Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Essay: "On Dreams." Sir Thomas Browne.



Dreams are the brothers of death. “The day supplieth us with truths; the night with fictions and falsehoods.” Dreams are the demons in our lives. Dreams are the actions of the day acted over and echoed in the night. Men act in dreams in conformity to their senses when awake. There is an art to make dreams as well as their interpretation. Types of food before retiring can make dreams turbulent or quiet. Dionysius kills a man because Dionysius dreamed the man killed him. Lamia sued a man because she dreamed that he had taken her virtue in her dreams. Never to have dreamed is as improbable as never to have laughed.

Comment: These essays are more like lists.

I never forgot a comment about dreams that Tolstoy once made: Dreams are not real, but the emotions that accompany them are. RayS.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

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