National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1872-08-30
Nightmare and Dreams.

There IL ono curious and difacult in.
quiry To which no satisfactory reply has
yet been given. II IL in regard 10 the
horrible phenomena Of nightmare. Why
IL IL that our dreams, when we sleep IN
m easy position and the organism IL in
healthy action, are beautiful and agree.
able but whel we sleep in cramped,
oppressive ntti ude, or are suffering from
Indigestion, they are invariably of n
frightful character, full of deformity or
danger, causing pain and terror z? OF
this abstruse and interesting problem the
following solution is suggested - II solu
ton which, il is believed, will be accep-
table and conclusive to those familiar
with the ultimate principles Of physiolo.
gical and psychological science. Ugly
and terribly outward phenomena, report
ed in the brain, and these interpreted in
relation to what the exigency requires OF
the organism, produce disturbing and
violent reactions IN various nerve-centres.
These reactions, reporting themselves IN
the brain, are there, by the inverse
action OF the law Of association, taken TO
imply the presence, as outward causes,
of the ugly and terrible phenomena of
which they had before been consequen.
ces. II piece of tough beef in the
stomach causes from within just such n
ganglionic perturbation rs would be
caused from without by murderous
deed or tall from precipice, Is it not
quite natural that the mind, deprived Of
its usual verifying tests, should think its
subjective Interpretation of the former
ah objective experience OF the latter
The commonest mistake in regard to
mind from abroad. With u fine fancy,
but fictitious thought, poet says
"Sleep is a traitor
Who fills the poor defenceless eyes with black
ness,
That he may let in dreams.'
They are evoked, not introduced
When the inner play becomes, rs it
sometimes does, so exciting and power
full rs to strike the springs Of volition,
and thus move the muscles, as we have
communication, which is dream put into
action. Are not some men sleep-walkers
all their days, putting their dreams into
action The essence of a dream then, is
that objects and events which are only
ideally perceived within the mind are
credited rs having outward existence.
And In this innermost essence of the
thing, in this outermost color of the
phenomenon, is not our whole life full
of dream ? Pascal impressively asks in
one of those pregnant paragraphs which
often fell from his pen. "lf we were
solitary when awake, but dreamed III
company, and our dreams accorded with
each other, who doubts that we should
believe matters reversed? In fine, AS
we frequently dreamed that we dream,
piling one dream upon another, it Is
quite possible that this life is only
dream, on which Others are grated, from
which we awake Mt 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 destined
never to be any part of the veritable
world 1t is one OF the deep utterances
of old Heraclitus that they who are
awake have a world in common among
them but they who sleep are retired
each to his own private world" Never
theless, literal and large as the truth in
this maxim - still with reference to our
moral experience an inverse statement
for the former cause of it would express
a graver truth, and one with more
comprehensive inference Consider it
thus. Our common waking life is like
dream, because in it each man lives
special experience within a world speci
ally shared and colored bv his dominant
idiosyncrasies. Dublin University Maga-
zine