Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-12-02

near poetry as science will permit us to ap-
proach in explaining the phenomena of
thought going on during sleep, for the &C
complished lecturer proceeded to inform
his audience that dreams are all explain
able on physical g~rounds-there is no mys-
terry about them save that which springs
from blindness to facts"
After dividing dreams into subjective
and objective, and mixtures of both, he
went on to class among the first species
dreams produced by Indigestion, pain or
fever, while objective dreams are those
started by noises or other events going on
outside the sleeper. This is a fair sample
of the ruthless way in which science dis
poses of 'superstition." Against the i'm
~aginative view of the significance of
dreams men Of science protest, and will
probably continue to protest as long as
there are any men of science left.
Perhaps the most practical lesson taught
at the Royal institution lecture was one
which may assist us to know which of our
dreams are signs that something is wrong
with our bodily organization. AS a rule,
said the lecturer, it is better not to dream
at all. Dream1essness is usually q sign of
all round health. A child's dreams are
invariably signs Of disturbed health and
should be regarded with anxiety. For
adults it is a good thing to know that we
may be sure that our brains are being over
strained when our nightly dreams relate
to events of the day, and if we actually
seem in sleep to be continuing our daily
work, this is a danger signal which must
never be disregarded.
When we feel wearied in the morning
VaIV ljkalv IL rac111 Ire frpr, n ro, n,c 4 brt ~,
have forgotten, and then the best thing to
do is to take exercise. Without coming to
any decided opinion as to the supernatural
meanings attributed to dreams we can at
least profit by these practical hints. Con-
sidered as products OF bad digestion dreams
cannot be reasonably expected to tell us
anything of Il useful character or to supply
us with any warning, except one directed
against the continuance of depraved diet
etc habits. If it is true that the sleep of
health is dreamless. then it becomes diff
u to believe that the only persons to
whom visions in sleep are<vouchsafed
should be the victims of indigestion.
1t is always a puzzle for persons of an un-
imaginative urn of mind to understand
how the future, which does not yet exist,
can be supposed to have any effect on the
pIeSelG, anu IL IuuSC De auIQlCCed that
dreams of warning are much harder to be-
lieve in than the brain wave" and
Thought transference," which members of
the Psychical Research society take as
matters quite in the ordinary curse of
things. There is a considerable mass of
testimony in favor of the power of the
mind to produce results at an enormou
distance by some system of psychical re-
legraphy of which nobody has yet discov-
cred the secret.
. A man who goes to sleep and dreams
that his brotheris being killed by a wild
tribe in central Africa. and who afterward
hears that he did meet with that fate at
the precise time when the vision occurred,
need not fly to any supernatural explana-
ton for the phenomenon. 1t is quite diff
ferent when a dream tells of something
which is to happen in a few months time.
In the latter case most people will prefer
to join with science in attributing the fact
either to a law of condolences or to a sim
pie delusion. We must do science the jus
tice to admit that, if she increases the
gloominess Of life in some directions, as by
her doctrine of the struggle for existence,
she decreases it in other respects, one of
which is by aiding in the gradual Danish
ment of any confidence in visions and
omens and "weirdness" generally.-Lon-
don Telegraph. 49,,