126 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



ally it continues this adjustment, in meeting new situa- 

 tions; but the limitation of this correspondence is de- 

 termined by the limitation of the structure. Within 

 its limitations the psychic device, in various ways, 

 modifies the image by its pliability in adaptation, such 

 as changing the point of view, and also by all grades 

 of attention, and inattention. The pathological con- 

 dition of the psychic device greatly modifies all sensa- 

 tions and images. Dreams are modified forms of 

 memory. 



DREAMS. Dreams do not come in profound sleep, 

 that is, when the molecules of the nerve tissues, 

 which produce the psychical phenomena are at rest. 

 It is probable, that those nerves that sustain the physio- 

 logical function, of replacing the destroyed molecules 

 of nerve structure, may be as active in profound sleep, 

 as during the waking hours. But not those which 

 produce the images, and patterns of ideas, or which 

 recall by the associative fibres former impressions, as 

 is the case in dreaming. Dreams seem to be produced 

 during the decreasing activity of the molecular motion 

 of the psychical patterns of the brain, in process of 

 going to sleep, or, by the nascent motion of the same 

 molecules, in the process of waking. At these two 

 opposite periods, the sensations coming from the 

 environment are not operative, but the faint and im- 

 perfect representations of former sensations are pro- 

 duced, by the feeble movements of the molecules, not 

 vigorous, and true, as when first presented, in the 

 waking hours, but modified, and never an exact copy 

 of the original. Thus dreams seem to be of different 

 degrees of truthfulness. As the brain approaches sleep, 

 the first dreams are likely to be the most vivid, and 

 representative ; but as sense activity gradually declines, 



