Wallowa County chieftain. [volume] (Enterprise, Or.) 1909-1911, 1909-10-28
THE RIDDLE OF SLEEP
A Mystery That the Mind Of Man
Is Unable to Penetrate.
THE CAVERN OF MORPHEUS.

IL Is Pitch Black as Far as Human
Understanding Goes, For We Know
no more About It Than We Do About
Its Twin Mystery, Death.
When all is written, how little we
know OF sleep. II Is closing of the
eyes, a disappearance a wondering re-
/ turn. In uneasy slunber. in dreamless
dead rest. in horrid nightmare or in
ecstasies of somnolent fancies the eyes
are blinded. the body is abandoned,
while the inner essence is we know not
where. We have no other knowledge
of sleep than we have of death. In de-
lirium or coma or trance, no less than
In normal sleep and In dissolution. the
soul is gone. In these 1t returns. in
that 1t does not come again. or so we
ignorantly think.
Yet when reflect on my death for
get that | have encountered it many
times already and find myself none
the worse. l forget that | sleep. The
fly has no shorter existence than
| mans. We hustle about for few
years with ludicrous Importance. as
bottlefles buzz at the window panes.
They. too, may imagine themselves OF
infinite moment in this universe we
share with them. But this is to take
no account of the prOgnostics of sleep.
There is something hidden, something
secret, some unfathomed mystery
whose presence we feel. but cannot
verify; some permeative thought in
sistently moving In our hearts, some
phOsphorescence that glows we know
not whence through our shadowy at
oms.
Neither sleep itself nor half its prom
ises nor mysteries have been plumbed.
IT is the mother of superstitions and
OF miracles. In dreams we may search
the surface powers Of the freed soul.
Visions in the night are not all halln-
cinations; voices In the night are not
all mocking. There is prophet dwells
within the mind-not of the mind, but
deeper throned in obscurity.
The brain cannot know OF this holy
presence nor of Its life In sleep. The
brain is mortal and untrustworthy. a
phonograph and camera for audible
and palpable existence. Strike 1t a
blow in childhood so that II ceases IT'S
labors and awake 1t by surgery after
forty years and ii will repeat the in
fantile action or word 1t last recorded
and Will take up Its task on the in
slant. making no account Of the inter
mediate years. They are nonexistent
TO II. Yet 10 that hidden memory those
diseased years are not blank. 1t knows
1t has recorded. though the brain has
slept. And in hypnotic or psychic
trance, when that wonderful ruler is
released from the prison of the bcdy II
can speak through the atom blept ma
chinery of the flesh and tell of things
man himself could not know because
OF his paralyzed brain. Fhis ruler is
not asleep in sleep, nor In delirium is
IT delirious, and in death Is II dead3
Through all the ages 1t has been our
sphinx. which we have interrogated In
vain. II joins not in our laughter nor
our tears. We have fancied II with i'm
mobile, broOding features OF utmost
knoTledge and wisdom and sorrow. II
has asked us but one question nor
from the day of oedipus unto TODAY
have we answered rightly, so that we
ule OF our ignorance. Ii is Osiris liz.
ing In us, 1t is the unknown God to
"hOm %e erect our affairs, the fire in
the tabernacle. the presence behind the
vel. Not In normal Wakefulness at
least Will 1t answer our queries. but in
sieep sometimes 1t will speak. And II
may possibly be that at last, after all
these Centuries, We are learning how
10 question it and IN hypnotic trance
and In the fearful law of suggestion
are discovering somewhat OF its mys.
Iery and how TO employ it for our
worldly good. Yet to its essential 90.
cret we are no closer than our fore
fathers were.
we may define dreams and night. 1
mare coma and swoon and tranca
wilh What terms we will. search tbe,-
reasons aud learn IN o,,ido
anu guard. yet We know no more NJ
mem than of electricity. We NAV he.
eih 10 suspect that telepathy and clair.
Voyance anG occult fosces OF the souI
are not superstiti0us fancies. and wa
may even empirically classify and
s'udy and direct them. Yet tbe sonI
''seil Is no nearer our inquisition.
Though we should know Of Ire raal
~. though our finite minds sbonla
Ia'hom the infinitude. Of what benes,
would it hff Would II modify onr no
iefs or our hopes OF our faiths? Womb
. !, uic'aIe one action to our passionate
ives! There would be no chance IN
human nature and no reforms Of tbe
~orio. We are the children OF our n.
ners' and our children viii tread tba
'renistoric paths. Dreams are our Iifo
" we wake or sleep. We drowss
nfongh existence. awaking and dv,na '
mo Deiag reborn daily. ever tornescen,
lhd unamazed, and our thousand slnm
'erons deaths we call restorstire sIean
sleep that restores our pbvs,coI p -,
nc. building uD whore u-o