The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-09

plished in bed. Here it is, then, that our plaguey but well meaning friend, 1 the man of science, steps up, wagging | a warning finger, and bidding us not to l 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, l usually on the lines of that old Latin | distich, translated by Sir William Jones and amended by him to the bewilder- ment of MT. Croker: Six hours to sleep. to laws grave study 1
 six; Four spend in prayer, the rest on na-
 ture fix.
 Six hours to sleep! Well, well, far be from us to dogmatize and lay down the law as to the number of hours necessa- ry. But We have shrewd suspicion that some small portion of the time which Sir William assigns to nature would be spent, by the weaker follow CTS of his plan, as George Borrow's publisher spent, unless we are sadly mistaken, his Sunday afternoons. "And now, sir" said that eminent and outspoken gentleman, permit me to in form you that wish to be alone. This
 is Sunday afternoon, sir; never go to | church, but am in the habit of spend-
 ing part of every Sunday afternoon alone-prof1tably hope, sir-in musing
 on the magnificence of nature and the moral dignity of man."
 Sunday afternoon! Sunday afternoon and-informal sleeps. Something is in the air, irresistibly insinuating, wooing you-sodething of the Spirit of Sleep, privileged to work it's will between the | rours of lunch and tea. Paterfamilias slips away unostentiously to his study | with the current number of the first re-
 view or newspaper that comes to hand; ! much of it he will read! Materfamilias retfres to, mediate on the dear rector's
 sermon and Madame Mantalinrs ac- count for the dear girls new frocls; l peaceful be thy meditations, dear lady, | One by one the rest of the household 1 steal silently away to muse on the moral dignity of man. Seductive
 drowsiness turks in every sympathetic chair, and against it's wiles the lightest of light literature is vainly pitted. Here in the drawing room two fair daughters of the house are breathing audibly with
 closed eyes, and on the floor by the side of each lies a work from MT. Mu- l dies. Let us go hence on tiptoe; how
 beautiful in sleep. Here in the smoke
 ing room, deep in one big chair with
 his legs on another, the gallant son, of the house is extended. trumpeting; how
 very boisterous is sleep! You will not l be of the company of informal sleep T CTS? Why then, arise and take hat and staff, and go a-walking instant;
 look not behind thee. Out of doors and
 on the move you will be free from the I entertainments of Dan Morpheus; in the house you will be powerless to resist them. But why, after all, resist? His godship Is a right pleasant fellow in his
 informal visitations. Stay and be subtly tempted. Here you have the chair of chairs for Sunday meditations;
 and here Is a pretty volume of minor
 poetry, wherein the Lotus blooms abundantly.
 4 Well, of course one can sleep infor-
 mally on Sunday afternoon, for,
 whatever be the season, the day un-
 doubted1y invites it. Most persons, too,
 of twenty years old and upward, can
 easily acquire the habit of the gentle
 siesta on week day afternoons. But
 surely they are the elect who can deal with Dan Morpheus as though he were
 slave of the lamp, as to speak, bid
 ding him come for ten or twenty min
 utes and then depart, doing this, too, at
 any hour of the day and in practically 1 any place. Was it not the great Duke
 of Wellington who once asked how
 long it would be before the French
 could appear and on hearing that he
 had half an hour or so to spare. rolled
 himself up in his cloak and then and
 there took his forty winks? The Fat
 Boy in "Pickwick" was the greatest ar
 tist in this respect of whom we have
 any record, at least in that fiction
 which is less strange than truth, But
 in real life there are highly gifted per
 sons who are able to summon sleep in formally to their aid. By this means
 you may see and hear them beguiling
 the tedium of journey or a musical i, comedy. Not seldom, too, does some
 great mind call in-the help of informal
 sleep to deliver him from the tongue of I the babbler and the wearisome reitera-
 tion of dull arguments. So it is that great statesmen have been known to drop off to sleep on the benches of both
 houses of Parliament, and great judges ;, close eyes upon their bench, and coun- ty magnaes at political meetings nod sapiently while the local member is ex- pounding high policy to the yokels.
 So it is, too, that sometimes when our
 good curate's sermon is just the least
 bit. But no; that Is not sleep; it Is , surely no more than meditation; for see, the rector's wife hesself, good lady who is absolutely above suspicion , has fallen into the same attitude.
 Few things are more horrible and de- licious at the same time than to be at- 7 tackled by sleep at time and in place ) when and where you have no business 5 whatever, on any grounds, to give way f to it. When you are sitting with youl 3 wife, for instance, on the seashore ir
 the early days of your honeymoon, you are not wholly immune from an attack v and if you succumb you are liable to be j. most woefully, misunderstood. Many z r little rift in the domestic lute of Ed
 win and Angeline has taken it's risC ) from Edwin's after luncheon nap. And can you wonder? Go it may come upor r you when you are taking your ricf