h Dreams of Feare, and raiseth
the thought and Image of some fearfull object (the motion from the
brain to the inner parts, and from the inner parts to the Brain being
reciprocall:) and that as Anger causeth heat in some parts of the Body,
when we are awake; so when we sleep, the over heating of the same parts
causeth Anger, and raiseth up in the brain the Imagination of an Enemy.
In the same manner; as naturall kindness, when we are awake causeth
desire; and desire makes heat in certain other parts of the body; so
also, too much heat in those parts, while wee sleep, raiseth in the
brain an imagination of some kindness shewn. In summe, our Dreams are
the reverse of our waking Imaginations; The motion when we are awake,
beginning at one end; and when we Dream, at another.
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 industriously layes
himselfe to sleep, in case any uncouth and exorbitant fancy come unto
him, cannot easily think it other than a Dream. We read of Marcus
Brutes, (one that had his life given him by Julius Caesar, and was also
his favorite, and notwithstanding murthered him,) how at Phillipi,
the night before he gave battell to Augustus Caesar, he saw a fearfull
apparition, which is commonly related by Historians as a Vision: but
considering the circumstances, one may easily judge to have been but
a short Dream. For sitting in his tent, pensive and troubled with the
horrour of his rash act, it was not hard for him, slumbering in the
cold, to dream of that which most affrighted him; which feare, as by
degrees it made him wake; so also it must needs make the Apparition by
degrees to vanish: And having no assurance that he slept, he could have
no cause to think it a Dream, or any thing but a Vision. And this is no
very rare Accident: for even they that be perfectly awake, if they be
timorous, and supperstitious, possessed with fearfull tales, and alone
in the dark, are subject to the like fancies, and believe they see
spirits and dead mens Ghosts walking in Churchyards; whereas it is
either their Fancy onely, or els the knavery of such pe
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