491 / 514
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
of
my
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 employments
which
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 morning
work.
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