Locke, however, tells us of an individual, who never dreamed till the twenty sixth year of his age, when he happened to have a fever, and then dreamed for the first time. Plutarch also mentions one Cleon, a friend of his, who lived to an advanced age, and yet had never dreamed once in his life, and remarks, that he had heard the same thing reported of Thrasymedes. Undoubtedly these persons dreamed very seldom, as we find that some dream much more than others; but it is possible, that they may have dreamed at some time and entirely forgotten it. So that it cannot with certainty be inferred from such instances as these, that there are any, who are entirely exempt from dreaming. §. 158. Connection of dreams with our waking thoughts. In giving an explanation of dreams, our attention is first arrested by the circumstance, that they have an intimate relationship with our waking thoughts. The great body of our waking experiences appear in the form of trains of associations; and these trains of associated ideas, in greater or less continuity, and with greater or less variation, continue when we are asleep.Condorcet, (a name famous in the history of France,) told some one, that, while he was engaged in abstruse and profound calculations, he was frequently obliged to leave them in an unfinished state, in order to retire to rest; and that the remaining steps and the conclusion of his calculations have more than once presented themselves in his dreams. Franklin also has made the remark, that the bearings and results of political events, which had caused him much trouble while awake, were not unfrequently unfolded to him in dreaming.-Mr. Coleridge says, that, as he was once reading in the Pilgrimage of Purchas an account of the palace and garden of the Khan Kubla, he fell into a sleep, and in that situation composed an entire poem of not less than two hundred lines; some of which he afterwards committed to writing. The poem is entitled Kubla Khan, and begins as follows. "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan "A stately pleasure-dome decree ; "Through caverns measureless to man It is evident from such statements as these, which are confirmed by the experience of almost every person, that our dreams are fashioned from the materials of the thoughts and feelings which we have while awake; in other words they will, in a great degree, be merely the repetition of our customary and prevailing associations. So well understood is this, that President Edwards, who was no less distinguished as a mental philosopher than as a theologian, thought it a good practice to take particular notice of his dreams, in order to ascertain from them what his predominant inclinations were. §. 159. Dreams are often caused by our sensations. But while we are to look for the materials of our dreams in thoughts which had previously existed, we further find that they are not beyond the influence of those slight bodily sensations, of which we are susceptible even in hours of sleep. These sensations, slight as they are, are the means of introducing one set of associations rather than another.-Dugald Stewart relates an incident, which may be considered an evidence of this, that a person, with whom he was acquainted, had occasion, in consequence of an indisposition, to apply a bottle of hot water to his feet when he went to bed, and the consequence was, that he dreamed he was making a journey to the top of mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground almost insupportable. There was once a gentlemen in the English army, who was so susceptible of audible impressions, while he was asleep, that his companions could make him dream of what they pleased. Once, in particular, they made him go through the whole process of a duel, from the preliminary arrangements to the firing of the pistol, which they put into his hand for that purpose, and which, when it exploded, waked him. A cause of dreams closely allied to the above is the variety of sensations, which we experience from the stomach, viscera, &c.Persons, for instance, who have been for a long time deprived of food, or have received it only in small quantities, hardly enough to preserve life, will be likely to have dreams, in some way or other directly relating to their condition. Baron Trenck relates, that being almost dead with hunger, when confined in his dungeon, his dreams every night presented to him the well filled and luxurious tables of Berlin, from which, as they were presented before him, he imagined he was about to relieve his hunger. "The night had far advanced, (says Irving, speaking of the voyage of Mendez to Hispaniola,) but those, whose turn it was to take repose, were unable to sleep from the intensity of their thirst; or if they slept, it was to be tantalized with dreams of cool fountains and running brooks." The state of health also has considerable influence, not only in producing dreams, but in giving them a particular character. The remark has been made by medical men, that acute diseases, particularly fevers, are often preceded and indicated by disagreeable and oppressive dreams. §. 