Evening star., 1926-12-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Thaxter expressed 1t well when she
wrote:
Dear little head. that lies in calm
content
Within the gracious hollow that God
made
In every human shoulder. where He
meant
Some tired head for comfort should
be laid"
A traveller in a far country-yes!
Then the trammels Of every day are
laid aside, and for a Hief moment
the onlooker Is allowed TO look into
the mystery of life.
Many a thoughtless man has been
turned to silent contemplation of life,
love and gentleness by the sight Of a
sleeping baby, and many another
moved to emotions which he did not
know he possessed by the helplessness
Of his little boy sleeping by his side.
Travellers in a far country, all
these little ones, sleeping in their
little beds the world over, some in
luxury, some in misery, some sur.
rounded by love, others by ignorance
and vice, twins Of evil.
Sleep grasses from the human coun-
tenance. even from the fresh faces
of children, the cares Of the restless
human mind, and, unless replaced by
the strange emotions of the even
more restless subconscious mind,
there results a certain placidness, if
one may so call it. hardly ever to be
found on a wide-awake face
Although sleep may be regarded as
a twin Of death, there Is really little
chance Of mistaking the two states,
since the first Is loss Of conscious
ness much less complete than the
second.
The aspects of life. the very act of
breathing, the flush of normally
coursing blood, even though slowed
down. makes the sleeping face diff.
ferent.
Swinburne, in one Of his poems, sets
forth the softening effect of the sight
of a sleeping woman upon the behold
err, granted that the same beholder
had the instincts of a gentleman.
This is the normal effect Of the sight
Of a sleeper upon right.thinking be-
holder. This appeal, made primarily
by helplessness, touches the heart,
and stirs in all but the most degen-
crate the finest emotions of the
human soul.
Shakespeare's poem about Tarquin
and Lucrece has always seemed
very poor sort or thing, despite the
praise given it, principally because it
so violated this principle of human
conduct.
Men, women and children are, in
deed, travellers in a far country, and
it would seem that every one recog.
nizes this instantly when he looks
at one asleep. In the hurly- -burly of
the day 1t is not so easy to see. The
feeling resembles somewhat that de-
scribed by Dickens in one Of his
stories, which beset crowd when
drowning man was being brought
back to consciousness. He was a
worthless sort Of man, or even worse,
but when unconscious he made an
appeal which he never could when in
possession of his evil conscious mind.
In a state something resembling that
OF sleep, men saw him only as
human being, life struggling to
retain life, and life is always precious
to human beings. When he was
finally put on his feet, however, this
feeling instantly vanished. and the
crowd said, in effect, Jaw, shucks!'
or something along that order.
This is the effect the sight of a
sleeper has upon the average human
being. He sees in such a one, not SO
much a particular human being as
life. The sensitive will view sleep.
ing animals in much the same way.
They. too, are mysteries Of life, most
V1Vidly realized as so when fast
asleep, mystery within a mystery.
dream within a dream.