market at any price." Its lack is the tragical feature of broken health. "Chief nourisher in life's feast," the omniscient poet calls it. Never except for the most imperative reason should one break in upon that sacred process for which the sun withdraws itself and silence broods over the hemisphere. Its hours cannot be safely changed. Two young men, equally strong, work side by side; one sleeps early and long, the other retires late and irregularly. Apparently they get on equally well, but the physician will tell you that one is 10 drawing on his stock of vitality, while the other keeps it full; in time one is bankrupt in health, the other rich. Sleep is to be regarded as a divine thing; it is akin to creation. One should never pass into it without adoration; it is a return into the hands of God to be new-made, the tire and age of the day to be taken out, and freshness and youth wrought in. "Come, blessed barrier between day and day; Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!" Or, with Allingham :— 66 Sleep is like death, and after sleep The world seems new begun; While thoughts stand luminous and firm, Refreshed from supersensuous founts, The physiologist cannot explain it; all he knows is that, in some way, it renews vitality. To tamper with it, to defraud it, to take it fitfully, is to throw 20 25 15 Б 10 15 away life itself. It is a mistake to devote the hours up to midnight to work, or pleasure, or books. It may be an innocent thing to dance at the right time and place, and in the right way and company, but to 5 dance all night is to rob yourself of your richest treasure. Compare in any matter requiring nerve and head one who has slept all night with one who has spent a sleepless night, and you will get an illuminating verdict on the value of sleep. 20 Business men who are bearing the heavy cares of the day will assent when I say that the whole life, hygienically, should be ordered with regard to sleep. If one can sleep he can endure anything, he is every day a new man. Food, exercise, pleasures, hours, everything should be subordinated to securing sleep. No revival of troubles, no vexing questions should precede it. It should be as regular as the stars, and like the night itself in its solemn peacefulness. 5. I will only name sound digestion as a fundamental element in vitality, it being so well understood. The deadly effects of frying-pan and pastry are no longer secrets. The hygienists are steadily telling us in the newspapers that the national cooking is bad, that narcotics and 25 stimulants and foul air and indolence and hurry and Professor Huxley anxiety are foes of digestion. encounters no denial when he makes a good stomach à condition of success in any practical career. that we eat too much and too fast, 6. Nor will you expect me to more than name 30 those requirements of health and of self-respect as well, the frequent bath, and that scrupulous care of the body which is next to godliness. 7. There are hindrances to a strong vitality that are inseparable from life as it comes to most of us. Our working classes labor harder and longer than any 5 other in the world, our business men have longer hours, our professional men give themselves less rest. There is a danger from over-work not to be forgotten; it is already being felt in a rapid increase of nervous diseases with their irresistible tendency to the use of narcotics and stimulants, and a ready susceptibility to malarial influences. Our climate does not admit of so hard labor as that of England, but the English operative works but five and a half days to our six, and the professional and business man begins late and 15 stops early, making a sort of Sabbath of his evening. 8. Nothing more surely cuts away and undermines the vital forces than worry and anxiety, however caused. Happily, trouble is not native nor lasting to youth-touching it but lightly :— “As night to him that sitting on a hill Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun But as we descend from its glorious heights we encounter the inevitable cares and anxieties that are involved in the increased relations of life. It is a large part of what Sir Thomas Browne calls "the militia of life" to see to it that these cares do not break up the order either of soul or body. The prac tical lesson here is both religious and prudential. It 30 25 20 10 says, live carefully, avoid neeedless entanglements, don't compromise yourself, keep a good conscience, have nothing in your life that requires concealment. Burdens and cares a man must have, but a true and simple habit of life, held to loftily and devoutly, will keep them from harming body or soul. My last suggestion will, perhaps, have more novelty than any other before named. The passions of anger, hatred, grief, and fear are usually considered 10 as belonging to morals, but they belong also to the realm of health. Shakespeare, whom nothing escapes, speaks of envy as "lean-faced." 15 20 25 "Heat not a furnace for your foes so hot When these great passions burn, the oil of life is rapidly spent. Hence divine wisdom forbids hatred and anger, and divine love heals our griefs and fears as hurtful alike to body and soul. I cannot better end these suggestions than by quoting some words of Bacon, whose wisdom seems to cover every subject he touches. As if speaking to young men, he says: "It is a safer conclusion to say, This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it,' than this: 'I find no offense (or hurt) of this, therefore I may use it.'" That is, don't wait till you are hurt by a habit before giving it up, but find out its ordinary tendency, and act accordingly. From "On the Threshold." Permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. REV. T. T. MUNGER.. ROME. THE COLISEUM. ST. PETER'S. Oh Rome! my country! city of the soul! A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. The Niobe of nations! there she stands, Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow, The Goth, the Christian, Time, War, Flood, and Fire. And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride, 25 20 15 10 5 |