dinate corroborative arguments should not be unnoticed or foregone. If these observations, more lengthened than was at first intended, should appear point: :”* and he adds, "persons who are not satisfied with these reasons," (which he had stated,) "but persist in the belief that space is not infinitely divisible, must never pretend to master geometrical demonstrations.-It is possible to be a very able man and a bad geometrician." + Again, "a geometrician can no more exist without this principle, than a man without a soul. We perfectly comprehend it to be false, that in dividing a given space we can ever arrive at an indivisible, that is to say, an unextended point." ‡ Now, according to the before-named hypothesis,—that rational "atom" which constituted the soul or mind of this renowned French geometrician, was doubtless a thing or "individual" of parts; nay, of infinite parts. If it be denied that these parts could-even by Divine power-be actually severed, it still cannot be denied, I presume, that they existed together; and that they were mentally separable. What wonder, then, if this "atom or "corpuscle," which was the very soul of Pascal, and whose thoughts, in their sublime littleness, "wandered through eternity," was able to demonstrate, as it did, that every "extended" atom must have "parts to infinity," inasmuch as it had in itself a countless host of witnesses to this fact, firmly united, always consistent, never incoherent! We say not that any one of these undivided * Pascal's Thoughts, Ed. Glasg. 1838, p. 353. + Ibid. p. 364. Ibid. p. 356. too digressive from my immediate subject, they yet cannot be deemed irrelevant to that chief and ultimate design which the title-page announces. parts of the rational atom was, by itself, rational,—but that, by the supposition, they all, being together and inseparable, formed or made up or evolved, a rationality or soul, which, however small, was yet mighty, alike in mathematics, theology, and satire. CONTENTS. DUGALD STEWART's views of Dreaming, pp. 3-6. Scope of these Essays, 6, 7. Views of Materialists-Epicurus, 7, Lucretius, Hobbes, 8. Locke on Unconsciousness, 8. Watts's and A. Baxter's answers, 9, 10. Richard Baxter, 10. Dr. Abercrombie on unremembered Dreams, 10, 11. Dr. A. Clarke, ibid. 11, 12. Catalepsy, &c. Dr. Mason Good, 13. Rapidity of thought in dreams, p. 16. Lord Brougham on this, 16-18. Dr. Abercrombie-Atlantic-Skeleton, 18, 19. Lavater, 19. Archbishop Whately, 20. Stewart's remarks on instantaneous thought questioned, 20, 21. Time requisite for waking thought, 23. Body a hindrance-Socrates-Philo- St. Paul, 23. Some disconnexion from grosser organs in dreams probable-Addison-Lord Brougham, 23-25. Associa- XX CONTENTS. SECTION III. INVENTIVENESS AND POWER. Sir Thomas Browne's experience, pp. 28, 29. Coleridge's Kubla Khan, 30-32. Cædmon, 32. Addison, 33. Objection that these productions are imaginative, 33. Problems in sleep, 34. Dr. Gregory-Condorcet, 34. Franklin-Scottish lawyer, 35. Richard Baxter-Cardan-La Mothe le Vayer, 36. Tartini, 37. Varieties of dreaming thought, 38. Bishop Newton's inference, 39, 40. SECTION IV. ETHEREAL VEHICLE. Manner of separate spirit's acting, p. 41. Mysteries of spirit and of body, 41. Opinions on the "vehicle," of NewtonAugustin-Broughton-Plato-Galen--Hierocles--The Rabbis, 42, 43. Irenæus-Origen, 44. Scriptural reasons-"The tabernacle."-Hartley-Paley, 44, 45. Illustrated by microscopic research, 46, 47. Broughton on ideas, 48. Author's experience, 49. Mrs. Sigourney, 50. Medicinal dreams, 51. Vivid dreams during languor-Inference from these, 51, 52. SECTION V. SLEEP OF THE SOUL. A dreaming sleep, p. 53. Dr. Watts and Dr. T. Burnet on this, 54, 55. Euler, Hartley and Bonnet on a dreaming state of the soul after death, 55, 56. Inscriptions in catacombs, 57. Objection, "dreaming not real life," 57—is real in some sense, 58. Bonnet, on the chrysalis-Inward activity, 58. Waking thoughts often dream-like, 59. SECTION VI. THE VEHICLE" (RESUMED). Opinion of Leibnitz-uses of this opinion, pp. 60, 61. Archbishop Whately on eternity, 62. Eternal life potential, 63. Centuries of the deceased saints have been a gain, 64. The ideal period of their millennia, 65, 66. Simultaneous ideasM'Culloch, 66, 67. Objection, "that these are hypotheses, and useless," 67. Study of mind vindicated-Physics and metaphysics compared, 67-69. Dream of Zimmermann, 6972. Its character, &c. 72, 73. |