A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

dress, and retire so as not to allow more than eight hours for sleep. It thus appears, that the laws of our political condition, the laws of the natural world, and the constitution of our bodies, alike demand that we rise with the light of day to prosecute our employments, and that we retire within doors, when this light is withdrawn. In regard to the effects of protracting the time spent in repose, many extensive and satisfactory investigations have been made. It has been shown, that, during sleep, the body perspires most freely, while yet neither food nor exercise are ministering to its wants. Of course, if we continue our slumbers, beyond the time required to restore the body to its usual vigor, there is an unperceived undermining of the constitution, by this protracted and debilitating exhalation. This process, in a course of years, renders the body delicate, and less able to withstand disease; and in the result shortens life. Sir John Sinclair, who has written a large work on the Causes of Longevity, states, as one result of his extensive investigations, that he has never yet heard or read of a single case of great longevity, where the individual was not an early riser. He says, that he has found cases, in which the individual has violated some one of all the other laws of health, and yet lived to great age; but never a single instance, in which any constitution has withstood that undermining, consequent on protracting the hours of repose beyond the demands of the system. Another reason for early rising, is, that it is indispensable to a systematic and well-regulated family. At whatever hour the parents retire, children and domestics, wearied by play or labor, must retire early. Children usually awake with the dawn of light, and commence their play, while domestics usually prefer the freshness of morning for their labors. If, then, the parents rise at a late hour, they either induce a habit of protracting sleep in their children and domestics, or else the family is up, and at their pursuits, while their supervisors