HKB
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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · perception and the senses · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · the passions and the emotions · the fear of death · reason and the intellect · omens, portents, and signs · language, naming, and meaning · dream interpretation · will, choice, and freedom · justice as a virtue · the problem of evil and theodicy
Usually: narrative (48) · argument (43) · wonder (40) · curiosity (39) · skepticism (39) · detachment (38) · crisis of belief (32) · confronting death (26) · the test or trial (21) · reflection (17)
“Venus, if it be your will You in this garden thus to transfigure Before me sorrowful wretched creature, Out of this prison help that we may scape.” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · vivid
“And it is not likely all thy life To standen in her grace, no more than I” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · insight
“But finally the king asked the knight The virtue of this courser, and the might, And prayed him to tell his governance.” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · observation
“And therewith I anon abraid Out of my sleepe, half afraid; Rememb’ring well what I had seen, And how high and far I had been In my ghost; and had great wonder Of what the mighty god of thunder Had let me know; and gan to write Like as ye have me heard endite.” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · vivid
“And he that Mover is of all That is, and was, and ever shall, So give them joye that it hear, Of alle that they dream to-year;” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · precept
“Jovis holds it great humbless, And virtue eke, that thou wilt make A-night full oft thy head to ache, In thy study so thou writest, And evermore of love enditest,” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · insight
“For he that taketh pains, and industriously layes himselfe to sleep, in case any uncouth and exorbitant fancy come unto him, cannot easily think it other than a Dream.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan · observation
“If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away, and with it, Prognostiques from Dreams, false Prophecies, and many other things depending thereon, by which, crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people, men would be much more fitted than they are for civill Obedience.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan · insight
“And it is manifest, that there neither is, nor can bee any Image made of a thing Invisible.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan · insight
“But as to the vision of which I am speaking, there are no means of bringing it about; only we must behold it when our Lord is pleased to present it before us, as He wills and what He wills;” Teresa of Ávila, Saint, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our · insight
“Being thus in distress such as cannot be described, at the mere hearing interiorly these words, "It is I, be not afraid," her soul became so calm, courageous, and confident” Teresa of Ávila, Saint, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our · vivid
“Accordingly if this excess of humor be due to a sinful cause (for instance excessive eating or drinking), nocturnal pollution has the character of sin from its cause: whereas if the excess or disintegration of these superfluities be not due to a sinful cause, nocturnal pollution is not sinful, neither in itself nor in its cause.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) · insight
A Minerva-made vision in the likeness of Iphthime tells Penelope to stop crying because her son will return, and meanwhile the suitors sail with intent to murder Telemachus near Asteris between Ithaca and Samos.
make Penelope leave off crying, so it came into her room by the hole through which the thong went for pulling the door to, and hovered over her head saying, “You are asleep, Penelope: the gods who live at ease will not suffer you to weep and be so sad. Your son has done them no wrong, so he will yet come back to you.” Penelope, who was sleeping sweetly at the gates of dreamland, answered, “Sister, why have you come…
Hermes appears again in a dream to spur Aeneas to flee before Dido’s revenge, and Aeneas wakes his men to weigh anchors and sail at once as night still covers the shore.
brooded in her anxious breast. On board, the Trojan found more easy rest. Resolv’d to sail, in sleep he pass’d the night; And order’d all things for his early flight. To whom once more the winged god appears; His former youthful mien and shape he wears, And with this new alarm invades his ears: “Sleep’st thou, O goddess-born! and canst thou drown Thy needful cares, so near a hostile town, …
He records personal attempts to rationally look at supposed celestial and angelic apparitions, and describes how crowds accept visions as real even when he sees only clouds.
So hypochondriac fancies represent Ships, armies, battles in the firmament; Till steady eyes the exhalations solve, And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve. I could fill this account with the strange relations such people gave every day of what they had seen; and every one was so positive of their having seen what they pretended to see, that there was no contradicting them without breach of fri…
As Marcius’s plan forms, Rome suffers political turmoil and omens; a dream-vision attributed to Jupiter’s instruction warns the senate about a “bad dancer” in its procession, interpreted through a harsh slave punishment involving Jupiter’s ceremony.
