Case LXXXIV

We read, in a work by Ferriar, an anecdote borrowed from Ben Jonson, who had extracted it from a work by Drummond.* This author relates that when King James came to England, at the time of the plague, he went, accompanied by Old Cambden, into the country, to visit Sir Robert Colton. There he dreamed that his eldest son, yet a child, who was in London, had a bloody cross on his forehead, as though he had been wounded by a sword. Alarmed at this apparition, he sought to allay his fears by prayer, and in the morning related the occurrence of the night to Sir Cambden, who assured the monarch that it was only a dream, and begged him not to be disturbed. The same day the king received a letter, announcing the death of his son by the plague. When the child appeared to his father, he had the shape and proportions of a grown man.†

Case LXXXV

Antiquity has bequeathed to us a famous " dream, which has since found place in many works. Two friends arrived at Megara, and lodged in different places. One of the two was scarcely asleep, when he dreamed that his companion announced to him, with a melancholy air, that his host had formed a project to assassinate him, and entreated him to come as quickly as possible to his succor. Upon this he awoke, but, convinced that it was only a dream, he went to sleep again. A second time his friend appeared, and conjured him to hurry, as the murderers were about to enter.

Much disturbed, he was amazed at the recurrence of his dream, and prepared to go to his friend; but reason and fatigue gained the mastery, and he returned to bed. His friend then appeared for the third time, pale, bleeding, disfigured. "Wretch," said he,

* Drnmmond's Works, p. 224.

† Ferriar, An Essay on Apparitions, p, 58.

"you did not come at my entreaty ! It is now over; nevertheless, revenge me. At daybreak, you will meet at the city gate a cartload of dung; stop it, and have it unloaded; you will find my body concealed in the centre; inter me honorably, and pursue my murderers."

Such tenacity, such consistent details, allowed of no hesitation; the friend arose and repaired to the gate indicated, found the cart, stopped the driver, who was disconcerted, and, on searching, discovered the body of his friend.*

Admitting the truth of the account, and presuming that time has not amplified or embellished it, it is easily explained by natural causes. Was not the separation of the two friends, in a strange city, after the fatigues of travelling, sufficient to awaken mournful presentiments in the mind of one of them, who, in the silence of the night, was touched with the fear of assassination? This idea once indulged, imagination would do the rest. As to the episode of the cart, which seems difficult of interpretation, it is probable that he had seen it in the courtyard. The principle of association of ideas was an element of the dream.

Cicero, Plutarch, and other ancient authors have preserved the following anecdote: "Simonides, having met with the dead body, on the highway, of a man who was a stranger to him, had it interred. As he was about to embark, he dreamed that the man whom he had buried, appeared to him, and informed him that, if he persisted in embarking on his voyage, he would perish. This warning induced him to alter his mind, and it appeared subsequently that the vessel was wrecked."*

"The opinion," says an illustrious writer, "that truth is sometimes presented to us during sleep, prevails among all nations. The greatest men of antiquity had faith in it, among others Alexander, Cesar, the Scipios, the two (Catos, and Brutus, none of whom were weak-minded men. The Old and New Testaments furnish us with numerous examples of dreams that have been realized. For myself I need nothing beyond my own experience, and I have more than once found that dreams may be warnings, giving us some information interesting to ourselves alone, and that it is not possible to combat or defend with reasonings things that surpass human reason."*

* Cicero, De Divin. lib. i. § xxvii. p. 77.

† Cicero, see Valerius Maxiinus, liv. i. ch. i.; Plutarch, The Oracles of Pythius, p. 154; Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, liv. viii. ch. x. p. 562; and Gauthier, Histoire de Somnambulism, 2 vols, in 8vo. 1842.

The famous Bossuet, in his funeral oration on Anne of Gon-zages, Princess Palatine, deduces his whole plan of conversion from a mysterious dream which she had.

