i'Aeui/ni:s 01 Tin: MIND. 249 



tive power is quiescent, and irritability alone regulates all 

 the movements which prevail. 



.When in this condition of sleep, we find that all the 

 powers 6r body have lost a portion of their sensibility, so 

 that no impressions are produced, unless those which are 

 very strong ; . in which case the state of sleep is interrupted 

 arid the individual, a wakes. 



. After continuing in this state of sleep for a definite time, 

 our various powers again assume their wonted functions, 

 consciousness returns,-* the senses again establish our 

 relation with external objects, the intellectual powers ope- 

 rate upon the materials which they collect, and our in- 

 stincts* again exert themselves as active powers. 



There is now a pleasing feeling of recruited strength, a 

 sense of new vigour, and a disposition to activity. 



But in some cases this instinct is so far influenced by 

 circumstances that the sleep produced is imperfect* and we 

 are said to dream. This happens when there is any or- 

 ganic derangement of the body, or when the irritability of 

 the body, during the state of repose, is too much excited, 

 {as when the stomach is overloaded or filled with matter 

 difficult to digest), and calls into action the instincts by 

 which it is accustomed to be controlled. 



In one state of dreaming, the intellectual powers are in 

 action, but the process of thought is conducted differently 

 from the way in which it is carried on in our waking mo- 

 taents. We fancy that the senses are communicating to us 

 information of external objects, while they are in a state of 

 inactivity, so that we appear incapable of distinguishing be- 

 tween the impressions of perception and memory. We 

 are equally incapable of perceiving the difference between 

 the ideas of memory and imagination. Hence we form the 

 most incongruous images, mixing the conditions of dif- 

 ferent ideas of memory, with regard to time, place and 



