8.5 

 3 



onsly shaped noddine farze bush, to their 

 half-averted but spell-bound gaze, may be 

 distorted into forms as unreal and horrid 

 as those due to indigestion or other 

 interference with the necessary vital 

 functions during sleep. 



The imagination it would seem has the 

 power under expectancy, fear, or 

 extreme pleasure, to order and magnify 

 generic refiex groupings of images which 

 agree with the simple state of fear, 

 pleasure, anxiety, and suchlike ; but it has 

 not the power to be specifically accurate 

 or consistent, and thus it would seem to 

 bo the blind groping of a dim generic 

 grasp, not of specific value like the con- 

 sciousness of the undisturbed waking 

 stale at its best. 



Let any one in a quiet mood, as he is 

 musing before the evening fire, purposely 

 close the eyes, and, to increase the effect, 

 place the palm of the hand lightly over 

 them to exclude, as far as possible, the 

 still active effects of external impressions. 

 He will then find the images of Fincy 

 bursting apparently upon the view of 

 sense in that strangely vivid, changing, 

 incoherent evolving and melting away 

 character ; and yet, withal, giving an 

 illusory sort of impression that there is a 

 reality and a natural sequence in the 

 shapes, forms, colors, and pictures, 

 which rapidly displace each other as he 

 gazes. 



These gleams which we are permitted 

 to be the spectators of are not or are but 

 feebly under the control of the conscious 

 will. The writer has frequently tested 

 this fact by personal experiment. On the 

 last occasion he did so his own thoughts 

 were to a large extent impressed with the 

 scenery of the Huon road through which 

 he had travelled that day. Although he 

 purposely tried to work into the unbidden 

 scenes and images which floated before his 

 mental vision, the form of a wattle tree in 

 blossom, he found be was unable to order 

 its inclusion in many wooded scenes that 

 unbidden would vividly evolve to his 

 conscious sense. Ooe remarkable scene 

 seemed to thrust itself unbidden, again 

 and again, viz.: — a small rocky promon- 

 tory crowned with a group of the 

 graceful she- oaks so common on the 

 margin of the estuary of the Derwent 

 (Casuarina quadrivalvis,) In the shel- 

 tered bay beneath this rooky clif scene 



where he felt he was situated he could see 

 distinctly the wave-ripples, and reflections 

 of the sun's rays, together with a strange 

 bright patch of sunshine which seemed to 

 brilliantly light up the sea at its base. He 

 tried to force a change by the attention of 

 the memory to the romantic Huon scenes, 

 but he found he could but slightly vary 

 the sea cliff scene already described, the 

 patch of light still forming o- e of its 

 distinctive features. On other occasions 

 he had no difficulty of picturing the 

 wattle tree in blossom, but in every case 

 he felt he was as much a spectator as one 

 feels in sleep amidst the scenes of dream- 

 land. 



It is quite possible, therefore, that the 

 proverbial moods of some people— the 

 grave and the gay — may, to a larger ex- 

 tent than we are aware of, be colored by 

 this unsuspected undercurrent of fancy 

 during our waking moments. 



My chief object in drawing particular 

 attention to the region of Fancy is to 

 show that under peculiar circumstances it 

 is conceivable that its hidden reflex 

 activities may surge up among the 

 primary concepts of the senses, and thus 

 be the origin of sense illusions even in the 

 minds of those who are otherwise of a 

 sound, healthy constitution. It is quite 

 clear that these undercurrents of Fancy 

 are distinct from ordinary concepts of 

 memory, although it is not improbable 

 that memory and fancy concepts are 

 intimately related, and may powerfully 

 act and react upon each other. The curious 

 way in which a memory— say of a name 

 which we at the moment in vain try to 

 recall — bursts in unbidden soon after upon 

 a foreign train of thought, is very remark- 

 able, and it is therefore quite possible that 

 through the hidden agency of active 

 undercurrents of Fancy the dormant 

 memory may be awakened. 



Illusions, as regards simple concepts, 

 are comparatively rare among sane per- 

 sons, where all the senses are free or 

 unconditioned and healthy. External or 

 primary sensations of forms, colors, 

 sounds, touch, motion, and such like, are 

 for the most part readily distinguished 

 from simulations of realities, even in 

 some cases of partially impaired sense 

 organs. 



There are numberless circumstances, 

 however, which readily tend to produce 



