“The stag-hound, weary with the chace,
Urged in dreams the forest race.”
It is probable that the dreams of brutes are very short.
From simple, unassociated memory, too, springs the dream of the infant; pure and innocent as the thought of a cherub. For delight is the common feeling of a dreaming child; and when its lips are touched in sleep, the memory of its mother’s bosom will excite its lips and tongue to the congenial action of suction, though a fright of the previous day will change its slumbers into moments of terror, and it will murmur and cry in its dream.
I believe it is Sir H. Wotton who lays much stress on the adoption of plans of education for a child, grounded on the discovery of its secret thoughts during its simple somniloquent dream.
Cast. It is wonderful how vividly are revived in our dream those scenes of our early life, which our waking efforts could not recollect.
This did not escape Chaucer, as I remember in Dryden’s version of a fable:
“Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind,
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
The nurse’s legends are for truths receiv’d,