12 The Rev. James Wills on Dreams. 



with the facts of observation. I should, indeed, wholly omit this consideration, 

 were it not that there are some ascertained facts which lead to much interest- 

 ing suggestion, and which, at worst, will help to give theoretical connexion to 

 my subsequent statements. 



The theory of the nervous system is popularly familiar, and generally 

 received, so far, at least, as I shall have occasion to employ it. It seems to 

 offer some highly probable grounds for the solution of the proposed question. 

 The application, I must confess, is in some degree conjectural; and for this reason 

 it shall be discussed as briefly as I can. According to their general theory, the 

 nerves seem to be, or in some way to contain, the furthest ascertainable media 

 of communication between the mind and the corporeal machinery through which 

 it operates ; and, to the utmost extent of observation, this connexion seems, 

 without anyexception, to extend to every operation of the mind, whether mediate 

 or immediate, and this in such a manner that if the nervous theory were to 

 be even rejected, still there is clear evidence of some equivalent medium of 

 communication, to which all that I shall have to state will equally apply. 



Secondly. There is sufficient ground to presume, that in proportion as the 

 sense or local function, for the operation of which any set of nerves are employed, 

 becomes more fine and rapid, there must be also a more susceptible and quick 

 organization of those particular nerves, such as would be shown by a tendency 

 to act upon fainter impulses, — as, for example, the delicate and infinitesimally 

 minute gradations of the action of the retina or optic nerve, compared with the 

 grosser sense of external touch. Of this gradation of sensibility there can be 

 no doubt. My present purpose only requires the assumption, that the nerves, 

 or nervous branches which act more immediately within the brain, are consi- 

 derably more susceptible than those exposed to external influence. Thus, an 

 impulse too slight to be sensibly operative on the exterior terminus of the ner- 

 vous conductor may yet be supposed to propagate a far more active motion in 

 the cerebral extremity. 



One more well known condition will complete this application of the nervous 

 theory. It is an admitted fact that the nervous sensibility becomes depressed 

 by the wear or waste of daily use, and that this loss is repaired in sleep. The 

 continued operation of some of the vital functions during sleep seems, at the 

 same time, to indicate that this suspension of nervous activity which then occurs 



