Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-07
WHY DO MEN DREAlGf

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Reference TO the Drsamers.
From the New York Sun.
II have passed q miserable nigh" said the
man, ''as full Of dreams e. the head Of Car
ence. I was In Labrador, in China, in flight
with the Calmuck Tartars, led around in hell
BY Virgil, in the Hall of Eblis with vathek with
my hand clutched hard at my burning heart,
buried deep under the great pyramid, making
love to all three Of the Weird Sisters at once,
riding across Sahara on q lame dromedary that
looked at me with CLASSY and hideous eyes
placed in the back of his head, having knife
thrust into my breast and turned in the wound,
and finally fetching up here in New York again,
which was the worst Of all. for ought to be in
Paris, or Bruges, or Provence, or somewhere.
It is hard that can't dream Of pleasant things
once in a WHILE
why do men dream anyway
so! said the man, '.if you want me to hold
my dim little candle over that great mine, am
willing enough to do it. In thoughts from the
visions OF the night when deep sleep falleth on
men, then fear came upon me and great trem-
Then spirit passed before my face The hair
Of my flesh stood up That is the sort Of dream
that came upon good man Job shortly after
the winds Of heaven had blown upon the four
corners of the house in which his children were
making merry, and leveled it with the ground.
His old wife was probably Numbering calmly
beside him at the time, and Eliphaz was snor-
ing away with nothing to bother him.
ton very clearly"
over the deep mine," said the man. "what is
the wide realm Of wild reality that Byron
talks about? And the three great dreams Of
Dante-ln what world was he when he dreamed
them! What reality and what 10 unreality?
Mnen you know that, perhaps you will under
IN drao nx,nh has % 10. x1,o
poets for information Of anything like solid
value In such matters. You remember Keats
and his Nigh tingale'
'Adieu! adieu! thy plain.ive anthem fades
Pas, the mar aesdSw over r, the ssil
In The next valley riadss;
Was it vision. OF waking dream?
Fled is that music; do wake or sleep?'
might dreams and day dreams, phantoms
and realities! don't see why dreams are not
realities. In metaphysics reality is that which
endures, and yet we know that nothing en-
dures. Suppose we say that reality il that
which exists; We haven't said very much, but
we have said something and have found out
that dreams, since they exist, are realities,
just as truly as chairs and tables are realities
and as truly as thought itself 10 a reality, and
perhaps the only one. with each man for his
own ems rsslissimum. When We dream we see,
and to ask why men dream is in truth, only to
ask VIII they are what they are. Both waking
and sleeping dreams are q part, and Q very
close and intimate part Of man himself.
'When l want really to think about such
matters do it in pOetical way, precisely as
am forced to do when try to get at the reason
why Beethoven affects me as he does in the very
deepest soul Of me. won't go to the physiol-
ogists, and, least of all, to the physiological
Psychologists for an answer or ANYTHING like an
answer to such questions. Such answers a.
they give may satisfy q man like Eidlitz for
example. and you may remember what work he
does in the mechanical direction in his book on
the Nature and Function of Art Or you
might 60 to DIR. Maudsley or DR.. Buchner or
DR.. Hammond and see what they have to say.
Their candle is DINNER even than mine. Per-
sonally prefer the poets: their hints and sug-
gestions are Of more value to me when I have
to think about the deep things than all that
can And elsewhere. The heart is q suspended
lutte and not a physiological force pump. And
cor cordium-and there you dream There
you have Beethoven and Bach and there you
are mute; for there is really nothing to say
there. You can only feel and you cannot ana
lyze your feelings any more than you can ana
lyze the delicate beauty of orchids, or ex-
plain the emotions that thrill you when you
look deep into the heart of q morningglory some
bright and dewy morning just after the sun is
up;
speakest to me Of things that in all my endless
existence have not seen and shall not see >
When was boy at college was looking at
flower one day and old Prof. TAYLOR Lewis
came up and looked at it with me. He said
1T is only one soul looking at another And
that is about as near the thing as anybody will
ever get"
"Oh come now! Such q remark doesn't ex-
plain anything. 1t is too wide. You might
just as we'll say when you sit down in chair
that it is one soul sitting in another; or when
you dream that it is one soul dreaming in
another, and so on, from one end Of the uni
verse to the other"
DOUBTLESS" said the man. 81 will not say
nc. Very often it is one soul dreaming in or Of
another. And down in that dim mine things
are wonderfully COMPOUNDED with each other.
Bliss and anguish, hope and despair, Joy and
sorrow are one, and the man who is there
almost loses his own personality. Sometimes he
actually does lose it. Love is born down
there, my boy. Let us see, wasn't it Shelley
are one? don't suppose that means anything
to you. either. 1t is rank rot. isn't it, and the
man who wrote it was an idiot, wasn't he?'
well, it is rather balcony. confess. When
q man talks in that way he doesn't say any,
thing and he doesn't think. He only gropes
and fumbles."
HE isn't quite so clear as Herbert Spencer
is he? You ought just once to hear Spencer
play on the jewsharp and mouth organ, The
last time was over in London went to see
Mr. Spencer and found him in his study with
the score Of Beethoven's Seventh symphony
before him. He was playing it on jewsharp,
while the tears were coursing down his ENACT
ated face like rain. He told me. when he had
become himself again, that Beethoven always
affected him as the greatest illustration of the
doctrine that truth is the agreement between
the objective order Of phenomena and the sub
jective order of thought. Then he talked about
the Andaman Islanders. Maoris, chipmunks
billiards, the great nebula in Orion, cheese,
evolution among the Antilles and the re-
lation Of soft soap to the decadence of
Rome after the time Of the Antonines
Then he wandered of to bagpipes as weapons
Of defense among the Scottish highlanders;
Luther in his relation to the Erasmian Praise
OF Folly;' Rabelais as q perverter of youth;
collies; the great ice age and its relation to
roller skates; Angora goats; the invention of
gunpowder; Heinrich Heine; Katzenjammer
and the Renaissance. Then he went back again
to his jewsharp and played me the whole Of
Opus X on 1t till there was hardly dry eye in
my face. 1t must be fine thing to be 30 great
and many-sided man as Herbert Spencer
and to be able to answer 80 many questions
You don't seem to be very near to an an
swer to my question about why men dream"
II suppose" said the man, ''that some time
you will be coming into my studio and asking
me why men ask questions. A little while ago
will have the kindness to observe and ponder
upon my reply to that Objectionable statement
you will see one Of the great necessities Of life.
gas. Gas is the only thing know of with
looms were made for. Before you 60, however,
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