DREAMS. 



I 'Itr.PG ING-MACHINES. 



72 



2, L no. U.) If, however, we 

 of our dream* accounted 



(' EJMT on the Human U: 



do not dmun always, bow U the 



for r The mind U, on this nippooiUon. at a particular period of deep, 



roidof ideal; an idea ntddenrjr enter* U. and dreaming begin*. Now 



the idea wa* not called up by an idea, antecedent to it, fur antecedently 



there wa no idea in the mind. How then did it come to enter the 



mind f ThU consideration appear* to u* adequate to tet the question 



at re*t at to whether we dream always pr nut 



Dreaming always, we may remember or forget our dreami according 

 to whether our ateap U deep or alight, and remember them in propor- 

 tion a* it i* not deep. One part of the aame fit of aleep i* more intense 

 than another ; the dreamer remember* the dream* of thi* last part, 

 but forget* those of the first, a* regard* which it is the same a* if he 

 had not dreamt at all. In one state of health the same person has a 

 greater amount of deep sleep than in another; he in consequence 

 remember* hi* dreams better, or (as he would most probably express 

 it) he dream* more in the second state of health than in the first. 

 Again, one person's bodily constitution is such as to make his sleep 

 generally more intense than that of another person, and in conse- 

 quence he is leas of a dreamer. There have been instances of persons 

 who do not remember ever to have dreamed, and of other* who 

 have not remembered any dreams until at a very advanced period 

 of life. 



III. As regards the instance* recorded of extraordinary dreams, they 

 are either untrue, or true and explainable by ordinary or natural 

 means, or else true and not so explainable, and therefore (in the 

 common phrase) supernatural. Now many of these instances are so 

 far authenticated, that we are not authorised altogether to discredit 

 them. Not discrediting them, we are yet unable to explain them by 

 the ordinary means ; though it is possible, certainly, that as the dreams 

 and their attendant circumstances come to us, there may be both 

 some exaggeration in the dreams themselves, and some omission of 

 incidents previous to the occurrence of the dreams which might help 

 to explain the attendant circumstances. Again, there is another set 

 of incidents, also well authenticated, which, like these instances of 

 dreams, are, if we believe them as they are related, unsusceptible of 

 explanation by ordinary or natural means. We refer to the many 

 stories told of the appearance of persons at the moment of death, to 

 friends or relations at a distance from the spot where the death takes 

 place. Now these incidents pave the way to some extent for a belief 

 in the supernatural character of some remarkable dreams. If these 

 incidents are believed to be supernatural, there is no reason why there 

 should not also be supernatural dreams. We must observe, however, 

 that in calling either the incidents to which we have referred or the 

 dreams supernatural, we mean no more than that they cannot be 

 explained by natural means. We cannot say how they were brought 

 about ; neither can we say, looking at the particular circumstances 

 under which they happened and the particular persons to whom they 

 happened, why they were brought about. 



The supernatural interpositions to which, in our difficulty, we resort 

 for aid, must, if they exist, be determined by general laws, which in 

 the course of time it either may or may not be given to men to know. 

 At present we see only the particular interpositions, particular events 

 belonging to another system, which we call supernatural, which is 

 governed, however, doubtless, like our own or the natural system, by 

 general laws, and which moves perhaps co-ordinately with this to a 

 common end, although we know not the laws of that system, nor the 

 connexion between it and our own. It is certainly not philosophical to 

 refer each particular interposition to a particular providence, as . 

 by Bishop Bull in his sermon concerning the ' Holy Office of Angels ; ' 

 but in an admission of our own ignorance, combined with an opinion 

 that the interpositions (as they are called) are regulated by general 

 laws, there seems to be nothing to be objected to. 



Many dreams which have in former times been accounted super- 

 natural, as revealing facts and truths of science, may doubtless be 

 explained by means within our own knowledge. Reference has been 

 made to Franklin's belief in revelations made to him during dreams 

 concerning political events, but those revelations admit of a natural 

 explanation. 



There are several instances of dreams, similar to these related of 

 himself by Franklin, given by Henry More in his ' Immortality of the 

 Soul ' (ii. 16), all of which may be explained similarly ; as, for instance, 

 the dream of Avenzoar Albumaron, an Arabian physician, to whom his 

 lately deceased friend suggested in his sleep " a very soveroin medicine 

 for his sore eyes." Indeed all dreams of the appearance of ghoste, 

 where they are believed to relate what may have been before known 

 to the dreamer, may be explained by the two circumstances, that ideas 

 in dreams are taken for sensations, and that trains of ideas associated 

 together are not liable to be interrupted by sensations, as they are in 

 leep. Mr. Coleridge has very happily observed that, in the cases 

 where ghost* are believed to appear in dreams, we have the idea of the 

 person to whom the ghost belongs as being in the room in which we 

 ourselves are sleeping ; and further, that such ghost* always appear in 

 a half waking state, when " the impressions of the bed, curtains, 

 room, Ac., received by the eyes in the half momenta of their opening, 

 blend with, and give vividness and appropriate distance to, the dream 

 image, which returns when they close again." (' Literary Remains,' 

 voL I, p. 202.) 



There U a long ' Enray on the Phenomenon of Dreaming,' in Baxter's 

 ' Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul ; ' the object of which i- 

 to prove that dream* are brought about by the agency of - 

 However fanciful i* thi* object, the eaay is valuable, a* containing 

 many fact* and displaying much ingenuity. 



