The literature and curiosities of dreams : a commonplace book of speculations concerning the mystery of dreams and visions, records of curious and well-authenticated dreams, and notes on the various modes of interpretation adopted in ancient and modern times

Preface To The First Edition

The great object of this volume has been to select, from all sources, whatever is most characteristic of the opinions which have been held on the subject of Dreams, and of the examples upon which these opinions have been founded. No amount of research has been considered irksome or irrelevant ; and it is believed that there is nothing extant in the way of dreamspeculation or anecdote which is not fairly and impartially represented.

It was not the purpose of the work to throw light merely on one or more corners of the subject ; and as there was nothing departmental in the idea, so there has been nothing exclusive in the exposition and the illustration. The crudest opinions of piety or of superstition, from the very twilight of history, are typified, no less than the latest discovery resulting from yesterday’s scientific investigation. Thus it is hoped that the work may claim to be as honest in fact as it is here affirmed to have been in intention.

A little praise may perhaps be conceded to it on the score of modesty, when it is seen that the author has foregone such chances of greater credit and importance as would have been

IV

Preface

open to him if he had seemed to claim the whole as original, by incorporating the several theories and anecdotes with a textual commentary of his own. In trust, however, of finding readers who can appreciate the bearings and the transitions of an argument, and refer to their several classes the anecdotes, which are, in the main, chronologically arranged, he has not thought it right to occupy space with lengthy and neutraltinted articulations.

For the Author’s part of the work, as author , it is sufficient for him to profess that he has done what he could ; and that, especially in the chapter devoted to a survey of the various methods of dream-interpretation, he has endeavoured to place before the reader the results of a treatment as comprehensive as possible.

In conclusion, he ventures to hope that his labours in the several departments of his subject, have been prosecuted in such a way as to prepare for him a genial recognition when he next has the honour to appeal to the suffrages of the public.

Chapter I. Place Op Dreams In Systems Of Divination

Gravitation of the Human to the Divine — Filial longings — Revelation and its Substitutes — Divination a hack Providence — Principal classes of Diviners — Natural and Artificial Divination — Professor Ferrier on “ fashionable deliraments ” — Opinions of Epicureans, Stoics, and Peripatetics— Place of Dreams ascertained 3—12

CHAPTER n.

ON BIBLICAL DREAMS.

Their varieties — Classifications of Moses Amyraldus and Philo Judaeus — Various Theophanic Dreams — Immediate authority — Angelic Apparitions— Some Dreams suggested by the Devil — Necessity of a Criterion — Morality the test — Pertinence of Scripture Dreams . • . 13 — 23

Chapter III. On Dreams As Being Sent By God

Various opinions, ancient and modern — Interposition and Law — How to secure a Dream-revelation — The Olympian Deities at Night-work — A Lying Dream — Pedigree of Dreams — Hesiod — Cicero — Opinions of the Greek Tragedians — Herodotus — Philosophers — Christian Fathers— Peter Martyr — Chaucer — Spenser — Bishop Ken — Bishop Bull — AndrewBaxter — Prerogatives of Greatness — Sending a letter to Heaven — Are Divine Dreams to be expected now? — The Affirmative not ridiculous . 24 — 37

Chapter IV. Causes, Uses, And Phenomena Of Dreams

Proximate cause of Sleep — Etymology of the word “ Dream ” — Canses of Dreams numberless — Dream-suggestiveness — Dream-prognosis — Unsuspended Activity — Dream-inspiration — Imagination versus Fancy — Vivid reality of Dreams — Dreams as arguments for Immortality —

VI

CONTENTS.

Tracele3S Dreams — Heraclitus — Herrick — Magnificent Phenomena of Dreams — Time and Space — Intellectual value — Moral value — The Dream a Law unto itself — Appeal from Waking to Sleeping . 38—51

CHAPTER Y.

ONEIROCRITICA, OR MODES OF DREAM-INTERPRETATION', ANCIENT AND

MODERN.

