Weekly Trinity journal., 1876-09-30

his external consciousness.
Maignan, the mathematical priest,
was wont to pursue his studies in the
circles of shadows, and when he had
demonstrated theorem the pleasure he
experienced would stir him out of his
dream.
Abercrombie informs us of nm advo-
cate who was much concerned in respect
to legal opinion that he soon had to
deliver. While ntently rejecting upon
the matter, he went to bed. A little at
ter midnight his wife saw him rise, go to
his desk, and write for two or three
hours. In the morning he told her te
had n singular dream, during which he
solved all the difficulties of the case, rem
derng it entirely clear to himself, and
that he regretted exceedingly he could
not recolect the particulars of his dream
"But you were up during the night"
she said, "and hard at work at your
desk. Surely you were notasleep then?"
"Iou are certainly mistaken, my
dear" he replied and he was co6dent
he was right, until she showed him his
opinion fully and clearly untoldcd on
the manuscript he had prepared in his
sleep.
In "Notes and Queries" (January II,
lS60) is printed an extraordinary recital,
on the authority of the Rev. j do Liefde,
of another cergyman's somnambulic ex.
perence.
The minister then student at the
Mennonite Seminary, Amsterdam often
attended lectures of Prof Van Swinden.
A largo banking house had given TO the
Professor very intricate calculation to
make. uo had toiled over it again and
| again, and in consequence OF the great
number Of figures, had failed each time.
Finally he showed the sum to ten Of the
students, of whom the narrator was one,
with the request that they should try to
work il out at home.
The clergyman aforesaid set to the
task with exceeding zeal. For three
nights he labored very late, and the pro
duct was invariably wrong. On the
third night, when the clock had struck
two, when three largo states had been
filled with figures, and the candles had
burned to the socket, the puzzled arith-
metican quilted the problem, and sought
his couch. In few minutes he was
sound asleep, and awoke barely in sen.
son to attend Van Swinden's lecture
Chagrined Mt his Illustration, he was on
the point of leaving his apartment, when.
to his amazement, he found ON his table
the calculation umInously made, and
free from single error. AT first he
could hardly credit his senses but the
figures were so plainly his own that he
could not doubt.
He had solved the problem in his
sleep, also in the dark, and so concisely
that on the paper before him were less
than one third Of the figures he hnd put
| upon the states. Van Swinden was ms
much delighted as surprised, declaring
that he had never thought of method
so simple and compact.
Do we ever sleep without dreaming ?
| The question has been discussed both
by anciepts and moderns. Hippocrates,
Plato, Leibnitz, Dcs Cartes, Cabans,
and other eminent physicians and philos.
/ l. 81. L.. Il 1.
stantially, that it is the body which
sleeps, the soul that dreams ; that the
former needs rest and the latter does
not that while physically fettered the
souls natural expression is in dream
The soul being immortal, incapable, in
| dependent Of stay or stop, must neccssa-
riy and perpetunlly dream. Because
we do not remember our dreams is no
proof that we do not have them. Per-
sons on waking will feel confident that
they have not dreamed and yet, during
the day, some outward happening orpass-
ing thought will, by force of associati1n
recall the dream or dreams they had es-
trely forgotten. 1t is even questionable
if dreams ever 90 entirely out Of memory.
They may not be recolected tor week
or month, or II year but they are
some time, though in so vague and shad-
owy manner as to lose their identity.
We are constantly receiving impress
sions Of being in places, Of meeting per
sons, Of doing things that we have been in,
met, and done before. Is not this trace
able to the influence Of the external upon
the dim fancy Of departed dream; re
viving in the mind whit would seem
never to have been there ?
Who can say that much Of what We
consider Imagination, instinct, sympathy,
intuition, all impondefable qualities, is
not due to dreams, whose suggestions
are shaping and infinite =? Even part Of
our knowledge may spring from the
same source, since we can never tell
whence or how 1t comes. Maniiestly,
the sphere of sleep is broader, more
moving, more creative than is generally
believed. We pay little atten ton TO it,
are so prone to despise its appurtennnces,
that we are naturally without understand !
ing of its power or scope. Plato ascribed
all knowledge to reminicence, reminis-
cence to pre-existence. Dreams would
appear to sanction his theory might
stand, in some sort, for the third ele-
ment, which he calls passion, interme-
diate between the soul proper and the APP
pettive principle between the divine
and human, the intellectual and sensu-
Gus.
The ideals that all Of us have are more
nearly met in sleep than in wnkefulness.
Our dreams seem 10 reveal the possibili-