166 DREAM REVELATION. 



But when through the operation of the Law of 

 Growth the intellectual faculties of men become im- 

 proved, they begin to observe their own nature, and 

 in course of time a curious discovery is made. They 

 ascertain that there is something which resides within 

 them entirely independent and distinct from the body 

 in which it is contained. They perceive that it is 

 this mind, or soul, or genius, or spirit, which thinks, 

 and desires, and decides. It commands the body, as 

 the chief commands the slave. While the body is 

 asleep, it is busy weaving thoughts in the sleeper's 

 brain, or wanders into other lands, and converses with 

 people whom he, while awake, has never seen. They 

 hear words of wisdom issuing from the toothless mouth 

 of a decrepit old man. It is evident that this soul 

 does not grow old ; and therefore it does not die. 

 The body, it is clear, is only a garment which is in 

 time destroyed, and then where does its inmate go ? 



When a loved one has been taken, she haunts the 

 memory of him who weeps till the image imprinted on 

 the heart is reflected on the curtain of the eye. Her 

 vision appears ; not when he is quite asleep, as in an 

 ordinary dream ; but as he is passing into sleep. He 

 meets her in the twilight land which divides the world 

 of darkness from the world of day. He sees her form 

 distinctly ; he clasps it in his arms ; he hears the 

 accents of her sweet and gentle voice ; he feels the 

 pressure of her lips upon his own. He awakes, and the 

 illusion is dispelled ; yet with some it is so complete 

 that they firmly believe it was a spirit whom they saw. 



Among savages it is not Love which can thus excite 

 the imagination and deceive the sense ; but rever- 

 ence and fear. The great chief is dead. His vision 

 appears in a half-waking dream : it threatens and it 



