Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/303

 ¬To all this I could only observe, that it was inconceivable to me how a woman could possi- bly risk her character by taking natural rest in the season which Nature had universally pointed out. " Nature," replied my friend, " has pointed out no such thing — night is the season for the lower world only; — plants of all kinds, down to the grass we tread on, open their bo- soms to the rising sun, and fold them again in their mantles when he sets — Animals, in the same manner, following their brute in- stinct, rejoice in the light of day, and repose until it returns ; mankind also, taken in the mass, have the same propensities — a kind of higher instinct, for the government of those who are to live by labour, which can only be done when they can see their way to do it: — the day, therefore, my good friend, is their portion also, but night was made for their superiors. The stars of Heaven shine forth only in the dark — at day-break they disappear. — Nei- ther is the want of rest, which, from a national prejudice, you are pleased to call natural, ¬in ¬