fell ill of a feverish disorder, and sent for a physician, who pronounced the attack dangerous, ordered the medicines suitable for a pleurisy, and recommended immediate and copious venesection. Having a strong aversion to bleeding, he put off that operation for a day longer, and in the course of the night dreamt that he was in a place where palm trees grew, and that a woman in a romantic habit handed some dates to him. Though he found himself much worse in the morning, he sent for dates, and eating plentifully of them, from the moment they entered his stomach he thought himself better, and without any other medicine or treatment, speedily recovered.

The two subjoined passages from Josephus ("Antiquities of the Jews"), are remarkable illustrations of dreams or visions. Both are quoted by M. De Sauley, in his "Journey round the Dead Sea, and in the Bible Lands."

1. Alexander the Great having taken Tyre and Gaza, marched on Jerusalem. The high priest, Jaddus, on hearing this terrible news, ordered public prayers to be offered up, to avert the ruin impending on the city of David. During the night he was directed in a dream to banish all fear, to open the gates, and to proceed to meet Alexander with all the pomp of religious ceremony. Taking courage, the pontiff hastened to obey what he believed to be the command of God, and marshalling his retinue in order, issued from the city. The Phoenicians and Chaldeans who formed a portion of the Macedonian army were already rejoicing in anticipations of sack and massacre. But Alexander, perceiving from a distance this multitude of men in white robes, headed by their priests in linen tunics, and by the high priest in a violet gown embroidered with gold, and wearing on his head the pontifical tiara, ornamented with the golden plate, upon which was engraved the name of Jehovah,-Alexander halted his army, advanced alone to meet the procession, adored the name of the Most High, and was the first to bend

the knee before the pontiff. Then all the Jews surrounded Alexander, and shouted forth his praise with one voice; and the kings and generals who followed him thought that he was stricken with madness when they saw him accept this homage with a satisfied and courteous demeanour. Parmenio was the only one who ventured to question his master, and to ask him how he could have thought of bowing himself down before the high priest of the Jews. Alexander answered that he had not adored the man, but the God whose minister he was; that he recognised in him a mysterious being who had appeared to him in a dream at Dios, in Macedonia, when he was meditating his intended campaign, and promised him the conquest of all Asia, with the overthrow of the empire of Darius; and that he now no longer doubted his complete success. Taking the pontiff by the hand, Alexander walked towards Jerusalem, went to the Temple, and offered there a sacrifice according to the Judaic rites. The book of Daniel was shown to him, wherein the prophet declared that a Greek should destroy the empire of Darius, and this passage he naturally enough applied to himself. The next day Alexander convoked the high priest and the people, and asked them what boon they wished to obtain from him. Jaddus replied that they only desired permission to preserve the customs of their fathers, and to be exempt from tribute every seventh year. Both these demands were granted. Shortly afterwards Alexander went away from Jerusalem, taking along with him a number of Jews who had enlisted in his army, to march against the Persians.

"2. Manahem, of the tribe of the Essenians, was reputed above all others for the holiness of his life, and was enabled to foresee the future, either in dreams or by some other divine intuition. Meeting Herod one day, when a child, as he was going to school, he predicted to him that he would become king of the Jews. Herod, thinking that the

successors.

Essenian did not know, or was mocking him, replied that he was of humble extraction. But Manahem, smiling, struck him with his hand and said-Thou shalt reign. Never forget the blows which Manahem has given thee on this day, so that thou mayst remember that fortune is but fickle. It shall be well for thee if thou lovest justice, religion towards God, and clemency to men; unfortunately I, who know everything, know that such will not be thy behaviour; thou shalt be prosperous, thou shalt acquire enduring renown, but thou wilt forget both religion and justice, and at the end of thy life God will punish thee! At that time Herod paid no attention to this prophecy, but when fortune had made him a king he sent for Manahem and asked him how long his reign would last. The Essenian made no answer, and Herod repeated his question-Shall I reign ten years? Thou shalt reign twenty, nay, thirty years; but I cannot name the period of thy existence.' Herod was satisfied with this answer, shook Manahem by the hand, and allowed him to depart. From that day the monarch felt a great veneration for the Essenian."

