Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

" Ex Chronico Saxonico, p. 112, Anno 1104, fuit primus Pentecostes dies Nonis Junii, & die Martis sequnte, conjuncti sunt quatuor Circuli circa Solem, aibi coloris, & quisque sub alio collocatus, quasi picti essent. Omnes qui videbant obstupuerunt, propterea quod nunquam ante tales meminerant. Post haec facta est Pax inter Comitem, Robertum de Normannia, & Robertum de Boeloesme i, e."

In the year 1104, on the first day of Pentecost, the sixth of June, and on the day following being Tuesday, four circles of a white colour, were seen to roll in conjunction round the sun, each under the other regularly placed, as if they had been drawn by the hand of a painter. All who beheld it were struck with astonishment, because they could not learn that any such spectacles had ever happened in the memory of man. After these things it is remarkable, that a peace was immediately set on foot, and concluded between Robert, Earl of Normandy, and Robert de Baelaesme.

The Duke of York (afterwards Edward IV.) met with his enemies near to Mortimer's Cross, on Candlemas day in the morning, at which time the Sun (as some write) appeared to him like three Suns, and suddenly joined altogether in one, and that upon the sight thereof, he took such courage, that he fiercely set on his enemies, and them shortly discomfited: for which cause, men imagined that he gave Sun in his full brightness for his cognisance or badge. Halle, F. 183, b. 4.

Our Chronicles tell us, that Anno Secundo Reginae Mariae, 15th of February, two suns appeared, and a rainbow reversed: see the bow turned downwards, and the two ends standing upwards, before the coining in of King Philip.

The phaenomenon, fig. 1, was seen at Broad-Chalk in Wiltshire, on the first day of May, 1647. It continued from about eleven o'clock (or before) till twelve. It was a very clear day; but few did take notice of it, because it was so near the sun-beams. My mother happened to espy it, going to see what o'clock it was by an horizontal dial; and then all the servants saw it. Upon the like occasion, Mr. J. Sloper, B.D. vicar there, saw it, and all his family; and the servants of Sir George Vaughan, (then of Falston) who were hunting on the downs, saw it. The circles were of rainbow colour; the two filots, which cross the greater circle, (I presume they were segments of a third circle) were of a pale colour. The sun was within the intersections of the circles.

The next remarkable thing that followed was, that on the third of June following;* Cornet Joyce carried King Charles I. prisoner from Holdenby to the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight lieth directly from Broad-Chalk, at the 10 o'clock point.

* See Sir W. Dugdale's hist. of the Civil Wars.

The phaenomenon, fig. 2, was seen in the north side of the church-yard of Bishop-Lavington in Wiltshire, about the latter end of September 1688, about three o'clock in the afternoon. This was more than a semicircle. B. B. two balls of light. They were about eleven degrees above the Horizon by the quadrant; observed by Mr. Robert Blea, one of the Earl of Abingdon's gentlemen.

Cicero de Natura Deorum, lib. 2. "Multa praeterea Ostentis, multa ex eis admonemur, multisque rebus aliis, quas diuturnus usus ita notarit, ut artem Divinationis efficeret". i. e.

Besides, we learn a world of things from these Portents and Prodigies, and many are the warnings and admonitions we receive from them, and not only from them indeed, but from a number of extraordinary accidents, upon which daily use and constant observation has fixed such marks, that from thence the whole art of divination has been compounded.

OMENS.

BEFORE the battle at Philippi began, two eagles fought in the air between the two armies: both the armies stood still and beheld them, and the army was beaten that was under the vanquished eagle. See Appian's Hist. part 2, lib. 4, g. 2.

It is worthy of notice, that, at the time the cities of Jerusalem and Antioch were taken from the Pagans, the Pope that then was, was called Urban, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem was called Eraclius, and the Roman Emperor was called Frederick; in like manner when Jerusalem was taken from the Christians by the siege of Saladin, the Pope was called Urban; the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Eraclius; and the Emperor, Frederick: and it is remarkable, that fourscore and seven years passed between these two events. Hoveden, f. 363.

Mathew Parker, seventieth Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, in the seventieth year of his age, feasted Queen Elizabeth on her birth day, 1559, in his palace at Canterbury. Parker. Vitae, 556.

It is a matter of notable consideration, says a Spanish historian, that the royal throne of the Morish Kings of Granada, began and ended in the times of the Fernandos of Castille: beginning in the time of Saint Fernando, the third of that name, and ending in that of the Catholic King, Don Fernando the fifth, his successor in the ninth descent. In the same manner, it is observable that the first Morish King was called Mahomad, and the last had the same name of Mahomad: which resembles what passed in the empire of Constantinople, where the first and last Emperors were called Constantines. Garibay, 1. 40, c. 43.

The same author mentions it as an extraordinary circumstance that, at one time lived in Castille, Arragon, and Portugal, three Kings called Pedros, and whose fathers were named Alonsos, who were also Kings at the same time. L. 14, c. 35.

While Edward, Duke of York,* was declaring his title, in the Chamber of the Peers, there happened a strange chance, in the very same time, amongst the Commons in the nether house, then there assembled: for a Crown, which did hang in the middle of the same, to garnish a branch to set lights upon, without touch of any creature, or rigor of wind, suddenly fell down, and at the same time also, fell down the Crown, which stood on the top of the Castle of Dover: as a sign and prognostication, that the Crown of the realm should be divided and changed from one line to another. Halle's Chronicle, H. 6. F. 181.

* Father of Edward IV.

