A rustic named Curma, of Tullium, near Hippo, Augustine's town, fellinto a catalepsy. On reviving he said: "Run to the house of Curmathe smith and see what is going on". Curma the smith was found tohave died just when the other Curma awoke. "I knew it," said theinvalid, "for I heard it said in that place whence I have returnedthat not I, Curma of the Curia, but Curma the smith, was wanted." ButCurma of the Curia saw living as well as dead people, among othersAugustine, who, in his vision, baptised him at Hippo. Curma then, inthe vision, went to Paradise, where he was told to go and be baptised.He said it had been done already, and was answered, "Go and be trulybaptised, for _that_ thou didst but see in vision". So Augustinechristened him, and later, hearing of the trance, asked him about it,when he repeated the tale already familiar to his neighbours.Augustine thinks it a mere dream, and apparently regards the death ofCurma the smith as a casual coincidence. Un esprit fort, le SaintAugustin!"If the dead could come in dreams," he says, "my pious mother would nonight fail to visit me. Far be the thought that she should, by ahappier life, have been made so cruel that, when aught vexes my heart,she should not even console in a dream the son whom she loved with anonly love."Not only things once probably known, yet forgotten, but knowledgenever _consciously_ thought out, may be revealed in a dramatic dream,apparently through the lips of the dead or the never existent. Thebooks of psychology are rich in examples of problems worked out, ormusic or poetry composed in sleep. The following is a more recent andvery striking example:--
