CHAPTER XX.

O. THE USE OF FICTITIOUS DREAMS IN LITERATURE.

THAT dreams, which were considered in their nature as so important, should be imitated in fictitious representations by ancient and modern writers, was consistent with the general objects of literature, which might be expected to avail itself of the strongest and most popular impressions. Divine dreams, which actually were imparted to God's servants, formed a basis of conviction on this subject, handed down by tradition, and enlarged by superstitious additions: the idea of an intercourse with beings of the spiritual world, and with objects of fear or affection, though departed from life, was natural to the human mind, and became

the foundation of much religious apprehension among the heathens. Those therefore who sought, either to amuse the fancy, or to instruct the judgment, naturally employed the agreeable fictions, which they knew were best calculated to engage the imagination. Hence divine dreams became the constant appendages of the heathen mythology, and accounts, real or fictitious, of communicatious in vision, were interwoven in every production.

Information which was superior to the vulgar philosophy of the time, modestly intimated its discoveries as suggestions imparted by revelation to the mind, and conjectures concerning the interests and future dispensations of the invisible world were delivered with striking impression as divine communications. If a warning was to be conveyed, what so affecting as the exhortation of a departed friend! If advice was to be given, what so persuasive as the voice of a revered character, which had long carried great weight!

Such machinery was particularly calculated for works of imagination, and the poems of antiquity, as well as those of modern times; were frequently decorated with its

ments.

It is perhaps doubtful, whether the sublime vision described in the fourth chapter of the Book of Job, and which has been cited in a former part of this work, is to be regarded as a real scene imparted to the mind of this righteous man, or as merely a vehicle for the religious instruction which is communicated in its awful description.

A very early example of a dream designed · to enliven poetry, is furnished in the Iliad of Homer, which was possibly introduced, not merely as ornamental, but with some view of exposing the danger of listening to ambiguous suggestions in sleep. It represents Agamemnon as deluded by a promise of victory, if he should lead out all the Grecians to battle, and

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 phi losophy. 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.