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The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
14
During
the
Peninsular
war
his
father
and
his
two
brothers
were
quartered
at
Dover.
Their
family
were
at
Bradford.
The
brothers
slept
in
various
quarters
of
Dover
camp.
One
morning
they
met
after
parade.
"O
William,
I
have
had
a
queer
dream,"
said
Mr.
Swithinbank's
father.
"So
have
I,"
replied
the
brother,
when,
to
the
astonishment
of
both,
the
other
brother,
John,
said,
"I
have
had
a
queer
dream
as
well.
I
dreamt
that
mother
was
dead."
"So
did
I,"
said
each
of
the
other
brothers.
And
the
mother
had
died
on
the
night
of
this
dreaming.
Mrs.
Hudson,
daughter
of
one
of
the
brothers,
heard
the
story
from
all
three.
{5a}
The
distribution
of
the
fulfilled
is
less
than
that
of
the
unfulfilled
dream
by
three
to
five.
It
has
the
extra
coincidence
of
the
death.
But
as
it
is
very
common
to
dream
of
deaths,
some
such
dreams
must
occasionally
hit
the
target.
Other
examples
might
be
given
of
shared
dreams:
{5b}
they
are
only
mentioned
here
to
prove
that
all
the
waking
experiences
of
things
ghostly,
such
as
visions
of
the
absent
and
of
the
dead,
and
of
the
non-existent,
are
familiar,
and
may
even
be
common
simultaneously
to
several
persons,
in
sleep.
That
men
may
sleep
without
being
aware
of
it,
even
while
walking
abroad;
that
we
may
drift,
while
we
think
ourselves
awake,
into
a
semi-somnolent
state
for
a
period
of
time
perhaps
almost
imperceptible
is
certain
enough.
Now,
the
peculiarity
of
sleep
is
to
expand
or
contract
time,
as
we
may
choose
to
put
the
case.
Alfred
Maury,
the
well-known
writer
on
Greek
religion,
dreamed
a
long,
vivid
dream
of
the
Reign
of
Terror,
of
his
own
trial
before
a
Revolutionary
Tribunal,
and
of
his
execution,
in
the
moment
of
time
during
which
he
was
awakened
by
the
accidental
fall
of
a
rod
in
the
canopy
of
his
bed,
which
touched
him
on
the
neck.
Thus
even
a
prolonged
interview
with
a
ghost
may
conceivably
be,
in
real
time,
a
less
than
momentary
dream
occupying
an
imperceptible
tenth
of
a
second
of
somnolence,
the
sleeper
not
realising
that
he
has
been
asleep.
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