The Penn's Grove record., 1884-11-01
VIVA, q. :.

Impressions OF, some special sense
vtll produce very paracteristic dreams,
the origion of mich may take such
trouble in its dissemination that We
might well bs tempted to deny the
material origin Of the vision. Dr. Il I'd
had a blister applied to his head, ana
dreamt accordingly that he mad been
scalped by Indians. here the connee-
ton between the dream and the ont
ward Impression, manipulated, so to
speak, by the brain, was clear? But
that connection may be anything but
patent In cases where a person dreams
OF being frozen to death, the exciting
having been merely a deficiency
of bedelothes on a chilly night. In a
case related by DIR. Carpenter, where
an eminent Judge dreamt OF being tor
mented by a crowd of Lizards, which
were crawling over him, the origin OF
the dream was still more difficult to
trace. The cause of this reptilian visl-
tation was readily s~xpllcable, however.
on his entering the apartment In winch
he a spent the previous evening, when
he saw on the base of the clock a num-
Der OF carved lizards.
A similar instance is afforded by a
personal experience of the Nr ter, In
which he dreamt that he was walking
In a forest in which lizards OF every hue
and kind were engaged IN a combat
with humming birds. Puzzling him
self over the origin of his dream, 1t at
last dawned upon his recollection that
some time previously he had traYersed
In a railway carriage, having Tor his
vls-s-vls a lady whose hat was decorat-
ed with humming birds plumage.
fasten by a brooch accurately repre-
senting a lizard. By the same kind OF
ASSOCIATION revived by memory, and
often projecting forgotten remtscenets
into tue mental foreground, dreams
are suggested which deal with events at
first sight apt TO be mistaken for those
OF utterly spontaneous nature.
Maury relates that IN early life he
visited a village on the Marine, named
Trilport. His father had built abridge
aL this spot. The subject of one dream
was that his childhood days were being
spent at TriIport, aud that a man in
uniform, on being asked his name, told
Maury that he was a bridgekeeper and
mentioned his name, which Maury
distinctly remembered when he awoke,
Ot his name he had no recollection
whatever, but on inquiring OF an Old
servant of his fathers if a person of
the name in question was once gate
keeper at TriIport bridge, she answered
IN the affirmative, and mentioned that
tho mon Hank 4ba s,ota mhan tho hrIHDa
was built.
Thus does memory play strange tricks
with our imagination, especially when
the latter faculty runs riot in the
absence of will and consciousness, and
relates itself to the world of dreams.
The supernatural theory of dreams and
warnings recently revived in our midst
is, after all, but a sop to the Cerberns
OF ignorance. 1t is easy-far too easy
for the peace and comfort of many
minds-to convert a mere coincidence
between a dream and al event into q
close relationship which seems IN the
dream a foreshadowing of the event III.
question. But In science, As IN healthy
common sense, there is no Justification
for the continuance of such superstl-
ton. If certain dreams are warnings
and portents, what shall we say OF
those to which no such functions can be-
attached? And ii of certain trivial
events we are forewarned, what Is the
explanation of the striking anomaly,
that of the grave disasters of life We
usually receive no warning at all?
DIR. Maudsley said: at has been
Justly remarked that il We were actually
to do in sleep ali the strange things We
dream we do, it would be necessary to
put every man in restraint before he
went to bed; for, as Cicero said, dream
ers would DO more strange things than
madmen. A dream put into action
must, indeed, 10 k very much like in
sanity q. g., the ordinary sleep vigil
as insanity has at times the look OF II
waking dream"
Poets wlthOutnumber have invariably
treated dreams as the best type of the
unrealities of hfe and nature. The
psychologist, on the contrary, sees in
the visions of the night no trifing
objects unworthy Of serious study and
reflection, but Indications and clews to
the better understanding of the myster-
les which beset our waking lives. ''The
grave p~ortents" of the night in this
view cast no shadow over the future,
and exercise no sway over the destinies
of the modern mind. They serve,
however, a noble purpose, as aids,
through their revelations of the leisure
fancies of the brain. toward a knowledge
of the boundaries which separate the
realm of body from that of mind
boundaries which in truth divide III
being"
THE University of Heidelberg recent
Iy refused $40, 900 on condition that it