^34 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BooklV. 



and Genius, which give fo much delight, both to the performers, 

 and to the fpedtators or hearers. But of this kind there are fome 

 which are not altogether voluntary, but obtruded upon us by cer- 

 tain affcdions or paflions, under the dominion of which we are at 

 the time. It is in this way, that objeds that we have feen, and have 

 interefted us very much, come acrofs our fancy, and prefent them- 

 felves to us when we often would chufe not to fee them. But ftill 

 we know them to be no more than Phantafms or Imaginations, and, 

 by employing our thoughts another way, we may, if they be 

 troublefome, get free of them. 



But there are fcenes of another kind, which our Imagination pre- 

 fents to us when we are awake. Thefe are not only involuntary, 

 but entirely unconnected with any afFedlion or paffion ; and there- 

 fore they are nowife interefting or affedling. The fcenes I mean 

 are fuch as appeared to the old man of whom Bonnet fpeaks in the 

 paflage quoted in the Firft Volume "*. And fuch are the appearances, 

 mentioned by Ariftotle t, of figures upon the wall to men in fevers. 

 Thefe, fays Ariftotle, the fick man knows to be illufions, if the fe- 

 ver be not very high ; but, if it be very high, he miftakes them for 

 realities. Thefe vifions, which Bonnet's old man faw, were, I 



am 



* Page 158 — I am well informed of another inflance of the fame kind. My in- 

 formation is from the late Sir James Stewart, who had a relation of his, an old gen- 

 tleman, whom I knew and efteemcd, that lived forr.e years in his houfe, and died 

 in it. Sir James, in a letter that I received i'rom him, on the publication of my 

 Firft Volume, told me that his old friend, who retained iiis fenfes to the laft, was 

 in ufe, when he was perfectly awake, and in broad day, to fee figures upon the 

 wall, not coaches and equipages, fuch as Bonnet's old man faw, but libraries and 

 colIe£tions of books, and fometimes %vomen fitting and fpinning. This he never 

 told to any body, for fear he fhould be thought delirious, till one day, that Sir 

 James happened to read to him the (lory from Bonner, which I have related, and 

 then he informed Sir Jimes of the vlfions that he had, and not once or twice, but 

 yery frequently. 



t Ariftotle de Infomniis, cap. 2. 



