of thesoul consdered. 393

ner of mentioning this is very remarkable.—“ Chiefly, (fays he) " we must investi-" gate with sagacity the nature of the soul;" and what it is which occasions those fright—“ ful visions to us, either while broad awake" when sick, or while buried in steep ; so“ that we think we hear and see those before** us, whose bodies are laid in the earth (u)"Acordingly, he hath contrived a long me-chanical solution for this phænomenon inhis fourth book, in which how he hath suc-ceeded we shall see afterwards. So Mr.Hobbes seems to have been no less apprehen-sive of this appearance of dreams to the over-throw of his position, ‘That the foul and all

(a)- ‘Turn cum primis ratione fagaci

Unde anlma, atque animi conflat natura videndum ;Et qucsres nobis vigilantibus obvia menteisTerrificet , morbo affeBis, somncque sepultis :Cernere uti videamur cos, audireque cordm,

Morte obitd quorum tellus compleffitur ojfa.

Lib. 1. ver. 131.

And elsewhere he gives this reason for solving the appear-ance of dreaming by what he calls simulacra.

-- Ne forte animas Acherunte reamur

Effugere ; aut umbras inter vivas volitare ;

Neve aliquid nojlri pojl mortem posse relinqui.

Lib, 4. ver. 41.

spirits