74 D R E A M. 
had long occupied the mind of this young lad. The 
23d and 25th were holidays, which lie expected with the 
impatience natural to perfons of his age, for the arrival 
of thole moments when their little daily labours are to 
he ftifpemled. The 23th efpecially was the object of 
his hopes ; there was to be an illumination in the church, 
which had been defcribed to him in a manner that quite 
t'ranfpcrted hirer. The 24th was a day of labour, which 
came very difagreeably between the two happy days. It 
may eafily be conceived, how an imagination fo irritable 
would be ftrtick with thofe pleafing epochs. Accord¬ 
ingly, from the beginning of the month he had been per¬ 
petually turning over the almanac of Vevey. He calcu¬ 
lated the days and the hours that were to elapfe before 
the arrival of his wilhed-for holidays; lie fhewed to his 
friends and acquaintance the dates of thofe days which 
he expected with fo much impatience ; every time lie took 
up the almanac, it was only to con fait the month of De¬ 
cember., We now fee why that date prefented itfelf to 
his rnind. Me was performing a talk, becaufe he imagined 
the day to be the Monday which had fo long engrafted 
him. It is not furpriling, that it lliould have occurred to 
his imagination, and that on opening the almanac in the 
dark, he might have thought he faw this date which he 
was feeking, and that his imagination might have repre¬ 
sented it to him in as lively a manner as if he had actually 
feen it. Neither is it furpriling that he fliould have 
opened the almanac at the month of December ; the enf- 
tem of perilling this month mult have made him find it 
in-the dark by a mere mechanical operation. Man never 
feems to be a machine fo much as in the Hate of fomnam- 
bulifm; it is then, that habit comes to fupply thofe o.f 
the fenfes that cannot be fe.rviceable, and that it makes 
the perfon act with as much precifion as if all his fenfes 
were in the utmo’ft activity. Tliele circumltances deftroy 
the idea of there being any thing miraculous in the be¬ 
haviour of' young Devaud with refpeft to the date and 
the month that he was-in quell of; and the reader, who 
lias entered into our explanations, will not be furprifed 
at his knowing the German almanac ; the touch alone 
was fufiicient to poih't it out to him; and the proof of 
this is the fliortnefs of the time that it remained in his 
hands. 
“An experiment was made by changing the place of 
the inkftand, during the time this youth, in his deep, was 
writing. He had a light belide him, and had certified 
himfeif of the place where his ink-holder was Handing 
by means of fight. From that time he continued to take 
ink. with precifion, without being obliged to open his 
eyes again : but the inkftand being removed, he returned 
as ufual to the place where he thought it was. It mull 
be obferved, that the motion of his hand was rapid till 
it reached the height of the ftandilh, and then he moved 
it flowly, till the.pen gently touched the table as lie was 
feeking for the ink : he then perceived that a trick had 
been put on him, and complained of it; lie went in fearch 
of his inkftand, and put it in'its place. This experiment 
was feveral times repeated, and always attended with the 
fame circumftances. Does not what we have here ftated 
prove, that the ftandilh, the paper, the table, &c. are 
painted on his imagination in as lively a manner as if he 
realty faw them, as he fought the real ftandilh in the place 
-where his imagination told him it ought to have been ? 
Does it not prove that the fame lively imagination is tire 
caufe of the mod lingular actions of this deep-walker ? 
A.nd iaftly, does it not prove, that a mere glance of his 
eye is fufflcient to make his impreilions as lively as durable ? 
“The committee, upon the whole, recommend to fuch 
as wifh to repeat fimilar experiments, 1. To make their 
obfervations.on different (leep-walkers. 2. To examine 
often whether they can read books that are unknown to 
them in perfect darknefs. 3. To obferve whether they 
can tell the hours on a watch in the dark. 4. To remove, 
when they write, the inkftand from its place, to fee whe¬ 
ther they will' return to the lame place in order to take ink. 
