ons. Thus a
person performs a piece of music, without being obliged to reflect, in a
conscious manner, on the signification of the notes, their value, and
the order of the fingers he must observe; nay even without clearly
distinguishing the strings of the harp, or the keys of the harpsichord.
We cannot attribute this to the mechanism of the body, which might
gradually accustom itself to the accurate placing of the fingers. This
could be applied only where we place a piece of music, frequently
practised; but it is totally inapplicable to a new piece, which is
played by the professor with equal facility, though he has never seen it
before. In the latter case there must arise, necessarily, an ideal
representation, or an act of judgment, previous to every motion of the
finger.

These arguments, we trust, are sufficient, to evince the occurrence of
these obscure notions and representations, from which all our dreams
originate. Before, however, we close this subject, we shall relate the
following extraordinary dream of the celebrated Galileo, who at a very
advanced age had lost his sight. In one of his walks over a beautiful
plain, conducted by his pupil Troicelli, the venerable sage related the
following dream to him. "Once," said he, "my eyes permitted me to enjoy
the charms of these fields. But now, since their light is extinguished,
these pleasures are lost to me for ever. Heaven justly inflicts the
punishment which was predicted to me many years ago. When in prison, and
impatiently languishing for liberty, I began to be discontented with the
ways of Providence; Copernicus appeared to me in a dream; his celestial
spirit conducted me over luminous stars, and, in a threatening voice,
reprehended me for having murmured against him, at whose _fiat_ all
these worlds had proceeded from nothing. 'A time shall come (said he)
when thine eyes shall refuse to assist thee in contemplating these
wonders.'"

We shall now proceed to notice the subject of dreams in another point of
view--that is, as being employed as a medium of divination in the cure
of diseases, in which the fancies of the brain appear, in reality, to as
little advantage as they do with reference to any other considerations
in which such pretended omens exist.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] Wolfius, Psychol. Empir. Sect. 123.

[82] Mem. de l'acad. de Berlin, tom. ii. p. 316.

[83] Arist. de insomn. cap 3.

[84] Quae in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident quaequ