and Hotter *, who flourished on the same soil, There is a great similarity in the measures adopted by fanatical men in every age, and we are, therefore, not surprised to find Wesley maintaining, that his followers experienced remission of sins and conversions in their dreams. "What I have to say," says this canting enthusiast, "touching visions or dreams, is this: I know several persons in whom this great change was wrought in a dream, as during a strong representation to the eye of the mind of Christ, either on the cross, or in history, this is the fact." He afterwards, however, admits, that they are of a doubtful and disputable nature, and might be from God, or might not t. Wesley's Journal from Aug. 12, 1738, to Nov. 1, 1739, p. 49, and Warburton's Doctrine of Grace, p. 171, C. 12. + Ibid. p. 60, 61.. The dreams of Avarice have seldom been productive of much good. A rich man in Wales, having dreamed three nights successively, that there was a chain of gold hidden under the head-stone of a well, named St. Barnard's Well, went to the place, and putting his hand into the hole, it was bitten by an adder*: and, not many years since, as the interesting recluses of Llangollen would testify; a deluded cobler was digging, in consequence of a dream, among the ruins of the castle of Dinas-Brune, which overhangs the vale, in search of gold. : The pride of controversy has produced its dreams Bradwarden, in his once-famous book De Causâ Dei, tells us of a dream that he had in the night, when writing in confutation of Pelagius. In this dream he fancied, that he was caught into the air, and that Pelagius took hold of and cast him down head * Holinshed, vol. ii. Ch. 42. long; but that, after much struggling, he himself had prevailed, and cast down Pelagius, so that he broke his neck; whereby the controversialist was comforted and encouraged to finish his work *. Objects of taste and antiquarian research have been promoted, it should seem, by dreams. Mons. Pierre, Counsellor of Parliament of Provence, going from Montpelier to Nismes with James Rancis, is said to have collected from his companion's dreams where he might purchase a Julius Cæsar in gold for four crowns. The author cannot explain by what prophetic sagacity Lady Seymour dreamed, when a maiden, that she found a nest with nine finches in it, and which is said to have been verified when she married the earl of Win Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. ii. Ch. 10. p. 2 253, chelsea, whose name was Finch, and by whom she had nine children. A dream of somewhat similar cast is related to have happened to the mother of the celebrated Sir Thomas More, which I shall give without comment, in the words of Sir Thomas More, who was grandson to the chancellor, and a rigid adherent of the Romish church: "Dr. Clement," says he, quoting seemingly the account from Stapleton, " reporteth from Sir Thomas his own mouth, a vision which she had the next night after her marriage, in which she saw in her sleep, as it were engraven in her wedding ring, the number and favour of all her children she was to have, whereof the face of one was so dark and obscure, that she could not well discern it; and indeed afterwards she suffered of one of her children an untimely delivery; but the face of one of her other she beheld shining most gloriously, whereof no doubt Sir Thomas his fame and sanctity was foreshewed and presignified *. Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 55. There are people I know who have so great a regard to every fancy of their own, that they can believe their very dreams. Shaftesbury's Moralist. THE 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 but 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 |