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inteftines, and the exclufion of the ftrong ftimulus of mental exertion, an accumulation of the IRRITABLE PRINCIPLE takes place during fleep, and the blood-veffels and abforbents have in confequence an increased action, and hence the nutriment is with great energy forced over every part of the system to repair the wastes of the preceding day for it is probable that nutrition is almost entirely performed in SLEEP; and that young animals grow more at this time than in their waking hours, as young plants have long fince been obferved to grow more in the night, which is generally their time of fleep. Hence alfo the heat of the fyftem is gradually increased, and the extremities of feeble people, which had been cold during the day, become warm, while in others fweats are so liable to break out towards morning *.

*Dr .DARWIN.

SECT.

SECT. XLI.

SOME PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

FROM the foregoing Section we learnt, that night is the time adapted for sleep; and from the Section on Habit*, the propriety of going to bed and rifing at a certain bour.

We have seen how this ftate is produced by the proper application of stimulant powers during the day, and fince it is to accumulate irritability in the fyftem, the chambers in which we fleep ought therefore to be filent, dark, and moderately cold, and fince the chief refreshment of sleep arifes from the oxygen, or vital, air, imbibed by the fyftem, forming a part of the digeftive procefs then going on, we should be cautious how we are furrounded by curtains.

In the state of nature, when the sense of hunger is appeased by the stimulus of agreeable food, and the bufinefs of the day is over, the human favage, at peace with the world, then exerts little attention to external objects ;

* Vide page 500.

VOL. II.

3 M

pleafing

pleafing reveries of his fucceffes in hunting fucceed, and at length fleep is the refult: till the system is recruited, and he awakes with fresh vigour.

In like manner the poor fleep little; forced, by their fituation, to lengthen out their labour to their neceffities, they however go to bed early in the evening, the irritable principle being exhausted by the labours of the preceding day, and they get up refreshed at fun-rife, and accumulate again fresh irritability by the coolness of the morning*.. The blooming complexion of our peasantry, the permanence of their good looks, and their strength and activity, compared with the fickly visage and ailing conftitutions of the Sons of Luxury, who turn night into day, and fleep in beds of down, clearly demonftrate which mode of life is moft conducive to health.

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It is justly faid by Dr. MACKENZIE, that he whọ fleeps long in the morning, and fits up late at night, hurts his conftitution without gaining time; and he who will do it merely in compliance with the fashion, ought not to repine at a fashionable ftate of bad bealth.

* Even Dr. CULLEN, in his laft work, expreffes himself with a precifion that is not frequently found in his theoretical writings, A seate of fleep, fays he, fubfifting for fome time, induces a ftate of the system more ready to be affected by fimuli of all kinds. Materia Medica, II. 223.

Sleep,

Sleep, tired Nature's fweet restorer, cannot be fafely dispensed with. Study, protracted far into the hours of night, cares harboured, and even very late hours in company, by encroaching on the hours adapted for fleep, are fure to lay the foundation of many dreadful difcafes.

If fleep does not pay the accustomed vifit, the whole frame of man will in a fhort time be thrown into diforder; his appetite ceases; his fpirits are dejected; and his mind, abridged of its flumbering vifions, begins to adopt waking dreams. A thousand strange phantoms arife, which come and go without his will: these, which are transient in the beginning, at last take firm poffeffion of the mind, which yields to their dominion, and, after a long struggle, runs into confirmed madness or death. But it is happy for mankind, that this state of inquietude is feldon driven to an extreme. However man finds it more difficult to procure fleep than any other animal, and fome are obliged to court its approaches for several hours together, before they incline to rest. It is in vain that all light is excluded; that all founds are removed; that books of entertainment are read; the restless and busy mind still retains its former activity; and reason that wishes to lay down the reins, 3 M 2

in

in spite of herself, is obliged to maintain them.

This is

ftrongly instanced by Shakespeare in the foliloquy of King HENRY.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
are at this hour afleep!-O! gentle fleep,
nature's foft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
that thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down,
and fteep my fenfes in forgetfulness?

Why, rather, fleep, ly'st thou in fmoaky cribs,
upon uneafy pallets ftretching thee,

and hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy flumber;
than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
under the canopies of costly state,

and lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god, why ly'st thou with the vile,

in loathfome beds; and leav'ft the kingly couch ?

A watch-cafe to a common larum bell!

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

feal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains

in cradle of the rude imperious furge;

and in the vifitation of the winds,

who take the ruffian billows by the top,

curling their monftrous heads, and hanging them
with deaf'ning clamours in the flippery throuds,

that with a hurly, death itself awakes?

Can't thou, O partial fleep! give thy repose

to the wet fea-boy in an hour fo rude;

and, in the calmest and stillest night,

with all appliances and means to boot,

deny it to a king.-Then happy are the low, they lie down,
uneafy is the head that wears a crown.

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