Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-02-07
rae srupY o. nkEAMs.
mRzlng Display OF the Imagination
When the Body sleeps.
Frsdsrfc GretnMood b a. An Rerifl0.

When the Body sleeps.
Frederic Greenwood IN ths Ne0 ReUis10.
The poets inspiration comes as IL de-
livered by a word from without, and the
philosophers too. though in either case
a mental picture follows in the thous-
andth part of momentii the thought
mas 10 do with concrete things. The
dream revelation is almost invariablycas
in dramatic form. There is d scene or
scenes In which it is acted out. But the
drama, which would take hours and
hours TO present on any stage but this
of the human mind also begins and ends
in flash. With all its speeches and
events and changes OF scene 1t takes 20
longer in transaction than the poets
whispered word.
On any theory of dreams this is a
wonder no less worthy OF serious in
Qutry than such matters as the atmos-
phere of Mars; on the theory that
dreams are produced by Imagination
working without the guidance OF the
reasoning powers, it is a wonder that
may be particularly informing as to i'm
agination itself. For it seems that the
first of faculties, freed from control in
sleep, finds It's own way to do as much
as the mind can do in its harmonious
entirety, and does it with such pro-
digiously rapid use of splendid but APP
parently tedious means that the mind in
its harmonious entirety cannot even
understand how it is done.
In most fields OF investigation the
discovery of a power like this would
suggest that other amazing displays of
power may not be quite illusory; and l
do not know why philosophy should re-
ject the suggestion here. And suppos-
ing the above named theory true, the
wonder must be carried further; for
dreams like. that in which Condorcet
solved mathematical problem that
baified him awake have to be consid-
cred, and there have been many such.
Now, it is a common experience and
general belief that (as the afOre-
'Said theory implies) the
faculties most necessary for the
work of solving difficult mathematical
problems are those that are least active
in sleep, or even dormant. II so, 1t
would seem that CondorcetS free I'M
agination solved in a flash the problem
that was too much for the whole labori-
Gus combination of wakeful faculties
best fitted for the task. II that Is what
happened, the inference is that imag-
ination, when freed from restraint in
sleep, is capable of more than the pow
er of filling the mind in an instant with
stories of word and deed that could not
find admittance in thousand moments
when the mind is awake and apparent
ly most open to impression.
1t further appears that in dreams i'm
aginatiOn can assume the functions OF
other and very different faculties, and
do in moment what they, whose proper
business il was, failed TO accomplish by
hours of labor. Is not that worth
thinking of in a serious speculative sort
of way? But II may be that this the
DRY is not of universal application; and
that there are dreamS--COudOrcet be-
ing one of them-in which the mental
faculties are employed just as they are
when awake. If so, their working in
sleep is as much TO be regarded as their
working at other times; and, however
strange the product may be, it demands
attention as much as great deal else
of admitted and acknowledged wonder
in the field of our mysterious cerebro-
spinal centres.
In dwelling on the phenomena OF
sleep it is also desirable TO remember
the scope which at one time and an
other we allow TO the faculty Of i'm
agination, Sometimes the name for it
ia used with restricted meanings, as il
II resembled The play Of some internal
light in the workshop OF the brain.
Sometimes it is a synonym for mere
nOnnense, or for will-o'-wisp emana-
ton from unreclaimed marshes in
the psychological interior. But at
other times it stands for gift
which the most scientific intel
lects, and such as are most jealous
of superstition in every shape, are con-
tent to call divination. Imagination
may, in fact, be all these things; and
while the dream student should, of
course, begin with q readiness to admit
that the lowest of them is capable of
accounting for the mental phenomena
of sleep, he should equally include the
higher as possibly explaining them.
Nor should he feel himself prec luded
from explaining some dreams by the
lower aud others by the higher mani
festations OF the same faculty.
Conversely, the fact that there are
very different kinds OF growths Of I'm
agination ranging from vaporous nom
sense to what we are constrained to call
divination, should prepare him to be-
lleve that there are equally different
kinds OF dreams What we mean by
imagination in it's lower manifestations
is always pretty clear TO our mind, but
our conceptions OF the higher
faculty are less often defined. II
we ask ourselves why, we ind the an
swer is that there is no space below our
knowledge Of rudimentary Imagination
for inquiry TO work in: while we are
conscious that the higher faculty may
ascend to spaces infinitely beyond sight
This also is thing for the student of
dreams TO bear ia mind; while he does
so he will not be unduly fearful of ad
hitting the possibility that the divina-
lions of imagination in sleep may trans
cend its powers when yoked with other
faculties awake.
Group at Plainfield. n. j.