kind of mist about my eyes, and the floor of my chamber was covered with hideous reptiles. They soon disappeared, and the darkness was dissipated, and I saw clearly in the midst of a brilliant light, a man seated in the corner of the chamber, who said to me in a terrible voice, "eat not so much." At those words my sight became obscured; afterwards it became clear by degrees, and I found myself alone. The night following, the same man, radiant with light, appeared to me and said, "I am God, the Lord, Creator and Redeemer, &c."-" That same night the eyes of my internal man were opened, and fitted to see things in the world of spirits, and in hell, in which places I found many persons of mine acquaintance, some of them long since and others lately deceased."* If such be the consequences of hearty dinners and suppers, how important the sentiment of the old latin prescrip tion: Somnus ut sit levis, sit tibi coena brevis ;† Which has been thus translated, or rather paraphrased ; The person, who is afflicted with sleeplessness and hateful dreams, has only to put this rule into vigorous practice for a few months, to be satisfied that it is perfectly efficacious. Unbending the mind before sleep. Sixthly; it is essential to sound sleep, that the mind be unbent from severe study, a considerable season before bed time; long enough, if possible, to get the subject entirely out of mind. Perhaps nothing is so well calculated to accomplish this, as those devotional exercises, that are appropriate to the close of the day, if they be performed with the faithfulness and interest they demand: and surely, the • Christian Spectator, Dec. 1823, p. 618. + Cheyne's Essay on Health and Long Life, p. 81. HOW TO SLEEP QUIETLY. 255 calm and peace which religion inspires, are most eminently calculated to sooth the irritated nerves, and induce quiet and refreshing repose. But to this point I shall probably again refer in another lecture. Other circumstances that need attention. Finally, there are several other circumstances, of less importance, that contribute somewhat to secure the repose the literary man needs. His sleeping apartment should be as spacious as possible; or if small, the doors leading to the adjoining apartments should be left open. A room in an upper story is best. To crowd several beds into the same apartment is highly pernicious. It is hardly necessary to say, that a nice attention to cleanliness, not only in beds and clothing, but also in the chamber, is of high importance. Very warm sleeping apartments are injurious. Indeed, for persons in health, no fires should be admitted into them, at any time or if admitted, free ventilation before bed time is desirable. The temperature ought not to be higher case for the healthy, than fifty degrees. in any : The practice of warming the bed, unless dampness or previous exposure to cold render it necessary, is very debilitating and so is the habit of loading one's self with an insupportable weight of clothes. Enough to produce comfortable warmth, is all that is necessary. The practice of leaving open the windows of a bed chamber during the night in summer, is a bad one. It might do no injury to the sailor, or the soldier; nor to the student, after he is thoroughly trained to the sailor's or the soldier's life. But, says the Journal of Health, " many persons have experienced serious and irreparable injury to their health, by being in this manner subjected, while asleep, to a current of cold air from without."* Multitudes, I know, will say that they practice this impunity; but this only proves the strength of their constitutions, and not the good effects of the habit, nor its freedom from danger, to the more feeble. Writers on the means of preserving the health, are almost unanimous in condemning the use of feather beds, especially for the young; unless it be in the severest part of a northern winter. A mattrass, composed of moss or hair, should, they say, be invariably preferred. Curtains drawn around the bed are inadmissible in any case; because they confine the air. Sleeping with the head beneath the bed clothes is still more pernicious; and, for the same reason, beds should never be placed upon the floor; since the impure air generally settles to the lower part of the apart ment. The practice of sleeping after dinner is of very questionble utility; chiefly because it prevents refreshing sleep at night; and disposes a person to the habit of sitting up late. If the tendency to sleep at noon be brought on by excess in eating, as it usually is, it is the precursor of apoplexy, and must be resisted. Even the invalid, if he can, will do well to avoid his "forty winks' nap" at noon. Some writers, however, I ought to remark, recommend to such, a short indulgence of this kind. MANNERS. Attention to manners, may not appear, at first view, to have any connexion with the health. But it is not so. All our habits of body and mind are so intimately related, that their mutual influence is great; and not one of these habits can be named that does not, directly or indirectly, affect the health. And I maintain that gentlemanly manners, or the manners prevalent in good society, are favourable to health. I speak not here of Chesterfieldian niceties, nor of Chesterfieldian absurdities; but of those fundamental rules of politeness, which regulate the conduct of a gentleman and a GOOD MANNERS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH. 257 Christian. These principles dispose him to treat others with urbanity, kindness, and due respect; to make him extremely cautious of injuring their feelings, diminishing their reputation, or throwing obstacles in the way of their enjoyment. And on the contrary, it is a leading object in all his intercourse with others, to make them happy; not indeed, by any sacrifice of truth, or principle, but by exhibiting a disposition to befriend them; to overlook their minor failings; and to give them credit for every virtue which they really exhibit. Now such treatment from our fellow men, has a powerful tendency to buoy up the mind, and make it cheerful; and thus to promote the health. And by cultivating such feelings towards others, we shall perceive a happy reaction upon ourselves; contributing not a little to bodily, as well as mental sanity and enjoyment. Students apt to neglect the promotion of manners. Now it ought not to be concealed, that the retired life of students, tends strongly to prevent the formation of such manners as I have just described. Hence it is, that they are so apt to indulge in jesting and innuendo, in their intercourse with one another. Hence they so often visit each others' rooms in quaker style, as to their hats. The consequence is, they are very apt to carry the same habit into the public rooms of college; and it will be strange, if such persons do not find this habit clinging to them when they go abroad into the world, producing an impression upon cultivated minds and tastes, that it is easier to obtain a diploma for progress in knowledge, than to get rid of uncouth and clownish manners. The same inference will be drawn, should the student, when hereafter he becomes a clergyman, or a judge, or a legislator, be seen lolling, and yawning, and raising his feet upon the breast work of the pulpit, or the bench, or the senate chamber, as he used to do at college, in the chapel and in the lecture room. INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION AND PASSIONS UPON HEALTH. These are the grand moving powers, not only of the soul, but of the body take them away, and you leave nothing but a lifeless, stagnating mass of matter and mind. But as in mechanical operations, the moving forces are sometimes too powerful for the delicate machinery on which they operate, so the passions sometimes strain and sweep away the curious organization both of mind and of body. Hence their mighty influence over the health. Hence a quaint writer calls them "the thunder and lightning of perturbation, which causeth such violent and speedy altercations in this our microcosm, and many times subverts the good estate and temperament of it." Effects of violent passions on the body. Every man must have realized in his own experience something of the mighty influence of the more violent passions over the body. Who has not been sometimes sensible that the blush of shame was hurrying the blood to his cheek, and the strong nervous excitement of anger, agitating his frame? Who has not felt the violent beating of his heart on opening an important letter, or on receiving weighty intelligence History testifies, that the Emperor Valentinian the first, Wenceslas, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, and many others, died by a violent fit of anger.* Murat, king of Naples, received a letter from his wife, while absent in Buonaparte's celebrated Russian campaign, detailing some proceedings of his government, which he thought encroached upon the royal prerogative; and so great was the effect of his jealousy, that before he had finished the letter, his whole skin became completely jaundiced. Excessive joy is often fatal: thus it is said that Sophocles, the tragic wri ter, died in consequence of a decision being given in his favor in a contest of honor. Diagoras died at the instant • Journal of Health, Vol. I. p. 154. † Do. do. p. 142. |