Antiquity of Oneirocriticism — General identity of Method — Dreamanalysis — Dreams of Nebuchadnezzar — Penelope’s Dream interpreted by Ulysses — Claims of Amphictyon — Cradle of Oneirocriticism — Skill of the Telmessians — Specimen — How to avert a threatened evil — The Choephorae — Electra — Hecuba — Effects of Herbs on Dreams — Effects of times and seasons on the frequency and value of Dreams— An Athenian Oneirocritic — More sides than one to a Dream — Artemidorqs — Scepticism of Bayle — Signification of objects seen in Dreams — Classification of Macrobius — Subdivisions of the “ Somnium ” — Astrampsychus and his Century of Oracles — The Sifat-i-Sirozah — Gabdorrhachaman — Abstract of “ L’Onirocrite Mussulman” — Professor Vattier — The “ De Insomniis” of Synesius — Achmet — Jerome Cardan — Maio — Rabelais — Pantagruel on Dreams — Necessity of an Interpreter— Temperance necessary to procure Prophetic Dreams — Inconveniences of Hunger — Panurge suggests a Charm — The two gates of Sleep — Raphael — “ The Royal Book of Dreams ” — The Art of “ Sephromancy ” — Sephromancy exemplified — M. Nicholas Oudot and his Dream-publications— Dreams and Lovers — The present condition of Oneirocriticism 52 — 95

PART n.

OPINIONS ON DREAMS.

Chapter I. Origin Of Dreams

Summary of Opinions amongst the Ancients — Opinions of Fathers and Schoolmen— Conviction of Josephus — Philip Goodwin — Survey of Dreams Self-Examination — The Devil in Dreams — Sleep amenable to Law — Evil Dreams prevented — Dreams from God both possible and actual — Theosophy of Dreams— Encouragement of Good Dreams — To be prayed for, and turned to account — John Sheppard — Dreams as Theocratic Instruments — Bishop Bull — Ministry of Angels — Bishop Ken— St. Michael— Hymnotheo, or the Penitent— Baptist°Magazine — Two Classes of Angelic Visitants— Dr. Johnson’s Prayer— Adopted by

CONTEXTS.

Vll

Boswell — Bov. Alfred Barry — The Dream an Obsolescent Medium Professor Haven — Four possible Solutions of the Facts of Dreams Dr. Frederick Hoffmann — Dignity of the Mind in Sleep — Pliny the Younger — The Advocate in doubt — Virtue versus Omens — Doubt the bar to action 99 — 121

Chapter II. On Dreams As Arguments For Immortality

Opinion of Cyrus the Elder — Richard Baxter — The Soul never inactive — Bishop Butler —Immediate Mental Perception — Dr. Young on Dreams — Bishop Newton — Mind and Body distinct substances — Leonhard Euler — Sleep illustrating Death— Prebendary Broughton — The Soul’s material vehicle — Frederick C. Bakewell — Argument from probability — Independence of Intellectual processes — Argument from Phenomena — Sir Walter Scott — The Living and the Dead — Crises of Feeling — Tendency of Coincidences— Mrs. Sigourney — Spiritual Perception— Lord Brougham — Separate Existence possible — John Newton— Hymn on Dreaming — Life a Dream ....... 122 — 132

Chapter III. On Dreams As Prophetic, Premonitory, Etc

Gonzalo— Why the Soul may Prophesy in Sleep — Rev. Mr. Greaves on Dreams — James Beattie — Objections to the Prophetic Character of Dreams — Superstitious credence — Coincidences to be expected — Journal of Psychological Medicine — Prophecy and Instinctive Anticipation— Sir Thomas Browne — Gratitude for Happy Dreams — More than ourselves in Sleep — Liberty of Reason — Illumination of the Dying

133—139

Chapter IV. Responsibility And Moral Uses Of Dreams

Sir Thomas Browne “ On Dreams ” — Zeno — Touchstone of Morals — Dream of Hilpo — James Beattie — Qualified Self-examination — Regulation of the Passions — Pinnock’s Guide to Knowledge — The Judgment off Guard — Exaggerated license of the inferior faculties — Dreams may be corrective of Evil— And may stimulate to Good — Journal of Psychological Medicine — Dreams dependent on Habit — Spontaneous behaviour — A Good Man should never be off his guard — Phases of Dreams — Caprices — Study of the laws of God recommended . . . 140—149

