The Book Of Curiosities Part 6

We shall proceed to some INSTANCES OF EXTRAORDINARY DREAMS.

The following account is by no means intended either to restore the reign of superst.i.tion, or to induce the reader to put faith in the numberless ridiculous interpretations, given by some pretenders to divination, of the ordinary run of dreams. The absurdity of the many traditional rules, laid down by such persons; such as, that dreaming of _eggs_ prognosticates _anger_; of the _was.h.i.+ng_ of linens, forebodes _flitting_; of green fields, _sickness_; of hanging, _honour_; of death, _marriage_; of fish, _children_; and of raw flesh, _death_, &c. &c. can only be exceeded by the folly of those who put faith in such fooleries. But instances have occurred of particular persons, whose veracity cannot be doubted, having dreams of so singular a nature, and so literally and exactly fulfilled, that it may be well to mention one or two of them, for the entertainment, at least, of the reader, if they should not contribute to his improvement.--

Mr. Richard Boyle, manufacturer, residing in Stirling, about 1781, dreamed that he saw a beautiful young woman, with a winding sheet over her arm, whose image made a deep impression on his mind. Upon telling his mother the dream, she said, you will probably marry that woman, and if you do, she will bury you. Going to Glasgow in 1783, he met with a young woman in a friend's house, exactly resembling the person he had dreamed of; and notwithstanding the disheartening interpretation he had got, and the additional discouraging circ.u.mstance told him, that she was already engaged with another young man, was sure she was to be his wife, and did not give up his pursuit till he made her his own. The melancholy part of his dream was soon fulfilled. He lived only 15 months with her; a short, but happy period. His widow, during his life, dreamed with equal exactness of her second husband, whom she did not see till three years afterwards, when the sight of him, at church, in Montrose, disturbed her devotion so much, upon recollecting her dream, that she hardly knew a word the minister said afterwards. Within less than two months, they were introduced to each other; and within four, were married.--Another young lady had dreamed so often, and so particularly, about the gentleman who afterwards married her, that at their first meeting, she started back, as if she had seen a ghost.--The editors of the Encyclopedia Perthensis declare they knew the parties concerned in the foregoing relations. But these instances of prophetic dreams, they observe, are trifling, compared to one narrated in the _Weekly Mirror_, printed at Edinburgh, in 1781, and signed _Verax_; and which, they say, they quote the more readily, as also, from personal acquaintance with the parties, they know the narrative to be true:

"In June, 1752, Mr. Robert Aikenhead, farmer, in Denstrath, of Arnhall, in the Mearns, about 5 miles north of Brechin, and 7 from Montrose, went to a market called _Tarrenty-fair_, where he had a large sum of money to receive. His eldest son, Robert, a boy about 8 years of age, was sent to take care of the cattle, and, happening to lie down upon a gra.s.sy bank before sun-set, fell fast asleep. Although the boy had never been far from home, he was immediately carried in his imagination to Tarrenty market, where, he dreamed, that his father, after receiving the money, set out on his return home, and was followed all the way by two ill-looking fellows, who, when he had got to the western d.y.k.es of Inglis-Mauldy, (the seat of the then Lord Halkerton, afterwards Earl of Kintore,) and little more than a mile from home, attacked and attempted to rob him. Whereupon the boy thought he ran to his a.s.sistance, and, when he came within a gun-shot of the place, called out some people, who were just going to bed, who put the robbers to flight. He immediately awoke in a fright, and, without waiting to consider whether it was a vision or a reality, ran as fast as he could to the place he had dreamed of, and had no sooner reached it, than he saw his father in the very spot and situation he had seen in his dream, defending himself with his stick against the a.s.sa.s.sins. He therefore immediately realized his own part of the visionary scene, by roaring out, _Murder!_ which soon brought out the people, who running up to Mr.

Aikenhead's a.s.sistance, found him victor over one of the villains, whom he had previously knocked down with a stone, after they had pulled him off his horse; but almost overpowered by the other, who repeatedly attempted to stab him with a sword; against which he had no other defence than his stick and his hands, which were considerably mangled by grasping the blade. Upon sight of the country people, the villain who had the sword ran off; but the other not being able, was apprehended and lodged in gaol.

