In consequence of this recurrence of images in sleep, similar to those which engage our waking attention, it happens that the slumbers of men conscious of integrity are composed and peaceful, while those of persons who are harassed by evil and turbulent passions are perturbed and miserable. "Scarce can they close their eyes, they wildly start, And in the fear of vengeance feel the smart; Renew their rage, and their dark thoughts resume Their stormy passions and their guilty gloom*." Nothing can be more wretched than the sleep of those "That feel Those rods of scorpions, and those whips of steel A fiercer torment than a guilty mind, Which day and night doth dreadfully accuse, Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews t." Claud. in Rufin. L. ii. ↑ Dryden's Translat. of Juven. Sat. L. xiv. 248-255. This consideration is the more important if we reflect farther, that circumstances which have strongly interested and affected the mind, are apt frequently to return in dreams; and the same impressions are renewed in many persons almost every night; hence Shakespear makes Aufidius say to Coriolanus when burning with indignant emulation in consequence of the defeats which he had experienced from the Romans, "I have nightly since Dream'd of encounters 'twixt thyself and me, He then who would not sleep in the affliction of terrible dreams which shake the mind, should be careful to retire with composed sentiments and unruffled passions, and should do well to follow the example of Sir Thomas Brown, who tells us that in his solitary and *Coriolanus, Act iv. retired imagination, (Neque enim cum porticus, aut me lectulus accepit, desum mihi.) I remember I am not alone, and therefore forget not to contemplate Him and his attributes who is ever with me, especially those two mighty ones, his wisdom and eternity *. It may be well also to remember, that as a night of terror succeeds a day of wickedness, so the reflections of eternal suffering will necessarily follow a life of misconduct. It is related that Ptolemy enquired of one of the translators of the Septuagint, what would make one sleep in the night, and received for answer, that the best method was to have divine and celestial meditations, and to perform honest actions in the day †. If we adopt the notion countenanced by Baxter, who supposes dreams to be the sug * Religio Medici, Book i. Sect. 11. † Aristæus. gestions of immaterial beings, we must admit with the ancients that these beings are divided into two classes, since if the office of some appear to be like that of the guardian sylph, whom Pope represents with friendly intentions of warning his charge against danger, to have prolonged the balmy rest of Belinda, and to have "Summoned to her silent bed The morning dream that hover'd round her head." The malevolent employment of others must be like that of Satan, as The organs of the fancy, and with them forge Th' animal spirits that from pure blood arise, Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires Blown up with high conce its engendering pride *.” * Paradise Lost, B. iv. In consistency with this opinion God may be supposed to render dreams subservient to good purposes, and by his good angels who as represented "With gentle dreams have calmed Portending good, and all his spirits composed "God is also in sleep, and dreams advise, Whenever dreams have a bad tendency we may be persuaded that they are not the suggestion of good spirits, or that they are not to be literally followed. There is some instruction in the story of Sabaco, one of the pastoral kings of Egypt, who, when the tutelary * Paradise Lost, B. xii. 595. Ibid. B. xii. L. 611-613. ‡ Diodorus, L. ii. as cited by Montesquieu. |