PREFACE

TO THE SEVENTEENTH VOLUME.

OUR Volumes have been so many, and the public encouragement they have received has been so uniformly flattering, that what we have latterly offered to our Readers, in the way of PREFACE, has seldom amounted to more than a tender of our grateful acknowledgments for the favours they have shewn us. Upon a review of the past Volume, we are not conscious of having forfeited our claim to the public patronage; and we trust that the present will not manifest any departure from the principle and spirit which first recommended the work to notice, and from that splendour of embellishment, and superior elegance of typographical execution, which distinguish it from every periodical work of a similar description.

The memoir of Sir James Mackintosh will appear in the ensuing number.

MONTHLY MIRROR,

FOR

JANUARY, 1804.

EXTRAORDINARY DREAMS.

THOUGH it be true, that, in the multitude, or major part, of dreams there are diverse vanities, Eccles. v. 7; though it be likewise acknowledged, that whoso regardeth (ô ɛɛxv, he that leaneth, or dayeth great stress, upon) dreams in general, is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind, Eccles. xxxiv. 2; foras much as dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them; yet the same wise writer, from whom the two last passages are quoted, guards his remarks by the following caveat (v. 9.) Set not thy heart upon them (i. e. upon dreams), if they be not sent from the Most High in thy visitation. And we have it from an incomparably superior authority, that, in a dream, in a vision, when deep sleep falleth upon man, in slumberings upon the bed; then God openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instructions: Job xxxiii. 15, 16.

Examples of supernatural dreams occur so frequently in the sa cred volume, that no man can explode all dreams as vain, without exploding the Bible at the same time. God came to Abimelech, in a dream; Genesis xx. 3.-The angel of God spake to Jacob in a dream: Genesis xxxi. 11.-Very remarkable was Jacob's dream at Bethel: Gen. xxviii.-Joseph's two dreams were evidently pro phetic: Gen. xxxvii.-So were those of king Pharaoh : Gen. xli.→ And of the Jewish soldier: Josh. vii. 13.- When God took away the spirit of prophecy from Saul, it is said that the Lord answered him not by dreams: 1 Sam. xxxviii. 6.-At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon, in a dream, by night: 1 Kings iii. 5.-Nebuchadnezzar's predictive dreams were, undeniably, from God: Dan. ii. and iv.-As was Daniel's, concerning the four universal monarchies: Dan. vii.

Your old men shall dream dreams, is a promise made to Joel; and it began to have its accomplishment in Joseph, the espoused and nominal husband of the Virgin Mary. It was in a dream that the angel of the Lord appeared to this holy man, and forbade him to suspect the purity of his unsullied bride. In the same dream it was revealed to Joseph, that he should give to the Messiah the name of Jesus, because that blessed person was to save his people from

their sins, Matt. i.-A short time after, Joseph was warned, by an angel, in a dream, to flee with Jesus and Mary into Egypt: and, in the same manner, he received notice of Herod's death, and was commanded to return to Judea. Matt. ii.-Nor can it be doubted that the dream of Pontius Pilate's wife was from above: Matthew. xxvii.

With regard to the cause of dreams, one of the most able and most rational* philosophers whom the present age, or any nation has produced, demonstrates, absolutely demonstrates, that dreams, even all dreams whatever, proceed, and can proceed only, from the agency of unembodied spirits on the human mind. Strange at this theory may at first seem, the great author solidly proves his point, and solves (unanswerably, in my opinion) every objection that is, or that perhaps ever can be, alledged to the contrary. To him I refer the speculative reader; and shall conclude the present article, with several very observable, but very authentic, instances of extraordinary and significant dreams.

Alcibiades, a little before his assassination, dreamed †, that an event of that kind had taken place. The ultimate ruin of Pompey was prediscovered to Petitius in a dream.

About three hundred and thirty-two years before Christ, Jaddua, the high priest of the Jews, refused to take the required oath of allegiance to Alexander the Great, who was then besieging Tyre. Alexander had no sooner made himself master of that city, than he bent his course towards Jerusalem: with full determination to destroy both place, priest, and people; and to enrich his forces, by the free plunder of the Jewish capital. Jaddua, on receiving notice of this design, was in great perplexity. He appointed a day of public and solemn humiliation before God: and was, that same night, relieved from his anxiety, by the following dream. He thought, “that the Almighty exhorted him to dismiss his fears; to adorn the city, as

* Viz. The late Mr. Baxter. See the second volume of his unequalled Enquiry into the Nature of the human Soul. It is astonishing that so great a man should have lived and died in such obscurity; and that (so far as I can find) not the least memoir of him has, hitherto, been published. What a disgrace to this generation! a generation, that prides itself on its love of science, and on the respect it pays to elevated merit!--Even Bishop Warburton acknowledges the surprising excellence of this extra. ordinary person; on whom, the right reverend critic bestows the following just encomium: "He was truly a great genius. And a time will come, if learning ever revive amongst us, when the present inattention to his admirable Metaphysics, established on the physics of Newton, will be deemed as great a dishonour to the wisdom of this age, as the neglect of Milton's poetry is to the wit of the past." Notes on Pope; vok iv. p. 320.

