THE PRINCIPAL ACTS 395 



could never have an idea in a dream, that he had not had when awake, 

 nor recall an object of which he was previously ignorant. 



If someone were to be confined from his childhood in a room where 

 daylight was only admitted from above, and if all necessaries were 

 supplied to him without communication, he would assuredly never see 

 in his dreams any of those objects which affect men so strongly in 

 society. 



Thus dreams disclose to us the mechanism of memory, just as memory 

 teaches us the mechanism of ideas ; when I see my dog dreaming, 

 barking in his sleep, and giving unequivocal signs of the thoughts 

 which agitate him, I become convinced that he too has ideas, of 

 however limited a kind. 



It is not only during sleep that the functions of the inner feeling 

 may be suspended or disturbed. While we are awake, a sudden 

 strong emotion sometimes suspends altogether the functions of this 

 feeling, and even all movement in the free part of the nervous 

 fluid ; we then suffer from syncope, that is to say, we lose all con- 

 sciousness and power of action ; sometimes also an extensive irritation, 

 such as occurs in certain fevers, similarly suspends the functions of 

 the inner feeling and yet agitates the free portion of the nervous fluid 

 in such a way as to call up disordered ideas and thoughts, and lead to 

 actions no less disordered : in such a case we suffer from what is called 

 delirium. 



Delirium therefore resembles dreams as regards the disorder of ideas, 

 thoughts and judgments, and it is clear that this disorder in both cases 

 arises from the fact that the functions of the inner feeling are sus- 

 pended, so that it no longer controls the movements of the nervous 

 fluid.i 



But the violence of the nervous agitation causing delirium is the 

 reason for believing that this phenomenon is not only the product of 

 a strong irritation, but sometimes also of a powerful moral affection ; 

 so that individuals experiencing it then obtain very little advantage 

 from their knowledge, for their inner feeling, whose functions are 

 disturbed and suspended, no longer guides the nervous fluid in a way 

 suitable for correct ideas. 



Indeed, when moral sensibility is very great, the emotions produced 

 in the inner feeling by certain ideas or thoughts are sometimes so 

 considerable, that the functions of this feeling are disturbed, and it is 

 unable to guide the nervous fluid towards the performance of the new 



* With regard to the faint delirium or kind of dizziness, commonly experienced 

 when we are falling off to sleep, it is probably due to the fact that the inner feehng, 

 which is losing control of the movements still taking place in the nervous fluid, resumes 

 and again gives up that control several times alternately, until complete sleep has 

 supervened. 



