And so the dream went on and on, until I finally woke up and began idly to turn the pages of the great Dream Book itself. It was difficult to believe that I was not still asleep, for I kept coming upon such passages as the following, from page 442: “To speak figuratively, it is quite possible that a day-thought plays the part of the contractor (_entrepreneur_) in the dream. But ... no matter what idea the contractor may have in his mind, and how desirous he may be of putting it into operation, he must depend upon a capitalist to defray the necessary expenses; and this capitalist ... is invariably and indisputably a wish from the unconscious. In other cases the capitalist himself is the contractor for the dream; this, indeed, seems to be the more usual case. An unconscious wish is produced by the day’s work, which in turn creates the dream. The dream processes, moreover, run parallel with all the other possibilities of the economic relationship used here as an illustration. Thus the _entrepreneur_ may contribute some capital himself, or several _entrepreneurs_ may jointly supply the capital required by the _entrepreneur_.” This is certainly a moving picture. We seem to be looking upon a lively scene in the financial district, with contractors and capitalists running hither and thither, forming combinations for the prosecution of great works. Yet it is a scene which belongs properly to “Alice in Wonderland,” not in a book purporting to be scientific. It is a conjurer’s trick, worked by that initial phrase, “To speak figuratively.” Now anybody who admits the existence of God, of a life which is vital rather than mechanical, has the right to speak figuratively. With him figures are the signs and symbols of real things. They have force because they are the personifications of real forces whose existence he is prepared to admit outside of metaphor. But with the materialist, figures of speech are dishonest subterfuges. They make the impossible seem possible and reasonable. By being admittedly figures of speech, they escape criticism when they come upon the stage. And once there, they act parts possible only to entities possessing energy and will--the very things which the mechanistic hypothesis professes to exclude from the picture. And in the end it is claimed that all things which may be done by these flesh and blood actors may be done by the nothings which they stand for. This psychic contractor of Freud’s has something “in his mind” which he is “desirous” of putting into operation! On the stage he is as full of reason, consciousness and vim as is Mr. Douglas Fairbanks. But in the Freudian philosophical system, literally considered, he is one of the processes of a primary psychic system standing alone--that is, a process in a state of things admittedly fictitious. But the Great Man goes on: