620 DREAMING. 



more like the cross reading of a newspaper, according to a remark 

 of Dr. Macnish. k 



" Fancy, 



Wild work produces oft, but most in dreams, 

 111 matching words, and deeds long past or late." J 



A dream sometimes continues rational and consistent till near its 

 end, when it suddenly becomes absurd. m 



Some have supposed that the diversity and incongruous character 

 of dreams " arises solely from our having no external sensations."" 

 This appears to me a very confined view of the state of the mind 

 during dreaming. The want of external sensations is not the only 

 point, nor the chief point; but the want of intelligence and volition, 

 and the intensity of our conceptions. We may have sensations and 

 yet be asleep and dream. We may feel heat applied to our feet 

 and fancy we are in eternal torments : yet should we wake, with- 

 out any further use of our external senses, without smelling, 

 tasting, hearing, seeing, and without moving, we discover the 

 unreality of our fancy, and, though we should be lying uncovered 

 on the ground in the dark, with no means of knowing by external 

 sense where we are, or how we got where we are, we know 

 for certain that we not in hell, but are satisfied of being still upon 

 earth. In truth we think the most acutely when we have no 

 external sensation. When we wish to meditate, we seek silence, 

 generally shut our eyes, and may become motionless so as to have 

 no touch, and as to tasting and smelling we do not think of such 

 things. We often meditate in bed in the darkness and stillness 

 of night, and forget where we are. While excluding and not 

 aware of any external sensations, we may be most successful in 

 poetical conceptions, and yet do not mistake them for realities. 

 The evident reason of which is the same as of our poetry dif- 

 fering from the wild nonsense of dreams: we are awake and 

 fully intelligent. Of course, when we are awake, our external 

 senses are in play, give us information, and may correct our 

 thoughts : but, if their impressions may have no relation to our 

 thoughts, and thus afford no correction, and yet we can medi- 

 date most philosophically without dreaming, their activity gene- 

 rally cannot be the cause of our not being asleep and dream- 



k 1. c. p. 49. ' Farad. Lost, B. v. 



m Hood's Whims and Oddities, quoted by Dr. Macnish, 1, c. p. 42. 

 n Darwin, Zoonomia, vol.i. p. 293. 



