Some psycologists, among others the count of Redern, say that the soul always acts. The evidence is, that a man aroused from sleep always preserves a memory of his dreams.
There is something in this observation, which deserves verification.
This state of annihilation, however, is of brief duration, never exceeding more than five or six hours: losses are gradually repaired, an obscure sense of existence manifests itself, and the sleeper passes into the empire of dreams.
MEDITATION XIX.
DREAMS.
Dreams are material impressions on the soul, without the intervention of external objects.
These phenomena, so common in ordinary times, are yet little known.
The fault resides with the savants who did not allow us a sufficiently great number of instances. Time will however remedy this, and the double nature of man will be better known.
In the present state of science, it must be taken for granted that there exists a fluid, subtle as it is powerful, which transmits to the brain the impressions received by the senses. This excitement is the cause of ideas.
Absolute sleep is the deperdition or inertia of this fluid.