Ancient and modern literature credits many more serious effects to dreams, though modern literature interprets these effects properly in most cases. Thus, many of the older writers, as Livy, tell us that Titus Atinius had a dream in which Jupiter signified his displeasure over the punishment of a slave in the Forum. The dream being slighted, the son of Atinius was said to have been struck dead, and the father afterwards deprived of the use of his limbs. Aroused to obedience, the latter was carried to the Senate, where, after delivering his message, he recovered his strength and walked home without assistance. If the dream brought all this about, it did so through fear. That fear can kill is an indisputed fact, likewise that it can cause any number of ills, organic and functional. The fact that Atinius recovered his strength so promptly indicates that he had no true paralysis, and that he was the victim of fear.

Janet tells of a patient who developed a contracture of the hands following a vivid dream of piano-playing. Another subject was falling and awoke to find beginning a paralysis of the legs. A dream has been known to cure a paralysis. For example, Du Bois mentions paralysis of the right arm in a little girl cured by a dream in which she had struck blow after blow at a cow which had attacked her dog.

Such paralyses as are caused or cured by dreams are functional or nervous in nature, that is, there is no damage done to the nerves, muscles, or other part of the paralysed member. They usually occur in easily impressionable persons. They may be present after the dream or develop days later. They are what might be called psychic shocks which are cured by psychic measures. Of themselves they are not serious and are removable. In passing, it may be advisable to urge persons inclined to be neurotic to refrain from assuming that inability to use a member in a dream, or an injury in a dream, signifies coming disaster of the same nature. This is best regarded as "only a dream." If attention is focused on some one part of the body, if one fears a paralysis, it is apt to develop since there is scarcely an ill that cannot be simulated by fear. Fear of epilepsy has caused a psychic epilepsy; fear of tuberculosis has caused symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis; fear of cholera has caused prolonged diarrheas. Fear, of course, cannot cause true epilepsy, tuberculosis, cholera or like disease, yet if we believe we have a disease we are practically as unhappy as if we had the disease in reality.

Persons not especially suggestible or nervous may dream of being in an accident of some sort and refrain from using the conveyance of the dream in waking life. They may be conscious of the dream, and conscious that their aversion is not wholly justified, yet they take no chances. Others may not know why they avoid certain things and the reason be a dream. We have many fears and do many things that seem peculiar for no reason that we know of; or we may give a reason which is not the real one. We may sometimes find out the reason for many of our acts of everyday life by studying our dreams, or we may learn by having these acts analysed by a competent psychologist. At any rate, one should not go so far as to believe that dreams portend actual evil. If one does so he is not only worrying needlessly but will probably be always disturbed by anything related to the thing with which the worry is associated. For example, one may dream that he has been hurt by a white horse and believe that sometime this dream will come true. He may forget the dream, yet, since the matter was not adequately explained or adjusted in consciousness, the fear of horses may continue throughout life, without known cause, and anything that suggests horses, as white, tail, etc., may cause a vague unrest whenever the individual hears, reads, or thinks of such.

There are, indeed, many effects traceable to dream experiences. Thus, Taine has described the case of a gendarme who, having been much impressed by a guillotine execution, dreamt that he was to be himself guillotined; the dream made so strong an impression that he later attempted suicide. Instances are recorded, also, of persons who changed their views, religious and otherwise, because of dreams. However, we will usually find that dreams which are said to effect pronounced changes in the individual's waking life, do so only partly; they merely emphasize or typify thoughts which the individual has previously entertained in waking life, or in a previous dream. Ideas persist in the mind. And when an idea is of a strong emotional tone, and when its possessor is of an impressionable nature, it is apt to become awakened and more active by an incident which bears a relation to it. In daily life, when an accident or other incident unduly impresses us, it is usually because we have previously thought of the event which has really occurred, though we may not be able to recall the thought. The actual occurrence awakens the thought, emphasizes it, and tends to influence the individual's future actions. Many intelligent persons who believe firmly in superstitions, do so because actual experiences which apparently prove the superstition, have come within the range of their personal experience. Persons who worry unduly about their physical blemishes do so, often at least, because they have feared that these would attract unfavourable attention, and have later found their fears borne out.

