The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-04

dreamed while the doctors looked on
and saw the brain dilate and pulsate
and become excited and disturbed and
the patient would tell of q bad dream
When the sleep was sweet the brain
was in perfect repose.
What a wonderful piece of mechanism
is this body of ours. 1t can all sleep
save the heart and lungs and arteries.
They never sleep nor get day off for
rest. Just think of it. For seventy
five years this heart of mine has not
failed to beat time for every moment
of my existence and send it's warm
blood to every part OF my body.
Whether am awake or asleep, it is ever
at it's post of duty Poor thing-I
know it is tired. And so with my lungs
that cease not day or night to bring
the heart it's food, it's strength and
power. The will, the BRAIN the eyes
and ears-the sense of smell and taste
and feeling all get sleep and rest and
awake renewed but the heart and lungs
can never rest. Their rest is death.
But the mystery is how is the brain
connected with the will. When the will
is asleep the brain seems to run riot
and to reyel in curious and fantastic
1ancleS. 1t is boy out of school 1t
IS very like the effect of opium on the
senses as described by DeQuincey in
his confessions. The will seems to be
the strongest and most responsible
faculty of man. The heart is commonly
called the seat of the affections and
emotlons-in fact, the very soul of man.
and David says the heart is sinful
above all things and desperately wick
ed, out that, of course, is figurative The
heart is but lump of flesh-a machine
an engine, as it wene, for a mechani-
cal purpose. 1t has nothing to do with
affections or emotions or sins of crime
1t may be badly diseased and the man
not know it. If his stomach is out of
order, he knows it quickly and feels
sick all over. The will. and the brain
which is the seat of thought and rea-
son, make up the spiritual part of
man. but how they are connected is.
known only to the Creator. Generally
they work in harmony. Sometimes
they do not, for, as Paul says, chat 1
would do / do not-and that L would not
do that do
A friend asked me the other day if
I believed in dreams; that is to say, in
dreams as a warning, or sign, or pro-
phecy.
No. l do not The dream book is a
humbug But L do believe that some
times there are spiritual visions that
come in sleep, but these are very rare
Some are too well authenticated to leave
any doubt. Swendenborg had many of
them. Tartinian, great composer,
says that the devil appeared to him
one night and challenged him to play
MN some music, and he composed the
Devils Sonata" in a dream, and the
Devil sang it and danced it and Tartin-
ian put 1t on paper when he awaken
ed. Coleridge says he composed his
poem of "Kubla Khan in dream. but
could only recall 800 lines of it next
morning Abstruse problems in math-
ematlcs have been solved in dreams
put the most reasonable explanation of
all these is that the tired mind had rest
from sleep and became more sensitive
and acute. Whether we have GOOD
dreams or bad dreams depends almost
upon what we had for supper
and how much We ate of it. The stom-
ach is the great regulator of our repose
it be peaceful and refreshing
or disturbed by unwelcome dreams
Children dream a good deal and have