Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-05-23
EXTRAORDINARY DREAMS.

SOME DISCOVERIES MADE THROUGH THEM
A writer in Temple Bar has the fol
| lowing about dreams: A certain lawyer
was seriously perplexed with q compll
Gated law case. In the night his wife
saw him get up, walk to writing table
compose an elaborate ''opinlon," place il
carefully in drawer, and return tc
bed. Next morning he remembered
nothing Of his dream, and could not be.
leive it till his wife gave him ocular de-
monstration of the fac by pointing out
the drawer where the "epinion" lay com
plete.
Students and poets are often indebted
to dreams for their brightest ideas, and
the marvellous composition of the frag-
ment "Kubla Khan" by Coleridge, Will
occur to every reader. He says ne had
fallen asleep in his chair while reading
in "Purchas's Pilgrimage" of a palace
built by Khan Kubla, and remained
asleep about three hours, during which
time he could not have composed less than
two or three hundred lines. The images
rose before him as things, and with them
the corresponding expressions, without
any sensation or consciousness 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.
Language long forgotten, or apparently
but imperfectly known in waking lie,
have been known to recur IN dreams anu
delirium. Abercrombie relates several
authenticated instances Of this sort; and
the writer knew an able clergyman who,
VIII en- boy, preached over IN MS sleep
the sermon he had las heard, seemingly
wor d for word, and twas no nnccmmon
occurrence for his friends to gather round
his bedside to hear his discourse. But he
was endowed with marvellous memory In
his waking hours; and on one occasion.
It is said, he learned three books on his
way home from school.
Missing documents and forgotten
places are sometimes recovered in dreams.
Sir Walter Scott, IN his notes to the "An-
tiquary," speaks of a gentleman sorely
troubled in his mind because he was
pressed for the payment OF some 1.-THE
money which he believed was unjustly
charged. and which he had confused
recollection of as having been bought out
BY his deceased father many years ago:
In his dreams he thought the shade OF
his father appeared to rim 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
who had retired from professional bust
ness and was now living at Inveresk. lie
gave the lawyers name and remarked
that the papers relating to the
purchase of the tithes were in his hands
now, but that the transaction had oc-
CURED many years ago, and this was the
only one in which the lawyer was ever
engaged on his account, it would be nee
essary to call it to his recollection by this
token, that "when went to pay his ac-
count there was a difficulty IN getting
change fol Portugal 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 remember the transact on till
the incident of the Portugal coin was
mentioned, when it ali required to his
memory. The documents were handed
over to him and carried to Edinburgh to
prove his case.