556 OF DREAMS. 



impressions is illustrated by the history of the blind, who still dream 

 of things that they formerly saw. Thus it is stated that Huber, after 

 he had been blind for fifty years, still dreamed of things he had seen 

 when a boy. But little explanation can be given of the manner in which 

 these vestiges may be grouped a grouping which is so frequently in vi- 

 olation of all correctness that a dream which presents us with a logical 

 sequence of events,* and which we recognize on awakening to be natu- 

 rally true, is sure to be an impressive one ; and yet we can not doubt 

 that the causes which suggest dreams are often purely physical, as when, 

 in dropsy of the chest, the dreamer fancies he is drowning, or even suf- 

 fers under the same delusion when his hand is dipped in water ; or when 

 a candle is earned into the room, and he awakens stricken with terror 

 that the house is on fire ; or, on the occurrence of noise, he believes that 

 he is in a thunder-storm, or, perhaps, on a field of battle. Hence arises 

 an automatism which becomes most striking when the dreamer answers 

 questions put in a whisper to him, an incident of which cases are record- 

 ed in which individuals have revealed important events of their lives, 

 which, when waking, they would never have divulged. 



Automatic actions are usually considered as occurring without sensa- 

 tion, but this, in some instances, as in those now before us, can not be 

 regarded as altogether true. 



Suggested thus by external circumstances, or arising spontaneously 

 Deceptive ap- without any obvious cause, dreams pass before us with an 

 pearance of a ir of truthfulness so imposing that we never suspect their 



truth in dreams. ,, T ^ , A , - 1 .,1 ,1 i i 



fallacies. It may be truly said that they have a logic ot 

 their own. Indeed, so complete is the illusion, that instances are not 

 wanting, and many have been recorded, in which, at the moment of 

 awakening, the sleeper has been struck with the correctness of the con- 

 clusions at which he had arrived, and it was not until he had recovered 

 from the delirious confusion of the moment, and reason had resumed her 

 sway, that he perceived how incorrect they were. Thus great mathe- 

 maticians have thought they had solved difficult problems, poets that 

 they had composed stanzas of force and beauty ; but these, on a mo- 

 ment's reflection, they have discovered to be an inconsequent flow of 

 ideas, and mere nonsense. A few exceptions undoubtedly have occur- 

 red, as in the case of Mr. Coleridge, who affirms that, under these cir- 

 cumstances, he composed Kublai Khan, and remembered it in part on 

 awaking. The French mathematician, Condorcet, makes the same state- 

 ment with respect to several of his writings. 



One of the most extraordinary phenomena presented in the dreaming 

 instantaneous state is the instantaneous manner in which a long series ot 

 aTo^g'trainof events mav be offered to the mind, the exciting cause being 

 events. truly of only a momentary duration. Some sudden noise 



