the man himself whereby he knoweth
that his vision is God's true revelation and not the devil's false
delusion.

VINCENT: Indeed, uncle, I think that would be a hard question to
him. Can a man, uncle, have in such a thing even a very sure
knowledge of his own mind?

ANTHONY: Yea, cousin, God may cast into the mind of a man, I
suppose, such an inward light of understanding that he cannot fail
but be sure thereof. And yet he who is deluded by the devil may
think himself as sure and yet be deceived indeed. And such a
difference is there in a manner between them, as between the sight
of a thing while we are awake and look thereon, and the sight with
which we see a thing in our sleep while we dream thereof.

VINCENT: This is a pretty similitude, uncle, in this thing! And
then is it easy for the monk that we speak of to declare that he
knoweth his vision for a true revelation and not a false delusion,
if there be so great a difference between them.

ANTHONY: Not so easy yet, cousin, as you think it would be. For
how can you prove to me that you are awake?

VINCENT: Marry, lo, do I not now wag my hand, shake my head, and
stamp with my foot here on the floor?

ANTHONY: Have you never dreamed ere this that you have done the
same?

VINCENT: Yes, that have I, and more too than that. For I have ere
this in my sleep dreamed that I doubted whether I were asleep or
awake, and have in good faith thought that I did thereupon even
the same things that I do now indeed, and thereby determined that
I was not asleep. And yet have I dreamed in good faith further,
that I have been afterward at dinner and there, making merry with
good company, have told the same dream at the table and laughed
well at it, to think that while I was asleep I had by such means
of moving the parts of my body and considering thereof, so verily
thought myself awake!

ANTHONY: And will you not now soon, think you, when you wake and
rise, laugh as well at yourself when you see that you lie now in
your warm bed asleep again, and dream all this time, while you
believe so verily that you are awake and talking of these matters
with me?

VINCENT: God's Lord, uncle, you go now merrily to work with me
indeed, when you look and speak so seriously and would make me
think I were asleep!

ANTHONY: It may be that you are, for anything that you can say or
do whereby you can, with any reason that you make, drive me to
confess that you yourself be sure of the