Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1889 — Dream Memory. [ARTICLE]

Dream Memory.

An excellent musician and composer once omitted to note down a melody which occurred to him. Afterward he could not recall it, but later he recollected it in dream, with full harmony and accompaniment, and on waking was able to retain it until he wrote it down. There are endless stories of the hiding-places of missing deeds, and so forth, being revealed in dreams. Let us take one as typical. A landed proprietor in England was involved in a lawsuit in consequence of a claim upon his father’s estate, which he was firmly convinced had been discharged. Judgment, however, was about to go against him, as no voucher could be found. But one night, in dream, his father appeared to him, and said that the papers relating to this affair had been placed in the hands of a solicitor he had not generally employed, but who happened to be engaged for this particular business. In the dream the father said that if this person had forgotten a matter which w r as already old, he would be reminded of it by the mention of a Portuguese gold coin, concerning the value of which there was a dispute at the time. The dream was curiously verified, as the solicitor only did recollect the circumstance on mention of the gold coin. He was then able to produce the missing papers, and the son gained the suit after all. Now, a dream of this kind is only explained in one way. The son had either been present at the interview, or had been made acquainted with the circumstance by his father in the lifetime of the latter. Then he had forgotten all about it, until “latent memory” was awakened in this happy manner in sleep.