y by practice become the interpreter of his own visions and so come to
an understanding of the vagaries of that mysterious and inseparable
companion, his dream-self.

EDWIN E. SLOSSON.

NEW YORK CITY,
FEBRUARY 10, 1914.

DREAMS

The subject which I have to discuss here is so complex, it raises so
many questions of all kinds, difficult, obscure, some psychological,
others physiological and metaphysical; in order to be treated in a
complete manner it requires such a long development--and we have so
little space, that I shall ask your permission to dispense with all
preamble, to set aside unessentials, and to go at once to the heart of
the question.

A dream is this. I perceive objects and there is nothing there. I see
men; I seem to speak to them and I hear what they answer; there is no
one there and I have not spoken. It is all _as if_ real things and real
persons were there, then on waking all has disappeared, both persons and
things. How does this happen?

But, first, is it true that there is nothing there? I mean, is there not
presented a certain sense material to our eyes, to our ears, to our
touch, etc., during sleep as well as during waking?

Close the eyes and look attentively at what goes on in the field of our
vision. Many persons questioned on this point would say that nothing
goes on, that they see nothing. No wonder at this, for a certain amount
of practise is necessary to be able to observe oneself satisfactorily.
But just give the requisite effort of attention, and you will
distinguish, little by little, many things. First, in general, a black
background. Upon this black background occasionally brilliant points
which come and go, rising and descending, slowly and sedately. More
often, spots of many colors, sometimes very dull, sometimes, on the
contrary, with certain people, so brilliant that reality cannot compare
with it. These spots spread and shrink, changing form and color,
constantly displacing one another. Sometimes the change is slow and
gradual, sometimes again it is a whirlwind of vertiginous rapidity.
Whence comes all this phantasmagoria? The physiologists and the
psychologists have studied this play of colors. "Ocular spectra,"
"colored spots," "phosphenes," such are the names that they have given
to the phenomenon. They explain it either by the slight modifications
which occur ceaselessly in the retinal circulation, or by the pr