"It was," said he, "an admirable dream, such as God sends by his ministering angels, in which the images are so distinct and clear that they appear quite celestial. She thought that, walking alone in a forest, she met with a blind man in a little hut. She approached, and inquired whether he was born blind, or had become so by accident. He replied that he was born blind. 'You do not then know,' said she, 'what is light, which is so beautiful and agreeable; nor the sun, which has so much brilliancy and beauty?' 'I have never,' replied he, 'enjoyed the sight of that beautiful object, nor can I form any idea of it; but I do not the less believe it to be of marvellous splendor.' The blind man then seemed to change both his voice and countenance, and, assuming an air of authority, said: 'My example should teach you that wonderful things, which escape our sight, are no less true nor desirable because we are unable to comprehend them.' "†

The following are the reflections of Le Maistre de Sacy on dreams: "The pagans, and men in general," said he, "have often made chimerical observations on dreams, full of superstition and vanity. It has, nevertheless, pleased God, as it appears in Holy Writ, to give very important counsel at times to saints, during sleep. Saint Augustine reports that Saint Monica, his mother, comprehended, by certain pleasing sensations, the revelations which it pleased God to make to her during sleep, and which her imagination represented to her during her dreams of the night."‡

Presentiments. - The study of dreams leads us to speak of presentiments. The farther we advance in the consideration of the nervous system, the more we are compelled to admit, as M. Max (Simon) has well said, " that if statistics are true when applied to size and quantity, they are no longer so when relating to life and strength. Can truth, virtues justice, health, sensibility, etc., be computed? No - a thousand times no; at least, not in such a manner as to identify them with matter."*

* Bernardin St Pierre. Paul et Virginia.

† Chefs-d'oeuvre de Bossuet, Lefebvre's edition, Paris, 1829, p. 449.

‡ Le Maistre de Sacy, Obs. on the 24th verse of Leviticus, t. iii. p. 738.

Sensibility is, in fact, a key-board, of which it is impossible to seize and express all the tones, producing, as it does, the most astonishing and unexpected effects. I read lately of a young girl brought up in the country, at the foot of the mountains, who had the faculty of distinguishing, amidst the confusion of noises all around her, other sounds inaudible to all besides. It was now a hollow rumbling that she heard echoing between the summits of the Pyrenees, and the acuteness of her hearing was verified by a storm which broke with fury during the night on the valley. Then she would suddenly hear the measured tread of a horse afar off; and the people were surprised to see, some hours afterwards, a traveller arrive seeking hospitality, thus bearing witness that she had not been deceived by the illusion of a sense excited to so astonishing a degree, †

The same phenomenon may be noticed with respect to the other senses; thus, the delicacy of the sense of smell is sometimes so great, that persons can detect substances placed at a distance at which others are unable to discern them.

Some have denied atmospheric influence on certain organizations. Facts, however, demonstrate that there are natures so impressible that they discern, long before others, the changes about to take place in the air.

In the moral world, the field of observation is no less curious. All who have powerfully loved, know that there is a supernatural vision in passion, which causes the woman loved or hated to be recognized by signs imperceptible to ordinary faculties; she is not seen, but we say, "that is she."

With presentiments are associated antipathies and sympathies. That individuals have experienced shuddering sensations at the approach of an enemy, or of an unknown danger, is established by incontrovertible evidence. Some years since we had the opportunity of seeing a lady who had this instinctive feeling the instant she came into close contact with a stranger. The impression she received was always justified by the result. We wished to magnetize this lady, in order to study so singular a power, but she evinced so much uneasiness at the operation, that it was impossible to test it.

* L'opinion Heine du Monde. Union Medicale, 2 Aout, 1851. † Souvenirs d'une Aveugle nee, recueilles et ecrits par elle-mome; publies par M. Dufau, Directeur des Aveuglea, p. 45, Paris, 1851.

Much more might be said on presentiments, but we will not enter into any ample details on the subject. Cold and calm minds reject, but sensitive natures accept them. In the greater number of cases, they are not realized; in such presentiments as are justified by the events which follow, they are but a reminiscence, or a simple coincidence; all this we readily admit. It is no less true, however, that an unexpected occurrence, a strong preoccupation, a lively uneasiness, a sudden change of habit, or any kind of fear, arouse instantly in the mind presentiments which it would often be wrong to reject with systematic incredulity.

This explanation does not seem to us inconsistent with sound sense, and in order to give to skepticism the largest possible range, we will quote a letter, inserted in the Mercure Galant, of January, 1690: -