The following is the dream of Hecuba in reference to her son Paris, who caused the destruction of his native city: -

'Queen Hecuba dreamed - an ominous dream of fate - That she did bear no human child of flesh, But a fierce blazing torch. Priam, alarmed, Pondered with anxious fear the fatal dream; And sought the gods with smoking sacrifice; Then the diviner's aid he did entreat, With many a prayer to the prophetic god, If haply he might learn the dream's intent. Thus spake Apollo with all knowing mind: - "The queen shall have a son, who if he grow To man's estate shall set all Troy in flames -

The ruin of his city and his land-" '

'What kind of dream,' asks Cipero (from whose work on "Divination" the present series is quoted),' was that of Tarquin the Proud, which the poet Accius, in his tragedy of "Brutus", puts in the mouth of Tarquin himself?'

' "Sleep closed my weary eyelids, when a shepherd Brought me two rams. The one I sacrificed; The other rushing at me with wild force Hurled me upon the ground. Prostrate, I gazed Upon the heavens, when a new prodigy Dazzled my eyes. The flashing orb of day Took a new course, diverging to the right, With all his kindling beams strangely transversed."

'Of this dream the diviners give the following interpretation: -

' "Dreams are in general reflex images Of things that men in waking hours have known; But sometimes dreams of holier character Rise in the tranced soul inspired by Jove, Prophetic of the future. Then beware Of him who thou dost think as stupid as The ram thou dreamest of. For in his breast Dwelleth the manliest wisdom. He may yet expel Thee from thy kingdom. Mark the prophecy: That change in the sun's course thou didst behold Betokened revolution in the state, And as the sun did turn from left to right, we predict So shall that revolution meet success."

'Heraclides of Pontus, an intelligent man, who was one of Plato's disciples and followers, writes that the mother of Phalaris fancied that she saw in a dream the statues of the gods whom Phalaris had consecrated in his house. Among them, it appeared to her that Mercury held a cup in his right hand, from which he poured blood, which, as soon as it touched the earth, gushed forth like a fresh fountain, and filled the 'house with streaming gore. The dream of the mother was too fatally realised by the cruelty of the son.

'Why need I relate also, out of the history of Persia, by Dinon, the interpretations which the Magi gave to the celebrated prince, Cyrus? For he dreamed that, beholding the sun at his feet, he thrice endeavoured to grasp it with his hands; but the sun rolled away and departed, and escaped from him. The Magi (who were accounted sages and teachers in Persia) thus interpreted the dream: paying the three attempts of Cyrus to catch the sun in his hands, signified that he would reign thirty years. And what they predicted really came to pass; for he was forty years old when he began to reign, and he reached the age of seventy.

'Cœlius relates that Hannibal, wishing to remove a golden column from the Temple of Juno Lacinia, and not knowing whether it was gold or merely gilt, bored a hole in it; and as he had found it solid, he determined to take it away. But the following night Juno appeared to him. in a dream, and warned him against doing so, and threatened him that if he did she would take care that he should lose an eye with which he could see well. He was too prudent a man to neglect this threat; and, therefore, of the gold which he had abstracted from the column in boring it, he made a little heifer, which he fixed on the capital.

'And the same story is told in the Grecian history of Silenus, whom Cœlius follows: and he was the author who was particularly diligent in relating the exploits of Hannibal. He says that when Hannibal had taken Saguntum, he dreamed in his sleep that he was summoned to a council of the gods; and that when he arrived at it Jupiter commanded him to carry the war into Italy; and one of the deities in the council was appointed to be his conductor in the enterprise. He therefore began his march under the direction of his divine protector, who enjoined him not to look behind him. Hannibal, however, could not long keep in his obedience, but yielded to a great desire to look back, when he immediately beheld a huge and terrible monster, surrounded with serpents, which, whenever it advanced, destroyed all the trees and shrubs and buildings. He then, marvelling at this, inquired of the god what this monster might mean; and the gold replied it signified the desolation of Italy, and commanded him to advance without delay, and not to concern himself with the evils that lay behind him and in his rear.

