66 SLEEP. 



day together, we slioiild suffer from a very incon- 

 venient iiitern;d gnawing wliicli we call luinger; 

 and that knowledge is quite enongh for almost all 

 of us, without any further minute prying into the 

 exact details of the digestive process. Nature has 

 quite sufficiently endowed us with an immediate 

 inducement to do our duty in this respect, by pro- 

 viding us with the sense of taste and the feeling 

 of apjietite. It is just the same with sleep. Night 

 after night, as the clock points to the accustomed 

 hour, we all betake ourselves to what Mr. Dick 

 Swiveller elliptically described in his own })eculiar 

 dialect as " the downy," and there seek with vary- 

 ing success to court what the same eminent 

 linguistic authority has christened "the balmy." 

 If asked why we want to spend nearly half our 

 lives in bed, and why we wish at that particular 

 moment to do the very same thing that we have 

 done every night of our lives already till we 

 ought to be tired of it, a few very philosophical 

 people might indeed answer, " Because we are in 

 need of rest"; but the w'orld at large would cer- 

 tainly respond in cheerful innocence, "Because 

 we're sleepy." Nature has provided that wise 

 and foolish, philosophers and ignoramuses, should 

 all jdike take the necessary repose, whether they 

 know the reasons for doing so, or whether they 

 know them not ; and that is certainly one of the 

 advantages of being a creature of habit. 



