A familiar instance of deception is exemplified in the false voices which some persons imagine they hear calling them, faintly in common, but so as to deceive for a moment. When this false perception of sound concurs with images of spectral illusion, a formidable imitation of reality is maintained.[516]
A poetical friend, whose signature will be recollected as having been attached to “Sea Sonnets,” obligingly communicates a seasonable effusion of the like order of composition, prefaced by the following passage from Dr. Buchan:—
“If the power of volition be suspended, persons may dream while they are awake. Such is the case when, in an evening, looking into the fire, we let slip the reins of the imagination, and, yielding implicitly to external objects, a succession of splendid or terrific imagery is produced by the embers in the grate.”
FIRE-SIDE SONNET.
For the Every-Day Book.
For very want of thought and occupation
Upon my fire, as broad and high it blaz’d,
In idle and unweeting mood I gaz’d,
And, in that mass of bright and glowing things
Fancy, which in such moments readiest springs,
Soon found materials for imagination:
Within the fire, all listless as I maz’d,
There saw I trees and towers, and hills and plains,
Faces with warm smiles glowing, flocks and swains.
And antic shapes of laughable creation:
And thus the poet’s soul of fire contains
A store of all things bright and glorious! rais’d
By fancy, that daft artizan, to shape
Into fair scenes and forms, that nature’s best may ape.
W. T. M.