DREAMS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.1
Sin,—In your very interesting article on " Lord Vivian's Dream," you overlook, as other comments have done, one "coincidence," in itself remarkable, and which completes the significance of the whole, though standing alone it might not be of much ac- count. The information about the horse came from the same person who was dreamed to have communicated the fact of his winning. The first person Lord Vivian met on arriving at Victoria Station was the very person who had appeared to him in his dream. But for this circumstance, nothing would have come of the dream, as probably no one but the owner or trainer would have remembered the horse by his former name.
There is no doubt, however, that dreams sometimes recall old impressions with a vivacity of which the waking memory is quite incapable. I once dreamed that a friend described to me a recent disagreeable incident with such force and fidelity of representation, that I exclaimed, "How well you recall it ! I never could have hit it off so exactly myself." On waking, I remembered that I had no friend with me when the incident occurred. And this is another very frequent characteristic of dreams,—the distinct individuality of those who are dreamed of as conversing with one. They have a mode, and often a felicity, of expression utterly foreign to the dreamer himself, while the latter always preserves his usual character of thought and expression in his dreams. May I observe further, that this dream of Lord Vivian's is only one of a class of which many rest on equally good evidence P It is necessary to bear this in mind, when we are disposed to resort to far-fetched and conjectural explana- tions (such as the revival of forgotten impressions). Every instance of the marvellous which cannot be altogether dis- believed is commonly treated as if it stood alone in experi- ence, the cumulative force of the evidence being altogether ignored. Perhaps only those who have made a critical study of the " occult," testing the evidence in each case severely, but without prejudice, are aware that its facts rest on as sufficient a foundation as those of scientific experience.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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