Anno 1506. Through great tempest of wind in January, Philip, King of Castille and his wife, were weather-driven and landed at Falmouth. This tempest blew down the Eagle of Brass from the spire of St. Paul's church in London, and in the falling, the same eagle broke and battered the black Eagle* which hung for a sign in St. Paul's Church- yard. Stow's Annals, 484.

* The black Eagle is the cognizance of the house of Austria, of which Philip was head.

The silver cross that was wont to be carried before Cardinal Wolsey, fell out of its socket, and was like to have knocked out the brains of one of the Bishop's servants. A very little while after, came in a messenger, and arrested the Cardinal, before he could get out of the house. See Stow's Chronicle.

'Tis commonly reported, that before an heir of the Cliftons, of Clifton in Nottinghamshire, dies, that a Sturgeon is taken in the river Trent, by that place.

Thomas Flud, Esq. in Kent, told me that it is an old observation which was pressed earnestly to King James I. that he should not remove the Queen of Scots body from Northamptonshire, where she was beheaded and interred: for that it always bodes ill to the family when bodies are removed from their graves. For some of the family will die shortly after, as did Prince Henry, and I think Queen Ann.

A little before the death of Oliver, the Protector, a Whale came into the river Thames, and was taken at Greenwich, --- feet long. 'Tis said Oliver was troubled at it.

When I was a freshman at Oxford, 1642, I was wont to go to Christ Church, to see King Charles I. at supper; where I once heard him say, " That as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the quarry, and found the covey of partridges falling upon the hawk; and I do remember this expression further, viz. and I will swear upon the book 'tis true." When I came to my chamber, I told this story to my tutor; said he, that covey was London.

The bust of King Charles I. carved by Bernini, as it was brought in a boat upon the Thames, a strange bird (the like whereof the bargemen had never seen) dropped a drop of blood, or blood-like, upon it; which left a stain not to be wiped off. This bust was carved from a picture of Sir Anthony Van Dyke's drawing: the sculptor found great fault with the fore-head as most unfortunate. There was a seam in the middle of his fore-head, (downwards) which is a very ill sign in Metoposcopie.

Colenel Sharington Talbot was at Nottingham, when King Charles I. did set up his standard upon the top of the tower there. He told me, that the first night, the wind blew it so, that it hung down almost horizontal; which some did take to be an ill omen.

The day that the long Parliament began, 1641, the Sceptre fell out of the figure of King Charles in wood, in Sir Thomas Trenchard's hall at Wullich, in Dorset, as they were at dinner in the parlour: Justice Hunt then dined there.

The picture of Arch-Bishop Laud, in his closet, fell down (the string broke) the day of the sitting of that Parliament. This is mentioned in Canterbury's doom by W. Prynne.

The psalms for the eleventh day of the month, are 56, 57, 58, &c. On the eleventh day of one of the months in the summer time, the citizens came tumultuously in great numbers in boats and barges over against Whitehall, to shew they would take the Parliament's part. The psalms aforesaid, both for morning and evening service, are as prophecies of the troubles that did ensue.

When the high court of justice was voted in the parliament house, as Berkenhead (the mace bearer) took up the mace to carry it before the Speaker, the top of the mace fell off. This was avowed to me by an eye witness then in the house.

The head of King Charles I's. staff did fall off at his trial: that is commonly known.

The second lesson for the 30th of January in the calendar before the common prayer, is concerning the trial of Christ: which, when Bishop Duppa read, the King was displeased with him, thinking he had done it of choice; but the Bishop cleared himself by the calendar, as is to be seen.

King Charles II. was crowned at the very conjunction of the sun and Mercury; Mercury being then in "Corde Solis". As the King was at dinner in Westminster Hall, it thundered and lightened extremely. The cannons and the thunder played together.

King Charles II. went by long sea to Portsmouth or Plymouth, or both; an extraordinary storm arose, which carried him almost to France. Sir Jonas Moor (who was then with his Majesty) gave me this account, and said, that when they came to Portsmouth to refresh themselves, they had not been there above half an hour, but the weather was calm, and the sun shone: his Majesty put to sea again, and in a little time they had the like tempestuous weather as before.

Not long before the death of King Charles II. a Sparrow-hawk escaped from the perch, and pitched on one of the iron crowns of the white tower, and entangling its string in the crown, hung by the heels and died. Not long after, another hawk pitched on one of the crowns. From Sir Edward Sherborne, Knight.

The Gloucester frigate cast away at the Lemanore, and most of the men in it; the Duke of York escaping in a cock boat, anno 1682, May the 5th, on a Friday.

When King James II. was crowned, (according to the ancient custom, the Peers go to the throne, and kiss the king) the Crown was almost kissed off his head. An Earl did set it right; and as he came from the Abbey to Westminster Hall, the Crown tottered extremely.

The canopy (of cloth of gold) carried over the head of King James II. by the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, was torn by a puff of wind as he came to Westminster Hull; it hung down very lamentably: I saw it.

When King James II. was crowned, a signal was given from Westminster Abbey to the Tower, where it was Sir Edward Sherborne's post to stand to give order for firing the cannons, and to hoist up the great flag with the King's arms. It was a windy day, and the wind presently took the flag half off, and carried it away into the Thames. From Sir Edward Sherborne.

The top of his sceptre (Flower de Lys) did then fall.

