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of Eneas, so beautifully described by Virgil; of Sardanapalus, dreading the loss and destruction of his Assyrian empire, and the extinction of the line of Nimrod; of Rachel Baker; of Helen Mc. Dougal, and others.* The beautiful illustrations which have been given by Juvenal, Lucretius, Byron, and Pope, of this mood of the Imagination, are the truths of philosophy conveyed to the understanding and rendered more pleasing by the poetic garb in which they are arrayed. They are admired by most readers for their beauty of language; but they carry an instruction which, if we value the happiness of bodily health, of mental power, of a good night and a peaceful day, should hardly be passed over as the mere effusions of a brilliant fancy. Much of the pleasure of our existence depends upon the due regulation of the Imagination. Half our evils are imaginary, and more than half our good ideal; we heighten the colouring and deepen the shade of both one and the other.

The mind, like the body, only continues its existence from the action of repeated stimuli upon it; and were we unexcited by hope, desire, or love, had we no object to attain, no reverse to fear, or nothing to call into action our mental faculties, the mind would become cut off from external nature, like the body deprived of its

* Sometimes the dreams in which the passions are concerned are of a more pleasing character than those just referred to; we are occasionally, under these circumstances, transported to the society of those long dead, and to scenes which we thought faded from the memory for ever. It is a singular fact that dreams of the dead are seldom, if ever, accompanied by terror or surprise; and in these states the friend of our youth, the wife of our bosom, the child of our affection, is restored ; and the exquisite pleasure of these dreams throws sometimes a halo of pleasure around us for days after they have occurred. "The slumberer, in these states, supposes himself enjoying the companionship of those who were dearer to him than life,

'He hears their voice in dreams,

Upon him softly call,

Like echo of the mountain-stream,

Or distant water-fall;

He sees their form as when

They were a living thing,

And blossomed in the eyes of men,
Like any flower of spring.'

and the pleasure of their society is trebly enhanced from the intensity and purity of the feelings with which these dreams are accompanied ; in which the characters of the emotions of the mind have so little resemblance with the waking state, that we sometimes lie for a time after waking, to recollect what circumstance of our dreams has caused that repose and serenity which we feel diffused through our whole mental being."

senses; our being would be a blank, and we should feel that we were, like Campbell's last man, alone in the world. The passions are our mental stimuli; and I have shown how they modify the state of the imagination during sleep: hence, if we wish to sleep undisturbed, or to be visited only by those dreams which are agreeable, we should remove all strong mental impression, of an unpleasant character, from our thoughts before retiring to rest. Unhappily, however, for such is the tenure of our existence, we are unable, in many instances, to control the gloomy ideas which will intrude themselves, unbidden and unwished, into the mind,― we cannot get rid of the melancholy produced by loss of fortune, injured fame, or false friendship,-so that we in reality possess more power over the condition of the body, than we do over the state of the mind; and, consequently, these recollections will be called up during sleep, and invested with all the false colouring with which the Imagination can array them. The state of our body, also, modifies the condition of the mind, as I have said, in a degree as marked as that produced by the passions; but with regard to the management of this, some rules may be laid down, which will influence, in a great measure, the Imagination of our dreams. Physiologists have divided the stimuli which affect our body into classes; such are the great divisions established by Halle of the circumfusa and injesta, the former including all physical causes, such as climate, the atmosphere, and the seasons, which affect us from without, the latter comprehending such as operate upon the body from within, in the shape of the infinite modifications of diet. There is a third class of causes, which may affect the mind through the medium of the body; and that is the imperfect exhalation or excretion of those liquids or gases which are become foreign to its nature, and which are evidenced in the perspiration from the skin, the vapour from the lungs, and the serous fluids exhaled on the surface of every membrane, and in the interior of every cavity throughout the whole organization. From impure air, from indolence, and from other causes, these become retained or not furnished in sufficient quantity; and the result is, a state of bodily complaint, which, re-acting upon the mind in sleep, becomes a source of unpleasant dreams. Exercise, during a state of health, is the great medium of preserving these eliminations, or excretions, in a state of sufficient activity. In bringing one division of causes affecting the bodily health to bear upon the condition of the mind during sleep, we should, if we wish to rest in peace and dream of happiness, have a chamber of moderate capacity, well supplied with

VOL. IV.-NO. XV.

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pure air. The clothing of the bed should not be too heavy or too hot, since by exciting the circulation too much, that of the brain becomes disturbed, and unpleasant dreams, partaking of the character of night-mare, might be produced; the same effects would be brought about by the head lying too low, which would prevent a return of venous blood from the brain. The state of the stomach, above all, should be attended to; if the food be difficult of digestion, an undue degree of acidity will be produced, which, acting upon the peculiar sensibility of the lining membrane of the stomach, and secondarily upon the brain, will produce all the evils which, in the course of the lecture, I have passed in review. An overloaded stomach causes similar effects, but in a different way; it acts chiefly by irritating the heart, and quickening the circulation; and if the conjecture of an ingenious physiologist be true-that only a certain number of pulsations are allotted to every man-we should be most anxiously watchful how we suffered moral impression, or bodily affections, over which we had any controul, to accelerate the action of the heart. Late hours are attended by a slight degree of fever, which acts in a similar manner; and early rising is productive of the benefits attributed to exercise, in the third division of causes affecting the body.

