# Familiar Colloquies/Concerning Early Rising

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CONCERNING EARLY RISING.
Nephalius and Philypnus.
Ne. I would have been glad to have met with you to-day, Philyp- nus, but your servants denied that you were at home. Ph. They did not tell you altogether false; I was not at home, indeed, to you, but I was never more at home to myself. Ne, What riddle is this 1 Ph. You know the old proverb, I don't sleep to all, nor can you forget that pleasant joke of Nasica, to whom, when he would have visited his old friend Ennius, the maid, by her master's command, denied him to be ​at home. Nasica perceived how matters went, and departed. After- wards Ennius, in his turn, entering the house of Nasica, asks the boy whether his master was within or not. Nasica cries aloud from an inner room, saying, I am not at home. Ennius, knowing his voice, cries, Art thou not an impudent fellow? Dost think I don't know thee when thou speakest? Rather you, says Nasica, are the more impudent, who won't give credit to me myself when I believed your servant.
Ne. Perhaps you were very busy. Ph. JSTo, in troth, I was most pleasantly at leisure. Ne. Again you perplex me with riddles. Ph. Why, then, I will speak plainly, and not call anything out of its name. Ne. Say on. Ph. In short, I was fast asleep. Ne. What sayest thou? what, at past eight, when the sun rises' this month before four? Ph. The sun is very welcome to rise at midnight for me ; truly I love to sleep my bellyful. Ne. But was this by accident, or is it your common custom ? Ph. Why, truly, I am pretty much used to it.
Ne. But the habit of evil is most pernicious. Ph. There is no sleep so pleasant as after sunrising.
Ne. Prithee, at what hour do you use to leave your bed ? Ph. Why, some time betwixt four and nine. Ne. A very pretty space of time, truly ; a woman of quality is scarce so long a dressing. But how came you into this agreeable method ? Ph. Because we used to spend most part of the night in good eating and drinking, play, merriment, and what not, and this expense we repay by a good sound sleep in the morning. Ne. I scarce ever saw a prodigal more undone than thee. Ph. It seems to me rather parsimony than profuseness ; for in the meantime I neither burn my candles nor wear out my clothes. Ne. Ridiculous pai-simony, to destroy jewels that thou mayest preserve glass. The philosopher was of quite another opinion, who, being asked what was the most precious thing, replied time. Moreover, when it plainly appears that the morning is the best part of the whole day, you delight to destroy the most precious part of the most precious thing. Ph. Is that destroyed which is given to the body ? Ne. It is rather taking away from the body, which is then best affected, most lusty and strong, when it is refreshed by timely and moderate sleep, and corro- borated by early rising.
Ph. But it is a pure pleasant thing to sleep. Ne. What can be pleasant to him who has no sense of anything ? Ph. Why, that alone is pleasing to have no sense of trouble. Ne. At this rate, those are most happy who sleep in their graves, for they are never disturbed with troublesome dreams. Ph. They say the body is fed very much by sleep. Ne. This is the food of dormice and not of men. The beasts who are made only to eat are crammed very fitly, but how does it relate to man to heap up fat, unless that he may trudge on under the greater burden? Tell me now, if you had a servant, would you have him fat and lumpish or gay and spritely, apt for any employ- ment? Pk. But I am no servant. Ne. No matter; it is enough for me that you had rather have one alert and tit for business, than a fellow stoutly crammed. Ph. Certainly I would. Ne. Now, Plato says, The mind of a man is the man, the body nothing more than the mansion or instrument. You will certainly confess, I suppose, the soul to be the principal part of a man, the body only the attendant of ​the mind. Ph. Be it so, if you will. Ne. Since, then, thou wouldst not have a belly-gut for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile, why, then, dost thou provide for thy mind a minister fat and unwieldy ? Ph. I yield to truth.
