The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1888-11-06 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

RECREATION.—It is too often the case thst abilities are allowed to run waste, talents to lie fallow, and all former cultivation of the mind to be as nil in the absorbing attention Which is given to domestic affairs. The butcher, the baker, and the greengrocer are far more important to us than the poets ; we cannot give our minds to music, or painting, or steady reading. It is all housekeeping, and the things (hereunto appertabling—very praiseworthy, no doubt, but; unsatisfactory to minds which are capable of taking in something more than the continual round of tradespeople, meals, and servants. Surely a little time, if gaily one hour a day, fenced in religiously from interruptions, and given to the pursuit of any favourite art or study, would be very beneficial to the mind, and would give far more freshness and vigour for other duties, which become so wearisome when spread abroad over the whole twelve hours with no cessation. A commeu interest, like an ambulance class, or a choral s)edety, or a centred of lectures once or twice a tveA, is a great boon, as many wearied housewks, •)1,1. ;(11.1 a delightful incentive to turn to "liesl kcils and pastures new," instead of Isv ys gui I g (ii in the old groove. What kII Is nicti is disciatt•aveinent. It is sitting down (motor 1, run We ii at. ,le riivs mon ; it is standing up and mocking trouble that enables men to go through it without harm. People who are always I alk hes sentiment have usually not very deep feelings ; the less water you have in your kettle the sooner ib will boil. Necessiry or SI.EEp. —There are thousands of busy people who die every year for want of sleep. Sleeplessness becomes a disease, and is the precursor of insanity. We speak of sleep as the image of death, awl our waking ideas as the image of life. Sleep is not like death ; for it is the period in which the wets(' of the system ceases, or is reduced to its minimum. Sleep repairs the waste which waking hours have made. It rebuilds the system. The night is the repair shop of the body. Every part of the system is silently overhauled, and all the organs, tissees, and substances are replenished. Waking consumes and exhausts • sleep replaces and repairs. A man who would be a good worker must be a good sleeper. Amen has as much force in him as lie has provided for in sleep. The quality of mental activity depends upon the quality of sleep. Men need on an average eight hours of sleep in a day. A lymphatic temperament may require nine ; a nervous temperament, six or seven. A lymphatic man is sluggish, moves and sleeps slowly. But a nervous man acts quickly in everything. He does more in an hour than a sluggish man in two hours ; and so in his sleep. Every man must sleep according to his temperament ; but eight hours is the average. Whoever by work, pleasure, sorrow, or by any other cause, is regularly diminishing his sleep, is destroying his life. A man may hold out for a long time, but the crash will come, and lie will die. The is a great deal of intemperence besides that of tobacco, opium, or brandy. Men are dissipated who overtax their systems all day, and undersleep every night A man who dies of delirium tremens is no more a drunkard and a suicide than the minister, the lawyer, the merchant, the editor, or the printer, that works excessively all day, and sleeps but little all (light.