As an example of the above, Pauline Leclerc,1 a sister ried" about the thing before; it seems new to him. As with fears, so with paralyses and troubles following dreams; they have been thought of before; the dream merely awakened the fear and intensified it and made it seem real. Many of the apparently insignificant incidents of everyday life which cause us great concern do so because they are related to some previous experience concerning ourselves; and in our experiences we include thoughts.

1 Sisters of Napoleon, by Joseph Turquan; English translation by W. R. H. Trowbridge, 1908, p. 130. London, T. F. Unof Napoleon Bonaparte, was considered very pretty, her only blemish being her ears, which were slightly flat, but not enough to mar her attractiveness. Once, on going to a ball, she compelled the admiration of those present, save, naturally, that of the women, who, in subtle ways, tried to minimize her laurels. Later in the evening, the jealous Mme. de Contades, most of whose male admirers had been won away on Pauline's entrance, approached the place where Pauline was sitting, and, in a voice loud enough for all to hear, said, apparently to her escort: "What a pity! Yes, truly, how unfortunate. Such a really pretty head to have such ears! If I had ears like those I would have them cut off. Yes, positively, they are like those of a pug-dog. You who know her, Monsieur, advise her to have it done; it would be a charitable act on your part!" Naturally, this caused Pauline much embarrassment. Afterwards, she always concealed her ears under her hair or a bandeau. If we had an opportunity to study this case we would doubtless find that Pauline had thought of the possibility of her ears attracting attention; the remarks of the jealous woman awakened the fear and emphasized it.

Similarly, fears persisting after dreams will be found, if analysis is possible, to have once been thought of by the individual. They may have been thought of for a moment, and dismissed from the mind apparently. However, they were simply transferred to the unconscious mind, and were awakened and intensified by the dreams which had a relation to them. As a rule, the individual does not recall having thought of or "worwin; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons; Paris, Libraire Jules Tallandier.

While we can hardly blame dreams for whatever harm popular dream books may do, a word concerning the latter may not be out of place. Fortunately the use of such books is less now than formerly, but their circulation is still quite great. It must be admitted that these books make use of principles that are sometimes applicable to dreams, namely that dreams are often symbolic and that they go at times by contraries. The objection to the dream books is that their symbolism is made applicable to every dream, and every dreamer, whereas this is not justified, since the symbolism of dreams varies with the individual in most cases; also, that a dream cannot be interpreted by its opposite without a study of the dream thoughts. The dream thoughts are the most important and these are not made known in the dream as related. Furthermore, many of these books take a particular delight in picturing the unhappy; if they all painted pleasant pictures for every dream, their readers might scoff, yet they would not feel any the worse. They pretend to picture the future which no man knows and which will ever be a mystery. Even scientific students of the dream do not pretend to know the future, save in so far as they are willing to prognosticate health.

Popular dream books interpret dreams in two ways, by symbolism and contrast. If symbolic, to dream of going up a ladder means going up in the world; if by contrast, the reverse. Ivy means strength or the reverse, a midwife, revealing of secrets or the reverse, etc. Such reasoning is infantile, somewhat similar to primitive beliefs that echoes were due to dwarfs who lived in the hills, that hunger pains were caused by the gnaw-ings of living things in the stomach, that frogs caused warts because of their warty skins, etc.

As regards fortune tellers, it was long ago observed that their interpretations were influenced by the remuneration. In any case, one who heeds them is apt to worry needlessly or hope in vain. Practically, we might ask such seers why, claiming such powers as they do, they are not rich beyond the necessity of plying their trades. Cicero tells us an interesting story which has a bearing in this connection: A man once dreamed that there was an egg laid under his bed, and was told by the soothsayer that where he imagined he saw the egg there was treasure. In digging in the place indicated the man found silver, and some gold in the midst of it. In gratitude he brought some silver to the soothsayer, who asked why he did not give him some of the yolk also.