244 Shadowings 



a group, and tossed from one to another, 

 seemingly for a time of many minutes. 



Ill 



WHENCE the fancy of those shapes? I do not 

 know. Possibly from some impression of fear 

 in earliest infancy; possibly from some experi- 

 ence of fear in other lives than mine. That 

 mystery is forever insoluble. But the mystery 

 of the shock of the touch admits of a definite 

 hypothesis. 



First, allow me to observe that the experience of 

 the sensation itself cannot be dismissed as " mere 

 imagination." Imagination means cerebral activ- 

 ity : its pains and its pleasures are alike insepar- 

 able from nervous operation, and their physical 

 importance is sufficiently proved by their physi- 

 ological effects. Dream-fear may kill as well as 

 other fear; and no emotion thus powerful can 

 be reasonably deemed undeserving of study. 



One remarkable fact in the problem to be con- 

 sidered is that the sensation of seizure in dreams 

 differs totally from all sensations familiar to 

 ordinary waking life. Why this differentiation ? 

 How interpret the extraordinary massiveness and 

 depth of the thrill? 



