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state of wretchedness, second only to that of the miserable beings, whom Swift has in his travels so elegantly described, as "supremely cursed with immortality."

Sleep is necessary to the happy, to prevent satiety, and to endear life by a short absence; and to the miserable, to relieve them by intervals of quiet. Life is to most, such as could not be endured without frequent intermission of existence; Homer, therefore, has thought it an office worthy of the goddess of wisdom, to lay Ulysses asleep when landed on Phaacia.

It is related of Barretier, whose early advances in literature scarce any human mind has equalled, that he spent twelve hours of the four and twenty in sleep, yet this appears from the bad state of his health, and the shortness of his life, to have been too small a respite for a mind so vigorously and intensely employed; it is to be regretted, therefore, that he did not exercise his mind less, and his body more; since by this means, it is highly probable, that though he would not then have astonished with the blaze of a comet, he would yet have shown with the permanent radiance of a fixed star.

Nor should it be objected, that there have been many men who daily spend fifteen or sixteen hours in study; for by some of whom this is reported, it has never been done; others have done it for a short time only; and of the rest it appears, that they employed their minds in such operations as required neither celerity nor strength, in the low drudgery of collating copies, comparing authorities, digesting dictionaries, or accumulating compilations.

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and imagination are frequently upbraidstrious and plodding sons of care, with at a part of their life in a state of inaction. rs of sleep seem not to remember, that be granted them that they are crawling e break of day, it can seldom be said that tly awake; they exhaust no spirits, and airs; but lie torpid as a toad in marble, known to live only by an inert and sluge faculty, and may be said like a wounded g their slow length along."

en long known among philosophers, by the the microcosm, or epitome of the world; ce between the great and the little world ational observer, be detailed to many parto many more by a fanciful speculatist. which of these two classes I shall be raning, that as the total quantity of light and otted in the course of the year to every earth is the same, though distributed at and in different portions; so perhaps, to al of the human species, nature has ordainquantity of wakefulness and sleep; though me into a total quiescence and vigorous their faculties, and blended by others in a ght of existence, in a state between dreamoning, in which they either think without without thought.

s are generally well affected to sleep; as hink with vigor, they require respite from and gladly resign themselves to that gentle

power, who not only bestows rest, but frequently leads them to happier regions, where patrons are always kind, and audiences are always candid, where they are feasted in the bowers of imagination, and crowned with flowers divested of their prickles, and laurels of unfading verdure.

The more refined and penetrating part of mankind, who take wide surveys of the wilds of life, who see the innumerable terrors and distresses that are perpetually preying on the heart of man, and discern with unhappy perspicuity, calamities yet latent in their causes, are glad to close their eyes upon the gloomy prospect, and lose in a short insensibility the remembrance of other's miseries and their own. The hero has no higher hope, than that, after having routed legions after legions, and added kingdom to kingdom, he shall retire to milder happiness, and close his days in social festivity. wit or the sage can expect no greater happiness, than that, after having harassed his reason in deep researches, and fatigued his fancy in boundless excursions, he shall sink at night in the tranquillity of sleep.

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The poets, among all those that enjoy the blessings of sleep, have been least ashamed to acknowledge their benefactor. How much Statius considered the evils of life as assuaged and softened by the balm of slumber, we may discover by that pathetic invocation, which he poured out in his waking nights; and that Cowley, among the other felicities of his darling solitude, did not forget to number the privilege of sleeping without disturbance, we may learn from the rank that he assigns among the gifts of nature to the poppy, "which is scat

tered," says he, "over the fields of corn, that all the needs of man may be easily satisfied, and that bread and sleep may be found together."

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Sleep, therefore, as the chief of all earthly blessings, is justly appropriated to industry, and temperance; the refreshing rest, and the peaceful night, are the portion only of him who lies down weary with honest labour, and free from the fumes of indigested luxury; it is the just doom of laziness and gluttony, to be inactive without ease, and drowsy without tranquillity.

Sleep has been often mentioned as the image of death; "so like it," says sir Thomas Brown," that I dare not trust it without my prayers;" their resemblance is, indeed, apparent and striking; they both, when they seize the body, leave the soul at liberty; and wise is he that remembers of both, that they can be safe and happy only by virtue.

NUMB. 41. TUESDAY, March 27, 1753.

SIR,

................Si mutabile pectus

Est tibi, consiliis, non curribus, utere nostris,

Dum potes, et solidis etiamnum sedibus adstas;

Dumque male optatos nondum premis inscius axes. OVID.

Th' attempt forsake,

And not my chariot but my counsel take;
While yet securely on the earth you stand;
Nor touch the horses with too rash a hand.

TO THE ADVENTURER.

ADDISON.

Fleet, March 24.

I Now send you the sequel of my story; which had not been so long delayed, if I could have brought myself to imagine, that any real impatience was felt for the

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