EDITORIAL 



The Scientific Utility of Dreams. 



Our practical age is prone to antagonize anything which 

 cannot be converted into substantial utility, yet the very 

 delving after utility not infrequently discovers stern realities in 

 the most shadowy regions. Even practical men dare not 

 openly revile the scientific employment of the imagination and 

 the genius which condenses the vapors of our furnaces into 

 commercial worth may yet succeed in condensing the vaporings 

 of the sleeping brain or distilling the mercurial humors which 

 the school of Descartes fancied hissed through the tube-like 

 avenues of the cerebrum. 



Dreams have undoubtedly had more to do with the origin 

 and coloring of religious belief than any physical influence 

 whatever. While the careful student will avoid the rash state- 

 ment hazarded by Radestock that the belief in the supernatural 

 is a direct product of dream association and disassociation, the 

 most reverent critic will recall that in the older time the most 

 characteristic avenue of inspiration has been "dreams and vis- 

 ions of the night." It is true that destructive scientific criticism 

 has employed this fact with rude force to undermine the validity 

 of all revelation and especially to destroy the grounds of con- 

 fidence in the existence and immortality of the soul, neverthe- 

 less after such attempts there must follow a period of recon- 

 struction. Because the source of familiar ideas and beliefs is 

 not just what we supposed or the medium of vision is of an 

 unexpected character it does not follow that the content — be it 

 faith or sight — is worthless or totally unreliable. Narrower 

 inspection, sharper criticism, wider generalization — these are 

 the correctives which doubt needs rather than the mildly 

 soporific prescription of ignorance offered by bigotry and con- 

 servatism. 



