

W* .hall uke the 



a. Of the five external 



> 



kind, of 



It u amu*ing to trace. 



gilt ia Uw tea* excitable during 



Bat rtroag light brought before th eym of * person sleep- 

 ing generally affccu UM nerve* concerned in the causation of sight ; a 

 innmi n of light in generally frit ; UK! whilst iu ultimate effect is 

 latent alwars to awaken UM deeper, train of idea* associated with 

 UM MOMtxn of Ught u flnt called up, and naase* before the mind in 

 the intsrral between UM wtmtion and waking. Th aleeper probably 

 i from a drMta of no* conflagration, whether one which h.i- 

 n pbee (for instance, the conflagration of Moscow, or any 

 mar bar* been impressed on hi mind), or eke a confla- 

 gration of some botue well known to him, perhap* eren his own. 



The leart ezeiuble of the MOM, after right, U taste. And even 

 ao far M it in excitable, the drctunatance* nnder which we sleep are 

 t a* to preclude almost entirely the possibility of it* being brought 

 action. When, howerer, from ill-health, or in consequence of 

 aomeUung which we hare eaten shortly before going to bed, there is (in 

 the vulgar phnn) a bad taste in the mouth, this may have ita effect 

 - 



f. Smell comes next of the senses, In reopcct of defect of excitability 

 daring deep. The circumstance* under which we sleep are again mien 

 a* to preclude almost entirely the action of this sense; and it is diffi- 

 cult, while it is by no means important, to select an apposite instance 

 of iu operation in mollifying dreams. 



d. H e come next to the sense of hearing. " The sound of n flute 

 in the neighbourhood," says Mr. Macnish, " may invoke a thousand 

 beautiful and delightful associations. The air is perhaps filled with 

 the tones of harps, and all other varieties of music ; nay the per- 

 formers themselves are visible ; and while the cause of this strange 

 scene is one trivial instrument, he may be regaled with a rich and 

 melodious concert" (p. 61). A loud noise taking place near the 

 aleepar, heard by him, and eventually awaking him, calls up ideas of 

 various loud noises, and these again various other ideas associated with 

 them. A curious instance, which exemplifies the tendency of ideas 

 that have been most frequently and most recently present to the mind 

 to recur in dreams, will be found in Dr. Abercrombie's work on the 

 Intellectual Powers, p. 277. Again, whispering in a person's car when 

 he is asleep is found sometimes to modify his dreams very considerably. 

 Some persons, it is true, are instantly awaked thereby ; others, who 

 sleep on, arc not conscious when they awake of having had dreams 

 akin to the subjects on which the whisperer has discoursed ; while 

 others again may have their dreams modified at one time by the 

 whispering, and not at another, according as the sleep is more or less 

 deep. But instances are recorded of persons susceptible always, and, 

 to a peculiar degree, of the influence of this whispering in the ear on 

 their dreams; an amusing instance of which is also given by Dr. 

 Abercrombie. 



<. Of the five external senses, touch is the most excitable during 

 sleep. In continually changing, as we do, our position during sleep, 

 we are influenced by tactile sensations of which the bed and the bed- 

 clothes are the causes. We are most easily awaked by being touched, 

 the slightest tickling in the nose or the sole of the foot being sufficient 

 for the purpose. And as regards the ] K-ration of sensations of touch 

 in modifying dreams, let it suffice to observe generally, that those by 

 which we are awaked may call up, in the interval between the touch 

 and the waking, ideas of various causes of touch which will be pleasur- 

 able or painful ideas according to other circumstances. 



/. Sensations of bodily pain, or of disorganisation (as they have been 

 named by Mr. Mill, who has been the first to treat of them under a 

 separate bead), including the sensations of heat and cold, frequently 

 occur to modify dreams. Hobbes has enunciated this modifying cir- 

 cumstance with distinctness, interweaving however a somatological 

 hy|x>thesis for its explanation which is neither necessary nor correct ; 

 but this hypothesis may be kept apart from the enunciation of the 

 fact. " And seeing dreams are caused by the distemper of some of the 

 inward parts of the body, divers distempers must needs cause different 

 dreams ; and hence it is that lying cold breedeth dreams of fear, and 

 raieeth the thought and image 6f some fearful object (the Motion from 

 At brain !> thr IHHCT parti, and from the inner parti to tht brain being 

 reciprocal) ; and that as anger cauaeth heat in some parts of the body 

 when we are awake ; so when we sleep, the over-heating of the same 

 parU cauaeth anger, and raiseth up in the brain the imagination of on 

 enemy." (' Leviathan,' i, 2.) Several inHtances have been related of 

 this l.y Dr. Abercrombie, Dr. Gregory, and others. 



g. Sensations in the alimentary canal, sometimes pleasurable and 

 sometimes painful, have a very important influence on dreams. These 

 sensations indeed influence very considerably our waking trains of 

 ideu ; and much more, inasmuch as in sleep there are no external 

 objects to call us away from the ideal which these sensations call up, 

 do they influence our sleeping trains. When the digestion ia good, 

 and e have eaten nothing which weighs upon or disagrees with the 

 stomach, our dreamt are, generally (peaking, pleasurable. When, on 

 the other hand, we suffer from indigntiira, which, in respect of the 

 effect, i but a name for an aggregate of painful sensations in the 

 alimentary canal, we are afflicted with dreams of the most painful 

 character. The exhilarating effects of opium and of intoxicating 

 draught*, which effect* an neither more nor lew than sensations in 



the alimentary canal, are also discernible in dreams. And in connec- 

 tion with this topic, we may allude to the dreams caused by the 

 uneasy *enstion attendant on obstructed respiration, which, some- 

 time* caused by and sometimes combined with indigestion, constitute 

 the most dreadful evil* to which in sleep we are subject, and which 

 are known to all under the name of nightmare. 



