374 MACRY OX SLEEP AND DREAMS. 



are instances where some question left on the mind at 

 bed-time unsolved, has been found in the morning 

 thoroughly worked out. Verses Latin as well as 

 English are said to have been made in the night, 

 with no consciousness of the fact till they came to the 

 morning memory. Nevertheless, we must regard the 

 evidence here as insufficient, seeing how commonly 

 such statements are careless or exaggerated ; how 

 broken and desultory are the conditions and memories 

 of the night ; and how likely it is that the time just 

 antecedent to waking ; quum somnia vera ' may be 

 that in which these curious feats are accomplished. 

 The drowsiness of the evening is often as much an 

 impediment to thought as the light sleep of the 



morning. 1 



We must, then, relegate this matter to the limbo of 

 questions admitting neither of proof nor disproof. Like 

 many others, in addition to its intrinsic difficulties, it is 

 encumbered and perplexed by ambiguities of language. 

 The very term of consciousness , so essential to the dis- 

 cussion, has hardly obtained a valid definition in its 

 relation to sleep and dreams an ambiguous one even 

 in reference to our waking state. Everything, indeed, 



1 If adopting this term of ' tmconscious cerebration,' we might fairly 

 apply it to various familiar acts of the waking state. For example : 

 we try to recollect a name or word, fail to do so, and abandon the 

 attempt. Soon afterwards, without intermediate consciousness or effort, 

 the name in question rushes upon the memory, as if by a sudden inspira- 

 tion. What has here been the intervening cerebral process ? 



In alluding to this common vagary of memory, we may notice ano- 

 ther closely connected with it. A word is forgotten, and sought for in 

 vain. But its initial letter, or some vague image of the word, hangs 

 upon the mind, often furnishing a clue to its recovery. Such instances, 

 trifling though they seem, serve well to illustrate the curious mechanism 

 of this great faculty of our nature. 