Chapter V. State Of The Mind In Sleep And Dreams

John Locke — The Mind not always active — Hypothetical duality — No yin

CONTENTS.

thought without traces — Vanity of resultless Mental Activity — Statement of alternatives— The Soul at fault — The Soul not always thinking — Dr. Watts — The Soul never intermits its activity — Unity of person — The Soul vindicated — Defence of traceless Ideas — Ceaseless activity God-like — The Soul free and immortal — Scots Magazine — Waking Ideas frequently traceless — Andrew Baxter — The Soul does not act by itself — Will never unconscious — Involuntary obtrusion — The Soul does not evolve dreams — Agents external to the Soul — Possible causes — Chance and bodily mechanism — Matter not automatic — Dreams have an intelligent cause — William Smellie — Possibility of Supernatural Suggestions — Thomas Cromwell — Argument for Immortality repudiated — The Brain partially awake — Against Andrew Baxter — David Hartley — Causes and occasions of Dreams — Theory of Vibrations — Reasons for various Phenomena — Corollaries — Erasmus Darwin — Dreams received by the senses — Ceaseless flow of Ideas— Nerves of Sense — Criterion of Volition — Characteristics of Dreams — Robert Dunn — Unconscious reflex action — Dugald Stewart — Volition without power — Confusion of Dr. Darwin — Spurzheim — Activity of particular Organs — Robert Dunglison — Dreams a partial waking of animal life — Gall’s Theory of Plurality— Andrew Carmichael — Progressive complications of the severally waking Organs — Robert Macnish — Phrenological Analysis — Edward Binns — Phrenology does not Explain all Dreams — Andrew Carmichael — A septenary scale — Phrenological genesis of Dreams — Dreaming of Dreaming — Perfect Sleep — Christian Spectator — The Organic theory repudiated — Phrenology unsatisfactory— Irregular irregularity — Cerebral irritation — The Senses in Dreams — Probable Volition — John C. Colquhoun — Remembrance of Dreams — Corporeal Organism — Interruption of Harmony . 150 — 198

Chapter VI. Miscellaneous Phenomena

Ovid — Poetic Personality — Morpheus and his Relatives — Lucian — The Island of Dreams — J. Muller — Worthless Reasoning of Dreams — John Abercrombie — Various Characteristics — James Beattie — Difference and Analogy — Dido and Eloisa — Coincidences — Recurrence — Morning Dreams — James Hinton — Relative truth of Illusions — James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd — Facts, not Philosophy — Uselessness of Speculation

— Thomas Churchyarde — Dignity of Dreams — Spectator — Excellency of the Soul — Intensity of Dream-life — Relation of the Soul to the Body

— Blessings and mishaps of Dreams — Slighted valour of Gladio — A

Conflagration prevented — Impertinence of Street-cries — Unconscious Philanthropy — Pledges of Affection — Notes and Queries — Thomas, Lord Lyttleton — Walter C. Dendy — Suspension of Judgment — Sound Sleep Dreamless— Multiplicity of Being — William Shakespeare — Freaks of Queen Mab — Infinite Expansion of Moments — John Dryden — Intellectual Saturnalia — Scots Magaziue — Double Identity — Lucre- Hus Professional Association — Lord Byron — “ Sleep hath its own World ’ Dean Swift “ On Dreams ” — Lord Brougham — Time under Dream pressure— Nodding and Dictating 199—232

CONTENTS.

IX

Chapter VII. Analogies Of Dreaming And Insanity

Edward Binns — Dreamers and Maniacs — M. Moreau — Transmutation of Personality — Time in Dreams and in Insanity — Duration and Unconscious Impressions — Brierre de Boismont — Hallucinations and their Modifications — Dreams taken for Waking Realities — Sir Henry Holland — Analogical caprices of Reverie — Dreams of Children — Henry Monro — The Reasoning Faculties — Mystery of Dreams — Walter C. Dendy — Moral Causes of Dreaming — Hobbes’s Illustration — Communities of the Senses — Want of the Senses — Instrument of Consciousness — How Fulfilment may be a Consequence — Physical Causes of Dreams — Influence of Dark Blood in the Brain — Requisites of Natural Action — Languid Arterial Circulation 233 — 248

