The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-05-14
DREAMS.

From Mr. Ayers dream of Life wc
make the following quotations:
There is one curious and difficult inquiry 10
which no satisfactory reply has yet been gwen.
1t is in regard to tho horrible phenomenon OF
nightmare. Why is it that our dreams, when
we sleep in an easy position and the organism
is in healthy action, are beautiful and agreed
BILE; but when we sleep i'll cramped. oppTes-
siye attitude, or are suffering from indigestion,
they are Invariably OF 4 frghtful character
full OF defOrmity or danger, cHuSlng pam ana
terror? Of this abstruse and interesting pro-
blem the following solution is suggested-a So
luton which, it Is believed will be acceptable
and conclusive 10 those familiar with the ultl-
mate principles of physiological and psycholo-
Eicai science. Ugly and terrible outward phe.
nomena, reported in the brain, and there
INTERPRETED in relation to what the ext
rency requires of the organism, produce
disturbing and violent reactions in varl-
Gus nerve-centres. These reactions, re-
porting themselves in the brain, are
there, by the inverse action of the law Of asso-
citation, taken TO imply the presence, ms out
ward causes Of the ugly and terrible pheno-
ma of which they had before been conse-
uuenccs. If n piece of tough beef in the Sto =
mach causes from within just such Il gangli-
onic perturbation rs would be caused from
without by 4 murderous deed or fall from Il
precpice, is it not quite natural that the
mind deprived of its usual verifying tests,
should think its subjective Interpretation OF
the former an objective experience Of the lat
ter?
The commonest mistake in regard to dreams
is the belief that they enter the mind from
abroad. With fine fancy, but fictitious thought,
4 poet says:
"Sleep is traitor
Who fills the poor defenceless eyes with black
ness,
That he may let in Dreams
They are eyoked-not introduced. When
the inner play becomes, rs 1t sometimes does,
so exciting and powerful as 10 strike the
springs of voiton and thus move the mus
Giles, we have standardization, which is dream
put into action. Are not some men sleep
walkers all their days, putting their dreams
into action? The essence of Il dream, then,
is that. objects and events which are only
ideally perceived within the mind are credited
as having outward existence. And in this
innermost essence of the thing, in this outer
most color of the phenomenon, is not our
whole life full of dream Pascal impressirely
asks in one of those pregnant paragraphs
which often fell from his pen, "1f we were
solitary when awake, but dreamed in COM
pany, and our dreams accorded with each
other, who doubts that we should be-
levc matters reversed In fine, as we
frequently dream that we dream, piling
one dream upon another, it is quite pos
sib!e that this life itself is only Il dream,
on which others are grated, from which we
awake 1T death, and during which we have
the principles of the true and the good as little
as during natural sleep" How many things
which for the time sway and shape us are
limited to our own souls-pure localities des-
tined never to be any part of the Yeritable
world 1t is one Of the deep utteranccs OF old
loraclitus that "they who are awake have 4
world in common among them but they who
sleep are retired each TO his own private
world" Nevertheless, literal and large as the
truth in this maxim is, still, with reference &c
our moral experience, II is IN inverse state
ment; for the former cause of it would express
4 graver truth, and one with more compre'
hensive inference. Our common waking life
Is like n dream, because in ii each man lives I
nI,l rnrll iat IL
shaped and colored by his dominant idosyn
craseS.
"Well may sleep present rs fiction
Since our waking moments TEEN
With such fanciful convictions
AS make life itself Il dream"
Since God is infinite, nothing can occur be
You'd Him. All things are embraced within
Ills intelligence. The universe, then, is Hi:
dream. How woudrously has glided through
the Divine thought the solemn and many co
lored Dream of History since the birth of th'
earliest man unto this hour Silent, swift
with Kaleidoscope changes, the weird, EN-
broiled procession OF nations, peoples, reVoiu
lions, trophies, has swept on, from the pain tee
sayages, half clad in skins Of beasts, will
their war clubs, their watch fires, their fran
tic dances and idolatrous rites, by nomadit
hordes with swarming ilocks, by slave crowd
ed cities, BY Brahm!nism, BUDDHISM Moham
mechanism TO the peers of France and the lord.
of England in the centre OF the nineteenth
century. Inc SOmnOlenl troops OF ACTORS dllL
events file past and fade upon our contempa
1ion-a shadowy vision ala dream.
Dreams, literally speaking, are unhealthy
products, symptoms OF morbid states. They
are not the right working, but the impnge
rment and Jar of the fine machinery of til,
brain not Il part OF the souls perfect music
but Il discord dream is L passing delirum
.lelirum is Il fixed dream orerpowering reason
If every faculty were i'll wholly normal
condition, and al We're tremendously ba-
lnnpp1 and function entirely fIl.
filled, we ShouM nsper dream. The activities
of the day would suffice and no surplusage
defect or irritation would remain TO create
the diSturbance of dreams within our dark
covered slumbers. The application of this
fact 10 our waking life is immediate, and is
not without pathos. For what are our
choicest day dreams, those dear reYeries,
imaginary Screenings, inward scenic tri-
ulnphs-what are they but the refuge and
resource OF the disappointed heart lis
holy anticipations and wild longingS thwarted
III world gone wrong and too harsh and mar
row, The hungry but creative soul builds its
own palace, peoples ii from affection, and
;dorns 1t with glories no stranger eye can see.
as we are, aud rs the world is, how many per-
sons tead Two liyes-one Of public duty III the
routine Oh business, the other or withdrawn
romance IN The hearts secret home, So we
read III the tale artfully elaborated by Bul.
WET, OF an enthusiast, who, learning 10 con-
meet and follow through his dreams from sleep
70 steep, led one life OF prosaic care and labor
In the dusty hustle OF the days, another life of
.naSicai sp!endor and sweetness in the star.
hung silence of the nights
nile we wear this heavy veil of flesh here
"hete every essence OF truth is hid behind tho
mask OF the material creation all things are
ien OF dreaming, from the giant ocean nur-
hufing IN his sleep TO the stars winkiug slum
oroasiy on their thrones. Occasionally for !,
niue lime, we arouse from our dreams a,d
ase aware OF the evanescent delusiops. and of
me everlasting verites cor trasted with Ihen =.
S Sra eaTthis temperament and fate have
utusgeo US TOO deeply, and we soon subsL,s
again. 'i'iohaFy realm
Death ua Is the last and comp,e,cst breaker .,
browsing souls. Mohammed w,ro,a ~ o ., VI
ran, " While men live they sleep when , fno
o1e they wake" But Shakespeare makes ,hs