But it is mostly my own dreams I talk of, and that will somewhat excuse
me for talking of dreams at all. Every one knows how delightful the
dreams are that one dreams one’s self, and how insipid the dreams of
others are. I had an illustration of the fact, not many evenings ago,
when a company of us got telling dreams. I had by far the best dreams
of any; to be quite frank, mine were the only dreams worth listening
to; they were richly imaginative, delicately fantastic, exquisitely
whimsical, and humorous in the last degree; and I wondered that when
the rest could have listened to them they were always eager to cut in
with some silly, senseless, tasteless thing, that made me sorry and
ashamed for them. I shall not be going too far if I say that it was on
their part the grossest betrayal of vanity that I ever witnessed.
But the egotism of some people concerning their dreams is almost
incredible. They will come down to breakfast and bore everybody with
a recital of the nonsense that has passed through their brains in
sleep, as if they were not bad enough when they were awake; they will
not spare the slightest detail; and if, by the mercy of Heaven, they
have forgotten something, they will be sure to recollect it, and go
back and give it all over again with added circumstance. Such people do
not reflect that there is something so purely and intensely personal
in dreams that they can rarely interest any one but the dreamer,
and that to the dearest friend, the closest relation or connection,
they can seldom be otherwise than tedious and impertinent. The habit
husbands and wives have of making one another listen to their dreams
is especially cruel. They have each other quite helpless, and for this
reason they should all the more carefully guard themselves from abusing
their advantage. Parents should not afflict their offspring with the
rehearsal of their mental maunderings in sleep, and children should
learn that one of the first duties a child owes its parents is to spare
them the anguish of hearing what it has dreamed about overnight. A like
forbearance in regard to the community at large should be taught as the
first trait of good manners in the public schools, if we ever come to
teach good manners there.