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How to be an Early Riser
How to be an Early Riser
Few ever lived to a great age, and fewer still ever became distinguished, who were not in the habit of early rising. You rise late, and of course get about your business at a late hour, and every thing goes wrong all day. Franklin says that " he who rises late may trot all day, and not have overtaken his business at night."
Dean Swift avers, said that " he never knew any man come to greatness and eminence who lay in bed of a morning."
I believe that, with other degeneracies of our days, history will prove that late rising is a prominent one. In the fourteenth century, the shops in Paris were universally open at four in the morning; now, not till long after seven. Then, the king of France dined out at eight clock in the morning, and retired to his chamber at the same hour in the evening. In the time of Henry in., seven in the morning was the fashionable breakfast hour, ten the dinner hour. In the time of Elizabeth, the nobility, fashion ables, and students, dined at eleven o clock, and supped between five and six in the afternoon.
"Buffon gives us the history of his writings in a few words. " In my youth, I was very fond of sleep ; it robbed me of a great deal of my time ; but my poor Joseph (his servant) was of great service in enabling me to overcome it. I promised to give Joseph a crown every time that he would make me get up at six. Next morning he did not fail to wake me and to torment me; but he only received abuse. The next day after, he did the same, with no better success ; and I was obliged to confess at noon, that I had lost my time. I told him that he did not know how to manage his business ; he ought to think of my promise, and not mind my threats. The day following, he employed force; I begged for in dulgence, I bid him begone, I stormed, but Joseph persisted. I was therefore obliged to comply ; and he was rewarded every day for the abuse which he suffered at the moment when I awoke, by thanks, accompanied with a crown, which he received about an hour after. Yes, I am indebted to poor Joseph for ten or a dozen of the volumes of my works."
Frederick n., of Prussia, even after age and infirmities had increased upon him, gave strict orders never to be allowed to sleep later than four in the morning. Peter the Great, whether at work in the docks at London as a shipcarpenter, or at the anvil as a blacksmith, or on the throne of Russia, always rose before daylight. " I am," says he, " for making my life as long as I can, and therefore sleep as little as possible." Doddridge makes the following striking and sensible remarks on this subject : " I will here record the observation, which I have found of great use to myself, and to which I may say, that the production of this work, (Commentary on the New Testament,) and most of my other writings, is owing; namely, that the difference between rising at five and at seven o clock in the morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man s life."
In order to rise early, I would earnestly recom mend an early hour for retiring. There are many other reasons for this. Neither your eyes nor your health are so likely to be destroyed. Our Creator seems to have so fitted things, that we ought to rest in the early part of the night. Dr. Dwight used to tell his students, that " one hour of sleep before midnight is worth more than two hours after that time." Let it be a rule with you, and scrupulously adhered to, that your light shall be extinguished by ten o clock in the evening. You may then rise at five, and have seven hours to rest, which is about what nature requires.
How to Get Up Early Everyday
But how shall you form the habit of getting up so early? Suppose you go to bed, to-night, at ten ; you have been accustomed to sit up later : for an hour you cannot sleep ; and when the clock strikes five, you will be in a fine sleep. I reply, that if you ever hope to do anything in this world, the habit must be formed, and the sooner it is done the better. If any money could purchase the habit, no price would be too great. Some use a small alarm-clock to call them up, and to which they soon acquire a strong attach ment. By this, or some such process, you may be regularly waked at an early hour. After you are once waked, be sure to use your first con sciousness in getting upon the floor. If you allow yourself to parley a single moment, sleep, like an armed man, will probably seize upon you, and your resolution is gone, your hopes are dashed, and your habits destroyed. Need you be reminded here, that the young man who is in the habit of early rising, will, and must be in the habit of retiring early, and, of course, will put himself out of the way of many temptations and dangers which come under the veil of mid night ? He who from his youth is in the habit of rising early, will be much more likely to live to old age, more likely to be a distinguished and useful man, and more likely to pass a life that is peaceful and pleasant. I dwell upon this point, because a love of bed is too frequently a besetting sin of students, and a sin which soon acquires the strength of a cable.
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