Upon Saint Mark's Day, after the coronation of King James II. were prepared stately fire works on the Thames: it hapened, that they took fire all together, and it was so dreadful, that several spectators leaped into the river, choosing rather to be drowned than burned. In a yard by the Thames, was my Lord Powys's coach and horses; the horses were so frightened by the fire works, that the coachman was not able to stop them, but ran away over one, who with great difficulty recovered.

When King James II. was at Salisbury, anno 1688, the Iron Crown upon the turret of the council house, was blown off.- This has often been confidently asserted by persons who were then living.

In February, March, and April, two ravens built their nests on the weather cock of the high steeple at Bakewell in Derbyshire.

I did see Mr. Christopher Love beheaded on Tower Hill, in a delicate clear day about half an hour after his head was struck off, the clouds gathered blacker and blacker; and such terrible claps of thunder came that I never heard greater.

'Tis reported, that the like happened after the execution of Alderman Cornish, in Cheapside, October 23, 1685.

Anno 1643. As Major John Morgan of Wells, was marching with the King's army into the west, he fell sick of a malignant fever at Salisbury, and was brought dangerously ill to my father's at Broad-Chalk, where he was lodged secretly in a garret. There came a sparrow to the chamber window, which pecked the lead of a certain pannel only, and only one side of the lead of the lozenge, and made one small hole in it. He continued this pecking and biting the lead, during the whole time of his sickness; (which was not less than a month) when the major went away, the sparrow desisted, and came thither no more. Two of the servants that attended the Major, and sober persons, declared this for a certainty.

Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow, did make a solemn promise to him on his death-bed, that she would not marry after his decease, but not long after, one Sir --- Fox, a very beautiful young gentleman, did win her love; so that notwithstanding her promise aforesaid, she married him: she married at South-Wraxhall, where the picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlour door, as it doth now at Draycot. As Sir --Fox led his bride by the hand from the church, (which is near to the house) into the parlour, the string of the picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder, and cracked in the fall. (It was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.) This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears from her eyes.*

*This story may be true in all its details, except the name of the lady, who was a daughter of Sir W. Long; she married Somerset Fox, Esq. See Sandford's Geneal. Hist, of the Kings of England, p. 344.

See Sir Walter Raleigh's history, book 4, chap. 2, sec. 7. The dogs of the French army, the night before the battle of Novara, ran all to the Swisses army: the next day, the Swisses obtained a glorious victory of the French. Sir Walter Raleigh affirms it to be certainly true.

The last battle fought in the north of Ireland, between the Protestants and the Papists, was in Glinsuly near Letterkenny in the county of Donegall. Veneras, the Bishop of Clogher, was General of the Irish army; and that of the Parliament army, Sir Charles Coot. They pitched their tents on each side the river Suly, and the Papists constantly persist in it to this very day, that the night before the action,* a woman of uncommon stature, all in white, appearing to the said Bishop, admonished him not to cross the river first, to assault the enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the victory. That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the English, they should be put to a total rout, which came to pass. Ocahan, and Sir Henry O'Neal, who were both killed there, saw severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving the first onset, but could not prevail upon him. In the mean time, I find nothing in this revelation, that any common soldier might not conclude without extraordinary means.

*So an apparition of a woman greater than ordinary, beckoned to Julius Caesar to pass over the Rubicon, L. Flor. lib. 4. Satyres appeared to Alexander when he besieged Tyrus; Alexander asked the divines, what was the signification of it; they told him the meaning is plain, {Greek Text: Sa Turos} (i.e.) Tyre is thine. Alexander took the town. Q. Curtius.

Near the same place, a party of the Protestants had been surprized sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several wrens that just wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds, to this day, calling them the Devil's servants, and killing them wherever they catch them; they teach their Children to thrust them full of thorns: you will see sometimes on holidays, a whole parish running like mad men from hedge to hedge a wren-hunting.

Anno 1679. After the discovery of the Popish plot, the penal laws were put in execution against the Roman Catholics; so that, if they did not receive the sacrament according to the church of England, in their parish church, they were to be severely proceeded against according to law: Mr. Ployden, to avoid the penalty, went to his parish church at Lasham, near Alton, in Hampshire: when Mr. Laurence (the minister) had put the chalice into Mr. Ployden's hand, the cup of it (wherein the wine was) fell off. 'Tis true, it was out of order before; and he had a tremor in his hand. The communion was stopt by this accident. This was attested to me by two neighbouring ministers, as also by several gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

When King James II. first entered Dublin, after his arrival from France, 1689, one of the gentlemen that bore the mace before him, stumbled without any rub in his way, or other visible occasion. The mace fell out of his hands, and the little cross upon the crown thereof stuck fast between two stones in the street. This is very well known all over Ireland, and did much trouble King James himself, with many of his chief attendants.

The first Moors that were expelled Spain, were in number five thousand five hundred and fifty-five. They sailed from Denia, October 2, 1609. H. Bleda. "Expulsion de Moriscos", p. 1000.

DREAMS.

{Greek Text: --'Onar kai Dios esi}. Homer Iliad A.

DREAMS PROCEED FROM JOVE.

HE that has a mind to read of dreams, may peruse Cicero "de Divinatione", Hier. Cardani "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, and Moldinarius "de Insomniis", &c. I shall here mention but little out of them, my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and divine dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted with, persons worthy of belief.

Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 1. "Hannibalem, Caslius scribit, cum Columnam auream, quae esset in fano Junonis Laciniae, auferre vellet, dubitaretque utrum ea solida esset, an extrinsecus inaurata, perterebravisse; cumque solidam invenisset, statuissetque tollere: secundum quietem visam esse ei Junonem praedicere, ne id faceret; minarique, si id fecisset se curaturam, ut eum quoque oculum, quo bene videret, amitteret; idque ab homine acuto non esse neglectum; itaque ex eo auro quod exterebratum esset, buculam curasse faciendum, & eam in summa columna collocavisse."

i. e.

Coelius writes, that Hannibal, when he had a mighty mind to take away a gold pillar, that was in the Temple of Juno Lacinia, being in doubt with himself, whether it was solid massive gold, or only gilt, or thinly plated over on the out side, bored it through. When he had found it to be solid, and fully designed to have it carried off; Juno appeared to him in his sleep, and forewarned him against what he was about, threatening him withal, that if he persisted and did it, she would take care that he should lose the eye, that he saw perfectly well with, as he had done the other.

The great man, it seems, was too wise to slight and neglect this warning; nay, he even took care to have a ring made of the very gold, that had been bored out of it, and placed it on the top of the pillar.

"--- Cum duo quidam Arcades familiares iter una, facerent, & Megaram venissent, alterum ad cauponem divertisse; ad hospitem alterum. Qui, ut coenati quiescerent, concubia nocte visum esse in somnis ei qui erat in hospitio, ilium alterum orare ut subveniret, quod sibi a caupone interitus pararetur; eum primo perterritum somnio surrexisse; deinde cum se colligisset, idque visum pro nihilo habendum esse duxisset, recubuisse; tum, ei dormienti eundem ilium visum esse rogare, ut quoniam sibi vivo non subvenisset, mortem suam ne inultam esse pateretur; se interfectum in plaustrum a caupone esse conjectum, & supra stercus injectum; petere, ut mani ad portum adesset, priusquam plaustrum ex oppido exiret. Hoc vero somnio commotum mano bubulco presto ad portam fuisse, quaesisse ex eo, quid esset in plaustro; ilium perterritum fugisse, mortuum erutum esse, cauponem re patefacta poenas dedisse. Quid hoc somnio dici divinius potest ?" i. e.

As two certain Arcadians, intimate companions, were travelling together, it so happened, that, when they came to Megara, one of them went to an inn, and the other to a friend's house. Both had supped at their respective places, and were gone to bed; when lo! he, that was at his friend's house, dreamt, that his companion came to him, and begged of him for Heaven's sake to assist him, for that the inn-keeper had contrived a way to murder him: frightened at first out of his sleep, he rose up; but soon afterward coming a little better to himself, he thought, upon recollection, there was no heed to be given to the vision, and went very quietly to bed again. But as soon as he was got into his second sleep, the same vision repeated the visit, but the form of his petition was quite altered. He beseeched him, that, since he had not come to his assistance, while he was among the living, he would not suffer his death, however, to go unrevenged. Told him that as soon as he was murdered, he was tossed by the inn- keeper into a waggon, and had a little straw thrown over his corpse. He entreated him to be ready very early at the door before the waggon was to go out of town. This dream truly disturbed him it seems very much, and made him get up very early: he nicked the time, and met with the waggoner just at the very door, and asked him what he had in his cart. The fellow run away frightened and confounded. The dead body was pulled out of it, and the whole matter coming plainly to light, the inn-keeper suffered for the crime.--What is there that one can call more divine than a dream like this ?"

"---Somnium de Simonide, qui, cum ignotum quendam projectum mortuum vidisset, eumque humavisset, haberetque in animo navem conscendere, moneri visus est, ne id faceret, ab eo, quem sepultum affecerat: si navigasset, cum naufragio esse perituram: itaque Simonidem rediisse periisse caeeteros, qui tum navigassent."

---The dream of Simonides. This person, when he saw a certain body thrown dead upon the shore, though a stranger, caused him to be buried. Much about that time he had it in his head to go on ship- board, but dreamt that he had warning given him by the man he had got to be interred, not to go; that if he went, the ship would infallibly be cast away. Upon this Simonides returned, and every soul of them besides that went on board was lost.

Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 2. "Somnium, Alexandri. Qui, cum Ptolomaeus familiaris ejus, in proelio, telo venenato ictus esset, eoque vulnere summo cum dolore moreretur, Alexander assidens somno est consopitus; tum secundum quietem visus ei dicitur draco is, quem mater Olympias alebat, radiculam ore ferre & simul dicere quo illa loci nasceretur neque is longe aberat ab eo loco: ejus autem esse vim tantam, ut Ptolomaeum facile sanaret. Cum Alexander experrectus narrasset amicis somnium, emisisse qui illam radiculam quaererent. Qua, inventa, & Ptolomaeus sanatus dicitur, & multi milites, qui erant eodem genere teli vulnerati."

(i. e.) The dream of Alexander, when his friend Ptolemy was wounded in battle, by an envenomed dart, and died of the wound, in all the extremities of pain and anguish; Alexander sitting by him, and wearied out and quite fatigued, fell into a profound sleep. In this sleep, that dragon is reported to have appeared to him, which was bred up by his mother Olympias, carrying a little root in his mouth and to have told him in what spot of ground it grew, (nor was it far from that very place) and told him withal it seems, that such was the force, efficacy, and virtue of it, that it would work an easy cure upon Ptolomy. When Alexander waked, he told his friends the dream, and sent some out in quest of this little root. The root (as story says) was found, and Ptolemy was healed, so were many soldiers likewise, that had been wounded with the same kind of darts.

