Dull monotonous thoughts suggesting no lively images, no sallies of wit, no " fancies fine," no manoeuvres of reasoning, should be encouraged by him who is anxious for sleep. Let him read or listen to a stupid author, not stupid enough however to irritate him, or let him count by simple numeration, or say over to himself some droning rhyme.

"Oh! dearest lady, rest your gentle head Upon my lap, and try to sleep awhile; Your eyes look pale, hollow, and over-worn With heaviness of watching and slow grief. Come, I will sing you some low, sleepy tune, Not cheerful, nor yet sad; some dull old thing, Some outworn and unused monotony; Such as our country gossips sing and spin, Till they almost forget they live."

These different methods of inducing sleep have all one element in common, that of annulling the sensibility of a nerve, or a portion of the brain, by the mere repetition or, rather, the continuance of a single impression, or of a single group of impressions.* The retina kept by a strong act of the will fixed on a particular point, will become temporarily blind; and by that wonderful sympathy so marked in the

* The following method of procuring sleep at will is recommended by Dr. BINNS. - (Anatomy of Sleep, p. 435.)

" Let the patient turn on his right side, place his head comfortably on the pillow, so that it exactly occupies the angle a line drawn from the head to the shoulder would form, and then slightly closing his lips, take rather a full inspiration, breathing as much as he possibly can through the nostrils. This, however, is not absolutely necessary, as some persons breathe always through their mouths during sleep, and rest as sound as those who do not. Having taken a full inspiration, the lungs are then to be left to their own action, that is, the respiration is neither to be accelerated nor retarded too much ; but a very full inspiration must be taken. The attention must now be fixed upon the action in which the patient is engaged. He must depict to himself that he sees the breath passing from his nostrils in a continuous stream, and the very instant nervous system, the inaction so induced will extend to the other parts of the sensorium, and the individual will fall into what Mr. Braid calls Hypnotism. The continuance of one unvarying sound, as we have before remarked, has a like effect. Between the repetitions of the sound there must not be an interval sufficient for the recovery of sensibility in the nerve, else the effect may be quite reversed. Thus, I remember a lady told me that one kind of sound which old Burton speaks of, had anything but a soothing influence. I had directed her to take a shower bath before getting into bed. Some of the water left in the reservoir, dripped into the tin vessel at the bottom. At first, she thought this sound would lull her; but the intervals were too long. She was either nervously expecting the next drop, or, when it came, it came as a new impression, and roused her up; so that, as she said, instead of sending her to sleep, it drove her almost mad. There must, then, be a certain continuity of sound. And the same applies to all images in the mind. I have, found nothing answer better than imagining one's self floating on a vast expanse of water; or, trying to image to one's self the Pacific Ocean, and fancying we are sailing upon it, while " The sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky, Lie like a load on the weary eye." that he brings his mind to conceive this apart from all other ideas, consciousness and memory depart; imagination slumbers ; fancy becomes dormant; thought ceases ; the sentient faculties lose their susceptibility ; the vital or ganglionic system assumes the sovereignty ; and, as we before remarked, he no longer wakes, but sleeps. For the instant the mind is brought to the contemplation of a single sensation, that instant the sensorium abdicates the throne, and the hypnotic faculty steeps it in oblivion. It will happen, sometimes, that the patient does not succeed on the first attempt. But he must not be discouraged. Let him persevere, taking in full inspirations and expirations for thirty or forty times, without attempting to count them, for if he does, the act of numeration will keep him awake ; and even should he not succeed in inducing very sound sleep, he will, at least, fall into that state of pleasing delirium which is precursory of repose, and which is scarcely inferior, to it. Many trials have satisfied us of this."

It is interesting to observe that whenever the poets are engaged in describing the objects around sleepers, they not only by their instinct or inspiration assemble objects more or less fixed, and unvarying in form and hue, with motions of great sameness, but their very metre falls into monotony, or the repetition of like sounds. Thus, Tennyson, in the Lotos eaters; -

"'Courage,' he said, and pointed to the strand;

'This mounting wave will roll us ahoreward soon.' In the afternoon they came unto a land

In which it seemed always afternoon; All round the coast the languid air did swoon,

Breathing like one that hath a weary dream; Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;

And, like a downward smoke, the slender stream Along the cliff to fall, and pause, and fall did seem."

But all corporeal or physical auxiliaries; darkness, or a soft subdued light; silence, or lulling murmurs; the langour of gentle fatigue; a well-adjusted couch; a familiar chamber and a sound digestion; all these will be of no avail if he, who courts the oblivion of slumber, lies down under the sway of some strong emotion. The mere intellect may yield up its most favourite speculations or remembrances to the sleepy time and influences; but the passions are not so easily stilled, and their vigils are extended to every part of the system. The throbbings of the heart; the pantings of the respiratioi*; the watchful ear; the searching eye; the tortured memory; the busy fancy ; the harassed judgment; all give tokens of the spell by which they are bound: -