Discussion Groups / British English / August 2005

Shouldn't the quotation read 'drawing'?

Quick google- yes, here it is: Samuel Butler.

Though why you can 'draw' conclusions (drag them out?) but not 'dream'
them is a matter for the clichemongers.

Paul Burke

I understand the above as something like
"getting all the answers you need,
despite the questions being badly posed".

Googling on this phrase I find only one Chinese site with this quote as
given above. I suspect this site is some sort of discussion board for
people learning English.

Googling on the same phrase substituting "drawing" for "dreaming" leads
to several hundred sites which give the source of this phrase as Samuel
Butler, a British author in the latter part of the 19th century.

You will find the phrase "to draw a conclusion" or "to draw conclusions"
in a good bilingual dictionary for your own language.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Butler was dreaming his conclusion that life is simply a form of art
that is dreaming sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

In short he was having a laugh (irony)

'dreaming' substituting the word 'drawing' might seem strange to us
but in the Victorian era it would have been acceptable. Butler also gave us
the phrase ::

'Better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all' (from his
novel The way of All Flesh) he was a firm evolutionist and had a love of
irony.

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/butler.html