Cardanus "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, chap. 2. "Narrat Plinius 35 lib. Nat. Hist, vir ab omnia superstitione alienissimus, Historiam hujusmodi. 'Nuper cujusdam militantis in Praetorio mater vidit in quiete, ut radicem sylvestris Rosae (quam Cynorrhodon vocant) blanditam sibi aspectu pridie in Fruteto, mitteret filio bibendam: In Lusitania res gerebatur, Hispaniae, proxima parte: casuque accidit, ut milite a morsu Canis incipiente aquas expavescere superveniret epistola orantis ut paretet religioni; servatusque est ex insperato, & postea quisquis auxilium simile tentavit.' "

i. e. In his natural history, Pliny, a man the most averse to superstition, relates to us the following passage. Lately, the mother of one of the guards, who attended upon the General, was admonished by a vision in her sleep, to send her son a draught composed of the decoction of the root of a wild rose, (which they call Cynorrhodon) with the agreeable look whereof she had been mightily taken the day before, as she was passing through a coppice. The seat of the war at that time lay in Portugal, in that part of it next adjoining to Spain, that a soldier, beginning to apprehend mighty dangerous consequences from the bite of a dog, the letter came unexpectedly from her, entreating him to pay a blind obedience to this superstition. He did so, and was preserved beyond all expectation; and everybody afterwards had recourse to the same remedy.

Ibid. Galeni "tria Somnia".--- "Tertium magis dignum miraculo, cum bis per somnium admonitus, ut arteriam secaret, quae inter pollicem & indicem est, idque agens liberatus sit a diuturno dolore, quo infestabatur ea in parte, qua septo transverso jecur jungitur, idque in libri de sectione venae fine testatus est. Magno certe exemplo, quod tantus vir in medicina eam adhibuerit somnio fidem, ut in seipso periculum vitae subierit, in arte propria. Deinde probitatem admiror, ut quo potuerit solertia ingenii sibi inventum ascribere, Deo cui debebatur, rediderit. Dignus vel hoc solo vir immortalitate nominis, & librorum suorum."

Galen's three dreams. The third more worthy of being called a miracle, was, when being twice admonished in his sleep, to cut the artery that lies between the fore finger and the thumb, and doing it accordingly, he was freed from a continual daily pain with which he was afflicted in that part where the liver is joined to the midriff; and this he has testified at the end of his book of Venesection. 'Tis certainly a very great example, when a man so great as he was in the medicinal art, put so much confidence in a dream as to try experiments upon himself; where he was to run the risque of his life, in his own very art. I cannot help but admire his probity in the next place, that where he might have arrogated the merit of the invention to himself, and placed it wholly to the account of the subtility and penetration of his own genius, he attributed it to God, to whom it was due. In this alone did the man well deserve to purchase an immortality to his name and his writings.

In his fourth book, chap. 4. "De Exemplis propriis", he owns the solution of some difficult problems in Algebra to his dreams.

Plinii, Nat. Hist. lib. 22, chap. 17. "Verna carus Pericli Atheniensium Principi, cum is in arce templum aedificaret, repsissetque super altitudinem fastigii, & inde cecidisset, hac herba (Parthenio) dicitur sanatus, monstrata Pericli somnio a Minerva. Quare Parthenium vocari coepta est, assignaturque ei Deae."

Pliny's Natural History, book 22, chap. 17. "A little Home-bred Slave, that was a darling favourite to Pericles, Prince of the Athenians, and who, while a temple was building in the Prince's palace, had climbed up to the very top of the pinnacle, and tumbled down from that prodigious height; is said to have been cured of his fall by the herb Parthenium, or mug-wort, which was shown to Pericles in a dream, by Minerva. From hence it originally took the name of Parthenium, and is attributed to that Goddess.

"Augustinus, Cui etiam praeter sanctitatem, plena fides adhiberi potest, duo narrat inter reliqua somnia admiranda. Primum, quod cum quidam mortuo nuper patre venaretur tanquam de pecunia quam pater illi ex chirographo debuisset, dum incastus viveret, hac causa nocte quadam umbram patris videt, quae illum admonuit de persoluta pecunia & ubi chirographum esset repositum. Cum surrexisset, invenit chirographum loco eo quem umbra paterna docuerat, liberatusque est ab injusto petitore."

Saint Austin, to whom even, besides his sanctity, we owe an entire credit, tells among others, two very wonderful dreams. The first is, when a person was arrested by one, as for a certain sum of money, which his father had owed him by a note under his own hand, while he led a lewd debauched life, saw the ghost of his father one night, upon this very account, which told him of the money being paid, and where the acquittance lay. When he got up in the morning, he went and found the acquittance in that very place that his father's ghost had directed him to, and so was freed from the litigious suit of one that made unjust demands upon him.

"Alterum adhuc magis mirum".

"Praestantius, vir quidam a Philosopho petierat dubitationem quandam solvi; quod ille pernegavit. Nocte sequente, tametsi vigilaret Prsestantius, vidit sibi Philosophum assistere, ac dubitationem solvere, moxque abire. Cum die sequenti obviam Praestantius eundem habuisset Philosophum, rogat, Cur cum pridie rogatus nolluisset solvere illam questionem, intempesta nocte, non rogatus, & venisset ad se & dubitationem aperuisset. Cui Philosophus. Non quidem ego adveni sed somnians visus sum tibi hoc Officium praestare."

The other is much more wonderful still.

