Page 190 - English Reader - 6

experiences. Nor can we say that the moral reason loses all control in
our sleep.

It does indeed sometimes happen that good men in their dreams seem to
do without the slightest compunction, horribly wicked deeds, but, on the

other hand, even the dreamer sometimes hears the voice of conscience.

The origin of dreams may in many cases be traced to internal or external

causes. Nightmare is frequently due to indigestion or ill-health.

When a dream is connected with an external cause, it is often possible

to trace some resemblance between the cause and the effect, although

our imagination erects a great dream fabric on a very small foundation.

Instances are quoted of a dreamer who dreamt that he was wandering
through regions of polar ice and woke up to find that he had kicked off

his bed¬clothes; and of another who, going to sleep with a hot bottle at

his feet, dream that he was walking over the crater of a volcano.

The sound of a whistle heard at the moment of waking may make us

dream of a long-continued struggle to catch a railway train on the point
of starting.

In other cases a dream originates in something that the dreamer saw or
was thinking about just before sleep came upon him. Coleridge once fell

asleep in his chair after reading how Kublai Khan ordered a palace to be
made. The idea worked upon his imagination, and the consequence was

that he composed a fine poem in his sleep.

When he woke up, he remembered perfectly the lines that had presented

themselves to his mind in the form of a dream, and he immediately began

to write them down. Unfortunately he was interrupted in the middle of
his task by a visitor, after whose departure he could remember no more,

190 Dolphin English Reader Book 6