Many other circumstances will operate as exciting causes of dreams: such as, the act of turning in bed; change of temperature during the night; medicines, particularly of the narcotic character; mental emo tion; protracted study; intemper ance of every kind; fever of every description: in fact, every point of local and constitutional irritation, in proportion to the intimacy of its communion with the brain. All these causes agree in producing a peculiar excitement and commotion of the brain, though often differing in kind and degree, and therefore giving rise to varying results in the complexion of the consequent images. In approaching sleep, under the influence of some one of these irritants, unreal images appear, fade, and pass away, sometimes with a great indistinctness of recollection; while, upon other occasions, they leave an impression so vivid as to retain the semblance of truth, and so strong that the individual cannot be convinced of its fallacy. This state is elucidated by the condition of the mildly insane; in whom a very slight deviation from the integrity of the brain will produce amazing changes in its functions, in its intellectual power, and in its disposition to produce mon. strous and incoherent images; and these alterations will be increased during sleep. Brainular disease, or the disorder of any and every organ associated with it by nervous sympathy, will produce dreaming; and this morbid state will derive its peculiarities from whatever disturbance may form the first link in the chain of morbid function. The dreams of disease will be varied according to the nature and extent, duration, period, simplicity, or complication of the morbid action which produces them; and also according to the temperament, habits, education, and peculiarities of the dreamer. To such a characteristic extent does this occur, that, although our knowledge is as yet too limited for such a purpose, it is most probable that dreams will become symptoms, in a more advanced state of medical science, and that they will assist us in localizing disease. It is at least certain, that dreams do actually mark the approach, development, intensity, and gradual decline of malady, as well as the return to convalescence. The illusions which occur in dreaming, may frequently be shewn to have been the exaggerated or sophisticated expression of a real sensation; thus again shewing the connexion between dreams and their organic cause. The illusions attendant upon the dreams of insanity are most complete; as also in that form of fever which more particularly attacks the nervous system. In both these cases, the peculiar state of the brain, which occasions this morbid condition of its manifestations, is often suspended during the day, and again renewed at night, so soon as the organ of mind shall have lost the opportunity of verifying its impressions through the medium of the senses. There is a manifest difference between dreams which arise from a primary, or secondary irritation of the brain; and between those which attend a hyper-energetic, or a depressed, state of the organ, modified likewise by the prevailing cast of constitution and character. These states may alternate, not only during one night, but also during one dream; which will serve to account for the greater or less degree of cohesion and rationality, which is often remarkable in the same dream. Dreams will be modified by a variety of physical and moral causes operating upon the brain; particularly by literary labour, by the pursuits of benevolence, by the follies and frivolities of the age, by the provocatives of society, and by various other analogous influences. Now all these causes operate an extent that its influence becomes instinctive, and that its associated actions are performed without the assistance of the will. upon the brain, and modify its actions; and many of them create irritation, produce dreaming, and characterize its images. During sleep, man is unable to oppose the agency of these mental causes upon the brain; because the combination of ideas is then involuntary, and becomes a stimulus to the mental organ to enter into new associations, and to give a greater variety of character to the dreams. Thus, in order to the production of dreaming, brainular action must be dissociated from the will; and then, being subjected to its own agency, or to the impulse it has received from organic causes, these phenomena occur. Dreams are also frequently produced from the recollected impressions of the preceding, or of some antecedent day; for impressions once made upon the brain, may ever afterwards be revived by its own action, spontaneously and without effort; yet here also, brainular action must precede, as well as in the case of accidental association, such as in dreams of hunger, and thirst, &c. Somnambulism is a kind of dream, in which certain intimately associated habits, rendered automatic by reiterated employment during the waking state, are reproduced in sleep, without apparent volition; these actions corresponding with the feelings, emotions, or sentiments, which constitute the mental fabric of the dream. This peculiar excitement of the brain may be referred for its cause to the influence of some intellectual stimulus; or to some morbid agency, under the impression of its own diseases; or to the sympathetic disturbance, arising from some other suffering organ. To this may be added the operation of custom, and of having had the organ of mind intensely fixed upon one object. But custom, or habit, is a purely cerebral impression, and is associated in every instance with a peculiar state of the brain, to such Second sight is a faculty which may be referred to a species of somnambulism, in which the mental manifestations confer with themselves, and produce a prospective result. Many instances of second sight, no doubt, depend upon that knowledge of circumstances which, in spite of every precaution, will creep abroad when any great events are about to be accomplished. But this will by no means account