up between heaven and earth, in preparing the world for the reception of the Saviour, dreams were frequently employed as the medium of that intercourse; and it was perhaps owing to these real events, that a superstitious veneration for dreams was cherished, even in the most polished ages of the ancient world. The Greeks and Romans divided the action of the mind, in sleep, into five sorts, the dream, the vision, the oracle, the insomnium, and the phantasm, of which the three first were supposed to be divinely inspired. To such height had the superstitious feeling with regard to dreams arisen in Rome, in the age of Augustus Cæsar, that this monarch procured the passing of a law, obliging all who had dreamed any thing respecting the state, to make it publicly known; and he himself, in consequence of a nocturnal vision, submitted to the degrading act of begging in the streets.

More rational views have of late been entertained on this curious subject, though the philosophical theories which have been entertained regarding it, are still far from being either very satisfactory in themselves, or consistent with each other. On these I shall not enter;* but some facts present themselves to our notice, which seem worthy of remark.

What I have chiefly to observe is, that, whatever may have been the design of Providence in appointing the existence of this mysterious state of mind, its functions

* Should the reader wish to prosecute this subject, he may be referred to the interesting observations of Dr Abercrombie, in his " Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers," and to the elaborate work of the late Mr Robert Macnish of Glasgow, on "The Philosophy of Sleep," where the phenomena of sleep and dreaming are investigated with much ingenuity, and in a manner which has deservedly gained the author considerable celebrity. Dr Abercrombie states, that there is a strange analogy between dreaming and insanity; and he defines the difference between the two states to be, that, in the latter, the erroneous impression being permanent, affects the conduct; whereas, in dreaming, no influence on the conduct is produced, because the vision is dissipated on awaking. "This definition," says Mr Macnish, "is nearly, but not wholly, correct; for, in somnambulism and sleep-talking, the conduct is influenced by the prevailing dream. Dr Rush has, with great shrewdness remarked, that a dream may be considered as a transient paroxysm of delirium, and delirium as a permanent dream."

are so guarded and qualified, as, speaking generally, to prevent injurious consequences, and often to afford an exhilarating play to the imagination. The dreamer is introduced into a kind of fairy land, where, as Addison, with his usual elegance and felicity, expresses it, “the soul converses with numberless beings of her own creation, and is transported into ten thousand scenes of her own raising she is herself the theatre, the actor, and the beholder." In this state, when reason appears, for a time, to have given up the reins to fancy, it seems as if a very slight variation in the intensity of the feeling, or in the duration of the delusion, might be attended with fatal effects. Sometimes a deed of horror is supposed to be done, or the most overwhelming calamity is believed to have happened. The event is depicted in the strongest colours; it is actually seen, as it were, to take place before our eyes; the impression made on the mind is that of assured conviction of its truth, accompanied with the most intense agony; a moment longer, and the brain would be set on fire. That boundary, however, is never passed. A provision is made by which the very violence of the agitation effects the remedy, and the dreamer awakes with a heart ready to burst indeed, or with nerves strung and shaken to the very verge of their utmost endurance; but the phantoms disappear,—the anguish subsides; and, in a few minutes, the mind is as calm and serene as before.

The same observations will apply, with still greater force, to the phenomena of somnambulism, the most frightful and dangerous condition of persons in sleep. This is evidently not a natural and healthy, but a diseased state of the bodily and mental powers, and therefore forms such an exception to the general rule as we would make in any other case of morbid action. It is worthy of remark, however, that while this irregular affection shows the distressing consequences which might ensue, were it to be the usual accompaniment of the dormant state, and thus very strikingly proves the wisdom

of the natural provision, the law of which is, that the body shall not obey the dictates of the soul in sleep, it is at the same time kept within such bounds, that fatal, or even distressing accidents, seldom take place from the vagaries of the somnambulist. We hear of such persons climbing to the tops of houses, or walking along precipices, and performing other perilous feats, which in their waking hours they would have shuddered even to think of, yet, when left undisturbed, with astonishing dexterity surmounting every danger, and returning in safety to their beds, thus affording a pleasing conviction that He who permits the occasional irregularity, has condescended with paternal care to mitigate its unhappy effects. But we must further remark, that even these are extreme and very rare instances, and that, in by far the greatest variety of cases, in which there is a tendency to this disease, the body only very partially and very harmlessly yields to the suggestions of the mind. A few muttered sentences, or a restless turning in bed, or at most, perhaps, a habit of occasionally rising and walking about the floor, are in general the only indications that the body has a tendency, under the excitement of dreaming, to obey the suggestions of the imagination.

