The third class, the Oracle, is manifested through an angel or divine messenger, as when the angel appeared to the shepherds on the night of the Nativity.

In the fourth class, that of the Apparition or Phantom, the dreamer does not himself recognize whether he is waking or sleeping, as in the story of Whittington who heard the London bells calling him to return.

Modern Gypsies classify dreams symbolically under three headings: Dreams relating to Animals, to Objects and to Celestial Things. Those relating to animals find their origin in the passions; those relating to natural objects imply the dreamer's physical condition; those relating to things celestial require no definition, as they appear only to the few who understand them and who do not discuss them with the light-minded or curious.

The Gypsy classification of the dream of animals as representing human passions coincides with the theory of Freud, Jung and other moderns, who likewise attribute animal dreams to this source. The Gypsy, however, is less narrow than the scientist in that he grants the existence of several basic motives unconnected with the sex motive. The Gypsies derive their dream lore from their progenitors, the Chaldeans, to whose customs they have clung with extraordinary tenacity through centuries of nomadic wanderings.

Moses Amyraldus (1657) published a discourse on "Divine Dreams," in which he gave a method for testing the origin of visions. One must question whether the dream contain an intimation of such things as are only consistent for God to know and to reveal, or whether it deal with facts already known; in the latter case the dream is worthless.

Homer and Solomon alike recognize the distinction between brain clouds and significant dreams of warning or prophecy.

The oriental imagination of the great, wise king revels in gorgeous vision and sumptuous symbol, yet there is a world of childlike simplicity and faith in his wistful request for wisdom, when God appeared to his dream in Gibeon.

Homer's "Golden dreams" that "descend from Jove," are of psychological, literary and historic value. Clytemnestra's dream of the Fall of Troy is portentous prophecy, and no experience of modern spiritism can vie with the vision of Achilles to whom the dead Patroclus comes in sleep and who tries in vain to grasp him with long, bony hands, but the soul, like smoke, flies away beneath the earth. The deceitful dream with which Zeus beguiled Agamemnon is as clear an example of dream illusion as a modern psychoanalyst could create or cite.

Pliny notes that the dream after wine or food is without significance. Like the Greeks, Romans and Arabs, he attaches vast meaning to certain dreams. First in importance are those before dawn; next those during the noontide nap, and third those during the season of ripe fruit.

Freud has most nearly succeeded in drawing dream analysis into the range of a scientific formula. His technique - which he terms his dream mechanism - is almost universally adopted, even by those who reject his interpretation.

The first step in dream analysis consists in the division of the dream into its component factors. These are primarily: First: the actual text of the dream. Second: the hidden thought which these dream pictures represent Technically these parts are called the Manifest Content and the Latent Content.

The Manifest Content merely represents what is dreamed of in an abstract or symbolical form. The Latent Content is the hidden part of the dream and requires interpretation. The Manifest Content requires no intellectual effort, the Latent Content does the thinking. The determining of the Latent Content is the most important part of dream interpretation and one in which the older writers and interpreters were especially proficient; this is demonstrated by their skill in interpreting the dreams of the kings of old.

Joseph's dream of binding sheaves in the field with his brethren, when his own sheaf stood upright and those of his brothers made obeisance to it, furnishes an example of the two contents. The sheaves and the attendant circumstances furnish the manifest content, the latest content is supplied in the implied superiority of Joseph's position above his brethren as symbolized by the upright sheaf. Anciently this was construed into prophecy of Joseph's future greatness. In the modern dream interpretation the contents would have been the same, but the latent content would have been labeled as showing a tendency to self-esteem on Joseph's part; a characteristic, however, that is open to various constructions, and according to certain schools of modern thought, one that augured well for the dreamer's rise in the world.

Whether consciously or not, the manifest and latent content are utilized in every dream analysis and interpretation.

Bergson declares that the Freudian dreams invariably have a meaning, but that it is never what it appears to be. This is literally true; by an elaboration of the process of resolving a dream into its several contents, each dream is traced to its cranny in the subconsciousness and dragged forth, aired and translated into startling thoughts with a thoroughness that spares no reservation of the hapless dream-self.

The first step, according to Freud's method, consists in dividing the dream into the Manifest Content and the Latent Content. The former being obvious is easily found; to find the Latent Content however is a more difficult matter, for to the Freudian the Latent Content of a dream is the exemplification alike of a theory and a psychic problem. It invariably finds its origin in a suppressed, childish wish, usually of an erotic nature, and probably representing a desire which a normal, civilized man would feel inclined to repress. This invariably erotic meaning to every dream is the chief source of discord between the Freudian school and the other schools of dream interpretation.