N° 73.

T

TUESDAY, January 18. 1780:

HE effay contained in this and the following number, was fome time ago received from a gentleman of distinguished: name in the literary world.

IN the courfe of his various inquiries into

human nature, your illuftrious kinfman the SPECTATOR did not overlook DREAMING; on which he has given us many ingenious and useful obfervations. Having all my fife been a great dreamer of dreams, I alfo have made fome remarks upon that myfterious phenomenon, which, I flatter myself, may be acceptable to the Author of the MIRROR, as I believe fome of them are new, and not unworthy of notice.

I fhall not take up much of your time with the opinions of the ancients, in regard to the immediate cause of dreaming. Ee 3.

Epicurus fan

cied,

cied, that an infinite multitude of fubtle images, fome flowing from bodies, fome formed of their own accord, and others made up of different things, varioufly combined, were continually moving up and down in the air about us; and that thefe images, being of extreme fineness, penetrate our bodies; and, ftriking upon the mind, give rise to that mode of perception which we call imagination, and to which he refers the origin, both of our waking thoughts and of our dreams. Ariftotle feems to think, that every object of outward fenfe makes upon the human foul, or upon fome other part of our frame, a certain impreffion, which remains for fome time after the object that made it is gone, and which being afterwards recognised by the mind in fleep, gives rife to thofe vifions that then present themfelves. Thefe opinions, if one were to examine them, would be found either to amount to nothing that can be understood, or to afcribe to human thought a fort of material nature, which is perfectly inconceivable.

Neither fhall I trouble you with enumerating five different fpecies of dreams acknowledged by fome of the ancients, and particularly defcribed by Macrobius. Dreams are, indeed,

indeed, of different forts and characters; but I see no reason why they may not be divided into five hundred claffes, as well as into five. My own remarks I fhall fet down without method, and in the order in which they occur to

me.

Though fome of our dreams are exceedingly wild and extravagant, others are more regular, and more like real life. When the mind is at eafe, and the body in health, we are apt to dream of our ordinary bufinefs. The paflions, too, which occupy the mind when awake, and the objects and caufes of thofe paffions, are apt to recur in fleep, tho', for the most part, under fome difguife; accompanied with painful circumstances when we are in trouble, and with more pleasing ideas when we are happy. To this the poets attend; and, in describing the dreams of their heroes and heroines, are careful to give them a refemblance to their real fortune. Dido, when forfaken by Eneas, dreams that the is going a long journey alone, and seeking her Tyrians in a defert land;

-longam incomitata videtur Ire viam, Tyriofque deferta quærere terra.

Thus

Thus uniting, as it were, in one image, the two paffions that ingroffed her through the day, love to her people, and a fenfe of her forlorn condition. Eloifa, feparated for ever from her friend, dreams of being again happy in his company; but the next moment, fays. fhe,

Methinks we wandering go

Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's

woe,

Where round fome mouldering tower pale ivy

creeps,

And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps:

Sudden you mount, you beckon from the fkies; Clouds interpofe, waves roar, and winds arise.

On thefe occafions, the poet will not defcribe a dream exactly like the real circumstances of the dreamer; he makes it only a fort of dark allegorical fimilitude: And this we approve of, because we know that it is according to nature. For a reafon to be given in the fequel, it will appear to be mercifully ordered by Providence, that our dreams fhould thus differ from our waking thoughts: And, from what we know of the influence of our paffìons

upon

upon the general tenor of our thinking, we need not wonder, that there fhould be, notwithstanding, fome analogy between them. It is this mixture of refemblance and diverfity, that makes fome of our dreams allegorical. But, when that happens, an attentive obferver, who is free from fuperftition, will find, that they allude not to what is future, but to what is prefent or past, unless where we have been anticipating fome future event; in which cafe our dreams may poffibly resemble our conjectures. Now, if our conjectures be right, and if our dreams refemble them, it may hap pen that there fhall be a likeness between a certain dream and a future occurrence: But, in this, there is nothing more fupernatural, than that I should dream to-night of what I have been employed in to-day; for this is nothing more than a particular train of thought, impreffed upon us in fleep, by a certain previous train of thought, into which reafon and experience had led us when awake. For example, When I see a man diffipating his fortune by debauchery, I may, with reafon, apprehend, that disease and poverty will foon overtake him. If this conjecture trouble me in the day-time, it may also recur in fleep, accompanied