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gard than as a formula which, in the language of mathematicians, is empirical, or purely experimental. It is, in fact, a result obtained by repeated trials, the effect of which is rather to give an artificial consistency to certain successions of mental phenomena, than to produce the conviction that the formula is in every respect agreeable to truth and to nature.

In reference, then, to the annexed tabular sketch of the various proportional degrees of vividness subsisting among sensations and ideas, no fewer than fifteen of such degrees are supposed to exist; these being represented on an ascending scale by horizontal lines. The lowest of such lines, marked 1, denotes the faintest state of our mental feelings, while the highest in the series, marked 15, represents the most excited condition of them.

The vertical lines by which the horizontal ones are intersected dispose the various degrees of vividness thus represented into eight columnar divisions, each of these including a distinct transition of the feelings of the mind from faintness to intensity, or from intensity to faintness.

These several transitions will be next described, though not in the exact order which is represented in the general table now given.

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CHAPTER I.

THE VARIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS CONNECTED WITH THE SLEEPING AND DREAMING STATES.

"A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
For ever flushing round a summer-sky.'
Castle of Indolence.

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*

In this chapter will be described the particular excitements and depressions connected with the sleeping and dreaming states; a reference being at the same time made to the general tabular view which I have given of the comparative degrees of faintness, vividness, or intensity, subsisting between sensations and ideas, during the various transitions to which they are subject.

SECTION I.

TRANSITION (marked the 1st in the Table)

From perfect Sleep to the common State of Watchfulness.

The first transition to be noticed is from perfect sleep to that cool and collected state which characterizes our common waking moments.

During intervals of deep slumber, sensations are

supposed to be more faint than ideas; none of these mental states are, however, vivid enough to be the subject of consciousness. Sensations are accordingly placed on the annexed scale at the lowest degree, marked 1, while ideas occupy the graduated line marked 3.

It is also assumed, that at each stage of excitement ideas increase less in vividness than sensations.

Keeping the foregoing proportional increase in view, the several stages of excitement which occur during this transition may, in the subjoined table, be readily traced.

TABULAR VIEW.

Sensations, from being more faint than ideas, become more vivid.

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* When sensations and ideas are equally vivid there is no mental consciousness of them.

1st Stage of Excitement.

In the first stage of excitement, represented in the table, ideas are raised to degree 4, while sensations,

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