Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/152

132 to enchant him with inconceivable delights, and at another time to affright and alarm him with as inconceivable horrors. Oar very dreams then are collateral proofs, that the sleep, in which all dreams originate, is an effect produced by some order of beings superior to ourselves, to whom is intrusted by the the care of alternately closing and opening our eyes every returning night, to the intent that both our souls and bodies may receive all the uses and benefits to be derived from alternate repose and activity.—What these uses and benefits are, let us now, in the third place, inquire.

On this occasion, however, I will not detain you by an exploration of the advantages resulting to the body from the refreshment of sleep, because every one’s experience is sufficient to convince him, how much he is indebted to the repose of the night for the renovated powers of his corporeal frame, when the morning light again calls him to the exercise of those powers.

But the benefit of sleep is not limited to the body, since there is every reason to believe, that it extends also to the mind; and that whatsoever of refreshment and renovation the body may derive from its composing influence, the mind is a still greater gainer, and has infinitely more anise to be thankful for its gains.