100-103 (Mind-Energy).] Of course, in
action I have something else to do than occupy myself with these. But
suppose I become disinterested in present action--that I fall asleep--
then the obstacle (my attention to action) removed, these memories try
to raise the trap-door--they all want to get through. From the multitude
which are called, which will be chosen? When I was awake, only those
were admitted which bore on the present situation. Now, in sleep, more
vague images occupy my vision, more indecisive sounds reach my ear, more
indistinct touches come to my body, and more vague sensations come from
my internal organs. Hence those memories which can assimilate themselves
to some element in this vague mass of very indistinct sensations manage
to get through. When such union is effected, between memory and
sensation, we have a dream.
In order that a recollection should be brought to mind, it is necessary
that it should descend from the height of pure memory to the precise
point where action is taking place. Such a power is the mark of the
well-balanced mind, pursuing a via media between impulsiveness on the
one hand, and dreaminess on the other. "The characteristic of the man of
action," says Bergson in this connexion, "is the promptitude with which
he summons to the help of a given situation all the memories which have
reference to it. To live only in the present, to respond to a stimulus
by the immediate reaction which prolongs it, is the mark of the lower
animals; the man who proceeds in this way is a man of impulse.
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