Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-06-08
On Getting Up.

Aristides called the just, maintains, as
Lamb did, that there is something Pa
gan and Persian about seeing the sun
rise, and that no Christian sholAd leave
his pillow before half past ten. But
common consent attributes more excel
lence, not to say saving grace, to the
mere act of getting up betimes. And in
none of the concerns of this contradictory
world is the difference between precept
and practice more comically wide than
here.~~For who-of US, being of full age
and sound disposing mind, doth, in the
name of wisdom and of worth, leave his
inviting couch one moment earlier than
he is driven thence by his importunate
affairs?
Most persons, indeed, are early risers
overnight. They appreciate the
economic value of the morning hours.
They know the right, and they approve
it, too; condemn the wrong, and still
the wrong pursue. Every night they
vow, and every mornig they do not pay.
Yet of their pleasant vice is made the
instrument to scourge them. The last
haif-hour in bed is questionable pleas
ure. They can not sleep. Their doze
Is or-nented by consciousness that
they ought to have risen at their self
appointed time. Aud, finally, the hav-
ing to get up is just as hard as it would
have been at first, while the sense of
hurry and belatedness is both depress-
ing and exasperating.
Leaving out of consideration that I'M
pleasant moiety of mankind which re-
CARDS early rising as an end, not q
means, and goes about with an air of
having conquered the seven deadly sins
in the mere act of getting up an hour
before anybody else-notwithstandin
we say, these Pharisees, it would really
be a long stride onward toward ultimate
perfection if to do were as easy as to
know what were good to be done in this
daily difficulty.
Doctors generally are agreed that the
more nearly we conform our active
hours to those of the sun, the higher is
the health of the race. Children go to
bed with the dusk, and wake, joyously,
eager, active, almost with the dawn. If
we watch ourselves closely, we shall
ably between eight and nine O'Clock,
the room being quiet, there is apt to
overtake US a drowsy feeling as of the
approach of bedtime. Having no
more nonsense about US than Mrs. Ed
mund Sparkler, we shake ourselves
awake in a shamfaced manner, talk,
read an exciting story, or play cards for
two or three hours, and then, the fine
blood-vessels of the brain being we'll
filled, the mind well reused, the memory
well stored with material to be spun in
to nightmare visions, we go to bed.
Now this inopportune heaviness is the
angel of slunber, which we ought to
hold fast till it gives its blessings. Ma
ture is ready to tuck US in, under a COW
erlet of delightful dreams, to such sleep
as can not be commanded later in the
night. Of course, early rising would
be the natural and necessary corollary
to this early setting. But though We 90
to be too late, We are apt to remain
there to long. Too much sleep leaves
the brain sodden, as too little leaves it
starved. And as matter of health
alone, it is better even for delicate
women to rise early, and take short
nap, if they feel the need of rest, late in
the afternoon.
Nothing can be so bad for a high
strung, sensitive, quick-brained genera
ton as the sense of incessant hurry. If
it be impossible to shake off the Old
Man of the Sea, as we sometimes fear,
at least the burden will seem lighter
if we begin the daily march betimes,
and have all the time there is. Yet 70
90 to bed with the consciousness of the
necessity of waking at certain hour is
often to Danish sleep from the eyes and
slumber from the eyelids. 1t is better,
therefore, tc establish a vicarious con-
science, either in the form of an alarm
clock or of some trusty servant, until
the habit of arousing at an appointed
time becomes as regular as the stroke of
the hammer.
And if neither the shrill-tongued
alarm, nor considerations of health, nor
ease in work, nor convenience, can move
us to reform, perhaps the wisdom of
Marcus Aurelius may not be in vain.
For however Philosophy may cry aloud
in the streets and no man regard her, it
is not the custom of polite society to
close its ears when an Emperor speaks:
"When you find an unwillingness to
rise early in the morning." observed the
sage, SNAKE this short speech to your
self: I'm getting up now to do the
business of a man, and am L out of hui
NOR for going about that [ was made
for. and for the sake of which l was sent
into the world? Was L, then, designed
for nothing but to doze and batten be-
meath the counterpane!' well, but this
is a comfortable way of living Grant
ing that, were you born only for pleas
ure? Were you never to do anything? 1
thought action had been the end of your
being. Pray look upon the plants and
birds, the pismires, spiders, and bees,
and You'll see them all regular and in
dustrious, exerting their nature, and
busy in their station. For shame! Shall
q spider act like spider, and make the
most of her matters, and shall not
man act like a man? Why don't you
rouse your faculties, and manage up TO
your kind?' For all that, there's no
living without rest True; but then
let's follow natures direction, and not
take too much of it. Providence does
not grant force and faculties at random,
but everything is made for some end.
The sun, as high as It's, has its business
assigned, and so have the celestial del
ties. And where's the wonder of all
this? Bat prav what were YOU made for?