He then proceeded to feast and entertain him with every display of kindness, and for several days after they were in close deliberation together on the prospects of a war. While this design was forming, there were great troubles and commotions at Rome, from the animosity of the senators against the people, heightened just now by the late condemnation of Marcius. Besides that, their soothsayers and priests, and even…
During Pyrrhus’s assaults at Sparta, Acrotatus rescues and repels Ptolemy and Gauls near the wagons/trench; Pyrrhus interprets a dream as a sign of storming the city, and prepares for a second attack.
became Spartans. As for Chilonis, she retired with a halter about her neck, resolving to die so rather than fall into the hands of Cleonymus, if the city were taken. Pyrrhus himself, in person, advanced with his foot to force through the shields of the Spartans ranged against him, and to get over the trench, which was scarce passable, because the looseness of the fresh earth afforded no firm footing for the soldiers…
Investigations after the re-establishment of security lead to torture and executions, including Proculus’ forced silence under a dream-induced refusal to name innocents and further condemnations.
for his feeble limbs, so that he would expose numbers to be implicated in the accusations of atrocious crimes. But the result proved quite different to what had been expected. 2. For remembering a dream in which he had been forbidden, while asleep, as he affirmed, to accuse any innocent person, though he should be tortured till he was brought to the very point of death, he neither informed against, nor even named an…
A.D. 375 is introduced with omens and portents (especially at Antioch) that signal Emperor Valens’s death, including ominous cries urging him to be burned alive and prophetic visions.
was giving Bellona the Furies for her allies, and arming her for war; and now transferred our disasters to the East, as many presages and portents foreshowed by undoubted signs. 2. For after many true prophecies uttered by diviners and augurs, dogs were seen to recoil from howling wolves, and the birds of night constantly uttered querulous and mournful cries; and lurid sunrises made the mornings dark. Also, at Antio…
Durkheim summarizes Tylor’s animist theory that the idea of the soul arises from dreams and other cases of temporary insensibility, treating the soul as a double that can leave the body.
LEADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY RELIGION I.--*Animism* Armed with this definition, we are now able to set out in search of this elementary religion which we propose to study. Even the crudest religions with which history and ethnology make us acquainted are already of a complexity which corresponds badly with the idea sometimes held of primitive mentality. One finds there not only a confused system of belief…
He concludes that while they must be mentioned, Spencer’s theory is inadequate for explaining the general religion of nature, and he turns to testing Tylor’s classic animist hypotheses.
that of the animals which preceded them in evolution; then it cannot be for lack of discernment that they passed from the cult of ancestors to the cult of things. According to Spencer, who upon this point, but upon this point only, differs from Tylor, this passage was certainly due to a confusion, but to one of a different sort. It was, in a large part at least, the result of numerous errors due to language. In many…
He argues the primitive soul is not fully distinct from the body, since it is tied to bodily organs and even shares form and manifestation, implying deeper unity than Tylor’s dualism.
still remains. His hypotheses on the dream and the origin of the ideas of the soul and of spirits are still classic; it is necessary, therefore, to test their value. First of all, it should be recognized that the theorists of animism have rendered an important service to the science of religions, and even to the general history of ideas, by submitting the idea of the soul to historical analysis. Instead of following…
Durkheim challenges the idea that dreams alone generate the “double” by noting simpler alternatives and pointing out dreams of past events and shared scenes that do not fit a double moving through time.
come to believe themselves double, they cannot explain how this duality does not exclude, but rather, implies a deeper unity and an intimate interpenetration of the two beings thus differentiated. But let us admit that the idea of the soul can be reduced to the idea of a double, and then see how this latter came to be formed. It could not have been suggested to men except by the experience of dreams. That they might…
He adds that the primitive need not treat dreams as always literal reality, since they can observe deception during waking life, and dream contradictions would encourage seeing illusion rather than doubles.
he should regard these renewed images as merely what they really are, that is, as souvenirs like those which he has during the day, but ones of a special intensity. Moreover, in the scenes of which we are the actors and witnesses while we sleep, it constantly happens that one of our contemporaries has a rôle as well as ourselves: we think we see and hear him in the same place where we see ourselves. According to the…
In a dream, Christian is pictured leaving “this world” burdened, reading Scripture with tears and terror, asking “What shall I do?”, then discussing his fear with his wife and children and seeking answers.
therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled; and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, "What shall I do?" [Acts 2:37] {11} In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind …
After Zarathustra’s dream about gates, coffins, and mocking caricatures, a disciple interprets it as Zarathustra’s laughter opening death, and Zarathustra understands the meaning, promising a good repast and to show the soothsayer a sea for drowning.
