to give some explanation of them in their more common or ordinary appearance. And, in doing this, shall find it convenient (as we have already done in some cases, in giving an account of the regular or normal mental processes) to repeat essentially the statements which are to be found in the recently published Elements of Mental Philosophy; a work, where we have made it an especial object, although probably with very imperfect success, to give what we consider the correct view of the mind's regular and ordinary action. § 96. Connexion of dreams with our waking thoughts. In giving an explanation of dreams, our attention is first arrested by the circumstance that they have an intimate relationship with our waking thoughts. The great body of our waking experiences appear in the form of trains of associations; and these trains of associated ideas, in greater or less continuity, and with greater or less variation, continue when we are asleep.-Accordingly, Franklin has somewhere made the remark, that the bearings and results of political events, which had caused him much trouble while awake, were not unfrequently unfolded to him in dreaming.-Mr. Coleridge relates, that, as he was once reading in the Pilgrimage of Purchas an account of the palace and garden of the Khan Kubla, he fell into a sleep, and in that situation composed an entire poem of not less than two hundred lines; some of which he afterward committed to writing. The poem is entitled Kubla Khan, and begins as follows: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree; It is evident, from such statements as these, which are confirmed by the experience of almost every person, that our dreams are fashioned from the materials of the thoughts and feelings which we have while awake; in other words, they will, in a great degree, be merely the repetition of our customary and prevailing associations. § 97. Dreams are often caused by our sensations. But while we are to look for the materials of our dreams in thoughts which had previously existed, we further find that they are not beyond the influence of those slight bodily sensations of which we are susceptible even in hours of sleep. These sen sations, slight as they are, are the means of introducing one set of associations rather than another.Dugald Stewart relates an incident, which may be considered an evidence of this, that a person with whom he was acquainted had occasion, in consequence of an indisposition, to apply a bottle of hot water to his feet when he went to bed; and the consequence was, that he dreamed he was making a journey to the top of Mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground almost insupportable. A cause of dreams closely allied to the above, is the variety of sensations which we experience from the stomach, viscera, &c. Persons, for instance, who have been for a long time deprived of food, or have received it only in small quantities, hardly enough to preserve life, will be likely to have dreams in some way or other directly relating to their condition. Baron Trenck relates, that, being almost dead with hunger when confined in his dungeon, his dreams every night presented to him the wellfilled and luxurious tables of Berlin, from which, as they were presented before him, he imagined he was about to relieve his hunger. The state of health also has considerable influence, not only in producing dreams, but in giving them a particular character. The remark has been made by medical men, that acute diseases, particularly fevers, are often preceded and indicated by disagreeable and oppressive dreams. § 98. Explanation of the incoherency of dreams. There is frequently much of wildness, inconsistency, and contradiction in our dreams. The mind passes very rapidly from one object to another; strange and singular incidents occur. If our dreams be truly the repetition of our waking thoughts, it may well be inquired, How this wildness and inconsistency happen? The explanation of this peculiarity resolves itself into two parts.-The FIRST ground or cause of it is, that our dreams are not subjected, like our waking thoughts, to the control and regulation of surrounding objects. While we are awake, our trains of thought are kept uniform and coherent by the influence of such objects, which continually remind us of our situation, character, and duties, and which keep in check any tendency to revery. But in sleep the senses are closed; the soul is, accordingly, in a great measure excluded from the material world, and is thus deprived of the salutary regulating influence from that source. In the SECOND place, when we are asleep, our associated trains of thought are no longer under the control of the WILL. We do not mean to say that the operations of the will are suspended at such times, and that volitions have no existence; but only that their influence in a great degree ceases. A person, while he is awake, has his thoughts under such government, and is able, by the direct and indirect influence of volitions, so to regulate them, as generally to bring them in the end to some conclusion, which he foresees and wishes to arrive at. But in dreaming, as all directing and governing influence, both internal and external, is at an end, our thoughts and feelings seem to be driven forward, much like a ship at sea without a rudder, wherever it may happen. § 99. Apparent reality of dreams. (1st cause. When objects are presented to us in dreams, we look upon them as real; and events, and combinations and series of events, appear the same. We feel the same interest, and resort to the same expedients as in the perplexities and enjoyments of real life. When persons are introduced as forming a part in the transactions of our dreams, we see them clearly in their living attitudes and stature; we converse with them, and hear them speak, and behold them move, as if actually present. One reason of this greater vividness of our dreaming conceptions, and of our firm belief in their reality, seems to be this. The subjects upon which our thoughts are then employed, occupy the mind exclusively. We can form a clearer conception of an object with our eyes shut than we can with them open, as any one will be convinced on making the experiment; and the liveliness of the conception will increase in proportion as we can suspend the exercise of the other senses. In sound sleep, not only the sight, but the other senses also, may be said to be closed; and the attention is not continually diverted by the multitude of objects which arrest the hearing and touch when we are awake.—It is, therefore, a most natural supposition, that our conceptions must at such times be extremely vivid and distinct. Furthermore, it will be recollected, that very vivid conceptions are often attended with a momentary belief in the actuality of the things conceived of, even when we are awake. But as conceptions exist in the mind when we are asleep in a much higher degree distinct and vivid, what was in the former case a momentary, becomes in the latter a permanent belief. Hence everything has the appearance of reality; and the mere thoughts of the mind are virtually transformed into persons, and varieties of situation, and events, which are regarded by us in |