228 ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN MENTAL 



dreams, from her controlling power. Byron's description of the 

 dreams of Parasina, in which is revealed her guilty love for Hugo, 

 is an illustration in point : — 



" But fever'd in her sleep she seems, 

 And red her cheek with troubled dreams, 



And mutters she in her unrest 

 A name she dare not breathe by day." ^ 



Dreams of great power are seldom unaccompanied by sleep-talk- 

 ing, when they do not at once rouse the whole of the mental and 

 corporeal faculties into action. It matters not of what character 

 they may be ; but, certainly, those which relate to our own imme- 

 diate circumstances, above all if these happen to be of a more criti- 

 cal nature than ordinary, are most apt to occasion this phenomenon. 



The cases of sleep-talking which have excited most attention, are 

 those in which great crimes have been disclosed. The sickness of 

 heart, the weariness and brokenness of spirit, which must attend 

 minds thus diseased, prevents all true sleep : their's is a trouble for 

 which the freshness of morning, the splendour of noon, and the 

 repose of evening offer neither alleviation nor relief — which waking 

 does not dissipate, nor sleep drown — which casts a gloom over all the 

 beauties of nature — which the revolving seasons change not — which 

 eats like a canker into all our joys — which embitters all the sweet- 

 ness of existence, and dashes a polluting ingredient of unmingled 

 misery into our hopes, our wishes, and our comforts. This is 

 wretchedness for which there is no sympathy, it is but to be dis- 

 closed to be abhorred — it is a milLstone hanging over us by a thread, 

 from the impending of which we know no escape — a cave, through 

 whose adamantine sides there is no exit ; and we know that our 

 misery — our unutterable misery — is not for an hour, for a day, for 

 a year — but, for ever. This state of mind, destroying all natural 

 repose, has been analyzed in the most masterly and perfect manner 

 by Shakspeare, in the tragedy of INIacbeth. Immediately after the 

 murder of Duncan, the imagination of Macbeth at once opens to 

 him, as the most appalling evil which could befall him, that he 

 should never again know calm repose : his fancy rings in his ears, 

 with the voice and accents of a demon, that peace has for ever 

 flown : '' Methought I heard a voice cry, ^ Sleep no more !' ' i\Iac- 

 beth doth murder sleep ; the innocent sleep ; * 



"Sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care, 

 The birth of each day's life, sore Labour's bath, 

 Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course, 

 Chief nourisher in LUe's feast." 