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If we wish, therefore, to have pleasant dreams, the body should be slightly fatigued, the pulse should be quiet, the mind calm, the skin cool, and the stomach nearly empty. We shall then not need a pillow of hops" to woo us to repose. We shall not have to think of the sounding rain, the murmur of bees, the meandering river, the waving corn, or the restless ocean. We shall not have then to exclaim "I cannot win thee, sleep, by any stealth;” but our slumbers will be light and protracted till long after " the small birds' melodies," and the "first cuckoo's melancholy cry."

67

THE MAMMALS OF BRITAIN SYSTEMATICALLY ARRANGED.

HAVING, in the last number, (vol. iii., p. 200), given all the species of Class II. (Aves) found in Britain, scientifically arranged and appropriately named, I now propose to give Class I. (Mammalia) on the same plan. Mammals, it is true, are neither so numerous nor so interesting as birds, but they, nevertheless, possess strong claims on the attention of the scientific zoologist, as well as of the agriculturist. While the latter appropriates to himself their services, and guards himself against their attacks, it is the province of the former to investigate their habits, structure, and affinities. A due knowledge of these will lead the inquirer to their natural arrangement, and correct views on this subject will enable him to name them with propriety, and an accurate nomenclature will again aid him in his future researches. This department, to answer the purpose for which it was originally intended, should be as simple and free from errors as possible; otherwise it will only prove an impediment in the path, not only of the professor, but of the student. To say that erroneous names do not mislead, is a contradiction, and refutes itself. I shall here give one out of the many striking instances with which I have become acquainted, both from personal experience and from books, in order to shew that erroneous names are liable to mislead. The example I have selected is related by Audubon, who, speaking of the Wood Ibis (Tantalus loculator), says "The French Creoles of that state (Louisiana) name them 'Grands Flamans,' while the Spaniards of East Florida know them by the name of Gannets.' When in the latter country, at St. Augustine, I was induced to make an excursion, to visit a large pond or lake, where I was assured there were Gannets in abundance, which I might shoot off the trees, provided I was careful enough. On asking the appearance of the Gannets, I was told that they were large white birds, with wings black at the end, a long neck, and a sharp bill. The description so far agreeing with that of the Solan Gannet (Sula bassana), I proposed no questions respecting the legs or tail, but went off. Twenty-three miles, reader, I trudged through the woods, and at last came in view of the pond; when, lo! its borders and the trees around it were covered with Wood Ibises. Now, as the good people who gave the information spoke according to their knowledge, and agreeable to their custom

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of calling the Ibises' Gannets,' had I not gone to the pond, I might have written this day that Gannets are found in the interior of the woods in the Floridas, that they alight on trees, &c., which, if once published, would, in all probability, have gone down to future times, through the medium of compilers, and all, perhaps, without acknowledgement."—Orn. Biogr., vol. iii., p. 132. With a view to prove that names once given should not be altered, it has been said that "the use of names is, in fact, nothing more than a kind of memoria technica (artificial memory), by means of which, in writing or speaking, the idea of an object is suggested, without the inconvenience of a lengthened description." And this is the very reason why names should be as perfect as possible; otherwise they will not be “artificial helps" to the memory, but artificial hindrances to the naturalist. The practice of changing names without sufficient reason, ought certainly to be avoided and condemned, for the very same reason that the doctrine adduced by some persons, that there should be no change, should also be denounced, as alike calculated to retard the progress of science. The blind opposition which has been manifested by some on this subject, will be found, in the end, to defeat its own object; and the anti-reformers will find out, when too late, that they have been but instruments in accelerating, instead of retarding, the great cause of improvement.

The nomenclature of Mammalogy is formed on the same principles as that of Ornithology, and indeed the same code will hold throughout the animal kingdom. Every new discovery either confirms or displaces some of the names, specific, generic, sectional, or even family, in connection with the newly-discovered object; and till all the objects in nature are known, and their affinities understood, there can never be a perfect system of nomenclature. Nomenclature will progress in proportion as our knowledge progresses; and man might as well attempt to prevent the earth from revolving in its appointed course, as try to stop either the one or the other.

It has been said that it would be impossible to find vernacular names for every object in ornithology, to say nothing of other classes of nature. This is tantamount to admitting the English language to be infinitely inferior to the Latin in terms; for, if a certain number of names can be found in the one, why should not the other be capable of yielding their equivalents. However, "where there is a will there is a way;" let the opposers acquire the former, and I will pledge myself they shall not be deficient in the latter.

The arrangement adopted in the list of Mammals will be on the

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