Another case establishes the fact that although the wish which actuates
the dream is a present one, it nevertheless draws great intensification
from childhood memories. I refer to a series of dreams which are based
upon the longing to go to Rome. I suppose I shall still have to satisfy
this longing by means of dreams for a long time to come, because, at the
time of year which is at my disposal for travelling, a stay at Rome is
to be avoided on account of considerations of health.[BB] Thus I once
dreamt of seeing the Tiber and the bridge of St. Angelo from the window
of a railroad compartment; then the train starts, and it occurs to me
that I have never entered the city at all. The view which I saw in the
dream was modelled after an engraving which I had noticed in passing the
day before in the parlour of one of my patients. On another occasion
some one is leading me upon a hill and showing me Rome half enveloped in
mist, and so far in the distance that I am astonished at the
distinctness of the view. The content of this dream is too rich to be
fully reported here. The motive, “to see the promised land from afar,”
is easily recognisable in it. The city is Lübeck, which I first saw in
the mist; the original of the hill is the Gleichenberg. In a third
dream, I am at last in Rome, as the dream tells me. To my
disappointment, the scenery which I see is anything but urban. _A little
river with black water, on one side of which are black rocks, on the
other large white flowers. I notice a certain Mr. Zucker_ (with whom I
am superficially acquainted), _and make up my mind to ask him to show me
the way into the city._ It is apparent that I am trying in vain to see a
city in the dream which I have never seen in waking life. If I resolve
the landscape into its elements, the white flowers indicate Ravenna,
which is known to me, and which, for a time at least, deprived Rome of
its leading place as capital of Italy. In the swamps around Ravenna we
had seen the most beautiful water-lilies in the middle of black pools of
water; the dream makes them grow on meadows, like the narcissi of our
own Aussee, because at Ravenna it was such tedious work to fetch them
out of the water. The black rock, so close to the water, vividly recalls
the valley of the Tepl at Karlsbad. “Karlsbad” now enables me to account
for the peculiar circumstance that I ask Mr. Zucker the way. In the
material of which the dream is composed appear also two of those amusing
Jewish anecdotes, which conceal so much profound and often bitter
worldly wisdom, and which we are so fond of quoting in our conversation
and letters. One is the story of the “constitution,” and tells how a
poor Jew sneaks into the express train for Karlsbad without a ticket,
how he is caught and is treated more and more unkindly at each call for
tickets by the conductor, and how he tells a friend, whom he meets at
one of the stations during his miserable journey, and who asks him where
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