_Dreams._
"My lord," said the favorite to Bloculocus, "you must render me another
piece of service. Last night a crowd of extravagant fancies disturbed
my head. It was a dream of a very odd kind: and I have been assured
that you are the most able person of Congo in decyphering dreams. Then
give me quickly the interpretation of this;" and withal she related
her own.
"Madam," answered Bloculocus, "I am but a middling
Oneirocritic"----"Pray spare these terms of art," cried the favorite:
"drop your learning, and talk reason to me."
"Madam, you shall be obeyed. I have some singular notions relating
to dreams: and to this alone perhaps I am indebted for the honour of
conversing with you, and for the epithet of Saturnine. I will explain
them to you with all the perspicuity I am capable of.
"You are not ignorant, madam," continued he, "of what the bulk of
philosophers, with the rest of mankind, deliver on that subject. They
say, that the objects which most sensibly struck us the preceding day,
employ our soul in the night. The traces which they imprinted on the
fibres of our brain, subsist. The animal spirits, accustomed to flow to
certain places, pursue a course which is become familiar to them: and
thence arise these involuntary images which afflict or rejoice us. In
this system I should think, that a happy lover ought always to be well
served by his dreams. Nevertheless it frequently happens that a person
who is not cruel to him, while he is awake, in his sleep treats him
like a slave; or that instead of enjoying a charming woman, he finds a
little deformed monster in his arms."
"That is exactly my adventure of last night," interrupted Mangogul:
"for I seldom pass a night without dreaming. It is a family disease;
and we dream from father to son, since the Sultan Togrul, who dream'd
in 743500000002, and began the custom. Now, madam, last night you
appeared to me," says he to Mirzoza. "'Twas your skin, your arms, your
breast, your neck, your shoulders, this firm flesh, this easy shape,
this incomparable _Embonpoint_, in a word it was yourself; excepting
this circumstance, that instead of that charming face, that adorable
head which I expected to find, I found myself nose to nose with the
snout of a Dutch pug.
"I scream'd out dreadfully; my chamberlain Kotluk ran to me, and ask'd
me what was the matter. 'Mirzoza,' answered I, half asleep, 'has just
now undergone the most hideous metamorphosis. She is become a Dutch
dog.' Kotluk did not think proper to awake me: he withdrew, and I fell
asleep again: but I can assure you that I knew you wonderfully well,
your body with a dog's head. Will Bloculocus give me the explanation
of this phænomenon?"
"I do not despair of doing it," answered Bloculocus, "provided your
highness will agree with me in one very plain principle; which is, that
all beings have many conformities one with another, by qualities which
are common to them: and that it is a certain combination of qualities
which characterizes and distinguishes them."
"That is evident," replies Mirzoza. "Ipsiphila has feet, hands, and a
mouth, like a woman of sense;" "and Pharasmena," adds Mangogul, "wears
her sword like a man of courage."
"If a person is not sufficiently acquainted with the qualities, the
combination of which characterizes this or that species; or if he
passes a hasty judgment, that this combination does or does not belong
to this or that individual; he runs the risque of mistaking copper
for gold, a paste for a brillant, a calculator for a geometrician, a
retailer of phrases for a wit, Crito for an honest man, and Phedima for
a pretty woman," added the Sultana.
"Well, madam," replies Bloculocus, "do you know what might be said of
those who pass these judgments?"
"That they dream wide awake," says Mirzoza.
"Very well, madam," continued Bloculocus; "and nothing is more
philosophical or more exact in a thousand circumstances than this
familiar expression: _I believe you dream_: for nothing is more common
than men who fancy that they reason, and in reality only dream with
their eyes open."
"'Tis of those," interrupted the favorite, "one may literally say, that
their whole life is but a dream."
"I cannot too much admire, madam," replied Bloculocus, "the ease
with which you comprehend such abstruse notions. Our dreams are
but precipitate judgments which succeed each other with incredible
rapidity, and by bringing objects together, whose sole connexion is by
very distant qualities, compose one whimsical image."
"If I understand you right," said Mirzoza, "as I think I do, a dream
is a piece of patch-work, the patches of which are more in number,
more regularly fitted, according as the dreamer has a more lively turn
of thought, a more rapid imagination, and a more faithful memory.
