Dreams and Dream Stories | Page 4

noble faculty
which beholds objects that truly are--the objects in the world of
intelligence-- stirs within, and awakens to its power, who can be
astonished that the mind which contains in itself the principles of all
events, should, in this its state of liberation, discern the future in those
antecedent principles which will constitute that future? The nobler part
of the mind is thus united by abstraction to higher natures, and becomes
a participant in the wisdom and foreknowledge of the gods . . . . The
night-time of the body is the day-time of the soul." But I have no desire
to multiply citations, nor to vex the reader with hypotheses
inappropriate to the design of this little work. Having, therefore, briefly
recounted the facts and circumstances of my experience so far as they
are known to myself, I proceed, without further commentary, to unroll
my chart of dream-pictures, and leave them to tell their own tale.
--A.B.K.

I. The Doomed Train*

I was visited last night by a dream of so strange and vivid a kind that I
feel impelled to communicate it to you, not only to relieve my own
mind of the impression which the recollection of it causes me, but also
to give you an opportunity of finding the meaning, which I am sill far
too much shaken and terrified to seek for myself. It seemed to me that
you and I were two of a vast company of men and women, upon all of
whom, with the exception of myself--for I was there
voluntarily--sentence of death had been passed. I was sensible of the
knowledge--how obtained I know not--that this terrible doom had been
pronounced by the official agents of some new reign of terror. Certain I
was that none of the party had really been guilty of any crime deserving
of death; but that the penalty had been incurred through
------------------ * This narrative was addressed to the friend particularly
referred to in it. The dream occurred near the close of 1876, and on the
eve, therefore, of the Russo-Turkish war, and was regarded by us both

as having relation to a national crisis, of a moral and spiritual character,
our interest in which was so profound as to be destined to dominate all
our subsequent lives and work. (Author's Note.) ---------------
their connection with some regime, political, social or religious, which
was doomed to utter destruction. It became known among us that the
sentence was about to be carried out on a colossal scale; but we
remained in absolute ignorance as to the place and method of the
intended execution. Thus far my dream gave me no intimation of the
horrible scene which next burst on me,--a scene which strained to their
utmost tension every sense of sight, hearing and touch, in a manner
unprecedented in any dream I have previously had. It was night, dark
and starless, and I found myself, together with the whole company of
doomed men and women who knew that they were soon to die, but not
how or where, in a railway train hurrying through the darkness to some
unknown destination. I sat in a carriage quite at the rear end of the train,
in a corner seat, and was leaning out of the open window, peering into
the darkness, when, suddenly, a voice, which seemed to speak out of
the air, said to me in a low, distinct, in-tense tone, the mere recollection
of which makes me shudder,--"The sentence is being carried out even
now. You are all of you lost. Ahead of the train is a frightful precipice
of monstrous height, and at its base beats a fathomless sea. The railway
ends only with the abyss, Over that will the train hurl itself into
annihilation, There Is No One On The Engine!" At this I sprang from
my seat in horror, and looked round at the faces of the persons in the
carriage with me. No one of them had spoken, or had heard those awful
words. The lamplight from the dome of the carriage flickered on the
forms, about me. I looked from one to the other, but saw no sign of
alarm given by any of them. Then again the voice out of the air spoke
to me,--"There is but one way to be saved. You must leap out of the
train!" In frantic haste I pushed open the carriage door and stepped out
on the footboard. The train was going at a terrific pace, swaying to and
fro as with the passion of its speed; and the mighty wind of its passage
beat my hair about my face and tore at my garments. Until this moment
I had not thought of you, or even seemed conscious of your presence in