THE DREAM-GOD,
OR
A SINGULAR EVOLVEMENT
OF
THOUGHT IN SLEEP.
BY JOHN CUNINGHAM.
NEW YORK:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY
ANDERSON & RAMSAY.
28 FRANKFORT STREET.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
JOHN CUNINGHAM,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
TO MY FRIENDS.
_Although requested by a number of you at various times to write this
condensed narrative of an event in my life, associated with much
misfortune, sadness and suffering which have continued for some years,
it was not until during a lonely period of quietude at Brooklyn, N.
Y., in the summer of 1872, that I made the effort. I do not expect the
public to give much credence or interest to the matter, but to you who
know me I can trustingly give the assurance that this little book is an
unaffected and truthful production. It is published as an affectionate
memorial to you of mutual esteem and friendship._
JOHN CUNINGHAM,
_of So. Ca._
APRIL, 1873.
A SINGULAR EVOLVEMENT OF THOUGHT IN SLEEP.
A REMARKABLE DREAM.
The peculiar and startling effect of morphine on a person unaccustomed
to its administration, was happily illustrated in the instance of a
gentleman to whom, under its influence, (about three eighths of a
grain,) the dream to be related occurred. This individual, (a South
Carolinian resident on a plantation,) a few years ago, had lately
received a severe and extensive burn, which confined him to his bed six
months. An allusion by him in a casual conversation in the city of New
York recently to the eventful dream and its circumstances, brought out
a solicitation to him to write its narrative, which in substance he
here gives.
One evening in midwinter, a few weeks after the accident, the almost
exhausted sufferer, having taken the prescribed nightly dose of
morphine, fell asleep.
THE DREAM-GOD.
PART I.
The sleep was serene, the mind active, and the dream promptly and
vividly supervened. A being in the form of a handsome and matured man,
full of _esprit_, in a white and easy-fitting garment, with bright,
broad and sweeping wings coming out from each side of his back below
the shoulders, appeared to the patient at his bedside, and announced to
him that he was the Spirit of Morphine, of a heavenly and _immortal_
nature, and that he had come to carry him on an aerial voyage over many
parts of the world; to show him many attractive regions and things,
to introduce him to various races, royal personages, distinguished
celebrities, etc.
The sleeper with surprise inquired, “How can I go with this stricken
and impotent body?”
The Immortal replied, “You must leave your body here; your spiritual
being can accompany me.”
_Sleeper._--“But I fear that before my return my friends may see and
regard my inanimate body as dead, and bury it.”
_Immortal._--“Fear not. I will restore you in due time to your body;
and I will prepare you for our adventures as I am prepared.”
Thus assured, the somnipathist crept gently out, headway, from his
“mortal coil,” glided over the headboard of his bedstead, glanced back
upon his sleeping frame in his very image, then sprang lithely to the
sill of the window, where the sash had already been thrown up by the
Morpheus, and finding himself equipped with needed dress and wings,
soared with his companion into the air.
_Immortal._--“What route do you prefer?”
_Mortal._--“I wish to have a birdseye view of Charleston, (once my
home,) by gas-light and then toward the Arctic Pole.”
The aerial _voyageurs_ were, as if in a moment, hovering in a slow,
scrutinizing flight over Charleston, with stars above, and looking
as upon stars below; and in front, athwart the ocean, a long line
of light, gleaming from a newly-risen moon, invited their quickened
pinions into the illimitable spaces over the far-bounded deep. Curving
in a wide ocean-sweep northward, and moving with lightning-speed, they
perceived, although having a full sense of comfort, varying currents
of icy gales and warm breezes; and from their transparent height
saw beneath them the dark, girdling strata of cyclone hurricanes,
or sheeny, swathe-clouds of crystal congelations; or, within their
extended girdles, broad, oval areas of clear-rolling sea, and far down,
by a peculiar dim lighting of its depths, the plains, hills and vales
it immersed, and the myriad tribes of the deep in their amazing animate
forms.
_Mortal._--“I would see the borealis.”
_Immortal._--“You shall, anon.”
