Early and light suppers we advise to those whom Madame Mara so unmercifully overlies. A mattress should be our couch, and we should endeavour to compose ourselves _on one side_, having, previous to our rest, taken _gentle exercise_. SOMNILOQUENCE.—SOMNAMBULISM. “It is a sleepy language; and thou _speak’st_ Out of thy sleep.” TEMPEST. “_Doct._ You see, her eyes are open. _Gent._ Ay, but their _sense_ is shut.” “_Doct._ A great perturbation in nature. To receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effect of watching.” MACBETH. EV. In the common dream, ideas float through the _mind_, but the body is passive. When the power of _expressing_ these ideas by _speech_ is added, it is _somniloquence_. When there is the _conscious_, yet _powerless_, will to move, it is _incubus_. When the _unconscious_ power of _moving_ in accordance with the ideas or wishes of the dream exists, it is _somnambulism_. The common dreams of sleep are not unfolded to us until the waking recollections of the dreamer relate them; but the matter of a dream may be half developed during its existence, by the curious propensity to unconscious talking and walking in the sleep. Sleep-talking is the slightest of these phenomena, and, indeed, closely resembles the speaking _reveries_ of some absent people, and the raving of a maniac. The sleep is, at this time, little deeper than a reverie. The voice of the somniloquist is usually _natural_, but as again, in the cases of mania and of delirious excitement, a common voice may become sweetly melodious, and there will be an imparted fluency allied to the inspiration of the improvisatore. Indeed, in some young ladies, subject to _hysteria_, I have known, at certain periods as it were, a new accomplishment—a style of singing which was far beyond their power in waking moments. Dr. Dewar relates a case of a girl who, when awake, discovered no knowledge of astronomy or the sciences in any way; but when she was _asleep_ she would define the rotations of the seasons, using expressions the most apt to the subject, such as “the globe is now set agee.” It is probable that this was the memory in slumber of some geographical lesson which she had heard, but did not remember while her _senses_ were active, that is, in her waking moments. And an American lady, during a fever, commenced a course of nocturnal prating, composing most eloquent sermons, chiefly made up, however, of _remembered_ texts of Scripture. I am informed, too, that a lady of Edinburgh, during her somnolent attacks, recited somewhat lengthy poems; and it was curious to notice that each line commenced with the final letter of the preceding.