The Cecil Whig., 1881-09-10
CHARACTERISTICS OF DREAMS.

! will give a simple illustration of this
lyrical type of dream. \ little girl of
abont four years and three-quarters went
with her parents to Switzerland. On
their way she was taken TO the cathedral
of Strasburg, and saw the celebrated
strike, and the figures of the apostles
come out. etc. In Switzerland she stayed
at GimmcIwald. near Murren. opposite
4 fine naSS of snowy mountains. One
morning she told her father that she had
had such a lovely dream" She faucied
she was on the snow peaks with her
nurse, and walked on to the sky. There
came out of the sky "such beautiful
things, just like the figures of the clock.
This vision of celestial things was clearly
due to the fact that both the clock and
and snow peaks touching the blue sky
had powerfully excited her Imagination.
filling her with much the same kind of
emotion-namely, wonder, admiration,
and longing to reach an inaccessible
height. Our feelings commonly have IA
gradual rise and fall. and the organic
sensations which SO often constitute the
emotional basis of our lyrical dreams
generally have stages of increasing in
tensty. Moreover, such a persistent
ground feeling becomes reinforced by the
images which it sustains in conscious
ness. Hence, a certain crescendo char
acter in our emotional dreams. or grad
ual rise to some eliminating point or eli
max. This phase of dream can be illus
trated from the experience of the same
little girl. When just five years old she
was staying at Hampstead, near a church
which struck the hours somewhat loudly.
One morning she related the following
dream to her father q use her own Ian
guage): The biggest bells in the world
were ringing; when this was over the
earth and houses began to tumble to
pieces: all the seas rivers. and ponds
flowed together, and covered all the land
with black water as deep as in the sea
where the ships sail; people We're drowned,
she herself flew above the water. rising
and falling, fearing to fall in: she then
saw her mamma drowned, and at last
flew home to tell her papa. The grad
ual increase of alarm and distress ex-
pressed in this dream, having its proba-
BILE cause in the cumulative effect of the
disturbing sound of the church bells,
must be patent to all.
The following rather comical dream
illustrates quite as clearly the growth Of
a feeling of irritation and vexation. proba-
bly, connected with the development of
some slightly discomposing organic SEN
sation. I dreamed | was unexpectedly
called on to lecture 30 a class of young
women on Herder. began hesitatingly,
with some vague generalities about the
Augustan age of German literature, re-
ferrinG 10 the three well-known names
of Lessing. Schiller, and Goethe. I'm
mediately my sister, who suddenly ap-
peared in the class, took me up. and said
she thought there was a fourth distin-
guiShcd name belonging to the period.
| was annoyed at the interruption. but
said. with a feeling of triumph, 81 sup
pose you mean Winelando' and then
appealed to the class whether there were
not twenty persons who knew the names
| had mentioned to one who knew Wine
lands name. Then the class became
generally disorderly. Ny feeling of en-
barrassment gained in depth. Finally,
as 4 climax. several quite young girls.
about ten years and less. came and joined
the class. The dream broke off abruptly
as was in the act Of taking these chill
dren to the wife of an old college tutor
to protest against their admission. 1t is
worth noting. perhaps, that in this evo-
luton of feeling in dreaming the quality
of emotion may vary with certain limits.
One shade of feeling may be followed by
another and kindred shade. SO that the
whole dream still preserves 4 degree,
though less obvious degree, of emo
tional unity. Thus, for example. a lady
friend of mine once dreamed that she
was in church, listening to a well-known
novelist. Of the more earnest sort. preach
ing. \ wounded soldier was brought in
to be shot. because he was mortally
wounded, and had distinguished himself
by his bravery. He was then shot, but
not killed. and, rolling over in agony,
exclaimed How long?" The develop
ment of an extreme emotion of horror
out of the vague feeling of awe which is
associated with church, gives a curious
interest to this dream.