The instances of the bogey dream, that correspondents kindly have communicated, are very many, very varied, and very curious. There is a special form of the bogey dream evidently recurring so often that I shall group a few of its instances under a class by itself - the dream that one is dead and has curious post - mortem experiences, sometimes, but not always, disagreeable. I am rather sorry to think that dream - death has never come within my own experience, for there is no doubt that the sensations are novel and interesting. Of course the veritable terror of the bogey belongs more to the dreams of childhood than of grown - up people, and it is commonly said, indeed, that all dreaming is much more frequent in earlier years, say the first fifteen of life, than later. Probably the meaning of this is that not until we come to years of a certain discretion do we fully realise that dreams are no more than a delusion. The fuller knowledge enables us to realise unconsciously, at the very moment of awaking, the unreality of the mental experience we have just passed through, which experience we therefore at once cease to attend to and turn our thoughts to subjects of more natural interest The child, on awaking, has not this instant full appreciation of the fanciful nature of his sleeping thoughts; and therefore, dwelling on them longer in the first of his waking thoughts, impresses them on his mind, and will, more often than the adult, have that waking consciousness of his mental operations in sleep which we have seen to enter into the strict definition of the word dream.

On the theory that every mental operation occurring in sleep is to be called a dream, the man probably dreams as often as the child - indeed it is probable that both dream in this sense almost, if not quite, continuously - but the waking consciousness of such operation of the mind will remain with the child more often than with the adult The phrases "sleeping like a child," "the peaceful sleep of children," and so on, in such common use, are testimony to the fact that the child shows less evidence to an onlooker of its mental operations during sleep, although it is generally agreed that children dream, in the true sense of the word, far more often than the adult. The bogey dream naturally is more common (bears a larger relation to the total of dream experiences) with a child than with an adult, for few children are free entirely of a fear of the dark, or of ghosts or burglars - fears that, in the first place, are often put into their heads by foolish nurse - maids. This fear, without the appearance of the object that inspires the terror, is quite typical of the bogey dream.

Thus one correspondent writes: "I have had a dream of walking in some neighbourhood where some wild beast was at large and being very much afraid of meeting it, but it has never run after me ". Well, that is very much what happens to children, and very nervous grown - up people too, if they have occasion to walk at night through a lonely wood. They imagine sounds, shadows take the form of men lurking in wait behind tree - trunks, and so on, until fear of something unseen quite overmasters them and they fairly turn tail and run. Children do it, and confess it; adults do it more often than they confess, unless they are much misjudged. Another kind of terror, very typical of the kind of trouble that harasses us in the bogey dream, is described by the correspondent just quoted: "1 sometimes dream of trying to shut a door or window to keep out some danger, robbers generally, and being unable to secure the fastenings ". Any form of unreasonable inability to escape from the terror that is pursuing is typical of this class of dream. On the other hand, I do not think that all fleeing from a terrible pursuit comes fairly under this head.

For instance, one friend writes to me: "A dream I have often had is of fleeing from justice whose punishment I have merited, generally through theft"; a candid confession that it is to be hoped is coupled with a conviction that "dreams go by contraries". The same friend also says: "I have often dreamt of battle. I have fought through it, been wounded, and so on, all in the most realistic manner ". The realistic manner is perhaps what distinguishes these instances from the typical bogey dream. Therein the terror is conceived as something unusual, vague, superstitious almost. It is nothing so definite as justice. Even when childhood invests some harmless individuality with terror, as in my own case, the terror is of a supernatural kind. Childhood's fancy and fears have invested it with terrors that do not properly belong to it, as they distinctly do belong to "justice," presuming that its vengeance has been incurred.

There is one correspondent, it is true, who writes: "I have no sense of fear or terror. If I am pursued by an animal I always sooner or later escape from it or overcome it in some way which causes a glow of pride." This absence of terror is very unusual in the dream. On the other hand, the sense of relief and joy at being rid of the bogey is much more frequent, and almost typical of the dream where it lasts long enough for such a denoument and does not wake the sleeper by the intensity of the terror. It is only natural that a sleeper who regards the pursuit with the calmness of this correspondent should carry on the dream to this pleasant finale. But the sense of relief and pleasure that commonly comes as a consequence of the danger evaded, following on all the disagreeable sensations of fear, is yet again opposed to the theory that dreams follow a single line of emotion, pleasurable or the reverse. There is a distinct change from the disagreeable to the pleasant in the emotion of danger imminent followed by the emotion of danger escaped.

There is often in this dream a knowledge that the whole affair is a dream and a delusion, yet at the same time it is accompanied with a terror that the sleeper cannot shake off. He knows that he can rid himself of the terror, if he can but awake; and yet, in spite of all his efforts, he is not always able to wake himself. Sometimes he succeeds, but generally it is only after severe effort, and in some cases, even while continuing to struggle to awake, he has to wait till some sensation from without gives his will the required energy, as in the following account which may be taken as fairly typical of the bogey dream: "I become suddenly aware, in my sleep, of some unseen presence in my bedroom, being at the same time conscious of the geography and details of the room. It is mostly a living presence I suspect, but the terror of the supernatural is suggested. The object of my terror always remains invisible, either hidden by cupboard door, hanging drapery or by remaining below the level of my vision as I lie in bed.