Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-04-12
PHENOMENA or DREAMS.
n Strange Impressions and Sensations
Experienced During sleep.

Experienced During sleep.
II is told of the tyrant Dionysius
that one morning one of his intimate
friends and boon companions told him
that he had dreamed the night before
OF cutting Dionysius' throat. where
upon DionySius caused him To be put
10 death, justifying his act by the as
sertion that unless the dreamer thought
of such "A thing in his waking mo-
ments he could not have dreamed it
when asleep.
But is thai theory Of dreams tcnable
or logical! Does "A dream, no matter
how fantastic or unreal, preSuppose a
voluntary act of the mind IN the same
direction. History, observation and
experience would seem 10 show the
contrary. There is no one who has
not had such dreams rs he could not
devise IN iIS Waking moments, or If
he could, would not; for under GER
tain conditions of body and mind we
dream of such horrors rs would af-
fright us could we conceive of them.
Modern philosophy accepts the theo-
~ that the mind is never wholly mac.
tive, and that we always dream whel.
asleep, though we usually forget ouf
dreams. The argument is, that as il
is impossible 10 discharge the mind
when awake of all consciousness. or To
prevent it from acting, SO the mental
process goes on while We are sleeping,
though the knowledge of its action is
mot V.at.attIhln ThA npnsttAa - nnn
that never can be answered. but in.
ductive reasoning Gems 10 support the
position of Sir William Hamilton and
Others that the only dreamless sleep is
the sleep of death.
The phenomena Of dreams have
been studied in "A variety of ways and
with as much care and e~Xactness as
tn. subject permits. A French philos-
opher who took "a great interest in the
subject of dreams made numerous ex-
periments upon himself to test how far
he could determine his dreams al will
by operating upon the mind through
the SENSES. With this view he left his
kness uncovered, and dr.med that lac
was travelling ut night III "A diligence,
with "A strong impression of cold knees
produced by the rigor of the weather.
Darwin relates the ease of "A deaf man
who in his dreams seemed TO converse
by neal of his fingers. He never had
the impression of hearing speech, for
| he had never heard it. We must
dream OF objects with which We are
acquainted, but it is the combination
or use of such objects. of which we
may never have thought, though we
may dream of them. as a man may
dream Of shooting another with a gun
or pistol, though nothing could be
further from his thought, when
awake.
Tartini. who was a distinguished
violin player. is said To have composed
his Devils Sonata under the inspira-
ton of dream; and Coleridge always
professed to have composed his poem,
"kubla Khan" in IA dream. The in.
stances of difficult problems being
solved during sleep are too well at
tested 10 be questioned. and eases OF
other mental labors being completed
in dreams are familiar.
And yet, with all the study and OBJ
~servation of dreams. no one has ever
yet been able 10 say what dreams may
come. There are 50 many conditions
of mind and body to be taken into ac-
count. 50 many unconsidered trities
which the eager memory has seized
aud stored away. 50 many impressions
and sensations which have left a trace
oehind, i~leeting though it may have
seemed, that it is impossible to say
what the action of the mind will he
during our sleeping hours. We may
60 10 bed engrossed with a matter of
paramount Importance, and dream Of
the most trivial matter Imaginable: or
We may go to sleep with a light heart
and in high spirits and then be
crushed and o~verpowered by dreams
of some impending calamity. San
Francisco Chronicle.