* Bacon.

* Diogenes Laertius,.Epimen, L. i. Plin. Hist. Nat. L. vii. C. 5. p. 284.

† Introduct. au Voyage de la Grece. Pausauias, L. i.

C. 14. p. 35.

‡ Plutarch. Syinpos. L. viii. Quaest. 9.

* Zuing. Theat. vol. ii. L. 5. p. 415. † Craute, Vandal. L. viii. C. 39. and other authorities in Wanley's Wonders. ‡ Ricaut's Hist of the Greek Church.

Upon this subject it may be worth while to notice a very extraordinary account which was drawn up by Mr. Gualtier at the request of the King of Sweden, and which is inserted in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin. The case alluded to is that of a woman of the name of Guasser, who was affected by a kind of catalepsy which attacked her twice a day, during which she sunk into a profound sleep, and was deprived of all internal and external sensation, her limbs grew hard and inflexible like stone, a little pulse was discernible, and her respiration continued as free as in her natural sleep: she appeared to have no feeling though her flesh was scarified. The fit came on regularly every morning at a very early hour, and ceased about twelve o'clock by a gradual and convulsive recovery of the use of the limbs, which allowed her just time to take refreshments, when she again relapsed into sleep, which continued till eight o'clock, from which time she remained awake till eight o'clock in the morning. It was remarkable that this disorder sometimes lasted six months, sometimes a year, and at last two years and a half (during the latter part of which time the paroxysm returned but once a day) after which period a correspondent interval of health always intervened. During the continuance of her malady she was married, and brought to bed of two or three children, who were not affected by her complaint; she lived many years after the last attack, and having attained the age of eighty, died in 1746,. of a disorder which had no apparent connection with this, periodical affection,, which is supposed to have originated in some irregularity of con-stitution encreased by exposure to wet in an endeavour to escape from a persecution in France *•

* Niceph. Hist. Eccles. L. xiv. C. 44. Schol.

The case of Colonel Townshend, mentioned by Dr. Cheyne, was also very remarkable; he had for many years been affected with a nephritic complaint, and had the power of dying or expiring when he pleased, and afterward of coming to life again at pleasure, a proof of which Dr. Cheyne, Dr. Baynard, and Mr. Skrine, had at Bath, where after composing himself deliberately on his back, the pulse of the colonel gradually became insensible, no motion of the heart was perceptible, nor any symptom of life to be discerned, a mirror held to his mouth being not even soiled by his breath; he continued in this state near half an hour, and then gradually recovered†.

* Considerations sur un Sommeil extraordinaire, Mem de l'Academ. de Berlin.

† Cheyne's English Malad, Wanler's. Wonders, Ch. i.

This relation reminds us of the account given by St. Austin of Restitutes, a Presbyter, who could at pleasure deprive himself of all sense in a state of apparent death, in which he seemed not to breathe, and was not affected by any present sensations even from fire, though be professed to hear very loud voices *.

Cardan, the famous physician and astrologer of Pavia, tells us among other extraordinary things of himself, that he could at any time fall into an extasy, and had only a faint and indistinct hearing of those who conversed, becoming insensible of the gout, and every other pain†.

But some reports are still more surprising. A whole people of Luromoria, a country of farther Sarmatia, are related to die on the twenty-seventh of November like swallows, in consequence of the intense cold, and not to awake again till the twenty-fourth of April*.

* August, de Civit. Dei. L. xiv. C. 24.

† Cardan de Varietat. Rer. L. viii. C. 43. p. 103. Sca-liger informs us that Cardan abstained from food to verify the prediction which he had uttered of his death, as did also Robert Burton and Bayle.

These wonderful suspensions of the corporeal powers must be considered as more than common trances, such as those by which Barton, the maid of Kent, could absorb her faculties, or than such extasies as Mr. Locke describes to be dreaming with the eyes open †.

The notion of a trance with the eyes open appears very early to have been connected with the idea of divine visions ‡ , and it seems in modern times to have been imagined, that the senses of those who are entranced leave the body, and are occupied in acquiring the knowledge of things secret and remote.

* Wanley's Wonders, C. xxiv. p. 697. † Essay on the Unders, B. ii. Ch. i,§. §. ‡ Numb. xxiv. 4.

After the marvellous accounts which have been here produced, it must be an insipid relation to mention that Baker speaks of a William Foxley who fell asleep on Tuesday in Easter week, and could not be awakened even with pinching and burning till the first day of next term, which was full fourteen days*. These relations, it may be incidentally observed, prove the necessity of caution in not burying persons prematurely.

The circumstances under which epileptic persons have been known to think and act as if waking, and even to address otherpersons in long and connected discourses, are deserving of philosophical investigation.

There are other accounts of an opposite nature equally remarkable. Seneca reports that Maecenas lived three years without any sleep, and was at last cured of his distemper by soft music*.

* Baker's Chron. p. 428.

Nizolius is related to have lived thirty-five years without sleep† .

The modern account of the woman of Padua, who lived fifteen days without sleep, will easily be credited by those who receive the former histories.

It is to be observed, that in these accounts no mention is made of dreams having been enjoyed by the persons thus subjected to the dominion of Morpheus, and it is doubtful whether we are to consider dreams as necessarily attendant on sleep.