The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-08-03
DREAM MYSTERIES.
MAY BE sHAooWY MEMORIES OF PRE-.
vloUs EXISTENCE. .

Little Satisfaction Found In tho Many
Explanations Given For the Formation Of
the Phantasmagoris Which Como to Us
Is We Sleep.
In thoughtful. well written article
on dreams and Their Mysteries" in
The North American Review, Elizabeth
Bisland reminds us that we are so IA
miliar with the phenomena Of sleep
that the strangest dreams come as no
vurprise She says, truly;
"Prove that you have the hypnotic
power to make man feel pain or pleas
ue without material cause; that you
can force him to believe himself SOL
der, say, Or q woman, or that he Is
three feet high, or two persons at once,
md he will cape upon this occult mas
terry with awesaed wild surprise-he
who every "a hours of bis life, with no
more magic potion thar i,splthy fatigue,
with nogreater wonder working weapon
than pillow, may create for himself
phantasmical delusions beside which all
mesmeric suggestions are but the fat
test Of dull commonplace.
Because people are afraid Of being
thought superstitious with regard to
dreams there has been an unscientitc
avoidance of the whole topic, which is
no less superstitious and puerile. the
consequence Of which foolish revulsion
has been that one Of the most curious
functions of the brain is still in a period
of universal investigation-left unex-
amined and unexplained. Some dab
bling there has been in the matter, but
so far no tenable explanation has been
offered Of those strange illusions of
sleep with which all mankind is famil-
lar. The results up to this time of this
dabbling are for the most part of little
more value than the contents of the
greasy, we'll thumbed dreambooks that
formed the only and dearly beloved IL
brary Of eighteenth century milkmaids
and apprentices. The greater portion of
such labor as has been bestowed Oh tho
subject has been mainly directed toward
efforts to prove the extreme rapidity
with which the dream passes through
the mind, and that it is some trivial
outward cause at the moment of rous-
ing from slumber, such as q noise, n
light Or the like, which wakes the
brain to this miraculous celebrity Of i'm
aginative creation.
The general conviction that dreams
occur only at the instant of the awaken
ing shows how little real attention has
been bestowed upon the matter, since
the most casual observation of "the dog
that hunts in dreams" would show that
he may be chasing the wild deer and
following the roe in the gray kingdom
of seeming without breaking his SUM
bers He will start and twitch and give
tongue after the phantom quarry he
dreams himself pursuing. But given tho
truth Of any one of these assertions, still
the heart Of the mystery has not yet
been plucked out, since it is not ex-
planned why noise Or CLEAN of light
such as the senses are quite familiar
with in waking consciousness-should
at the moment Of rousing cause the
brain to create with uncomfortable "a
pidity series of phantasmagoria in
order to explain to itself the familiar
phenomena of light Or sound.
1t is broadly asserted by many that
the memory retains each and every ex-
perience which life has presented for its
contemplation, but this is hardly true
1t makes to u certain extent choice
and chooses oftentimes with apparent
caprice. To demonstrate the truth Of
this, let one endeavor to recall the first
impression retained by his childish
mind, and it usually proves to be some
thing extremely trivial.
A lady, Intercepted as to this, de-
clared her first clear memory was q
sense Of the comfort to her tired little
2-year-old body Of the clean linen sheets
of the bed at the end of the most perilous
and adventurous journey, and of whose
startling Incidents her memory had pre-
served nothing Again this capricious
faculty will seize on some few high
lights i'll vivid picture and reject all
the unimportant details. As a rule,
however, it is the profound STRINGS of
the emotions which wake the memory
to activity A woman never forgets her
first lover. A man to the end of his life
can recall his first triumph.
Miss Bislaud believes that we inherit
many of the memories that come to us,
waking as well as sleeping. Every one
has felt many times i'll his life sense
Of familiarity with incidents that have
had no place in his own experience and
has found it impossible to offer any eX-
PLANTATION for the feeling. Coming sud-
denly around turn of hill upon a
fair and unknown landscape, his heart
may bound with keen sense of rcccg-
milton Of its unfamiliar outlines. In the
midst Of q tingling sense of emotion u
sensation of tho whole incident being q
mere dull repetition will rob it of its
joy Or pain. A sentence begun by q
friend is recognized as trite and old be-
fore it is half done, though it refers to
matters now to tho nearer. A sound, a
perfume, q sensation, will awaken feel
ings having no connection with the &C.
casion.
In sleep the brain is peculiarly active
in certain directions, not being distracted
by the multitude of impressions con-
stantly conveyed to it by the live senses,
and experiments with hypnotic sleepers
prove that some Of its functions become
in sleep abnormally acute and vigorous.
Why not the function of memory? Tho
possessions which during the waking
hours were useless, and therefore re-
jected by the will, surge up again, vivid
and potent, and troop before the percep-
ton unsummoned, motley and fantastic,
serving no purpose moro apparent than
do the idle, disconnected recollections
of ones waking moments of dreaminess,
and yet it may hap, withal, that the
tireless BRAIN forever turning over and
over its heirlooms in the night, is seek
ing here an inspiration or there a mem
DRY to be used in that fierce and complex
struggle called life.-New York Com
mercial Advertiser.
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