I have been asked by the dreamer of these dreams to add a foreword of my own. I do not know that I can add anything that will contribute to their interest, whether in the way of discussion, criticism, or interpretation. The author of the book modestly makes no claim to be a scientific explorer but only to be a recorder of her own dream experiences, who has been impelled "to stray a little beyond the province" assigned and "to attempt some partial explanation of the riddles that are met with." But the reader, I am sure, will find that she has scarcely done herself justice in this diffident attitude, for the accurate recording of observations accurately made is the basis of science and requires the development and possession of no common talent. Such observations are of much more scientific value than a number of inadequate theories - inadequate because based upon only a selected or limited group of facts. Moreover, these pages are rich in sound comments and discussions of the recorded phenomena, which are suggestive of new problems and points of view, and the author offers us particularly a well-considered new theory of the mechanism of dreams.

A considerable number of the observations recorded must be regarded as additions to our knowledge and vii as new data for an adequate interpretation of the mechanism of dreams. Besides the recording of her own experiences, Mrs. Arnold-Forster sets before herself as her main task that of finding out "by experiment and careful observation all that we can learn about the working of the various mental faculties in the dream state" - reason, memory, will, imagination. As the parts played by these mental processes obviously bear upon the various theories which have been proposed for the explanation of dreams, the results of the author's study of her own dreams must be regarded as an original contribution to the subject. The interesting theory which she proposes (Chapter IX) is one that deserves careful consideration. The unprejudiced reader who has not already accepted one of the current theories of dreams will be attracted by the diffidence and freedom from dogmatism of the author, and will study these pages with greater open-mindedness from knowing that she is thoroughly versed in the mass of literature on dreams which has accumulated in recent years, and has tested the theories in the light of her own observations. Mrs. Arnold-Forster, therefore, is no amateur.

I venture to think, however, that most professional psychologists will not share the "respect and natural awe" which, with charming modesty, she avows for the "vast library of books" in which are embodied the results of the so-called scientific investigations which have been stimulated by the present-day medical interest in dreams. More likely they look upon such "scientific" results as - pipe dreams or cigarette dreams. The quality of the interest of the reader in this book will undoubtedly be largely determined by his previous attitude of mind towards dreams and their interpretation. If he has a closed mind, has already committed himself towards some theory of dream mechanism - and I fear many students of present-day psychology already have - if he thinks he already knows it all, his interest may be hyper-criticaHy modified by the limitation of the task which the author has set before herself. I am not sure that this contribution has not gained by this limitation. We have theories in plenty of the mechanisms by which dreams are excited and worked out by some or other part of the mind, but none is wholly satisfactory, none, at least, is universally applicable to all dreams.

We have physiological theories and psychological theories: we have theories making use of unconscious processes and conscious processes, of symbolisms, and double-faced Janus-like processes-an underlying latent and a manifest conscious process: and we have theories of naughty and disguised wishes, and a watchful prude of a censor that spoils all the fun of dreaming and lets us fulfil our concealed wishes only on condition we don't know we have what we want, and therefore can't consciously enjoy forbidden fruit even in dreams: and we have theories of haphazard and "trial and error" processes, and many more. But all are theories, and nothing is proven fact. Some, nevertheless, work out very well with certain dreams, and then, when we try to apply them to other dreams, they won't work. No universally applicable theory has yet been invented. I do not know why any one theory of dream mechanism should be true for all dreams: as well hold that the mechanism of all conscious thought is the same; that, for instance, because some of our problems are solved subconsciously, all are; that, because some of our antipathies, some likes and dislikes, some fears and some kinds of behaviour are determined by hidden subconscious motives, all are; or, conversely, that because many or most problems are solved consciously, all are; or that, because many motives stand out blatantly in the broad daylight of consciousness, none are hidden in the subconscious ; or that, because most behaviour is determined by conscious intent or feeling, all is; or, again, because some actions are instinctive and determined by inherited mechanisms, that all behaviour is determined by such performed instincts; and, conversely, that, because most behaviour is due to acquired dispositions, all is due to such mechanisms; and so on.

The fact is, Mrs. Arnold-Forster hits the nail on the head when she says "there are dreams and dreams, and we must get rid of the assumption that they all resemble each other." This assumption is a very common one: in particular it is often assumed that a dream implies incongruity, or incoherence, or the grotesque, or logical anarchy. Dreams, as the author stresses, may not only exhibit orderly imagination, and reasoning, and memory, and other qualities of the mind, but this imagination, reasoning and memory may be highly constructive, ingeniously inventive, and produce imaginings or romances comparable in structure and sequence of ideas to stories of fiction or real life evolved by the same waking mind. This seems to be particularly the case with the dreams of the author, who therefore delights in her dream life and finds an enchanting recreation therein after the cares of the day, as the lover of novels, who reads into the wee hours of the night, finds refreshment from the strain of the day's work.