Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

happiness with it. The man who takes an interest in his work-as everyone should-will find it, whatever it is, a real pleasure. The body and soul are both made for use, and neither can rest until it has worked. Idleness means rust. Some people take indolence for patience, but the two are very different. Moreover, work secures for us the blessed and mysterious gift of sleep, which cares and responsibility often steal away.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! Oh sleep, oh gentle sleep,

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down,

And steep my senses in forgetfulness! *

Sleep has been well described as Nature's soft nurse, the mantle that covers thought, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, the coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king and the simple with the wise. For this inestimable blessing we need not, like Hera, go to Lemnos. If the day is wisely spent, the night will bring sweet rest. No doubt there may be times of trouble, trouble of * Shakespeare.

mind or trouble of body, when the power of sleep leaves us. I have gone through such a period myself, and most distressing it is. But the great danger is lest one should be induced to obtain sleep by means of drugs. That temptation should be resisted at any cost, and if a sensible life is led, the blessed gift of sleep is sure ere long to be restored.

Sleep

We are all young again in our dreams. seems to take the weight off our lives, a load off our spirit. We float or fly lightly through the air of fancy; we see those we have lost; range over the world, not only free from limits of time or geographical space, but from the trammels of reason, and soar into higher regions of fancy, catching mysterious gleams of a higher, and even better, world:

In sleep our better selves to us return,

Untroubled by the passionate desires,

The evil thoughts that in the daytime burn,

And eat our hearts out with their baleful fires.

To rest in peace is not so easy as it might seem. If in hours which ought to be hours of rest we allow the mind to brood over grievances, to dwell on difficulties, to harass itself with cares, and grieve over suffering and sorrows, we shall find leisure even more

A

exhausting than work. A bad night takes more out of a man than a hard day's work. We should resolutely No doubt it put all worrying thoughts away from us. is difficult to put away cares and troubles; indeed, if we leave the mind empty they will force their way in; to keep out evil and sad thoughts we must fill ourselves with good and cheerful ones. Some book about ancient history or prehistoric times, some work on geology or the remote regions of astronomy, some story of character or adventure will carry us away from the petty cares and troubles of everyday life. It is delightful in such times to escape from the present, its struggles and jealousies, and float away in the misty past or the distant regions of illimitable space.

An uneasy conscience is, of course, fatal to peaceful rest. "Si on n'a pas," said La Rochefoucauld, "son repos en soi-même, il est inutile de la chercher ailleurs."

To the seers and prophets of old revelation came generally by night, and in dreams, not in the brilliant and garish light of day. We see most things by the light of the sun, and yet when night comes and the heavens are lit up by millions of stars, we find that the

[graphic]

So now

sun hides from us even more than it reveals. also, even in these (perhaps) prosaic times, it is not in the bright sunshine, but rather in the soft and mysterious moonlight, that we seem to get glimpses of the infinite.

CHAPTER III.

THE MIND.

WONDERFUL as is the body, it is but a temple for the soul. The soul is not only more than the body, it is more than the whole world to each of us, "for what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" According to the old Christian story, the King of Edessa was blamed because, hearing of the miracles of Jesus, he sent and begged Him to cure, not his mind, but his body. We must not indeed depreciate the body, for

Body and soul together make up man.

And "What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!"**

[blocks in formation]

The fire of Prometheus is burning more or less in every one of us. No one who reflects can ignore the solemn dignity of life. "Man," said Sir Thomas Browne in one of his wonderful essays, "is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave."

It is indeed a glorious privilege to be a man. No doubt in one sense we are a mere combination of chemical ingredients, and a man's daily labour has been estimated at the equivalent of 4 lbs. of coal. As Huxley humorously described us, we may be said to be made up of Ammoniae carbonatis, Sodae phosphatis, Caloris 98.4°, Vacui perfectissimi, Patientiae, Aquae distillatae quant. suff. Many writers no doubt describe him in most contemptuous terms. The shortness of life is a favourite theme both of poets and philosophers: Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,

Like the bubble on the fountain

Thou art gone, and for ever.*

The Bible compares life to a dream, a sleep, a shadow, a vapour, to water spilt on the ground, to a tale that is told. Life, moreover, is described as not only short but contemptible. Buddha raised pessimism

* Scott.

« AnteriorContinuar »