I will grant that the Oriental notions of cosmogony, or the creation of the world, are a blot on their scripture page: because the pagan theologians were shorn of the light of Christianity, they were prone to refer creation to natural causes within their own comprehension, and their ideas were fabulous and impure. Thus, among the Hindoos and Egyptians, there is a mass of obscenity adduced to account for the development of the globe, in the associations of Vishnu, and Siva, and Osiris, and Isis; and the temples of Elephanta and Elora are adorned with symbolic paintings of this incarnation of Vishnu. Yet, with all this error, there is in the "Vedas," or Hindoo scriptures, a not remote analogy to the Bible itself; and, granting that the cosmogony of Phoenicia is little more than a mysterious romance, yet whether the great cause be the demiurgic spirit uniting with desire, or the being "That" of the Hindoos, the essence of all these mysteries still combines the grand scheme of the creation-the formation of a beautiful world from a chaos of wide and dark waters.

IDA. You are wandering very far eastward, Astrophel: I will propose this question to Evelyn.

If it is so evident that the brain and mind, although not identical, exist in a most intimate union, may we not undervalue their relative influence by adducing the energy of intellect and brilliancy of conception possessed by many in advanced life? Remember the green old age of Plato, and Cicero, and Newton, and Johnson, and, above all, Goethe, whose last work was brilliant as his first. And all this coincident with that love of Infinite Wisdom that exists (as we read Golations of a Philosopher"), "even belongs to the earth, inc perfection of

ment of death, is felt by the conscious being." Does this imply decay?

Ev. The retentive powers of old age are the exception to a rule which the ultra spiritualist assumes as a general rule, in attempting to disprove the growth and decay of mind, according to the age of the body. But as lives are of different duration, and constitutions vary, so may mental powers indicate different degrees of vigour. If mind increases, no doubt it decreases; and I have known many who retain every faculty but memory, which is the first to decay and indicate failing power; and so also is it with idiots, in whose memory, usually, the greatest defects appear; the faculty of counting numbers reaches only to three, and of letters to C, the third letter in the alphabet.

Ida will grant that there is no more impressive lesson of humility than the dwindling and decay of genius, when, in the words of the Athenian misanthrope,

"Nature, as it grows again towards earth,

Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy."

Reflect on the painful end of Sheridan and other brilliant wits of their day; that

"From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,
And Swift expires a driveller and a show;"

and we may almost wish that biography should begin at each end, and finish in the middle, or zenith of a life.

IDA. If the fact be so, I grant the lesson to our pride, Evelyn; and we may dwell with fervent admiration on the divinity of that mind which can ennoble and consecrate our body, so fraught as it is with basest passions, and so decayable withal,

NATURE OF SLEEP.

"Sleep, gentle sleep!

Nature's soft nurse."-Henry IV., Part ii.

IDA. I begin to perceive the importance of this digression on the nature of mind. You wish us to believe there is a temporary desertion of the spirit from the body, and therefore the body sleeps?

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Ev. Not absolute desertion, but a limit to its influence. Many have thought in conformity to your question; and indeed, Ida, it is a belief so holy, that I may feel it to be almost an impiety to differ. From the time of Aristotle to Haller, the term Sleep" expresses that condition which is marked by a cessation of certain mental manifestations, coincident with the degree of oppression; for it is an error to say that the body sleeps: it is the brain only, perhaps I may say the cerebrum, or the fore lobes; for I believe the lower part of it (that which imparts an energy to the process of breathing and of blood circulation) is never in a complete sleep, but merely in a state of languor, or, rather, of repose, sufficient for its restoration; if it were to sleep, death would be the result.

This repose is in contrast with a state of waking, that activity of mind in which ideas are constantly chasing each other like the waves of ocean; the mode of displacing one idea being by the excitement of another in its place.

In that state of sound sleep which overcomes children, whose tender brains are soon tired, or old persons whose brains are worn, and in persons of little reflection, the mind is perfectly passive, and its manifestations cease.

So writes Professor Stewart, that there was a total suspension of volition during sleep, as regards its influence over mental or corporeal faculties; and

I may even adduce a scrap from Burton, although I am an admirer of the quaint old compiler for little else than his measureless industry:

"Sleep is a rest or binding of the outward senses, and of the common sense, for the preservation of body and soul. Illigation of senses proceeds from an inhibition of spirits, the way being stopped by which they should come; this stopping is caused by vapours arising out of the stomach, filling the nerves by which the spirits should be conveyed. When these vapours are spent, the passage is open, and the spirits perform their accustomed duties; so that waking is the action and motion of the senses, which the spirits, dispersed over all parts, cause."

ASTR. But is volition always suspended even in sound sleep? Was it not the opinion of Berkley, that the mind even then was percipient? How else can we account for the waking exactly at one predetermined hour? If we retire to sleep at the latest hour, or oppressed with fatigue, so strong an impression is produced in our mind, that the breaking of our sleep is almost at the given moment.

Ev. I will answer you at present, Astrophel, only by analysis; it is not yet time to explain.

I may grant that there is some latent effect—passive memory, if you will-for we do not count the hours in sleep, and calculate our time by the clock; but we wake, and soon the bell strikes.

We have on record some very curious instances of the periodical recurrence of ideas in a waking state, the measurement of time being referrible to mental impression, mechanically established by constant habit.

There was an idiot once, who was in the habit of amusing himself constantly by counting the hours as they were struck on the clock. It chanced, after some time, that the works of the clock were in

jured, so that the striking for a time had ceased. The idiot, notwithstanding, continued to measure the day with perfect correctness, by counting and beating the hour. This is a story of Dr. Plott's, in his History of Staffordshire.

There is one of more modern date, somewhat analogous to this.

I may quote Holy Writ in support of this passive condition of true sleep-nay, even its similitude to death. How often do we find allusions to sleep and death as synonymous ! Sir Thomas Brown was impressed so deeply with this likeness, that he "did not dare to trust it without his prayers." And the Macedonian, who wished for more worlds to conquer, confessed his sleep proved to him his mortality. I may quote ancient poetry also in my support. Homer and Virgil describe sleep as the "Brother of Death;" and, among the profane poets of later times, the same sublime association is traced of this

"Mortis imago-et simulacrum.”

Among the ancient allegories, sleep is portrayed as a female, with black, unfolded wings; in her left hand a white child, the image of Sleep; in her right, a black child, the image of Death.

On the tomb of Cypselus, according to Pausanias, night is thus personified.

CAST. How true, then, was the thought of the first deep sleeper on the sensation of slumber :

First found me, and with soft oppression seized
My drowned sense, untroubled; though I thought
I then was passing to my former state,
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve."

But how fearful is this resemblance which changes "tired nature's sweet restorer" into a type of death! Pr'ythee, Evelyn, do not affright me thus by cloth