Shall we say that Xenophon does not speak truth,
or is too extravagant? What! so great a personage, and so divine a
spirit as Aristotle, can he be deceived? Or does he wish to deceive
others, when he tells us of Eudemus of Cyprus, one of his friends,
wishing to go into Macedonia, passed by Pheres, a celebrated town in
Thessaly, which at that time was under the dominion of the tyrant
Alexander; and that having fallen very sick, he saw in a dream a very
handsome young man, who told him that he would cure him, and that the
tyrant Alexander would shortly die, but as to himself, he would return
home at the end of five years. Aristotle remarks that the two first
predictions were, indeed, soon accomplished; that Eudemus recovered, and
that the tyrant was killed by his wife's brothers; but that at the
expiration of five years, the time at which it was hoped Eudemus,
according to the dream, was to return to Sicily, his native country,
news were received that he had been killed in a combat near Syracuse;
which gave rise to another interpretation of the dream, namely, that,
when the spirit or soul of Eudemus left his body, it went thence
straight to his own house.
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