established by breaking off the lullaby, taking away the candle, and leaving them alone. What happens after this change is generally wakefulness, distress, and a second process of going to sleep scared or in sorrow, than which there is, perhaps, no more likely process to originate epileptic disturbances, unexplained weaknesses, and even disease? It would be better and wiser to train the senses to sleep naturally by forming a habit of 'sleeping," independent of circumstances, and self-contained. Nothing would be gained by working out the application of these general principles to particular classes of cases. If the rationale of the relations that commonly exist between the sleeping body and its surroundings is understood, the reader will do this easily for himself.

4. It will be evident from what has been said that the constitution and training of mind is of great importance to the function of sleeping. Not only are the habits which facilitate or embarrass the establishment of sleep amenable to the influence of the Will, but orderly methods of thought tend to natural sleeping by leaving the consciousness free to rest when the accustomed hour of slumber arrives, without having to reason itself into a state of quiescence, which is a process fatal to easy sleep.

When the head is laid on the pillow, the mind should be at peace. Those who do not so order their lives and methodise their work, that the faculty of control may be at liberty to rest when the time comes to sleep, cannot expect to be good sleepers. Whatever the troubles or worry of the day, the place of rest should be sacred to pleasant or at least peaceful, thoughts. Let the book of life be closed, even on a blotted page, before sleep is sought. Thinking in bed is one of the most formidable obstacles to sleep. Nothing except a habit of dismissing subjects of thought at night can enable the mind to clear itself, at will, of disturbing and distressing entanglements. Sleeping is, so far as the consciousness and the sub-consciousness are con-cerned, a complementary state to waking. To secure the advantages of rest when sleeping we must discharge the obligations of duty and work while awake. One of the first and most pressing of these obligations is to "let all things be done decently and in order."

The best and most successful exercise of mental power is that which conforms most perfectly to the reign of law. Impulsive, spasmodic, emotional effort, albeit these forms of work are apt to be mistaken for the explosions of genius, ought to be discouraged. Work that depends on moods and feelings is worth

less, or even injurious, as training to the mind.1 Those who labour capriciously must needs expect to be uncertain sleepers. The mind should be trained to perform its daily task, however great or little that may be, as a matter of duty. The only healthy and happy state is one of discipline. Mere self-gratification, without method or purpose beyond the whim of the passing moment, is a sorry sort of enjoyment that commonly brings disappointment and mind-trouble in its train. Confusion of thought while awake produces sleeplessness from thought. Nor is difficulty in sleeping the only or the worst consequence of disorderly brainwork. Sleep itself comes to be disorderly when the waking consciousness is uncontrolled. If the subconsciousness is overworked by being made to perform the largest part of the mental duty of life3 it will be apt to remain awake, and continue labouring at its task, while the consciousness and the various parts of the organic apparatus are asleep. Dreams of work, and worried and weary nights are the penalties for this error in mind-management. Sleeping is a function which only a sound mind in a sound body can healthily perform.

1 See the article on " Work," in Minds and Moods.

2 See paper on this subject in Common Mind-Troubles. Habit, The Secret of a Clear Head.

F

3

AWAKING.

THERE is not a great deal to be said on this subject, but it is one of high interest and of considerable importance. Awaking is the undoing of sleep; and, therefore, throws special light on the nature of the condition which has been established, and the measure and kind of repose enjoyed. Moreover, it helps to determine the subsequent value of the rest which has been obtained by restoring the organism easily to waking state, or leaving the several faculties to struggle back to life like a panic-stricken crowd escaping from some scene of horror-perhaps a hideous dream-or to rush into the arena of action and consciousness in disorderly confusion, some weary, some excited, all unrefreshed, instead of marshalling the forces of energy into wakefulness with the steady control of discipline. As a matter of experience awakening is seldom performed in accordance with the rules of health, mental and physical. The precise nature of the process will, of course, depend on the form of sleep from which the transition takes place.

True sleep is, as we have seen, a state produced by the resting of several systems or parts of the physico-mental organism. "Le sommeil général

est l'ensemble des sommeils particuliers" (Bichat). The rest enjoyed by each system contributes its share to the general result, and the relative proportions of the several sleeps compounded determine the character of the phenomenon as a whole. Each or any of the systems may wake before the others, just as the repose of any part of the organism may be disturbed, and impair or even destroy, the quality of the sleep enjoyed. Thus, the organ of thought may wake first, because it has been simply lulled by the sympathetic influence of the other systems, and resume its activity the moment these parts of the body have so far recovered from their weariness as to sleep lightly. Early morning dreams often indicate this state. The supreme centres of consciousness were either too much engrossed with business or pleasure to rest, or were not weary. The automatic sub-consciousness may have been exhausted, the muscular system fatigued, the viscera in need of repose, and when these parts of the organism slept the brain was lured. into a state of temporary quiescence, but quiescence is not sleep, and therefore general sleep, in its true sense, was not established. From such a condition the "sleeper" may be aroused at any moment after the subduing influence which holds the consciousness in abeyance has begun to