Ne. Now, see another misfortune. As the mind far excels the body, so you will confess that the riches of the mind far exceed the goods of the body. Ph. What you say is very probable. Ne. But amongst all the goods of the mind wisdom holds the chief place. Ph. T confess it. Ne. For obtaining this no time is more n't than the morning, when the new -rising sun gives fresh vigour and life to all things, and dispels those fumes which are exhaled from the stomach, which are wont to cloud the mansion of the mind. Ph. I do not deny it. Ne. Now, do but consider what a share of learning you might obtain in those four hours which you consume in unseasonable sleep. Ph. Truly, a great share. Ne. I have experienced that more may be done at study in one hour in the morning than in three after noon, and that without any detriment to the body. Ph. I have heard as nruch. Ne. Consider this further : if you should bring into a gross sum the loss of each particular day, what a vast deal would it amount to ! Ph. A great deal, indeed. Ne. He who heedlessly confounds money and jewels is deemed a prodigal, and has a guardian appointed him. Now, he who destroys these so much more precious goods, is not he a prodi- gal of a far deeper dye 1 Ph. Certainly it is so, if we rightly weigh the matter.
Ne. Consider further what Plato writes, That there is nothing fairer, nothing more amiable than wisdom, which, if it could be seen by corporeal eyes, would raise to itself an incredible number of ad- mirers. Ph. But she is not capable of being seen. Ne. I own she is not with corporeal eyes ; but she is to be seen with the eyes of the mind, which is the better part of man. And where the love is in- credible, there must necessarily be the highest pleasure, as often as the mind enjoys so pleasing a mistress. Ph. What you say is very probable. Ne. Go now, if you think good, and barter this enjoyment for sleep, that image of death. Ph. But in the meantime I lose my dear nocturnal sports. Ne. Those things are well lost, which being worst are changed for the best, shameful for honourable, most vile for the most precious. He has happily lost his lead who has changed it into gold. Nature has appointed the night for sleep; the sun arising recals all the animal species, and especially men, to their several offices. They who sleep (saith St. Paul, 1 Thess. 5) sleep in the night, and they who are drunken are drunken in, the night. Therefore, what can be more unseemly than, when all animals rouse with the sun, nay, some even before his appearance, and as it were with a song salute his coming; when the elephant adores the rising sun, man only should lie snoring long after his rising. As often as his golden rays enlighten thy chamber, does he not seem thus to upbraid thee as thou liest sleeping : Fool ! why dost thou delight to destroy the best part of thy life ^ I shine not for this purpose, that you may hide yourselves and sleep, but that you may attend your honest employments. No man lights a lamp to sleep by, but that he may pursue some sort of labour ; and by this lamp, the fairest, the most refulgent of all lamps, wretched thou doat nothing but snore. Ph. You declaim smartly. ​Ne. Not smartly, but truly. Come on, you have often heard that of Hesiod, It is too late to spare when all is spent. Ph. Very frequently; for in the middle of the pipe the wine is best. Ph. But in life the first part that is to say, youth, is best. Ph. Verily, so it is. Ne. And the morning is the same to the day as youth is to life. Do not they then act foolishly who spend their youth in trifles and their morning hours in sleep 1 Ph. So it appears. Ne. Is there any possession which may be compared with a man's life 1 Ph. No, not the whole Persian treasure. Ne. Wouldst thou not vehemently hate the man that by evil arts could and would curtail thy years, and shorten thy thread of life 1 Ph. I would rather do my endeavour to destroy his life. Ne. But I deem those far worse, and more guilty, who voluntarily render their own lives shorter. Ph. I confess it, if any such are to be found. Ne. To be found ! It is what all who are like thee do. Ph. Good words, man. Ne. The best. Thus consider with your own self whether Pliny has spoken justly or not, when he says, All life is one continued watching, and he lives most who employs the greatest part of his time in study. For sleep is a kind of death ; therefore the poets feign it to come from the infernal shades ; and it is called by Homer the cousin-german of death ; and so those who sleep can scarce be numbered either amongst the dead or living, but of the two they seem most properly named amongst the dead. Ph. I am entirely of your opinion.