In Isaac Walton's "Life of Sir Henry Wotton" we find the following curious narrative :-"In the year of our redemption 1553, Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, being then Queen Mary's Ambassador in France, dreamed that his nephew, Thomas Wotton, was inclined to be a party in such a project that if he was not suddenly prevented, would turn to the loss of his life and ruin of his family. The night following, the same dream visited him again, and knowing that it had no connexion with his waking thoughts, and none with the desires of his heart, he began to give it his serious attention, and resolved to adopt a prudent remedy, by way of precaution, which might lead to no inconvenience to any concerned. With this view he wrote to the Queen, and besought her, with all duty, that she would cause his nephew, Thomas Wotton, to be sent for out of Kent, and that the lords of her council might interrogate him on some such feigned questions as shall give a colour for his commitment to a favourable prison,

declaring that he would acquaint Her Majesty with the true reason of his request when he should next be so happy as to see and speak with her. It was done as the dean desired, and Mr. Wotton was sent to prison. At this time a marriage was concluded between Queen Mary and King Philip of Spain, which many not only declared against but raised forces to oppose. Of this number, Sir Thomas Wyat, of Boxley Abbey, in Kent, betwixt whose family and that of the Wottons there had been an ancient and close friendship, was the principal actor. He, having persuaded many of the nobility and gentry, especially of his own county, to side with him, and being defeated and taken prisoner, was arraigned, condemned, and lost his life. So did the Duke of Suffolk, and divers others, especially many of the gentry of Kent, who were then in several places executed as Wyat's confederates; and in this number, in all probility, would Mr. Wotton have been included if he had not been under durance; for, though he was not ignorant that another man's treason is made his own by concealing it, yet he confessed to his uncle, when he returned to England, and came to visit him in prison, that he had more than an intimation of Wyat's intentions, and thought he should not have continued innocent in the eye of the law, had not his provident relative so happily dreamed him into a prison.”

Dreaming seems to have been hereditary in the family, for this same Thomas Wotton also, a little before his death, dreamt that the university treasury was robbed by townsmen and poor scholars, and that the number of depredators was five. Having that same day to write to his son Henry, at Oxford, he thought it was worth so much pains by a postscript in his letter to make a slight inquiry in the matter. The letter, written from Kent, came to his son the very morning after the night on which the robbery was committed; and when the city and university were both joining in a hue and cry after the thieves, then did Henry Wotton show his father's letter, and by it such light was thrown on the work of darkness that the five clerks of Saint Nicholas were presently discovered and apprehended, without

putting the university to so much as the casting of a figure.

Dr. Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter, who obtained the name of the Christian Seneca, in his treatise called "The Mystery of Godliness," states the following fact from his own observation. A marvellous cure was wrought at St. Maderne's, in Cornwall, upon a poor cripple, whereof, besides the attestation of many hundreds of the neighbours, I took a strict and impartial examination in my last visitation. This man, for sixteen years together, was obliged to walk upon his hands, by reason the sinews of his legs were so contracted; and upon being admonished more than once in his dreams to wash in the well there, was suddenly so restored that I saw him able to walk and get his own sustenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion. The name of this cripple was John Trelille."

Cælius Rhodius, who amongst other peculiarities had the gift of seeing in the dark, says: "When I was twentytwo years of age, being busied with Plato, I was reading that place in his seventh book concerning such as grow up beyond the usual proportion assigned by nature, and that they are called by the Greeks iктpáπελí. This word was some trouble to me. I knew I had read something concerning it, but could neither recall to my memory the author from whom nor the book wherein. Fearing the censure of unskilfulness, I laid myself down to rest, the best remedy for a perplexed mind; where, while my thoughts were still employing themselves about it, methought I remembered the book, yea, the page, and place of the page, wherein that was written I sought for. When I awaked, I recalled what was offered to me in my sleep, but valued it all as a mere illusion; yet still haunted with the apprehension of being deemed an ignoramus, that I might leave nothing unattempted, I caught up the book of which I had dreamed, and there found it accordingly." The dream of St. Bernard's mother was even more extraordinary. She fancied that she carried within her a little white and barking dog. Communicating this to a religious friend, he, as by a spirit of prophecy, replied, "Thou shalt be the mother of an excellent dog indeed; he shall be the keeper of God's house, and shall

incessantly bark against the adversaries of it; for he shall be a famous preacher, and shall cure many by the means of his medicinal tongue."

