Whence was this that when she told me this vision and I would fain bend it to mean that she should not despair of being what I was, she without any hesitation replied: "For it was not told me that 'where he thou art also,' but 'where thou, there he also.' " - St. Augustine's Confessions.

The mother of Sir Thomas More "saw in her sleep the number of children she should have, written, as it were, in her marriage ring, and the forms, shapes and countenances of them all. One she saw full bright and beautiful and fairer than all the rest; whereby, no doubt was this lampe of England prefigured." - Life of Sir Thomas More.

Bocaccio relates a dream that was sent to the mother of Dante. Seated under a high laurel tree by the side of a vast fountain the woman dreamed that she gave birth to a son; she saw him nourished by the fruit and refreshed by the clear waters; she soon beheld him a shepherd, approaching to pick the boughs she saw him fall! When he arose he had ceased to be a man and was transformed into a peacock. Disturbed by her admiration she suddenly awoke. When the father found that he really had a son, in allusion to the dream he called the child Dante, or Given.

Amina, mother of Mahomet, dreamed of a great light that shot from her side and illumined the whole desert and reached to the temple at Bosra, where it paused, hanging about the holy edifice as awaiting the coming of some great event. Inspired by the vividness of Amina's vision and by its symbolism, her father insisted that the child be named Mahomet, signifying Light.

Hecuba, the mother of Paris, had a most portentous dream before the birth of her son, who was to cause the downfall of Troy.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, the night before her marriage to Philip of Macedon, dreamed that a thunderbolt fell upon her body and kindled a great fire whose divided flames dispersed themselves in all directions before they were extinguished. And Philip himself was visited by a dream before the birth of his famous son. He dreamed of a lion, from which symbolic vision the interpreters predicted that the child to come would have manifold characteristics of the king of beasts. In turn Philip's own mother had been prepared for her son's success by a prophetic dream.

Agarista, the mother of Pericles, dreamed that she was delivered of a lion, and the mother of Cicero had a vision foretelling her son's invaluable services to the Roman States.

The mother of Augustus Caesar dreamed that she would bring forth a child by the Deity transformed into a snake, a gloriously prophetic dream in view of the symbolism at that time attached to the snake as an emblem of wisdom. The hapless mother of Nero, dreamed, on the contrary, that she had given birth to an inconceivable monster.

At the birth of Apollonius of Tyana, Proteus, the Egyptian god, appeared to the expectant mother. When she asked: "What shall I bring forth?" the answer came: "Thou shalt bring forth Me."

Heraclides of Pontus, a disciple of Plato, is authority for the account of the dream that came to the mother of Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum, whose atrocities rivaled even those of Nero. In her dream the woman saw the statue of the gods whom Phalaris had consecrated in his house. Among them was a statue who held his cup in his right hand from which he poured blood, which as it touched the earth gushed forth like a fresh fountain, filling the entire earth with gore. Tradition accuses Phalaris of roasting his enemies alive in a brazen bull.

The birth of Paganini was foretold to his mother by an angel, radiant and gracious, who asked the dreamer to name what gift she most desired for her son. "That he shall become the greatest of violinists," the mother answered in her dream. And so confident was she of the fulfillment of her wish that she frequently told the lad: "My son, you will be a great violinist"

It is said that the mother of Napoleon Bonaparte dreamed that she had given birth to an eagle.

No doubt of her son's future career crossed the mind of Mary, the mother of Washington, after certain dreams that were sent her before his birth.

The mothers, however, have not been the only ones to receive visions of world blessings or disturbances at the time of an especially epoch-making birth. Other lives to be interwoven with that of the new-born child, or the child to come, have frequently received warnings, as in the instance of Herod the Tetrarch.

The birth of Cyrus, the Great King of Persia, was preceded by curious dream-omens that nearly cost the royal babe his life. Astyages, grandfather of Cyrus, dreamed one night that a colossal stream of water filled not only his capital but entire Asia. The Magian interpretation of this dream was so portentous that the Princess Mandane, daughter of Astyages, was promptly bestowed in marriage, not to one of the ruling class, a Mede, but to an obscure young Persian of good family but a quiet disposition named Cambyses. Having thus disposed of his daughter, Astyages remained tranquil until just before Cyrus was born, when, 10, another dream disturbed his equanimity and caused him to send Harpagus, then a loyal and devoted follower, to destroy the babe. The wife of Harpagus, however, prevailed upon her husband not to de-stroy the child but to give him into the care of a herdsman. Later, when Astyages put the son of Herpagus to death, the outraged father turned to Cyrus for revenge. The secret of his birth was made known, the Persians stirred to revolt and the dream of Harpagus verified.

Cyrus also was a dreamer, and Herodotus mentions that a false interpretation of a dream led to the monarch's downfall.

In later times the dream of Frederick the Second of Prussia recalls the portents that were wont to terrorize ancient monarchs. In his dream he saw a star shoot from heaven to earth; fiercely luminous it cast an uncanny light over the whole world and dazzled and confused the dreamer's path until he waked. The weird memory haunted the following day and his courtiers were commanded to note the dream and its date, which was August 16, 1769, the birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte, himself a believer in dream portents.