The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1831-03-02

The NIGHT MARE. The notifications
which nightmare assumes ale infinite but
one passion Is never absent-that of uttel
and Incomprehensible dread. Sometimes
the sufferer is buried beneath overwhelm.
ing rocks, which crush him on all sides, hui
still leave him with miserable conscious
ness of his situation. Sometimes he is in.
volved in the coils of horrd slimy mon.
ster' whose eyes have the phosphorescenI
glare of the sepulchre, and whose breath is
as poisonous as the marsh Of Lerna Every
thing horrible, disgusting, or terrific, in the
physical OF moral world, is brought before
him in fearful array; he is Kissed at by SER
penis, tortured by demons, stunned by the
hollow voices and cold touch of apparitions
A mighty stone is laid upon his breast, and
clushes him to the ground in helpless ago
| ny; mad bulls and tigers pursue his palsi-
ed footsteps; the unearthly shrieks and
gIhberlsh Of hays, witches and fiends float
around him. In whatever situation he NAV
be placed he feels superlatively wretched ;
he is rolling his eternal stone he is stretch
ed upon the iron bed of Procrustes; he is
Frustrated by inevitable destiny, beneath
the approaching wheels of the car fJug-
gernaut. At one moment he may have the
consciousness of malignant demon being
at his side; then to shun the sight of so
appalling an object, he will close his eyes,
but still the fearful being makes his pres
ence known; for its icy breath is felt diff
fusing itself over his vlsage, and he knows
that he is face to face with a 6end. Then
if he looks up, he heholds horrd eyes glar-
ing upon him, and an aspect of hell grin
ming at him with even more than helish
malice. Or, he may have the idea of IL
monstrous bag squatted on his breast mute,
motlonless, and malignant; an incarnation
OF the evil spirit, whose intolerable weight
brushes the breath out of his body, and
whose fixed, deadly, incessant stare petre-
tfes him with horror, and makes his very
existence insufferable. In every instance
there is sense of oppression and helpless
ness; and the extent to which these are
carried varies according to the violence of
the paroxism. The individual never feels
himself free agent; on the contrary he is
spell-bound by some enchantment, and re-
mains an unresisting victim for malice to
work its will upon. He can neither breathe,
nor walk. nor run with his wonted facility.
If pursued by any imminent danger. he can
hardly drag one limb after another; if en-
gagged in combat, his blows are utterly in
effective; if involved in the fangs of any an
imal, or in the grasp Of an enemy; extrica-
ton is impossible; he struggles, he pants,
he tolls, but all in vain; mis- muscles are
rebels to the will, and refuse to obey his
calls. In no case is there sense of COM
plete freedom; the benumbing stupor never
departs from him; and his whole being is
locked up in one mighty spasm. Some
times he is forcing himself through an ap-
erture tco small for the reception of his
body, and is there arrested and tortured BY
the Dangs of suffocation produced by the
pressure to which he is exposed; or he loses
his way in narrow labyrinth, and gets in
volVed in its contracted and inextricable
mazes; or he is entombed alive in sepul-
chre, beside the Wondering dead. There
is, in most cases, an intense reality in all
that he sees, or hears, or feels. The as
pect of the hideous phantoms which harrass
his Imagination bold and defined; the
sounds which greet his ear appalling dis
tinct: and when any dimness or confusion
of imagery does prevail, it is of the most
fearful kind, leaving nothing but dreary
and miserable impressions behind it.
.MacniSh on the Philosophy of Sleep.