DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS. 245 



these thoughts and ideas, that condition of mind is 

 established which we have shown to be identical in 

 form with the act of dreaming, for in this case also 

 thoughts and ideas have their origin in association 

 alone. In this condition a phenomenon peculiar to 

 dreams may also occur which may be termed the 

 suggestive impulse ; a sound or some sudden sensa- 

 tion produces an immediate transformation of the 

 image itself, and a new dream arises in conformity 

 with the nature of the new impression. Every one 

 must, consciously or unconsciously, have experienced 

 such a phenomenon, and this special characteristic 

 of dreams may also take place in the waking con- 

 dition which I have described. I myself can bear 

 witness to this fact, and will mention one among 

 several instances : I was once reading inattentively, 

 seated at my ease in a lounging chair, and my 

 thoughts took quite another direction, wandering 

 vaguely from one thing to another. All at once 

 some people entered an adjoining room talking to- 

 gether ; I heard what they said indistinctly, but the 

 word Florence reached my ears, and I soon imagined 

 myself to be in that city, and going on from one 

 association to another I continued for some time to 

 see again the places, monuments, and people I had 

 known there. Yet I was fully awake, and from time 

 to time I brushed the flies from my face and glanced 

 at the clock on the chimney-piece, since I had to go 

 out at three o'clock. 