'In the history of Agathocles, it is said that Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, when he was besieging Syracuse, dreamed that he heard a voice announcing to him that he should sup on the succeeding day in Syracuse. When the morning dawned a great sedition arose in his camp between the Carthaginian and Sicilian soldiers; and when the Syracusans found this out they made a vigorous sally and attacked the camp unexpectedly, and succeeded in making Hamilcar prisoner while alive: and thus his dream was verified. All history is full of similar accounts; and the experience of real life is equally rich in them.

'That illustrious man, Publius Decius, the first of the Decii who was a consul, being a military tribune in the consulship of Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, when our army was sore pressed by the Samnites, and being accustomed to expose himself to great personal danger in battle, Was warned to take greater care of himself; on which he replied (as our annals report), that he had a dream, which had informed him that he should die with the greatest glory while engaged in the midst of the enemy. For that time he succeeded in happily rescuing our army from the perils that surrounded it. But three years after, when he was consul, he devoted himself to death for his country, and threw himself armed among the ranks of the Latins; by which gallant action the Latins were defeated and destroyed.

And his death was so glorious that his son desired a similar fate.

'But let us now come, if you please, to the dreams of philosophers. We read in Plato, that Socrates, when he was in the public prison at Athens, said to his friend Crito that he should die in three days, for that he had seen in a dream a woman of extreme beauty, who called him by his name, and quoted in his presence this verse of Homer -

'On the third day you'll reach the fruitful Phthia.'

And it is said that it happened just as it had been foretold.

'Again, what a man - and how great a man - is Xenophon, the pupil of Socrates! He, too," in his account of that war in which he accompanied the younger Cyrus, relates the dreams which he saw, "the accomplishment of which was marvellous. Shall we say, then, that Xenophon was a liar or a dotard? What shall we say, too, of Aristotle, a man of singular and almost divine genius? Was he deceived himself, or does he wish others to be deceived, when he informs us that Eudemus of Cyprus, on his way to Macedonia, came to Pheræ, a celebrated city of Thessaly, which was then under the cruel sway of the tyrant Alexander. In that town he was seized with a severe illnesss, so that he was given over by all the physicians, when he beheld in a dream a young man of extreme beauty, who informed him that in a short time he should recover, and also that the tyrant Alexander would die in a few days; and that Eudemus himself would, after five years' absence, at length return home. Aristotle relates that the two first predictions were immediately accomplished; for Eudemus quickly recovered, and the tyrant perished at the hands of his wife's brother; and that towards the end of the fifth year, when, in consequence of that dream, there was hope that he would return into Cyprus from Sicily, they heard that he had been slain in a battle near Syracuse. From which it appears that his dream was susceptible of being interpreted as meaning, that when the soul of Eudemus quitted his body, it would then appear to have signified the return home.

'To the philosophers we may add the testimony of Sophocles, a most learned man, and a poet quite divine, who, when a golden goblet of great weight had been stolen from the Temple of Hercules, saw in a dream the god himself appearing to him, and declaring who was the robber- Sophocles paid no attention to this vision, though it was repeated more than once. When it had presented itself to him several times, he proceeded up to the Court of Areopagus, and laid the matter before them. On this, the judges issued an order for the arrest of the offender nominated by Sophocles. On the application of the torture the criminal confessed his guilt, and restored the goblet; from which event this Temple of Hercules was afterwards called the Temple of Hercules the Indicator.

'But why do I continue to cite the Greeks? when, somehow or other, I feel more interest in the examples of my own countrymen? All our historians, the Fabii, the Grellii, and, more recently, Coelius, bear witness to similar facts. In the Latin war, when they first celebrated the votive games in honour of the gods, the city was suddenly roused to arms; and the games being thus interrupted, it was necessary to appoint new ones. Before their commencement, however, just as the people had taken their places in the Circus, a slave who had been beaten with rods was led through the Circus, bearing a gibbet. After this event a certain Roman rustic had a dream, in which an apparition informed him that he had been displeased with the president of the games; and the rustic was ordered to apprise the Senate of that fact. He, however, did not dare to do so; on which the apparition appeared a second time, and warned him not to provoke him to exert his power. Even then he could not summon courage to obey; and presently his son died. After this the same admonition was repeated in his dream for the third time. Then the peasant himself became extremely ill, and related the cause of his trouble to his friends, by whose advice he was carried on a litter to the senate-house. And as soon as he had related his dream to the Senate he recovered his health and strength, and returned home on foot perfectly cured. Thereupon, the truth of his dreams being admitted by the Senate, it is related that these games were repeated a second time.

