[86]
Macrobius mentions five sorts of dreams. 1st. vision--2nd. a discovery
of something between sleeping and waking--3rd. a suggestion cast into
our fancy, called by Cicero, _visum_,--4th. an ordinary dream--and
fifth, a divine apparition or revelation in our sleep; such as were the
dreams of the prophets, and of Joseph, as also of the Eastern Magi.
CAUSE OF DREAMS.
Avicen makes the cause of dreams to be an ultimate intelligence moving
the moon in the midst of that light with which the fancies of men are
illuminated while they sleep. Aristotle refers the cause of them to
common sense, but placed in the fancy. Averroes, an Arabian physician,
places it in the imagination; Democritus ascribes it to little images,
or representations, separated from the things themselves; Plato among
the specific and concrete notions of the soul; Albertus to the superior
influences, which continually flow from the sky, through many specific
channels.
Some physicians attribute the cause of dreams to vapours and humours,
and the affections and cares of persons predominant when awake; for, say
they, by reason of the abundance of vapours, which are exhaled in
consequence of immoderate feeding, the brain is so stuffed by it, that
monsters and strange chimera are formed, of which the most inordinate
eaters and drinkers furnish us with sufficient instances.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207