were certainly sincere.

To one of those children Fronto had now brought the birthday gift of
the silver trumpet, upon which he ventured to blow softly now and
again, turning away with eyes delighted at the sound, when he thought
the old man was not listening. It was the well-worn, valetudinarian
subject of sleep, on which Fronto and Aurelius were talking together;
Aurelius always feeling it a burden, Fronto a thing of magic
capacities, so that he had written an encomium in its praise, and often
by ingenious arguments recommends his imperial pupil not to be sparing
of it. To-day, with his younger listeners in mind, he had a story to
tell about it:--

"They say that our father Jupiter, when he ordered the world at the
beginning, divided time into two parts exactly equal: the one part he
clothed with light, the other with darkness: he called them Day and
Night; and he assigned rest to the night and to day the work of life.
At that time Sleep was not yet born and men passed the whole of their
lives awake: only, the quiet of the night was ordained for them,
instead of sleep. But it came to pass, little by little, [227] being
that the minds of men are restless, that they carried on their business
alike by night as by day, and gave no part at all to repose. And
Jupiter, when he perceived that even in the night-time they ceased not
from trouble and disputation, and that even the courts of law remained
open (it was the pride of Aurelius, as Fronto knew, to be assiduous in
those courts till far into the night) resolved to appoint one of his
brothers to be the overseer of the night and have authority over man's
rest. But Neptune pleaded in excuse the gravity of his constant charge
of the seas, and Father Dis the difficulty of keeping in subjection the
spirits below; and Jupiter, having taken counsel with the other gods,
perceived that the practice of nightly vigils was somewhat in favour.
It was then, for the most part, that Juno gave birth to her children:
Minerva, the mistress of all art and craft, loved the midnight lamp:
Mars delighted in the darkness for his plots and sallies; and the
favour of Venus and Bacchus was with those who roused by night. Then
it was that Jupiter formed the design of creating Sleep; and he added
him to the number of the gods, and gave him the charge over night and
rest, putting into his hands the keys of human eyes. With his own
hands he mingled the juices wherewith Sleep should soothe the he