deity of Thebes appeared to him in a dream, and ordered him to put to death all the priests of Egypt, very wisely judged that the gods were displeased at his being on the throne, since they advised him to commit an action so contrary to their ordinary will, and therefore retired into Æthiopia *. Herod. L. ii. C. 139. CHAPTER XVIII. ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE BODY ON THE MIND IN SLEEP. "The heavy body loaded by excess ALTHOUGH it has appeared in the preceding chapters that dreams are to be regarded as the creation of the mind, it has been admitted that the feelings of the body often interfere in suggesting sensations which affect the character of our thoughts, and are productive of reflections correspondent to the impressions excited. Much of the composure and satisfaction of our dreams was attributed by the ancients to the sobriety of our bodies when committed to sleep, and no dreams that could be subservient to divination were supposed to arise from the fumes of indigestion. Socrates is represented by Plato to have remarked, that when the intelligent spirit of the mind languishes in a profound sleep, and the fiercer and more sensual affections intoxicated, as it were, by immoderate food exult in ascendancy; the ideas that present themselves are devoid of reason, and full of incestuous and evil fancies; but when we take rest after wholesome and moderate food, that part of the mind in which there is reason and judgment being erect and capacious of good thoughts, and the body being neither distressed by want, nor loaded by satiety, the mind shines forth fresh and lively, and tranquil, and sure dreams arise *. On similar consideration dreams which obtain towards the morning, as not likely to be the suggestions of heavy sensations, were regarded as most clear and prophetic. Cicero de Divin In a composed state of the body there is certainly a more even tenor in our dreams, which resemble the calm reflections of our waking thoughts in tranquillity; the same scenes are renewed, and the same particulars recur. Unusual dreams argue often not only a disturbed state of mind, but a body gross and abounding with humour; and hence it is that physicians, as did particularly Hippocrates, with some degree of truth deduce conclusions concerning the temperament of our body from the nature and cast of our dreams. It is notorious that persons drunk, or in fevers, contemplate horrid spectres in their sleep; those who are oppressed with bilious melancholy behold triste and cadaverous figures; those whose constitution is choleric dream of fire and slaughter; those who are phlegmatic, of water, and those who are sanguine, of merriment. Levinus Lemnius was, however, perhaps, too fanciful when he affirmed, that to dream of wallowing in filth and mud argued fetid and putrid humours; but to dream of odoriferous and fragrant flowers proved that pure and wholesome juices predominated*. Such theories must not be too much depended upon, since it is certain that our imagination, even in its most sober and confined exertions, frames every variety of circumstance, and wanders through every change of scene. "Fantastic Morpheus! Ten thousand mimic fancies fleet around him, We may believe the account of Apuleius, who tells us, that when he retired somewhat intoxicated, the night produced grievous and fierce images; without, in general, considering * De Occult. Nat. Mirac. L. ii. C. S. + Rowe's Ulysses. Plut. Sympos. L. viii. Quest. 10. |