The name given to the interpreters of dreams, or those who judge of events from the circumstances of dreams, was _Oneirocritics_. There is not much confidence to be placed in those Greek books called Oneirocritics; they are replete with superstition of the times. Rigault has given us a collection of the Greek and Latin works of this kind; one of which is attributed to _Astrampsichus_; another to Nicephorus, the patriarch of Constantinople; to which are added the treatises of Artimedorus and Achmet. But the books themselves are little else than reveries or waking dreams, to explain and account for sleeping ones. The secret of _Oneirocritism_, according to all these authors, consists in the relations supposed to exist between the dream and the thing signified; but they are far from keeping to the relations of agreement and similitudes; and frequently they have recourse to others of dissimilitude and contrariety. ONOMANCY, or ONOMAMANCY[35], Is the art of divining the good or bad fortune which will befall a man from the letters of his name. This mode of divination was a very popular and reputable practice among the ancients. The Pythagoreans taught that the minds, actions, and successes of mankind, were according to their fate, genius, and name; and Plato himself inclines somewhat to the same opinion.—Ausonius to Probus expresses it in the following manner:— Qualem creavit moribus, Jussit vocari NOMINE Mundi supremus arbiter. In this manner he sports with tippling Meroe, as if her name told she would drink pure wine without water; or as he calls it, _merum mereim_. Thus Hippolytus was observed to be torn to pieces by his own coach horses, as his name imported; and thus Agamemnon signified that he should linger long before Troy; Priam, that he should be redeemed out of bondage in his childhood. To this also may be referred that of Claudius Rutilius:— Nominibus certis credam decurrere mores? Moribus aut Potius nomina certa dari? It is a frequent and no less just observation in history, that the greatest Empires and States have been founded and destroyed by men of the same name. Thus, for instance, Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, began the Persian monarchy; and Cyrus, the son of Darius, ruined it; Darius, son of Hystaspes, restored it; and, again, Darius, son of Asamis, utterly overthrew it. Phillip, son of Amyntas, exceedingly enlarged the kingdom of Macedonia; and Phillip, son of Antigonus, wholly lost it. Augustus was the first Emperor of Rome; Augustulus the last. Constantine first settled the empire of Constantinople, and Constantine lost it wholly to the Turks. There is a similar observation that some names are constantly unfortunate to princes: _e. g._ Caius, among the Romans; John, in France, England and Scotland; and Henry, in France.