But mine own crying awoke me:—and I came to myself.— Thus did Zarathustra relate his dream, and then was silent: for as yet he knew not the interpretation thereof. But the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly, seized Zarathustra’s hand, and said: “Thy life itself interpreteth unto us this dream, O Zarathustra! Art thou not thyself the wind with shrill whistling, which bursteth open the gates of the fortress o…
Zarathustra continues his teaching into the same vision: everything has already happened and will return eternally, until the speaker awakens alone at night and confronts the shepherd-serpent mystery.
For whatever CAN run its course of all things, also in this long lane OUTWARD—MUST it once more run!— And this slow spider which creepeth in the moonlight, and this moonlight itself, and thou and I in this gateway whispering together, whispering of eternal things—must we not all have already existed? —And must we not return and run in that other lane out before us, that long weird lane—must we not eternally return?…
At noontide Zarathustra naps under a vine-covered tree, experiences a mystical perfection and near-eclipse of time, then wakes by warning himself about sleep’s temptation and falls asleep again briefly.
Too much hath become clear unto me: now it doth not concern me any more. Nothing liveth any longer that I love,—how should I still love myself? ‘To live as I incline, or not to live at all’: so do I wish; so wisheth also the holiest. But alas! how have *I* still—inclination? Have *I*—still a goal? A haven towards which MY sail is set? A good wind? Ah, he only who knoweth WHITHER he saileth, knoweth what wind is go…
In “Invocation” and “Repression of War Experience” Sassoon contrasts heavenly beauty and remembered paradise with the intrusive horrors of war, including sounds of “whispering guns” and guilt about soldiers’ madness.
INVOCATION Come down from heaven to meet me when my breath Chokes, and through drumming shafts of stifling death I stumble toward escape, to find the door Opening on morn where I may breathe once more Clear cock-crow airs across some valley dim With whispering trees. While dawn along the rim Of night's horizon flows in lakes of fire, Come down from heaven's bright hill, my song's desire. Belov'd and faithful, teach…
Locke argues that ideas arise when a person begins to perceive, while also defending that the soul does not always think because constant thinking needs proof.
12. If a sleeping Man thinks without knowing it, the sleeping and waking Man are two Persons. The soul, during sound sleep, thinks, say these men. Whilst it thinks and perceives, it is capable certainly of those of delight or trouble, as well as any other perceptions; and IT must necessarily be CONSCIOUS of its own perceptions. But it has all this apart: the sleeping MAN, it is plain, is conscious of nothing of all …
Locke argues against a view of constant soul-thinking without recall, saying most people do not dream for long periods and can even live without dreaming until fever brings it.
14. That men dream without remembering it, in vain urged. It will perhaps be said,—That the soul thinks even in the soundest sleep, but the MEMORY retains it not. That the soul in a sleeping man should be this moment busy a thinking, and the next moment in a waking man not remember nor be able to recollect one jot of all those thoughts, is very hard to be conceived, and would need some better proof than bare asserti…
He claims that if sleeping thoughts are rational yet never remembered, they are pointless like a looking-glass; he argues the soul cannot benefit from thinking that leaves no retrievable traces.
15. Upon this Hypothesis, the Thoughts of a sleeping Man ought to be most rational. To think often, and never to retain it so much as one moment, is a very useless sort of thinking; and the soul, in such a state of thinking, does very little, if at all, excel that of a looking-glass, which constantly receives variety of images, or ideas, but retains none; they disappear and vanish, and there remain no footsteps of t…
Locke answers that dreams are often incoherent and asks whether the soul’s separate thinking is less rational; he maintains dreams draw on the waking person’s ideas, undermining innate ideas.
