The courtly Roman’s shining path to tread,
And sharply smile prevailing Folly dead.”
Dr. Young.
The Writer does not presume further, than humbly to advise those who wish to enjoy any of their faculties in perfection, not willingly to refrain from wearing their Night Cap, Later than Eleven o’Clock at Night.
“One Hour’s Sleep before Twelve o’Clock is worth Two after.”
Do you recollect, Gentle Reader, to have ever learned any thing worth remembering
After Eleven o’Clock at Night?
I don’t:—nor, indeed, for a full Hour before that time,—those persons whose bodies or minds have been industriously employed during the day, are arrived at that degree of exhaustion, that their faculties are become obtuse;—if you ask them any thing, “they don’t know;”—and if you tell them any thing, “they don’t care.”
Midnight Conversation cannot be any thing more than a mere “caput mortuum,” and the vapid draining of Brains collapsed by the continued cogitations of the 14 or 15 preceding Hours!—or the unwholesome effervescence of the “hot and rebellious liquors” which have been taken to revive the flagging spirits.
The Machinery of Man, like the wheels of a Watch, after a certain time wants winding up, or it will go down—when this time comes, till your Gentleman is wound up by Food and Rest, he cannot talk, any better than that can tick, till that is wound up again.