REVERIE has been defined the dream of a waking man; it differs, however, in many respects, . from dreaming. In an exaggerated form, it is of rare occurrence; but when exceeding absence of mind, or abstraction from what is passing around, it is altiormal .and unhealthy; and may, under all circumstances, be regarded as a phenomenon of an imperfectly constituted, if not of a diseased nervous temperament. It is, moreover, generally, and always at its commencement, uuder the control of the will. Reverie is apparently, in all cases, and exaltation -of the faculty of attention: the mind may be occupied according to the age, character, pursuits of the individual, by calculations, pro found metaphysical inquiries, by fanciful visions, or by such trivial and transitory objects as to make no impression upon consciousness, so that the period of reverie is left an entire blank in memory. The most obvious external feature marking this condition is the apparent unconsciousness, or partial perception, of external objects. In what may 'be designated the first stage, castle-building, this inattention is only apparent, as the :surrounding scenery may enter into the illusion, and constitute a part of the romance, In the celebrated case of Hartley Coleridge, whose double life, indulged in for years, ,liffords illustrations of voluntary creations ultimately extorting a degree of belief and expectation—from a field near his home burst forth a cataract, from which flowed a river; on the banks of this arranged themselves fertile fields, a populous region, divided into realms and kingdoms, governed by laws, having traditions, histories. "Ejuxria"
was, in fact, an analagon to the world of fact, embellished by imagination. This cherished unreality was parted with reluctantly. A more advanced stage of the affection is where, independently of the will, and in opposition to the ordinary habits of the individual, and under peculiar circumstances, there occur a loss of cognizance of sur rounding objects and relations, and a state of abstraction or brown-study; in which many .absurd and incongruous things are said and done. Ludicrous examples of this state are witnessed where a man loses his way in his native town, forgets his own name, or retires to bed in the middle of the day. It is related that sir Robert Peel, utterly unobservant of the adjournment of the house of commons, and the departure of the members, remained on one occasion unmoved in his seat, plunged in a profound reverie, until the lights were about to be extinguished, and he was roused by the clerk of the house. In a third stage or form, the reverist cannot be recalled to active perception, loses individuality, and is absorbed in the contemplation of unreal, though self-suggested impressions. This is seen in such cases as St. Teresa, and in the trances of Mysticism, Quietism, Second Sight. —Jfenwir of Hartley Coleridge, Disraeli's Life of Lord G. Bentinek, Maury's Le Sommeit et les Reres.