—Ebenezer Elliott.
1791
A RESTFUL PREACHER.
Dean Ramsey relates that the Earl of Lauderdale was alarmingly ill, one distressing symptom being a total absence of sleep, without which the medical men declared he could not recover. His son, who was somewhat simple, was seated under the table, and cried out, "Sen' for that preaching man frae Livingstone, for fayther aye sleeps in the kirk." One of the doctors thought the hint worth attending to, and the experiment of "getting a minister till him" succeeded, for sleep came on and the earl recovered.
1792
Come sleep, O sleep! the certain knot of peace,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low!
—Sir P. Sidney.
1793
Sleep.
Do not omit the heavy offer of it;
It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
It is a comforter.