We have thus explained the law of association which determines the 

 formation of dreams, and have exemplified it* operation. Thus fr, it 

 will be observed, we have spoken of dreams only in their generic 

 character of trains of ideas: or at least, any reference which we have 

 made to the specific circumstances which distinguish them from trains 

 of ideas in the waking state has been incidental. It remains, in order 

 to complete the psychological theory of dreams, to state and explain 

 the circumstances distinguishing dreams, as trains of ideas during 

 sleep, from trains of ideas as they generally occur in the waking state. 

 We ssy as they generally occur, because in the waking state th 

 trains of ideas, which occur under peculiar circumstances, resembling 

 dreams, and differing from the generality of trains of ideas in the 

 waking state in those very points by means of which dreams, and 

 the generality of waking trains, are to be distinguished from one 

 another. The trains of ideas which in the waking state occur thus 

 under peculiar circumstances are those called merit*, or, more ex- 

 pressively. v-nHiiiii dreamt ; and again, those which present themselves 

 to the mind during delirium. 



1. Ideas which occur in dreams are believed to be sensations ; 

 Scenes fashioned by the fancy are believed to be real. What has been 

 already said, when we were resolving this belief in the presence of 

 external object* not present into its component elements, in order to 

 exemplify the operation of the law of association in dreams, has 

 expedited the explanation of this phenomenon. When we are awake 

 we are conscious continually of two different states of mind, belief in 

 the existence of external objects present, and belief in the existence of 

 external objects not present. These two states of mind ditl.i only iu 

 this point, that the former comprehends certain sensations of 

 while the latter, in the place of the sensations themselves, has but the 

 ideas of the sensations. Now, when we ore awoke, ideas are compared 

 with sensations, the belief in the existence of external objects not 

 present with the belief in the existence of external objects pi 

 and ideas are seen to be less vivid than sensations, the former bettei 

 than the latter belief. Thus, and thus alone, ore these states of mind 

 respectively distinguished frotn each other when we are awake ; but 

 when we are asleep we have no sensation* with which to compare our 

 ideas, and no external objects present, with the belief in whose 

 presence we can compare the belief in their existence when they are 

 not present. Ideas therefore, no longer viewed relatively, take the 

 place of sensations; they are the most vivid representations which 

 present themselves to the mind of the qualities of external objects ; 

 and being the most vivid, are believed to be sensations. Whence it 

 follows, that the belief in the existence of external objects not present 

 takes the place also of the belief in the existence of external object* 

 present, or (changing the phrase) the belief in the presence of external 

 objects. It may also be, that ideas when we are asleep are, from 

 bodily causes which we cannot trace, actually more vivid than i 

 same ideas when we are awake : if this be so, which we cannot posi- 

 tively say, but which is pn.lable, it will combine with the previous 

 consideration to explain the above-mentioned phcuoiu 



Dr. Hartley wrote upon this point with great sagacity ; and the only 

 fault in the following extract is the intrusion of a material hyp. 

 at the end of it. " The scenes which present themselves are taken to 

 be real. Now this happens, first, because we have no other reality to 

 oppose to the ideas which offer themselves, whereas in the common 

 fictions of the fancy, while we are awake, there is always a set < 

 external objects striking some of our senses, and precluding a like 

 mistake there, or if we become quite inattentive to external objects, 

 the reverie does so far put ou the nature of a dream as to appear 

 a reality ; secondly, the trains of visible ideas which occur in dreams 

 are far more vivid than common visible ideas, and therefore may the 

 more easily be taken for actual impressions. For what reasons these 

 ideas should be so much more vivid, I cannot presume to say. I 

 guess that the exclusion of real impressions has some share, and the 

 incrcatcd heat of (lie brain nay hare tome lUcevite. The fact is most 

 observable in the first approaches of sleep, all the visible ideas begin- 

 ning then to be more than usually glaring." (' Observations on Man,' 

 vol. i. p. 308, ed. 1810. 



Thus it is that we never dream of a past event as a post event. Any 

 historical event of which we dream is believed to be taking ; 

 our eye*, and any historical individual to be on i . An. 'li. r 



iiinguW consequence is observable in the oaMofdrMOtl produced l.y 

 sensations of bodily pain. The sensation of the pain may call up, as 

 well as kindred ideas of pain and its causes, an which will 



remove the pain, which, when we are awoke, must often follow the 

 sensation of pain ; and this idea will be taken for the actual presence 

 of that which is fitted to relieve us. When, for im-t.-nic,-, \M- hunger 

 or thirst in sleep, these uneasy sensations call up respectively the ideas 

 of food or drink ; we believe that we have food or drink in our pos- 

 sescion, but (the hunger or thirst of course continuing) we go . n to 

 dream of some occurrence which prevent* the satisfaction of our appe- 

 tite* ; or perhaps we have the idea of the taste of the food or drink, 



