On dreams and verges

Image Credit: World Elections

"That a nothing should torment a nothing; for I am a nothing. It is all a dream—we dream that we dreamed we dream." 

"Pierre, when thou just hovered on the verge, thou wert a riddle to me; but now, that thou art deep down in the gulf of the soul,—now, when thou wouldst be lunatic to wise men, perhaps—now doth poor ignorant Isabel begin to comprehend thee. Thy feeling hath long been mine, Pierre. Long loneliness and anguish have opened miracles to me. Yes, it is all a dream!"  --Melville's Pierre (1852)

Did I dream? —Had I slumbered at my post?— I did dream.

And why not tell my dream?— Life is little better; nay, it is little different....

...There is a re-action of extraordinary excitement,—such as ours of yesterday—that has a power over me which renders a profound silence awful—of all else, fearful! Silence! Then, every senti[m]ent of my soul has ears, in which air spirits supernaturally whisper distracting, sonorous thoughts:—in darkness, with long unrest, it verges madness.

--Scenes Beyond the Western Border, March 1853; and republished with revisions in Scenes and Adventures in the Army.