But Uninteresting And Inconveniencing On Occasion Sleepy souls are, witha the most The reasons for thi fare manifold, bat prin to travel in [wits "They 8 the rest of the world at any' inclination to go to sleep. the same time is entirely devoid of Tambies of praise have been woven around the sweet and soothing qualities of sleep in the poetical past. But now, the sleepy lend themselves only to ridicule and to bright, good-natured humour on the part! of those who seem to be able to live, as some scientists tell us is logical, on five hours' sleep a night without impaired—vitality What the scientists do not tell us, however, is how those who are the unfortunate victims of the sleep habit can break this most dis concerting of unsocial instincts.
What though books are being written. almost daily about man's rapid ascent away from the strictly natural and nice, symbolized among other things by his octo sleepes What if pertinent cynicisms fre divested by the Intelligensia of the times against the transcendence of the neurotic over the natural, it encourages them not all to know that they are rather more natural, will live longer and avoid all the distressing symptoms of the century by virtue of their disability One has but to regard the dos sleeping in the garden to realize that sleep, though natural, is still the acme of the uninteresting. There he lies, does Peter, in spontaneous, blissful, nourishing forgetfulness. He is spared even the formality 0 undressing, and when, eventually his "forty winks" are over, Peter will be alert and unashamed as ever. He regards sleep as the natural complement of—dogishness. He slips into sleep turally as he slips into wakefulness. He is spared, too the preliminary collecting of faculties to an enforced alterness which early risers sometimes number amongs: their miseries after a: sound sleep. with insufficient sleep as part of the implication?
And what, too, does it matter that international correspondents speak slightingly of Shanghai's preference for saxophones rather than sleep? Even doctors shake doleful vital statistics in thi ge. Yet, there is most no consolation for the sleepy {in these facts. The somnolent. are "There," suppose one were to say pointing to Peter, "You see how Nature intended it to be. Artificial restraints and shamefaced reactions are but the signs of an unnatural and decadent age. Peter knows that other things must be subordinated to sleep, that nights and parts of days were specially arranged for this wonderful refreshment." too conscious of innumerable occasions when their punishment seems almost, more than they can withstand. The sheltered hours in cinemas, when the silver screen lickers" insanely but cannot penetrate into their drowsy consciousness; after dinner hours when footlights of amateur dramatics out the sin of sleepiness amused audience; sleepiness in in, when all the saxophones of fare of mo avail to coun-the slow poison; sleepiness in quiet places when one should be wide-awake to the possibilities of whimsical discussion about one's fellow-men; sleepiness after a late night, sleepiness after an early aight! In fact the sleepy seem to have no choice but sleepiness, and rnd_what;" comes the answer, "About Peter's nocturnal prowlings. Sleepiness is probably relative. myself, have long suspected Peter of being a jazzy dog." In all ean-dour, one is forced to recall the morning after when a sad-eyed Peter was rescued from the confines of the caught.
The French, with a national and [charming profusion of metaphor, describe a nap as a "little death," and nobody who is oliveand vigilant can refrain from regarding death as uninteresting, That gets one back to the original premise. We are forced to believe that," with Nature's infinite variety, all are not born to need the amount of sleep, required by the sleepy—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.