16. On this Hypothesis, the Soul must have Ideas not derived from Sensation or Reflection, of which there is no Appearance. It is true, we have sometimes instances of perception whilst we are asleep, and retain the memory of those thoughts: but how extravagant and incoherent for the most part they are; how little conformable to the perfection and order of a rational being, those who are acquainted with dreams need n…
Locke challenges those who say the soul always thinks, asking how they know it—especially when they do not perceive their own thinking—and calling this belief unsupported.
18. How knows any one that the Soul always thinks? For if it be not a self-evident Proposition, it needs Proof. I would be glad also to learn from these men who so confidently pronounce that the human soul, or, which is all one, that a man always thinks, how they come to know it; nay, how they come to know that they themselves think, when they themselves do not perceive it. This, I am afraid, is to be sure without p…
He argues that if the soul thinks without the man being conscious, it creates ‘two persons in one man’; he says consciousness is required and one cannot be sure he thinks when asleep.
19. That a Man should be busy in Thinking, and yet not retain it the next moment, very improbable. To suppose the soul to think, and the man not to perceive it, is, as has been said, to make two persons in one man. And if one considers well these men’s way of speaking, one should be led into a suspicion that they do so. For those who tell us that the SOUL always thinks, do never, that I remember, say that a MAN alwa…
Nietzsche remarks that expressions of eyes and muscles reflect inner states, then argues that frequent dream experiences shape desires and happiness in waking life, including a preference for “flying” over poetic flight.
play of the muscles and of the expression of the eyes MUST therefore be imagined by me. Probably the person put on quite a different expression, or none at all. 193. Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit: but also contrariwise. What we experience in dreams, provided we experience it often, pertains at last just as much to the general belongings of our soul as anything "actually" experienced; by virtue thereof we are ric…
The speaker depicts a wayside vigil, then an ever-coming God, near the end of night, asking friends to leave the way open, and describing a journey of companions into silent song.
50. I had gone a-begging from door to door in the village path, when thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream and I wondered who was this King of all kings! My hopes rose high and methought my evil days were at an end, and I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust. The chariot stopped where I stood. Thy glance fell on me and thou camest …
He argues human control over earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is minimal compared with aqueous change, illustrates the scale mismatch using Icelandic lava (1783), and highlights drainage of lakes and marshes as a major human alteration of local climate and ecosystems.
to divert the course of a lava-stream, and to prevent the burning matter, for a season, from overwhelming a city, or some other of the proudest works of human industry. If all the nations of the earth should attempt to quarry away the lava which flowed during one eruption from the Icelandic volcanoes in 1783, and the two following years, and should attempt to consign it to the deepest abysses of the ocean, they migh…
At dawn Adam awakens, finds Eve troubled, learns she dreamed of the forbidden tree and an angelic guide urging her to eat, and Adam reassures her with an explanation of dreams and evil’s limits.
Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl, When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland, which the only sound Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora’s fan, Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song Of birds on every bough; so much the more His wonder was to find unwakened Eve With tresses discomposed, …
Eve narrates how the visitor tasted the fruit and promised godlike life, how she tasted too and was lifted to clouds, then woke, while Adam concludes it was an unconsented dream with no lasting blame.
me damp horrour chilled At such bold words vouched with a deed so bold: But he thus, overjoyed; “O fruit divine, Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt, Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men: And why not Gods of Men; since good, the more Communicated, more abundant grows, The author not impaired, but honoured more? Here, happy creature, fair angelick Eve! Partake thou …
Hobbes explains imagination as “Decaying Sense,” arguing motion in the body continues unless hindered, and that waking images fade into memory, with time and distance weakening our past imaginings.
