discover that such ambitious prepossessions were not confined to the bosom of the Protector.

The grandfather of the poet Goëthe, on the death of an old counsellor at Frankfort, assured his wife of his confident belief that the golden ball, which elected the vacant counsellor, would be drawn for him. And this belief arose from a dream, in which he went in full costume to court, when the deceased counsellor rose from his seat and begged him to occupy the chair, and then went out of the door. Goëthe was elected.

And yet divines, especially, are determined to look beyond nature for causes, and refer all this to divine foreknowledge imparted to the mind of man. There is a solemn letter, written in 1512 by Cardinal Bembo to one of the Medici, recounting how he was opposed in a suit against one Simon Goro, by Giusto, and how his mother dreamed that Giusto wounded him in the right hand, and besought him not to have altercation with him. It chanced that Giusto, who, it seems, was somewhat deranged, snatched Bembo's papers from his hand, and afterward, by the Rialto, wounded him in the second finger of the right hand. Now is not this a very shallow incident? and yet the sapient cardinal deems it essential to confirm his tale by a solemn attestation, thus: "The dream of my mother I look upon as a revelation; and I declare to you, magnificent lord, by that veneration which we owe to God himself, that this recital is the pure and single truth."

The proofs of an apparent prophecy from foresight may be seen in those who, by reflection, have attained either a worldly or a weather wisdom. The sea captain, who has looked out upon the sky at night, and has learned the foreboding signs of a storm, will often dream of shipwreck; and the polY

itician will dream of events, as well as predicate consequences, from an enlightened reflection on the motives of the human mind, and the general laws which, indeed, influence its actions; so that, with a little latitude, it were easy enough for us all to construct an almanac column, especially if there be granted to us a liberal allowance of " more or less

about this time."

Above all, it is our duty to avert the impressions of evil from the superstitious mind. The apprehension of a misfortune or fatality may prove its cause. Ay, and if the intellect were really gifted with prescience, how oft would the happiness of life be blighted?

The allegory of the tree of knowledge is a practic precept for our lives.

ASTR. And yet Virgil has thus alluded to the delight of peeping into futurity:

"Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas."

Ev. I would rather echo the benevolent precept of Horace to ensure the bliss of ignorance on this point:

"Tu ne quæsieris, scire (nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi,
Finem Dii dederint ;"

in other words, "Seek not to know the destiny that awaits us."

And Milton's wisdom, too:

Let no man seek,
Henceforth, to be foretold what shall befall
Him or his children; evil, he may be sure,
Which neither his foreknowing can prevent;
And he the future evil shall, as less

In apprehension than as substance, feel
Grievous to bear."

Listen to the melancholy influence of the dream and death of Glaphyra, as told by Josephus:

"She was married, when she was a virgin, to Alexander, the son of Herod, and brother of Arche

laus; but since it fell out so that Alexander was slain by his father, she was married to Juba, the king of Lydia; and when he was dead, and she lived in widowhood in Cappadocia with her father, Archelaus divorced his former wife, Mariamne, and married her, so great was his affection for this Glaphyra, who, during her marriage to him, saw the following dream she thought she saw Alexander standing by her, at which she rejoiced, and embraced him with great affection, but that he complained of her, and said to Glaphyra, Thou provest that saying to be true which assures us that women are not to be trusted. Didst not thou pledge thy faith to me? and wast thou not married to me when thou wast a virgin? and had we not children between us? Yet hast thou forgotten the affection I bare to thee out of a desire for a second husband. Nor hast thou been satisfied with that injury thou didst me, but thou hast been so bold as to procure thee a third husband, and hast been married to Archelaus, thy husband and my brother. However, I will not forget my former affection for thee, but will set thee free from every such reproachful action, and cause thee to be mine again, as thou once wast.' When she had related this to her female companions, in a few days' time she departed this life."

The fatality which coincided with the prophetic warning of Lord Lyttelton might well be adduced as another illustration, were it not for some imputation of suicidal disposition in that nobleman, which would more forcibly invalidate the prophetic dignity of his dream.

I may relate another story, not remotely illustrative of this influence, from Brand's "Popular Antiquities." "My friend, the late Captain Mott, R. N., used frequently to repeat an anecdote of a seaman under his command. This individual, who

was a good sailor and a brave man, suffered much trouble and anxiety from his superstitious fears. When on the night watch, he would see sights and hear noises, in the rigging and the deep, which kept him in a perpetual fever of alarm. One day the poor fellow reported upon deck that the devil, whom he knew by his horns and cloven feet, stood by the side of his hammock on the preceding night, and told him that he had only three days to live. His messmates endeavoured to remove his despondency by ridicule, but without effect. And the next morning he told the tale to Captain Mott, with this addition, that the fiend had paid him a second nocturnal visit, announcing a repetition of the melancholy tidings. The captain in vain expostulated with him on the folly of indulging such groundless apprehensions. And the morning of the fatal day being exceedingly stormy, the man, with many others, was ordered to the topmast to perform some duty among the rigging. Before he ascended, he bade his messmates farewell, telling them that he had received a third warning from the devil, and that he was confident he should be dead before night. He went aloft with the foreboding of evil on his mind, and in less than five minutes he lost his hold, fell upon the deck, and was killed upon the spot."

Were an aversion to these gloomy fancies inculcated, it might avert many a fatal foreboding, which, even in our own enlightened era, has closely resembled the fate of the African victims of Obi; that magic fascination, which its Syriac namesake, Obh, works by spell, until the doomed one pines to death, with the deep conviction that he is under the ban of an enchanter.

MATERIAL CAUSES OF DREAMS.

Iago. Nay, this was but his dream.
Othello. But this denoted a foregone conclusion;

'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.”

Othello.

ASTR. We looked for more from you, Evelyn, than these proofs of a negative.

I presume still to think your philosophy is very weak in controversion of the inspiration of a dream, and its supernatural causes. I cannot but believe, with Baxter, that dreams may be "spirits in communion with us.'

Ev. And you will define these shadowless ministers in the fashion of Master Richard Burthogge, Medicinæ Doctor (in his book, printed by Raven, in the Poultry, in 1694). I have a smack, you see, of medical bibliomania, Astrophel. Burthogge, although one of the most rational interpreters of dreams and spectres, thinks their internal causes purely metaphysical; and then refutes his own opinion point blank by this sophistry, that "there are things incorporated, but invisible, which we call spirits;" as who should say, with Shakspeare's fairies, "We have the gift of fern seed; we are invisible."

No; we will account for the causes of dreams, Astrophel, without the ministry of spirits.

Analyzing, then, the notions of all, it is clear that the essence of the dream is recurrence of ideas. In the words of Walpole, "The memory the colouring of the day."

retains

Now memory is the first faculty to fail in age, and you know old people seldom dream: the same objects are applied, but there is little or no association, for the brain is dull and feeble; imbecility, indeed, is mad memory.

The two common periods associated with the