and at other times a long-lost emotion will be recalled by an action which we cannot comprehend, but which depends upon some law of nature, by which impressions once made upon the brain may ever afterwards be revived by its own agency, spontaneously, and without any kind of effort. Yet here, again, brainular impression must precede.

Lastly; accidental association will characterize the dreams such, for instance, are dreams of hunger and thirst. "It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite."

CHAPTER IX.

The same subject continued. - Somnambulism.-Second sight.—Animal magnetism.-Influence of imagination, and of superstitious credence. Is there any truth in popular superstitions?

IN continuing the history of dreams, and other analogous brainular manifestations, we may not omit some notice of the phenomena of somnambulism.

The common form of somnambulism, must be considered as a kind of dream, happening during profound sleep, in which some actions, intimately associated in the waking state, and rendered easy, and almost automatic, by long continued habit, are reproduced in sleep without apparent volition; and these actions correspond with the ideas, feelings, and emotions, the succession and combination of which, form the intellectual and mental fabric of the dream.

Possibly the alleged faculty of second sight, so far as it is not a mere jugglery of the designing, may be referred to a species of somnambulism, in which the mental manifestations confer with themselves, and produce a prospective result, which has been termed second sight. If this mental manifestation be not referred to a cerebral origin, there is no alternative but that of either denying its existence altogether, or investing it with the attributes of prophecy, and admitting it as the result of inspiration;-this inspiration being either a spiritual communication from the most high God, or a suggestion of the evil one. All these alternatives are unsatisfactory. To deny its existence altogether, seems impossible; to place it on a level with Revelation, derogates from the high and holy character of prophecy; and to ascribe it to Satanic agency, is to allow Satan a greater sway over the government of the universe than is consistent with our views of the power, and knowledge, and goodness, of the omnipotent Jehovah.

But if we consider it as an affair of the brain, occurring principally in advanced life, and when that organ is manifestly suffering under excited action; and, what is very important to be remembered, both the seer and his auditors

fully believing from their infancy the occurrence of such manifestations, and prepared implicitly to receive them; we are enabled to class it at once with other phenomena which result from analogous stages of excitement, when the brain has escaped from the influence of the will and the judgment, and continues its morbid function without guidance or direction.

The common examples of cunning men and women, the practice of fortune-telling, and the science of astrology and divination, must be referred to the class of impostures; and, as such, are scarcely entitled to consideration among the legitimate offspring of superstition. And yet their influence upon many minds is extensive, and even frightful: and the best antidote. is to be found in the principle of quiet confidence in that superintending Providence, without whose knowledge not even a sparrow falls to the ground, by whom even the hairs of our head are all numbered, and in whose hands are the hearts of all men. True, there is much evil in the world, much apparent wrong, much injustice, oppression, and misery, which, to short-sighted mortality, appear inconsistent with this universal prevalence of goodness and justice. But shall man be more just than his Maker? God is not the author of any evil :

man is a free agent, and, as such, in following the dictates of his corrupt nature, is often permitted (not employed) to bring about the wise and good designs of the Almighty; but these attributes of wisdom and goodness are not determined, by what isolated and purblind mortality can see, but by that omniscient eye which takes in creation at a glance, and embraces eternity in the view of an instant.

To return: There are on record some extraordinary relations of the endless wonders of somnambulism: during which state have occurred certain mental actions, which it is difficult to disbelieve, and not easy to account for, unless by referring them to a peculiar excitement of the brain, under the influence of some powerful intellectual stimulus; or to a morbid agency, under the impression of its own diseases; or to the sympathetic disturbance of some other suffering organ.

There are many different degrees of somnambulism: as, for instance, the case of those who simply talk in their sleep; of those who move and walk, but do not talk; of those who both walk and talk; and of those who speak, move, and likewise experience some sensations, and even recollected impressions, of various kinds; who are also sensible to alternations of