18

VALUE OF SLEEP.
Great Men Believe in Nature’s Sweet Restorer.
‘ 4rPHE habit of great men in the matter of sleep forms an
1 interesting subject of inquiry,’’said Mr. E. W. Jacobs,
of Boston, in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat “and I be-
lieve such an inquiry would show that those who have
made the greatest mark on the world’s history have al-
ways
taken it in abundance. There is a popular belief
that Napoleon took only four or five hour’s rest, but to
my
mind the theory has grown out of The desire of his
admirers to show that in this matter, as in all others, he
differed from his fellows. As a matter of fact, it was im-
possible to tell exactly how long he slumbered, but it is
certain that, like the
great generals in our own civil war,
he availed himself of every opportunity to seek the
greatest of all means of relief from fatigue. Even when
considering his plans on the occasion of the
greatest
event of his military career, the battle of Waterloo,
the hour left him before the decisive moment arrived
was occupied with a snooze, which he took with delibera-
tion, after giving instructions to one of his aides to
arouse him at the given time. So
great, indeed, was his
love of a nap
that his most trusted companions in arms
always showed a. regard for his feelings on the subject by
never disturbing him. Napoleon’s case is only that of
most military heroes and of most great men. Gladstone
rarely takes less than seven hours’ sleep. Whenever he
is preparing for a great effort in the House of Commons
he always likes a short afternoon siesta. Bismarck has
displayed a similar habit on the occasion of the most
fierce parliamentary debates. When all night sittings
were common Parnell would
go to his hotel, seek his bed
and leave instructions with one of his colleagues to have
him aroused whenever a crucial point was reached.
These are only a few examples of the
great men who
have shown their thorough appreciation of that
great
boon which ‘knits
up
the raveled sleeve of care.’
”
THE PARTHENON FRIEZE.
A N attentive examination of the various parts of the
l\ frieze will show that
very
different degrees of skill
and feeling have been employed in the execution
;
while
it can scarcely be doubted but that the
arrangement of
the whole composition and the design of the different
parts have been the work of one mind. If the various
parts
had been actually modelled by the original author
of the whole composition, it is probable that the whole
would have been worked up to the same degree of excel-
lence, and with the same attention to the details of the
finishing. But this is
very
far from being the case.
Upon some the most perfect knowledge of the
anatomy,
all the framework of the body, all the intricate arrange-
ment of the muscles, with their expression and modifi-
cation under excitement varying in intensity and direc-
tion, are clearly understood and indicated without exag-
geration. Upon others all these are generalized and neg-
lected, as if not fully comprehended; and we are, there-
fore, inclined to believe that different
portions of this
frieze were entrusted, for its execution, to different
artists, who were to exert their best abilities, being fur-
nished only with an outline or sketch of the
part com-
mitted to them. The immense extent of the work to be
performed renders this conjecture probable; it is almost
necessary
that the design should have emanated from
one mind; but it is almost impossible that one pair of:
hands should have modelled so extensive a work, when
we are told that the whole empire, with all its sculptures,
pediments, metopes, frieze, as well as its internal decora-
tions, and the stupendous statue of the goddess herself,
was completed, from its foundation, in but little more
than six years. Doubts have been entertained whether
the
separate slabs of which the frieze is composed were
sculptured in the private studios of the several artists,
and afterwards adjusted in their places, or whether the
slabs were first placed, and the artists then set to work
to execute their respective portions. When it is recol-
lected that the sculptures were very peculiarly placed,
so as to receive only a light reflected from the
pavement
below; so very different from what the artists could con-
veniently arrange in their own rooms, that the general
effect would very materially depend upon the correct
adjustment of the depression and elevations of the sur-
face to the peculiar direction in which the light was to be
received, and to which it is to be supposed that the article
would be but little accustomed, it is more than probable
that the sculpture was executed after the marble was al-
ready fixed in the wall of the temple. If, again, we examine
the nature of the composition, especially of those
parts
where the cavalcade is represented, if we look at the in-
tricacy of the arrangement, the crowding together of the
figures, the blending of the subjects of the adjoining
slabs, it is difficult to conceive how one part should have
become fitted to another with that perfect accuracy
which we may everywhere observe, unless the sculpture
had been executed when the slabs were already placed,
or the whole had been accurately modeled before the
work was commenced, which we have already had reason
to believe was not the case. —
The Architect.
BURDETTE ON THE LIFE OF MAN.
MAN
bom of woman is of few days and no teeth.
And, indeed, it would be money in his
pocket some-
times if he had less of either.
As for his teeth he has convulsions when he cuts them,
and as the last comes through, lo ! last end of that man’s
jaw is worse than the first, being full of
porcelain and a
roof plate built to hold blackberry seed. Stone bruises line
his path to manhood; his father boxes his ears at home,
the big boys cuff him on the playground, and the teacher
whips him in the school-room. He buyeth Northwest-
ern at 119, when he hath sold short at 99, and his neigh-
bor hath unloaded Iron Mountain at 63f, and it
straight-
way breaketli down to 52J. He riseth early and sitteth
up late that he
may
fill his barns and storehouses, and
lo! his children’s lawyers divide the spoils among them-
selves and say
“
Ha, Ha.” He growleth and is sore dis-
tressed because it raineth, and he beateth upon his
breast and sayeth,
“
My crop
is lost ”
because it raineth
not. The late rains blight his wheat and the frost biteth
his peaches. If it be so that the sun shineth even among
the nineties, he sayeth
“
V/oe is me, for I perish,” and if
the northwest wind sigheth down into forty-two below,
he cryeth,
“
Would I were dead.” If he wear sackcloth
and jeans men say
“
He is a tramp,” and if he goes forth
clad in purple and fine linen all the people cry,
“
Shoot
the dude.”
He carryeth insurance for twenty-five years, until he
hath paid thrice for all his goods, and then heletteth his
policy lapse for one day, and that same night fire de-
stroyeth his store. He buildeth him a house in Jersey,
and his first born in devoured by mosquitos; he pitcheth
his tent in New York and tramps devour his substance.
He moveth to Kansas, and a cyclone carryeth his house
\ away over in Missouri, while a prairie fire and ten million
| grasshoppers fight for his crop. He settleth himself in
| Kentucky, and is shot the next day by a gentleman, a
| colonel and a statesman,,
“
because, sah, he
resembles,
* sah, a man, sah, he did not like, sah.” Verily, there is
| no rest for the sole of his foot, and if he had it to do
over again he would not be born at all, for
“
the
day
of death is better than the day of one’s birth.”
245
THE SOUTHERN ARCHITECT.