The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-31
SOME CUR|OS|T|ES ABOUT OUR DREAMS Great Poems Composed While Authors Slept  A NOVEL EXPERIMENT Man Tries to See Whether Topic Which Absorbed His Waking
 Thoughts Would Be Sub
 ject of Dreams
A NOVEL EXPERIMENT
From the New York Press.

From the New York Press
 That a thing to be remarkable need not be of rare ocurrence finds ample confirmation in dreams, than which noth- ing incident to human existence Is more common or more wonderful. Some years ago New Yorker dreamed that he had written a poem, and, waking, he wrote 1t down. It was pronounced excellent by compentent judges. Afterward he was unable to make two lines rhyme. 'I<ubia Khan.' one of tho finest specimens of imaginative poetry in the English lan- guage, was composed by Soleridge during sleep. All the horrible phantoms playing a part in "The Mysteries of Udolpho," once the most popular of sensational novels, were first seen by its author in dreams. That they might be generated, 1t Is said. she was accustomed to eat hearty meal of the most indigestible food Just previous to retiring for the night.
 In 1713 the eminent violinist Tartini dreamed that he had an interview with satan, when his majesty performed magnificent solo on the violin. Tartini walked with the most exquisite sensa- etStiNg tRhHg eSiNAAle iAio ifiStA diatAAt AA- tempted to express what he had dreamed. His efforts were in vain, but he com posed on the remembered theme bit he called ''The Devils Sonata"
 A strange characteristic of dreams is the rapidlty with which thoughts flash through the mind of the dreamer. Lord Holland, while listening to the reading of friend dropped asleep and had a dream whose details 1t took hnm 20 minutes 10 U-rita nttt Vat ha .jirtinOtlV ala the first part of enc and the conclusion of the following sentence that his friend had read, so he could not have been asleep but few seconds. The poet Willis, hay ing returned from Europe, dreamed of re- beating the trip almost exactly as he made it; only on his imaginary voyage homeward he fell into the ocean. This casualty walked him, to find that he had slept not more than three minutes.
 The most perplexing feature Of dreams Is the capriciousness of the mind as shown therein. It may have been busy during the day with Thoughts of impor- tance. but when 1t dreams 1t will seize on some trivial incident and allow 1t to shape It's fances. An English student Of psychology once made an interesting ex- pertinent to ascertain whether an idea that absorbed his mind during the day would influence his dreams at night.
 He fixed his thoughts intently during the day upon the subject of polar bears. He shut himself in his room and read all the books of natural history he had which described the appearance and hab- it's of these animals. He carefully ex- cluded from his mind every other idea, and the last thing he remembered before I he fell asleep at night was an immense bear crawling out of the water upon q cake of ice. But, instead of dreaming of | bears. he dreamed that he was on a boat. a sailing vessel on whaling voyage. A whale was seen to blow. He entered the whale boat with the crew and the duty of harpooning the monster fell to his lot. lie grasped the harpoon and, just as the boat was gliding over the back of the whale, he threw the implement with all his might But at the same time he lost his balance and fell into the whales mouth, and with a cry of terror he awoke.
 For some time he was exceedingly pug zled to account for this dream, which seemed to have had no material part In his past consciousness from which It could have been fashioned But after much thought he recollected that in one of the books he had read the day before there was a large picture of q group of polar bears disporting themselves on the ice, while at the four corners of the en- graying were smaller sketches represent ing scenes in the northern seas One of these scenes was the picture of a whal- ing vessel. with whaleboat just being lowered from the daVlts. Ills eye must have been attracted to this picture. If only for a second. and in some mysterious way the dream was fashioned from these meager materials.
 Not satisfied with this result he made the same experiment for several success siye days. Each day he made some one subject an absorbing study, taking partic- ular pains to repeat to himself just before he fell asleep the topic upon which his mind had been engaged. But in only one instance did his dreams correspond to the days doings. And even then a number of incidental circumstances that had not been in his mind for weeks entered into his dreams in such manner as greatly 10 confuse them.
 In one instance he was unable to trace any connection whatever between nls dream and his previous waking thoughts. Finally he gave over the attempt, think ing it probable that the very intentness of his mind on one subject thwarted it's own purpose. The mind may have tired of that order of thought during the day and relaxed at night by taking different order of thought.
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