And for all our
thinking, we seldom can trace this tiny fact. I myself cannot tell to
this day why I did not become a Baptist minister. It seems to me I
always intended to do this, but one fine afternoon I found I had ended
my first day's work in a house of business.
"Much of our life is unconscious; even the most wide-awake of us pass
much of our lives in dreams. Several hours out of every twenty-four we
pass in a dream state we cannot help carrying some of those happy or
sinister adventures into our waking hours. It is really as much our
habit to dream as to be awake. Perhaps we are always dreaming. Haven't
you ever for a moment, under some powerful exterior shock, become half
conscious that you should be doing something else from what you are
actually doing? But with us this does not last; and as life goes on such
intimations become dimmer and dimmer. With subjects like Barber, on the
other hand, the intimations become stronger and stronger, till at last
they attempt to carry their dreams into action. That is the way I
explain this case."
"Perhaps you are right."
The house where Barber was lodging stood high up on the side of a hill.
We reached it after a rather breathless climb in the rain. It was a
shepherd's cottage, standing quite lonely. Far down below the village
could be seen with the smoke above the red roofs.
Pages:
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515