None can deny that there is an ideal in dreams, and that these ideals alter with the changing times, although behind every dream there must be the individual who apprehends spirit in his own measure. The outward signs of dreams have changed with the centuries although certain fundamental symbols have remained the same. The modern dreamer who dissects his dream for an analysis of his own psychological processes misses the mystical quality and reduces his dreams to commonplace.

In the days, however, when dreams were accorded their mete of attention, visions came more easily, not as the resultant of drugs or anodynes, nor the sequelae of outward or physical stimuli as certain schools of dream study would imply, but as manifestations of the higher powers of the spiritual world.

Unquestionably in many instances self-hypnosis, auto-suggestion and hysteria were responsible for the visions; especially might these have been the factors among the mediaeval saints and the early Christian martyrs with their starved, racked bodies waiting and praying for a visible, tangible manifestation from their God. But none of these semi-physical conditions can explain the prophetic visions, nor account for the permanence of the conversions.

There is marked similarity in mystical religious experiences; the sudden vision of a great and blinding light characterizes the conversion of St. Paul, St. Augustine and St. Francis, while St. John, Anselm and Cardinal Newman knew a gradually growing state of illumination. The faculty of seeing God in all His creations is a fundamental of mystical thought that binds together the ancient and the modern followers of mysticism.

Emanuel Swedenborg, whose hold upon modern mind is exemplified in the "New Church" that he founded, was a dreamer and a seer of visions. Born in the latter part of the seventeenth century, son of a Swedish Bishop, in youth he was essentially a scientist and a man of the world. His brilliancy so impressed Charles XII of Sweden that the Bishop's son was consulted at the seige of Frederickshall, and his invention of a machine that would convey two galleys, five large boats and a sloop overland from Stromstadt to Iderfjol and thus transport heavy artillery to the very walls of Frederickshall won Swedenborg a knighthood. He was also a professor of mathematics in the University of Upsala and wrote books upon algebra and mathematics. A certain class of Swedenborg's followers maintain that he forestalled Herschel with the discovery of Uranus; Swedenborg's allusions, however, to a seventh planet may be based upon supernormal knowledge, as in the instance of Anna Kingsford, whose dreams have immortalized her work, and who saw in a vision the forty-eight satellites of Jupiter many years before the entire number had been discovered. In his forty-seventh year Swedenborg began to follow the dreams and visions whose mystic light was to guide thousands after him along the path. His dream experiences are given with unusual accuracy in an article in the Medical Critic and Psychological Journal, vol. i, 1861, and taken from a manuscript of unquestioned authenticity in the royal library of Stockholm.

"At ten o'clock I lay down in bed and was somewhat better; half an hour after I heard a clamor under my head; I thought then that the tempter went away; immediately after there came over me a rigor so strong from the head and the whole body, with some din, and this several times. I found that something holy was over me: I thereupon fell asleep, and at about 12, 1 or 2 o'clock at night, there came over me so strong a shivering from head to foot, with a din, as in many winds rushed together, which shook me, was indescribable and prostrated me upon my face. Then, while I was prostrated, I was in a moment quite awake, and saw that I was cast down, and wondered what it meant. And I spoke as if I was awake, but found that the word was put into my mouth, and I said, 'Omnipotent Jesus Christ, as of Thy great grace Thou con-descendest to come to so great a sinner, make me worthy of this grace!' I held my hands together and prayed, and then came a hand which pressed my hands; immediately thereupon I continued my prayer and said, 'that Thou hast promised to pardon all sinners, Thou canst not but keep Thy word.' At the same time I sat in his lap and saw Him face to face: it was a face of a holy look, such as cannot be described, and smiling, such as I believe His face was while He lived. He spoke to me and asked me whether I had a clean bill of health. I answered, 'Lord Thou knowest better than I.' 'Well, do so,' said He. That is, I thought, 'Love me really,' or 'Do what thou hast promised.' God give me grace thereto. I found it depended on my own strength. I awoke with rigors."

It would seem that Swedenborg in 1743-1744, had become subject to frequent dreams, contemporaneously with a marked, and to him inexplicable, change in his ordinary mental state, if we understand aright his brief observations at the commencement of his diary, that "the propensity and self-love of his work had passed away, which he, himself, wondered at."

"I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself," he says afterwards in a letter to one of his friends.

St. Paul frequently refers to the dream state. "I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." II Corinthians, xii, 4. In the same chapter, a few verses on he continues, "How that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words that it is not lawful for a man to utter."

Not only is a state of dreaming or trance often implied by Paul's own words, but others give account of his visions: "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace." Acts xviii, 9.

A longing to withdraw from the world seems to possess the mystics immediately after the light has manifested to them; they crave a period for brooding and reflection, an opportunity to ponder in solitude and to upbuild the faith and to weave the dreams that are to help the world. St. Paul retired to the Arabian desert. After his conversion he writes: "I went away into Arabia . . . When after three years I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas." Galatians i, 17-18.