The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-03-13
MYSTERY OF DREAMS.
THEORIES AS TO THE ACTION OF
THE MIND DURING SLEEP.
Scientific Men Who Believe That They Az
tivity--Cslquhoun's Claim That Dreams

love" There are thousands OF intelligent
people who still entertain that belief, The
opinion commonly held by physicists is
that, il the wNole brain is locked up in
sleep, there Is no drsnm. II portion OF
IL is emancipated, thoughts peculiar TO
that portion arise, and those thoughts are
dreams. According TO DIR. David Hartley,
they are nothing but the imaginations,
fancies or reveries Of sleeping person,
and arc due TO some peculiar state OF the
stomach or brain, to Impressions received
while awake, or TO the effect OF associa-
tion.
In the same vein Andrew Baxter de-
clares that most OF the representations Of
fered TO the soul i'm sleep are not only not
produced by it., but there is no conscious
ness OF any action OF the will to intro
duce them. They are involuntarily obtrud-
ed upon IL. He cannot conceive of any
thing more absurd than to suppose that
the soul, as in nightmare, would lay
plot to frighten itself. In reply TO the ar
gument Of those who contend that dreams
Indicate the activity of the soul separate
from and independent of the body, DIR.
Priestly asked: Why does not this inde-
pendent entity contemplate the state OF
the body and brain during sleep, which
might well afford It matter enough for
reason and rehections
So, too, DIR. Cromwell, in his work on
"Tho Soul and the Future Life," asserts
that dreams take place only when the
sleep Is unsound and arise from partial re-
turns of activity OF the brain itself. These
views fairly reflect the consensus of opin-
ion regarding the origin and character Of
the phenomena.
On the other hand, there is authority
as eminent for the belief that all dreame
cannot be satisfactorily explained on the
grounds above stated-that there is a
something left out which it is of the high
est consequences to understand before q
positive Judgment can be pronounced.
The student of Xenophon will recall the
remarkable passage which the historian
puts into the mouth of the dying Cyrus
the Elder: "Nor do j feel convinced that
the soul will be devoid Of sense when it Is
separated from the senseless body, but IL is
probable that when the mind is separated.
unmixed and pure, it is then also most
intelligent. When the frame of man is
dissolved, every part of him is seen return
ing to that which is OF the same nature as
itself, except the soul, (which alone is seen
neither present nor departing. Reflect.
too. that nothing more closely resembles
the death of man than sleep, but it is in
sleep that the soul of man appears most
divine, and It is then that it foresees some
thing of the future, for then, as it seems,
1t is most at liberty
The letters of the great Euler 30 Ger
man princess contain the following state
ment: "Sleep furnishes something like an
example Of the state of the soul after
death, as the union OF the soul and body
Is then, in "A great measure, interrupted,
and the soul ceases not from activity, be-
ing employed in the production of dreams.
These are usually disturbed by the re-
manning influence which the senses exer-
else, and we know by experience that the
more this influence Is suspended, which is
the case in profound Sleep the more regu-
lar and connected are orr dreams"
BLACKWELL aflirms that to be able to see
without the eye, to hear with the ear and
TO feel without touching objects, as we do
in dreams, are facts which afford direct
proof that the percipient principle is inde-
pendent of the organs of sense and lead
to the inference that the material organi-
xation of the brain, by which the impress
sions of external objects are originally
conveyed to the mind, must be distinct
from the power that receives and retains
these impressions; otherwise it would be
impossible to account for the activity Of
the perceptive power during the time when
the brain csases to hold any direct COM
munication with the material world. Lord
Brougham cites tho inconccivable rapid
ty of the minds operations az proof of
its independence of matter and capacity
to exist without it, and after adducing
multitude OF facts chiefly connected with
tho phenomena Of dreams says that "noth-
ing can be conceived better calculated
than these facts to demonstrate the ex-
tremc agility of the mental powers, their
total diversity from any material sub
stance or action. Nothing better adapted
10 satisfy us that the nature of the mind
is consistent with its existence apart from
the body"
There ia no denial by the advocates of
the latter view that dreams can ordinari.
ly be accounted for on the hypothesis gen
orally accepted by medical men. Impaired
digestion, feverish condition Of the body
intense nervous strain. and other physic-
al causes, IL in admitted, may be reasona.
bly, adduced to explain the phenomena.
But there are we'll authenticated cases of
dreams of character so remarkable as 10
render the theory OF physical causes Who'll
ly inapplicablo TO them. They seem to
demonstrate the power of the soul, during
sleep, TO evolve clear ideas and new de-
velopments of thought which arc not the
result of automatic or unconscious reflex
action.
Coleridge tells us that "Kubla Khan"
was composed entirely while he slept, "the
images rising up before him as things with
parallel production of the corresponding
expressions, without any sensation or con-
sciousness of effort. - For a man Of his pc
culiar temperament that does not seem so
strange nm experience, but that the famous
mathematician and philosopher. Condor
cot, saw in his dreams the final stage of a
difficult calculation which had puzzled
him during the day Is most cxtraordira-
ry fact and one that IL scarcely 10 be ex-
planned by n reference TO any abnormal
bodily conditions. But IL VIC admit the
soundness Of Colquhoun's doctrine, we
,hall have nn adequate means of explana-
lion. lie maintained that dreaming is
the exercise of an original spiritual ener-
gy; that it ia an effort ol the soul 10 man.
ifest itself free from material trsmmels;
that all sleep is accompanied with dream
To-. tf,,t a.. ti,s cnco ,f tho aoup1r~f