EABLY RISING.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5002, 23 January 1885, Page 2

EABLY RISING.

There arc certain people who seem to believe that early rising constitute! the whole difference between the enterprising. and the idle, the virtuous and the indifferent good, and who resemble the bishop who, when he rose early, "was proud all the morning, and sleepy all the afternoon." As a rale, we find that those who rise with the lark make amends by snatching a nap during the day—the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak; and why, may we ask, is it any wiser,,healthier, or more virtuous to sleep at one hour of the day than at another, to take it piecemeal than to do it all tip at once, while you hare your hand in, so to speak? The early riser is often dropping off to the land of Nod in her chair, over her book or work, making up for lost time when it would seem better to be wide«awake, with one's wits on the alert;, and she invariably speaks with disdain of those who do not share her habit as " shiftless people to whom a sunrise is a rare exhibition, and who pretend to say that a sunset is more to their taste. No doubt there is something to be said in favor of early rising ; when it has been tried occasionally by its opponents, the earth has seemed so fresh and dewy, the air so sweet, the sky co deep and luminous, that they hare decided never to waste such precious hours between the sheets again; but the next morning as they turn on their pillow for that last delicious nap, they confess that early rising has been overestimated, that it is only the old, who cannot sleep, or the laboring classes, who must rise betimes or starve, who recommend it, because they would fain believe' that what they arc obliged to do is the best and pleasnntest. Although - Boswell wished some medicine might be invented which would make one rise without pain, it is, doubtless, easy enough to get up early if there is sufficient inducement for such a rash step; we can all muster for an excursion ; we can rise with the lark, if there' is only a lark in view ; but the habit is to be discouraged as fostering self-conceit and an unchristian idea that we are better than our sleepy ueighbors, It is seldom that we meet an early riser who is not puffed up by his own exceeding superiority, as if the custom proved him one of the elect. It may be urged that at least he has more time to devote to business or pleasure ; but if it is true, as most physicians assert, that mankind demands eight or nine hours' sleep, lie must go to bed earlier, and thus abridge his. time at the other end of the day, or, by taking too little sleep, shorten the days of his life.— Harper's Bazaar,