'It is recorded in the history of the same Cœlius, that Caius Gracchus informed many persons that during the time he was soliciting the quaestorship, his brother Tiberius Gracchus appeared to him in a dream, and said to him that he might delay as much as he pleased, but that nevertheless he was fated to die by the same death which he himself had suffered. Cœlius asserts that he heard this fact, and related it to many persons before Caius Gracchus had become tribune of the people. And what can be more certain than such a dream as this?

'Who, again, can despise these two dreams, which are so frequently dwelt upon by the Stoics? - one concerning Simonides, who, having found the dead body of a man was a stranger to him, lying in the road, buried it. Having performed this office, he was about to embark in a ship, when the man whom he had buried appeared to him in a dream at night, and warned him not to undertake the voyage, for that if he did he would perish by shipwreck. Therefore he returned home again; but all the other people who sailed in that vessel were lost.

'The other dream, which is a very celebrated one, is related in the following manner: - Two Arcadians, who were intimate friends, were travelling together; and arriving at Megara, one of them took up his quarters at an inn, the other at a friend's house. After supper, when they had both gone to bed, the Arcadian who was staying at his friend's house saw an apparition of his fellow-traveller at the inn, who prayed him to come to his assistance immediately, as the innkeeper was going to murder him. Alarmed by this intimation, he started from his sleep; but on recollection, thinking it nothing but an idle dream, he lay down again. Presently the apparition appeared to him again in his sleep, and entreated him, though he would not come to his assistance while yet alive, at least not to leave his death unavenged. He told him further that the innkeeper had first murdered him, and then cast him into a dung-cart, where he lay covered with filth; and begged high to go early to the gate of the town, before any cart could leave the town. Much excited by this second vision, the went early next morning to the gate of the town, and met with the driver of the cart, and asked him what he had got in it? The driver, upon this question, ran away in a fright. The dead body was then discovered, and the innkeeper, the evidence being clear against him, was brought to punishment.

'What can be more akin to divination than such a dream as this?

' But why do I relate any more ancient instances of similar things, when such dreams have occurred to ourselves? For I have often told you mine, and I have as often heard you talk of yours.

'When I was proconsul in Asia, it appeared to me as I slept that I saw you riding on horseback till you reached the banks of a great river, and that you were suddenly thrown off and precipitated into the waters, and so dis-appeared. At this I trembled exceedingly, being overcome with fear and apprehension. But suddenly you reappeared before me with a joyful countenance, and, with the same horse, ascended the opposite bank; and then we embraced each other. It is easy to conjecture the signification of such a dream as this; and hence the learned interpreters of Asia predicted to me that those events would take place which afterwards did come to pass.

' I now come to your own dream, which I have sometimes heard from yourself, but more often from our friend Sallust. He used to say that in that flight and exile of yours - which was so glorious for you, so calamitous for your country - you stayed awhile in a certain villa of the territory of Atina; when, having sat up a great part of the night, you fell into a deep and heavy slumber towards the morning. And from this slumber your attendants would not awake you, as you had given orders that you were not to be disturbed, although your journey was sufficiently urgent.

'When at length you awoke, about the second hour of the day, you related to Sallust the following dream: - That it had seemed to you that, as you were wandering sorrowfully through some solitary district, Caius Marius appeared to you with his fasces covered with laurel; and he asked you why you were so afflicted? And when you informed him that you had been driven from your country by the violence of the disaffected, he seized your right hand, and urged you to be of good cheer; and ordered the lictor nearest him to lead you to his monument, saying that there you should find security. Sallust told me that upon hearing this dream, he himself exclaimed at once that your return would be speedy and glorious; and that you also appeared delighted with your dream. A short time afterwards I was informed, as you well know, that it was in the monument of Marius that, on the instance of that excellent and famous consul Lentulus, that most honourable decree of the Senate was passed for your recall, which was applauded with shouts of incredible exultation in a very fall assembly; so that, as you yourself observed, no dream could have a higher character of divination than this which occurred to you at Atina.' - On Divina-tion.