ste of
time. Is it said, that those, who wish to rise early, can go to their
employments before breakfast? it may be replied, that, in most cases, it
is not safe to use the eyes or the muscles in the morning, till the
losses of the night have been repaired by food. In addition to this, it
may be urged, that, where the parents set an example of the violation of
the rules of health and industry, their influence tends in the wrong
direction; so that whatever waste of time is induced, by a practice
which they thus uphold, must be set down to their account.

But the practice of early rising has a relation to the general interests
of the social community, as well as to that of each distinct family. All
that great portion of the community, who are employed in business and
labor, find it needful to rise early; and all their hours of meals, and
their appointments for business or pleasure, must be accommodated to
these arrangements. Now, if a small portion of the community establish
very different hours, it makes a kind of jostling, in all the concerns
and interests of society. The various appointments for the public, such
as meetings, schools, and business hours, must be accommodated to the
mass, and not to individuals. The few, then, who establish domestic
habits at variance with the majority, are either constantly interrupted
in their own arrangements, or else are interfering with the rights and
interests of others. This is exemplified in the case of schools. In
families where late rising is practised, either hurry, irregularity, and
neglect, are engendered in the family, or else the interests of the
school, and thus of the community, are sacrificed. In this, and many
other concerns, it can be shown, that the wellbeing of the bulk of the
people, is, to a greater or less extent, impaired by this aristocratic
practice. Let any teacher select the unpunctual scholars,--a class who
most seriously interfere with the interests of the school;--and let men
of business select those who cause them most waste of time and vexation,
by unpunctuality; and it will be found, that they are among the late
risers, and rarely among those who rise early. Thus, it is manifest,
that late rising not only injures the person and family which practise
it, but interferes with the rights and convenience of the community.

FOOTNOTE:

[H] Shooting into a long, small, stalk or root.

CHAPTER XI.

ON DOMESTIC EXERCISE.

In the preceding chapte