessary for kee[)ing uj) 

 the strength of the body. We know that, if we 

 did not eat at all, we should starve to death, and 

 that, if we even went without food for a whole 



05 



