Honorius the emperors, being made a monk, did satisfy nature with so short a sleep that he was used to say, that for a monk it was enough if he slept but one hour in a night.

11. Augustus Cæsar after supper betook himself to his closet, where he used to remain till the night was far spent, and then went to bed; when he slept most, it was not above seven hours, and those also not so continued, but in that space he usually waked three or four times, and to provoke sleep, had water poured long and constantly by his bed's head into a cistern.

12. George Castriot, commonly called Scanderbeg, the same who forsook Amurath, king of the Turks, and seized upon the kingdom of Epirus, as his own by right of inheritance: this prince was a person contented with so little sleep, that it is reported of him, that from the time that he entered into Epirus, to the day of his death, he never slept above two hours in one night, yet he died in his climaterical year of 63.

13. A woman at Padua lived fifteen days without sleep, nor could by any means be brought to it through the weakness of the ventricle, and penury of va pours; for she eat no supper, only contented herself with a dinner; at last using to eat a toast steeped in malmsey towards night, she returned to her wonted sleep.

14. Seneca reports of Mecanas, that great favourite of Augustus, that he lived three years entirely without any sleep; and was at last cured of his distemper with sweet and soft music.

15. It is reported of Nizolius, that painful treasurer of Cicero's words and phrases, that he lived ten years without sleep.

16. We read of a noble lady, who for thirty and five years lived in good health, as both her husband and whole family could and did witness, without sleep.

17. Some young men in Athens having made themselves drunk in the Apatarian feasts, are said to have slept four days of

that solemnity, as Simplicius recites out of Eudemus.

18. C. Caligula was exceedingly trou bled with want of sleep; for he slept not above three hours in a night, and in those he seldom took any quiet repose, but was scared with fearful and strange illusions and fantastical imaginations; as who once dreamed that he saw the form and resem blance of the sea talking with him. Hereupon, for the greatest part of the night, what with tedious watching and weariness of lying, one while sitting up in his bed, another while roaming and wandering to and fro in his galleries (which were of an exceeding length), he used to call upon and wish for the morning light.

19. Perseus, king of Macedon, being taken prisoner by Æmilius, and led captive to Rome, was guarded by some sol diers who kept him from sleep, watching him narrowly when he was overtaken therewith, not suffering him so much as to shut his eye-lids, or to take the least rest, till such time as nature, being exhausted by this cruelty, he gave up the ghost.

20. The following account of att extraordinary sleepy woman near Mons in Hainault, was read before the society of physicians May 3d, 1756, by Dr. Terence Brady, physician to his royal highness prince Charles of Lorraine, Elizabeth Orrin born at St. Gilain, of a healthy robust constitution, served the curate of that place very faithfully till the beginning of 1738, when she became sullen, uneasy, and so surly, that the neighbours said she was losing her senses. Towards the month of August she fell into an extraordinary sleep which lasted four days, during which time she took no manner of nourishment, neither was it possible to rouse her; she awakened at last of herself in a very bad humour, which, however, did not prevent her from following her business as usual, for sit

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Eruary when Dr. Brady went to see her. During her sleep she had a natural warmth all over her body, with an extraordinary stiffness or tension of her limbs as well as neck, joined to a total abolition of all manner of sensibility, which would appear incredible had it not been examined with the greatest exactness. This account is dated Brussels, March 9, 1753.

21. One Samuel Chelton of Finsbury near Bath, a labouring man about twenty-five years of age, of a robust habit of body, not fat but fleshy, and of dark brown hair, happened on the 13th of May 1694, without any visible cause, to fall into a very profound sleep, out of which he could by no means be roused by those about him, till after a month's time, when he arose of himself and went to his husbandry business as usual. He slept, ate, and drank as before, but did not speak a word till about a month after. All the time he slept victuals and drink stood by him,, which were spent every day and used by him, as was supposed, though no person saw him eat or drink all the while: after this period he continued free from drowsiness or sleepiness till the 9th of April 1696, when he fell into his sleeping fit again, as he had done before. After some days his friends were prevailed on to try what effect medicines might have upon him. Accordingly Mr. Gibbs an apothecary bled, blistered, cupped and scarified him, and used all the external irritating medicines he could think of, but to no purpose: and after the first fortnight he was never observed to open his eyes: victuals stood by him as before, which he eat of now and then; but nobody ever saw him eat or evacuate, though he did both very regularly as he had occasion, and sometimes he was found fast asleep with the pot in his hand in bed, and sometimes with his mouth full of meat: in this manner he lay about ten weeks, and then he could eat nothing at all; for his jaws seemed to be set, and his teeth clinched so close that notwithstanding all the rt that could be used with instru

