EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



tragically shows that he recognizes 

 that life — our waking life — can be 

 brought under the rule of right rea- 

 son. He does not advise us not to 

 take our dreams tragically, for he 

 knows tbat the dream state is one 

 not susceptible of rational regulation, 

 and this, we think, might very prop- 

 erly be accounted a third very im- 

 portant difference between dream 

 and reality. The true advice to give 

 to those whose happiness we have at 

 heart is, not to look upon life as a 

 kind of dream, but to take it serious 

 ly, to study its laws, and to accept 

 the burdens and duties it imposes. 

 It may be remarked that dreams give 

 very little trouble, as a rule, to those 

 whose waking hours are well spent, 

 and whose minds and bodies are kept 

 in a condition of healthful balance. 

 We can indeed in the waking state 

 take measures to reduce our dreams 

 to a minimum, and to provide that 

 at least they shall not be of a dis- 

 tressing character. Such being the 

 case, it seems idle, to say the least, 

 to speculate, as many besides M. Me- 

 linaiid have done, on the possible 

 reality of dreams. What Bottom 

 said of his dream, " Man is but an 

 ass if he go about to expound this 

 dream," might be applied without 

 much risk of error to dreams gener- 

 ally; unless the exposition takes the 

 direction of endeavoring to explain 

 what antecedent mental or physical 

 condition, or what circumstances act- 

 ing upon the sleeper, may have given 

 rise to the dream in a given case. 



M. Melinand makes a remark 

 which the experience of many will 

 confirm, that dreams sometimes 

 throw a light of extraordinary in- 

 tensity on characters and situations, 

 giving us, perhaps, truer views of 

 certain things than we had ever at- 

 tained in our waking hours. This, 

 however, would only imply the with- 

 drawal at such moments of influ- 

 ences or conditions which, in our 



waking life, may have the effect of 

 rendering insight less keen and un- 

 compromising. If, for example, we 

 could in our dreams revert to the 

 standpoint of childhood, we should 

 see many things with a directness 

 which is more or less lacking to our 

 mature cogitations, and pronounce 

 judgments in a correspondingly 

 down-right manner, with perhaps 

 a closer approximation to absolute 

 truth. This, however, would mani- 

 festly not imply any extension of 

 our mental range, nor afford any 

 guarantee of the "reality" of the 

 dream life. The intuitions of the 

 novelist or dramatist, when they are 

 true and profound, give a wonderful 

 air of reality to the scenes which the 

 author portrays, but do not make 

 them real. There are various wak- 

 ing states in which our perceptions 

 are more than normally acute ; and, 

 as we know, the loss of one physical 

 organ leads frequently to an increase 

 of power in others; but these facts 

 throw little light on the main prob- 

 lem of life, which is how to develop 

 and use our normal powers to the 

 best purpose and with the best re- 

 sults. At the same time it is well not 

 to despise any knowledge that may 

 come to us from dreams in the way 

 of self -revelation or otherwise, but to 

 use it for the strengthening of what 

 is weak and the rectifying of what 

 is wrong. In that way dreams may 

 be made subsidiary to the better gov- 

 ernment of our higher waking life. 



As to the conclusion the writer 

 draws, that, as we wake from dreams, 

 so we may some day wake from 

 this life, which is so like a dream, 

 we leave it to the judgment of our 

 readers, merely remarking that it 

 would be very unfortunate if the 

 thought of such an awakening should 

 lead any one to think little of this 

 life, or abate any effort which he can 

 make to render it, if a dream, a hap- 

 py dream to himself and others. 