Meantime there was no small hue and cry after young Robert, whose mother missing him, and finding the cattle among the corn, was in the utmost anxiety, concluding that he had fallen into some water or peat moss. But her joy and surprise were equally great, when her husband returned with the boy, and told her how miraculously both his money and life had been preserved by his son's dream; although she was at first startled at seeing her husband's hands b.l.o.o.d.y.

"To those who deny the existence of a G.o.d, (adds the writer,) or the superintendence of a divine providence, the above narrative will appear as fabulous as any story in Ovid. To those who measure the greatness and littleness of events by the arbitrary rules of human pride and vanity, it will perhaps appear incredible that such a miracle should have been wrought for the preservation of the life of a country farmer. But all who found their opinions upon the unerring rule of right and truth, which a.s.sures us that a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly Father, (and who know, that in the sight of Him, with whom there is no respect of persons or dignities, the life of the greatest monarch on earth, and that of the lowest of his subjects, are of equal value,) will laugh at such silly objections, when opposed to well-attested facts. That the above is one, could be attested upon oath, were it necessary, by Mr. and Mrs. Aikenhead, from whom I had all the particulars above narrated about 15 months ago.--Edinburgh, March 12, 1781."--Indeed, whoever can persuade himself that such facts as are stated above, can happen by chance, may easily adopt the system of those philosophers, who tell us that the universe was formed by the fortuitous concourse of atoms.

The t.i.tle of our next subject is curious,--POETICAL, GRAMMATICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC DEATHS.

The Emperor Adrian, dying, made that celebrated address to his soul, which is so happily translated by Pope, in the following words:

Vital spark of heav'nly flame, Quit, oh quit this mortal frame.

Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!

Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper; angels say, Sister spirit, come away.

What is this absorbs me quite?

Steals my senses, shuts my sight?

Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?

Tell me, my soul, can this be death!

The world recedes; it disappears!

Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears With sounds seraphic ring: Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!

O Grave! where is thy victory?

O Death! where is thy sting?

Lucan, when he had his veins opened by order of Nero, expired reciting a pa.s.sage from his Pharsalia, in which he has described the wound of a dying soldier. Petronius did the same thing on the same occasion.

Patris, a poet of Caen, perceiving himself expiring, composed some verses which are justly admired. In this little poem he relates a dream, in which he appeared to be placed next to a beggar, when, having addressed him in the haughty strain he would probably have employed on this side of the grave, he received the following reprimand:

"Here all are equal; now thy lot is mine!

I on my dunghill, as thou art on thine."

Des Barreaux, it is said, wrote, on his death-bed, that sonnet which is well known, and which is translated in the "Spectator."

Margaret of Austria, when she was nearly peris.h.i.+ng in a storm at sea, composed for herself the following epitaph in verse:

"Beneath this tomb is high-born Margaret laid, Who had two husbands, and yet died a maid."

She was betrothed to Charles VIII. of France, who forsook her. Being next intended for the Spanish Infant, in her voyage to Spain she wrote these lines in a storm.

Roscommon, at the moment he expired, with an energy of voice (says his biographer) that expressed the most fervent devotion, uttered two lines of his own version of "Dies Irae!"

Waller, in his last moments, repeated some lines from Virgil: and Chaucer took his farewell of all human vanities by a moral ode, ent.i.tled, "A ballad made by Geffrey Chauycer upon his dethe-bedde lying in his grete anguysse."

"The muse that has attended my course (says the dying Gleim, in a letter to Klopstock[4]) still hovers round my steps to the very verge of the grave." A collection of songs, composed by old Gleim on his death-bed, it is said, were intended to be published.

Chatellard, a French gentleman, beheaded in Scotland, for having loved the Queen, and even for having attempted her honour, Brantome says, would not have any other viatic.u.m than a poem of Ronsard. When he ascended the scaffold, he took the hymns of this poet, and for his consolation read that on death; which, he says, is well adapted to conquer its fear. He preferred the poems of Ronsard to either a prayer-book or his confessor: such was his pa.s.sion.

The Marquis of Montrose, when he was condemned by his judges to have his limbs nailed to the gates of four cities, the brave soldier said that, "he was sorry he had not limbs sufficient to be nailed to all the gates of the cities in Europe, as monuments of his loyalty." As he proceeded to his execution, he put this thought into beautiful verse.

