MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[1434] perio^lous too but sweet to him who knows it, who can open to it like the
flower to the sun, who himself is night, day and night. [1435] No^, there is not
much to be said for the night either, but compared to the day there is
much to be saie^d for it, and notably compared to the morning there is
everything to be said for it. [1436] For the night purge is in the hands of
technicians, for the most part.

[1437] They do nothing else, the bulk of the
population have no part in it, preferring their warm beds, all things
considered. [1438] Day is the time for lynching, for sleep is sacred, and
esc^pecially the morning, between breakfast and lunch. [1439] My first care
then, after a few miles in the desert dawn, was to look for a place
to sleep, for sleep too is a kind of protection, strange as it may seem.

[1440] For sleep, if it excites the lust to capture, seems to appease the lust
to kill, there and then and bloodily, any hunter will tell you that.
[1441] For the monster on the move, or on the watch, lurking in his lair, there
is no mercy, whereas he taken unawares, in his sleep, may sometimes get
the bn^enefit of blander ^[⁁]milder feelings, which deflect the barrel, sheathe the
kris.

[1442] For the hunter is weak at heart and sentimental, overflowing with
repressed treasures of mildness ^{[⁁]gentleness} and compassion. [1443] And it is thanks to this
sweet sleep of terror or exhaustion that many a foul beast, and worthy
of extermination, can live on till he dies in the peace and quiet of our
zoological gardens, broken only by the innocent laughter, the experienced ^knowing
laughter, of children and their parents ^[⁁]elders, on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

[1444] And I for my part have always preferred slavery to death, I mean being
put to death. [1445] For death is a condition I have never been able to
conceive to my satisfaction and which therefore cannot go down in the
ledger of good ^[⁁]weal and ill ^[⁁]woe. [1446] Whereas my notions on putting ^{[⁁]being put} to death inspired
me with confidence, rightly or wrongly, and I felt I was entitled to act
on them, in certain emergencies. [1447] Oh they weren't notions like yours,
they were notions like mine, nothing but ^[⁁]all spasm, sweat and trembling,