Visual dreams, dreams in which the impressions appear to come in through the eyes, though the eyes of sense are closed, are far more frequent as we have said, than dreams in which most of the impressions seem to be felt through the medium of any other of the senses. But a very common and frequent dream is that of hearing a voice speaking in the room. In the commonest form of this dream the voice speaks loudly, briefly, sometimes calling the dreamer by name, so that he awakes, startled, and has difficulty in believing that a real person has not been in the room, addressing him. Thus a correspondent writes of it with vivid descriptive powers: "One feature of dreams is very distinct and peculiar, that of hearing a voice addressing one very loud and clear. It apparently has nothing to do with any dream one is indulging in, but rings out, with marvellous distinctness, from the surrounding space, and gives one the strangest possible conviction that some being has addressed one, it is so much louder and arrests one so infinitely more completely than ordinary 'dream voices "

This last remark is quite true, the voice heard in this way has a distinctness quite different from the ordinary conversations heard in dreams, so much so that one is disposed to think it must be due to some effect on the auditory nerve. At all events, the im pression seems different, not only in degree but in kind, from the impression of voices as commonly heard in dreams. Another correspondent writes no less strikingly: "The dream of hearing a well - known voice suddenly, close to, I have had, but very rarely. On one occasion it made a specially vivid impression on me. I had just fallen asleep, when I was awoke by hearing my name called, clearly and distinctly, by one of my brothers, apparently just outside my door, and in the very moment of waking I heard it again as loudly as before. This brother was going to start early next morning on a 'natural history' expedition, and I, thinking he had forgotten some of his directions, jumped up instantly and opened the door. I was fearfully startled at seeing there was no one there; but as I knew he had not had time to go away again I concluded it must have been a dream, though it seemed almost incredible.

But for the fear of being thought superstitious, I should have gone to his room, which was in quite a different part of the house, to see if he was ill; and I felt very real relief when he returned, safe and sound, from his expedition. Afterwards I thought his voice might have been that of another brother, who had died a few years ago and might 'mean something,' but nothing ever came of it." It is quite clear that in the quality of distinctness and emphasis, these impressions are quite different from the ordinary talks that we seem to hear in a dream.