The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-04-29
Discoveries Made Through Dreams.

lTemple Bar.l
A certain lawyer was seriously per.
picked with complicated law case. In
the night his wife saw him get up, walk
to writipg-table, compose an elabor-
ate "opinion," placed it carefully in q
drawer, and return to bed. Next morn.
ing he remembered nothing of his dream,
and could not believe it till his wife
gave him occular demonstration of the
fact by pointing out the drawer where
the "opinion" lay complete --
Students and poets are often indebted
to dreams for their brightest ideas. and
the marvellous composition of the frag.
ment '.Kubla Ktan," by CoIeridge, will
occur to every reader. He says he had
fallen asleep in his chair while reading
in 'Purchas' Pilgrimage of palace
built by Khan Kubla, and remained
asl, ep about three hours, during which
time he "cyuld not have composed less
than two or three hundred lines" The
images rose before him as things, and
with them the corresponding express
sions, without any sensation, or con-
sc:ousness of effort" When he awoke
he instantly sat down to commit his
composition to- paper, but was called
away by person on business; and when
he returned to resume the poem it had
utterly vanished from his memory.
Languages long forgotten, or appar-
emily but impel fectly known in waking
life, have been known to recur in dreams
and delirium. Abercrombie relates sew
eral authenticated instances of this sort
and the writer knew an able clergyman
who, when boy, preached over in his
sleep the sermon he had last heard, SEEM
ingly word for word, and it was no un-
common occurrence fer his friends to
gather round His dside to hear his
discourse. But he was endowed with a
marvellous memory in his waking hours !;
and on one occasion, it is said, he learned
three books of Euclid on his way home
from school.
Missing documents aud forgotten
places are sometimes recovered in
dreams. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes
to the "Antiquary," speaks of gentle
man sorely troubled in his mind because
he was pressed for the payment of some
1.-THE money which he believed was un-
justly charged, and which ne had con-
fused recollection of as having been
bought out by his deceased father many
years ago. In bis dreams he thought
the shade of his father appeared to him
and inquired the cause of his grief. Not
at all startled by the apparition he
gravely stated the facts Of the case
The shade told him that he must seek
out an old lawyer who had retired from
professional business and was now living
at Inveresk. He gave the lawyers name
and remarked that the papers relating
to the purchase of the tithes were in his
hands now, but that as the transaction
had occurred many years ago, ard this
was the only one in which the lawyer
was ever engaged on his account, it
would be necessary to call it to his rec
objection by this token, that "when 1
went to pay his account there was
difficulty in getting change for Portu-
gal piece of gold, and we were forced to
drink out the balance at tavern" On
reaching Inveresk the gentleman called
upon the lawyer, who could not remem-
Der the transaction till the incident of
the Portugal coin was mentioned, when
it all recurred to his memory. The
documents were handed over to him aud
carried to Edinburg to prove his case.