AND BODILY STATES UPON THE IMAGINATION. 61 



it takes place. So intimate, however, are the connexions of mind 

 and body, so inseparable is " la physique" from " la morale," that 

 one cannot be unhinged, even in the minutest particular, without 

 impairing that healthy harmony which we could wi»h might always 

 connect our mental and corporeal constitutions. These data are 

 strictly applicable to those phenomena of dreaming which yet re- 

 main to be noticed ; and I am extremely sorry that my limits will 

 oblige me to pass many of these facts unnoticed, and to omit many 

 illustrations of a highly interesting character. 



I cannot, however, omit referring to two classes of causes modi- 

 fying the phenomena of our dreams. The first of these illustrate* 

 the change produced in the mind, during sleep, by the action of 

 agents upon the body ; and the second that state of mind continued 

 in sleep, which is produced by causes originally affecting it in the 

 waking state. Opium is the most powerful of the first class of 

 causes ; and though only one author in the whole raxige of gene- 

 ral or scientific literature well illustrates this kind of dream, and 

 this author so well known, I cannot omit referring to him, since 

 the nature of the dreams is so extraordinary, and the language in 

 which they are related so powerful, and possessed of so much strik- 

 ing poetic beauty. The dreams to which I am about to refer were 

 caused by an indulgence in opium, which had been persevered in 

 for four years ; the delights of which indulgence were dearly paid 

 for by the pains which succeeded : and, of all pains, those are the 

 most acute, and shadow the soul with the deepest gloom, which fol- 

 low, or are the consequence of, an inebriated and long-continued 

 paroxysm of pleasure. It is a curious thing in the history of the 

 phenomena of mind, to witness the efieet which the previous bias of 

 that mind excited in deepening the scenes of horror exhibited in the 

 dreams of the opium eater, when even its constitution was so 

 changed, by the immoderate use of his darling but pernicious drug. 

 " The causes of my horror lie deep," says he, " and some of them 

 must be common to others. Southern Asia, in general, is the seat 

 of awful images and associations. As the cradle of the human race, 

 it would alone have a dim and reverential feeling connected with 

 it. But there are other reasons. No man can pretend that the 

 wild, barbarous, and capricious superstitions of Africa, or of savage 

 tribes elsewhere, affect him in the way that he is affected by the 

 ancient, monumental, cruel, and elaborate religions of Hindostan. 

 The mere antiquity of Asiatic things, their institutions, histories, 

 modes of faith, is so impressive, that to me the vast age of the race 

 and name overpowers the sense of youth in the individual. A young 



