.

Shakspeare again:--

I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain phantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconsistant than the wind.

Nor must Milton be omitted--

In the soul
Are many lesser faculties, that serve
Reason as chief; among these Fancy next
Her office holds; of all external things,
Which the five watchful senses represent,
She forms imaginations, airy shapes,
Which reason joining, or disjoining, frames,
And all that we affirm, or what deny, or call
Our knowledge or opinion; then retires
Into her private cell, when nature rests.
Oft in her absence mimic fancy wakes,
To imitate her; but misjoining shapes,
Wild works produces oft, but most in dreams
Ill matching words or deeds, long past or tale.

PRINCIPAL PHENOMENA IN DREAMING.

From these practical descriptions let us proceed to take a view of the
principal phenomena in dreaming. And first, Mr. Locke's beautiful _modes
of_ which will greatly illustrate the preceding observations.

"When the mind," says Locke, "turns its view inward upon itself, and
contemplates its own actions, _thinking_ is the first that occurs. In it
the mind observes a great variety of modifications, and from thence
receives distinct _ideas_. Thus the perception, which actually
accompanies, and is annexed to any impression on the body, made by an
external object, being distinct from all other modifications of
thinking, furnishes the mind with a distinct idea which we call
_sensation_; which is, as it were, the actual entrance of an idea into
the understanding by the senses.

"The same idea, when it occurs again without the operation of the like
object on the external sensory, is _remembrance_: if it be sought after
by the mind, and with pain and endeavour found, and brought again in
view, it is _recollection_: if it be held there long under
consideration, it is _contemplation_; when ideas float in our mind
without any reflexion or regard of the understanding, it is that which
the French call _reverie_;[87] our language has scarce a name for it.
When the ideas that offer themselves (for as I have observed in another
place, while we are awake, there will always be a train of ideas
succeeding one another in our minds) are taken notice of, and, as it
were, registered in the memory, it is _attention_; when the mind, with
gr