Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851.Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
There is another class of dreams which would appear to be much more
extraordinary than these of a Retrospective Character, to wit: those in
which the dreamer appears to take cognizance of incidents which are
occurring at a distance, which may be designated Dreams of COINCIDENCE.
In the "Memoirs of Margaret de Valois" we read, that her mother,
Catherine de Medicis, when ill of the plague at Metz, saw her son, the
Duc d'Anjou, at the victory of Jarnac, thrown from his horse, and the
Prince de Condé dead--events which happened exactly at that moment. Dr.
Macnish relates, as the most striking example he ever met with of the
co-existence between a dream and a passing event, the following
melancholy story: Miss M., a young lady, a native of Ross-shire, was
deeply in love with an officer who accompanied Sir John Moore in the
Peninsular War. The constant danger to which he was exposed had an
evident effect upon her spirits. She became pale and melancholy in
perpetually brooding over his fortunes; and, in spite of all that reason
could do, felt a certain conviction that, when she last parted from her
lover, she had parted with him forever. In a surprisingly short period
her graceful form declined into all the appalling characteristics of a
fatal illness, and she seemed rapidly hastening to the grave, when a
dream confirmed the horrors she had long anticipated, and gave the
finishing stroke to her sorrows. One night, after falling asleep, she
imagined she saw her lover, pale, bloody, and wounded in the breast,
enter her apartment. He drew aside the curtains of the bed, and, with a
look of the utmost mildness, informed her that he had been slain in
battle, desiring her, at the same time, to comfort herself, and not take
his death too seriously to heart. It is needless to say what influence
this vision had upon a mind so replete with woe. It withered it
entirely, and the poor girl died a few days afterward, but, not without
desiring her parents to note down the day of the month on which it
happened, and see if it would not be confirmed, as she confidently
declared it would. Her anticipation was correct, for accounts were
shortly afterward received that the young man was slain at the battle of
Corunna, which was fought on the very day of the night of which his
betrothed had beheld the vision. It is certainly very natural to suppose
that there must be some mysterious connection between such a dream and
the event which appears to have simultaneously taken place--but, upon
reflecting further upon the subject, we shall find that the co-existence
is purely accidental. If, as Sir Walter Scott observed, any event, such
as the death of the person dreamt of, chance to take place, so as to
correspond with the nature and time of the apparition, the circumstance
is conceived to be supernatural, although the coincidence is one which
must frequently occur, since our dreams usually refer to the
accomplishment of that which haunts our minds when awake, and often
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