A certain gentleman named Praestantius, had been entreating a Philosopher to solve him a doubt, which he absolutely refused to do. The night following, although Praestantius was broad awake, he saw the Philosopher standing full before him, who just explained his doubts to him, and went away the moment after he had done. When Praestantius met the Philosopher the next day, he asks him why, since no entreaties could prevail with him the day before, to answer his question, he came to him unasked, and at an unseasonable time of night, and opened every point to his satisfaction. To whom thus the Philosopher. " Upon my word it was not me that came to you; but in a dream I thought my own self that I was doing you such a service."

The plague raging in the army of the Emperor Charles V. he dreamt that the decoction of the root of the dwarf-thistle (a mountain plant since called the Caroline thistle) would cure that disease. See Gerrard's Herbal, who tells us this.

In Queen Mary's time, there was only one congregation of Protestants in London, to the number of about three- hundred, one was the deacon to them, and kept the list of their names: one of that congregation did dream, that a messenger, (Queen's Officer) had seized on this deacon, and taken his list; the fright of the dream awaked him: he fell asleep and dreamt the same perfect dream again. In the morning before he went out of his chamber, the deacon came to him and then he told him his dream, and said, 'twas a warning from God; the deacon slighted his advice, as savouring of superstition; but --- was so urgent with him that he prevailed with him to deposite the list in some other hand, which he did that day. The next day, the Queen's officer attacked him, and searched (in vain) for the list, which had it been found, would have brought them all to the flame. Foxe's Martyrology.

When Arch Bishop Abbot's mother (a poor clothworker's wife in Guilford) was with child of him, she did long for a Jack, and she dreamt that if she should eat a Jack, her son in her belly should be a great man. She arose early the next morning and went with her pail to the river-side (which runneth by the house, now an ale-house, the sign of the three mariners) to take up some water, and in the water in the pail she found a good jack, which she dressed, and eat it all, or very near. Several of the best inhabitants of Guilford were invited (or invited themselves) to the christening of the child; it was bred up a scholar in the town, and by degrees, came to be Arch Bishop of Canterbury.

In the life of Monsieur Periesk, writ by Gassendus, it is said, that Monsieur Periesk, who had never been at London, did dream that he was there, and as he was walking in a great street there, espied in a goldsmith's glass desk, an antique coin, he could never meet with. (I think an Otho.) When he came to London, walking in (I think) Cheap- side, he saw such a shop, and remembered the countenance of the goldsmith in his dream, and found the coin desired, in his desk. See his life.

When Doctor Hamey (one of the physicians college in London) being a young man, went to travel towards Padoa, he went to Dover (with several others) and shewed his pass, as the rest did, to the Governor there. The Governor told him, that he must not go, but must keep him prisoner. The Doctor desired to know for what reason ? how he had transgrest ? well it was his will to have it so. The pacquet-boat hoisted sail in the evening (which was very clear), and the Doctor's companions in it. There ensued a terrible storm, and the pacquet-boat and all the passengers were drowned: the next day the sad news was brought to Dover. The Doctor was unknown to the Governor, both by name and face; but the night before, the Governor had the perfect vision in a dream, of Doctor Hamey, who carne to pass over to Calais; and that he had a warning to stop him. This the Governor told the Doctor the next day. The Doctor was a pious, good man, and has several times related this story to some of my acquaintance.

My Lady Seymour dreamt, that she found a nest, with nine finches in it. And so many children she had by the Earl of Winchelsea, whose name is Finch.

The Countess of Cork (now Burlington) being at Dublin, dreamt, that her father, (the Earl of Cumberland) who was then at York, was dead. He died at that time.

'Tis certain, that several had monitory dreams of the conflagration of London.

Sir Christopher Wren, being at his father's house, anno 1651, at Knahill in Wilts (a young Oxford scholar) dreamt, that he saw a fight in a great market-place, which he knew not; where some were flying, and others pursuing; and among those that fled, he saw a kinsman of his, who went into Scotland to the King's army. They heard in the country, that the King was come into England, but whereabouts he was they could not tell. The next night his kinsman came to his father at Knahill, and was the first that brought the news of the fight at Worcester.

When Sir Christopher Wren was at Paris, about 1671, he was ill and feverish, made but little water, and had a pain in his reins. He sent for a physician, who advised him to be let blood, thinking he had a plurisy: but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he would defer it a day longer: that night he dreamt, that he was in a place where palm-trees grew, (suppose AEgypt) and that a woman in a romantic habit, reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of the pain of his reins.

Since, I have learned that dates are an admirable medicine for the stone, from old Captain Tooke of K--. Take six or ten date-stones, dry them in an oven, pulverize and searce them; take as much as will lie on a six-pence, in a quarter of a pint of white wine fasting, and at four in the afternoon: walk or ride an hour after: in a week's time it will give ease, and in a month cure. If you are at the Bath, the Bath water is better than white wine to take it in.

Sir John Hoskin's Lady, when she lay in of her eldest son, had a swelling on one side of her belly, the third day when the milk came, and obstructions: she dreamt that syrup of elderberries and distilled water of wormwood would do her good, and it did so; she found ease in a quarter of an hour after she had taken it. I had this account from her Ladyship's own mouth.