wholly for the many circumstances in which the seer claims, that "The sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." This alleged faculty attaches only to advanced life, when the brainular function is already impaired: it is commonly associated with cerebral excitement, and is peculiarly remarkable "when the hour is on him;" and its occurrence is to be found principally among a most superstitious people, where every glen is inhabited by an endless variety of spirits, good or bad. Let these characteristic circumstances be appreciated, and let there be added to their effect the influence exerted upon the seer and his auditors by having been brought up with the full belief in the existence of this faculty; and the silent, unseen, but most deeply influential operation of this firm belief, upon the mental organ and then will it be unhesitatingly classed with other phenomena, which result from similar states of cerebral excitement, when the brain has escaped from the guidance of the will and the judgment, and continues its morbid function without any safeguard or direction from the immortal principle. Animal magnetism, another very analogous condition, is most easily produced upon a brain in an irritable and excited state; more readily in females than in males. The concurrence of the magnetizer and mag netized is necessary to the completion of the process, as well as the full determination of their will towards its accomplishment: and certain actions of the hands appear to be a very important adjuvant to the perfect formation of magnetic somnambulism. During the magnetic orgasm there occurs a highly excited and disturbed action of the brain. Hence the preceding and accompanying phenomena of this state are purely physical, and result from the operation of brain upon brain. Doubtless the production of magnetic phenomena is greatly assisted by the powerful impression upon the mind: but they can never be fully manifested without the intervention of the material organ: and therefore they may safely be referred to a physical, not a spiritual agency. During the continuance of magnetic somnambulism, there occurs (so it is alleged) a power of predicting certain physical future events; an impression very analogous to the function of second sight, or even to presentiment, &c. Thus, the effects produced by a known physical condition, are similar to those for which a spiritual and supernatural agency has been claimed: if it be granted to the one, it cannot be withheld from the other; and if it be denied to one, it must be so to both. And since, in one instance, it has been clearly traced to a physical origin, there is good ground for believing the same origin for the similar condition. In all these, and analogous states, the imagination has a wonderful influence in occasioning that peculiar excitement of the brain which is favourable to the production of such mental manifestations: especially to all the undefined creations of fear; and, above all, to the belief in apparitions. This excited state of the imagination produces a susceptibility to morbid brainular action, and is in itself a frequent cause of dreaming; because it constitutes the precise state of peculiar adaptation to erroneous and spectral impressions. Visions during trances, or prolonged slumbers, where they are ot the offspring of imposture or self-delusion, can only be ascribed to a peculiar morbid action of the brain. These visions will be characterized by the predominance of the essential attributes of the physical temperamant of the individual, according as this may have been simply sanguineous, or melancholic, or choleric, or phlegmatic; or as these simpler states may have been more or less combined in the same character. These facts shew that a morbid condition of the brain will occasion the creation of unreal images; and that their influence upon the manifestations of mind is very extensive and mischievous. In what consists this peculiar morbid condition of the brain, we know not; because we are unacquainted with the mode of its healthy action, and therefore cannot ascertain the deviations from its perfect functions. But the same truth will apply to all the organic functions of the body. This only do we certainly know, that all these functions will be disturbed by any cause which prevents the quiet calm of the organ. And if so, may not the same cause, that is, organic irritation, disturb the function of the brain, in its most complex office; namely, that of manifesting the powers and attainments of the mind? All histories of apparitions, &c. rest on a basis of human testimony, rather than on any process of reasoning: and facts are alleged in support of supernatural visitations; these facts forming the evidence of so many persons of assumed health of body and soundness of mind. But in some instances this supernatural influence, which was fully believed to exist in an earlier state of society, and which then was not wanting in facts for its support, has utterly vanished before the "morning air" of education, science, and religion. If so, doubt is thrown on human testimony; and we are constrained to believe that these histories have been fabricated by the designing, or that their authors have been self-deceived: and if we adopt the latter and more pleasing alter native, what is so likely to have occasioned such delusion, with rightly intentioned individuals, as a peculiar state of brainular irritation, giving rise to spectral appearances? Dreams are sometimes supposed to have been commissioned by Divine Providence, for the discovery of crime; a revelation having been thus made to some individuals of circumstances which have led to the detection of the criminal; and this is made to rest upon the justice of the Almighty, whose vengeance pursues the wicked, and suffereth not a murderer to live. But God is merciful as well as just, and rejoices to extend the day of grace: he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn unto him and live. Moreover, the present life is not the