VIRTUE OF EARLY RISING.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1147, 3 February 1874, Page 4

VIRTUE OF EARLY RISING.

[LONDON SATUKDAY EEVIEW.]

In the whole string of the virtues, major or minor, cardinal or otherwise, there is not one about which the possessors are so abominably conceited as in this. People endowed with so uncomfortable a gift, are no doubt, entitled to some little indemnification; but no degree of self-mortification could justify the preposterous airs of superior virtue which people who turn out of bed earlier than their neighbors always give themselves. Nobody was ever ten minutes in the society of a confirmed early riser without being made aware of the fact, and, directly or indirectly; snubbed for not being one himself. Now, is early rising such a virtue, and are these early birds so very virtuous, thatj we are bound tamely to submit to this ? Of course we know all the stock arguments; they impress them upoa us often enough. It is they who get the worm.

Well, for our part, they are welcome to }t i we don't wunt worms. Then they gain ho many hours over us who lie abed, in proof of which they point out that the Waverley Novels were all written before breakfast. Very good; s let them produce their Waverley Novels ; meanwhile we shall take leave to remain sceptical as to the reality of this gain of time. Tbe practice is a healthy one, they say, and they always brag of their superior appetites at breakfast, as if there was something meritorious in an extra consumption of ham and eggs. Now the simple fact of the matter is, that in at least nine cases out of ten you early riser is merely a fidgetty, restless animal, who is incapable of reposing after the fashion, or at least the season ordained by civilised mankind ; and as to his inhaling the pure morning air, that is all moonshine ; it is pure self-conceit that he inflates himself with. In fiue weather he struts abroad crowing over a slumbering world ; in wet he moves ahout the house a reproach and hindrance to the servants setting about their morning ministrations, and all through the period of family prayers he is filled with pharisaical pride that he is not as other men, whom the prayer-bell sometimes catches at their toilet. That he makes use of the hours so gained is in general pure fictionBut even if he does, what then ? He adds to his day very much after the fashion of the mm who tried to lengthen his blanket by sewing on to the top what he cut off from the bottom. He is very brisk, not to say arrogant, in the morning, but he is useless for all social purposes in the evening. Drowsy after dinner, torpid after tea, he hybernates like a bear during the social season ushered in by the candles, and is most lifeless when civilised men enjoy life most. But even in that abject condition he finds something to brag of; for, with an inselent yawn, as he takes his bedroom candle, he reminds us that he was up four hours before any of us were stirring.