Philip Strozzi, when imprisoned by Cosmo the First, great Duke of Tuscany, was apprehensive of the danger to which he might expose his friends, (who had joined in his conspiracy against the duke,) from the confessions which the rack might extort from him. Having attempted every exertion for the liberty of his country, he considered it no crime therefore to die. He resolved on suicide. With the point of the sword, with which he killed himself, he first engraved on the mantle-piece of the chimney, this verse of Virgil:

Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.

_Rise, some avenger, from our blood!_

Such persons realize that beautiful fiction of the ancients, who represent the swans of Cayster singing at their death; and have been compared to the nightingale singing with a thorn on its breast.

The following anecdotes are of a different complexion: they may perhaps excite a smile. We have given them the t.i.tle of GRAMMATICAL DEATHS.

Pere Bouhours was a French grammarian, who had been justly accused of paying too scrupulous an attention to the minutiae of letters. He was more solicitous of his _words_ than his _thoughts_. It is said, that when he was dying, he called out to his friends (a correct grammarian to the last,) "_Je_ VAS, _ou je_ VAIS _mourir; l'un ou l'autre se dit!_"

When Malherbe was dying, he reprimanded his nurse for making use of a solecism in her language! And when his confessor represented to him the felicities of a future state in low expressions, the dying critic interrupted him: "Hold your tongue," he said, "your wretched style only makes me out of conceit with them!"

Several persons of science have died in a scientific manner.--Haller, the greatest of physicians, beheld his end approach with the utmost composure.

He kept feeling his pulse to the last moment, and when he found that life was almost gone, he turned to his brother physician, and observed, "My friend, the artery ceases to beat,"--and almost instantly expired.

De Lagny, who was intended by his friends for the study of the law, having fallen on an Euclid, found it so congenial to his disposition, that he devoted himself to mathematics. In his last moments, when he retained no further recollection of the friends who surrounded his bed, one of them, perhaps to make a philosophical experiment, thought proper to ask him the square of 12; the dying mathematician instantly, and perhaps without knowing that he answered it, replied, "144."

The following lines, from the pen of Mrs. Barbauld, in an address to the Deity, express the desires and hopes of a real Christian in the contemplation of death:

"O when the last, the closing hour draws nigh, And earth recedes before my swimming eye; When trembling on the doubtful edge of fate, I stand, and stretch my view to either state; Teach me to quit this transitory scene With decent triumph and a look serene; Teach me to fix my ardent hopes on high, And, having liv'd to thee, in thee to die!"

The following article is not of a pleasing description, but nevertheless proper to be inserted in "The Book of Curiosities." It is ANTHROPOPHAGI, OR MEN-EATERS:

The Cyclops, the Lestrygons, and Scylla, are all represented in Homer as Anthropophagi, or man-eaters, and the female phantoms, Circe and the Syrens, first bewitched with a show of pleasure, and then destroyed. This, like the other parts of Homer's poetry, had a foundation in the manners of the times preceding his own. It was still in many places the age spoken of by Orpheus,

"When men devour'd each other like the beasts, Gorging on human flesh."

History gives us divers instances of persons driven by excess of hunger to eat their own relations. And also out of revenge and hatred, where soldiers, in the heat of battle, have been known to be carried to such an excess of rage, as to tear their enemies with their teeth.

The violence of love has sometimes produced the same effect as the excess of hatred.

Among the Essedonian Scythians, when a man's father died, his neighbours brought him several beasts, which they killed, mixed up their flesh with that of the deceased, and made a feast.

Among the Ma.s.sageti, when any person grew old, they killed him, and ate his flesh; but if the party died of sickness, they buried him, esteeming him unhappy.

Idolatry and superst.i.tion have caused the eating more human flesh, than both love and hatred put together.

There are few nations but have offered human victims to their deities; and it was an established custom to eat part of the sacrifices they offered.

It appears pretty certain, from Dr. Hawkesworth's account of the voyages to the South Seas, that the inhabitants of New Zealand ate the bodies of their enemies. Mr. Pet.i.t has a learned dissertation on the nature and manners of the Anthropophagi. Among other things, he disputes whether or no the Anthropophagi act contrary to nature? The philosophers, Diogenes, Chrysippus, and Zeno, followed by the whole body of Stoics, held it a very reasonable thing for men to eat each other.