Connecticut western news., 1900-01-11

reflection, opportunity for kindling bright expectations of the world, where there is no night and where slumber will have no uses. God thinks | just as much of you when you get but three or four hours of sleep as when at night you get eight or nine hours.
 Remark the fifth Let all insomnists know for their consolation that some people sleep more rapidly than others,
 as much in one hour as others do in two, and hence do not require as long
 time in unconsciousness. In a book
 on the subject of health years ago I
 saw this fact stated by a celebrated
 medical scientist: Some people do ev- erything quick-they eat quick, they
 walk quick, they think quick, and of course they sleep quick. An express train can go as far In 30 minutes as a
 way train in 60 minutes. People of
 rapid temperaments ought not to ex- pect whole night to do the work of recuperation which slow temperaments require. Instead of making it a mat ter of irritation and alarm be a Chris
 tian philosopher and set down this ab-
 breviation of somnolence as a matter
 of temperament.
 He Shall Rise Up.
 Remark the sixth: The aged insom- nists should understand that if their eyes are held waking they do not re- quire as much sleep as once they did. Solomon, who in knowledge was thou sands of years ahead of his time in his wondrous description of old age, recognizes this fact. He not only speaks of the difficulty of mastication on the part of the aged when he says, "The grinders cease because they are few" and of the octogenarian's caution in getting up ladder or standing on a scaffolding, saying, ''They shall be afraid of that which is high" and speaks of the whiteness of the hair by comparing it to a tree that has white blossoms, saying, "The almond tree shall flourish" and speaks of the spinal cord, which Is of the color of silver and which relaxes in old age, giving the tremor to the head, saying, "The silver cord be loosed." But he says of the aged, "He shall rise up at the voice of the bird;" that is about half past 4 in the summer time, an appropriate hour for the bird to rise, for he goes to his nest or bough at half past ' in the evening. But the human mechan- ism has been so arranged that after 1t has been running a good while a change takes place, and instead of the almost perpetual sleep of the babe and the nine hours requisite in midlife six hours will do for the aged, and "he shall rise up at the voice of the bird" Let all aged men and women remem- Der that they have been permitted to do great deal of sleeping In their time and that If they do not sleep so well now as they used to it is because they do not require so much sleep.
 Remark the seventh: Insomnia is probably a warning that you had bet ter moderate your work. Most of those engaged in employments that pull on nerve and brain are tempted to omit necessary rest, and sleeplessness calls a halt. Even their pleasuring turns to work, as Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great painter, taking a walk with a friend, met a sun Drowned peasant boy and said, 'T must go home and deepen the coloring of my infant Her cules." The sun Drowned boy sug- gested an improvement in a great pie ture. By the time most people have reached midlife, if they have behaved well, more doors of opportunity open before them than they ought to enter. Power to decline, power to say No" they should now cultivate. When a man is determined to be useful and satan cannot dissuade him from that course, the great deceiver induces him to overwork and in that way get rid of him. We have thermometers to tell the heat, and barometers to tell the air, and ometers hung in engine rooms to tell the pressure of steam, and ometers to gauge and measure almost every thing. Would that some genius would invent an ometer which, being hung around the neck and dropped over heart and lung, would, by the pulsa- ton and respiration, tell whether one Is under too great pressure or might carry more. All brain workers would want such an ometer and want it right away. For the lack of it how many are dying and how many have died of overwork? A prominent financier who recently departed this life was an of ficer in over 100 financial and charita- ble institutions. Thousands of editors, of lawyers, of physicians, of mer- chants, of clergymen, are now dying of overwork. Do not be in the board of directors of more than three banks and two trust companies and five life and fire insurance establishments. Do not as pastor preach more than three ser mons a Sunday and superintend your own Sabbath school and conduct Bi- ble class the same day. Do not edit a paper and write for three magazines and go to four public dinners where you will be called to make a speech more than four times a week. Do not go so deep into the real estate business that before spring all the real estate you will really possess will be a piece of ground about six feet long and three feet wide. Your insomnia is the voice of nature, the voice of God, saying, "Better slow upp' Stop that long. swift train, the wheels of which are taking fire from the velocity and smok- ing with the hot box. Do not burn the candle at both ends. Do not under too many burdens sweat like camel trudging from Aleppo to Damascus. Do not commit suicide.
 The Last Sleep.
 Remark the eighth: All the victims of insomnia ought to be consoled with the fact that they will have a good, long sleep after awhile. Sacred and
 profane literature again and again
 speak of that last sleep. God knew that the human race would be disposed
 to make a great ado about exit from
 this world, and so he inspires Job and David and Daniel and John and Paul
 to call that condition sleep" When
 at Bethany the brother who was the support of his sisters after their fla