committed to writing. The poem is entitled Kubla Khan, and begins as follows: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree; 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. § 97. 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 sen sations, 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. 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 wellfilled and luxurious tables of Berlin, from which, as they were presented before him, he imagined he was about to relieve his hunger. 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. § 98. Explanation of the incoherency of dreams. 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 revery. 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. 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; but only that their influence in a great degree ceases. 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. § 99. Apparent reality of dreams. (1st cause.) We When objects are presented to us in dreams, we look upon them as real; and events, and combinations and series of events, appear the same. feel the same interest, and resort to the same expedients as in the perplexities and enjoyments of real When persons are introduced as forming a life. 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. Furthermore, it will be recollected, that very vivid conceptions are often attended with a momentary belief in the actuality of the things conceived of, 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 everything 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. § 100. Apparent reality of dreams. (2d 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 effects. A hard or soft body, or any substance of a particular colour, or taste, or smell, is always, when presented to our senses, followed by certain states of mind essentially the same; and we yield the most ready and firm belief in the existence of such objects. In a word, we are disposed, from our very constitution, to believe in the existence of objects of perception, the perceptions of which do not depend on the WILL, but which we find to be followed by certain states of the mind, whether we choose it or not. But it is to be recollected that our dreaming thoughts are, for the most part, mere conceptions; our senses being closed and shut up, and external objects not being presented to them. This is true. But if we conclude in favour of the real existence of objects of perception, because they produce in us sensations independently of our volitions, it is but natural to suppose that we shall believe in the reality of our conceptions also, whenever they are in like manner beyond our voluntary control. They are both merely states of the mind; and if belief always at |