Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-04-14
MYSTERY OF DREAMS
LITTLE PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE
IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM.

Some Dreams That Came True-Calphur-
mia Dreamed OF tpsar's Assnssination-
Humboldt That Columbus Would he
Successful.
VIII the mystery of dreams ever he
solved-the romance of slecp-that
comes to all alike, rich and poor, saint
and sinner, male and female? Even
dogs dream, they say, and if dogs,
why not horses and cattle and every
other kind of animal?
And yet. common as dreams are,
and familiar to everyone. the meta
physicians and the philosophers have
made but little progress in solving the
problem. There is perhaps not so
much superstition among the educated
connected with dreams as formerly,
though there are still vast numbers of
people who have faith in the dream
book. and look upon their dreams as
prophetic and full of omens. There
are still interpreters. too. who will tell
you for consideration the meaning
of your dreams. though few of them
are as successful as Joseph when he
revealed to the butler. the baker. and
afterward to pharoah himself the por-
tents of their rcspe, tive dreams.
And vet dreams Gone true" as al
most everybody has experienced. Not
all dreams. but some dreams Hum
bolt relates in Cosmos that Column
bus in Il dream, long before his first
voyage. heard Il voice saying: God
will give you the keys of the ocean"
Calphurnia dreamed on the night be-
fore his assassination that great
Caesar fell mortally wounded at her
feet, and she used all her arts of
persuasion to keep him from going to
the senate on that day.
The philosophic explanation of such
dreams is that the waking thoughts
being intently engaged upon any sub
jcct, either of hope. as in the case of
Columbus. or of forebOding. as in the
case of Calphurnia, continue in sleep,
and in that state thought takes the
form of actually. There are few
people who have not in greater or less
degree had dreams of this kind
That the mind often works intel
ligcntly and logically in dreams, solv-
ing problems or smoothing out per-
picking difficulties that have occurred
in actual life, has been proved by tes-
timony that cannot he gainsaid.
Franklin gives several instances where
lines of policy or of argument came
to him in his dreams that had greatly
puzzled him when awake, and Con
jorcct. the French mathematician. re
latcs that he solved many intricate
problems in his dreams. "Kubla
Kahn" that exquisite fragment of
Coleridge's genius. was composed by
him in sleep, and so wildly was it
impressed on his mind that he sat
down the next morning to write it
out. While thus engaged he was in
terrupted by visitor-a person from
Porlock, a neighboring vilage-and
when he resumed his pen the poem
had vanished from his mind and he
was never afterward able to recall
another line. How many lovers of
poetry have mathematical that per
son from Porlock" would be hard to
say. but their name is legion.
The Devils Sonata" is one of the
finest and most remarkable compo
sitions for the violin that is known.
Its composer. Tartini. the renowned
Italian violinist, says that he dreamed
that the devil challenged him to a
trial of his skill on the violin, and that
the Prince of Pandemonium so far eX-
celled him in brillancy and execution
that he gave up in despair. On awak-
cning and finding that it was all n
dream he wrote out the notes that
We're still throbbng in his mind.
Strange beyond all comprehension
are the phenomena of sleep. While
phrone upon our beds we enter a land
of enchantment, where we see, and
converse, and travel, and engage in
wonderful enterprises We are limited
by neither time nor space. The i'm
possible becomes the actual the I'M
born live the dead come back. and
miracles are the commonplace of eX-
istencc.
Onc-third of our lives is passed in
his realm, which Shelley has called
the brother of death.
How wonderful is Death
Death and his brother Sleep
One pale as yondcr waning moon,
With lips of lurid blue:
The other rosy as the morn,
When throncd on oceans wave,
1t bushes DER the world:
Yet both 50 passing wonderful.
Two things in human experience.
apart from revelation. tend to prove
the Immortality of the soul. one is
that the mind never grows old. The
man of 20 is as youthful in his mental
emotions and thought as a boy of 10.
The other is dreaming wherein the
mind apparently acts Independently of
the body.
Can immortality be any more i'm
probable or impossible than our dream
life?
Queer Names for Wives.