That when a thing lies still, unlesse somewhat els stirre it, it will lye still for ever, is a truth that no man doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be in motion, unless somewhat els stay it, though the reason be the same, (namely, that nothing can change it selfe,) is not so easily assented to. For men measure, not onely other men, but all other things, by themselves: and because they fi…
Continuing on imagination, Hobbes distinguishes simple and compounded imagination, claims dreams arise from internal agitation during sleep, and argues we cannot easily separate dreams from waking because both use residual bodily motion.
and signifie that the Sense is fading, old, and past, it is called Memory. So that Imagination and Memory, are but one thing, which for divers considerations hath divers names. Much memory, or memory of many things, is called Experience. Againe, Imagination being only of those things which have been formerly perceived by Sense, either all at once, or by parts at severall times; The former, (which is the imagining th…
Hobbes discusses apparitions and visions, arguing fear and superstition make people misread dreams as waking ghosts, and he links misunderstanding of dreams to Gentile religion and witch/fairy beliefs.
Apparitions Or Visions The most difficult discerning of a mans Dream, from his waking thoughts, is then, when by some accident we observe not that we have slept: which is easie to happen to a man full of fearfull thoughts; and whose conscience is much troubled; and that sleepeth, without the circumstances, of going to bed, or putting off his clothes, as one that noddeth in a chayre. For he that taketh pains, and ind…
He then redefines “inspiration” and “spirit” as God’s power and metaphorical gift-giving, not infusion of God’s substance, and explains it through dreams, visions, and inward graces.
HOLY, SACRED, AND SACRAMENT Kingdom Of God Taken By Divines Metaphorically But In The Scriptures Properly The Kingdome of God in the Writings of Divines, and specially in Sermons, and Treatises of Devotion, is taken most commonly for Eternall Felicity, after this life, in the Highest Heaven, which they also call the Kingdome of Glory; and sometimes for (the earnest of that felicity) Sanctification, which they terme…
He addresses how God speaks to prophets without literal human organs, concluding God communicates by making them understand his will, then lists biblical modes: visions and dreams in the Old Testament and visions/dreams continuing to later prophets.
places, that deliver also the signes by which they were to acknowledge his presence, and commandement; and by these may be understood, how he spake to many of the rest. To The Extraordinary Prophets Of The Old Testament He Spake By Dreams, Or Visions In what manner God spake to Adam, and Eve, and Cain, and Noah, is not expressed; nor how he spake to Abraham, till such time as he came out of his own countrey to Sich…
Hobbes distinguishes Moses’s exceptional face-to-face speaking with God at Sinai from other prophets’ dreams and visions, citing Numbers 12, Exodus 33, Acts 7, Galatians 3, and Deuteronomy 13.
and the rest of the Prophets; and often in the New Testament, as to Joseph, to St. Peter, to St. Paul, and to St. John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse. Onely to Moses hee spake in a more extraordinary manner in Mount Sinai, and in the Tabernacle; and to the High Priest in the Tabernacle, and in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple. But Moses, and after him the High Priests were Prophets of a more eminent place, and …
Hobbes explains what he means by images and phantasms, arguing they come from visible bodies and imagination or dreams, and concludes no image can be made of invisible or infinite things.
An Image What Phantasmes An IMAGE (in the most strict signification of the word) is the Resemblance of some thing visible: In which sense the Phantasticall Formes, Apparitions, or Seemings of Visible Bodies to the Sight, are onely Images; such as are the Shew of a man, or other thing in the Water, by Reflexion, or Refraction; or of the Sun, or Stars by Direct Vision in the Air; which are nothing reall in the things …
Sleep raises Morpheus, who fashions likenesses of humans; Morpheus flies to the Hæmonian city, appears as Ceyx beside Halcyone’s bed, and warns her that he has perished in the Aegean Sea.
of the vapour; and, as soon as she perceived sleep creeping over her limbs, she took to flight,[52] and departed along the bow by which she had come just before. But Father {Sleep}, out of the multitude of his thousand sons, raises Morpheus,[53] a {skilful} artist, and an imitator of {any human} shape. No one more dexterously than he mimics the gait, and the countenance, and the mode of speaking; he adds the dress, …
Months later in May, Emily prays and gathers flowers in the garden near the prison, while Palamon sees her through iron bars, instantly falls in love, and prays to Venus for escape or mercy.
