VIII.

The Habit and Profit of Early Rising.

"In the morning when you awake, accustom yourself to think first upon God, or something in order to his service; and at night also let him close thine eyes: and let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not idle and expensive of time beyond the needs and conveniences of nature; and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes when he is coming forth from his chamber of the east."-JEREMY TAYLOR.

D

R. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, in one of his amusing but not less thoughtful essays, tells us of a meeting at which he was present in Paris, "where the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced and much admired for its splendour; but a general inquiry was made whether the oil it consumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving in the use of it." Franklin went home thinking over the subject, which considerably interested him, as it related to economy, a subject which had been his study during the whole of his long and useful life. "I went home," he writes, "and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental noise awakened me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find

my room filled with light, and I imagined at first that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived that the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted the preceding evening to close the shutters." Dr. Franklin then made the astounding discovery that the sun rises early, and that when it does rise "it gives light as soon as it rises." He said, "I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes." He then makes a number of ingenious calculations to show the immense sum which would be saved by using in the morning six hours of the sun's rays instead of six hours of candle-light in the evening; and he would have every morning, as soon as the sun rises, all the bells in every church set a-ringing; and, if that were not sufficient to awaken the sluggards, he would have cannon fired in every street!

Franklin then amusingly adds: "For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other regard whatever; I expect only to have the honour of it. And yet I know there are little envious minds who will, as usual, deny me this, and say that my invention was known to the ancients; and perhaps they may bring passages out of old books to prove it. I will not dis

pute with these people that the ancients knew not the sun would rise at certain hours-they possibly had, as we have, almanacs that predicted it; but it does not follow from thence that they knew he gave light as soon as he rose. This is what I claim as my discovery." If, as Franklin argues, the secret was known to the ancients, it was evidently not known to the moderns; for the Parisians, a sensible, economical people, “would not have lived so long by the smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of candles, if they had really known that they might have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing."

Turning night into day, sleeping in the day instead of in the night, is a custom as common in England as in France. The habit is not only prejudicial to health, but is the cause of years of life being wasted, and opportunities for the improvement of the mind and the increase of business being lost. Franklin, in his quaint essay, omits to tell his readers that not only is the expense of candles saved by using the morning sunlight, but wonderful invigoration and clearness of conception are also obtained and saved, which otherwise would be lost in disturbed late morning slumbers. Only those who have habituated themselves to study in the morning instead of the night know the advantage of the one over the other. A modern writer says: "Do we read of nervous affections a few centuries ago? I believe that the pernicious habit of continuing an unnecessary length of time in bed has been the chief cause of many complaints which were unknown to our

hardy ancestors, who never complained of such disorders as we now lament. Our forefathers rose at four, but many of their degenerated progeny lie till eight or nine. The consequence of this is a general relaxation of the nervous system, the muscles becoming unstrung, the spirits depressed, the mental faculties weakened, attended by all the melancholy accompaniments of hypochondriac affections.”

"This tyrannical habit," says Robinson in his "Morning Exercises," "attacks life in its essential powers: it makes the blood forget its way, and creep lazily along the veins; it relaxes the fibres, unstrings the nerves, evaporates the animal spirits, saddens the soul, dulls the fancy; subdues and stupifies man to such a degree that he, the lord of the creation, hath no appetite for anything in it-loathes labour, yawns for want of thought, trembles at the sight of a spider, and, in the absence of that, at the creatures of his own gloomy imagination." The Rev. John Wesley, in his celebrated sermon on the "Duty and Advantages of Early Rising," remarkably corroborates the healthfulness of the habit by his own experience. "One common effect," he said, "of either sleeping too long or lying too long in bed is weakness of sight, particularly that weakness which is of the nervous kind. When I was young, my sight was remarkably weak. Why is it stronger now than it was forty years ago? I impute this principally to the blessing of God, who fits us for whatever he calls us to; but undoubtedly the outward mean which he has been pleased to bless was the rising early every morning."

The celebrated Dr. Cheyne, in his "Essay on Health and Long Life," says: "Nothing can be more prejudicial to tender constitutions, studious and contemplative persons, than lying long in bed-lolling and soaking in sheets after any one is distinctly awake, or has slept a due and reasonable time. It necessarily thickens the juices, enervates the solids, and weakens the constitution. A free open air is a kind of cold bath, especially after rising out of a warm bed, and consequently makes the circulation brisker and more complete, and braces up the solids, when lying in bed dissolves and soaks them in moisture. This is evident from the appetite and hunger those who rise early feel, beyond that which they get by lying long in bed.” Another eminent medical authority, Dr. Wilson Philip, in his treatise on indigestion, says: "Although it is of no consequence to the debilitated to go early to bed, there are few things more hurtful to them than remaining in it too long. Getting up an hour or two earlier often gives a degree of vigour which nothing else can procure. For those who are not much debilitated, and sleep well, the best rule is to get out of bed soon after awaking in the morning. This at first may appear too early, for the debilitated require more sleep than the healthy; but rising early will gradually prolong the sleep on the succeeding night, till the quantity the patient enjoys is equal to the demand for it. Lying late is not only hurtful by the relaxations it occasions, but also by occupying that part of the day at which exercise is most beneficial."