The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-16 00:00:00

GETTNTHBAN'S DREA3L

The same year (688), while Grunthran, King of the
Franks, being weary with hunting, was sleeping in his
armour-bearer's lap, near a stream of water, the armour-
bearer saw a little animal issue out of the King's mouth.
And as it wished to cross the stream and could not do so,
the armour-bearer placed his sword across the water, and
so made it a path to go and return. And when it came
back into the King's mouth, he awoke and said that he
bad dreamed that he was passing over an iron bridge, and
-said that he had seen great treasures under a certain
mountain. And when he went to the mountain, in ac-
lcordance with the faith he placed in his dream, he did find
great treasures there ; and when he had acquired them he
affropriated them to the uses of the Church.

Here we see that, for the benefit of the Church
or -which the venerable Matthew was no doubt a
aistinguished ornament, King Grunthran had a
dream, in some degree akin to the renowned Irish
echo, Which, on being asked a question, instead of
repeating it as ordinary ill-bred and common-place echoes would do, returns to the astonished in-
terrogator an answer in the affirmative or negative,
according to the condition of its temper for the
time
.being. So the King's dream is partly an
imagination and partly a matter of very question-
able fact. If the historical veracity of the
garrulous Benedictine is open to animadversion in
relation to the above incident, however, what shall
eve make of the following case of the

REDEMPTION OP TiE EMPETWE TTIAJAN.
A.D. 605. Which is the second year of the reign of
Phocus, the blessed Gregory departed from this life to the
lord. This blessed man, while still alive, was once walk-
ing Through the foram of Trajan, the Emperor, which he
had himself adorned with beautiful edifices, and recollect-
ing a judgment of his with which he had consoled a widow,
US a reward for this great humanity of the Emperor, he
Ivent in haste to the church of the holy Apostle Peter,
and there it is related that he wept a long time for the
=belief and error of that most merciful Emperor, till, on
the next night, he received an answer that he had been
heard on behalf of Trajan, on condition of never again
praying for any other Pagan. And we are to believe that
thus the soul of Trajan was delivered from the torments
of hell. In fact, the same fire of Gehenna, if it is able
equally to detain many prisoners, at the same time is able,
by the mercy of God, to avoid inflicting on all of them
equal punishment. For souls in Gehenna feel torture ac-
cording to the degree of their guilt.

These and such as these, then, it would appear
are what are called monkish legends, many of
which are, by authority of the Romish Church,
held forth as of, or nearly of equal authority with
the Holy Scriptures. Instances, equally absurd
with those narrated above, might easily be multi-
plied relative to the wonder-working powers of
/many of the canonized Romanists, both out of
this and other works, but we do not feel inclined
to trace the subject further for the present. We
should, however, be doing an injustice -to the
-value of the volume before us (which is the first
12,1 a series of two) did we permit it to be supposed
that nothing more important than the quotations
we have made are to be found within its pages.
-:',,t,a1137 important facts are narrated in these
laudation- c les, generally in a style of exaggerated
t,,,e, or of unnecessary detraction, yet still
s,l;7.v_it'r enunciation affording a clue to truthful
2'4 /Jo",ration.
d Family Abroad. By Charles Lever.
Amman. London Chapman and Hall.
twelfth the serials for the present month, the
number of Lever's " Dodd Family Abroad"
is distinguishedioity of its by the _pungency and telling caus-
breadth of iisarcasm, coupled with a naiveti and
of rivalry. Our which meets with few instances
glimpse bo,;n.number opens with an incidental
dramai-7,"; Jae curtain, while a great matrimo-
the Dodd fainirsl. concocted by the members of
iale object of which is an attempt
to inveigle a Ge
3/a3.7 Ann.. baron into a marriage with
Lue plot, 911 the part or the