Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/553

 results a fundamental significance of the verb verstehen, "to understand," as "standing round about something."[63] Comprehendere and [Greek: katasyllamba/nein] express a similar idea as the German erfassen, "to grasp, to comprehend." The thing common to these expressions is the surrounding, the enfolding. And there is no doubt that there is nothing in the world which so completely enfolds us as the mother. When the neurotic complains that the world has no understanding, he says indirectly that he misses the mother. Paul Verlaine has expressed this thought most beautifully in his poem, "Mon Rêve Familier":  My Familiar Dream.

"Often I have that strange and poignant dream Of some unknown who meets my flame with flame—  Who, with each time, is never quite the same, Yet never wholly different does she seem. She understands me! Every fitful gleam  Troubling my heart, she reads aright somehow:  Even the sweat upon my pallid brow She soothes with tears, a cool and freshening stream.

"If she is dark or fair? I do not know— Her name? Only that it is sweet and low, Like those of loved ones who have long since died. Her look is like a statue's, kind and clear;  And her calm voice, distant and dignified, Like those hushed voices that I loved to hear."