16. On this hypothesis, the soul must have ideas not derived from sensation or reflection, of which there is no
appearance.
It is true, we have sometimes instances of perception whilst we are asleep, and retain the memory of
those thoughts: but how extravagant and incoherent for the most part they are; how little conformable to the
perfection and order of a rational being, those who are acquainted with dreams need not be told. This I would
willingly be satisfied in,--whether the soul, when it thinks thus apart, and as it were separate from the body, acts
less rationally than when conjointly with it, or no. If its separate thoughts be less rational, then these men must
say, that the soul owes the perfection of rational thinking to the body: if it does not, it is a wonder that our dreams
should be, for the most part, so frivolous and irrational; and that the soul should retain none of its more rational
soliloquies and meditations.
