DRE 
DRE 
that they can by no means take place dur- 
ing vigilance. T|ie state of the body sug- 
gests such ideas among those that have 
lately been impressed, as are more suitable 
to various kinds and degrees of pleasant 
and painful emotions excited in the sto- 
mach, brain, or other part. Thus a person 
who has taken opium, sees eithc*' gay scenes 
or ghastly ones, according as the opium 
excites pleasant or painful sensations in the 
•stomach. Hence it will follow, that ideas 
yvill rise successively in dreams, which have 
no such connection as take place in nature, 
in actual impressions, nor any such as is 
deducible from association ; and yet, if 
they rise up quickly and vividly, one after 
another, as subjects predicates, and other 
associates use to do, they will be affirmed 
of each other, and appear to hang together. 
Thus the same person appears in two places 
at the same time two persons appearing 
successively in the same place, coalesce 
into one ; a brute is supposed to .speak, any 
idea, qualitication, office, &c. coinciding in 
the instant of time with the idea of one’s 
self, or of another person, adheres imme- 
diately, &c. &c. Sdly. We do not take 
notice of, or are offended at, these incon- 
sistencies, but pass on from one to another. 
For the associations, which should lead us 
thus to take notice, and be offended, are, as 
it were asleep ; the bodily causes also hur- 
rying us on to other and new' trains succes- 
sively. But if the bodily state be such as 
favours ideas of anxiety and perplexity, 
then the inconsistency, and apparent im- 
possibility, occurring in dreams, are apt to 
give great disturbance and uneasiness. It 
is to be observed likewise, that w-e forget 
the several parts of our dreams vei y fast in 
passing from one to another ; and that this 
lessens the apparent inconsistencies, and 
their influeiices. 4thly, It is common in 
dreams for persons to appear to themselves 
to be transferred from one place to ano- 
ther, by a kind of sailing or flying motion. 
This arises from the change of the appa- 
rent magnitude and position of the images 
excited in the brain, this change being such 
as a change of distance and position in our- 
selves would have occasioned. Whatever 
the reasons be, for which visible images are 
excited in sleep, like to the objects with 
which w'e converse when awake, the same 
reasons will hold for changes of apparent 
magnitude and position also ; and these 
changes, in fixed objects, being constantly 
associated with motions in ourselves when 
awake, will infer these motions when asleep. 
But then we cannot have the idea of the 
vis inertia of our own bodies, answering to 
the impressions in w’alking ; because the 
nerves of the muscles either do not admit 
of such miniature vibrations in sleep ; or 
do not tiansmit ideas to the mind in conse- 
quence thereof; w'hence we appear to sail, 
fly, or ride. Yet sometimes a person seems 
to walk, and even to strike, just as in other- 
cases he seems to feel the impression of a 
foreign body on his skin. Sthly, Dreams 
consist chiefly of visible imagery. This 
agrees remarkably with the perpetual im- 
pressions made upon the optic nerves and 
corresponding pai-ts of the brain during 
vigilance, and with the distinctness and 
vividness of the images impressed. 6th!y, 
It may be observed that many of the things 
which are presented in dreams, appear to 
be remembered by us, or, at least, as fami- 
liar to us ; and that this may be solved by 
the readiness with w-hich they start up, and 
succeed one another in the fancy. 7thly, 
Dreams ought to be soon forgotten, as they 
are in fact ; because the state of the brain 
suffers great changes in passing from sleep 
to vigilance. The wildness and inconsist- 
ency of our dreams render them still more 
liable to be forgotten. It is said, that a 
man may remember his dreams best by 
continuing in the same posture in which be 
dreamt, which, if true, would be a remark- 
able confirmation of the doctrine of vibra- 
tions ; since those which take place in the 
medullary substance of the brain, would be 
least disturbed and obliterated by this 
means. Sthlyj The dreams which are pre- 
sented in the first part of the night are, for 
the most part, much more confused, irre- 
gular, and difficult to be remembered, than 
those which we dream towards the morn- 
ing ; and these last are often rational to a 
considerable degree, and regulated accord- 
ing to the usual course of our associations. 
For the brain begins then to approach to 
the state of vigilance, or that in which the 
usual associations were formed and cement- 
ed. However, association has some power 
even in wild and inconsistent dreams. 
DREIN, in the military art, a trench 
made to draw the -water out of a moat, 
which is afterwards filled with hurdles and 
earth, or with fascines, or bundles of rushes 
and planks, to facilitate the passage over 
the mud. 
DRESSING of ores, the breaking and 
powdering them in the stamping mill, and 
afterwards washing them in a wooden 
trough. 
