n 
UREA M. 
jn him the fame emotions as if he were awake. He feels 
no terror on the top of a houfe, or brink of a precipice; 
and, in confequence of being free from fear, he is alfo 
without danger in fuch fituations, unlefs fuddenly awaked. 
This is one of the mod inexplicable phenomena of dream¬ 
ing. There is alfo another fad not ftridly confonant with 
what has been above advanced. It is laid, that in ileep 
a perfon will continue to hear the noife of a catarad in 
the neighbourhood, or regular ftrokes with a hammer, 
or any limilar.found fufficiently loud, and continued un¬ 
interruptedly from before the time of his falling afleep. 
We know not whether he awakes on the hidden celfation 
of the noife. This fad is afferted on fufficient evidence, 
and is curious. Even when awake, if very deeply intent 
on any piece of ftudy, or clofely occupied in bufinefs, the 
found of a clock (hiking in the neighbourhood, or the 
beating of a drum, will efcape us unnoticed: and it is 
therefore the more furprifing that we fliould thus continue 
fenfible to founds when afleep. 
Though dreams have been regarded among almoft all 
nations of the world, as prophetic of future events ; yet 
it does not appear that this popular opinion has been 
eftabliflied on good grounds. Chriftianity teaches us to 
believe, that the Supreme Being may, and adually does, 
Operate on our minds, and influence at times the determi¬ 
nations of our will, without making us fenfible of the 
reftraint to which we are thus fubjeded. And, in the 
fame manner, no doubt, the fuggeftions which arife to 
us in dreams may be produced. The imaginary tranfac- 
tions in which we are then engaged, may be fuch as are 
actually to occupy us-in life ; the ftrange and feemingly 
incoherent appearances which are then prefented to the 
mind’s eye, may allude to fome circumftances which are 
eventually to befal ourfelves or others. It is, therefore, 
by no means impollible, or inconfiftent with the general 
analogy of nature, that dreams fliould in fome cales have 
a refpeft to futurity. We have no reafon to regard the 
dreams which are related in the Holy Scriptures to have 
been.prophetic of future events, as not infpired by Hea¬ 
ven, or to laugh at the idea of a prophetic dream as 
abfurd or ridiculous. 
Various theories have been propofed to explain what 
in dreams appears mod inexplicable. The ingenious 
Mr. Baxter, in his Treatife on the Immateriality of the 
Human Soul, endeavours to prove that dreams are pro¬ 
duced by the'agency-of fome fpiritual beings, who either 
amufe or employ themfelves ferioufly in engaging man¬ 
kind in all thofe imaginary' tranfadions with which they 
are employed in dreaming. This theory, however, is far 
from being plaufible. It leads us entirely beyond the 
limits of our knowledge. It requires us to believe with¬ 
out evidence. It is unfupported by any analogy. It 
creates difficulties Hill more inexplicable than thofe which 
it has been propofed to remove. Till it appear that our 
dreams cannot poffibly be produced without the interfe¬ 
rence of other fpiritual agents, poflefling fuch influence 
over our minds as to deceive us with fancied joys, and 
involve us in imaginary afflictions, we cannot reafonably 
refer them to fuch a caufe. Befides, from the fads which 
are known concerning dreams, it appears that their na¬ 
ture depends both on the ftate of the human body, and 
on that of the mind. 
Wolfius, and after him M. Formey, have fuppofed, 
that dreams never arife in the mind, except in confe- 
■quence of fome of the organs of fenfation having been 
previoufly excited. Either the ear or the eye, or the 
organs of touching, tailing, or fmelling, communicate 
information, fomehow, in a tacit, fecret, manner ; and 
thus partly roufe its faculties from the lethargy in which 
they are buried in fleep, and engage them in a feries of 
confufed and impeded exertions. But what palfes in 
dreams is fo very different from all that .we do when 
awake, that it is impollible for the dreamer himfelf 
to diftinguilh, whether his powers of fenfation perform 
any part on the occafion. It is not neceffary that imagi¬ 
nation be always excited by fenfation. Fancy, even when 
we are awake, often wanders from the prefent feenev 
Abjhnce of mind is incident to the fludious: the poet and 
the mathematician many times forget where they are. 
