rest is not the conclusion of labour but the recreation of power. it seems a reward because it fulfils a need: but that need being filled, rest is but an extinction and a nothingness. so we do not pray for rest; but (in a just religion) we pray after this life for refreshment, light and peace—not for rest.
rest is only for a little while, as also is labour only for a little while: each demanding the other as a supplement; yet is rest in some intervals a necessary ground for seed, and without rest to protect the sprouting of the seed no good thing ever grew.
of many follies in a commonwealth concerning rest the chief is that rest is not needed for all effort therein. thus one man at leisure will obtain work of another for many days without a sufficiency of rest for that other and think[pg 34] to profit by this. so he may: but he profits singly, and when many rich do so by the poor it is like one eating his own flesh, since the withdrawal of rest from those that labour will soon eat up the commonwealth itself.
much that men do with most anxiety is for the establishment of rest. wise men have often ordered gardens carefully for years, in order to enjoy rest at last. beds also are devised best when they give the deepest interval of repose and are surrounded by artifice with prolonged silence, made of quiet strong wood and well curtained from the morning light. it is so with rooms removed from the other rooms of a house, and with days set apart from labour, and with certain kinds of companionship.
undoubtedly the regimen of rest for men is that of sleep, and sleep is a sort of medicine to rest, and again a true expression of it. for though these two, rest and sleep, are not the same yet without sleep no man can think of rest nor has rest any one better body or way[pg 35] of being than this thing sleep. for in sleep a man utterly sinks down in proportion as it is deep and good into the centre of things and becomes one with that from which he came, drawing strength not only by negation from repose, but in some way positive from the being of his mother which is the earth. some say that sleep is better near against the ground on this account and all men know that sleep in wild places and without cover is the surest and the best. sleep promises waking as rest does a renewal of power; and the good dreams that come to us in sleep are a proof that in sleep we are still living.
a man may deny himself any other voluptuousness but not rest. he may forego wine or flesh or anything of the body, and music or disputation, or anything of the mind, or love itself, or even companionship; but not rest, for if he denies himself this he wastes himself and is himself no longer. rest, therefore, is a necessary intermittent which we must have both for soul and body and is the only[pg 36] necessity inherent to both those two so long as those two are bound together in the matter and net of this world. for food is a necessity to the body and virtue to the soul, but rest to one and to the other.
there is no picture of delight in which we envy other men so much as when, lacking rest, we see them possessing it; on which occasions we call out unwisely for a perpetual rest and for the cessation of all endeavour. in the same way men devise a lack of rest for a special torment, and none can long survive it.
rest and innocence are good fellows, and rest is easier to the innocent man. the wicked suffer unrest always in some sort on account of god's presence warning them, though this unrest is stronger and much more to their good if men also warn them and if they live among such fellows in their commonwealth as will not permit their wickedness to be hidden or to go unpunished.
rest has no time, and in its perfection must lose all mark of time. so a man sleeping deeply[pg 37] knows not how many hours have passed since he fell asleep until he awake again.
there are many good accompaniments for rest, slow and distant music which at last is stiller and then silent; the scent of certain herbs and flowers and particularly of roses; clean linen; a pure clear air and the coming of night. to all these things prayer, an honourable profession and a preparation of the mind are in general a great aid, and, in the heat of the season, cool water refreshed with essences. a man also should make his toilet for rest if he would have it full and thorough and prepare his body as his soul for a relaxation. he does well also in the last passage of his mind into sleep to commend himself to the care of god; remembering both how petty are all human vexations and also how weathercock they are, turning now a face of terror and then in a moment another face of laughter or of insignificance. many troubles that seem giants at evening are but dwarfs at sunrise, and some most terrific prove ghosts which speed off with the broadening of the day.