+ Plut. in Alcibiad.

Idem in Pomp.

on festive occasions; to set open the gates; and, when Alexander, drew near, to give him the meeting, at the head of an ecclesiastical procession, robed in their sacerdotal habits," The next morning Jaddua publicly declared his dream; regulated his measures, agree, ably to the suggestions he had received, and placidly waited, the

event.

11

So soon as Alexander came within sight of Jerusalem, the pro cession from the city began to move. The high priest took the lead, superbly arrayed in scarlet and purple, and wearing the mitre, which bore the name of God engraved on a plate of gold. Next to hen followed the inferior priests, habited in fine linen. A multitude of citizens, cloathed in white, closed the rear. When the venerable, train came up, Alexander commanded his own soldiers, to halt: and, advancing foremost and alone, respectfully accosted Jaddua and adored the incomprehensible name, with which his mitre was adorned. The Jews uttered their salutations in shouts, and the hose. tile army stood, astonished, at the unexpected behaviour of their prince. Parmenio, who was Alexander's particular friend and far. vourite, could not help expressing his surprise; and ventured to ask him, "How is it, that you, who are worshipped by all mankind, are now become a worshipper of the Jewish pontiff."-"I worship not the high priest," returned the king, "but the God whose name he bears. When I was at Dios, in, Macedon, concerting the plan I should pursue, in order to subject Asia to my dominion, I saw, in a dream, this very person, habited exactly as he now stands, who exhorted me to undertake the expedition without delay, and promised, me infallible success, I now am certain that, under the divine patronage, I shall subdue Darius, and be master of Persia, "*

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was martyred for the christian faith, A. D. 167. Three days before he was apprehended by the heathen officers, he dreamt that "his pillow took fire, and was burnt to ashes." The holy man told his friends, that he considered this dream as significative of his being burnt to death for Christ's sake. And the event was answerable to the presage.

A. M. T.

VANITY.

HISTORY preserves the memory of empires and of states, with which it necessarily interweaves that of heroes, kings, and states, men. Biography affords a place to the remarkable characters of private men. There are likewise other subordinate testimonies, Josephus Antiq. b. xi. ch. 8.

+ Cave's Apoștolici, p. 1118.

which serve to perpetuate, at least prolong, the memories of men, whose characters and stations give them no claim to a place in story. For instance, when a person fails of making that figure in the world which he makes in the eyes of his own relations, or himself, he is rarely dignified any farther than with his picture whilst he is living, or with an inscription upon his monument after his decease. Inscriptions have been so fallacious, that we begin to expect little from them beside elegance of style. To inveigh against the writers for their manifest want of truth, were as absurd as to censure Homer for the beauties of an imaginary character.-But even paintings, in order to gratify the vanity of the person who bespeaks them, are taught, now-a-days, to flatter like epitaphs.

Falsehoods upon a tomb or monument may be entitled to some excuse in the affection, the gratitude, and piety of surviving friends. Even grief itself disposes us to magnify the virtues of a relation, as visible objects also appear larger through tears. But the man, who through an idle vanity suffers his features to be belied or exchanged for others of a more agreeable make, may with great truth be said to lose his property in the portrait. In like manner, if he encourage the painter to belie his dress, he seems to transfer his claim to the man with whose station his assumed trappings are connected.

I remember a bag-piper, whose physiognomy was so remarkable and familiar to a club he attended, that it was agreed to have his picture placed over their chimney-piece. There was this remarkable in the fellow, that he chose always to go barefoot, though he was daily offered a pair of shoes. However, when the painter had been so exact as to omit this little piece of dress, the fellow offered all he had in the world, the whole produce of three nights harmony, to have those feet covered in the effigy, which he so much scorned to cover in the original. Perhaps he thought it a disgrace to his instrument to be eternized in the hands of so much apparent poverty. However, when a person of low station adorns himself with trophies to which he has no pretensions to aspire, he should consider the picture as actually telling a lie to posterity.

I this morning saw a fellow drawn in a night-gown of so rich a stuff, that the expence, had he purchased such a one, would more than half have ruined him; and another coxcomb, seated by his painter in a velvet chair, who would have been surprised at the deference paid him, had he been offered a cushion.

W. S.