Captain --- Wingate told me, that Mr. Edmund Gunter, of Gresham College, did cast his nativity, when about seventeen or eighteen years old; by which he did prognosticate that he should be in danger to lose his life for treason. Several years before the civil wars broke out, he had dreamt that he was to be put to death before a great castle, which he had never seen; which made a strong impression in his memory. In anno 1642, he did oppose the church ceremonies, and was chosen a member of Parliament, then was made a Captain, and was taken prisoner at Edge Hill, by Prince Rupert, and carried to Kenilworth Castle, where he was tried by a council of war, and condemned to die: but they did better consider of it, and spared his life; for that he being so considerable a person, might make an exchange for some of the King's party-:* and he was exchanged for the right Honourable Montague, Earl of Lindsey (heir of the General.) Since the restoration, he was made one of the commissioners of the excise office in London. He did protest that Kenilworth castle was the very castle he saw in his dream.

*Captain Wingate was a prisoner in Oxford, after Edgehill fight, 1642.

Sir Roger L'Estrange was wont to divertise himself with cocking in his father's (Sir Hammond L'Estrange's) park; he dreamt that there came to him in such a place of the park, a servant, who brought him news, that his father was taken very ill. The next day going to his usual recreation, he was resolved for his dream sake to avoid that way; but his game led him to it, and in that very place the servant came and brought him the ill news according to his dream.

Mr. Edmund Halley, R. S. S. was carried on with a strong impulse to take a voyage to St. Hellens, to make observations of the southern constellations, being then about twenty-four years old. Before he undertook his voyage, he dreamt that he was at sea, sailing towards that place, and saw the prospect of it from the ship in his dream, which he declared to the Royal Society, to be the perfect representation of that island, even as he had it really when he approached to it.

A Gentlewoman dreamt that a pultess of blew corants would cure her sore throat; and it did so. She was a pious woman, and affirmed it to be true.

Anno 1690. One, in Ireland, dreamed of a brother or near relation of his, (who lived at Amesbury in Wiltshire) that he saw him riding on the downs, and that two thieves robbed him and murdered him. The dream awaked him, he fell asleep again and had the like dream. He wrote to his relation an account of it, and described the thieves complexion, stature and cloaths; and advised him to take care of himself. Not long after he had received this monitory letter, he rode towards Salisbury, and was robbed and murdered; and the murderers were discovered by this very letter, and were executed. They hang in chains on the road to London.

'Twas revealed to a King of Scots, that if he drank of the water of Muswell, he would be cured. After great enquiry they heard of such a place, not far from Hornsey in Middlesex. See Weever's Funeral Monuments of the Well. John Norden's Description of Middlesex. Here was afterwards founded a religious house for Austin Monks: since it belonged to Sir Thomas Row, and in 1677, was pulled down and the materials sold. Anciently the Kings of Scotland were feudatory to the Kings of England, and did their homage every Christmas day. They had several lodges belonging to them for their reception in their journey; as at Huntingdon, &c. See Caxton's Chronicle concerning this.

The water of this spring is drank for some distempers still.

"Somnium ex Eubernea porta."

Mrs. Cl---, of S---, in the county of S---, had a beloved daughter, who had been a long time ill, and received no benefit from her physicians. She dreamed that a friend of hers deceased, told her, that if she gave her daughter a drench of yew pounded, that she would recover; she gave her the drench, and it killed her. Whereupon she grew almost distracted: her chamber maid to complement her, and mitigate her grief, said surely that could not kill her, she would adventure to take the same herself; she did so, and died also. This was about the year 1670, or 1671. I knew the family.

A Gentlewoman, of my acquaintance, dreamed, that if she slept again, the house would be in danger to be robbed. She kept awake, and anon thieves came to break open the house, but were prevented.

J. H. Esq.* being at West-Lavington with the Earl of Abbingdon, dreamed, December the 9th, his mother rose up in mourning: and anon the Queen appeared in mourning. He told his dream the next morning to my Lord, and his Lordship imparted it to me (then there) Tuesday, December 11. In the evening came a messenger, post from London, to acquaint Mr. H. that his mother was dangerously ill: he went to London the next day; his mother lived but about eight days longer. On Saturday, December 15, the Queen was taken ill, which turned to the small pox, of which she died, December 28, about two o'clock in the morning.

J. H. Against these initials there is a note in the copy of the first edition already referred to, in these words,-" James Herbert: He saies he was never there."

Sir Thomas White, Alderman of London, was a very rich man, charitable and public spirited. He dreamt that he had founded a college at a place where three elms grow out of one root. He went to Oxford, probably with that intention, and discovering some such tree near Gloucester Hall, he began to repair it, with a design to endow it. But walking afterwards by the Convent where the Bcrnardines formerly lived, he plainly saw an elm with three large bodies rising out of the same root: he forthwith purchased the ground, and endowed his college there, as it is at this day, except the additions which Arch-bishop Laud made, near the outside of which building in the garden belonging to the president, the tree is still to be seen. He made this discovery about the year 1557.

There are millions of such dreams too little taken notice of, but they have the truest dreams whose IXth house is well dignified, which mine is not: but must have some monitory dreams. The Germans are great observers of them. It is said in the life of Vavasor Powell, that he was a great observer of dreams, (p. 17 and 114, of his life) that he had many warnings from them, that God had spoken to himself and others by them; for warning, instruction, or reproof. And it is also there averred, that Angels had appeared to him. See p. 8, of his life.

In Mr. Walton's life of Sir Hen. Wotton, there is a remarkable story of the discovery of stolen plate in Oxford, by a dream which his father had at Bocton-Malherbe, in Kent. See in Ath. & Fasti. Oxon. vol. 1, p. 351,

William Penn, proprietor of Pensylvania, told me, that he went with his mother on a visit to Admiral Dean's wife, who lived then in Petty- France; the Admiral was then at sea. She told them, that, the night before, she had a perfect dream of her husband, whom she saw walking on the deck, and giving directions, and that a cannon bullet struck his arm into his side. This dream did much discompose her, and within forty-eight hours she received news of the fight at sea, and that her husband was killed in the very manner aforesaid.

