like it. Cases where the concentrative element, the power of attention, the ability to fasten the mind upon its appropriate object, has suddenly and strikingly failed, although, perhaps, not permanently.

§ 93. Additional illustration of this disordered

Action.

There is rather a striking instance of the failure of the Concentrative or Attentive power, mentioned by Dr. George Combe, which came within his personal knowledge. He relates, that the gentleman who was the subject of it experienced a feeling, as if the power of concentrating his mind were about to leave him. This naturally caused some anxiety; and he accordingly used vigorous efforts to preserve it. "He directed his attention to an object, frequently a spire at the end of a long street, and resolutely maintained it immovably fixed there for a considerable length of time, excluding all other ideas from his mind. The consequence was, that, in his then weak state, a diseased fixity of mind ensued, in which feelings and ideas stood, as it were, bound up and immovable; and, thereafter, a state in which every impression and emotion was floating and fickle like images in water."*

§ 94. Of the course to be taken to restore the

of Attention.

power

It would be desirable, if possible, to suggest some remedies of this state of mind, particularly as it exists in its less marked but more frequent forms.

* Combe's Phrenology, Boston ed., p. 137.

I.—And the first thing to be done is to secure a healthy and vigorous state of the body, especially of the nervous system. If the bodily system be diseased, especially if there be a weak, tremulous, and uneasy state of the nerves, there will probably be, in connexion with this state of things, an uncertain and dissatisfied state of the mind. Deficient in energy, and yielding to the slightest cause of despondency, it will find itself incapable of directing itself, "with a single eye," to the proper object of its contemplations. Not because there is naturally and necessarily any defect in itself, but because its efforts, even when put forth with no small degree of energy, are borne down by the appendant burden of a weak and inefficient body.

II.-In other cases, the state of mind in question has been brought about by a wrong course of mental training. The individual has never been subjected to anything like severity of discipline; but in study, as in everything else, has pursued his own pleasure, promptly leaving every inquiry which involved a laborious effort, and seeking some object of thought or action that was less repugnant. Such a course is ultimately fatal to that energy of mind which is requisite to a high degree of attention, and can be remedied only by a different course. The mind must be restored to energy by a course the opposite of that which has reduced it to its present lassitude, viz., by labour, which always has been, and always will be, the necessary condition of mental as well as of physical ability.

III.-There are cases where the inordinately in

attentive state of mind has been caused, not by any weakness of the physical system, nor by a defect in the process of mental training, but is probably owing to something in the constitution of the mind itself. If there may be a constitutional weakness of the memory or of the reasoning power, may there not also be a constitutional weakness of the power of attention, or of those elements, whatever they may be, which constitute the power of attention? Whenever this is the case, it may be difficult wholly to eradicate the evil; but it may undoubtedly be diminished by a suitable course of mental training. Perhaps the ground of the imbecility of attention may be found in the weakness of the desires, perhaps in the feebleness of the will, or in some other condition of the mind incidental to the exercise of attention. If this be the case, a course should be taken appropriate to such a state of things. Efforts should be made (such as will naturally suggest themselves) to increase the desires; in other words, to excite an interest in the subjects brought before the mind, to impart energy to the action of the will, and to discipline the mind in whatever other respects may be necessary.

CHAPTER X.

ON DREAMING.

§ 95. General statement in regard to Dreams. ONE of the modifications of Disordered Mental Action (not permanent, it is true, but occasional and temporary disordered action) exists in the form of Dreams. We sometimes say of a man, who is under partial mental hallucination, that he is a dreamer; or, that he has no more correctness of perception and understanding than if he were dreaming. Hence it is obviously proper to give some attention to these states of mind. Furthermore, as dreams are found, for the most part, to be particularly and very closely connected with external perceptions and conceptions, there seems to be a propriety in considering them in this place, viz., under the general head of the External Intellect.

In undertaking to give the reader some account of dreams, it will not be necessary, in the first instance, to be particular in our statements. It will, perhaps, approach sufficiently near to a correct general description to say, that they are our mental states and operations while we are asleep. But the particular views, which are to be taken in the examination of this subject, will not fail to throw light on this general statement.-We proceed, therefore,

P

to give some explanation of them in their more common or ordinary appearance. And, in doing this, shall find it convenient (as we have already done in some cases, in giving an account of the regular or normal mental processes) to repeat essentially the statements which are to be found in the recently published Elements of Mental Philosophy; a work, where we have made it an especial object, although probably with very imperfect success, to give what we consider the correct view of the mind's regular and ordinary action.

§ 96. Connexion 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.-Accordingly, Franklin bas somewhere 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 relates, 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 afterward