After placing in the face the light-enduring eyes, they enclosed in them the light-like portion of fire; which being smooth and dense, they conceived to be the brother of the light of day. Now this runs through the whole of the eye, and especially the middle of it, in the most easy manner, (as being) the most pure and clear; and having a sympathy with the light without, as like has with like, it furnishes the sense of sight. Hence when light has departed at night or become obscured, that, which flows from us, adheres no longer to the air that is near; but, being kept within, it smooths down and disperses the emotions within us, and becomes the bringer-on of sleep, by which the eyelids are closed; and when there is a great quietness, slumbers fall upon (us) with short dreams; but when some emotions are still left, frequent phantoms are produced around us; and in this way are formed visions, that become, according to a direct road, some, day-dreams, and some, night-dreams... — Alcinous, *Handbook of Platonism*, Ch. 18, trans. George Burges (1854), pp. 279–280. *Surface Gloss:* Sight occurs when pure internal fire flows through the pupil and fuses with kindred daylight. At night, this ray cannot bind to dark air; turning back inside the body, it either calms our internal motions into dreamless sleep or collides with leftover agitation to generate dreams. **The Attention-Conservation Loop:** The energy you use to scan and engage the outside world does not vanish when you shut the world out; it turns inward. If your internal state is calm when you disconnect, that redirected attention repairs and quiets your system. If you disconnect while still carrying unresolved daytime agitations, your own perceptive energy will collide with those leftovers and manufacture phantoms all night.
— In our words · Source: Handbook of Platonism (Alcinous)