Having mentioned the subject of somnambulism, I am reminded of a remarkable instance of it, recorded in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, in its memoir of my venerable relative, Dr Blacklock, whose accomplishments as a poet and a clergyman, though struggling from his early infancy with all the privations of blindness, are so well known to the literary world. This excellent man had received a presentation to the living of Kirkcudbright, and his settlement was violently opposed. He was deeply agitated with the hostility which was manifested against him, and after dining with some friends on the day of his ordination, finding rest necessary to recruit his harassed and exhausted spirits, he left the table and retired to bed, when the following extraordinary circumstance occurred :-" One of his companions, uneasy

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at his absence from the company, went into his bedroom a few hours afterwards, and finding him, as he supposed, awake, prevailed on him to return again into the dining-room. When he entered the room, two of his acquaintances were engaged in singing, and he joined in the concert, modulating his voice as usual with taste and elegance, without missing a note or a syllable; and, after the words of the song were ended, he continued to sing, adding an extempore verse, which appeared to the company full of beauty, and quite in the spirit of the original. He then went to supper, and drank a glass or two

wine. His friends, however, observed him to be occasionally absent and inattentive. By-and-by he was heard speaking to himself, but in so low and confused a manner as to be unintelligible. At last, being pretty forcibly roused by Mrs Blacklock, who began to be alarmed for his intellects, he awoke with a sudden start, unconscious of all that had happened, having been the whole time fast asleep."

Lord Brougham, in his preliminary discourse to the edition of Paley's Natural Philosophy, lately published,† makes use of the phenomena of dreaming, as an argument for the mind's independence of matter, and capacity of existence without it. His argument, in a few words is this: In the state of dreaming, all the bodily functions which depend upon volition are suspended ; and the bodily senses, though not entirely in a state of abeyance, become very obtuse. But this does not interrupt the activity of the mind; on the contrary, the power of imagination, and the celerity with which ideas pass through the mind, are increased by this cessation of communication through the senses. The mind, therefore, acts vigorously, when the powers of the body are unstrung; and it is only advancing another step to suppose, that it can act altogether independently of its material instrument, and survive it. To prove the extreme agility of the mental powers, and their total diversity

Edinburgh Encyclopedia,-Article, Blacklock. † Published in 1835.

from any material substances and actions, his lordship enters into some curious details of the phenomena of dreaming, which incontestably prove that it sometimes requires but an exceedingly short period to suggest and complete a long train of incidents. “A puncture made,” says he, in one of his illustrations, "will immediately produce a long dream, which seems to terminate in some such accident, as that the sleeper has been wandering through a wood, and received a severe wound from a spear, or the tooth of a wild animal, which at the same instant awakens him. A gun fired in one instance, during the alarm of invasion, made a military man at once dream the enemy had landed, so that he ran to his post, and repairing to the scene of action, was present when the first discharge took place, which also at the same moment awakened him."

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From these facts, Lord Brougham infers, "the infinite rapidity of thought." Mark," he says, "what was done in an instant,-in a mere point of time. The sensation of the pain or noise beginning, is conveyed to the mind, and sets it a thinking of many things connected with such sensations. But that sensation is lost or forgotten, for a portion of the short instant during which the impression lasts; for the conclusion of the same impression gives rise to a new set of ideas. The walk in the wood, and the hurrying to the post, are suggested by the sensation beginning. Then follow many things unconnected with that sensation, except that they grew out of it; and lastly comes the wound, and the broadside, suggested by the continuance of the sensation; while, all the time, this continuance has been producing an effect on the mind wholly different from the train of ideas the dream consists of, nay, destructive of that train; namely, the effect of rousing it from the state of sleep, and restoring its dominion over the body. Nay, there may be said to be a third operation of the mind going on at the same time with these two,—a looking forward to the denouement of the plot,-for the fancy is all along so contriving