( 430 ) 
[July, 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
%* The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fa&s or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respective authors. 
FANCIES. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science . 
Sir, — What are fancies ? Are they not a struggling evolution 
of the mind ? But men of Science despise these “ fancies 
wild,” — this “poetry.” Newton called the latter “ingenious 
nonsense”; but somehow the mind will keep creeping back to 
it ; and has it never done a stroke for Science herself ? “ Fancy” 
can only suggest ; it has no reason ; it is the speaking of an 
inner mind, as it were, with which we have no definite connexion, 
or at least fancy so. Locke is harsh on the man that pretends 
he thinks in his sleep — pretends that thought is going on while 
“ sensation ” and “ reflection ” are at rest (as I take his “ Essay,” 
Book II., chap. i). Yet how do men call out in the depth of 
sleep (when fancies are at their highest ?), and often intelligibly ? 
Evidently there is thought at work, working on previously ac- 
quired sensation maybe. 
One is apt to ask, or fancy, as he gazes on a sleeper, Is that a 
remnant, left by evolution, of the old inanimate nature — lifeless 
dust ? Is it temporarily passing through a stage inconceivably 
old in its experience ? Does the tree sleep with never a waking ? 
Surely a sleeping man is in something of that phase ? Yet he 
thinks in it, although his memory does not retain anything. 
Our dreams are only remembered as we dream half awake, — 
sensation at work without correCt reflection : the first “ mind ” 
was perhaps always “ dreaming.” Does a brute think correCtly ? 
The dog follows a scent, but it is continually reminded of it by 
its senses. 
Why does the mind picture some objects more readily than 
others ? Thus it is easy for me to clearly see in my mind’s eye 
(though I find it difficult and curious to fix its locality) a chequered 
square with quadrants of four different colours ; but let me at- 
tempt to retain any of the female faces I may conceive above a 
second alike, and I cannot do it. The brain is more us$d to the 
one than the other, showing probably the work of evolution in 
