GHOSTS FROM DREAMLAND 



peditions, friendly or warlike, and in the strange super- 

 sensual realm thus opened up had met beings known 

 to him of old, but now no longer visible to his waking 

 eyes. 



Such, according to this analysis, was the origin of 

 that belief in ghosts, which with all its multitudinous 

 expansions and elaborations has played so important a 

 part in the history of human development. 



But, it may be asked, was primitive man really a 

 dreamer? Did he not rather sink into profound and 

 unbroken sleep as soon as his physical needs were 

 satisfied, oblivious to the world? 



For answer it may be noted that the dream-state is 

 familiar ground to every race of man ; to all ages from 

 childhood to senescence. Nay, more, it is not the 

 exclusive territory of human sleepers. Watch old 

 Carlo lying there by the grate stretched out in profound 

 sleep. See now and again how his muscles twitch as if 

 in futile effort to swing forward in a gallop, while his 

 jaws half open and a suppressed bark comes from his 

 throat. 



Can you doubt that the dog is dreaming? that 

 before his mind's eye there appears the image of some 

 rabbit that he chased aforetime, of some strange cat, 

 some friend or foe of his own species? 



Even before our primitive ancestor had attained 

 human development, then, he was doubtless a dreamer; 

 and we cannot well doubt that his earliest self-conscious 

 picture of the world in which he found himself included 

 the conception of a second self an immaterial person- 

 ality associated with all living things, human and non- 