Chapter VIII. Psychology, Etc., Of Dreaming

Leopold H. Grindon — Certissima Mortis Imago — The Imagination — Dreams as Spiritual Phenomena — Duality and Distinction of Substance — It is the Soul that remembers — Medical Critic — Conspectus of Opinions — Psychical aspect of Sleep — Journal of Psychological Medicine — William Shakespeare — Clai'ence’s Dream true to Nature — “ A Glimpse at the possibility of Omniscience 249 — 258

Chapter IX. Physiology And Pathology Of Dreaming

Thomas Hobbes — Dreams caused by Distempers— Journal of Psychological Medicine — The Sense of Smell a Suggestive Cause — Lodging at a Cheesemonger’s — A Camisado — A singular Epidemic — The obstinate Pedals — Sir Henry Holland — The Physiology of Sleep — Never absolutely Dreamless — Fluctuating condition — Medical Critic — Sensations of Dreams — Experiments of M. Maury — M. Macario’s Division — Morbid Dreams — Effects of Diseases — Formey’s “Essai sur les Songes” — Disturbance of the Interior extremity of the Nerves — Arthur E. Durham — Partial activity of nervous centres — Sir Benjamin C. Brodie — Physical Organisms of the Mind — Crowding of Events — Various results of impressions — Theory of Transition — Dreams and Memory.

259—279

Chapter X. Dreams Of Animals

Aristotle — All Viviparous Animals Dream — Oviparous Animals possibly Dream — Dreams and Dreamlessness — Pliny— Undecided Questions —

X

CONTENTS.

Count de Buffon — Dreams independent of the Soul — Animal inability to distinguish Dreaming from Waking Impressions — Robert Macnish — Dreaming a universal Law — Horses — Dogs — The Ruminantia— Walter C. Dendy — Animals likely to Dream — Memory is the test of this power — An Imaginative Dunnock — Dream-Melody —Answer to Aristotle 280-284

Part III. Dreams, Ancient And Modern

Dream of Achilles — Dream of the Mother of Zartusht — Series of Dreams from Herodotus — Croesus— Sabacon — Sethon — Otanes — Hipparchus — Xerxes — Artabanus — Pherecydes — Socrates — Xenophon — Alexander the Great and Jaddua the High Priest — Hyrcanus — Calpurnia — Series of Dreams from Cicero — Dream of Hecuba — Tarquin — Mother of Phalaris — Cyrus — Hannibal — Hamilcar — Publius — Decius — Detective Dream of Sophocles — A Roman Rustic — Appearance of Tiberius Gracchus to his brother Caius — Preserving Dream of Simonides — The Two Arcadians— Cicero’s Dream — Imperial Dreams — Tiberius — Caligula — Claudius— Nero — Vespasian — Domitian — Fannius’ History cut short — The Dreams of a Neophyte — Dreams and Visions about the death of the Emperor Julian — The Genius of the Empire — Monica and Augustine — Genadius persuaded— King Arthur’s Dream and its fulfilment— The Story of Caedmon — Dunstan — Anselm — Fate of William Rufus foreshadowed— Henry more pious than Rufus — Eagle and Seven Missiles — The Scribe and the Angels — Mystical Dream of Giraldus Cambrensis — Case of Walter de Barri — Charles VI. flies a Falcon in a Dream — The Flying Hart — Vision of Ingulphus — Thomas a Becket a razer of Walls — Dream of Chaunteclere — Sir Thomas More’s eminence foretold — Dr. Faustus Dreams of Hell — Symbolical Dream of the Emperor of Saxony — Polemical Dream of Zuinglius — A King in a ditch — Benevolent imprisonment — Sir Thomas Wotton — Joannes Maria Maurocenus — Ludovicus Madius — The Legend of the Swaffham Tinker — Bishop Hall’s Mother — Bread eaten in secret — Wallenstein’s Dreams — Dream in an Unknown Tongue — Henry the Second of France warned in vain — Lord Strafford’s Death mysteriously represented — Van Helmont listens to a Bottle and sees his own Soul — Peter Sterry makes a mistake — Milton’s Dream-Sonnet — A Nnmismatologist providentially enlightened — A Lady foretells her Death, and justifies her prediction — Thirteen at Supper — The lot falls on the Chaplain — An Island of the Blessed — Madame Guyon’s Dream and its Analysis — Not to be done to death by a Dream-bully — Series of Dreams from John Aubrey — Archbishop Abbot’s Mother — Doctor Harvey’s Life preserved — Nine Finches — Premonitions of the Death of Friends — A Triple Elm-tree — Admiral Dean’s Wife — Robbery and murder of Mr. Stockden discovered through a series of Dreams — Determination of Dr. Reid — Mrs. Griffiths’ Dream saves her nephew’s life — Dreams of Emanuel Swedenborg — A Dumb Man recovers Speech — Zimmermann’s Dream

