Apparitions; Dreams; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Parapsychology -- Early works to 1900
Sabellus, of the dream of Accia, the mother of Augustus.
The splendid impostures, as I confess them, of Mahomet, were ushered in
by a dream of Cadiga, that the sun entered her house, and that his beams
illumined every building in Mecca.
In later days, the mother of Joan of Arc dreamed that she brought forth
a thunderbolt; and Arlotte, the mother of the Conqueror, that her
intestines covered the whole land of Normandy.
But I waive a host of ancient dreams, as those of Astyages, the last
king of Media; Ertercules, and Antigonus, and Simonides, and others, for
I study to be brief, and pass to the professors of more modern belief.
Of Pascal Paoli, Boswell, in his account of Corsica, thus writes:
“Having asked him one day, when some of his nobles were present, whether
a mind so active as his was employed even in sleep, and if he used to
dream much; Signor Casa Bianca said, with an air and tone which implied
something of importance, ‘Si, si sogna,’ Yes, he dreams. And upon my
asking him to explain his meaning, he told me that the general had often
seen in his dreams what afterwards came to pass. Paoli confirmed this by
several instances. Said he, ‘I can give you no clear explanation of
it,—I only tell you facts. Sometimes I have been mistaken, but in
general these visions have proved true. I cannot say what may be the
agency of invisible spirits; they certainly must know more than we do;
and there is nothing absurd in supposing that God should permit them to
communicate their knowledge to us.’”
In Walton’s life of Sir Henry Wotton, we read that his kinsmen, Nicholas
and Thomas Wotton (whose family, by the by, were celebrated for their
dreamings) had foretold their death most accurately.
In the beginning of the 18th century, a person in the west of England
dreamed that his friend was on a journey with two men, whose persons
were strongly pictured in his dream, and that he was robbed and murdered
by these companions. It chanced that in a short time he was about to
journey with two men, the _very prototypes_ of his friend’s dream. His
earnest caution against this expedition so planned was slighted, and, on
the spot marked in the dream, was this traveller robbed and murdered,
and by the vivid description of the dreamer, the two men were identified
and executed.
In other cases, the dream has been the means of retribution; for
instance, by the discovery of a murderer. In “Baker’s Chronicle” we read
of the conviction of Anne Waters, for the murder of her husband, through
the circumstantial dream of a friend.
I believe the fate of Corder was decided by a dream; and I may add, that
Archbishop Laud dreamed himself that in his greatest pomp he should sink
down to h—ll.
There is a chain of impressive visions, prophetic of the death of
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, as if some little spirit were flitting to
and fro on a special mission from the realm of shadows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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