Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-30
A HINT FROM DREAMS
By H.. AddingtOn Bruce
Dy IT.. NuuII1g
TT AVE you ever given much thought to
II your dreams? Have you, in particular,
A - ever though of the light they throw on

TT AVE you ever given much thought to
your dreams? Have you, in particular,
A ever though of the light they throw on
your powers of imagination?
You have perhaps envied the noveliSts, poets,
playwrights, and artists, whose imaginative
ability is admired and applauded by all. Per-
haps you have mournfully wished that you had
in you something of their creative force
Well, the fact is that you have, if you would
but appreciate it. l can prove it to you on
the evidence of your dreams.
Certainly your dreams are not prosaic COM
monplaceS. They are imaginative in the ex-
IRENE, sometimes to an almost incredible de-
gree
Yet they are Enthusiastically the product of
your own mind. You are indebted for them
to nobody but yourself. And they point d.
rectly to the possession by you Of faculty
susceptible of cultivation in your waking mo-
mentS.
You have had, everybody has had dreams
of romantic and thrilling adventure. In your
sleep you have composed stories surprising
any novelist could give you and holding you
fascinated not least because you yourself have
been the central figure in them.
You have built for yourself dream houses
excelling in beauty the best architects crea-
tons. You have fashioned landscapes more
glorious than ever were seen by you on paint
er canvas.
Again and again you have had dreams COM
polling you to acquieScence in the ecStatic
exclamation of New York friend of mine
"People talk of dreams as at best mere jum-
bleS of fragments of memory. Were my beau
tiful buildings, streets, rooms, objects of art
armor, ordered dances mere jumbleS' Their Or
derby arrangement as we'll as their beauty have
not been equaled in my waking experience"
| On occasions, it is true, you have found
| yourself awaking in fright from your dream
images Not Edgar Allan Poe himself could
inspire in you the dread that certain visions
of the night have inspired.
| But, splendid or appalling, gladstone or grim
| your dreams remain pictures and stories and
dramas of your own making. They are results
of creative imagination. They are results OF
! your creative imagination.
How explain them? Above all, how explain
! the discrepancy between the vigor of your
imaginative faculty in sleep and its inertia, de-
! plored by you, during your waking lifef
1t can only be that you possess reserves OF
! mental power on which you are free to draw
| in sleep, but on which you make no real effor
to draw in wakefulneSS because you are unap-
preciative of their presence.
Yet, clearly, these same reserves, if YOU
would but use them, would become imme as
urably more useful to you in wakefulnesS thar
! in sleep. For in wakefulneSS reason is on the
alert as it is not in sleep, to direct YOU
Imagination and apply it to serYceable ends.
You have certain work to do in the world
| Begin te view that work with imaginatiOn'S aid
| Picture it to yourself as something more thar
a mere mOney-making means. Invoke magma
ton to help you comprehend the Importance tc
society OF the tasks you are daily called upOr
! to perform.
Ponder imaginatvely, too, the possibilities
| they present for better performance on your
part Presto! Creative ideas will begin 10 come
10 you as never before-becauSe never before