The dream seemed to change. The parties suddenly found themselves
lying in open sea-shells, structured to their lengths and sizes,
floating side by side on a tranquil waste of waters, feet foremost,
heads pillowed, and eyes bent upward and northward. A lowered and
murky sky appeared as a dun-colored ceiling, of little height above
them; and they were thoughtful, and in low tones they occasionally
uttered weird thoughts on life--mankind--earth--God. A drowsy moment
ensues. Then slowly lifts the gloomy canopy, and along the distant
northern horizon, the fog having rapidly disappeared, a lengthened
arc of whitish light spans itself. The heavens are again clear. From
the bright arc dart upward along their northern hemisphere radiant
streams of every lighter hue, and in incessant changeful brilliancy--a
panoramic spread of incandescent splendors. A whirl of cold, shimmering
light dashes around and over towering icebergs, and amazes the eye. It
closes, and when again it opens, the Arctic travellers find themselves
soaring aloft, and they look upon an open, calm, unfrozen polar sea.[A]
The Spirit of Morphine remarks: “You now see, and will see, things
unknown to man. This comparative warmth comes from the fire and glowing
heat in the bowels of the earth, as you will soon ascertain.”
They move on; they are at the Pole; the north star is in the zenith. A
magnetic needle appears hanging in mid-air, like the visioned dagger
before Macbeth, and dips southward and westward toward the other--the
magnetic--pole, degrees away. A glare disturbs the eye, and terrible
sounds surround them. Behold! the Pole is a large cylindrical aperture
(miles in diameter) in our globe, down through which are seen the
molten mass and fiery flame within the crust of earth! The watery
billows, like a whirlpool, surge in loud roar around its circumferent
shore, but enter not; and a column of heat ever rushes on the Arctic
air.
A cry of terror and awe escapes from the sleeper. He is conscious of
it, but does not awake. The dream resumes.
They are now flying southward, and the somnipathist has a vision (a
dream in this dream) of a midsummer circling sun shining a day of
months. They view the peculiarities of Iceland, examine the maelstrom,
(that singular natural wonder, gurgitating into another earth-aperture,
off Norway,) and comprehend by a glance Lapland, Norway and Sweden,
their curiosities, peoples, customs, etc. There is not time or space
for details. They are _en voyage_ for the Court of Russia.
They alight at the Winter Palace of the Czar.
The Immortal with his pupil enters with free and commanding
port--obstructions vanish. A festive scene of splendor--gayety, glitter
and ceremony commingled--is at its height. Through the maze of an
amazed, gorgeous, throng, they advance to the Emperor, surrounded
by rank and beauty; and through the influence of a celestial majesty
more enthralling than his own, they secure his deferential and cordial
attention. Then follows a confused but charming association with
“beautiful women and brave men,” amid all social bewitcheries.
The scene changes. They are seated in a small ice-crystal[B] _salon_,
glistening on all sides except the carpeted floor, with the Emperor and
his prime minister alone, all exhilarant with wine, and now sipping
the potent subtlety of China’s most famed and fragrant tea, priced at
its weight in gold. The philosophy of government, from a republican
standpoint, rushes upon the soul of the American, and he exclaims to
the mighty potentate of all the Russias:
“How can your humanity conscientiously hold and wield the power of
imperial despotism?”
_Emperor._--“The one-man power in the light and dignity of a
_principle_, appeals to reason and fascinates the soul. It is the true
theory of human government. I am God’s vicegerent, as king and priest,
for the well-being and good order of my people.”
_Prime Minister._--“This system derives its type from the One-God
control of the universe. It has divinity from above, it has patriarchal
sanction here below. It can bear comparison with its opposite extreme
in absolutism--a pure democracy, the mere many-power, unrestrained,
unregulated and uninstructed. What is more irresponsible, more
selfishly callous, more heedlessly unstable, and more grinding than the
vulgar tyranny of a bare popular majority? Extremes meet and have a
singular affinity; it is the secret of the growing friendship between
Russia and the United States.”
_American._--“Ha! Our American people are not a mass democracy. The
United States are republics federated under a Constitution--a system
which excludes both your extremes.”
_Prime Minister._--“Indeed!”
_Immortal._--“There is a golden mean for all finite governments.
Uncontrolled power is only for the Infinite.”
_Emperor._--“Is even political self-government a _right_?”
_American._--“Surely mankind is entitled to it and should possess it.”
_Immortal._--“No! Self-government is the eventual prize of intelligence
and virtue. The ignorant or vicious are incapable of it. In the
meantime, it is the _privilege_ of the human race to secure it by
attempered wisdom, and to guard it against the passions and ignorance
of the many, the few, or the one. Goodness in the use of power, more
than the form of government, is the great desideratum. Seek most to
elevate the mind and heart of man!”
_American_ to _Emperor_.--“Sire! it is then your best mission to _do
well your part_!”