Phcenomenon of Dreaming. 165

should not. Nay farther, we may observe*^at there is no impossibility, why such aMonster as is just now supposed, might noteXl ^-afarte naturae. Whatever is conceivable tf a y be performed bysome power ; and nothingls a mark of impossibility, but a self-destru-^venessintheidea; such as, that a part maybigger than the whole. And no Being canP r °mpt us with such an idea, whether asleep° r awake. For it is at first impossible to thec °nception. If it were possible to conceive*bch an idea, the object of it might be madeto exist from without. Thus these powers^ a y endeavour to confound human reason%)histically, by surprising US through inat-ation, to allow that an object seen, incon-'ftstent with another real object, is absolute-ly inconsistent; and to render suspected theEbundations of evidence and certainty, byen S a ging us to consent to false faSts and un-rc<z l appearances in the unguarded hours of^ ee P: But we may fee through the artifice^hen we are awake; and it is our own faultE We take part with them then (e).

XLVI. This

. ( f ) It will perhaps be said that all this concerning the,,stv idious nature of these beings, is only a supposition.

M 3* But