Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/149

Rh the general experience of mankind testifies, that sleep tends finally to renew and restore what it apparently destroys; so that, on awaking, man discovers to his surprise and delight that, instead of his thoughts perishing and being buried in the grave of sleep, they have only been preparing in that grave for a more glorious and joyful resurrection.

Sleep then, it appears, is a temporary cessation of the voluntary and intellectual activities of man, so that, to judge from appearances, a living body is reduced for a few hours to the state of a corpse; whilst awaking is the restoration of those activities, converting the corpse back again into a living body, and replacing man in the enjoyment of all his former purposes, thoughts, and operations.—Let me now call your attention to the cause of these wonders.

That this cause doth not originate in man, and that consequently it can only be discovered by looking out of and above man, is demonstrable from the fact above hinted at, that both sleeping and awaking are totally independent of any effort on the part of man. But how can man look out of and above himself? It is evident he can only do so by virtue of the capacity he possesses as a human being, in distinction from the inferior animals, of regarding the of the universe; of believing in His ; and thus