Ne. Now, tell me fairly how much of life do they cut off who every day destroy three or four hours in sleep 1 Ph. Truly, a vast deal. Ne. Would not you esteem him as a god, if there were an alchemist who could find a way to add ten years to the length of your life, and when you are advanced in years reduce you to youth and vigour? Ph. Ay, why should I not ? Ne. And this so divine blessing thou mayest obtain from thy own self. Ph. Which way ? Ne. Because the morning is the vigorous youth of the day ; this youth flourishes till noon, the evening succeeds by the name of old age, and call sunset the article of death. Frugality is a handsome income, and never more necessary than in this case. Now, has not he been a great gainer who has avoided losing the greatest and best part of life 1 Ph. All these things are too true.
Ne. How intolerably impudent, then, must they seem who accuse nature, and complain that the life of man is short and little, when they themselves voluntarily cut off so great a part of that little which nature gave 1 Life is long enough, if men would but use it prudently. Nor has he made a small progress who knows how to do everything in season. After dinner we are scarce half men, when the body, loaded with meats, burdens and oppresses the mind ; nor is it safe to excite or draw up the spirits from nature's kitchen the stomach, where they are employed in the business of concoction ; after supper, much less. But in the morning a man is effectually and all a man, when his body is apt and fit for every employment, when the soul is active and in full force, and all the organs of the mind serene and in tranquillity, whilst it breathes a part of that divine flatus (as one says), has a relish of its great original, and is rapt or hurried on to commendable actions. Ph. Truly, you harangue very elegantly. Ne. Agamemnon, in Homer, tells us, It is unbecoming a man of counsel to sleep the whole night. ​How much greater then the fault to spend so much of the day in sleep. Ph. True ; but this has respect to a man of counsel. I am no general of an army.
Ne. If there is anything more dear to you than yourself, do not be moved or affected by this opinion of Homer. A brasier will rise before it is light, only in hopes of some poor advantage. And has not the love of wisdom power to rouse and stir us up, that we may at least hear the approaching sun calling us forth to profit inestimable ? Physicians rarely give physic but in the morning. They know the golden hours in which they may assist the body; and shall we be ignorant of those precious hours in which we may heal and enrich the mind 1 Now, if these things are of small weight with you, hear what Solomon says ^(Prov. viii. 17). Wisdom, heavenly wisdom herself speaks : "They who seek me early shall find me." So in the holy Psalms, Iviii. and Ixxxvii., what praise and commendation is there of the morning seasons ! In the morning the prophet extols the mercy of the Lord ; in the morning his voice is heard; his prayers come before God in the morning. And, according to Luke the evangelist, chap, vi., the people, seeking from the Lord cure and instruction, flocked together to Him early in the morning. Why dost thou sigh, Philypnus ? Ph. I can scarce refrain weeping when I consider what a waste I have made of life.
Ne. It is all in vain to torment yourself about those things which cannot be recalled, but may nevertheless be repaired in time to come. Apply yourself to this rather than in vainly deploring what is past ; lose also some part of the future. Ph. You advise well, but long habit has entirely overcome me. Ne. Phy ! One nail drives out another, and custom is overcome by custom. Ph. But it is difficult to forego those things to which we have been long accustomed. Ne. In the beginning, I grant ; but a different habit first lessens the uneasiness, anon changes it into the highest pleasure, so that it will not repent you to have undergone a short discipline. Ph. I am afraid it will never succeed. Ne. Why, truly, if you were seventy years of age, I would not attempt to draw you from your wonted course ; but if I guess right, you are scarce seventeen ; and what is there that that age is not able to overcome, if there be but a willing mind ? Ph. I will attempt it, and endeavour of a Philypnus to be made a Philologus, of a lover of sleep a lover of learning. Ne. If you do this, my Philypnus, I am very well satisfied after a few days you will congratulate yourself, and give me thanks who advised you.