The Concordia eagle. [volume] (Vidalia, La.) 1873-1890, 1884-11-29

Impressions on some special sense
will produce very characteristic dreams,
the origin of which may take such tr0u-
bic in its determination that we might
well be tempted to deny the material
origin of the vision. DIR. Reid had a
blister applied TO his head, and dreamt
accordingly that he had been scalped
by Indians. Here the connection be-
tween the dream and the outward i'm
preston, manipulated so to speak by
the brain, was clear. But that connee-
ton may be anything but patent in
cases where person dreams of being
frozen to death, the exciting cause hav-
ing been merely deficiency of bed
clothes on chilly night. In a case re-
lated by DIR. Carpenter, where an emf
pent Judge dreamt OF being tormented
by crowd Of lizards which were crawl
ing over him, the origin of tho dream
was still more difficult TO trace. The
cause of his reptilian visitation was
readily applicable. however, on enter
ing the department in which he had
spent the previous evening, when he
saw on the base of the clock n number
of carved lizards. A similar instance
is Afforded by 4 personal experience OF
the writer in which he dreamt that he
was walking in II forest in which lizards
| of every hue and Kind were engaged in
! combat with humming-birds. Puz-
Zllng himself over the origin of his
! dream, it At last dawned upon his recol-
lection that some time previously ne
had travelled in II railway carriage haV-
| ing for its vis.a-vis a lady whose hat
WAS decorated with hummfng- birds
| plumagc, fastened bv brooch acc,,-
| rately representing lizard. BY the same
kind of association revived by memory,
and often projecting forgotten reminis-
] cences into the 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 Wis.,
| tied village on the Marine named Trii-
port. His father had built bridge at
this spot. The subject of his dream was
that his childhood DAYS were being
spent ut Trilport. and that man in
uniform, on being asked his name, told
| Marry that he was the bridge keeper
and mentioned his name, which Maury
distinctly remembered when he woke.
| OF this name be had no recollection
whatever, but inquiring of an old SER
want of his fathers il n person of the
! Eame in question was once gate-keeper
! at Trilport bridge she replied in the
affirmative. and mentioned that the
man kept the gate when the bridge was
| built.
Thus does memory play strange tricks
with our imagination, especially when
! q g., 1, 81
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 Il sop to the terberus
/ of ignorance. II is casy--far too easy
| for the peace and comfort of Ihany
minds to convert mere coincidence
between dream and an event into a
! close relationship which seems in the
dream toreshadoWng Of the event in
/ question. But in science, as in healthy
/ common.scnSc, there is no justification
/ for the continuance of such super
stition. If certain dreams are warn
/ ings and pOrtents, what shall we
say of those 10 which no such functions
can be attached? Aud if of certain
! trivial events we are forewarned, what
! is the explanation of the striking anom-
aly. that Of the crave disasters of life
we usually receive no warning at ALP
DIR. Maut-icy says, at has been justly
| remarked that if we were actually to
do in sleep all 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
madmcn. A dream put into action
must indcc look vcrg much like in
sanity &c. =. the ordinary sleep-vigiD,
as insanity has ut times the look of a
waking dream
Poets without number have invariably
! treated dreams rs the best type of the
unrealties Of life and nature. The
Psychologist, on the contrary, sees in
the visions of the night no tritiing OBJ
icctS unworthy of serious study and re-
/ Election, but indications and clues to the
better understanding of the mysteries
which hc-ct our waking lives. 1.-The
grave portrnt>' Of the night in this
view east no shadow over tie future,
and exercise no sway over the de.tinie5
of the modern mind They serve, how
ever, nDhtrr purpose, rs aids through
their revelations # the ieisure-fancies
of the brain, towards n knowledge of
the boundaries which separate the realm
of body from that of mmd-boundaricS
which, in truth, divide our being. -
Gcatlca2aa'S U"9aziRc.