KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



277 



THE VALUE OF SLEEP. 



Habit influences in some degree the 

 amount of sleep that is required. It should 

 be said, however, that it is never well to 

 withhold any of the revenue that is justly due 

 to the drowsy god. 



A man may accustom himself to take so 

 little sleep, as to be greatly the loser 

 thereby in his waking moments. It may be 

 commonly observed, that those persons who 

 spend less time in sleep than is usually 

 found needful by others of the same age and 

 strength, and occupation, consume a much 

 larger portion of their days than others do, 

 in a kind of dreamy vacancy, a virtual inac- 

 tivity of mind and body. The hours ex- 

 pended in sleep are not the only hours that 

 might be justifiably deducted from the sum 

 total of the life, as having been lost to it ; 

 numbers of moments are daily spent in an 

 absolute inaction of mind and body; and 

 sleep cannot be robbed of its dues, without 

 adding largely, and in greater proportion 

 than the time habitually stolen from the 

 sleep, to that which is wasted in such waking 

 reveries. 



In order that the mind may have the 

 power ©f undergoing trying and exhausting 

 labor, that it may continue in the full pos- 

 session of its capabilities, that it may 

 -continue to be raidulled and unblunted by 

 such wear and such use — an amount of sleep 

 must be allowed which is proportionate to 

 the severity of such work, to the engrossing 

 and expending nature of the mind's employ- 

 ment. The nights may be robbed of the 

 hours of sleep ; and the time so stolen may 

 be devoted to toil of mind or of body ; but 

 the endurance by the system of the undue 

 waste and imperfectly restored balance of 

 the vital force, even if somewhat protracted 

 •by the strength of the constitution, or if 

 prolonged somewhat by the energy of a 

 determined will, or by the spur of a great 

 necessity, or by the desired goal of a great 

 ambition or daring hope, must be short- 

 lived. 



The system cannot be robbed of its sleep, 

 says Dr. Robertson, without a corresponding 

 disturbance and derangement of the func- 

 tions ; the power and the equilibrium of the 

 vital forces will become so far affected as 

 to involve disordered action ; and thus 

 indirectly by forming part of the common 

 organism, and directly by the diminished 

 tension of the vital forces which supply the 

 sensorium itself, the mind will become unable 

 to continue its exertions. Many an ardent 

 and hopeful aspirant for collegiate distinc- 

 tions, many an anxious laborer for profes- 

 sional eminence, has thrown away his hopes 

 in thus vainly struggling to cheat the system 

 of this great requirement. 



SPARE MY FLOWER, 



BY THE REV. H. T. LYTE. 



O, spare my flower, my gentle flower, 



The slender creature of a day I 

 Let it bloom out its little hour, 



And pass away ! 

 Too soon its fleeting charms must lie 



Decayed, unnoticed, overthrown ; 

 0, hasten not its destiny, — 

 Too like thine own ! 



The breeze will roam this way to-morrow, 



And sigh to find its playmate gone : 

 The bee will come its sweets to borrow, 



And meet with none. 

 O spare ! and let it still outspread 

 Its beauties to the passing eye, 

 And look up from its lowly bed 

 Upon the sky ! 



0, spare my flower ! Thou know'st not what 



Thy undiscerning hands would tear ! 

 A thousand charms, thou notest not, 



Lie treasured there. 

 Not Solomon in all his state, 



Was clad like Nature's simplest child ; 

 Nor could the world combined create 

 One floweret wild. 



Spare, then, this humble monument 



Of an Almighty's power and skill ; 

 And let it at His shrine present 



Its homage still. 

 He made it who makes nought in vain, 



He watches it who watches thee ; 

 And He can best its date ordain, 

 Who bade it be. 



0, spare my flower, — for it is frail ; 

 A timid, weak, imploring thing ; 

 And let it still upon the gale, 



Its moral fling. 

 That moral thy reward shall be : 



Catch the suggestion and apply : — 

 " Go, like me," it cries, " like me, 

 Soon, soon to die." 



TO MIDSUMMER-DAY. 



Crown of the Year, how bright thou shinest ! 



How little, in thy pride, divinest 



Inevitable fall ! albeit 



We who stand round about thee see it. 



Shine on ; shine bravely. There are near 



Other bright children of the Year, 



Almost as high, and much like thee 



In features and in festive glee : 



Some happy to call forth the mower, 



And hear his sharpened scythe sweep o'er 



Rank after rank : then others wait 



Before the grange's open gate, 



And watch the nodding wain, or watch 



The fretted domes beneath the thatch, 



Till young and old at once take wing, 



And promise to return in Spring. 



Yet I am sorry, I must own, 



Crown of the Year! when thou art gone. 



Walter Savage Landor. 



