It is true, that whatever ideas the mind may enjoy are originally acquired through the senses before they become stupid in forgetfulness, all of them being formed from the observation of earthly circumstances, and not appearing to be innate. The images, however combined in extravagant pictures, and in whatever manner acquired, are composed of the representations of real objects, and are called up at pleasure by the mind, and if we should admit what Mr. Formey*, after Wolfius, has asserted, that every dream originates in some sensation, yet the independent energies of the mind are suffici ently displayed in the preservation of the successive phantoms, and in the continuance of reflection long after the sensation is excited. The scenes which pass in review before us in sleep are sometimes composed of images which are produced immediately by corporeal impressions, not sufficiently strong to destroy the enchantment of sleep. Beattie speaks of

* Essai en Mem. de l'Academ, de Berlin. Tom. ii. p. 16.

a gentleman in the army, whose imagination was so easily affected in sleep by impressions made on the external senses, that his companions could suggest any thing to it by whispering gently in his ear; and that they once made him go through the whole procedure of a duel till he was wakened by report of a pistol.

Dreams are, however, more often produced by sensation or motion of the brain, excited when we were awake, and continued, agreeably to the opinion of Aristotle, after the removal of the object. Although the powers of the mind are not limited to the contemplation of the image first introduced, but range in the wide scope of their observation to the view of every particular with which they are acquainted, and call up in the concatenation of their reflections, often extending to the most remote and forgotten images long since committed to the memory. Hence it is that we are so little able to trace any affinity between the subjects of our dreams and the sensations of recent

impression. The links which connect the successive ideas of the mind, either waking or sleeping, being in general so imperceptibly fine, as to be traced with difficulty.

Allowing then that dreams are sometimes prompted by immediate or recent sensations, they must in general be considered as the creation of the mind, existing, as it were, in an abstracted state, though still capable of being easily summoned to attention to the body. The sympathy and reciprocal influence which subsist between them are never destroyed, and the mutual interchange of feeling is quickly communicated. There is perhaps never a total insensibility; the moment when vigilance sinks into oblivious indifference can never be accurately marked; no one, at least, hath ever yet noted the moment which precedes sleep. The connexion between mind and body is renewed on the slightest alarm, and unusual impressions are instantly conveyed from one to the other. The hungry body suggests to the sleeping mind

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visions of food*. Oppressions from repletion generate fearful dreams, and a disordered limb, if its pain increase, will attract attention. Dugald Stewart observes, that dreams are frequently suggested by bodily sensations, and states, that he had been told by a friend, that having occasion, in consequence of an indisposition, to apply a bottle of hot water to his feet when he went to bed, he dreamed that he was making a journey to the top of Mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground almost insupportable. Another person, having blisters applied to his head, dreamed, in the association of ideas, that he was scalped by a party of Indians †.

*It may perhaps be said, that when the hungry man dreams, it is rather the effect of the recoltection of his waking thoughts. There are still, however, sufficient proofs of sympathy. An ancient writer attributes dreams to the immediate temperament of the body. Hi qui laborant siti cum in soporem venerunt, flumina et fontes videre sibi videntur, et bibere, hoc autem patiuntur aviditate intemperata corporis laborantes. Recog. Clem. L. ii. §. 64.

† Elements of the Philosophy of the human Mind, C. v.

Considering dreams then principally as the production of the mind ruminating on its own stores, we perceive that the imagination is ever in a state of vigilance; that it can paint and recall to its own view those scenes of nature and of life which it hath admired; and though the corporeal eye be closed, yet

"not the more cease

To wander where the Muses haunt,

Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill."

That the mind retains its full and native energies in sleep, its powers of memory, and of reasoning, is evident from the circumstances of somnambules, or sleep-walkers, in which the will directs the body, though in a state of somnolency, often guiding it by an accurate recollection of accustomed circumstances and local particulars, and acting, as it seems, by its own vigour as an ethereal spirit moving a passive machine. It then appears indeed capable of performing some things better than when its attention is diverted by the senses to external objects; it seems left to

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