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&c. be in general found favourable to the 
approach of fleep, there are cireumfances 
in which it is obvioufly ctherwife. - 
when we happen to be fubje& to any in- 
ternal caufes of viclent irritation, the mind 
may, in a great meafure, be diverted from 
therm by unali from without.’ A child, for: 
inflance, who, trom the fuperfitious tales 
of its nurfe, has unfortunately imbibed a. 
dread of fupernatural beings, will often 
be unable to fleep when furrounded by 
total darknefs and filence. But, befides 
fuch. cafes of infantile imbecility, I have 
in feveral, infiances remarked, that perfons 
endowed with. an imagination mere than 
commonly active, efpecially when it has 
been excited by fome very interefting idea, 
have found it lefs difficult to compofe 
themie!ves to fleep amidft the blaze of 
noon, and the no:fes of a crowded and bufy 
ftreet, than at a time when midnight had 
removed from them almoft every thing 
which could in any way act apn their ex- 
ternal fenfes. 
In addition to thofe which I have al- 
ready urged, I hall now only take the li- 
berty of fuggeiting one more argument 
againft the fiippoied 1 interruption of thought 
during fleep. 
No one will be difpofed to deny, that 
thought is, in the firifteit fenfe of the ex- 
preflion, independent of the will 3 fince it 
is obvious, that at no time can we choofe 
whether we will think or not. But refpi- 
ration, the pace of the blood, and 
every other action of the fyfem which is 
independent of the will, continues during 
fleep. Shall we then, contrary to andlo- 
gy, prefume, that thought alone, of all the 
involuntary functions, 18 fufpended during 
that fiate ? 
Thofe who may not be willing to allow 
the full force of the arguments which we 
have flated, with an istention dire€tly to 
prove that the mind is never perfectly de- 
ftitute of fenfibility, mufi at leaft, I fiould 
imagine,have been convinced that the oppr 
ite fide of this queftion, upon which the bur- 
den of procf feemsto reft, is far from being 
fepported by any fufficient evidence. Tha 
we never ceafe to think, is an opinion shit 
we are juftified in maintaining, until fome 
fironger argument be. brought forward 
than has as yet been advanced, to demon- - 
ftrate the negative of the propoGtion. We 
cannot conceive of the foul as confifting in 
any thing but what we call thought ; fhould 
therefore this thought be ever fufpended, 
during that time we muft confider the foul 
itfelf as not exilting; a fact, which, if it 
were admitted, muft of courfe do away 
Enquirer, No. XXIVE 
For 
[Juner * 
altobether any natural evidence for its im-> 
mortality. 
Thote philofophers who have been anx- 
ious to juftify the wildom of Nature, have’ 
often been at a lofs to afcertain any fuffi- 
cient reafon, why man fhould have been 
doomed to wafte fo large a portion of his’ 
exiftehce in a ftate of infenfibility : a dif- 
ficulty that ioimediately vanifhes, after we’ 
have admitted the force of the preceding’ 
arguments. 
Tf; on the contrary, the current of 
thought in fleep be not only uninterrupt- 
ed, but even more rapid than when we are 
soi and it alfo be granted that the 
ife of an individual ought not ftriétly to” 
= meafured by the revolution of the hea- 
venly bodies, or by changes that take place 
in any thing external, but merely by the 
number of ideas that pals through his 
mind; we feem authorifed to conclude, 
Rouse er ftrange the inference may at firft 
fight appear to be, that! fleep, fo far from 
abridging, as it has in general been fup-» 
pofed to do, tends confi fiderably to add to 
the quantity of human éxiftence!. When’ 
too we reflect that the combinations of our 
ideas in dreams are, for the moft part,’ 
different from thofe which we form in our 
waking hours; fleep will appear ufeful in 
another light, as giving an additional va- | 
riety, and a more permanent novelty, to 
our slivee. Amother circumftance which 
enhances fill more the value of fleep, 
is, that in that ftate ‘our conceptions’ 
are often more lively than they are accuf- 
tomed to be during vigilance. The exclu- 
fion, in “a very cankiders te degree, of ex- 
ternal agents, and the fufpenfion, ina 
great meafure, of other faculties, feem to 
give greater {cope to the Rs ehore say of 
fancy. 
In connection with this remark, it may 
“net perhaps ‘be ufelefs to oblered, that 
thofe perfons have a peculiar motive for 
guarding againt an int el 9: indulgence 
in fleep, over whoie minds the imaginatien 
has’ a more: than common alcendency 
during their waking hours. Long conti~ 
nued dreams cannot fail to confirm the 
power of fancy, by protracting the period 
of its empire. e . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.’ 
Sak, 
ee common, no doubt, with many of 
your readers, I have been «much gra-~ 
tified by teveral of the local defcriptions 
that have appeared in your very ufetul 
Milcellany. | _Deiirous of adding to “its 
% ; ee. 