Might not madness also consist in this? And when an inhabitant of the
_Petites Maisons_ cries out that he sees lightning, hears the rattling
of thunder, and that gulphs gape under his feet; or when Ariadne at
her glass smiles at herself, finds her eyes sparkling, her complexion
charming, her teeth white, and her mouth little; might not one justly
say, that these two disordered brains, deceived by very distant
affinities, look on imaginary objects as present and real?"
"You have hit it off, madam: yes, a due examination of mad folks will
convince any body, that their condition is but a continual dream."
"I have," says Selim addressing himself to Bloculocus, "some facts by
me, to which your notions are very applicable; which makes me resolve
to adopt them. Once I dream'd that I heard some brayings, and that
I saw two parallel rows of singular animals coming out of the great
mosque; they walk'd gravely on their hinder feet: the hoods in which
their snouts were muffled up, had two holes in each, thro' which issued
two long moveable hairy ears; and very long sleeves envelopped their
fore feet. I rack'd my brain at the time, to find some meaning, in
this vision: but I now recollect that I had been at Montmartre[1] the
preceding evening."
[1] A hill near Paris famous for asses.
"Another time, while we were in the field, commanded by the great
Sultan Erguebzed in person, and I, harassed by a forced march, was
taking a nap in my tent, I thought I had the conclusion of an important
affair to sollicite in the divan: I went to appear before the council
of regency: but you may judge how much I had reason to be surprized. I
found the hall full of racks, troughs, mangers, and coops for fowls;
in the great Seneschal's easy chair I saw but an ox chewing the cud;
in the Seraskier's place, a Barbary sheep; on the Testesdar's bench,
an eagle with a hooked bill and long talons; instead of the Kiaja and
Kadilesker, two large owls cloathed in fur; and for Visirs, geese with
peacocks tails. I presented my petition, and instantly heard a horrible
racket, which awaked me."
"Is that a dream of very difficult interpretation?" said Mangogul, "you
had at that time some affair in the divan, and before you went thither,
you took a walk to the Menagerie: but Signor Bloculocus, you tell me
nothing concerning my dog's head."
"Prince," answer'd Bloculocus, "'tis a hundred to one, that madam wore,
or you had observed some other lady wear a sable tippet; and that the
first Dutch dog, which you saw, struck your imagination. There you have
ten times more connections than is requisite to employ your mind during
your sleep: the resemblance of colour made you substitute hair for a
tippet, and in an instant you planted an ugly dog's head in the place
of a very beautiful woman's head."
"Your notions to me appear just," replied Mangogul: "why do you not
publish them? they may contribute to the progress of divination by
dreams, an important science, which was much cultivated two thousand
years ago; and has since been too much neglected. Another advantage of
your system is, that it would not fail throwing light on several works,
both ancient and modern, which are but a string of dreams; such as
Plato's treatise of idea's, the fragments of Hermes Trismegistus, the
literary paradoxes of father Harduin, the Newton, the optic of colours,
and the universal mathematicks of a certain Bramin. For example, would
you not inform us, Mr. Conjurer, what Orcotomus had seen in the
daytime, when he dream'd his Hypothesis; what father C---- had dreamt,
when he set about constructing his organ of colours; and what was
Cleobulus's dream, when he composed his tragedy?"
"With a little meditation, Sir," answered Bloculocus, "I might compass
all that: but I reserve these nice phænomena for the time, when I shall
put out my translation of Philoxenus, for which I beseech your highness
to grant me the privilege."
"With all my heart," says Mangogul: "but who is this same
Philoxenus?"----"Prince," replies Bloculocus, "he is a Greek author,
who was very knowing in the subject of dreams."----"Then you understand
Greek?"----"Who I, Sir, not a syllable."----"Have you not told me
that you are translating Philoxenus, and that he wrote in Greek?"
"Yes, Sir; but in order to translate a language, it is not necessary
to understand it: because translations are made for those only, who
understand it not."
"That is wonderful," says the Sultan; "Signor Bloculocus, well then
translate Greek without understanding it. I give you my word, that I
will keep the secret, and it shall not make me honour you one jot the
less."