ht, and went into a neighboring
house which was in ruins, and of which the bare walls, with a few
insecure rafters running between them, alone remained; nevertheless he
climbed to the top of the wall, and clambered about from one beam to
another, without once missing his hold. It is affirmed that
somnambulists will maintain their footing in the most perilous
situations with perfect safety, so long as they remain in a state of
somnambulism; but when they are disturbed or awakened in such positions,
they are then taken by surprise, and instantly lose self-possession. A
young lady was observed at Dresden walking one night in her sleep upon
the roof of a house; an alarm being given, crowds of people assembled in
the street, and beds and mattresses were laid upon the ground, in the
hope of saving her life in case of her falling. Unconscious of danger,
the poor girl advanced to the very edge of the roof, smiling and bowing
to the multitude below, and occasionally arranging her hair and her
dress. The spectators watched her with great anxiety. After moving along
thus unconcernedly for some time, she proceeded toward the window from
which she had made her exit. A light had been placed in it by her
distressed family; but the moment she approached it, she started, and
suddenly awakening, fell into the street, and was killed on the spot.
Upon this incident Bellini founded the charming opera of "La
Sonnambula."

The actions of the somnambulist are, doubtless, prompted and governed by
those dream-impulses which the imaginary incidents passing through the
sleeper's mind suggest. He is a dreamer able to act his dreams. This we
learn from those exceptional cases in which the somnambulist, upon
awaking, has remembered the details of his dream; in illustration of
which we find an anecdote, related with much vivacity, by
Brillat-Savarin, in the "Physiology of Taste." The narrator is a M.
Duhagel, who was the prior of a Carthusian monastery, and he thus tells
us the story: "We had in the monastery in which I was formerly prior, a
monk of melancholic temperament and sombre character, who was known to
be a somnambulist. He would sometimes, in his fits, go out of his cell
and return into it directly; but at other times he would wander about,
until it became necessary to guide him back again. Medical advice was
sought, and various remedies administered, under which the paroxysms so
much diminished in frequency, that we at length ceased to thin