Night-Mare, threw myself out of my cot, and it nearly cost me my life. Had any person been near to have taken hold of my hand, and have called to me, I should have been easily recovered, whilst, notwithstanding my struggles, and the violence with which I fell out of my cot, I lay nevertheless for some time partly upon a chest, and partly upon the cot, without being able to recover myself. I cannot help thinking that, but for the violent motion of the ship (as it was blowing a gale of wind), and the noise from every thing about me, that paroxysm of Night-Mare would have proved fatal. The disease had then gained very much upon me, and was at its greatest height. Although instances of a fatal termination of this disease may be rare; it is not so, to find it degenerate into Epilepsy, of which it is frequently the forerunner, and to which, when it has become habitual, it appears to bear a great affinity. There is however a great difference in the degree of danger, between an accidental and an habitual Night-Mare, which we shall have occasion to notice hereafter. I shall begin by describing this affection as it most commonly occurs, pointing out the various degrees and varieties of it, and the persons most subject to it. Its remote and proximate causes will be the next subject of consideration, and lastly the means necessary to be pursued for avoiding it, as well as those likely to afford immediate relief. This affection has been very elegantly and correctly described both by physicians and poets. There are two descriptions of the latter kind which I cannot help placing before the reader; the first is given by the Prince of Latin Poets; the other by one, (not the least,) of our own country. _Ac veluti in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies, nequidquam avidos extendere cursus Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus ægri Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notæ Sufficiunt vires, nec vox aut verba sequuntur._ VIRGIL. _Æneid. Lib. xii. v. 909. et sequent._ In broken dreams the image rose Of varied perils, pains, and woes; His steed now flounders in the brake, Now sinks his barge upon the lake; Now leader of a broken host, His standard falls, his honour’s lost. Then--from my couch may heavenly might Chase that worst phantom of the night! LADY OF THE LAKE, Canto 1. xxiii. In tracing out the symptoms and mode of attack, I shall particularize those symptoms which I have experienced in my own person, and take notice likewise of those described by other writers on the subject.