CONTENTS.

XI

— The Man in the Bine Coat — Dr. Johnson’s Wit Contest — Murder and Conviction in Ireland — A native of Alderney’s dream — Coleridge’s Kubla Khan — Dr. Cromwell’s Dream-poem — The Sacrilegious Dentist — Richter’s Appreciation of Dreams — His “ Dream upon the Universe ” — Joanna Southcott — Dreams of the English Opium-eater — The Lottery Ticket — Dream of Count de Lavalette — Murderer Self-discovered—Dreams dictated by External Suggestions — Remarks and Examples of Dr. Abercrombie — A Volunteer’s Dream — A Bank-deficiency— The Portugal piece of Gold — Domestic anxiety vindicated — A Patient’s Wife — Prevention of Murder — The Devil accepts a Substitute— A vain Dream — The Church Ladle — Simultaneous Stoppages — Spectral and Dream testimony — Discovery of the Red Barn Murder — The Idiot Detective — Various Dreams from Chambers’s “ Edinburgh Journal ” — An unexpected Illness — A Visitor — The withered Branch — Preservation of Life foretold— A Dream as it should be — The Avenger of Blood — The Dream Log-book— Lady Nunehara’s Dream — Case of Captain Anstruther — A Dream of Conscience — A Dream of Affection — An Officer announces his Death — Dream of Africaner — Retributive Justice — A Bundle of Dreams from the Night-side of Nature — A strange Bishop — Major Andre’s Death prefigured — Letter to a Dead Brother — Evidence of the Brooms — The Visionary Axe — A Lawyer and his Clients — Dr. Fosgate’s Father Rides on thin Ice — A Dream of Dreaming— Dream Testimony — Legal Responsibility of Dreamers — Azrael and his Impersonator — Singular Prognostication — Out of his Bed — The Little Black Boy — General Historical Review — Argumentative value of General Belief. 287 — 496

Appendix

Dictionary of Interpretations, from Artemidorus and others . 497 — 518

LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS, TREATISES, AND OPINIONS CITED OR QUOTED IN THIS WORK.

Abercrombie, John : Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers.

Achmet : Oneirocritica.

Addison, Joseph : Spectator.

FEschylus : Agamemnon ; Choephorse.

Ammianns Marcellinus : History.

Amyraldus, Moses : Discourse concerning Divine Dreams.

Anecdotes for Youth.

Apuleius : Metamorphoses.

Aquinas, Thomas.

Aristotle : History of Animals.

Artemidorus : Oneirocritica.

Astrampsychus : Oneirocriticon.

Aubrey, John : Miscellanies.

Augustine : Confessions.

Bakewell, Frederick C. : Natural Evidence of a Future Life.

Baptist Magazine.

Barry, Alfred : Dr. W. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.

Baxter, Andrew : Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul.

Baxter, Richard : the Reasons of the Christian Religion.

Bayle, Peter.

Beattie, James : Dissertations,

Moral and Critical.

Beaumont, John : An Historical, Physiological, and Theological Treatise of Spirits.

Bede : Ecclesiastical History.

Bernard, St.

Binns, Edward : Anatomy of Sleep.

Blackwood’s Magazine.

Boismont, Brierre de : Natural History of Hallucinations.

Boswell, James : Life of Dr. Johnson.

Brodie, Sir Benjamin : Psychological Inquiries.

Brougham, Lord : Discourse of Natural Theology.

Broughton, Thomas : A Prospect of Futurity.

Browne, Sir Thomas : Religio Medici : On Dreams.

