Historical dream account · English · original text
Forty-Pound Fowls
James Sully (1842–1923)
Illusions: A Psychological Study (1887) · Printed page(s) 180, 181; Third edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887; original English; account 396
Dreamer identified by the source: James Sully
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On the first occasion I went "in my dream" to the "Stores" in August, and found the place empty. A shopman brought me some large fowls. I asked their price, and he answered, "Tenpence a pound." I then asked their weight, so as to get an idea of their total cost, and he replied, "Forty pounds." Not in the least surprised, I proceeded to calculate their cost: 40x10=400÷12=33⅓. But, oddly enough, I took this quotient as pence, just as though I had not already divided by 12, and so made the cost of a fowl to be 2s. 9d., which seemed to me a fair enough price.
Source & context
An original-language historical author's own sleep-dream account, not a new community submission or an independently verified waking event. Editorial title is a navigation label.
James Sully, Illusions: A Psychological Study (1887), Third edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887; original English, printed page(s) 180, 181.
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Public domain — original English text ↗
Original author’s 1887 third-edition English prose, not a modern translation; the work was first published in 1881. The source author died in 1923, over 100 years before 2026, and publication precedes 1931. Project Gutenberg supplies the public-domain transcription. Ordinary publication and author-life terms have elapsed, including the longer 80- and 100-year terms relevant to the earlier Foucault hold. This is a historical public-domain assessment, not a blanket license for everything on Archive.org or an all-jurisdiction warranty.
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Printed page(s) 180, 181; Third edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887; original English; account 396
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