Some writers have pushed the notion of complexional dreams to a great extent, maintaining that the mind is so tinctured with the colouring of the predominating sentiments and passions, that the choleric uniformly dream of quarrelling, and the melancholy of gloomy objects, while the sanguine aud cheerful exhibit the vivacity of their thoughts in the most agreeable dreams.

CHAPTER XIX.

There are whose shrewd conjectures can foreshew,
In various shades, our happiness or woe.
But dreams avaunt, precarious visions fly
To polar regions and a changing sky;

Where restless storms th' unsteady clouds constrain
To forms fantastic, transitory, vain.

Sunt et qui fletus, &c.

Auson.

FROM the nature of dreams, as they have been described in the foregoing chapters, it abundantly appears, that they have no claim to be regarded as having any necessary connexion with future events. In their images they are often confined, and in their issue precarious. Inasmuch as they are representations of life :

the "resemblances of one thing to another*:" they exhibit scenes, from the contemplation of which instruction may be derived; but they cannot be considered as more than casually predictive, or be understood to be subservient to divination. They may enable us to judge of the predominant features and undisguised propensities of the mind, but ought not to excite superstitious fears and conceits. The futility of dreams, with reference to futurity, is evident from the uncertainty of their import, and the variety of construction of which they have been judged capable. The great Bacon justly observes, that the interpretation of natural dreams does not stand upon a good foundation; and nothing can be more capricious and vain, than

* Dream, Droom, Dutch. The word is derived by Casaubon, with more ingenuity than truth, from Apãμa TH B, The drama of life. Junius has dwelt on the conceit, quoting the Greek epigram σκηνη πας ο βιος, δίc.

"Life is a scene, a sport, depose your care,
Or careless laugh, and learn your griefs to bear."

that the principles upon which the notable diviners of modern, as well as of ancient times, have practised their vagabond art; foretelling often, like the prophecy of Nostradamus, mentioned in Quevedo's Visions,

"When the married shall marry,
Then the jealous shall be sorry;
And though fools will be talking,
To keep their tongues walking,
No man runs well, I find,

But with his elbows behind."

Herodotus informs us, that the Egyptians were accustomed to note any prodigy, and to observe the events which ensued, and when any similar circumstance occurred, to expect a similar result*.

From the general character of the dreams indeed, which have been produced in the foregoing chapters, it is evident, as Solomon remarked," that in the multitude of dreams there

Lib. ii. C. 82.

are divers vanities." incidences have appeared to prevail between some of those which have been reported and historical events, it is conceived, that they may in general be accounted for on the grounds which have been mentioned; or that they may be referred to the casual concurrences that might naturally happen between the fictions of the imagination and the incidents of manycoloured life. Men, as Lord Bacon has observed, mark when they hit, and not when they miss*. Whatever the ancients have related, says Fontenelle †, whether good or bad, was liable to be repeated; and what they themselves could not prove by sufficient reason, are at present received on their authority. Even among the ancients, however, we find the most philosophical and reflecting minds rejecting dreams

If some occasional co

* Si sæpe jactaveris quandoque Venerem jacies-If the dice be often thrown, they must sometimes produce doublets.

t Ilistoire des Oracles.