*dressed For May will have no sluggardy a-night; The season pricketh every gentle heart, And maketh him out of his sleep to start, And saith, “Arise, and do thine observance.” This maketh Emily have remembrance To do honour to May, and for to rise. Y-clothed was she fresh for to devise; Her yellow hair was braided in a tress, Behind her back, a yarde long I guess. And in the garden at *the sun uprist* …
After being released from prison but forbidden to return, Arcite becomes ill and emaciated in Thebes, then dreams Mercury orders him to Athens, where he disguises himself as a laborer and enters Emily’s household.
may ride or go, But see his lady shall he never mo’. Now deem all as you liste, ye that can, For I will tell you forth as I began. When that Arcite to Thebes comen was, Full oft a day he swelt*, and said, “Alas!” *fainted For see this lady he shall never mo’. And shortly to concluden all his woe, So much sorrow had never creature That is or shall be while the world may dure. His sleep, his meat, …
After the feast the company sleeps while the nurse of digestion and blood domininates, and Canace wakes early, takes her ring and mirror, and has a vision that prompts her to rise before sunrise.
rehearse their array? Each man wot well, that at a kinge’s feast Is plenty, to the most*, and to the least, *highest And dainties more than be in my knowing. At after supper went this noble king To see the horse of brass, with all a rout Of lordes and of ladies him about. Such wond’ring was there on this horse of brass, That, since the great siege of Troye was, There as men wonder’d on a horse also, Ne’er was there …
Croesus interprets his dream through his daughter Phanie, is ultimately executed despite being spared earlier, and the poem continues with exempla of Fortune’s cruelty against various rulers.
his daughter that stood him beside, Which he knew in high science to abound, He bade her tell him what it signified; And she his dream began right thus expound. “The tree,” quoth she, “the gallows is to mean, And Jupiter betokens snow and rain, And Phoebus, with his towel clear and clean, These be the sunne’s streames* sooth to sayn; *rays Thou shalt y-hangeth be, father, certain; Rain shall the…
Chanticleer the rooster groans after dreaming he is attacked by a hound-like beast, and Partelote anxiously chides him for fear and urges him to explain the dream.
In sweet accord, *“My lefe is fare in land.”* <6> *my love is For, at that time, as I have understand, gone abroad* Beastes and birdes coulde speak and sing. And so befell, that in a dawening, As Chanticleer among his wives all Sat on his perche, that was in the hall, And next him sat this faire Partelote, This Chanticleer gan groanen in his throat, As man that in his dream is dretched* sore, *oppr…
Partelote argues dreams are caused by bodily excess—especially choler and melancholy—and prescribes purging herbs from their yard, while Chanticleer is warned to avoid hot sun and possible fevers.
unlike the remnant of his hairs. His snout was small, with glowing eyen tway; Yet of his look almost for fear I dey;* *died This caused me my groaning, doubteless.” “Away,” <7> quoth she, “fy on you, hearteless!* *coward Alas!” quoth she, “for, by that God above! Now have ye lost my heart and all my love; I cannot love a coward, by my faith. For certes, what so any woman saith, We all desiren, if it…
Invoking the god of Sleep, the dreamer lays out possible causes of dreams, then falls asleep and reports dreaming of a glass temple of Venus whose golden portraits recount Aeneas and lead into the eagle’s descent.
I trowe steadfastly, *dreamed So wonderful a dream as I, The tenthe day now of December; The which, as I can it remember, I will you tellen ev’ry deal.* *whit But at my beginning, truste weel,* *well I will make invocation, With special devotion, Unto the god of Sleep anon, That dwelleth in a cave of stone, <3> Upon a stream that comes from Lete, That is a flood of hell unsweet, Besid…
The dreamer leaves the temple into a sandy Libyan-like desert, sees a huge golden eagle descending, and is seized and carried upward in the eagle’s claws.
went, Me carrying in his clawes stark* *strong As light as I had been a lark, How high, I cannot telle you, For I came up, I wist not how. The poet faints through bewilderment and fear; but the eagle, speaking with the voice of a man, recalls him to himself, and comforts him by the assurance that what now befalls him is for his instruction and profit. Answering the poet’s unspoken inquiry whether he is not to die ot…
The vision escalates into a chaotic crowd scene of people climbing and stamping, and the narrator awakens, astonished at the thunder-god’s revelation, then resolves to study and write daily.
leap, And clomb* upon each other fast, <88> *climbed And up the noise on high they cast, And trodden fast on others’ heels, And stamp’d, as men do after eels. But at the last I saw a man, Which that I not describe can; But that he seemed for to be A man of great authority. And therewith I anon abraid* *awoke Out of my sleepe, half afraid; Rememb’ring well what I had seen, And how…
Cellini contracts violent fever in Rome, has leading doctors call in and is urged not to bleed too late, while attendants and friends watch his strange delirium and a supposed apparition of an old man.
