Always and everywhere Superstition has dallied with Dream. The notion that dreams are sometimes prophetic is still so widely diffused and so often made the theme for gossip and material for fiction that there are few, even among the educated, who can wholly divest themselves of the influence of a startling dream. Neither evidence nor argument has been adduced to support this claim of the sleeping mind to prophetic power. There are no natural means by which _new_ impressions can be conveyed to the mind in sleep, and we have already seen that in this condition the mind is less, not more, capable of reasoning out the probabilities of the future. It will be said, perhaps, that prophecy is not an act of reason but a gift of inspiration; that the prophet only speaks—his are not the thoughts uttered. But in what manner is this gift made more easy by sleep? It _should_ be more active in the waking state. The prophetic dream is either a creation of the sleeping mind or it is brought into the sleeping mind by a miracle. It is highly improbable that the mind should have superior wisdom when in its most imperfect condition. It is still more improbable that a miracle should be wrought for such a purpose. Moreover, the information alleged to be imparted thus is always of something _to come_, while there is no instance of a revelation of things that have been done in the past and therefore capable of being tested. A gift to tell what _has been_ would surely be more easy than a gift to tell what is _to be_. It is strange and suspicious that none are seers of _the past_.