Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/700

objects alter and fade away. Sight plays a free part in dreams, unattended by any pathological sensations. Again, the sleeper is unaware that his eyes are not wide open; hence the impossibility of dreaming that one sleeps or dreams. Hearing plays in the life of sensation a part nearly equal to that taken by sight. The hallucinations, also, of the two senses are similar; but here, too, sights predominate over sounds. In the waking state the two senses cannot each receive perfect attention at the same time. Of two distinct and simultaneous sensations, the stronger eclipses the weaker. This is especially true in dreams: eye and ear are in most cases not simultaneously entertained. The sounds of dreams are of every describable variety; the inquiry is simplified by considering only human speech. More coherence is observed in the discourse than in the images of dreams. In dreams where sight predominates, the vision, unless interrupted by external accident, terminates in confusion or effacement. In 'monologue dreams,' the speaker wakes at the supposed sound of his own voice, when in reality he may be known never to talk in his sleep. This rousing is caused by the leaving off of the imaginary sound, as in the analogous cases where one wakes at the cessation of some actual sound, as that of a clock. Taste and smell are closely connected, but can be both exercised and examined separately. Their intensity in dreams is not the same; taste, as the more actively employed sense, and the more generally serviceable of the two, occupies the chief, frequently the only, place. The reason for their subordinate position is that they are the most nearly isolated, and, as a rule, the least trained, of the senses. The impressions furnished by dreams vary according to the education of the senses, and consequently are different for each subject. One would discover by research that dreams have suffered a change also from century to century, just as the illusions of lunacy have done. The general sense of contact or feeling is more frequent in dreams than is the special sense of touch, though somewhat uncommon, owing to the habitual coverings of the body. Imaginary sensations of temperature occur at times; more frequently such feelings are not illusory but real. But as in the waking state, the sensations of contact in general are obscure, confused, and comparatively few. Movement in dreams is very rare compared with what occurs in the waking state. The will becomes passive, — a strong point against the dualistic position. The dreamer seems to perform the impossible; he flies like a bird, and in old age moves with the swiftness or with the firm tread of youth. All this without dreaming of fatigue. Yet there are dreams from which one awakes exhausted and alarmed, nightmares. These result generally from indigestion, impeded circulation, bad ventilation, or the abuse of drugs, interfering with the animal processes. The indications thus furnished can some day be of service to medi-