EV. In the transition _to_ and _from_ the repose of sleep, the mind is sinking into oblivion, and thought is fading, and the senses and sensation are overshadowed in their regress to insensibility: even instinct is well nigh a blank. This is the state of _slumber_. Then, I believe, and only then, are we ever wandering in the ideal labyrinth of DREAMS. There is a curious calculation of Cabanis, that certain organs or senses of the body fall asleep at regular progressive periods; some, therefore, may be _active_ while others are _passive_, and in this interesting state, I may hint to you, consists the essence of a dream. It seems that in _dreamless_ sleep, the senses fall asleep altogether, as in the case of Plutarch’s friends, Thrasymenes and Cleon, and others who _never dreamed_. ASTR. So there is some truth in the fanciful conceit of Cardanus, that “Sleep is the rest of the spirits,—waking their vehement motion, and dreaming their tremulous motion.” CAST. And philosophy plumes herself on her wonderous intuition for this _discovery_. Let her blush, and kneel before the shrine of poesy. The poets, even of a ruder age than ours, have thought and written before you, Evelyn, and have unfolded these _arcana_. How doth Chaucer usher in his “Dreme?”— “Halfe in dede sclepe, not fully revyved;” and again: “For on this wyse upon a night As ye have herd withouten light, Not all wakyng ne full on slepe, About such hour as lovirs wepe;” and in “La Belle Dame sans Mercy,” there is the same thought: “Halfe in a dreme, not fully well awaked;” and in Sir Walter’s “Antiquary:” “Eh, sirs, sic weary dreams as folk hae between sleeping and waking, before they win to the long sleep and the sound.” So will your philosophy dwindle somewhat in its consequence, Sir Clerke. EV. We are not jealous of these _glimpses_ of a poet, Castaly; they impart a value to their rhymes: we enrol _such_ poets in the rank of philosophers. IDA. Solve me this question, Evelyn: is there any relative difference between the subjects of dreams _before_ and _after_ sleep? EV. It has been thought that there is more reference to reality in the _first_, and more confusion and wandering of imagination in the _second_; but as nature is often _excited_ rather than exhausted at night, there may be equal brightness with the morning dream, occurring after the recreation and refreshment of sleep. CAST. We may concede, then, some wisdom to the Sybarites, who destroyed their morning heralds, the cocks, that they might enjoy their matin dreams undisturbed. And I remember one of Pope’s allusions to the virtues of this _υπαρ_, or morning dream: “What time the morn mysterious visions brings, While purer slumbers spread their golden wings.”