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III

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP¹

The laws of Nature guide and govern alike the least and greatest things. There is a centripetal and centrifugal force which acts upon the wheels of a watch with as much precision as on an orb which rolls through the firmament. There is a law of hydraulics which acts alike upon human blood and the fathomless ocean. So also there is a law which controls pain and pleasure, motion and rest, sleep and wakefulness—a law of action and reaction. In accordance with this universal law the pendulum of a clock if pressed in one direction will swing to the opposite extreme. So also the human body after exertion and wakefulness reacts into a corresponding state of repose, and this is sleep. Motion and rest, action and sleep are therefore causes and counterparts of one another, and are guided by the same laws. In the waking state the spiritual principle is diffused throughout the entire organisation, which is thrown into a high state of activity. The blood flows faster, the nerves are more acute and the brain is more energetic than when the spirit is sleeping. To assert that the spirit sleeps contradicts prevailing opinion, but once it is held to be substance it becomes subject to laws which govern material bodies. On the one hand, spirit or mind demands rest as a compensation for activity, bestowing life and activity, on the other, as a compensation for rest. It is not the lungs, blood, muscles, nerves or brain that are exhausted by exercise, but the corre-

¹ See The Great Harmonia. Vol. I, pp. 149 et seq.

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The Harmonial Philosophy

sponding forces of the spiritual principle, actuating these physical structures, that become weary and demand rest. Hence the philosophy of sleep is simple, for sleep is that mode by which the fatigued soul withdraws partially from the physical organism and gathers inwardly for purposes of recuperation. At the same time it remains sufficiently within them to inspire the involuntary systems with constant motion, that they may fulfil their appropriate functions. The place into which it retires is the most interior portions of the viscera and the deepest recesses of the sensorium. The superior brain or cerebrum yields up its powers to the cerebellum and this resigns in turn to the medulla spinalis. During the period of natural rest the cerebellum never sleeps, and in the waking hours the cerebrum is in constant activity, guiding and controlling the organisation.

When spirit is buried in blissful depths of natural sleep, diseased structures are benefited and advanced toward health.¹ There is quietude throughout the living temple. Natural sleep is, however, enjoyed but seldom. The inebriate, the gamester and he who turns night into day know scarcely anything of those charms which surround the rest of temperate and harmonious people. Sleep is fraught to the former with soul-haunting dreams and terrors, but to the latter with living blessings.² For them, the spirit as well as the body rebuilds each defec-

¹ It is an old recommendation to sleep with the head to the North, and Davis affirms that by so doing (a) the magnetic forces are established in the vital system and (b) the vital electricity is directed upon the brain and cerebral nerves. In his opinion the natural consequences are dreamless sleep and health.—See The Harbinger of Health, p. 217. Another counsel is to lie on the right side.—Ibid., p. 216.
² It is said otherwise that the amount of sleep which a man requires depends on his temperament. The most active men sleep the least. Those who work fastest sleep fastest. Each must determine the amount needed by each and see that the minimum is obtained. He who steals necessary sleep from the night steals from the Lord, and will be punished by suffering and premature old age.—Ibid., p. 253.

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The Philosophy of Sleep

tive structure, gathering into itself the organic elements and essences exhausted by the hours of action. The spirit refines and transforms material substances into vital forces, but such forces cannot be drawn into the spiritual constitution until voluntary movement has ceased. The spirit, when asleep, moves with the greatest precision through the whole organic domain, but especially the inner chambers of the sensorium and the ganglionic and lymphatic batteries of the visceral system. The anatomical and physiological principles of the mental organism build up and endow the vital structures with new forms; but the principles of chemical, electrical and magnetic action are—or should be—at rest. For this reason an almost empty stomach is most conducive to peaceful and profitable slumber.

There are numerous spiritual phenomena connected with the state of sleep,¹ and hence on retiring at night it is of utmost importance to be not only at peace with oneself but also with the world. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us, and conscience is the divinity which rules therein. To obey its dictates is to do the will of God, and this is to unfold in our own souls that glorious paradise of peace and righteousness in which each thought and desire exhales the serene elements of goodness and truth.

¹ There is hence all the more reason for a counsel given elsewhere—that impassionable and psychic persons are not to regard all their "night-thoughts" as whisperings of departed spirits.—The Harbinger of Health, p. 216.