1st Stage of Excitement. In the first stage of excitement, ideas attain the 5th and sensations the 4th degree of vividness; in which case there is a consciousness of the former feelings only, and the ordinary state of dreaming is induced. 2d Stage of Excitement. In the 2d stage, ideas attain the 6th and sensations the 5th degree of vividness. Muscular motions now slightly obey the will, and there is also a consciousness of actual impressions. 3d Stage of Excitement. In the third stage, ideas are found at the 7th and sensations at the 6th degree of vividness. This change is characterized by all the phenomena of somnambulism. I know of no other way in which this last stage of excitement can be illustrated, than by shewing that causes of mental excitement, when inducing somnambulism, may operate before perfect sleep is induced. Thus, in a case which Mr Smellie has recorded in his Philosophy of Natural History, relative to a somnambulist, it is said, that "his ordinary sleep, which is seldom tranquil when about to be seized with a fit of somnambulism, is uncommonly disturbed. While in this state he is affected with involuntary motions; his heart palpitates, his tongue falters, and he alternately rises up and lies down. On one of these occasions the gentleman remarked, that he soon articulated more distinctly, rose suddenly, and acted agreeably to the motives of the dream which then occupied his imagination." Another instance, wherein sleep-walking took place before perfect sleep was induced, may be found in the 9th volume of the Philosophical Transactions of Edinburgh. The somnambulist, to whose case I have alluded in the 2d part of this work, was a servant-girl, affected not only with sleeping, but with waking visions. It is said, that "having fallen asleep, surrounded by some of the inhabitants of the house, she imagined herself to be living with her aunt at Epsom, and going to the races. She then placed herself on one of the kitchenstools, and rode upon it into the room, with much spirit and a clattering noise, but without being wakened." SECTION VI. TRANSITION (marked the 8th in the General Table) From Somnambulism and common Dreams to less complete Sleep. This transition is the exact reverse of the last described. I shall therefore take no farther notice of it than by a reference to the general table which I have given. CHAPTER II. THE ORDER OF PHENOMENA OBSERVABLE IN EXTREME MENTAL EXCITEMENTS, WHEN SENSATIONS AND IDEAS ARE CONJOINTLY RENDERED MORE VIVID. "To the magic region's centre We are verging it appears; Lead us right, that we may enter Strange enchantment's dreamy spheres." THE transition next to be noticed, is from those medium degrees of vividness which characterize our ordinary waking moments, to the intense condition of mental feelings which gives rise to spectral illusions. In the common state of watchfulness, ideas, as I just have pointed out, are supposed to be less vivid than sensations; at the end of this excitement, however, they are rendered more intense. But a readier explanation of these phenomena will be afforded when they are arranged in a tabular form. TRANSITION From the ordinary tranquil State of Watchfulness to a State of extreme mental Excitement. Ideas, from being less vivid than sensations, become more intense. • When sensations and ideas are of the same degree of vividness, there is no mental consciousness of them. After these general remarks, I shall proceed to describe the several stages of excitement which occur during this transition of the feelings of the mind. 1st Stage of Excitement. In the first stage sensations are to be found at the 10th and ideas at the 9th degree of the table, the comparative vividness of the former not increasing so much as that of the latter. This comparative degree of intensity finds an illustration in our ordinary mental emotions. The vividness of ideas approaches too near that of sensations, so that the proper distinction which ought to subsist between them is less easily discerned; and hence the reason why mental emotions do not allow of the decisions of cool judgment. The effect, likewise, of a vivifying influence, which acts in a particular manner upon ideas, is to give them, when compared with sensations, an undue prominence in our thoughts. A farther consequence, therefore, of this action, is,—that relations of comparison, such as subsist among all our varieties of feeling, are suggested in a much greater `number and variety than when the mind is cool and tranquil. New resemblances, differences, forms, or positions, unexpectedly arise, and, in the same unlooked-for manner, connect the recollected images of the mind with the external objects by which we are surrounded. Should no calmer reference then be made for the correctness of such relations to actual circumstances, we enter the wild realms of Phantasy, where sober deliberations, which have truth for their object, are exchanged for the reveries of fanatics, of poets, or of philosophical theorists: "Fledg'd with the feathers of a learned muse, When individuals labour under an evident defici * Old comedy of Lingua. |