I received both your kind Letters, that of Aug. 2. and that of Sept. 30. together with the charming Purse of 13 Stripes and Stars, which you have so obligingly made for me and sent me. In return I have knit for you, and send enclos’d, the little Piece you demanded of me. Accept it with my Thanks both for the Purse and our dear Georgiana’s pleasing Verses. I write to her by this Opportunity, and to my inestimable Friend your Father: Will you be good enough to excuse therefore the Shortness of this to you. My Time is so cut to pieces with every body’s Business, that I can neither do or say all I would. My Love to all, and believe me ever, my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately

As a great Part of our Life is spent in Sleep, during which we have sometimes pleasing and sometimes painful Dreams, it becomes of some consequence to obtain the one kind, and avoid the other: for, whether real or imaginary, Pain is Pain, and Pleasure Pleasure. If we can Sleep without Dreaming, it is well that painful Dreams are avoided. If while we sleep, we can have pleasing Dreams, it is, as the French say, tant gagné, so much added to the Pleasures of Life.

To this End it is in the first Place necessary to be careful in preserving Health, by due Exercise and great Temperance; for in Sickness the Imagination is disturb’d; and disagreable, sometimes terrible Ideas, are apt to present themselves. Exercise should precede Meals, not immediatly follow them: the first promotes, the latter obstructs Digestion. If after Exercise we feed sparingly, the Digestion will be easy and good, the Body lightsome, the Temper chearful, and all the Animal Functions perform’d agreably. Sleep when it follows, will be natural and undisturb’d. While Indolince with full Feeding, occasions Night Mares and Horrors inexpressible; we fall from Precipices, are assaulted by wild Beasts, Murderers, or Demons, and we experience at times every variety of Distress. Observe however, that the Quantities of Food and Exercise are relative things; those who move much, may, and indeed ought to eat more; those who use little Exercise should eat little. In general Mankind, since the improvement of Cookery, eat about twice as much as Nature requires. Suppers are not bad if we have not din’d, but restless Nights naturally follow hearty Suppers after full Dinners. Indeed, as there is a Difference in Constitutions, some rest well after those Meals; it costs them only a frightful Dream and an Appoplexy, after which they sleep till Dooms-day. Nothing more common in the News Papers than Instances of People, who, after eating a hearty supper, are found dead a bed in the Morning.

Another means of preserving Health to be attended to, is the having a constant supply of fresh Air in you[r] Bed chamber. It has been a great Mistake, the Sleeping in Rooms exactly clos’d and in Beds surrounded by Curtains. No outward Air that may come into you is so unwholesome as the unchang’d Air often breath’d of a close Chamber. As Water boiling does not grow hotter by longer boiling, if the Particles, that receive greater Heat can escape; so living Bodies do not putrify if the Particles as fast as they become putrid can be thrown off. It is therefore that Nature expels them by the Pores of the Skin and Lungs, and in a free open Air they are carried off, but in a Close Room we receive them again and again, tho’ they become more and more corrupt. A number of Persons crouded into a small Room thus spoil the Air in a few Minutes, and even render it mortal, as in the Black Hole at Calcutta. A single Person is said to spoil only a Gallon of Air per Minute, and therefore requires a longer time to spoil a Chamber full; but it is done however, in Proportion, and many putrid Disorders hence have their Origin. It is recorded of Methusalah, who being the longest Liver may be supposed to have best preserved his Health, that he slept always in the open Air; for when he had lived 500 Years, an Angel said to him, Arise, Methusalah, and build thee an House for thou shall live yet 500 Years longer: But Methusalah answer’d and said, If I am to live but 500 Years longer, it is not worth while to build me an House; I will sleep in the Air as I have been us’d to do. Physicians, after having for Ages contended that the Sick should not be indulg’d with fresh Air, have at length discover’d that it may do them good. It is therefore to be hop’d they may in time discover likewise, that it is not hurtful to those who are in Health; and that we may then be cured of the Aerophobia that at present distresses weak Minds, and make them choose to be stifled and poison’d, rather than leave open the Window of a Bedchamber, or put down the Glass of a Coach.

