Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/151

Rh manner of difference. It is sufficient to establish the fact, that sleeping and awaking are not so much dependant on ourselves as on those superior intelligences, of whom it is written, “The angel of the encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them;” [ Psalm xxxiv. 7.]; and again, “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,” [ Psalm xci. 11.]

In confirmation of the truth of what is here suggested, concerning the cause of sleeping and awaking, I might appeal to the phenomena of dreams, those transitory awakings, even during sleep, to visions and sensations, sometimes of the most exquisite enjoyment, and at other times of the deepest misery, far surpassing whatsoever is seen or felt in the absence of sleep. For how now shall we account for these sudden gusts of involuntary pleasure and pain, and this at a time when we ourselves are in a state of absolute incapacity to bid them either to come or go? To say that pleasure and pain are things of chance, will hardly satisfy the inquiries of a thinking intelligent mind on the subject; and therefore we are constrained to allow, as the only expedient of giving a rational solution of the difficulty, that man, during sleep, is in some secret mysterious communication with other intelligences, be they good, or evil, or both; who have the power thus, at one time,