LXXXIII WHEN I returned to bed, I felt so agitated that I could not get to sleep again. My mind was made up to let blood as soon as day broke. However, I asked advice of Messer Gaddi, and he referred to a wretched doctor-fellow he employed, [1] who asked me if I had been frightened. Now, just consider what a judicious doctor this was, after I had narrated an occurrence of that gravity, to ask me such a question! He …
In dreams a lovely youth/angel warns Cellini not to spoil the body before its time, after which Cellini improvises writing from broken brick and writes a dialogue poem to comfort himself and strengthen his resolve.
to find what could have diverted me from that design of suicide, I came to the conclusion that it must have been some power divine and my good guardian angel. Note 1. A Florentine, banished in 1530 for having been in arms against the Medici. CXIX DURING the following night there appeared to me in dreams a marvellous being in the form of a most lovely youth, who cried, as though he wanted to reprove me: “Knowest th…
M'Queen leaves to preach at Bracadale, Johnson stays at Dunvegan until Wednesday, and Johnson discusses letters about second sight in Sky, skepticism toward tradition, and language as national evidence.
the seat of a Highland chief: it has the sea, islands, rocks, hills, a noble cascade; and when the family is again in opulence, something may be done by art. Mr Donald M'Queen went away today, in order to preach at Bracadale next day. We were so comfortably situated at Dunvegan, that Dr Johnson could hardly be moved from it. I proposed to him that we should leave it on Monday. 'No, sir,' said he, 'I will not go befo…
The narrator meets the admired teacher Frau Doktor M./Professor Theyer, then prepares a yellow-silk edelweiss memento and endures anxiously long waits before visiting her and becoming emotionally overwhelmed.
quite off your head first or you won’t be able to find your way to Schwindgasse. Is Hella as crazy as you are?” Of course, how can one be otherwise? January 3rd. Still 2 hours, it’s awful, Hella is coming to fetch me at half past 3. In school to-day we kept on looking at one another, and all the other girls thought it must be something to do with a man. Goodness, what do we care about a man now! We had a splendid id…
The text reports supernatural signs around Justinian—his mother’s demon conception, visions of his body changing form—and the story of a monk who refuses to meet a devil-seated emperor.
of his face come back again. What I write here I did not see myself, but I heard it told by men who were positive that they had seen it. They say, too, that a certain monk, highly in favour with God, was sent to Byzantium by those who dwelt with him in the desert, to beg that favour might be shown to their neighbours, who had been wronged and outraged beyond endurance. When he arrived at Byzantium, he straightway ob…
The king’s cupbearer describes a dream of three grape clusters pressed into the king’s cup and Joseph is asked to interpret it; Joseph predicts release within three days, along with advice to remember imprisoned friends.
dream he had, and desired he would interpret its meaning, complaining that, besides the afflictions he underwent from the king, God did also add to him trouble from his dreams. 2. He therefore said, that in his sleep he saw three clusters of grapes hanging upon three branches of a vine, large already, and ripe for gathering; and that he squeezed them into a cup which the king held in his hand; and when he had strain…
Joseph interprets the chief baker’s dream of three baskets as meaning he will be crucified on the third day, while the cupbearer will be freed; the predictions come true when Pharaoh’s birthday is celebrated.
pleasure." The cupbearer, therefore, as was natural to do, rejoiced to hear such an interpretation of his dream, and waited the completion of what had been thus shown him beforehand. 3. But another servant there was of the king, who had been chief baker, and was now bound in prison with the cupbearer; he also was in good hope, upon Joseph's interpretation of the other's vision, for he had seen a dream also; so he de…
Gideon secretly threshes wheat at a wine-press when an angel-like figure assures him of God’s favor; Gideon doubts his strength and numbers, and is promised victory through God.
tumultuously; so God bid him take these men, and attack the enemy. Accordingly they pitched their camp at the river Jordan, as ready the next day to pass over it. 4. But Gideon was in great fear, for God had told him beforehand that he should set upon his enemies in the night-time; but God, being willing to free him from his fear, bid him take one of his soldiers, and go near to the Midianites' tents, for that he sh…
In the night before the attack, Gideon is told to approach the Midianite camp; he hears a soldier’s dream about a barley cake overturning tents, which strengthens his courage.