Confin’d Air when saturated with the perspirable Matter, will not receive more, and that Matter must therefore remain in our Bodies and Occasions Diseases; but it gives some previous Notice of its being about to be hurtful, by producing certain Uneasinesses, at first slight indeed, such as with regard to the Lungs is a stifling Sensation, and to the Pores of the Skin a kind of Restlessness which is difficult to describe, and few that feel it know the cause of it. But we may recollect, that sometimes on waking in the Night, we have, if warmly cover’d, found it difficult to get to sleep again. We turn often without finding Repose in any Position. This Figettiness, to use a Vulgar expression for want of a better, is occasioned wholly by an Uneasiness in the Skin, owing to the Retention of the Perspirable Matter, the Bedclothes having received their Quantity, and being saturated, refusing to take any more. To become Sensible of this by an Experiment, let a Person keep his Position in the Bed, but throw off the Bedclothes, and suffer fresh Air to approach the Part uncover’d of his Body. He will then feel that Part suddenly refresh’d for the Air will immediatly relieve the Skin by receiving, licking up and carrying off the Load of Perspirable Matter that incommoded it: For every Portion of Cool Air that approaches the Warm Skin, in receiving its Part of that Vapour, receives therewith a degree of Heat that rarifies it, and renders it lighter, when it will be push’d away with its Burden by cooler and therefore heavier fresh Air, which for a Moment supplies its place, and then being likewise Charg’d and warm’d, gives way to a succeeding Quantity; This is the Order of Nature, to prevent Animals being infected with their own Perspiration. He will now be sensible of the Difference between the Part expos’d to the Air, and that which remaining sunk in the Bed denies the Air’s Access; For this Part now manifests its Uneasiness more distinctly by the Comparison: and the Seat of the Uneasiness is more plainly perceived than when the whole Surface of the Body was affected alike.

Here then is one great and general Cause of unpleasing Deams: for when the Body is uneasy, the Mind will be disturb’d by it; and disagreable Ideas of various kinds will in sleep be the natural Consequences. The Remedies preventive and curative follow

1st By eating moderately, as before advis’d for Health’s sake less perspirable Matter is produc’d in a given Time, hence the Bed clothes receive it longer before they are saturated; and we may therefore sleep longer before we are made uneasy by their refusing to receive any more.

2nd. By using thinner and more Porous Bedclothes which will suffer the perspirable Matter more easily to pass thro’ them we are less incommoded by them, such being longer tolerable.

3. When you are wak’d by this Uneasiness, and find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of Bed, beat up and turn your Pillow, shake the Bedclothes well with at least 20 shakes, then throw the Bed open and leave it to cool; in the meanwhile continuing undress’d, walk about your Chamber till your Skin has had time to Discharge its Load, which it will do sooner as the Air may be drier and colder. When you begin to feel the cool Air unpleasant, then return to your Bed; you will soon fall asleep, and your Sleep will be sweet and pleasant. All the Scenes presented to your Fancy, will be of the pleasing kind; I am often as agreably entertain’d with them, as by the Scenery of an Opera.

If you happen to be too Indolent to get out of Bed, you may instead of it lift up the Bed clothes with one Arm and Leg, so as to draw in a good deal of fresh Air and by letting them fall force it out again. This repeated 20 Times will so well clear them of the Perspirable Matter they have imbib’d, as to permit your sleeping well for some time afterwards. But this latter Method is not equal to the former.

Those who do not love Trouble and can afford to have two Beds, will find great Luxury, in rising when they wake in a hot Bed, and going into the cool one. Such shifting of Beds would also be of great service to Persons ill of a Fever, as it refreshes and frequently procures Sleep. A very large Bed that will admit a Removel so distant from the first Situation as to be cool and sweet, amy in a degree answer the same End. One or two Observations more will conclude this little Piece.

Care must be taken when you lie down to dispose your Pillow so as to Suit your manner of laying your Head, and to be perfectly easy. Then place your Limbs so as not to bear inconveniently hard upon one another, as for Instance the Joints of your Ancles: For tho’ a bad Position may at first give but little Pain and be hardly notic’d, yet a Continuance will render it less tolerable, and the Uneasiness may come on while you are asleep, and disturb your Imagination.

These are the rules of the Art; but tho’ they will generally prove effectual in producing the End intended, there is a Case in which the most punctual Observance of them all will be totally fruitless. I need not mention this Case to you my dear Friend; but my account of the Art would be imperfect without it. The Case is,

When the Person who desires to have pleasant Dreams, has not taken care to preserve, what is necessary above all Things, A Good Conscience.