244 Shadowings 



a group, and tossed from one to another, 

 seemingly for a time of many minutes. 



HI 



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? 