(80.) Universal Magazine, vol, xxi. p. 1.

ments his mouth could not be opened to put any thing into it to support him: at Jast those about him observing a hole in his teeth made by holding his pipe, they now and then poured some tent into his throat through a quill: and this was all he took for six weeks and four days, but it amounted to no more than three pints or two quarts. He had made water only once, and never had a stool all that time. On the 7th of August, which was seventeen weeks from the 9th of April when he began to sleep, he awaked, put on his clothes and walked about the room, not knowing he had slept above a night, nor could he be persuaded he had lain so long, till going into the fields he found every body busy in getting in their harvest, and he remembered very well when he fell asleep, that they were sowing their bar ley and oats, which he then saw ripe and fit to be cut down. There was one thing remarkable, though his flesh was somewhat wasted with lying so long a-bed and fasting for above six weeks, yet a gen tleman assured Dr. Oliver, that when he saw him, which was the first day of his coming abroad, he looked brisker than ever he saw him in his life before: and on asking him whether the bed had made him sore, he assured this gentleman that he never found this or any other inconvenience, and that he had not the least remembrance of any thing that passed, or what was done to him all that while; so that he went again to his husbandry as he was wont to do; and remained well from that time till August 17th, 1697, when in the morning he complain ed of a shivering and a coldness in his back; he vomited once or twice, and the same day he fell into his sleeping fit again. Dr. Oliver going to see him, found hitu asle. p, with a cup of beer and a piece of bread and cheese upon a stool by his bed within his reach, The doctor felt his pulse, which at that time was regular, and he also found his heart beat very regular, and his breathing easy and free; the doctor only observed that his pulse beat a little too strong: he was in a breathing sweat, and had an agreeable warmth a

over his body the doctor then put his mouth to his ear, and called him as loud as he could several times by his name, pulling him by the shoulders, pinched his nose, stopped his mouth and nose together as long as he could without choaking him, but to no purpose, for all this time he did not give the least sign of being sensible. The doctor lifted up his eye-lids, and found his eye-balls drawn up under his eye-brows, and fixed without any motion. The doctor then held under one nostril for a considerable time a phial with spirits of sal ammoniac, extracted from quicklime; he then injected it several times up the same nostril, and though he had poured into it about half an ounce of this fiery spirit it only made his nose run and his eye-lids shiver and tremble a little. The doctor finding no success with this, crammed that nostril with white powder of helebore. and waited some time in the room to see what effects all these together might have upon him, but he never gave any sign that he felt what the doctor had done, nor discovered any manner of uneasiness, by stirring any part of his body, that the doctor could observe. After ail these experiments the doctor left him, being pretty well satisfied that he was asleep, and no sullen counterfeit, as some people supposed. On the doctor's relating what he had observed, several gentlemen from Bath went out to see him, and fonad him in the same condition the doctor had left hin in the day before, only his nose was inflamed and very much swe!led, aad his lips and the inside of his nostrils were blistered and scab y, occasioned by the spirit and the hielebore. About ten days after the doctor had seen him, Mr. Woolmer an apothecary finding his pulse beat very high, drew about fourteen ounces of blood from his arm, and tied it up and left him as he found him; and Mr. Woolmer assured the doctor that he never made the least motion when he pricked him, nor all the while his arm was bleeding: several other experiments were tried by such as went to see him from Bath, but all to no purpose. The doctor saw him again the latter end of September, aud found

