Historical dream account · English · original published text
The Mechanist and the Wingless Spirit Flight
Robert Southey
The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles; Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams (1881) · Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams, printed p. 381
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I was visiting an old man, who was an extraordinary mechanist, and when he was showing me some of his knick-knack performances with their secret springs his daughter observed, in a half whisper, that for some of his performances a greater power than that of mechanism was required. The old man, seeing that I did not readily believe in his magical power, followed me to the door, and asked if I chose that he should call a spirit, and make him take me up into the air, to convince me. I answered that I was willing, in God's name, to see the proof. It was night, and accordingly a spirit — whether good or bad was yet to be discovered — appeared in the form of a man, and desired me to get upon his back. I pronounced something between adjuration and prayer, mounted, and up we went; he had no wings, and I compared the motion to that which I was myself in the habit of performing in dreams ; but then I was sure that I was not dreaming now. I continued, however, my ejaculations, and found presently that they made my bearer uneasy, and that he seemed very much disposed to throw me off; but I stuck close, and the most practised exorcist could not have attacked a foul fiend more successfully than I assailed mine till I brought him to the ground, and alighted safe and sound. My next business was to read a lecture to the old magician, who, bating that he dealt with the devil, was a good-hearted, meritorious person.
Diary entry heading: January 15th.
Source & context
This entry belongs to Southey’s dream register. His certainty that he was not dreaming is part of the within-dream narration, not evidence of a waking supernatural occurrence. The historical word ejaculations refers here to spoken prayers or invocations. The printed knick-knack compound and concluding safe landing are retained. Published in the 1881 edition edited by Edward Dowden, who is credited as editor rather than dreamer or recorder. Source framing — Robert Southey: “I found also a register of some fantastic dreams, noted down, as you may well suppose, not superstitiously, but for their strange combinations.”
Robert Southey, dreamer and recorder, “Southey’s Dreams,” in The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles, edited with an introduction by Edward Dowden (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, & Co.; London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1881), printed p. 381. Original English text from the Robarts Library, University of Toronto copy digitized by Internet Archive. Descriptive title and navigation themes added by Synastry.
The scan prints January 15th; rawOCR loth is an error. The isolated heading has no year, so no year is inferred from the precedingJanuary 4th 1823 entry. No exact sleep date is asserted.
No Copyright – United States (1881 original English edition) ↗
Original English prose published in the witnessed 1881 edition; the original publication is public domain in the United States. Internet Archive metadata records NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT in the US and the title page visibly prints 1881. Robert Southey died in 1843 and the edition’s editor Edward Dowden in 1913; ordinary author-life-plus-70 terms have also elapsed where applicable. No modern translation, transcription edition or modern editorial additions are reused. No Copyright–United States identifies status, not a new exclusive license or a blanket worldwide reuse grant.
Source locator and text provenance
Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams, printed p. 381, IA leaf 423
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Selected one complete recalled dream at explicit source boundaries; omitted adjacent accounts and page furniture. Joined typesetter line wraps and unambiguous split words, preserving source paragraphs and printed compounds including down-stairs and knick-knack. Applied only listed scan-verified OCR repairs; preserved the printed apparent form giftee. Added a descriptive navigation title, without translation, identity expansion or narrative generation.
- Account text SHA-256
- 94a1e2f46b6a7fb72a3cb24f6349dd65e45e5cbb55666f9647f9c09aff6957dc
- Source file SHA-256
- 3105e7a9afc2e0cc5725208180a55c12f8cff63aaa5ad4ea8fc4ac861c7a0b41
Content notes
- Religious imagery
- Threatening imagery
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.