A lady dreamed that she was sitting at a window, watching the end ofan autumn sunset. There came a knock at the front door and agentleman and lady were ushered in. The gentleman wore an old-fashioned snuff-coloured suit, of the beginning of the century; hewas, in fact, an aged uncle, who, during the Napoleonic wars, had beenone of the English detenus in France. The lady was very beautiful andwore something like a black Spanish mantilla. The pair carried withthem a curiously wrought steel box. Before conversation was begun,the maid (still in the dream) brought in the lady's chocolate and thefigures vanished. When the maid withdrew, the figures reappearedstanding by the table. The box was now open, and the old gentlemandrew forth some yellow papers, written on in faded ink. These, hesaid, were lists of securities, which had been in his possession, whenhe went abroad in 18--, and in France became engaged to his beautifulcompanion."The securities," he said, "are now in the strong box of Messrs. ---;"another rap at the door, and the actual maid entered with real hotwater. It was time to get up. The whole dream had its origin in thefirst rap, heard by the dreamer and dramatised into the arrival ofvisitors. Probably it did not last for more than two or three secondsof real time. The maid's second knock just prevented the revelationof the name of "Messrs. ---," who, like the lady in the mantilla, wereprobably non-existent people. {13}Thus dream dramatises on the impulse of some faint, hardly perceivedreal sensation. And thus either mere empty fancies (as in the case ofthe lost securities) or actual knowledge which we may have oncepossessed but have totally forgotten, or conclusions which have passedthrough our brains as unheeded guesses, may in a dream be, as it were,"revealed" through the lips of a character in the brain's theatre--that character may, in fact, be alive, or dead, or merely fantastical.A very good case is given with this explanation (lost knowledgerevived in a dramatic dream about a dead man) by Sir Walter Scott in anote to The Antiquary. Familiar as the story is it may be offeredhere, for a reason which will presently be obvious.