Bulfon, Count de: Natural History.

Bull, Bishop : The Office of the Holy Angels towards the Faithful.

Burnet, Bishop : Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester.

Burton, John Hill: Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland.

Butler, Bishop : Analogy of Religion.

Butler, Samuel : Hudibras.

Byron, Lord : The Dream.

Cardan, Jerome : Somniorum Synesiorum omnis generis Insomnia explicantes Libri IY.

Carmichael, Andrew : Essay on Dreaming ; Memoir of the Life and Philosophy of Spurzheim.

Catherine de Medicis.

Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal.

XIV

TIIE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES

Chaucer, Geoffrey : The Nonnes Preestes Tale.

Christian Spectator.

Chrysippus.

Churchyarde, Thomas : Chippes.

Cicero : De Divinatione ; De Natura Deorum.

Clerk, Lady, of Penicuick.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor : Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream.

Colquhoun, John 0. : Isis Revelata.

Cowper, Bishop.

Cromwell, Thomas : The Soul and the Future Life.

Crowe, Mrs. : Night Side of Nature.

Cudworth, Ralph : Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality.

Cyprian.

Cyrus the Elder.

Darwin, Erasmus : Zoonomia ; or the Laws of Organic Life.

D’Aubigne, J. H. Merle : History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century.

Democritus.

Dendy, Walter C. : Phenomena of Dreams : Philosophy of Mystery.

Dicaearchus.

Diogenes Laertius : Lives of the Philosophers.

Dryden, John.

Dublin Penny Magazine.

Dublin University Magazine.

Dunglison, Robert : Human Physiology.

Dunn, Robert : An Essay on Physiological Psychology.

Durham, Arthur E. : Physiology of Sleep.

Ennius.

Epictetus.

Epicurus.

Euler, Leonhard : Letters to a German Princess on Subjects in Physics and Philosophy,

Euripides : Hecuba.

Eusebius : Ecclesiastical History,

Faustus, Dr., Life and Death of.

Formey, Jean Henri Samuel : Melanges Philosophiques.

Fosgate, Blanchard : Sleep Psychologically considered, with reference to Sensation and Memory.

Froissart, Sir John : Chronicles.

Gabdorrhachaman : L’Onirocrite

Mussulman.

Galen.

Gall, Franz Joseph : Sur les fonc* tions du Cerveau et sur celles de chacune de ses parties.

Gentleman’s Magazine.

Geoffrey of Monmouth : British

History.

Giraldus Cambrensis : Topography of Ireland ; History of the Conquest of Ireland.

Gonzalo : The Divine Dreamer.

Goodwin, Philip : Mystery of

Dreams historically considered.

Greaves, Rev. Mr. : On Dreams.

Grindon, Leopold Hartley : Life, its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena.

Grotius, Hugo : Epistles.

Guyon, Madame de la Mothe.

Hall, Bishop : Shaking of the Olive-tree.

Harpsfield, Nicholas : Life of Sir Thomas More.

Hartley, David : Observations on Man.

Haven, Professor : Mental Philosophy ; including the Intellect, Sensibilities, and Will.

Henry of Huntingdon : History.

Heraclitus.

Herodotus : History.

Herophilus.

CITED IN THIS WORK.

XV

Herrick, Eobert : Ilesperides.

Hesiod : Theogony.

Hinton, James : Man and bis Dwelling-place.

Hobbes, Thomas : Leviathan.

Hoffmann, Frederick : De optima Philosophandi Eatione.

Hogg, James : The Shepherd’s

Calendar.

Holinshed, Eaphael : Chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

Holland, Sir Henry : Chapters on Mental Physiology ; Medical Notes and Eeflections.

Homer : Iliad ; Odyssey.

Ingulphus : History of the Abbey of Croyland.

Jocelyn, Lord : Six Months with the Chinese Expedition.

Johnson, Dr. Samuel.

Jonson, Ben.

Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Wars of the Jews.

Journal of Psychological Medicine.

Jung-Stilling, Johann Heinrich : Theorie der Geister-Kunde.

Ken, Bishop : Hymns ; Anodynes ; Hymnotheo, or the Penitent.