The theory of dream* is treated briefly in Dr. Hartley'* work, in 

 Mr. Stewart'* ' Philosophy of the Human Mind ' (vol. i., chap. 8), in 

 which, however, but little is done toward* the elucidation of the sub- 

 ject; and in Dr. Seattle'* 'Dissertation..' (Lond. 1783, 4to.) I'r. 

 Abercrombie's and Mr. Macnish's work* are valuable for nothing else 

 than the instances which they furnish. There is an article, occasioned 

 by Mr. Macnish's book, and written l.y Sir_\Vil)um M"l.-sw.>r 

 the first volume of the ' London Review,' u In. h shows great meta- 

 physical acumen, and from which the reader will derive much ii. 

 tiun. A work by Dr. Brierre de Boismont, well translated and some- 

 what condensed by Mr. It. T. Hulme, ' On Hallucinations ; a II 

 and Explanation of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Eostacy, Magin 

 and Somnambulism,' London, 1859, may also be consulted with 

 advantage. 



The works of Aristotle contain a short treatise on dreams t*<pl 

 'EftnrWur) ; and many valuable observations, as well as fancies, are 

 scattered through the poeui of Lu> here is also extant, in 



Greek, a work on dreams by ArtemidoruD, besides the ' Oneirocritikon ' 

 of Astrampsychus, and that attributed U> Xicephorus, a patriarch of 

 Constantinople, 



1 >HKI K; I Ni; MACHINES are machines employed for deepening 

 and clearing away deposited matter from the beds of navigable rivers, 

 canals, harbours, and basins ; dredging being the term applied to such 

 operations in common with the somewhat similar one of fishing for 

 oysters. 



Some machines employed for this purpose may be compared to 

 ploughs, harrows, or great shovels, used only to loosen the silt or 

 deposit, preparatory to its removal either by the action of the retiring 

 tide or by artificial scouring or sluicing. Others not only detach the 

 sand or silt from the bottom, but also bring it above the surface of the 

 water and discharge it into a vessel in which it may be removed to be 

 made use of as ballast ; or, when it is not wanted for this purpose, in 

 which it may be carried to some place where it may be emptied into 

 deep water without doing any mischief. Boats or barges for the latter 

 purpose ore frequently mode with one or more large funnel-shaped 

 openings in the bottom, through which their contents may be dis- 

 charged by simply releasing a kind of trap-door. 



One of the simplest contrivances for performing this operation i.- 

 that known as the spoon dredging-machine, which consists of a strong 

 ring or hoop of wrought-iron, partially edged with steel, about tv. 

 or rather more in diameter, attached to the end of a pole- thirty or 

 forty feet long, and carrying a large bag of bullock's hide perforated 

 with a number of small holes. This apparatus is connected by ropes 

 and tackle with a barge or lighter, from the side of which it 

 down and manoeuvred in such a manner that the steel edge of the 

 hoop cuts into the soft bottom, and scoops a large quantity of silt into 

 the bog, which is then drawn up to the surface. The water taken up 

 with the silt runs through the holes in the bog, which, when suffi- 

 ciently elevated, is swung over the vessel and turned so as to discharge 

 its contents. The pole is sometimes made of two pieces, capable of 

 sliding upon one another, to adapt the machine to various depths. By 

 this machine, which is commonly worked by from two to four men, 

 the quantity of stuff raised in a tide from a depth of from two and a 

 half to three fathoms, may, with a tolerably favourable bottom, range 

 from twenty to sixty tons. 



The bucket dredging-machine is adapted for performing the opera- 

 tion on a much more extensive scale, and with the aid of inanimate 

 power. It was, indeed, originally worked by men, and has been worked 

 by the power of horses walking in a circular path in the boat, but 

 neither of these plans is eligible, and, without the steam-engine to 

 work it, the advantages of this form of machine are questionable. The 

 distinguishing port of this machine is a long massive framework with n 

 wheel at each end, over which a series of endless chains, or a band 

 formed by two or more chains laid side by side, is placed, so that l.y 

 turning one of the wheels the whole chains are set in motion. Attached 

 to the chains is a series of iron buckets, edged with steel, and perfo- 

 rated with numerous small holes. This framework, with its chain of 

 buckets, is attached by one end to supports elevated above the vessel, 

 while the other end, which is suspended by adjustable tackle, dips 

 obliquely into the water. In some coses the bucket-frame is mounted 

 outside, but parallel with, the vessel to which it is attached; l.nt 

 another arrangement is occasionally adopted in which the hinder part 

 of the vessel is divided by on opening in the line of the keel, suffi- 

 ciently capacious to allow the working of the bucket-frame within it. 

 By means of the tackle attached to its lower end the bucket-frame is 

 let down until it reaches the bottom, when, the steam-engine being set 

 to work, the chain of buckets begins to perform its circuit, by which 

 every bucket is, in succession, made to scoop up a quantity of silt , 

 which it carries up to the top of the oblique frame, the water running 

 :i :iy through the holes in the bucket as it proceeds. On reaching the 

 wheel at the upper end of the frame the bucket assume* MI n 

 position, and conseqm ntly pours out its contents into a barge which is 

 brought by the side, or under the stern of the vessel, to receive them, 



