CONTRIBUTION FROM DREAMLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR..]
Sia,—As to mental exercises in dreams, this happened to me one morning, not very many years ago. I found myself at Eton again, at my desk, in Mrs. bit's (my dame's house), writing a copy of verses on Spring. The lines were written easily enough, I thought, when suddenly I stopped to criticise an expression, and this change in the mental attitude woke me at once. I had the last two lines on my lips, and there was no harm in them. I have no reason to doubt that the former ones, which slipped away, without much loss to mankind, down the abyss of Space, were just as good or as moderate as the two remembered ones, which ran as follows :—
"Emicat omnis ager renovato flore rosaram,
Et passim herbosi nube virescit llamas."
I have a notion that " flos roam" would be a more dainty expres- sion (" the flower of the rose ") in careful Latin than " rosarum," but that is no great matter. The odd thing was, that not only the lines, but the criticism, stood the test of waking. I had said to myself, "I do not know about herbosa nube,' it is rather an unusual phrase, but I think it will do; and if not, my tutor may alter it, and be hanged to him." I considered the matter as I was rubbing my eyes, and still thought it admissible, though I recovered my grown-up manners, and repented of the unseemly expression about the excellent Provost of King's. I do not say that there is any merit in the two Latin lines, but simply that the old Eton mechanism, which had ground out ten thousand Latin verses between 1823 and 1829, went to work in my dream without having rusted, and that the result was quite up to my present waking level of Latin composition, in which, I need hardly say, it has not been for many years my practice to indulge, of set purpose.—I am, Sir, &c., FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE. Board Boom, Customs, November 7th.
P.8.—I mentioned this fact in a small volume of "Lectures" published some ten years ago; but the book is now out of print, so I may as well repeat it. It is odd, by the way, that in the letters written to you on this subject, no reference is made (at least, I have seen no such reference) to Coleridge's elaborate- account of how Kubla Khan rose up in his mind whilst he was asleep, under the influence of opium.
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