There are people I know who have so great a regard every fancy of their owa. that they can believe their very dreams. - Shsfyesbury's Moralist.

Thb general theory to which the author is inclined is, that no dreams, excepting those involved with the history of revelation, have any necessary connection with, or can afford any assistance towards discovering the scenes of futurity. At the same time he cannot hut confess that there are many accounts supported on great authorities, which militate against this opinion, and that sometimes almost shake his convictions-; that he may not appear to decide on partial grounds, and that every one may have an opportunity of judging, he will proceed to furnish some of the most remarkable dreams in more modern time, which have been thought to have the strongest claims to be regarded as prophetical, and which, as they have had no relation to prevailing systems, cannot be attributed to superstitious imposture, taking them generally in the order of time, and not meaning to attach any particular importance to those which may be first related.

A citizen of Milan being asked for a debt as owing by his dead father, beheld in his sleep, when in trouble thereat, the image of his father, which informed him that the debt .was paid in his life-time, and directed him where to find an acknowledgment signed by the creditor, which was produced, and which St. Austin professed to have seen*.

Petrarch is said to have dreamed that a friend, who was dangerously ill, appeared to him, and signified that there was a person at hand who could cure him, and desired Petrarch to recommend him to his attention. A physician soon afterwards entered Petrarch's room, who had come from the sick man in despair of his recovery, but on the intercession of Petrarch returned, and ere long restored the patient *.

. *Fulogs. L. i. C. 5. P. 130.

This account, probably, took its rise from Petrarch's merely dreaming that a physician might cure his friend, as he accordingly did; and the marvellous arises from the mistatement of the story, which with many other extraordinary relations is collected in Wanley's Wonders, a compilation in which wonderful tales are industriously scraped together, and given; with names and apparent authorities which impose on credulity.

"Condivi," says Mr. Roscoe, "relates an extraordinary story respecting Piero, the son of Lerenzo de Medici, commuicated to him by Michelagnolo, who had, it seems, formed an intimacy with one Cardieri, an Improvisa-tore, who frequented the house of Piera, and amused his evenings with singing to the lute* Soon after the death of Lorenzo, Cardieri informed Michelagnolo, that Lorenzo had appeared to him habited only in a black and ragged mantle thrown over his naked limbs, and had ordered him to acquaint Piero de Medici that he would in a short time be banished from Florence. Cardieri, who seems judiciously to have feared the resentment of . the living more than that of the dead, declined the office; but soon afterwards Lorenzo enter-mg his. chamber at midnight awoke him, and reproaching him with his inattention, gave him a violent blow on the cheek. Having com-municated the account of this second visit to has friend, who advised him no longer to delay his errand, he sat out for Careggi, where Piero then resided; but meeting him with his attendants about midway between that place and Florence, he there delivered his message to the great amusement of Piero and his followers; one of whom, Bernardo Divizio, afterwards Cardinal Da bibbiena, sarcastically asked him, whether if Lorenzo had been desirous of giving information to his son, it was likely he would have preferred such a messenger to a personal communication," The biographer adds with great solemnity, "the vision of Cardieri, or diabolical delusion, or divine prediction, or strong imagination, whatever it might be, was verified *;" but "the awful spectre is now before me," says the author of the Life of Lorenzo, " I see the terrified musician start from his slumbers, his left hand graps his beloved lyre, whilst with his right thrown over his head he attempts to shroud himself from the looks of Lorenzo, who with a countenance mom in sorrow than in anger points out to him bis destined mission. To realize this scene, so as to give it interest and effect, would require the glowing imagination, and the animated pencil of a Fuseli *•"

* Fulgos. L.i C . 5. P, 134 .

* La Vision del Cardieri, &c•

On no occasions, however, have dreams been so frequently reported, and so readily-received, as those which have been supposed to be connected with impending death, and when God seems still "to open the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man, keeping back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword †." And if upon any occasions super-natural interference is to be admitted, it certainly must be where objects of such moment are concerned.

Alexander the philosopher, who had the reputation of being free from superstition, reports of himself, that sleeping one night at a place which was distant a day's journey front the residence of his mother, he beheld the solemnization of her funeral. The dream being mentioned to many, and the time punctually observed, certain intelligence was brought to him on the succeeding day, that at the same hour his dream happened, his mother expired *.

* Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. ii. p. 253, C. 10.

† Job xxxiii. 16.18.

: ■ . ■'

Jovius relates that, A, D. 1523, Sfortia dreamed in a morning dumber, that having fallen into a river: he was in great danger of being drowned, and that on calling for assist ance to a man of extraordinary stature who was on the further side of the shore, he was by him slighted and neglected. He related the dream to his wife and servants; on the same day seeing a child fall into a river near the castle of Pescara, he leaped.into the rivet with-design to save the child, but being over-burdened with the weight of his armour, he was choaked in the mud and perished †.