d; all which was transacted in so small a space of time that
Mohammed, upon his return, found his bed still warm.

Are dreams so much varied as is generally supposed? Or, taking into
consideration our different mental and physical constitutions, is there
not rather a remarkable sameness in them? It is certainly a very unusual
circumstance to hear of any dream that does violence to the common
experience of mankind. One class of dreams, which may be termed
RETROSPECTIVE, is of frequent occurrence. These are characterized by the
revival of associations long since forgotten. The faculty of Memory
appears to be preternaturally exalted; the vail is withdrawn which
obscured the vista of our past life; and the minutest events of
childhood pass in vivid review before us. There can be no doubt that
something analogous to this occurs in drowning; when, after the alarm
and struggle for life has subsided, sensations and visions supervene
with indescribable rapidity. The same very remarkable phenomenon takes
place also sometimes in hanging; but is by no means uniformly produced.
"Of all whom I have seen restored from drowning," observes Dr. Lettsom,
"I never found one who had the smallest recollection of any thing that
passed under water until the time they were restored." Persons must not,
therefore, be deceived by imagining that an Elysium is to be found at
the bottom of a garden-well, or a canal, or a river.

But to return--it is not only the very early incidents of childhood
which may thus be recalled by our dreams, but recent events, which in
our waking hours had escaped the memory, are sometimes suddenly
recalled. In his "Notes to Waverley," Sir Walter Scott relates the
following anecdote: "A gentleman connected with a Bank in Glasgow, while
employed in the occupation of cashier, was annoyed by a person, out of
his turn, demanding the payment of a check for six pounds. Having paid
him, but with reluctance, out of his turn, he thought no more of the
transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months
after, a difficulty was experienced in making the books balance, in
consequence of a deficiency of six pounds. Several days and nights were
exhausted in endeavors to discover the source of the error, but without
success; and the discomfited and chagrined cashier retired one night to
his bed, disappointed and fatigued. He fell asleep and dreamed he was at
his Bank, and once again the whole scene of the annoying man an