EARLY RISING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 29 August 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

EARLY RISING.

"God bloß3 the man who first invented sleep ! " So Sancho Panza, said, and so say I ; And bless him alao that he didn't keep yis great discovery to himself ; nor try To make it— as the lucky fellow might — A close monopoly by patent right. Yea — blass the man who first invented sleep (I really can't avoid the iteration) ; But blast the man with curses loud and deep, Whato'or the rascal's name, or ago, or station, Who first invented, and went round advising, That ertifical cut-off— Early lliping 1 "Rise with the lark, and with tho lark to bed," Observes some Bolomn sentimental owl. Maxims like these are very cheaply said ; But, ere you make yourself a fool or fowl, Pray, just inquire about hia rise and fall, And whether larks have any beds at all 1 "The time for honest folks to be abed" Is in tho morning, if I reason light ; And he who cannot keep his precious head Upon his pillow till it's p fairly light, And bo enjoy his forty morn ng wink.-", Is up to knavery ; or else— he drinks. Thomson, who sang about tho "Seasons, "said It was a glorious thing to me in season ; But then he said it — lying — in his bed, At ten o'clock a.m.— the very reason He wrote ho charmingly. Tno simple fact is, His preaching wasn't santioned by his practice, Tis, doubtless, well to be sometimes awake, — Awake to duty, and awake to truth, — But when, alas 1 a nice review wo take Of our best deeds and days, we find, in KOOtb, The hours that leave the slightest cause to weep Are those wa pasecd in childho )3'or asleep 1 'Tis beautiful to leave tho world awhile For tho soft visions of the gentle night ; And free, at last, from mortal caro or guile, To live aa only in the angel's sight, In sleep's sweet realm no cosily shut in, Where, at tho worst, we only dream of sin. So, let us sleep, and givo the maker piaise,— I like the lad who, when his father thought To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase Of vagrant worm by early songster oauhgt, Cried, "Served him right! i'/s not at all surprising ; The worm was punished, sir, for early rising !"