Knape, Christ.: Moritz’s Experimental Psychology.

Lactantius.

Lane, Edward William : The Thousand and One Nights.

Lavalette, Count de.

Lavater, J. C. : Glimpses into Eternity.

Locke, John : Essay on the Human Understanding.

London Magazine.

Lucian.

Lucretius : De Eerum Natura.

Luna, Juan de : Life of Lazarillo de Tonnes.

Luther, Martin.

Macario, Manrizio Martino Antonio : Du Sommeil, des Eeves, et du Somnambulisme dans l’etat de Sante et de Maladie.

Macnish, Eobert: Philosophy of Sleep.

Macrobius : Commentary on “ Somnium Scipionis.”

Magaret of Navarre.

Martyr, Peter : Common-places.

Matthew Paris : The Greater History.

Matthew of Westminster: Flowers of History.

Maury, L. F. Alfred : Le Sommeil et les Eeves ; Utudes Psychologiques sur ces Phenomenes.

Medical Critic and Psychological Journal.

Mercure Galant.

Millingen, J. D. : Curiosities of Medical Experience.

Milton, John : Sonnet on his

Deceased Wife.

Mirror of Literature.

Moffat, Eobert: Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa.

Monro, Henry : Eemarks on Insanity.

Moreau, M. : On the Identity of Dreaming with Insanity.

Muller, J. : Elements of Physiology.

Newspapers, etc., various.

Newton, Bishop : Dissertations.

Newton, John : Olney Hymns.

Notes and Queries.

Ordericus Vitalis : Ecclesiastical History.

Ovid : Metamorphoses.

Pepys, Samuel : Diary and Correspondence.

Philo Judaeus : On Dreams being sent by God.

Philosophical Transactions.

Pindar.

Pinnock’s Guide to Knowledge.

Plato.

Pliny the Elder : Natural History.

Pliny the Younger : Letters.

xvx

PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CITED IN THIS WORK.

Plutarch : Lives ; Morals.

Porphyry.

Poseidonius.

Quincey, Thomas de : Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

Rabelais, Francis : Life of Gargantua and of Panta gruel.

Raphael : Royal Book of Dreams.

Reid, Thomas : Letter to Rev.

William Gregory.

Richter, Jean Paul F. : Dream upon the Universe.

Schiller, J. C. F. : Piccolomini ; Death of Wallenstein.

Scots Magazine.

Scott, Sir Walter : Letters on

Demonology and Witchcraft.

Shakespeare, William : Romeo and Juliet; Richard the Third.

Sheppard, John : On Dreams in their Mental and Moral Aspects.

Sifat-i-Sirozah.

Sigourney, Mrs. : Pocahontas, and other Poems.

Smellie, William : Philosophy of Natural History.

Socrates.

Sophocles : Electra.

Southcott, Joanna: Letters and Communications.

Sozomen : Ecclesiastical History.

Spectator.

Spurzheim, Johann Caspar : Outlines of the Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim.

Squire, Archdeacon: Case of Henry Axford.

Stewart, Dugald: Collected Works.

Strabo.

Suetonius : Lives of the Csesars.

Suidas.

Synesius.

Swedenborg, Emanuel.

Swift, Dean : On Dreams.

Talbot, Hon. Mr.

Tertullian.

Testaments, Old and New.

Townley, Miss.

Universal Magazine.

Upham, Thomas C. : Life and Religious Opinions of Madame de la Mothe Guyon.

Yinsauf, Geoffrey de : Itinerary of Richard I. and others to the Holy Land.

Walton, Izaak : Life of Sir Henry Wotton.

Watts, Isaac; Philosophical Essays.

William of Malmesbury.

Wilson, Dr. : The Parsi Religion, as contained in the Zand-Avasta.

Xenophon : Anabasis ; Cyropaedia.

Young, Edward : Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality.

Zartusht-Behram : Zartusht-Na-

mah, or Life of Zoroaster.

Zeno.

IP art I.

ON DREAMS.

ON DREAMS.

