Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 223 



I will add another obfervation upon this fuhjed : That the flate of 

 the Night-walkers bears a moft perfed refemblance to the ftate of 

 pre-exiftence in which Plato fuppofes our fouls to be before thev 

 appear upon this flage : For the Night-walker has ideas and percep- 

 tions of the objeds of Senfe, though without the affiftance of the 

 Senfes *, fuch as we muft fuppofe our Mind to have, in its 

 pre-exiftent ftate j and it ads likewife upon Body, as there is all 

 the reafon in the world to believe it does in that ftate. But 

 when the perfon awakes, he enters, as it were, on a new fcene 

 of exiftence, with a total oblivion of what pafled while he was a- 

 fleep. 



But, when we are awake, and found in Body, the ftate of our 

 Mind in this life, while we are confined in this dark prifon of flefh 

 and blood, muft be very different from its perfedt ftate, when it is 

 feparated from the Body, and is pure and unmixed "f, as Ariftotle 

 exprefles it ; then it has no Memory, as the fame author tells us, 

 becaufe all its perceptions are prefent to it, and confequently it has 

 no Reminifcence, Recolledtion, or Oblivion. 



But how can our foul be fo much feparated from our Body while 

 it remains in it ? How could the Comteffe recoiled in her fleep the 

 words of a language of which (he did not remember a word when 

 {he was awake ? My anfwer is. That fhe could not have done it in 

 her ordinary ftate of Body and Mind, even when ftie was afleep ; 

 though, at that time, the Soul is uiore difengaged from the Body 

 than when we are awake, becaufe the Animal Life and the Senfes 

 are then at reft : But the Comteife was then not only afleep, but 

 flie was difeafed ; and in certain difeafes the Soul is more difengaged. 



from. 



• Sec what I have faid upon the fubjeft of the Night-walker, Vol. i. p. i6l. 

 t See Vol. I. p. 141. and this Vol. p. 165. 



