7. But I have not yet given up all hope of finding some way of hastening the approach of sleep. Even yet there is a glimmer, for rereading (not for the first, and, please Heaven! not the last time) Lamb's letters, I came upon the following, in a note to Southey; "But there is a man in my office, a Mr. H., who proses it away from morning to night, and never gets beyond corporal and material verities! ... When I can't sleep o' nights, I imagine a dialogue with Mr. H., upon a given subject, and go prosing on in fancy with him, till I either laugh or fall asleep. I have literally found it answer .... " There is promise in this, and we all have our Mr. H.'s, whose talk, bare of anything like fancy and wit, acts upon us like a dose of laudanum. This very night I will dismiss such trivial phantasies as jumping sheep and crooked pictures, and evoke the phantom of a crushing, stupendous Bore.
    7)但我对能找到某种方法加速睡眠的到来并未完全放弃希望，甚至还有一线微光，因为重读 (不是第一次重读，并且要是可能，也不会是最后一次) 兰姆的书信集时，在他给骚塞的一封短信中，我读到下面一段：“可我办公室有一个人，一位H先生，他整天从早到晚写啊说啊，但从不超出肉体与物质现实的描绘! ……当我晚上睡不着时，我便就某一假设的题目在想像中和他对话，和他在幻想中无聊地扯下去，直到我或者大笑或者睡着为止。我确实发现这办法解决问题……”看来这办法可能灵验，我们都认识H先生式的人物，他们的谈话毫无想像或情趣，在我们身上起服鸦片酊的作用。就在今晚我将摒弃诸如跳篱墙的羊和挂歪了的画幅等毫无价值的奇想，去召唤一个要命的、了不起的讨厌鬼的幽灵。