LESSON XXI.
Of Sleep and Dreams.
1. IT appears farther, that, since the Nerves must needs be distant from that part of the brain wherein Sen∣sation is produc'd; it may fall out, that,
Peripateticall institutions. In the way of that eminent person and excellent philosopher Sr. Kenelm Digby. The theoricall part. Also a theologicall appendix of the beginning of the world. / By Thomas White Gent.
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- Title
- Peripateticall institutions. In the way of that eminent person and excellent philosopher Sr. Kenelm Digby. The theoricall part. Also a theologicall appendix of the beginning of the world. / By Thomas White Gent.
- Author
- White, Thomas, 1593-1676.
- Publication
- London, :: Printed by R.D. and are to be sold by John Williams at the sign of the Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard.,
- M.DC.LVI. [1656]
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- Subject terms
- Digby, Kenelm, -- Sir, 1603-1665.
- Philosophy -- Early works to 1800.
- Physics -- Early works to 1800.
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A96369.0001.001
- Cite this Item
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"Peripateticall institutions. In the way of that eminent person and excellent philosopher Sr. Kenelm Digby. The theoricall part. Also a theologicall appendix of the beginning of the world. / By Thomas White Gent." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A96369.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 11, 2024.
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Page 107
the motion by the Nerves being obstru∣cted, there may yet a Motion proceed, from some part of the brain to the know∣ing part: and then, some things will ap∣pear to the Animal to be, as if it had re∣ceiv'd them by its Senses, when yet it did not receive them.
2. This stopping of the Senses is called Sleep; and such apparitions, Dreams: An Animal, therefore, will sleep and dream sometimes.
3. But, because there's no necessity, that all the Senses or Nerves must be stop'd at once; 'twill happen, that an Animal may partly sleep and partly wake: Whence, it comes to passe that, the Nerves of the Tongue being left unstop'd, some talk in their Dreams; and, if the Nerves for hea∣ring, too, be unstop'd, that they answer to those that speak to them; or, if there be no obstruction towards the Marrow in the Back-bone, they walk, too, and use their hands.
4. When, therefore, some of the Sen∣ses are at liberty, Dreams may be pro∣vok'd by them: another way, by some na∣turall disposition, which affects the heart, and makes a motion in the brain confor∣mable to that impression: or, lastly, by
Page 108
much precedent thinking, objects may be stirr'd up and down, too, in ones Sleep.
5. But, a Man being in a manner quiet in his Sleep, he happens sometimes to judge more truly of things he sees, in his sleep, then when awake: For the Soul un∣disturb'd, of its own nature, more clearly perceiv's the force of the Objects playing up and down before it, to discover Truth; and unperceiv'dly orders them: Hence, it comes to passe, that, sometimes, we dis∣cern, in our Sleep, future or absent things, which we could not find out nor pierce in∣to, by consideration, or discourse, when we were awake.
6. And, the same may be the case of Fools, Mad and Melancholy persons; though 'tis very rare and to be esteem'd prodigi∣ous, and they have a great many falsities mixt withall: whence, neither are these ap∣paritions to be confided in; nor is it pos∣sible there should be any Art of Divinati∣on by Dreams.