Some have accustomed themselves to a short slumber after dinner. This practice may be allowable for a very early riser, or for one who takes much exercise. But a corpulent person should never indulge in it, unless he wish to become so bulky as to be a burden to himself.

Sound sleep, then, depends on a healthy body, on temperance, on regularity, on an active life, on an easy and cheerful mind. Sleep, and the benefits connected with it, are important links in the chain of human existence.

CHAP. VIII.

ON DREAMING.

DREAMING is one of the most interesting subjects with which we are acquainted. A person is then totally unconscious of what he is, or of what he has been. The soul appears to fly away from its material dwelling, and to mingle with scenes which are new and momentous. If the reality has been poverty, the lot of the sleeping person may be cast in affluence and luxury; sickness may be changed for rosy health; the dark clouds of sorrow for a clear heaven and a brilliant sun; the tempest of human fears and passions may be lulled into sweet tranquillity; the wilds and wastes of nature may be changed to fruitful pastures, groves of fragrant trees, shrubs, and flowers, adorned with every variety of colour, to delight the fancy; blissful regions of repose

"Where not a breath is heard to sigh,
So deep the soft tranquillity."

Then there is, perhaps, a transition to lofty hills adorned with stately cedars; to mountains covered with eternal snows; to "cloud-capt towers and gorgeous palaces;" to precipices; to roaring cataracts; to plains of celestial beauty; to the shores of everlasting repose; -among beings unearthly,

who people highest heaven; who throng the pavement of the New Jerusalem; who drink the pure and blissful streams of life, that banish sorrow, pain, and care. Then the soul sinks down, as Satan did, when he left the gates of hell, "ten thousand fathoms deep," to gloomy dells and loathsome caverns; to the foul abode of all hideous things, where snakes entwine themselves around the hapless wanderer, and slimy things crawl over his limbs; and here, among doleful caves, dark and chilly, scared with ghastly sights, startled by strange echoes, roused by screams of woe, or sunk in the arms of deadly terror, he may seem to live a whole eternity! Then, perhaps, he will fancy that the bars of his prison-house are broken; that the mighty caverns are rent asunder; that the rocks are rolled away with the crashing of a thousand thunders, as if the earth were torn from its foundations. Gleams of light may flash upon him from the angry heavens, and black clouds threaten to burst with destruction; but a sudden change may carry him, all at once, from the " war of elements" to the haven of peaceful repose; to some blissful island, whose foundation is of gems, floating in an ocean of light; sweet melody may burst upon his ravished ears; myriads of happy beings may stand before him; then he may open his astonished eyes, and view nothing but his lodging-room!

Sometimes a man awakes, and wishes that his dreams had been blest reality; at other times, he thanks his Maker that they were mere delusion. Sometimes he sinks

"In blissful dreams away,

And visions of eternal day;"

at other times he starts, as if he were falling into destruction.

But the cause of this interesting condition must now become the subject of our enquiry. Some persons have imagined that dreams are produced by supernatural agency; of this number was Baxter. By the same rule, our waking thoughts might be attributed to the same source; except we suppose that spiritual beings are more irregular in their influence than our own mental powers. But dreaming must certainly be attributed to a natural cause. There are four kinds of mental action; and between these there are many variations. The first is, when a person is completely awake; then the senses are full of vigour, and the communication between the external organs and the intellect is uninterrupted. The appearance of external things, and a remembrance of the laws and customs of society, occasion him to act discreetly, and agreeably with the dictates of common sense. The second kind is when he is under thè influence of a reverie; then the senses are usually inactive, although one of them in particular is greatly intensified. The organs of vision, for instance, are sometimes fixed on a particular object, and the mind is so intent on the communications which arise from it, that all other impressions are neglected. The third kind is that of restless slumber; then the nervous fluid is fitted for repose, but the body is influenced by powerful stimuli, and prevented from rest. The fourth is that of

complete sleep; then the nervous fluid is exhausted, and exciting causes are absent. A stimulus, if it be very powerful, will again bring the nerves into action. Sometimes, however, the sleep of a person is so deep, from exhaustion, that he can only be awoke with difficulty. And some persons, being exceedingly susceptible, may be roused by a gentle excitement. The transition, then, from wakefulness to sleep is dependent on the peculiar disposition of the body, and the influences to which it is subject. During a fit of insensibility a person will be, most probably, without thought; at any rate, he seems to have been so, because he can remember nothing; and, except in a trance, the whole period appears to have been lost. But a trance, perhaps, may be nothing more than a deep reverie, commencing with the mind and affecting the body, instead of beginning with the body and influencing the mental powers. In sound sleep we are, generally, either without thought, or engaged in speculations which are afterwards forgotten. But in partial or restless sleep the nervous system is affected by various influences, and this occasions sensation and thought. In this case the dreams are not only long continued, and pleasing or unpleasant, according to the nature of the influence, but they are vividly painted on the tablet of the memory. Solomon says, that " dream cometh through the multitude of business;" and Dryden, that

"Dreams are fed

From rising fumes of indigested food;"

a

but these remarks apply to uneasy dreams. The