We cannot difeover, fronv any thing that a perfon in 
dreaming difplays to the obfervation of others, that his 
organs of fenfation take a part in the imaginary tranflic- 
tions in which he is employed. In thofe inftances, in¬ 
deed, in which perfons afleep are laid to hear founds ; 
the founds'which they hear are faid alfo to influence, in 
fome manner, the nature of their dreams. But fuch in- 
flances are Angular. Since then it appears that the per¬ 
fon who dreams is himfelf incapable of diftinguifliing 
either during his dreams, or by recollection when awake, 
whether any new impreflions are communicated to him 
in that Hate by his organs of fenfation ; that even by 
watching over him, and comparing our obfervations of 
his circumftances and emotions, in his dreams, with what 
he recolledls of them after awaking, we cannot, except 
in one or two Angular inftances, afcertain this fa 61 ; and 
that the mind is not incapable of aCting while the organs 
of fenfation are at reft, and on many occafions refufes to 
liften to the information which they convey; we may, 
without hefitation, conclude, that the theory of Wolfius 
and Formey has been too incautioufiy advanced. 
Some medical writers have afferted, that the mind, 
when we dream, is in a ftate of delirium. Sleep, they 
fay, is attended with what is called a collapfe of the brain ; 
during which either the whole ora part of the nerves of 
which it confifts, are in a ftate in which they cannot carry- 
on the ufual intercourfe between the mind and the organs 
of fenfation. When the whole of the brain is in this ftate, 
we become entirely unconlcious of exiftence, and the 
mind finks into inactivity : when only a part of the brain 
is collapftd , as they term it, we are then neither afleep 
nor awake, but in a fort of trance. This theory, like 
the preceding, fuppoles that we know the nature of a 
ftate of which we cannot afcertain the phenomena ; it alfo 
contradicts a known fact, in reprefenting dreams as images 
of things around us, inftead of fanciful combinations of 
things not exifting together in nature or in human life. 
We mud treat it, therefore, as a bafelefs fabric. 
Modern phyfiologifts attribute the caufe of dreams to 
the adion of the nervous fluid ; while other writers con¬ 
ceive it to arife from tire ceafelefs vigilance of thought. 
Under this hypothelis it is contended, that “ thought is 
uniformly connedted with a vaft variety of our motions, 
where it is at the fame time of fo fubtle a nature as 
nearly to elude our confcioufnefs. It feems, for inftance, 
to precede every ftep we take ; flnee we find, that if the 
attention be at any time ftrongly bent upon a fubjeCt that 
is unconnected with the motion of our limbs, this motion 
will involuntarily be interrupted. The fame remark may 
be applied to the a6t of fwallowing our food, and in fome 
inftances to the fundion of refpiration. Now, if by the 
aid of reafoning we are able to deted the prefence of 
thought, where we had leaft fufpeded its exiftence, why 
fnould w-e be unwilling to fuppofe that it can be. equally 
active during our fleep, although it may fometimes be lo 
evanelcent as altogether to efcape our recollection ? It 
may be aftced, how can we account for the very fenfible 
refreflmnent which the mind ufually derives from fleep, 
whilft we allow that it is then as continually occupied as 
in our waking ftate ? The anfw'er is obvious. Sleep, by 
entirely fufpending the exertion of the voluntary muicles, 
promotes the repofe of the body ; and this, from the 
intimate fympathy that exifts between the intellectual 
and the corporeal part of our frame, will be fufficient to 
account, in a conflderable degree, for the refrefiiment of 
the mind. 
“ As an argument againft the exiftence of dreams which 
we are unable to recoiled, it lias often been urged, that 
in fuch cafes the mind has been occupied to no purpofe; 
for thought, it is faid, cannot anfwer any end which is 
immediately forgotten. To this it may readiiy be re, 
plied. 
