THE ADVENTURER

MAN has been long known among philo- sophers by the appellation of the microcosm, or epitome of the world : the resemblance be- tween the great and little world might, by a rational observer, be detailed to many par- ticulars; and to many more by a fanciful speculatist. I know not in which of these two classes I shall be ranged for observing, that as the total quantity of light and darkness allotted in the course of the year to every region of the earth is the same, though dis- tributed at various times and in different portions ; so, perhaps, to each individual of the human species, nature has ordained the same quantity of wakefulness and sleep ; though divided by some into a total quies- cence and vigorous exertion of their faculties, and blended by others in a kind of twilight of existence, in a state between dreaming and reasoning, in which they either think without action, or act without thought.

The poets are generally well affected to sleep : as men who think with vigour, they require respite from thought ; and gladly resign

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