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CHAP. XXXIX.
Of Interpretation of Dreams.
HEre we may usher in the Interpretation of Dreams call'd Onirocritica, whose Interpreters are properly call'd Conjecturers: according to that Verse in Euri∣pides;
He that Conjectures least amiss,
Of all, the best of Prophets is.
To this Delusion, not a few great Philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, Aristo∣tle, and his follower Themistius, Sinesius also the Pla∣tonick, so far building upon Examples of Dreams, which
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some accident hath made to be true, that thence they endeavour to perswade Men, that there are no Dreams but what are real. For say they, as the Celestial In∣fluences produce divers Forms in Corporeal Matter, so out of certain Influences predominating over the power of the Fancy, the impression of Visions is made, being Consentaneous, through the disposition of the Heavens, to the Effect which is to be produc'd; more especi∣ally in Dreams, because the mind being then at liber∣ty from all corporeal Cares and Exercises, more freely receives the Divine Influences: therefore it happens, that many things are reveal'd in Dreams to them that are asleep, which are conceal'd from them that wake. With these reasons they pretend to beget a good Opi∣nion of the Truth of Dreams. But as to the Causes of Dreams both External and Internal they do not all agree in one judgment. For the Platonicks reckon them among the specifick and concrete Notions of the Soul. Avicen makes the Cause of Dreams to be an Vlti∣mate Intelligence moving the Moon in the middle of that Light with which the Fancies of men are Illuminate while they sleep. Aristotle refers the Cause thereof to Common Sence, but plac'd in the Fancy. Averroes places the Cause in the Imagination. Democritus ascribes it to little Images or Representatives, separated from the things themselves. Albertus, to the Superior In∣fluences, which continually flow from the Skie through many Specifick Mediums. The Physicians impute the Cause thereof to Vapours and Humours; others to the affections and cares predominant in persons when awake. Others joyn the powers of the Soul, Celesti∣al Influences and Images together, all making but one Cause. Arthemidorus and Daldianus have writ∣ten of the Interpretation of Dreams: and certain Books go about under Abrahams Name, whom Philo in his Book of the Gyants and of Civil Life, asserts to have
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been the first Practiser thereof. Other Treatises there are falsified under the Names of David and Solomon, wherein are to be read nothing but meer Dreams concerning Dreams. But Marcus Cicero in his Book of Divination, hath given sufficient Reasons against the vanity and folly of those that give Credit to Dreams, which I purposely here omit.
Of Interpretation of Dreams.
HEre we may usher in the Interpretation of Dreams call'd Onirocritica, whose Interpreters are properly call'd Conjecturers: according to that Verse in Euri∣pides;
He that Conjectures least amiss,
Of all, the best of Prophets is.
To this Delusion, not a few great Philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, Aristo∣tle, and his follower Themistius, Sinesius also the Pla∣tonick, so far building upon Examples of Dreams, which
Page 106
some accident hath made to be true, that thence they endeavour to perswade Men, that there are no Dreams but what are real. For say they, as the Celestial In∣fluences produce divers Forms in Corporeal Matter, so out of certain Influences predominating over the power of the Fancy, the impression of Visions is made, being Consentaneous, through the disposition of the Heavens, to the Effect which is to be produc'd; more especi∣ally in Dreams, because the mind being then at liber∣ty from all corporeal Cares and Exercises, more freely receives the Divine Influences: therefore it happens, that many things are reveal'd in Dreams to them that are asleep, which are conceal'd from them that wake. With these reasons they pretend to beget a good Opi∣nion of the Truth of Dreams. But as to the Causes of Dreams both External and Internal they do not all agree in one judgment. For the Platonicks reckon them among the specifick and concrete Notions of the Soul. Avicen makes the Cause of Dreams to be an Vlti∣mate Intelligence moving the Moon in the middle of that Light with which the Fancies of men are Illuminate while they sleep. Aristotle refers the Cause thereof to Common Sence, but plac'd in the Fancy. Averroes places the Cause in the Imagination. Democritus ascribes it to little Images or Representatives, separated from the things themselves. Albertus, to the Superior In∣fluences, which continually flow from the Skie through many Specifick Mediums. The Physicians impute the Cause thereof to Vapours and Humours; others to the affections and cares predominant in persons when awake. Others joyn the powers of the Soul, Celesti∣al Influences and Images together, all making but one Cause. Arthemidorus and Daldianus have writ∣ten of the Interpretation of Dreams: and certain Books go about under Abrahams Name, whom Philo in his Book of the Gyants and of Civil Life, asserts to have
Page 107
been the first Practiser thereof. Other Treatises there are falsified under the Names of David and Solomon, wherein are to be read nothing but meer Dreams concerning Dreams. But Marcus Cicero in his Book of Divination, hath given sufficient Reasons against the vanity and folly of those that give Credit to Dreams, which I purposely here omit.