2 
5. To take notice whether they walk with the fame con¬ 
fidence in a dark and unknown place, as in one with which 
they are acquainted. They likewife recommend to fuch 
who would confirm or invalidate the above obfervations, 
to make all their, experiments in the dark; becaufe it 
has been hitherto fuppofed that the eyes of fleep-walkcrs 
are of no life to them.” 
Mr. Ipelfliam, in his “ Philofophy of the Mind,” piib- 
liftied in 1801, explains the phenomena of dreams as fol¬ 
lows: “ Dreams are the imaginations or reveries of a 
lleeping man ; deducible, firft, from impreilions lately re¬ 
ceived ; fecondly, from the date of the body, find parti¬ 
cularly of the ftomach and brain ; and, thirdly, from alfo- 
ciation. This is evident from the frequent recurrence of 
impreilions of the preceding day, from the dreams of lick 
perlons, and from experience. Therefore, concerning 
dreams it maybe obferved: 1. That the feenes which 
prefent themfelves are miftaken for real. This is owing, 
firft, to the exclufion of real impreilions with which they 
may be compared ; fecondly, to the increafed vividnefs 
in the trains of vifible ideas, to whatever caufe that phe¬ 
nomenon may be owing. 2. Dreams are wild and incon- 
fiftent: for the brain is in a very different date from that 
of vigilance; and vibrations of the ftomach, pleafant or 
otherwife, being propagated to the brain, produce fuc- 
ceflions of ideas, dependent indeed upon alfociation, but 
very different from thofe which would take place in a 
date of vigilance. 3. We take no notice of, and are not 
offended at, thefe inconfiftencies ; for thofe aftbeiations 
which lliould lead us to take notice of them, are as it were 
afieep; and bodily caufes hurry us into new trains fuc- 
cellively. But if the ftate of the brain be fuch as to fa¬ 
vour ideas of anxiety and perplexity, the apparent incon- 
liftencies give great uneafinefs. 4. Perfons often appear 
to be transferred to different places by a kind of failing or 
flying motion. This is owing to the change of magnitude 
and polition of vifible images, fuch as would be effected 
by a change of diftance. But if there are no ideas cor- 
refponding with the impreilions of walking, we appear to 
ourfelves to fly, or ride. When perfons walk and talk in 
their deep, the vibrations defeend into the motory muf- 
cles; at the fame time the brain is opprelfed, and they 
have no memory. Similar to this is the cafe of a perfon 
reading inattentively, and forgetting every thing imme¬ 
diately. 3. Dreams confift chiefly of vifible imagery; for 
vivid impreilions are made perpetually upon the optic 
nerve during vigilance. Vifible feenes are made up of the 
fragments of the vifible images lately impreffed. Thefe 
feenes are fometimes repeated again and again, and by 
repetition coalefce. 6. Many of the things prefented in 
dreams appear to be remembered by us and familiar to 
us, becaufe of the readinefs with which they fucceed each 
other in the fancy. 7. Dreams are foon forgotten, be¬ 
caufe of tlieir incoherence, and of the change which takes 
place in the brain in pa fling from deep to vigilance. 8. 
Dreams prefented in the firft part of the night, are more 
confufed and irregular than morning dreams; for in the 
firft cafe vve approach to deep, in the latter to vigilance. 
9. Many prophecies were communicated in dreams and 
trances, and the deferiptions of them Tear a ftriking 
refemblance to the phenomena of dreams, which Dr. 
Hartley regards as a confiderable internal proof of their 
genuiriehefs and credibility. 10. Dreams are ufeftii by 
interrupting and breaking accidental aftbeiations, which 
might by continuance be fo clofely cemented that nothing 
could disjoin them; which would be madnefs, n. A 
perfon may form a judgatent of his health and tem¬ 
perance by the pleafantnefs or unpleafantnefs of his 
dreams, and likewife learn fome ufeful hints relating to 
the ftrength of the paflions.” Tiffs' theory, however, 
l’eems infufficient to explain the many very extraordinary 
cafes of fomnambulifm related by different writers. 
Profeffor Dugald Stewart fuppofes, that during deep, 
the influence of the will is fufpended, and that the phe¬ 
nomena of dreams are produced by the fucceffion of our 
thoughts 
