The Arkansas advocate., 1832-02-08
DREAMS


 DREAMS.
 A man who is the least inclined to upelstition, may beexcused, fiat times, he. gives some credence 10 either the brilliant or the gloomy dreams which sometimes assall him. Modern philos- ophy, armed with its hopeless scepti- cIsm, has vainly sought to banish among crowd of fables, those features which will prove the intellectual existence of man, during his sleep; on the other hand, there were many respectable personages of antiquity, philosophers, as we'll as commanders of armies. with the most eminent writers of Greece and Rome, who thought 1t their duty to have faith in dreams on which might depend the safety ofa people, a city, or an army; so that, without blushng, we might become credalous after the manner of Xenophon, Simonides, Gas sius, Cesar, or Plato. But without wading back so far though the flood of time, to search for celebrated dreams, we need only cite few, which ap- proach nearer to the present period.
 Maldonat, Jesuit, had formed de- design ofundertaking commentary on the four Gospels; for several nights he thought he beheld man who exhorted him to go on speedily with his work, and assured him that he would not live long after it was finished. This mana t the saue time, pointed out to him cer- tain part of his stomach in which Mal- donat experienced violent bangs, and Of which he died, very soon after his work was concluded.
 X man, who did not know one word of Greek, went out to seek Saumase, and showed him some certain words, which he had heard in the night in a dream, and which he had written in Trench characters. He asked him if he knew what those words expressed? Saumaise told him that, in Greek. they signified, "Go thy ways. dost thou not see that death threatens thee!" The dreamer returned 10 his house, which fell down the following night.
 A learned man of Dion, being ia tigned all day with studying neparticu- lar passage ina Greek poet, without be- ing able to comprehend it, wentat length to bed, and fell asleep. He fancied himself transported in dream to the palace of Christianna. at Stockholm. where he visited the Queen ofSweden's library, and perceived small volume. hhe he opened ii and read ten Greek yer ses, which solved all the difficulty he had .laboured under. His joy awaken ed him:he rose, noted downwhat hehad just read, and, finding the adventure oI so extraordinary a nature, he wrote to Deseartes, who was then with the Queen in Sweden, and described to him all the particulars of his dream.- Descartes replied to him, telling that the most skillful engineer could not have drawn the plan of the palace bet ter, nor the library, than he had done in his letter; that he had foundthe book in question on the tablet he had pointed out; that he had therein read the yer ses mentioned hyhim, andthathe would send him the work at the first .opportu- nity.
 Marshal Villars, at the age of six teen, was cornet in cavalry regi ment. One night he was on the ad- vance guard il. camp, aud was warm ing himselfbefore awretched fire. when he heard loud voice calling to him to join and mount his horse with his escort. The youthful warrior paid but little attention to this order, but still heheard thevoice, & aninvisible hand seizedhin by his cloak. ViIlars then obeyed, and scarce was, he advanced few pace: distant with his men, than the place he had left blew up with terrible explo sion. The enemy, ,inabandoning theter 1 ritory which was threatened by the French army, buried some barrels 0 gunpowder, which they were unable t Icarry away. The soldiers belongin! ] to Villars had lighted their fire precise