Petrarch had a friend so desperately ill that he looked upon him as past recovery. Falling into a slumber, he seemed to see the sick man stand before him, and to tell him he could stay no longer now as there was one at the door who would interrupt their discourse, to whom he desired he would recommend his case, and that if he would undertake it, he should be restored. Presently after a physician entered who came from the identical patient, and had given him over, which intelligence was the object of his visit. Petrarch, with tears, recounted to him his dream, and earnestly importuned him to return and try his skill once more. He did so, and ere long the sick man was restored to his wonted health.

These two last instances rest on the authority of Fulgosus, but have been repeated by several more recent writers of repute. This same Fulgosus relates that Richard the Second, accompanying Henry, Duke of Lancaster, from Flint Castle to Chester, after his surrender, a greyhound belonging to the king was loosed to accompany them. On this occasion he neglected his master and leaped upon the duke, fawning and caressing him. The duke asked the king what the dog meant or intended? "It is an ill and unhappy omen to me," said the king, "but a fortunate one to you; he acknowledges you to be king, and that you shall reign in my stead." This he said with a presaging mind upon a light occasion, which yet in short time was verified accordingly.

Dr. Heylin, in his Life of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, mentions the following as presages of his fall and death. On Friday night, December 27th, 1639, such a violent tempest arose that many of the boats drawn to land at Lambeth, were dashed one against another, and broken to pieces. The shafts of two chimneys were blown down upon the roof of his Grace's chamber, and beat the lead and rafters upon his bed, on which he must needs have perished, if the roughness of the weather had not forced him to remain at Whitehall. The same night at Croydon, a country retiring place belonging to

the archbishop, one of the pinnacles fell from the steeple and beat down the lead and roof of the church about twenty feet square. On the same night, too, one of the pinnacles upon the belfry dome of the cathedral of Canterbury, which carried a vane with Archbishop Laud's arms upon it, was violently struck down, but borne to a considerable distance from the steeple, and fell upon the roof of the cloister, under which the arms of the archiepiscopal see itself were engraven in stone; which arms, being broken to pieces by the former, gave occasion to one who was no friend to Laud to collect this inference, "That the arms of the present archbishop breaking down the arms of the see, not only portended his own fall, but the ruin of the metropolitan dignity itself." Of these incidents his Grace took less notice than he did of what happened on St. Simon and Jude's eve, not above a week before the opening of the parliament which had determined on his destruction. On that day, going to his upper study to seek some manuscripts to be sent to Oxford, he found his portrait fallen to the floor, and lying flat upon its face, the string being broken which suspended it from the wall. This immediately fell upon his spirits as an omen of the evil impending over him, and occasioned him to recall a former misfortune which chanced on the 19th of September, 1633, the day of his translation to the see of Canterbury, when the ferry-boat transporting his coach and horses, with many of his servants in it, sank to the bottom of the Thames.

In the year 1707, John Needs, a Winchester scholar (see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 44), foretold the death of Mr. Carman, chaplain to the college, of Dr. Mew, Bishop of Winchester, and of himself, within that year, to several of his schoolfellows, amongst others to George Lavington. This exposed him to much raillery, and he was ludicrously stiled Prophet Needs. Mr. Carman died about the time he mentioned; for this event, however, he had little credit, it being said that the death of an old man might reasonably be expected within the time prefixed. Bishop Mew also died by a strange accident. He was subject to fainting fits, from which he

was soon recovered by smelling to spirits of hartshorn. Being seized by a fit while a gentleman was with him, and perceiving its approach, he pointed eagerly to a phial in the window. The visitor took it, and in his over anxiety poured the contents down the bishop's throat, which instantly suffocated him. As the time approached which Needs had predicted for his own dissolution, of which he named the day and the hour, he sickened, apparently declined, and kept his chamber, where he was frequently visited and prayed with, by Mr. Fletcher, second master of the school, whose son became Bishop of Kildare. He reasoned and argued with the youth, but in vain; with great composure and self-possession he resolutely persisted in affirming that the event would verify his prediction. On the day he had fixed, the house clock being purposely put forward, struck the hour before the time. He saw through the deception, and told those that were with him that when the church clock struck he should expire. He did so. Mr. Fletcher left a memorandum in writing to the above purport; and Bishop Trimnel, about the year 1722, having heard this story at Winchester, wrote to New College, of which Mr. Lavington was then fellow, for further information. His answer was, that John Needs had indeed foretold that the Bishop of Winchester, Mew, and old Carman should die that year, but then they being very old men, he had predicted for two or three years before that they should die within that time. As to foretelling his own death I believe he was punctually right." Dr. Lavington gave the same account to his friends after he was Bishop of Exeter.

