406 MAURY OX SLEEP AND DREAMS. 



are still more transient and disjointed. In both cases 

 objects of vision minister chiefly to this subjective action, 

 while the waking mind can create by will, or receive 

 unbidden, a sensorial memory of rhythmical sounds, 

 clothing itself often in actual melodies, the reflex music 

 of the brain. This latter point, in its various physiolo- 

 gical connexions, has scarcely had its due share of 

 attention. 



Eegarding, then, the images of dreams, however 

 perturbed in order, as derived from those of daily life, 

 we still have to ask the question, whether this mimic 

 imagery ever goes beyond, with inventions new to the 

 senses ? We think not. We may dream of the Centaurs 

 or the winged Assyrian bulls, as we have seen them in 

 the British Museum, but we do not in our sleep create 

 monstrosities of this kind. Under the most fantastic 

 grouping of persons and incidents, the individual images 

 are not unnatural or distorted. We believe this to 

 be so ; but here, as often elsewhere on this subject, 

 we must ask our readers to consult their own ex- 

 perience. 



That dreams, however, are generally formed out of 

 unwonted or impossible combinations of events, and 

 that they undergo sudden and fantastic changes as 

 regards persons, times, and localities, are facts familiar 

 to all. These three sources of disorder are, indeed, 

 mainly concerned in the illusions of the night. The 

 personages of the dream appear and disappear, shift, 

 and interchange their acts and positions with magical 

 rapidity. The realities of time and place are lost in 

 the medley of incidents of which the vision is composed. 



