Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-02
IN DREAMLAND.
A REMARKABLE VISION AND ITS
PROBABLE EXPLANATION.

What Lord Brougham Says of Dreams.
A summer Losfer's Experience-Cole-
ridges "KubIs Khan "-How the Soul
Suffers During Sleep.
A remarkable dream was related by Rev.
r ID. Grafton in the personal knowledge Of
Rev Mr.. Gregory, both well known ministers
in Texas In Denton county, some years
since, gentleman WIS sick enough to require
some attention ut night No one thought the
sick man dangerously i'll \ friend sat with
him till midnight, giving medicine. The sick
man resting comfortably and no more to be
done by direction of the physician, the
watcher, getting drowsy, leaned his chair
against the foot of the bel and fell asleep.
He dreamed he saw the soul of the sick friend
come out of his mouth, get on the floor, go be-
hind a chair, try to hide behind another, then
behind the wardrobe, finally crouch by the
fireplace. The devil entered the room and
followed the soul In every step it had taken,
behind the chalIS, wardrobe. then before it,
at the fireplace, when the soul gave piercing
shrek and awoko tho sleeper to find his sick
friend dead! A man dead whom no one ex-
pected TO diel
This was related to show the communica-
ton between the soul in the body and that Of
one in the other world, or departing Is this
truei | do not think the question can be an
swered in the affirmative with such proof as
offered in the occurrence related or any of a
similar naIuN. | affirm that the sleeping
man was awak med by the scream of his dy-
ing friend or solIe other noise If any, and
that the dream nay have occupied only the
fractional part Of a sNcnnd The sleeper may
have had this distempered dream and awak.
encd from an uncomfortable position in his
chair to find his friend dead. He went To
sleep rejecting on sickness, possibly death.
The two thoughts are almost if not quite in
separable.
THINKING DURING SLEEP.
Dreaming is thinking during sleep. Lord
Brougham probably devoted more attention
in learned, scientific way to the study of
dreams than any other writer worth mention
ing, though many distinguished scholars have
thought and written much on the same sub
jeCt. A writer puts the matter tersely thus:
dreams have, in all ages and countries,
beeh believed in as indications of the future:
and of all forms of superstition. this is, per
haps, the most excusable.n Lord Broughsm
said all our dreams occur either Just as we
GO 10 sleep or as We wake. In the main this
is correct, but ii is established that there are
exceptions / believe the sleeper who awak-
ened to find his friend dead dreamed as he
awoke He may not have slept more than
second. Sir Benjamin Brodie relates of Lord
Holland: ''On ono occasion when he was
fatigued, while listening to friend reading
aloud, he feel asleep, and had a dream, the
particulars Of which it would have occupied
him quarter of an hour or longer to express
In writing. After he aWoke he found that he
remembered the beginning OF one sentence,
while he actually heard the latter part OF the
sentence immediately following 1t, so that
probably the whole time during which he
slept hd not occupy more than few sec
onds
Last summer, where now write, was en-
gagged An easy-Solng loafer came In.
continued TO read or write de placed his
chair against the wall and fell asleep. l ac-
cldentaliy knocked book of the table. He |
jumped nearly out OF his chair and thanked
me Tor aWaklng hlm from troubled dream, |
IN which he was engaged In fight. A pistol |
shot had Just been fired, he said. This man |
had been involved in his ungoverned passion !
IN n petty quarrel lie was broodlng over 1t; |
expected TO shoot some one or get shot Had |
told me a short time before. The noise of the !
falling book caused HIM to dream Of the |
fight with pistols, also awakened him from /
dream That seemed 70 him TO extend over |
considerable Tune. L knew 1t was only the !
fractional part ot a second.
CoLERIDGE's "KUBLA KHAN"
Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" was a fragment |
of 800 or 800 lines that he dreamed after |
reading in his chair: Here the Khan Kubla !
commanded palace to be built" etc Tar |
TIM composed the Devils Sonata" while |
dreaming. If it is objected that all this |
could not he done in the fractional part Of a |
second of time, | would answer: What is the |
experience of him whose life is suddenly i'm |
periled! A fash" Of the mind illumincs the |
whole life that is INST, thoupbt I would h.a |