Second Nature

In the January 1994 Rush Backstage Club newsletter, drummer and lyricist Neil Peart explained the line, "Now I lay me down in dreamland." It is based on an 18th century children's bedtime prayer. Says Peart, "More a paraphrase than a quote, really, but it comes from a prayer which was stitched into a sampler above my grandmother's bed. It began like this: 'Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.'"

Neil From 1988: "Second Nature" is conciliatory in its message: If we can't reach perfection in this world then let's at least settle for some degree of improvement. "Sometimes we have to accept something less than total victory," notes Peart. "It's like the difference between compromise and balance. The politician who campaigns for clean air but doesn't want to close down the stinking factory in his area because thousands of people will lose their jobs. My viewpoint is that I'll take as much as I can without hurting other people."