SLEEP-WAKING. 651 



taineers in the pursuit of the chamois, rope-dancers, tumblers, 

 &c. perform ? But take the balustrade from the balcony : let 

 us but discover an abyss to the right and left of the plank, and 

 we are lost. Why ? Is it because we are not in a condition to 

 walk upon the plank? No. It is because fear destroys our 

 confidence in our powers. 



" Now let us judge of the somnambulist. He sees distinctly 

 what he is about to do, but the organs which would warn him of 

 the danger are asleep : he is therefore without fear, and executes 

 whatever his bodily powers allow him successfully to attempt. 

 But wake him : instantly he will perceive his danger, and give 

 way. 



" All this is sufficient to establish that the nature of dreams and 

 of somnambulism furnishes fresh proofs of the plurality of the 

 organs." 



Let us, however, now inquire what phenomena of a marvellous 

 kind have been recorded. 



We have the authority of an archbishop of Bordeaux for the 

 case of a young ecclesiastic who in his sleep would rise, go to his 

 room, take pen, ink, and paper, and compose good sermons. When 

 he had finished a page, he would read it aloud, and correct it. 

 Once he had written ce divin enfant ; in reading over the passage 

 he substituted adorable for dnnn: but, observing that ce could 

 not stand before adorable^ he added t. The archbishop held a 

 piece of pasteboard under his chin to prevent him from seeing the 

 paper on which he "was writing ; but he wrote on, not at all incom- 

 moded. The paper on which he was writing was then removed, 

 and another piece substituted ; but he instantly perceived the 

 change. He wrote pieces of music in this state, with his eyes 

 closed. The words were under the music : and once were too 

 large, and not placed exactly under the corresponding notes. He 

 soon perceived the error, blotted out the part, and wrote it over 

 again with great exactness. 



A sleep-waking boy at Vevey, thirteen years and a half old, 

 was declared, by a committee of the Philosophical Society of 

 Lausanne, Dr. Levade, and Messrs. Regnier and Van Berchem, 

 not only to discover things well by his touch, and to write, and 

 detect and correct any error he might have made, but to write, 

 with the same distinctness as before, what his master dictated, 

 though a piece of paper was put before his eyes. I relate no other 



