A dream that conferred benefit upon the world was that of Dante's son Jacopo. Boccaccio, whose life of Dante is something on the order of Boswell's life of Johnson, gives the dream at length. The thirteen cantos of the Paradiso could not be found after Dante's death until the poet himself appeared to Jacopo in a dream and led him to a secret hiding place in which the manuscripts had been concealed.

Among the most widely known, and most thoroughly authenticated dreams of comparatively modern date, is that of Thomas, Lord Lyttleton.

An account of it is given by his uncle. The dream ran as follows: Lord Lyttleton found himself in a room into which a bird flew and suddenly became transformed into a woman dressed in white. She bade Lord Lyttleton prepare to die and he answered "I hope not soon - not in two months." She answered, "In three days."

The verification of this dream prophecy caused great comment in London at the time of its occurrence, and various opinions were advanced and the controversy became worldwide. The consensus of opinion, however, concedes the dream and its verification.

The dream of a certain Mr. Cunningham in connection with the death of Major Andre is an interesting case of prophecy. Just before the gallant young officer set out for America, two gentlemen invited a Miss Seward, a mutual friend, to bring Major Andre to tea. While the hosts awaited the arrival of their guests, one of them, Mr. Cunningham, mentioned to the other, Mr. Newton, that on the previous night he had dreamed such an extraordinary dream that he could not get it out of his mind. He had been in a strange forest, through which a horseman was tearing at mad speed. As he reached the spot where the dreamer stood, three men rushed out of the thicket and seizing his bridle hurried him away, after closely searching his person. Sympathy for the stranger's predicament roused the dreamer, but after a little he slept again. This time his dream showed him a great crowd surrounding a gallows and the man whom he had seen captured in the wood was hanging. When Miss Seward arrived with Major Andre, Cunningham was appalled to recognize the man whom he had seen in his dream. It is needless to recall the fulfillment of this dream and the fate of gallant Major Andre to those familiar with the history of the American Revolution.

President Abraham Lincoln was a dreamer of dreams; not only did he frequently see his son who died during Lincoln's occupancy of the White House, but he had a peculiarly significant recurring dream in which he placed implicit confidence. He himself was heard to say that it invariably marked the mileposts in his career. It came to him the night before his assassination, leaving him expectant and wondering. He would find himself aboard a strange vessel, sailing over a smooth yet sullen sea, towards a sad-hued, silent, misty shore. On and on the boat would drift, yet the dream invariably waked before reaching the dim, dull land.

The sequel to this dream corresponds to the gypsy interpretation of the symbol of turgid, grim waters.

Maeterlinck cites the instance of the Countess Toutschkoff who, three months before the French invasion of Russia, dreamed that she saw her husband fall at Borodino, a town of which she had at that time never heard and one of such trifling importance that she was unable to find it upon the map.

Lord Roberts was wont to relate a story of his father, General Roberts, when he was in command of the Peshawar. On one occasion the General insisted upon countermanding a dance because he had twice had a dream that had always portended the death of a near relative. The next day word was brought from Lahore of the death of Lord Roberts' sister and General Roberts' daughter.

Zoe Anderson Norris, story-writer and editor of the East Side, a magazine once published in New York, furnishes food for thought in the fulfillment of the dream given herewith. The story of the dream experience written by herself appeared in the East Side.

"Now I will tell you my dream.

"I sat alone one night not long after I had published the audacious statement about the dead never coming back. I was very lonely in the big chair under the lamp, pondering over the problem of life and wondering, as I often do, what was the use of it all anyhow, and then I went to bed and slept.

"Along toward dawn I had a dream.

"Again I sat alone, wondering, wondering. And then I thought there came swiftly down a long and dusky hall a little woman, a tiny little woman all in black.

"As she came down the hall, the doors swung open and shut for her in a mysterious way, as if blown by winds.

"Finally she reached my bed and stood there.

"It was my mother, such a tiny little thing to have borne thirteen children.

"She was hardly higher than the posts of my low bed as she stood before me.

"In my dream I put my arms and clasped them about her. I felt the soft slazy silk of her black dress.

" 'Am I next?' I asked, and she said 'Yes.' "I screamed and she put up her small hand said 'Shhh! Shhh!'

"My scream wakened me."

"How glad I was that it was light, for though I had put my arms around my little mother, I was afraid of her.

"Her presence was so strongly with me that I think it stood there beside my bed, though I couldn't see it because of the light.

"At any rate, the first thought that came to me as I lay there in the dawn was that I didn't care."

Two weeks later the dreamer died of an affection of the heart.

A touching case of premonition in a dream is brought out in the letters of Raymond Lodge, the gallant young son of Sir Oliver Lodge, who gave his brilliant life to his country, and to whom the father has dedicated the extraordinary book entitled "Raymond, or Life and Death."

On May 7, 1915, Sir Oliver writes to a friend: "I do not reckon that I often have conscious intuitions; and when I have had vivid dreams they have not meant anything. . . . I happen, however, to have had an intuition this morning before I was more than half awake, namely, that an attack was going on at the present moment and that my son was in it, and that 'they' were taking care of him."