Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-03-15

Il q CaIo, l WANT 10 dlIIclDdIH Tie
EsesSsSszSs5 doubling ThOmaseS of psy-
tSsgs&8l cholOgy, who are prone to
scott and who would otherwise surely
say that the conference of my dreams
is due to OverStudy and the Subcon-
scious projection of my knowledge Of
evolution into my dreams. In the first
place, have never been a Jealous stu
dent. | graduated last of my class. |
cared more for athletics and-there is
no reason | should not confess it-more
for billiards.
Further, l had no knowledge of evo-
luton until l was at college, whereas
in my childhood and youth l had al
ready lived in my dreams all the de
tails of that other. long ago life. | will
say, however, that these details were
mixed and incoherent until l came to
know the science of evolution. EvOlu-
ton was the key. 1t gave the eXplana-
ton. gave sanity to the pranks of this
atavistic brain of mine that, modern
and normal, harked back to a past SO
remote as to be contemporaneOus with
the raw beginnings of mankind.
For in this past know of. man, as we
today know him, did not exist. 1t was
in the period of his becoming that /
must have lived and had my being.
The commonest dream of my early
childhood was something like this: It
seemed that l was very small and that
l lay curled up in sort of nest of
twigs and boughs. Sometimes | was
lying on my back.
In this position it seemed that spent
many hours, watching the play of sun
light on the foliage overhead and the
stirring of the leaves by the wind. Of
ten the nest itself moved back and
forth when the wind was strong.
But always. while so lying in the
nest, was mastered by feeling as of
tremendous space beneath me. | never
saw it. ! never peered over the edge
Of the nest to see. but | knew and
feared that space that lurked just be-
meath me and that ever threatened me
like nav of some all devouring mon
ster.
This dream. in which / was quies-
cent and which was more like condi-
ton than an experience Of action,
dreamed very often in my early child
hood. But suddenly there would rush
into the very midst of it strange forms
and ferocious happenings, the thunder
and crashing of storm or unfamiliar
landscapes such as in my wake-a-day
life | had never seen. The result was
confusion and nightmare. | could COM
prehend nothing of it. There was no
logic of sequence.
You see, | did not dream consecu-
lively One moment | was a wee babe
of the younger world lying in my tree
nest; the next moment / was a grown
man of the younger world locked in
combat with the hideous Red Eye, and
the next moment was creeping care
fully down to the water hole in the
heat of the day. Events years apart in
their occurrence in the younger world
occurred with me within the space or
several minutes or seconds.
1t was all tumble, but this tumble
I shall not infict upon you. 1t was not
until | was a young man and had
dreamed many thousand times that
everything Strengthened out and be-
came clear and plain. Then it was that
| got the clew of time and was able to
piece together events and actions in
their proper order. Thus was | able to
reconstruct the vanished younger world
as it was at the time | lived in it-or
at the time my other self lived in it.
The distinction does not matter, for l.
too. the modern man. have gone back
and lived that early life in the COM
pany Of my other self.
For your convenience, since this is to
be no sociological screed. | shall frame
together the different events into
comprehensive story. For there is a
certain thread of continuity and hap
pening that runs through all the
dreams. There is my friendship with
LOp Ear. for instance. Also there are
the enmity of Red Eye and the love Of
the Swift One. Taking it all in all. q
fairly coherent and interesting story,
am sure you will agree.
| do not remember much Of my
mother Possibly the earliest recOllec-
ton | have of her-and certainly the
sharpest-is the following: 1t seemed
was lying on the ground. ! was
somewhat older than during the nest
days, but still helpless. rolled about
in the dry leaves, playing with them
and making grooming, rasping noises in
my throat
Suddenly | heard a sound | sat up
right and listened | made no move
ment. The little noises died down in
my throat. and sat as one petriied
The sound drew closer. It was like
the grunt of a pig. Then | began to
hear the sounds caused by the moving
of a body through the brush. Next l
saw the ferns agitated by the passage
of the body Then the ferns parted.
and l saw cleaning eyes. long snout
and white tusks.
1t was a wild boar. He peered at
me curiously. He grunted once or
twice and shifted his weight from one