Of course I only hazard this as the merest unconfirmed conjecture, which only claims the merit of being, in my humble opinion, a better explanation than any other that I have yet heard or seen.

It is also an explanation that, with a slight difference perhaps, might account for the flying dream. Any influence on the optic nerve that might make us appear to see objects moving horizontally below us might conceivably give us the impression that we were moving horizontally above them; and I should very much like to hear whether either or both these dreams come within the category of the dreams known to blind persons, for if either class of these so common dreams were constantly excluded from their categories, the inference would be strong that the dreams were connected with the optic nerves. I believe it to be a tolerably ascertained fact, as it is in accordance with a priori probability, that blind persons never imagine themselves in their dreams to be seeing. Their dreams are confined to impressions of the senses that they possess in waking life. Incidentally I may say that among all my correspondents, to most of whom the flying dream is familiar, one only (and it is the only instance I have ever heard of) flies at any considerable height. All the rest of the world skim, with a floating motion, just over the pedestrians' heads, or skate or slide, sometimes in an upright posture, just above the ground.

The prone position of the body during sleep is an explanation that is suggested for the ordinary flying dream, but one that scarcely strikes me as being very satisfactory.

In regard to the dream of inadequate clothing, I regret to say that one or two of my correspondents admit appearing in their dreams in a condition of utter nudity, yet with no properly corresponding sense of shame. A sense of shame there is, yet in no degree adequate to the offence; and while on this point I may say that, whereas one correspondent avers that the moral sense is active in the dream state, so that she feels acute remorse for her evil acts, in the very great majority of instances it seems to be in utter abeyance, so that the mildest mannered and most tender conscienced commit atrocious crimes without a regretful afterthought

I think the best known illustration of this almost utter abeyance of the moral judgment in dreams (it is of course only of a piece with the almost utter abeyance of the attentive faculty) is that cited before from Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who writes of a friend of hers, a well known man and a gentleman, as well as a gentle man, who, in a dream, imagined himself to run a friend through the body with a sword, and so far from repenting of his deed when done, was conscious of a certain satisfaction, as at an artistic piece of spitting, in seeing a foot or so of the blade sticking out through the friend's back. This case has been published already. I have not the publication here to refer to, but to the best of my recollection there had not been in the dream or in life the slightest discussion or quarrel between the friends, such as would give rise to the angry emotion that would give a conceivable cause for the act of murder. It was done in cold blood, on a sudden impulse, and the murderer took an aesthetic delight in the fine art with which the murder was done.

This is an extreme case of the absence of moral sense, but on that very account it is typical It is supported by instances too many to name, by instances for which most will find a parallel in their own dream experience. It may be noted that in all cases of execution or threatened punishment by justice, such as we shall see are not infrequent in dreams, the victim always supposes his innocence, or at least does not suppose his guilt I think I have only a single correspondent out of the number that have been good enough to write their experiences to me, who maintains that she (the writer is a lady) has any sense of remorse for the many and various outrages on morality that we seem to commit in our dreams. The conclusion is that any real sense of moral judgment or responsibility is very rare indeed, that the absence of the ethical attitude is the rule, as could only be expected, seeing that the ethical judgment cannot consist with the almost total abeyance of the rational attention which we have seen to characterise the mental operations of dreams.

By way of explanation of the dream of inadequate clothing, it is suggested that it is produced by the fact that our night dresses are as a rule of a light material, perhaps giving the impression that we are lightly clad; but the blankets are comfortably thick, and if we are to accept this hypothesis we ought to find, when we awake from this dream, that we have thrown off most of the bed - clothes, which I do not think is the case; and again we ought to dream this particular dream more often in warm weather, when one's bedclothing is light, than in winter, when it is heavy. But this again does not seem to agree with the evidence. Neither do the changes in the temperature, nor indeed any external sensational causes seem to give adequate explanation of any of the well defined classes of dreams, although it is possible to induce a sleeper to answer you by addressing him a question that seems suited to the course of his mental operations as you infer it from his more or less coherent talking. But broadly, it may be said, I think, that there is no ascertainable common external cause for any of the dreams in these classes.

The dream of inadequate clothing, I ventured to suggest as due to an idea inspired by some inconvenience that had actually occurred, as a person coming into a room unexpectedly while one was dressing, the intruder, maybe, mistaking it for his own room. I was perhaps properly, and certainly indignantly, rebuked by one of my correspondents for the suggestion. Yet conceivable cases of the kind are infinite.

The dream of the gratification of a darling wish permits a very similar explanation, and perhaps presents less difficulty than any other class in the category. And the dream of unsuccessful packing, that might perhaps be better termed the dream of exaggerated trivial inconvenience (clergymen dream that they lose their place in church for an hour together, and so on) arises probably enough from a remembrance of similar inconveniences, actually oc- curring, which the unrestricted dream imagination magnifies according to its manner.