Sir Berkley Lucy sold the fabric of the chapel of Netley Abbey, to one Taylor, a carpenter of Southampton, who took off the roof, and pulled down great part of the walls. During the time that this Taylor was in treaty for the chapel, he was much disturbed in his sleep with frightful dreams, and as some say, apparitions; and one, night he dreamt that a large stone, out of one of the windows of the chapel, fell upon him and killed him. The undertaker, though staggered with these intimations, finished his agreement, and soon after fell to work on pulling down the chapel; but he was not far advanced in it, when, endeavouring with a pickax to get out some stones at the bottom of the west wall, in which there was a large window, the whole body of the window fell down suddenly upon him, and crushed him to pieces. Willis's Mitred Abbeys, vol. 2, p. 205, 6.

Jan. 1774. One Daniel Healy, of Donaghmore, in Ireland, having three different times dreamed that money lay concealed under a large stone in a field near where he lived, procured some workmen to assist him in removing it, and when they had dug as far as the foundation, it fell suddenly and killed Healy on the spot.

March 25, 1779. This morning A. B. dreamt that he saw his friend 0. D. throw himself from a bridge into a river, and that he could not be found. The same evening, reading Dr. Geddes's account of Ignatius Loyola, p. 105, 5th tract, v. 3, he met with the following particular of him; as he was going into Bononia, he tumbled off a bridge into a moat full of mud; this circumstance was quite new. Every tittle of the above is strictly true, as the writer will answer it to God.-- To what can be attributed so singular an impression upon the imagination when sleeping ?

**Comical History of three Dreamers.

Three companions, of whom two were Tradesmen and Townsmen, and the third a Villager, on the score of devotion, went on pilgrimage to a noted sanctuary; and as they went on their way, their provision began to fail them, insomuch that they had nothing to eat,, but a little flour, barely sufficient to make of it a very small loaf of bread. The tricking townsmen seeing this, said between them-selves, we have but little bread, and this companion of ours is a great eater -- on which account it is necessary we should think how we may eat this little bread without him. When they had made it and set it to bake, the tradesmen seeing in what manner to cheat the countryman, said: let us all sleep, and let him that shall have the most marvellous dream betwixt all three of us, eat the bread. This bargain being agreed upon, and settled between them, they laid down to sleep. The countryman, discovering the trick of his companions, drew out the bread half baked, eat it by himself, and turned again to sleep. In a while, one of the tradesmen, as frightened by a marvellous dream, began to get up, and was asked by his companion, why he was so frightened ? he answered, I am frightened and dreadfully surprized by a marvellous dream: it seemed to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried me before the throne of God with great joy: his companion said: this is a marvellous dream, but I have seen another more marvellous, for I saw two Angels, who carried me over the earth to Hell. The countryman hearing this, made as if he slept; but the townsmen, desirous to finish their trick, awoke him; and the countryman, artfully as one surprised, answered: Who are these that call me ? They told him, we are thy companions. He asked them: How did you return ? They answered: We never went hence; why d'ye talk of our return ? The countryman replied: It appeared to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried one of you before our Lord God, and dragged the other over the earth to Hell, and I thought you never would return hither, as I have never heard that any had returned from Paradise, nor from Hell, and so I arose and eat the bread by myself.- From an old edition of Lasarillo de Tormes.

APPARITIONS.

CYNTHIA, Propertius's mistress, did appear to him after her death, with the beryl-ring on her finger. See Propertius, eleg. 7. lib.

"Sunt aliquid manes, letum non omnia finit,
Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.
Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro,
Murmur ad extremae nuper humata viae:
Quum mihi ab exequiis somnus penderet amaris.
Et quererer lecti frigida regna mei.
Eosdem habuit secum, quibus est elata, capillos,
Eosdem oculos. Lateri vestis adusta fuit.
Et solitum digito beryllon adederat ignis,
Summaque Lethoeus triverat ora liquor:
Spirantisque animos, & vocem misit, at illi
Pollicibus fragiles increpuere manus."

Thus translated by Mr. DART.

Manes exist, when we in death expire,
And the pale shades escape the funeral fire;
For Cynthia's form beside my curtain's stood,
Lately interr'd near Aniens' murm'ring flood.
Thoughts of her funeral would, not let me close
These eyes, nor seek the realms of still repose;
Around her shoulders wav'd her flowing hair,
As living Cynthia's tresses soft and fair:
Beauteous her eyes as those once fir'd my breast,
Her snowy bosom bare, and sing'd her breast.
Her beryl-ring retain'd the fiery rays,
Spread the pale flame, and shot the funeral blaze;
As late stretch'd out the bloodless spectre stood,
And her dead lips were wet with Lethe's flood.
She breath'd her soul, sent forth her voice aloud,
And chaf'd her hands as in some angry mood.

St. Augustin affirms that he did once see a satyr or daemon.

The antiquities of Oxford tell us, that St. Edmund, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, did sometimes converse with an angel or nymph, at a spring without St. Clement's parish near Oxford; as Numa Pompilius did with the nymph Egeria. This well was stopped up since Oxford was a garrison.

Charles the Simple, King of France, as he was hunting in a forest, and lost his company, was frighted to simplicity by an apparition.