, 1842-08-13

was awake. ii the dream De out partial
ly remembered, the memory was doing,
When we sleep without dreaming, the
memory, the imagination and judgment
are all in a state of profound repose.1
The mode, or method by which the func-
tons of the brain are performed, we
know no more, than how the liver draws
from the blood-bile, or how the stomach
secretes from the same fountain, a fluid,
which digests the food which s~ustains
life. All as yet, permitted us to know,
is the fact, and probably it is for our
good, that we should know no more. 1t
is apparent however, that for the brain
TO carry on her functions, she must be
supplied with a habitation, nourishment
and tools to work with, and nature has
beautifully supplied them. The scull
affords her a snug habita,ion, the heart
sends her in ~profusion, blood for nutri-
ment, and the five external senses and
the nervous system afford her wilL tools
in abundance for her active workshop.
In short, she is better clothed and better
fed than any otheI viscus in the animal
body. When her habitation, her food
and her tools become vitality extinguish-
ed, and enter into a state of physical de-
composition-what then becomes of the
brain, | profess an utter Ignorance, bare
ly observing, that my own brain has
never yet furnished me with an idea
sufficiently vivid to conceive a substance
Independent Of its attributes.
In those morbid Authorizations prom
ised the reader in the third chapter of
this book, it is evident, that the functions
of the judgment were materially disor-
ganized, but those of the memory but
partially, if not at all injured. In repre-
senting those TO the reader, for although
perfectly remembered, | cannot promise
in detail, either regularity or method.
In one stage Of my illness,f l imagined
myself suspended by a limb over a ca
vern, barely sufficient in width to admit
in a horizontal position) the passage of
my body, and at intervals of six feet.
were exhibited protrusions of rock, the
edges Of which seemed 10 have been
sharpenad for the express purpose of cut
ing my throat. The depth of this preci-
pice was beyond the reach of vision.
Suddenly the limb began to crack and
bend beneath my weight. felt as if lit
tie support vas afforded 10 my arms and
| came to the conclusion, that even if the
limb did hot break, that my strength was
rapidly departing and that | could held
on but a few moments longer. My
nerves were writing with torture; my
heart rebounded like the convulsive
throes of a Nesuvius, or an Etna, and
my blood rushed through my body like
streams of melted lead. Crack, crack
crack, went the limb, and with the last
crack it broke, and down, rapidly down,
l Neutrality-suspicious. my feet down
wards and at other times, my head. At
ter, in Imagination, having descended
some fifty millions of miles, the cavern
seemed expanded, and | found myself
rushing down, in a horizontal position,
with my arms and legs laterally thrown
out TO a preternatural and truly painful
extent. How long | continued to travel
in this position | know not, but suddenly
the cavern seemed contracted, and at
this crisis, | felt the edge ofa rock come
in contact with the ball of my right big
toe, andfrom which, l saw issuing a free
stream of blood. | Immediately felt the
necessity of reassuming the p~erpendicu-
lar position, but miratie dictu, in at
tempting TO perform a semisummerset,
my neck was thrown against the edge of
a sharp rock and my head severed from
my body! Abstractedly, the reader might
TO the conclusion that | felt myself,
dead. Far, very far from it. On the
contrary, both body and head were laun-
on the broad ocean of metaphysical
investigation (for the body could see the
head, and rice rersa) and the %>inquiry
(from which | do not recoIlect) was agi-
tated-where was my soul? An ami
mated and eloquent discussion arose up
on the topick, (for each laid claim upon
sIf he view taken of the operations of tho
Mind be correct, land | do not think
/ can be controverted,) how unphilosophical
- Sail, .t.,.l a =.