The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-09-15

=" Therer' said the queer boy to the
old man, when he had finished, q I was
pretty sure you knew all about it, and
we're all much obliged to ."-Wid,
AWGEe. 3
Dreams and Dreamers.
DIR. Radcliffe may be quite right tha
there are, and have been in all ages
dreamers of dreams, who saw in theil
dreams more of the spiritual world thar
they could have seen in their wakino
hours; that there is such thing as d
gain OF spiritual liberty when the
senses are laid to sleep, instead of q
loss. When st. Peter saw the vision
telling him that what God had cleansed
he was not permitted to call common
when st. Paul saw in vision the man OF
Macedonia imploring him to come over
and help the people of Macedonia-nay,
when st. John heard in his vision the
various messages to the Seven Churches
which he was to deliver in his Lord s
name, no doubt the quiescence Of these
dreamers' bodily faculties had helped
to render their spirits more open to the
higher impressions which the Divine
Mind impressed upon them than thev
would have been in active life; and so
Tar they were in more living spiritual
world with their senses quiescent than
they would have been with their senses
IN full activity. And no doubt, there
are plenty of occasions, from time to
time-though occasions relatively very
rare-in every country and every age.
when the same thing, in minor sense.
is true of more ordinary men; when, as
DIR. Carpenter, in his interesting book
on mental physiology, shows the light
OF the mind is all the clearer for the
sleep of at least large potion of the
body; when problems are solved in a
state OF somnambulism which were be-
yond the mind which solved them in it's
ordinary state. But so surely as this is
exceptionally true, so surely is it ordi-
narily false. For the most part. our
dreams are the grotesque records of
vagrant associations, breaking away
without meaning or reason into all sorts
OF misleading tracks. connecting us not
with real beings, but with stray whiffs
and sounds and glimpses of real life,
piecing together the odds and ends, the
rags and tags of experience. In the
most capricious manner, and introducing
US neither to the spiritual world nor to
the material world, but to a disorderly
chaos of confused emotions and waits
and strays of perception For the most
part it can not be denied that the same
man must keep his senses vigilant, in
order that his spirit may be at it's high
est vigilence, too. The spiritual reali-
ties OF life are not usually attained
through any extra-natural or preternat-
ural exercise of spirital faculties in the
paralysis OF the bodily faculties, bat
through the highest energy of the bod
lily faculties-a highest energy which
they only attain when they paw due
obedience to the control of the spirit.
We do not deny that now and again, as
i in the proof of the very partial char
acter of the experience Of our present
life, we come across true instances in
which the spirit seems not only indc-
pendent of the body, but to have fuller
life through that independence. But
Tor the most part it is notso. Our high
est conscience, our highest imagination.
our highest sympathy, our highest rea-
ION. our highest memory, our highest
will and our highest faith are reached,
1ot through the abdication of our bodily
powers, but through their fullest and
lealthiest activity. In other words, we
lave not free access. in our ordinary
condition, to thatinfinite spiritual world
n which DR.. Radcliffe thinks that spir-
fa tuondor Of fhns,s
,hored by our bodies to given and very
limited portions of time and space.
)nly in these portions of time and
pace we discern nothing truly, except
lnder due submission to spiritual laws,
md in the full recognition of spiritual
authority. When Prospero said what
)r. Radcliffe quotes from the ITEM
'est, = g We are such stuff as dreams
re made of, and our little life is round
d with Sleep" he was not paying hu-
nan life a compliment, but rather
mlllng at its expense. Prospero ex-
lains himself by saying:
Sir, I am vexed
'ear with my weakness; my old brain is
e not disturbed with mine infirmity.
Dreams were not, in Shakespeare's
yes, the types of our permanent life,
ut the symbols of those Intellectual and |
efforts which end in failure. |
nd which, of the grand pageant they
romlse us, leave mot rack behind.n
md SO. though we quite agree in the |
lain with DIR. Radcliffe's spiritual phi |
,sophy, we regret the special connec-
on with a class of phenomena, the |
ormal character of which does not |
end to substantiate his view, but only |
illustrate one of the most important |
RECEPTIONS in its validity. London /
,pectator.
"A bitter commentator writes in the |
Indianapolis Herald: g The manner in