Adjoining Nations For A Long Time. 1. Now Gideon had seventy sons that were legitimate, for he had many wives; but he had also one that was spurious, by his concubine Drumah, whose name was Abimelech, who, after his father's death, retired to Shechem to his mother's relations, for they were of that place: and when he had got money of such of them as were eminent for many instances of injustice, he came with them to …
Archelaus interprets a dream about ten ripe ears devoured by oxen as signaling worsening rule and the end of his reign, while Glaphyra has a dream of Alexander accusing her of untrustworthy womanhood; Josephus then explains he records such stories for providence and soul-immortality.
dream. Now on the fifth day after this dream came first to Archelaus, the other Archelaus, that was sent to Judea by Cæsar to call him away, came hither also. 4. The like accident befell Glaphyra his wife, who was the daughter of king Archelaus, who, as I said before, was married, while she was a virgin, to Alexander, the son of Herod, and brother of Archelaus; but since it fell out so that Alexander was slain by hi…
In a first-adventure poem, Kriemhild dreams of training a wild falcon that is torn by two eagles; she tells her mother Uta, who foresees sorrow tied to later events.
XVI "Nay," said her anxious mother, "renounce not marriage so; Would'st thou true heartfelt pleasure taste ever here below, Man's love alone can give it. Thou 'rt fair as eye can see, A fitting mate God send thee, and naught will wanting be." XVII "No more," the maiden answer'd, "no more, dear mother, say; From many a woman's fortune this truth is clear as day, That falsely smiling Pleasure wit…
Aquinas replies that angels can change human imagination because dream-visions and angelic revelations indicate angels can move imaginative contents beyond sense data.
On the other hand, the human intellect as the inferior, is strengthened by the action of the angelic intellect. And in these two ways man is enlightened by an angel. Reply Obj. 1: Two dispositions concur in the virtue of faith; first, the habit of the intellect whereby it is disposed to obey the will tending to Divine truth. For the intellect assents to the truth of faith, not as convinced by the reason, but as comm…
Aquinas argues that good or bad angels can move the human imagination by affecting animal spirits and humors, sometimes even in the awake, while imagination still depends on prior sensory impressions.
angels reveal things in dreams, as appears from Matt. 1:20; 2:13, 19 in regard to the angel who appeared to Joseph in dreams. Therefore an angel can move the imagination. *I answer that,* Both a good and a bad angel by their own natural power can move the human imagination. This may be explained as follows. For it was said above (Q. 110, A. 3), that corporeal nature obeys the angel as regards local movement, so that…
Aquinas explains how apparent transformations by demons can be false or deceptive: demons may manipulate imagination from within or create visible phantasms from without to make senses perceive what is not truly so.
return to life. And if at times something of this sort seems to be effected by the operation of demons, it is not real but a mere semblance of reality. Now this may happen in two ways. Firstly, from within; in this way a demon can work on man's imagination and even on his corporeal senses, so that something seems otherwise that it is, as explained above (Q. 111, AA. 3,4). It is said indeed that this can be done some…
Nocturnal pollution is not a sin in itself because it depends on reason’s free judgment, but it may be sinful in its cause—through prior sin, lustful thoughts, or even demonic action—or entirely non-sinful.
man, while asleep, can act according to or against his reason, and this is to do good or sinful actions, and thus it seems that nocturnal pollution is a sin. *On the contrary,* Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii, 15): "When the same image that comes into the mind of a speaker presents itself to the mind of the sleeper, so that the latter is unable to distinguish the imaginary from the real union of bodies, the flesh i…