Chapter I. Place Of Dreams In Systems Of Divination

There is, perhaps, in human nature no instinct more characteristically human than that which shrinks from isolation. The old physical formula to the effect that nature abhors a vacuum, might, by the easiest of transitions, be capable of a civil adaptation. Every one, from Adam to Campbell’s Last Man, with Cowper’s Alexander Selkirk for a middle term, — Timon of Athens only excepted, and he questionably — rather than be alone in a depopulated world, would endure to live in a society to which he was bound only by the ties of a universal antipathy. Even on the amiable hypothesis that man is a beast of prey, it is evident that it is necessary for him to be within reach of his quarry : that he must be gregarious, if only in fulfilment of his tendencies to predacity. Such a supposition enables us to state the case in the strongest possible manner ; for if a social attraction even of antagonism be admitted, there is no difficulty in establishing an a fortiori argument whenever the attraction of cohesion is agitated, — whenever, that is, regard is had to man from the brighter and softer side of his character and disposition.

But amongst the necessities of man’s nature, there is that

GRAVITATION TO THE INFINITE.

of still another fellowship. He may he gregarious ; hut he is the object of longings which cannot be appeased by the sympathy, or indeed by the society, if that were possible, of the aggregate of the race. His social life may be satisfactory ; his relations to his kindred and his fellow- citizens may be kindly and complete ; but amidst social and family completeness and satisfaction, he is conscious, by reason of his proper will and personality, of a magnificent loneliness. There are one or two important senses in which every man is the only man in the universe. Each is cut off from his kind, while still in their midst, as ship is severed from ship in mid-ocean ; or as an insular star that, across the unphenomenal wastes of space, remotely twinkles to its fellows. Yet, as the orbs of heaven gravitate in their motions towards the central and dominant lord of their system, so does man gravitate, not only towards something of kin to himself or greater than himself, but towards something which is infinitely inclusive of himself and all his peers.

There is, then, in man an attraction to the mysterious and the comprehensive which could not be satisfied even if, in the fruition of a sublime incontinence, he throbbed with every heart, swelled with every wave, or shared the tiny pulsations of every leaf. “ Man,” says Protagoras, “ is the measure of the universe and this boast is half a truth, for man is a little greater than anything or everything in the material world that he can imagine. He chafes at every hypothetical limitation. The universe in its entirety may be beyond him ; but he knows that he can penetrate beyond every conceivable part thereof. And for the rest, whilst in the sphere of extension he is forced to introduce negations into his vocabulary, and to confess the Indefinite, the Boundless, the Infinite, — in the sphere of morals and ontology he can still find affirmative vocables, and call the Infinite by the determinate names of the Self-existent, the Creator, the Disposer, the Good.

Nothing less than a felt if inexplicable relation to this Being, whom he can realize if not understand — apprehend if

FILIAL LONGINGS.

not comprehend— will satisfy the aspirations of his nature. The divine remoteness and insouciance of Epicurus and Lord Herbert of Cherbury can never be satisfactory to the general heart, which, out of a postulated God, will, as the Stoics recognized, by its own imperative logic, compel a Providence. Man will not deify law and statistics, but in a created universe demands to be placed en rapport with the Creator. If he has a father, he will not abdicate the privileges of being the recognized offspring of that father. He is no foundling, and declines to be nurtured on the lap of circumstance. “'The wise may, indeed,” says Dio Chrysostom in his twelfth Oration, — “ the wise may, indeed, adore the gods as being far from us ; but there exists in all men an eager longing to adore and worship the gods as nigh. For as children, tom from father and mother, feel a powerful and affectionate longing, often stretch out their hands after their absent parents, and often dream of them, — so the man who heartily loves the gods for their benevolence towards us and their relationship with us, desires to be continually near them, and to have intercourse with them; so that many barbarians, ignorant of the arts, have called the very mountains and trees gods, that they might recognize them as nearer to themselves.” We are aware that the particular office for which the Greek rhetorician used the pathetic assertion just quoted was one in extenuation or explanation of the popular tendency to stay the devout recognition of the gods through symbols and statues, at an idolatry which consisted in a worship that went no further than the divine representatives. But the truth is a general one, and to our purpose. The problem was to bring the gods nigh, within the ken and the habitude of the daily thought and experience of mankind ; to realize their rule and goveimance ; to observe the facts of their interference, and inductively to discover the laws by which they manifested their will and purposes.