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Show r s-1. J There are two circumfiances which contribute to this complete deception in our dreams. Firft, beca~fe in fl.eep the ~rg.ans o~ fenfe are c1o {ce u.1 or.· 1'nert , and hence the trams of 1deas afioc1ated m our imaginations are never interrupted or diffevered by the irritations of external objeCl::s, and cannot therefore be contrafied .with Ol~r fen{; 1tions. On this account, though we are affeCted w1th a vanety of pafiions in our dreams, as anger, love, joy, yet we never experience furprize.-For furprize is only produced when any external irritations fuddenly obtrude themfclves, and diifever our paffing trains of ideas .. Secondly, becaufe· in fleep there· is a total. fufpenfion of our voluntary power, both over the mufcles of our bodies, and the ideas of ou; minds; for we neither walk about, nor reafon in complete fleep. Hence, as the trains of our ideas are palling in our imagina .. tions in dreams, we cannot compare them with our previous know.ledgc of things, as we do in our waking hours; for this is a volun,.. tary exertion, and thus we cannot perceive their incongruity. Thus we are deprived in fleep o£ the only two means by which we can difiinguiih the trains of ideas paffing in our imaginations, from thofe excited by our fenfations; and are Jed by their vivacity to believe them to belong to the latter. For the vivacity of thefe trains of ideas, paillng in the imagination, is greatly increafed by the caufes above mentioned; that is, by their not being difturbed or diifevered either by the .appulfes of external bodies, as in furprize ;. or by our voluntary exertions in comparing them with our previous knowledge of things, ru; in reafoning upon them. B. Now to apply . P. When by the art of the Painter or Poet a train of ideas isf ·uggeiled to our imaginations, which interefis us fo much by the pain [ 53 J or p1eafure it affords, that we ceafe to attend to the irritations of common external objects, and ceafe alfo to ufe any voluntary efforts to compare thefe interdl:ing trains of ideas with our previous knawledge of things, a complete reverie is produced: during which time, however fhort, if it be but for a moment, .the objects themfelves appear to exift before us. This, I think, has been called by an ingenious critic, " the ideal prefence" of fuch objects. (Element-s of Critici fm by Lord Kaimes). And in refpect to the compliment intended by Mr. Fielding to Mr. Garrick, it would fecm that an ignorant Rufiic at the play of Hamlet, who has fome previous belief in the appearance of Ghofis, would fooner be liable to fall into a reverie, and continue in it longer, than one · who poffeffed more knowledge of the real nature of things, and had a greater facility of exerci:fing his reafon. B. It muft require great art in the Painter or Poet to produce this kind of deception ? P. The matter muft be interefting from its fublimity, beauty, or novelty; this is the fcientific part; and the art confifts in bringing thefe diftind:ly before the eye, fo as to produce (as above mentioned) the ideal prefence of the object, in which the great Shakefpear particularly ex cells. B. Then it is not of any confequence whether the reprefentations correfpond with nature? P. Not if they fo much intereft the reader or fpectator as to induce the reverie above defcribed. Nature may be feen in the market .. place, or at the card-table; but we expect fomething more than this in the play-houfe or piCture-room. The farther the artifis recedes from nature, -the greater novelty he is likely to 'produce; if he rifcs above nature, he produces the fublime; and beauty is probably a. |