Case XC

Examples of persons who have composed in dreams, are not of uncommon occurrence. One of the most remarkable cases of this nature, is that to which we owe the famous sonata by Tartini, called the Devil's Sonata. This celebrated composer was sleeping, after having vainly endeavored to finish a sonata; his preoccupation continued during sleep; he dreamed that he renewed his task, and was in despair at composing with so little warmth and spirit, when the devil suddenly appeared and offered to finish his sonata, if he would sell his soul to him. Entirely under the influence of this hallucination, he accepted the proposition, when he heard the devil execute the desired sonata on the violin with an inexpressible charm of execution. He then awoke, in a transport of delight, hastened to his desk, and wrote down the conclusion to which he had just listened. This is probably the most remarkable case of this species of hallucination that ever occurred.*

* J.'Charpignon, Physiologie Medecine et Metapbysique du Magnetism, Paris, 1848, p. 352.

Condorcet says, that he was frequently obliged to give up his difficult calculations, in order to rest. Several times, in his dreams, the work was done for him, and the corollaries correctly presented to his mind.

Franklin related to Cabanis that political combinations, which had often embarrassed him during the day, were frequently made clear to him in dreams.

Hermas was asleep, when, it is said, a voice dictated to him the book, which he called the Pasteur. Some persons assert that the Divina Commedia was the inspiration of a dream.

Galen owed his vocation of physician to a dream, in which Apollo appeared to him on two different occasions, and desired him in future to devote himself entirely to medicine. This celebrated physician dwelt with much complacency on this event.

It is equally certain that some dreams take so strong a hold on the mind that, on awaking, evidence is needed to prove that they are only creations of the imagination. I have known dreams, very circumstantial, produced on several successive nights. "I remember," says M. Maury, in his Memoir (p. 31), "having dreamed eight times in one month of a certain person, whose identity, during that period, remained unchanged, but whom I did not know, and who, probably, only existed in my own imagination. And what is strange, he frequently continued actions in a dream that had been commenced in a former one."

It often happens that real conversations are maintained in a dream. Who has not had his mind occupied, and even fatigued during sleep, by some discussion, the advantage of which he has not always retained? It would seem as though two distinct individuals held different opinions, one of whom came off victorious, and yet these seemingly two individuals were one and the same person.

* Moreau, de la Sarte, Melanges de Literature.

Saint Augustine relates the following fact: -