from the accounts of others which he might have heard or read. Every one, however, may probably have noticed instances, in which particular scenes appear, or particular events happen, of which a representation may seem before to have taken place in his mind; a circumstance certainly not easy to be explained, but upon the supposition of some presaging power of the mind; but of which the existence and limits are not sufficiently ascertained or defined, to authorize the ascribing of any prophetic intelligence to it, or to imply any design in Providence thereby to direct us, any farther than by such general intimations of the spiritual nature of the mind. The unpleasant sensations occasioned by the incubus, or night-mare, are either accidental or habitual, and they appear to affect both mind and body. The former is often occasioned by the distension of the stomach with wind or crudities; and it is apt to prevail when people lie on their backs, for then the stomach, being dilated, presses the midriff and muscles of the breast most, and by that means encumbers the descent of the one and the expansion of the other, which are necessary to respiration, and thus the blood becomes stagnant in the lungs. The habitual night-mare is supposed to be occasioned by some acid lymph which disorders the spirits, and creates a paralytic or convulsive disposition of the nerves of the midriff and muscles, which press upon those of the windpipe, and produce the sense of strangling: hypochondriacal and scorbutic persons are particularly liable to these complaints. It is doubtful, in some instances, whether dreams originate with the mind spontaneously summoning up its own ideas, or with the body prompting some sensation of solicitude. In the case of the existence of disorders in the body, the fearful or oppressive dreams which indicate a disordered habit, need not necessarily be ascribed to the immediate operation of the body on the mind commencing in sleep, since the mind, sympathetically affected when awake*, may by its own reflections generate gloomy phantoms that scare it when the pains of sensation are suspended. As for dreams which seem to argue a redundancy of health, it is at least disputable, whether they arise from an ardent imagination operating on the mind, or a full constitution of body, suggesting ideas to the imagination. The connexion which subsists between the mind and the body is so intimate, and their reciprocal influence so immediate, that it is difficult to discriminate the boundaries of their respective operations, and the only consideration of consequence, is the necessity of purifying the affections, and of subjecting the body to rules of temperance and self-command. * Per consensum et legem consortii. Levin. Lemn. de Occult. N. Mir. L. i. C. 12. CHAPTER XV. ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE MIND IN THE PRODUCTION OF DREAMS, And inward spirit works, and the pervading soul, IT has sufficiently appeared, it is presumed, in the preceding chapter, that dreams are to be regarded as the work of the mind, however occasionally suggested by attention to the sensations of the body. From the nature and universal prevalency of their impressions, which obtain while the corporeal functions, if not suspended, are bound up in temporary insensibility, so as to intermit the conveyance of ideas, Cicero argues the distinct and immaterial nature of the mind, and they certainly demonstrate, as Virgil has expressed it with emphatical, if not peculiar reference to the human mind, "Its heav'nly spirit and celestial birth, For as the body is then inert, and not alive to ordinary perceptions, or capable of being rendered serviceable without the dispersion of sleep; the continued activity of the mind, during the lethargy, is a just argument of its separate and independent existence; of its capacity of thought in an abstracted state; of its energy, which requires neither intermission nor rest. It may perhaps be urged as an argument against the presumed proof of the spiritual Igneus est equidem vigor et cælestis origo. Æneid. Lib. vi. 1. 730. |