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Mr. Edward Rolle, writing to Joseph Spence, the collector of the Anecdotes," in 1747, on a subject somewhat similar to the above, says, "lly mother's story, which you desire to have related for Mrs. Spence's sake, is briefly this :-On the eve of last midsummer was twelve month, Susan Turner, too inquisitive about Futurity, watched near the church porch of the parish of Monkinton, to sce who might happen to go through the said porch into the church, which it seems was a certain token of their mortality the year

following. As our parish is but small, she wisely foretold but few deaths; and as predictions with probability on their side are most likely to be fulfilled, of the four persons she pretended to have seen, two were expiring at the time, and died that very night, and the two surviving, one of which was my mother, were by far the oldest people in the parish. However they are, I thank God, still both alive, and my mother, though much shocked when she heard of the prophecy, is at present very well and likely to live in spite of it. Indeed she hath now fairly outlived the date assigned, and I hope two such disappointments will be a discouragement to a practice which hath been known sometimes to give timorous people a great deal of real uneasiness.'

The profligate Lord Rochester in early youth was present in the great sea-fight between the Earl of Sandwich and Von Tromp, and in the same ship were Mr. Montague and another gentleman of quality. Montague seemed persuaded that he should fall in the action. The other was less positive, but entered into an engagement with Lord Rochester that if either of them was killed, he should appear and give the survivor notice of a future state, if there were any. Montague declined entering into the bond, but though with a strong presage of his approaching death, remained throughout the action in the place of greatest danger. The other gentleman signalized his courage in the most undaunted manner until near the end, when he fell into such a trembling that he could scarcely stand. Montague went to encourage him, and as they were closely locked in each others arms, a cannon ball carried off both. Lord Rochester long after, during the illness which led to his penitent conversion, told Bishop Barnet that the non-appearance of this gentleman, according to promise, was a snare to him during the rest of his life, tending to confirm him in unbelief and vicious courses. But when he mentioned this, he acknowledged that it was unreasonable in him to think that beings in another state were not under such laws and limits that they could not command their own movements; and that one who had so perverted the natural

principles of truth as he had, could not expect that a miracle should be wrought for his conviction.

He also told the bishop another presage of approaching death, which happened in the family of Lady Ware, his mother-in-law. The chaplain had dreamed that on a certain day he should die, but being by all the family laughed out of this intimation, he had almost forgotten it until the evening before at supper. There being thirteen at table, according to an old conceit, when this happened one of the party must soon die. A young lady present reminded him that he was the person; upon this the chaplain, recalling his dream, fell into some disorder, and Lady Ware reproving him for his superstition, he said he felt confident he should die before the next morning. Being in perfect health he was not much attended to. It was Saturday night, and he was to preach next day. He went to his chamber, sat up late, as it appeared by the burning of his candle, and had been preparing notes for his sermon, but was found dead in his bed the next morning.

Dryden, with a strong mind and clear understanding, yielded with many others of his own level to the weakness of indulging in judicial astrology, and used to calculate the nativity of his children. When his wife was on the point of confinement with his eldest son, Charles, he laid his watch on the table of his room, and begged one of the ladies then present, in the most solemn manner, to take an exact notice of the very minute the child was born, which she did, and acquainted him with it. About a week after, when Lady Elizabeth Dryden was pretty well recovered, he took occasion to tell her that he had been calculating the child's nativity, and observed with sorrow that he was born under an evil conjunction of the planets, which he explained technically, but of course she was unable to understand him. "If he lives to arrive at his eighth year," he said, "he will go near to die a violent death on his very birthday; but if he should escape, as I see but small hopes, he will, in the twenty-third year, be under the same evil direction, and if he should survive that also, the thirty-third or