The Interpretation of Dreams

One night a dream
transported him to Trilport and he was once more playing in the
streets there. A man approached him, wearing a sort of uniform.
Maury asked him his name, and he introduced himself, saying that his
name was C, and that he was a bridge-guard. On waking, Maury, who
still doubted the actuality of the reminiscence, asked his old
servant, who had been with him in his childhood, whether she
remembered a man of this name. "Of course," was the reply; "he used to
be watchman on the bridge which your father was building then."
Maury records another example, which demonstrates no less clearly
the reliability of the reminiscences of childhood that emerge in our
dreams. M. F., who as a child had lived in Montbrison, decided,
after an absence of twenty-five years, to visit his home and the old
friends of his family. The night before his departure he dreamt that
he had reached his destination, and that near Montbrison he met a
man whom he did not know by sight, and who told him that he was M. F.,
a friend of his father's. The dreamer remembered that as a child he
had known a gentleman of this name, but on waking he could no longer
recall his features. Several days later, having actually arrived at
Montbrison, he found once more the locality of his dream, which he had
thought was unknown to him, and there he met a man whom he at once
recognized as the M. F. of his dream, with only this difference,
that the real person was very much older than his dream-image.
Here I might relate one of my own dreams, in which the recalled
impression takes the form of an association. In my dream I saw a man
whom I recognized, while dreaming, as the doctor of my native town.
His face was not distinct, but his features were blended with those of
one of my schoolmasters, whom I still meet from time to time. What
association there was between the two persons I could not discover
on waking, but upon questioning my mother concerning the doctor I
learned that he was a one-eyed man. The schoolmaster, whose image in
my dream obscured that of the physician, had also only one eye. I
had not seen the doctor for thirty-eight years, and as far as I know I
had never thought of him in my waking state, although a scar on my
chin might have reminded me of his professional attentions.
{I|B ^paragraph 30}
As though to counterbalance the excessive part which is played in
our dreams by the impressions of childhood, many authors assert that
the majority of dreams reveal elements drawn from our most recent
experiences. Robert (p. 46) even declares that the normal dream
generally occupies itself only with the impressions of the last few
days. We shall find, indeed, that the theory of the dream advanced
by Robert absolutely requires that our oldest impressions should