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Show [ 98 ] The headlong precipice that thwarts her flight, The tracklefs defert, the cold fl:arlefs night, And fiern-eye' d Murderer with his knife b~hind, In dread fucce:ffion agonize her mind. 0' er her fair limbs convulfive tremors fleet, Start in her hands, and firuggle in her feet; In vain to fcreatu with quivering lips fhe tries, And ftrains in palfy' d lids her tremulous eyes; In vain ihe wills to run, By, fwitn, walk, creep; The WILL prdides not in the bower of SLEEP. -On her fair bofom fits the Demon-Ape Erea, and balances his bloated fhape; 75 The Will prejides not. I. 74· Sleep confiils in the abolition of all voluntary power, both over our mufcular motions and our ideas; for we neither walk nor reafon in fleep. But at the fame time, many of our mufcular motions, and many of our ideas continue to be excited into aClion in confequence of internal irritations and of internal fenfations; for the heart and arteries continue to beat, and we experience variety of paffions, and even hunger and thirfl: in our dreams. Hence I conclude, that our nerves of fenfe are not torpid or inert duri~g fleep; but that they are only precluded from the per~eption of external objeCls, by their external organs being rendered unfit to tranfmit to them the appnlfes of external bodies, during the fufpenfion of the power of volition; thll.5 the eyelids are clofed in fleep, and I fuppofe the tympanum of the ear is not ilretched, becaufe they are deprived of the voluntary eKertion~ of the mufclcs appropriated to thefe purpofes; and it is probable fomething llmilar happens to the external apparatus of our other organs of fenfe, which may render them unfit for their office of percep~ tion during fleep : for milk put into the mouths of ilceping babes occafions them to [wallow and fuck; and, if the eye-lid is a little opened in the day-light by the exer- . tions of difl:urbecl !leep, the perf on dreams of being much dazzled. See firfl: Interlude [ 99 ] Rolls in their marble orbs his Gorgon-eyes, And drinks with leathern ears her tender cries. Arm' d with her ivory beak, and talon-hands, Defcending FicA dives into the fands ; 8o Chamber' d in earth with cold oblivion lies; Nor heeds, ye Suitor-train, your atnorous fighs ; Erewhile with renovated beauty blooms, Mounts into air, and moves her leafy plutnes. -Where RAMPs and MANIFOLD, their cliffs among, 85 Each in his flinty. channel winds along ; With lucid lines the dulky moor divides, Hurrying to intermix their iifier tides. When there arifcs in fleep a painful defire to exert the voluntary motion,s, it is called the Nightmare or Incubus. When the fleep becomes fo imperfeB: that fome mufcular motions obey this exertion of dellre, people have walked about, and even performed forne dorneilic offices in fleep ; one of thefe 11eep-walkers I have frequently feen: ')nce fhe fmelt of a tube-rofe, and fung, and drank a di{h of tea in this ilate; her awaking was always attended with prodigious furprize, and e\·en fear; this difeafe had daily periods, and feemed to be of the epileptic kind. Ficus indica. 1. 8o. Indian Fig-tree. Of the clafs Polygamy. This large tree rifes with oppofite braaches on all fides, with long egged leaves; each branch emits a ilender flexile depending appendage from its fummit like a cord, which roots into the earth and rifes again. Sloan. Hilt. of Jamaica. Lin. Spec. Plant. See Capri-ficu:» • O:z. |
