produce sleep at regular and stated periods, as it will render the sleeper insensible or undisturbed by loud noises; the gunner will fall asleep on the carriage amid the incessant discharge of the cannon; and, if I remember right, the slumbers of the bell-ringer of Nôtre Dame were not broken by the striking of the quarters and the hour close to his

ear.

IDA. And at what seasons should we wake and sleep? It seems to me that the Creator himself has written his precepts in the diurnal changes of this world, that are still so healthfully observed by the peasant, but so strangely perverted by the capricious laws of fashion, and even by the romantic

always excepting Astrophel and Castaly. It moves my wonder that they who have looked upon the beauty of a sunrise from the mountain or the main can be caught sleeping, when such a flood of glory, beyond all the glare of peace-rejoicings and birthlights, bursts upon the world.

Ev. The wisest have thought with you, Ida, although there was one idle poet, even Thomson, who confessed he had "noe motive for rising early." It was the custom of Jewel and Burnet to rise at four; and Buffon, we are told, rewarded his valet with a crown if he succeeded in getting him up before six.

It is to slight the creation not to enjoy the beauties of daylight, and it is the natural time for sleep when the dews of night are on the earth. The proof of this: There were two French colonels who were marching their troops, one by day, the other by night, and the loss in men and horse was very far greater among the night-marchers. CAST. I believe it was Panza who "ne

sired a second sleep, because the first lasted from night till morning"-that immortal Sancho Panza, whose quaint rhapsody we must all echo so gratefully, "Blessed is he that first invented sleep." The eulogies of this blissful state and the wailings of a sleepless spirit have ever been a favourite theme of the poet and our own ancient dramatists, as Beaumont and Fletcher in the play of "Valentinian," and Shakspeare from the lips of Henry IV., in his beautiful invocation, and Young, and many others.

Ev. Sleeplessness is one of the severest penalties of our nature. In the darkness and silence of night the wakeful mind preys on itself; the pulse is rapid-it is a throb of anguish; to the wearied thought there is no conclusion, and the parched tongue prays in vain for the morning light. In the Curse of Kehama, I think the sleepless lid is one of the most cruel inflictions; and in the severe disorder which we term hemicrania, this curse is, to a degree, realized.

The sleeplessness of Caligula is related by Suetonius. In Bartholinus we read of one who slept not for three months, and he became a melancholy hypochondriac; and Boerhaave, from intense study, was constantly awake during six weeks.

IDA. We are happy in our quiet minds, are we not, dear Castaly? yet if we are ever summoned to the couch of one wearied by night-watching, Evelyn will tell us how we may soothe the pillow of a sleepless mind, to which the secret of inducing slumber would be a priceless treasure.

Ev. Study the causes of insomnia, or sleeplessness, Ida, as those which excite nervous irritability-coffee, green tea, small doses of opium, the protracted use of antimony, &c., and believe not in the virtues of vulgar remedies, often as danger

ous as they are ridiculous. There is a batch of these which Burton has gleaned from various authors; as a sample-nutmegs, mandrakes, wormwood; and from Cardan and Miraldus—the anointing the soles of the feet with the fat of a dormouse, and the teeth with the ear-wax of a dog, swine's galls, hares' ears, &c.

I might offer to you many plain precepts for the alleviation of the light causes of sleeplessness, and while I dole them out to you in very dulness, you will fancy my gold-headed cane to my chin, and other essential symbols of an Esculapius of the olden time. Adopt, then, a free ventilation in summer, and airing in winter, of the chamber. This should never be a mere closet, always above the ground floor, neither very light nor dark, the window not being close to the bed, and, above all, not in the vicinity of stoves, ovens, and large kitchen fires. Do not allow the windows to be open throughout the night to admit the cold dew or air, and in winter the basket-fire should be placed there for an hour before you enter your chamber. A slight acceleration of the circulation may be produced by gentle exercise before rest, and two or three wafer-biscuits or spring-water to prevent the wakeful effects of both chilliness and hunger. A light woollen sock may be worn, which is unconsciously displaced when sleep comes on, and the nightcap should be little more than a net, except during the very cold months. The position of the body should be that which is the easiest, except the supine, which induces congestion and often "nightmare," and if there be much sensitiveness of the surface, the hydrostatic bed should be employed, but that not too long, as it will become heated by protracted pressure. Children should not be enveloped in clothes nor crowded in bed,

S

nor should infants be shaken, or tossed, or patted, as foolish nurses too often do.

There are many simple modes of inducing slumber: I allude not to poppy and henbane, nor to the pillow of hops, which, in the case of our third George, was the charm that sealed up the lids of the king, but to other modes, such as a tedious recital (something like my own dull prosing), the gentle motion of a swing, a cot, or cradle, the ripple of a stream, and the dashing of a waterfall, the waving of a fan, the caw of rooks, the hum of bees, the murmur of an Æolian harp

CAST. So gracefully wound up in that quaint morceau, the "Fairy Queen," when Archimago sends the spirit to fetch a dream from Morpheus: "Cynthia still doth steepe

In silver dew his ever-drooping head,

Whiles sad night over him her mantle black doth spred.

And more to lull him in his slumber soft,

A trickling stream, from high rocke tumbling downe,
And ever-dringling rain upon the loft,

Mix'd with a murmuring winde, much like the soune
Of swarming bees, did cast him in a swoune."

SUBLIMITY AND IMPERFECTION OF

DREAMING.

"We are such stuff

As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded by a sleep."-Tempest.

Ev. In the transition to and from the repose of sleep, the mind is sinking into oblivion, and thought is fading, and the senses and sensation are overshadowed in their regress to insensibility; even instinct is wellnigh a blank. This is the state of slumber. Then, I believe, and only then, are we ever wandering in the ideal labyrinth of DREAMS.

There is a curious calculation of Cabanis, that

certain organs or senses of the body fall asleep at regular progressive periods; some, therefore, may be active, while others are passive; and in this interesting state, I may hint to you, consists the essence of a dream. It seems that in dreamless sleep the senses fall asleep altogether, as in the case of Plutarch's friends Thrasymenes and Cleon, and others who never dreamed.

ASTR. So there is some truth in the fanciful conceit of Cardanus, that "Sleep is the rest of the spirits, waking their vehement motion, and dreaming their tremulous motion."

CAST. And philosophy plumes herself on her wondrous intuition for this discovery. Let her blush and kneel before the shrine of poesy. The poets, even of a ruder age than ours, have thought and written before you, Evelyn, and have unfolded these arcana. How doth Chaucer usher in his "Dreme?".

"Halfe in dede sclepe, not fully revyved;"

and again:

"For on this wyse, upon a night,

As ye have heard, withouten light,
Not all wakyng ne full on slepe,
About such hour as lovirs wepe;"

and in "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" there is the same thought :

"Halfe in a dreme, not fully well awaked;"

and in Sir Walter's "Antiquary:" "Eh, sirs, sic weary dreams as folk hae between sleeping and waking, before they win to the long sleep and the sound." So will your philosophy dwindle somewhat in its consequence, Sir Clerke.

Ev. We are not jealous of these glimpses of a poet, Castaly; they impart a value to their rhymes: we enrol such poets in the rank of philosophers.

IDA. Solve me this question, Evelyn: is there