"Let not thy pinion o'er mine eyes be spread, But a soft influence from thy rod be shed †."

* Metamor. Lib. ii 1. 364.

† Statius Sylv. L. v. Consult also Imagin, Deor. P. 121.

Sleep was generally regarded as a female figure with black expanded'wings, she was also sculptured as holding in her left hand a white child, and in her right hand a black child with distorted feet, the former being the image of sleep, the latter of death. A very common notion that prevailed was, that visions rose from the regions below. The queen, according to the present reading of the Hecuba of Euripides, thus addresses the earth:

"Venerable earth Parent of dreams that flit on raven wing*."

*Woodhull's Trans.

Hecub.

Mr. Porson, in his late valuable edition, proposes to read,

Tor which, however, there is no sufficient reason, since the invoked immediately after by the distressed mother, might be conceived to suggest ill-omened dreams, which were commonly supposed to arise from the earth, and in a more direct way than the scholiast on Euripides derives them when he says,

From the earth comes meat, from meat sleep, from sleep dreams.

As various were the opinions of the ancients concerning the residence of the imaginary deity of sleep, Homer places it in Lemnos, Ovid among the Cimmerians, Statius among the Æthiopians, Philostratus describes it as abiding in the cave of Amphiaraus, where was the gate of Sleep, and where day and night were represented by a figure in which the white vest was drawn over the black; where Sleep was exhibited in a four wheeled carriage: it was with allusion, probably, to the four paths of the watches of the night.

The notions concerning the origin and cause of dreams were diverse as the authors who treated of them, among whom were Aristotle, Themistius, Artemklorus, Democritus, Lucretius, and others. Some of these writers supposed them to be formed of spectres, or images, emitted from corporeal things, which floating in the air, permeated, as it were, to the mind; some fancied them to be divine intimations, and others, with an unintelligible jargon, "aethereal essences."

Whatever were the notions as to the productive and efficient cause of dreams, the ancients watched for them with considerable anxiety, and endeavoured by every observance to procure such as might be clear and distinct.

The or morning dream, was particularly regarded as significant on the idea expressed by Pope:

" What time the mora mysterious visions brings, While purer slumbers spread their golden wings." upon the conviction mentioned by Pliny, that a dream was never true which obtained after eating and drinking; it was not unusual to fast a day, and to abstain from wine three days, before a divine dream was sought.

It was customary also for those who wished to obtain inspired dreams, to lie down after the performance of religious rites upon the skins of beasts sacrificed, in expectation of the divine suggestions, as was the case at the temples of Amphiaraus in Attica, Æsculapius in Pergamos, of Serapis in Canopus, and others; as also at that of Faunus, of which to learn from Virgil that the shades were "renown'd for prophecy, Which near Albunea's sulph'rous fountain lie. To these the Latian, and the Sabine band, Fly when distress'd, and thence relief demand. The priest on skins of offerings takes lis case, And nightly visions in his slumbers sees; A swarm of thin etherial shapes appears, And flutt'ring round his temples deals his ears. These he consults the futnre fates to know From power's above, and from the fiends below."

And here the poet represents Latinus to have repaired for directions to the god concerning the disposal of his daughter, when solicited in marriage by Æneas and Turnus.

The idea of thus obtaining revelation was derived from some acquaintance with the Hebrew modes of procuring communications from God. Strabo represents the temple of Jerusalem as a place where divine dreams were imparted, and it is probable that, as Mr. Pope observes, he had received some information of the visions of the prophets, as of that which Samuel had concerning the destruction of Eli's house, or that which Solomon obtained after having sacrificed before the ark. It should be remembered, however, that Isaiah reprehends as an idolatrous practice, the custom of sleeping among the graves and monuments for the sake of dreams *.

Whatever difference of sentiment prevailed as to the origin of dreams, there was a general concurrence of popular opinion both among Greeks and Romans, as well as eastern nations, not only that they bore a relation to future events, but that where they were inauspicious in their denunciations the omen might be averted by supplications and sacrifices, and the calamities which they were supposed to portend be avoided, Brizo, the goddess of sleep or dreams, was worshipped with divine honors and sacrifices, and her votaries slept in her temple at Delos with their heads bound with laurel, or other fatidical appendages. The Sun was addressed with conciliating prayers, as its beams dispersed the dreams of the night. Supplica-tions were offered up to Mercury at the conclusion of festivals for a night of good dreams, and images of that deity with his Caduceus was placed at the feet of beds, hence called

* Isaiah Ixv. 4, in the Septuagint, it is