DERM. XXIX.] A GOOD REPORT, &C. 4S3 larities, and sometimes with infamous practices too And therefore I would spend one page to give it an ill name, and to bring it into just discredit. God has made every thing beautiful in its season,. .Eccles. iii. 11. The sun ariseth ;and man goeth forth to his work until the evening," Ps. civ. n, 23. . It is more natural and healthful to pursue the concerns o£ life, as much as possible, by day light. Midnight stu- dies are prejudicial to nature : A painful experience calls me to repent of the faults ofmy younger years, and there are many before me have had the same call to repent- ance. Wearing out the lightsome hours in sleep, is an unnatural waste 'of sun- beams. There is no light so friendly to animal nature as that of the sun. Midnight assemblies, festivals, and entertainments, exhaust the spirits, and make a needless profusion of the necess- saries of life : They carry a very ill appearance with them, even where no wickedness is indulged, they are practices of evil report, and deserve censure and shame. It is no honour to our whole nation, that we have learned the fashion of doing nothing in the morning; among persons of mode the day often begins at noon: The hours of business are grown much later among us than our forefathers could bear. They knew the worth of day-light. In some things indeed we are bound to comply with custom, or we must forsake the world: for a few can never stem the general tide, or reform a degenerate age : And there are some few trades and employmentswhich demand labour at night. But in our general conduct we should endeavour to act more agreeably to the laws, of creation and nature, and to reduce families to a little better order, wheresoever we have power and influence. Surely it can be no great hardship for any persons in health to begin their-day with the rising sun, for almost half the year. We should not think it sufficient to get up a little before noon, nor should we turn the morning of God and nature into midnight, nor_make the decline of the sun serve for our morningwork. I would not be thought in this page to reflect upon the weak, the sickly, and the aged parts of mankind; whose nature may require longer sleep, and a larger de- gree of rest to recruit their. spirits : Nor do I accuse f
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