“A man athirst has a strong desire to drink; but for some particular reason he determines not to gratify his desire. A judge from a regard to justice and to the duty of his office dooms a criminal to die; while, from humanity or particular affection, he desires that he should live. A man for health may take a nauseous draught, for which he has no desire, but a great aversion. Desire, therefore, even when its object is some action of our own, is only an incitement to will; but it is not volition. The determination of the mind may be not to do what we desire to do. But as desire is often accompanied by will, we are apt to overlook the distinction between them.”
That desire is manifested during sleep there can be no doubt; and Mr. Stewart, although insisting as he does on the distinction between this faculty and volition, confounds them in his remarks already quoted. A person suffering from nightmare has a most intense desire to escape from his imaginary troubles. In my own dream, to which reference has been made, my desire to restrain myself from crawling over the precipice was exerted to the utmost; but the will could not be brought into action. Darwin,[64] when he says that in nightmare “the desire of moving the body is painfully exerted, but the power of moving it, or volition, is incapable of action till we awake,” makes the proper distinction between desire and will; but, as I have already shown, confounds the latter with another very different faculty.
From the foregoing observations it will be seen that during sleep the three great divisions of the mind are differently affected.
1. Feeling, embracing sensation and emotion, is suspended, so far as the first is concerned; but is in full action as regards the second. We do not see, hear, smell, taste or enjoy the sense of touch in sleep, although the brain may be aroused into activity and we may awake through the excitations conveyed to it by the special senses. The emotions have full play, unrestrained by the will and governed only by the imagination.
2. The Will or Volition is entirely suspended.
3. The Thought or Intellect is variously affected in its different powers. The imagination is active, and the memory may be exercised to a great extent; but the judgment, perception, conception, abstraction, and reason are weakened, and sometimes altogether lost.
CHAPTER V.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DREAMS.