Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-07
WORK DONE IN SLEEP.
Inventors, Musicians and Authors
Have Profited BY Dreams.

Inventors, Musicians and Authors
Have Profited BY Dreams.
Some people are not satisfied with
having done fair days work at their
regular occupation, but insist upon
keeping busy, even while they sleep.
Most Of this work, done uncon-
sciously during the dead hours Of the
night, says the Chicago Tribune, is
worth less, but sometimes intellectual
feats are accomplished during sleep
which during waking hours prove
quite impossible.
From his early childhood Robert
Louis Stevenson was a dreamer and
his dreams were horrible. Later In
life he began to dream of Journeys
wherein he would see strange towns.
In the next phase he could read in his
sleep, and such wonderful books that
never afterward was he content with
ordinary literature. Lastly he began
to dream in sequence, and he would
continue the dream from the place
where he left off the previous night.
1t is admitted that Stevenson
dreamed the window scene in "Jekyll
and Hyde" and some Of his friends
are sure that the central theme Of the
strange book came to the author while
he was asleep. His brownies show
ed 1t to him in the night"
A pupil Of Professor Won Swinden,
Il; h.
lem in his sleep after the professor
and ten Of the brightest students In
the class had worked for days in the
effort to find the answer. Marquis de
Condorcet, the famous French matiIe-
matician, solved a problem in integral
calculus while he was asleep, although
the matter had puzzled him for days.
He did not write the answer and pro-
cess down as Won Swinden's pupil had
done, but he remembered the solution
that came in his dream and put 1t on
paper as soon as he awoke.
Cabanis, the eminent French physi-
clan, says that Franklin told him dur
ing one of his political missions to
Paris, that over and over again he had
gone to bed puzzled by political events
/ which became quite clear to him dur
ing his sleep.
Dante is said to have dreamed 1.-THE
Divine Comedy" or at least the plot
and characters and some part Of the
details. The vision appeared to him
when he was only nine years old, ac-
cording to some Of the stories, while,
as others tell it, the dream came to
another child during trance which
came along with long illness.
| Voltaire composed the first canto OF
the '"Henriade" while he was asleep.
Ideas occurred to me-" he says "in
spite Of myself, and in which had no
part whatever"
Some useful and prosaic things also
have come from dreams. 1t long has
been known that the making Of shot
resulted from an idea that came TO
Bristol mechanic in his sleep. the
man was employed cutting up strips
of lead, out of which his fellow work
men made shot. The process was slow
and expensive. One night this work
man had been drinking, and after ne
went to bed he dreamed that 1t was
raining. AS he watched the rain IL
turned to lead, and the earth was GOV,
cred with shot. He awoke and. filled
with his dream went up into the tow
er of st. Mary Redcliffe, in Bristol.
and, melting some lead, poured 1t out
from the top of the tower. When ne
went to look for the lead he found 1t
had taken the form Of shot. Thus the
shot tower became a fact, and the
workman made a fortune out OF his
dream.