him just in the same posture, lying in his bed, but his pulse now was not so strong, nor had he any sweats, as when the doctor saw him before. He tried him again by stopping his nose and mouth, but to no purpose, and a gentleman ran a large pin into his arm to the very bone, but he gave no signs of his being sensible to what was done to him. During all this time the doctor was assured that nobody had seen him either eat or drink though they watched him as closely as possible, but food and drink always stood by him, and they observed that sometimes once a day, at others once in two days all was gone. It was further observable that he never dirted his bed, but always went to the pot. In this manner he lay till the 19th of November, when his mother hearing him make a noise ran immediately up to him, and found him eating; she, asked him how he did? he replied, very well, thank God;" she asked him again which he liked best, bread and butter, or bread and cheese? he answered, "bread and cheese:" upon this the woman, overjoyed, left him to acquaint his brother, and both coming straight up into the chamber to speak to him, they found him as fast asleep as ever, and could not by any means awaken him. From this time to the end of January or the beginning of February, he did not sleep so profoundly as before, for when they cal ed to him by his name he seemed to hear them and become somewhat sensible, though he could not make them any answer: his eyes were not shut so close, and he had frequently great tremblings of his eye-lids, upon which they expected every day that he would awake, which did not happen till about the time mentioned, when he awoke perfectly well; but remembered nothing that had happened all the while: it was observed that he was very little altered in his flesh, he only complained that the cold pin bed him more than usual, but he presently went to his labour as he had done before.

22. A curious account of a preternatural skeper, is contained in the fol

lowing

lowing extract of a letter from Mr. Thomas Whieldon of Fenton, a village near Newcastle under Line, to a friend. "As to the sleeping girl you enquire after, I have had two different accounts; one from a friend who saw her; the other from her brother, which I have but lately received. Her place of residence was in Stoke parish, about three miles and a half from Newcastle, her name Margeret Russel. The time this Staffordshire wonder happened was in 1755; her disorder was certainly a very odd one: some say it proceeded from natural causes, her parents being plain unthinking people, might not take proper care of her in due time. The account her brother gives is that she slept for four months; the first time after which she awoke and was as well as usual for three years, and then fell into the same sleeping inactive state again, and continued about nine months, during which time the little support she had was given her in a teaspoon, her teeth being forced open to receive it ; towards the end of her last fit she opened her eyes, and would sometimes speak to her mother. She was frequently got up, dressed, and sat in a chair, but did not continue many days after she appeared to be sensible, and expired November 6th. 1755."

"I have sent again," adds the same writer," to the Russel family for further particulars about the girl, and upon a sccond enquiry, find there was something similar to what you had heard before, though what I was not informed of. The account I have now received is, that she was knitting at the time she dropt into her first sleep, in which she continued for seventeen weeks, and seemingly insensible the whole time; when she awoke she seemed very sensible, and the first word she spoke, she asked her mother what she had done with the stocking she was knitting, which has the appearance of her having been totally insensible during that time. The next seizure of which she died was about three years after; but there was nothing so remarkable in that, as she was frequently got out of

(22.) Gent. Magazine, vol. lii. p. 231.

bed, drest, went out of doors, and would sometimes speak to her mother: she had some sensation aso at intervals during most of the time. She was about sixteen years of age when she was first seized, and seemed as if she had been frightened at something a few weeks betore, but would give no account of what had frightened her, neither would she tell whether she had any ideas or sensations about her during her seventeen weeks sleep, and was much offended when asked about it."

CHAP. XXV.

Of such as have fallen into Trances and Ecstasies, and their Manner of Behavi our therein.

SINCE the soul is the instrument and means by which we come to the knowledge of all those things wherein we have any understanding, it can never be sufficiently wondered at, that it should be so very little that we are able to comprehend (with any certainty) concerning the soul itself. The most learned amongst men are at a loss, as often as they would speak distinctly, touching its nature, manner of working, the way of its conjunction with the body, and principal place of its residence; and so are they also for the manner of its retreat, and the place of its retirement in such cases as are propounded in this chap

ter..

1. William Withers, born at Walsham in Sussex, being a child of eleven years of age, did, anno 1581, lie in a trance ten days without any sustenance, and at last coming to himself, uttered to the standers-by many strange speeches, against pride and covetousness, coldness of charity, and other outrageous sins.

2. Hermotimus, the Clazomenian, seemed frequently to have his body deserted of the soul, and as if it had wandered about in the world; at the return of it he would relate such things at a distance performed, that none could tell