160. Explanation of the incoherency of dreams. (1st cause.) There is frequently much of wildness, inconsistency, and contradiction in our dreams. The mind passes very rapidly from one object to another; strange and singular incidents occur. If our dreams be truly the repetition of our waking thoughts, it may well be inquired, How this wildness and inconsistency happen? The explanation of this peculiarity resolves itself into two parts. The FIRST ground or cause of it is, that our dreams are not subjected, like our waking thoughts, to the control and regulation of surrounding objects. While we are awake, our trains of thought are kept uniform and coherent by the influence of such objects, which continually remind us of our situation, character, and duties; and which keep in check any tendency to reverie. But in sleep the senses are closed; the soul is accordingly in a great measure excluded from the material world, and is thus deprived of the salutary regulating influence from that source. §. 161. Second cause of the incoherency of dreams. In the second place, when we are asleep, our associated trains of thought are no longer under the control of the WILL. We do not mean to say, that the operations of the will are suspended at such times, and that volitions have no existence. On the contrary, there is sufficient evidence of the continuance of these mental acts, in some degree at least; since volitions must have made a part of the original trains of thought, which are repeated in dreaming; and furthermore, we are often as conscious of exercising or putting forth volitions when dreaming, as of any other mental acts, for instance, imagining, remembering, assenting, or reasoning. When we dream, that we are attacked by an enemy sword in hand, but happen as we suppose in our dreaming experiences, to be furnished in self defence with an instrument of the same kind, we dream, that we will to exert it for our own safety and against our antagonist, and we as truly in this case put forth the mental exercise which we term volition, as, in any other, we exercise remembrance, or imagine, or reason in our sleep. Admitting, however, that the will continues to act in sleep, it is quite evident, that the volitions, which are put forth by it, have ceased to exercise their customary influence in respect to our mental operations. Ordinarily we are able, by means of an act of the will, to fix our attention upon some particular part of any general subject, which has been suggested, or to transfer it to some other part of such subject, and thus to direct and to regulate the whole train of mental action. But the moment we are soundly asleep, this influence ceases, and hence, in connection with the other cause already mentioned, arise the wildness, incoherency, and contradictions, which exist. A person while he is awake has his thoughts under such government, and is able, by the direct and indirect influence of volitions, so to regulate them, as generally to bring them in the end to some conclusion, which he foresees and wishes to arrive at. But in dreaming, as all directing and governing influence, both internal and external, is at an end, our thoughts and feelings seem to be driven forward, much like a ship at sea without a rudder, wherever it may happen. §. 162. Apparent reality of dreams. (1st cause.) When objects are presented to us in dreams, we look upon them as real; apd events, and combinations and series of events appear the same. We feel the same interest and re sort to the same expedients, as in the perplexities and enjoyments of real life. When persons are introduced, as forming a part in the transactions of our dreams, we see them clearly in their living attitudes and stature; we converse with them, and hear them speak, and behold them move, as if actually present. One reason of this greater vividness of our dreaming conceptions and of our firm belief in their reality seems to be this. The subjects, upon which our thoughts are then employed, occupy the mind exclusively. We can form a clearer conception of an object with our eyes shut, than we can with them open, as any one will be convinced on making the experiment; and the liveliness of the conception will increase in proportion, as we can suspend the exercise of the other senses. In sound sleep, not only the sight, but the other senses also may be said to be closed; and the attention is not continually diverted by the multitude of objects, which arrest the hearing and touch, when we are awake.—It is, therefore, a most natural supposition, that our conceptions must at such times be extremely vivid and distinct. At §. 118, we particularly remarked upon conceptions or those ideas which we have of absent objects of perception, which possess this vividness of character. And it there appeared, that they might be attended with a momentary belief even when we are awake. But as conceptions exist in the mind when we are asleep in a much higher degree distinct and vivid, what was in the former case a momentary, becomes in the latter a permanent belief. Hence every thing has the appearance of reality; and the mere thoughts of the mind are virtually transformed into persons, and varieties of situation, and events, which are regarded by us in precisely the same light as the persons, and situations, and events of our every day's experience. §. 163. Apparent reality of dreams. (2nd cause.) A second circumstance, which goes to account for the fact that our dreaming conceptions have the appearance of reality is, that they are not susceptible of being controlled, either directly or indirectly, by mere volition.—We are so formed as almost invariably to associate reality with whatever objects of perception continue to produce in us the same |