have appeared to the man at
midnight--there is therefore the greatest probability that the man was
asleep; and the dream affrighting him, made a strong impression, and was
likely to be repeated.

History furnishes us with numerous instances of a forecast having been
communicated through the medium of dreams, some of which are so
extraordinary as almost to shake our belief that the hand of Providence
is not sometimes evident through their instrumentality. Cicero, in his
first book on Divination, tells us, that Heraclides, a clever man, and
who had been a disciple of Plato, writes that the mother of Phalaris saw
in a dream the statues of the gods which she had consecrated in the
house of her son; and among other things, it appeared to her, that from
a cup which Mercury held in his hand, he had spilled some blood from it,
and that the blood had scarcely touched the ground, than rising up in
large bubbles it filled the whole house. This dream of the mother was
afterwards but too truly verified in the cruelty of the son. Cyrus
dreamt that seeing the sun at his feet, he made three different
unsuccessful attempts to lay his hand upon it, at each of which it
evaded him. The Persian Magi who interpreted this dream told him that
these three attempts to seize the sun signified that he would reign
thirty years. This prediction was verified: he died at the age of
seventy, having begun to reign when he was forty years old.

"There is doubtless," says Cicero, "something even among barbarians
which marks that they possess the gift of presentiment and divination."
The Indian Calanus mounting the flaming faggot on which he was about to
be burnt, exclaimed "O what a fine exit from life, when my body, like
that of Hercules, shall be consumed by the fire, my spirit will freely
enjoy the light." And Alexander having asked if he had anything to say,
he replied, "Yes, I shall soon see you," which happened as he foretold,
Alexander having died a few days afterwards at Babylon. Xenophon, an
ardent disciple of Socrates, relates that in the war which he made in
favour of young Cyrus, he had some dreams which were followed by the
most miraculous events. Shall we say that Xenophon does not speak truth,
or is too extravagant? What! so great a personage, and so divine a
spirit as Aristotle, can he be deceived? Or does he wish to deceive
others, when he tells us of Eudemus of Cyprus, one of his friends,
wishing to go into Macedonia, passed by Pheres,