day of judgment or of retribution, but of proffered pardon in Christ Jesus. This is not that approaching period, when the Divine justice will be fully displayed: there is now an inequality in the lot of the righteous and the wicked, which will only be rendered right at the last great day of account; so that it is not inconsistent with the dealings of Providence, that the wicked should escape punishment in the present life. Moreover, it has happened, that the innocent have suffered, instead of the really guilty, in consequence of error arising from a judgment formed upon circumstantial evidence another proof, that errors are permitted here, in order that we may cast our eyes forward, for the full display of God's perfect and impar tial justice. On the contrary supposition, the perfect holiness of Jehovah would be impugned by the present escape of the actual perpetrator of crime, and by the destruction of the inno cent. Besides, this result of discovery is by no means invariable; and if it be neither necessary nor undeviating, we may well question the existence of any special interference of Providence in order to its being obtained, since these would be qualities of such providential agency. Finally, dreaming may be almost always, if not always, accounted for on other principles, less liable to objection, and particularly upon primary or sympathetic irritation of the brain, arising from organic disturbance of some one of the viscera of the body; or from moral causes operating immediately or intermediately upon the mental organ, the brain. This has been exemplified in the narrative of the discovery of the murder of Maria Martin by William Corder. Besides, it is really a greater instance of providential wisdom and care, when events are brought about by the agency of ordinary means concurring to an end, rather than by any special interference with God's established order of nature. (To be concluded in the next Number.) QUERY ON OUR LORD'S BAPTISM. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. Sr. Matthew tells us, that when Jesus came to John to be baptized, "John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" (Matt. iii. 14.) thereby, intimating some acquaintance with the character and dignity of Him who stood before him. we are informed by St. John (chap. i. vers. 31 and 33), that the Baptist knew not our Lord until the rite was performed, when the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the form of a But dove, convinced him that the person in his presence was He who "baptized with the Holy Ghost." Besides this apparent difficulty, the latter passage, literally understood, conveys an idea very improbable, that John, though related to Jesus, had lived for so many years without knowing who he was, notwithstanding the inspiration he had himself received, and the supernatural acquaintance possessed by his own mother on this subject. I have long sought for an explanation of this apparent difficulty, but have never found one; and shall be much obliged if yourself, or one of your correspondents will furnish me with a solution. QUÆRENS. *** As Quærens applies to us, as well as our correspondents, we refer him to the commentators on the passage for several solutions, either of which would be sufficient to rescue the sacred text from the charge of contradiction. We also respectfully recommend several of our younger readers, who have requested a solution of supposed difficulties which have occurred to them in their reading, to adopt the same method, or to apply to some sound biblical scholar, assured that the ingenuity of the present age is not likely to discover any apparent difficulty which has not been discovered and canvassed before; and in most cases sufficient replies are extant. We are, however, always greatly obliged to mature theological students who will afford our readers their thoughts upon such difficulties, aud clear up any obscure passage of holy writ, by the aid of new researches. (p. 275), I perceive an important defect in his argument. He tells us that Bishop Horsley fails in establishing the existence of a double sense of prophecy, that "he has misunderstood the point of debate, or unconsciously shifted his ground in the course of his argument." These expressions applied to such a powerful and close reasoner as Horsley somewhat surprised me; and my curiosity was further excited by the proof adduced. The bishop, your correspondent asserts, brings forward "the conquests of Alexander, and the incursions of the Scythians into the possessions of Shem," as accomplishments of the curse pronounced on Canaan. As the bishop is not in the habit of writing absurdly, I turned to his sermons, confident that his meaning must be mistaken. I was delighted with the four consecutive discourses on this subject, which commence his second volume; and I earnestly recommend them to the attentive perusal of J. B. M. Your correspondent has not only united the accomplishment of the curse on Canaan with the prediction respecting Japhet, but on that confusion has grounded his discomfiture of the bishop's argument. These, he argues, are gradual, not double fulfilments. "The question of a double sense," he totally distinct from this. diction may extend through a long course of years, and point out a succession of events, all tending to one point, all centered in one purpose. But the question is, whether a prophecy fulfilled in one sense looks forward to another accomplishment in a sense entirely new." These are the words of your correspondentthese also are the views of the says, "is A pre ON THE DOUBLE SENSE OF PRO- bishop in the discourses before us; PHECY. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. WITHOUT presuming to give an opinion on the question which your correspondent J. B. M. discusses and to answer this very question in the affirmative, he adduces, not the curse on Canaan, but the blessing on Japhet. Alexander's overthrow of the Persian monarchy, the Roman conquests in the East, the Tartar conquests in Asia, he stiles, |