The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-02-05
SLEEP AS THEME OF
POET And SCIENTIST
Praise and Warnings Given to
Wooers of Good Dan
Morpheus.
HE AMOUNT NECESSARY
Faculty of Some Strange People to In
dulgc When and as They Please,
and to Abstain for Very
Long Periods.

London Globe: The praise Of sleep
has ever been a favorite theme Of the
poets, ranking with the return Of spring
and the flowers that bloom therein, and
many very beautiful and Well-deserved
things they have written about 1t. EV-
cry young student of polite learning
has had his, or her, attention called to
such passages as Macbeth's:
sleep, that knits up the ravelld sleave
OF care,
The death of each days life, sore labor'd
bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great natures Sec
Ond course,
Chief nourisher in Ife's feast"
Or to the famous and exquisite OPEN
ing lines Of Shelly.s "Ianthe," or the
lines in THE Ancient Mariner" And
surely he were a rascal, yea, forsooth!
knave, to quote Sir John, and a mon
strous ungrateful dog withal, who
would think to sheer at the poets
praises as exaggerated. Be such an
one condemned to insomnia and the
drug bottle until he mends his man
nerS.
But all these abundant poetic
phrases have for their object, we may
safely assume, that formal and neces-
sary sleep, and, noiseless, too, on the
sweetness and efficacy Of which there
is no need that we should here enlarge.
L u L plOSGlCdlly, .lIitlI l.lClllG lS Tie Oh
thodox sleep which is commonly ac-
complished in bed. Here it is, then,
that our plaguey Well-meaning friend,
the man of science, steps up, Wagging
q warning finger, and bidding US not
to overdo the thing. He is formal and
precise himself and wOuld have our
sleep formal and precise, too. He has a
store Of wise saws on the subject, us
ua1ly on the lines of that old Latin
distich, translated by Sir William
Jones, and amended by him to the be-
wildernent of Mr.. Croker:
six hours to sleep, to laws grave study
six,
-Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature
Sunday Afternoon.
Six hours to sleep! Well, well, far
be it from us to dogmatize and lay
down the law as to the number Of
hours necessary. But we have a
| shrewd suspicion that some small por-
ton of the time which. Sir William as
signs to nature would be spent, by the
weaker followers of this plan, as George
Borrow's publisher spent, unless we are
sadly mistaken, his Sunday afternoons.
And oW, sir" said that eminent and
outspoken gentleman, permit me to
INFORM you mat / wish to be alone.
h is Sunday afternoon, sir; ] never
go to church, but l am in the habit of
spending part of every Sunday after
noon alone-pro1itably, / hope, sir-in
musing on the maGnificence of nature
and the moral dignity of man"
Sunday afternoon! Sunday afternoon
and.informal sleep! Something is in the
air, irresistibly ~insinuating, wooing you
something Of the spirit of sleep, priv
LEGGED to work its will between the
hours Of luncheon and tea. Paterfa-
miliaS slips away unOStentatiously to
hiC study with fhn current n,tr,h ar. ,f
the first review or newspaper that
comes to his hand; much of it he will
read! Materfamilias retires to mediate
on the dear r%ector's sermon and Nine.
Martalinl's account for the deal girls
new frocks; peaceful be thy medita-
tons, dear lady. One by one the best
of the household steal silently away to
muse on the mora dignity of a Sc
ductive droWsiness turks in every sym
pathetic chair, and against is wiles
the lightest of light literature is vainly
pitted. Here IN the drawing room two
fair daughters of the house are breath
ing audibly with closed eyes, and or
the floor by the side Of each lies a work
from Mr.. Nudes. Let us go hence or
tiptoe, how beautiful is sleep! Here ir
the smoking room, deep in one big
chair with legs on another, the gallant
son Of the house IS extended, trumpet,
: ing; how very boisterous is sleep! You
Will not be one OF the mpa OF in,
formal sleepers? Why, then, arise anG
. ,ie hat and STAFF, and go a-walkine
~satantly; look not behind thee. Out.
of-doors and on the move you will be
free from the enchantments Of Oar
Morpheus; in the house you will bt
poWerless to resist them. But why, at
ter all, resist? His Godship is a RICH
pleasant fellow in his informal vista
tons. Stay and be subtly tempted. Here
you have the chair Of chairs for Sunday
m~editations; and here is a pretty vol
ume Of minor poetry, wherein the lotu!
blooms abundantly.
The Week Day Siesta.
Well, Of course, any one can sleep IN,
formally on a Sunday afternoon, 70
whatever be the reason, the day un
douhtedly invites it. Most persons, toe
of 20 years old and upward, can easil,
acquire the habit of the gentle siest;
on weekday afternoons. But surel:
! they are the elect who can deal wit
Dan Morpheus as though he were