as suffering a defeat in consequence of Achilles joining in the engagement.

The circumstances, as described by the poet, remind us of the particulars recorded in the twenty-second chapter of the First Book of Kings, in which Ahab appears to have been seduced by a lying spirit to destruction.

Historians and orators, likewise, were by no means insensible of the value conferred on their works by embellishments so interesting: they therefore invented similar relations, and it is probable, that many of the dreams which have been examined in this work, were no more genuine than the speeches ascribed to distinguished characters, being originally only. agreeable inventions contrived for rhetorical effect.

Instances of these may be found in the celebrated dream of the choice of Hercules, furnished in the Memorabilia of Xenophon, or

in that of Lucian, which was probably designed as a humourous imitation of it.

If, however, some dreams are so interwoven with historical accounts, that it is doubtful whether they are related as real or not, there are many which are evidently employed as ornamental modes of instruction. Such is the dream, for instance, which is described to have expressed the anger of the gods against Numenius, who had pried into the Eleusinian mysteries, and published the secrets of philosophy. This was said to have represented the Eleusinian goddesses meretriciously attired, and sporting before a public brothel; who, upon inquiry into the cause of such indecent conduct, informed Numenius, that they resented his having driven them from retirement, and exposed them to the common gaze of men *. It is evident, that this was only a reproof of the folly of exposing the mysteries

• Macrob. in Somnum Scipion. L. ii. C. 2.

of a licentious superstition to public animadversion; a measure very impolitic and injurious to the interests of those who lived by its support; and similar to the presumption, censured by Callimachus, of those who, with Actaan audacity, ventured to contemplate the undis guised charms of Minerva *.

One of the most beautiful fictions employed by ancient writers in prose is that of Cicero, written probably in imitation of one of Plato. In this, which is entitled the Dream of Scipio, the Roman orator + has conveyed the most sublime instruction concerning many points in natural philosophy and the immortality of the soul. And the tendency of the work was to encourage a patriotic affection for the country of a man's birth, and a contempt of human glory, upon principles which sometimes almost

approach to those which Christianity has consecrated.

Some writers, it is true, have conceived such fictions as discreditable to the gravity and truth of philosophical instruction; but the dream in question is vindicated in an elaborate commentary by Macrobius, who considers it as an engaging veil under which truth may be usefully presented to the mind,

We have already observed at sufficient length on those divine dreams, which were imparted in evidence of the authority and instruction of the evangelical dispensation, and have considered them as furnished exclusively in support of Revelation, and as having ceased with the other miraculous testimonies of Christianity.

The persuasion, however, of preternatural intelligence being communicated in dreams, has continued so forcibly to operate at all

times, that Christian writers, who have reported and invented dreams of pretended inspiration, have obtained more credit and success than they have merited; and however little claim to regard they may be thought to have when philosophically examined, they have at least been allowed so much authority in popular estimation, that they have at all times been employed, not only with a view to impose on credulity, but as ingenious fictions agreeable to common apprehension, framed for the expression of instruction in an allegorical manner.

Among those which are of earlier production, we may notice the Shepherd of Hermas, a moral vision of the second century, in which are represe ted the characters and circumstances of the Church at that time; and many other instances might be produced, if it were necessary, from works of later times, none of which, perhaps, are more ingenious and agreeable, than those which have been published in