iWe had better give TertuUian's own succinct definition: ' Excessus sensus et amentiae instar."
A TREATISE ON THE SOUL.
[chap. xlvt.
tasies of course, if when we dream we were masters of ourselves, (unaffected by ecstasy.) In these dreams, indeed, good actions are use- less, and crimes harmless; for we shall no more be condemned for visionary acts of sin, than we shall be crowned for imaginary mar- tyrdom. But how, you will ask, can the soul remember its dreams, when it is said to be without any mastery over its own operations? This memory must be an especial gift of the ecstatic condition of which we are treating, since it arises not from any failure of healthy action, but entirely from natural process; nor does it expel mental function — it withdraws it for a time. It is one thing to shake, it is an- other thing to move; one thing to destroy, another thing to agitate. That, therefore, which memory supplies betokens soundness of mind; and that which a sound mind ecstat- ically experiences whilst the memory remains unchecked, is a kind of madness. We are accordingly not said to be mad, but to dream, in that state; to be in the full possession also of our mental faculties,' if we are at any time. For although the power to exercise these fac- ulties^ may be dimmed in us, it is still not ex- tinguished; except that it may seem to be itself absent at the very time that the ecstasy is energizing in us in its special manner, in such wise as to bring before us images of a sound mind and of wisdom, even as it does those of aberration.
CHAP. XLVI. DIVERSITY OF DREAMS AND VISIONS. EPICURUS THOUGHT LIGHTLY OF THEM, THOUGH GENERALLY MOST HIGHLY VALUED. INSTANCES OF DREAMS.
We now find ourselves constrained to ex- press an opinion about the character of the dreams by which the soul is excited. And when shall we arrive at the subject of death? And on such a question I would say, When God shall permit: that admits of no long delay which must needs happen at all events. Epi- curus has given it as his opinion that dreams are altogether vain things; (but he says this) when liberating the Deity from all sort of care, and dissolving the entire order of the world, and giving to all things the aspect of merest chance, casual in their issues, fortui- tous in their nature. Well, now, if such be the nature of things, there must be some chance even for truth, because it is impossible for it to be the only thing to be exempted from the fortune which is due to all things. Homer has assigned two gates to dreams,' — the horny one of truth, the ivory one of error » Prudentes.
" Sapere.
3 See the Odyssey ^ ziz. 562, etc.
[Also, jEneid, vi, 894.1 and delusion. For, they say, it is possible to see through horn, whereas ivory is untrans- parent. Aristotle, while expressing his opin- ion that dreams are in most cases untrue, yet acknowledges that there is some truth in them. The people of Telmessus will not admit that dreams are in any case unmeaning, but they blame their own weakness when unable to conjecture their signification. Now, who is such a stranger to human experience as not sometimes to have perceived some truth in dreams? I shall force a blush from Epicurus, if I only glance at some few of the more re- markable instances. Herodotus'* relates how that Astyages, king of the Medes, saw in a dream issuing from the womb of his virgin daughter a flood which inundated Asia; and again, in the year which followed her mar- riage, he saw a vine growing out from the same part of her person, which overspread the whole of Asia. The same story is told prior to Herodotus by Charon of Lampsacus. Now they who interpreted these visions did not de- ceive the mother when they destined her son for so great an enterprise, for Cyrus both in- undated and overspread Asia. Philip of Macedon, before he became a father, had seen imprinted on the pudenda of his consort Olympias the form of a small ring, with a lion as a seal. He had concluded that an offspring from her was out of the question (I suppose because the lion only becomes once a father), when Aristodemus or Aristophon happened to conjecture that nothing of an unmeaning or empty import lay under that seal, but that a son of very illustrious character was por- tended. They who know anything of Alex- ander recognise in him the lion of that small ring. Ephorus writes to this effect. Again, Heraclides has told us, that a certain woman of Himera beheld in a dream Dionysius' tyr- anny over Sicily. Euphorion has publicly recorded as a fact, that, previous to giving birth to Seleucus, his mother Laodice foresaw that he was destined for the empire of Asia. I find again from Strabo, that it was owing to a dream that even Mithridates took posses- sion of Pontus; and I further learn from Cal- listhenes that it was from the indication of a dream that Baraliris the Illyrian stretched his dominion from the Molossi to the frontiers of Macedon. The Romans, too, were ac- quainted with dreams of this kind. From a dream Marcus Tullius (Cicero) had learnt how that one, who was yet only a little boy, and in a private station, who was also plain Julius Octavius, and personally unknown to (Cicero) himself, was the destined Augustus, CHAP. XLVII.]
A TREATISE ON THE SOUL.
and the suppressor and destroyer of (Rome's) civil discords. This is recorded in the Com- mentaries of Vitellius. But visions of this prophetic kind were not confined to predictions of supreme power; for they indicated perils also, and catastrophes: as, for instance, when Cjesar was absent from the battle of Philippi through illness, and thereby escaped the sword of Brutus and Cassius, and then al- though he expected to encounter greater dan- ger still from the enemy in the field, he quitted his tent for it, in obedience to a vision of Ar- torius, and so escaped (the capture by the enemy, who shortly after took possession of the tent); as, again, when the daughter of Polycrates of Samos foresaw the crucifixion which awaited him from the anointing of the sun and the bath of Jupiter.' So likewise in sleep revelations are made of high honours and eminent talents; remedies are also dis- covered, thefts brought to light, and treasures indicated. Thus Cicero's eminence, whilst he wafs still a little boy, was foreseen by his nurse. The swan from the breast of Socrates soothing men, is his disciple Plato. The boxer Leonymus is cured by Achilles in his dreams. Sophocles the tragic poet discovers, as he was dreaming, the golden crown, which had been lost from the citadel of Athens. Neoptolemus the tragic actor, through intimations in his sleep from Ajax himself, saves from de- struction the hero's tomb on the Rhoetean Fhore before Troy; and as he removes the decayed stones, he returns enriched with gold. How many commentators and chroniclers vouch for this phenomenon? There are Arte- mon, Antiphon, Strato, Philochorus, Epi- charmus, Serapion, Cratippus, and Diony- sius of Rhodes, and Hermippus — tlie entire literature of the age. I shall only laugh at all, if indeed I ought to laugh at the man who fancied that he was going to per- suade us that Saturn dreamt before any- body else; which we can only believe if Aris- totle, (who would fain help us to such an opin- ion,) lived prior to any other person. Pray forgive me for laughing. Epicharmus, in- deed, as well as Philochorus the Athenian, assigned the very highest place among divina- tions to dreams. The whole world is full of oracles of this description: there are the oracles of Amphiaraus at Oropus, of Amphi- lochus at Mallus, of Sarpedon in the Troad, of Trophonius in Boeotia, of Mopsus in Cilicia, of Hermione in Macedon, of Pasiphae in Laconia. Then, again, there are others, which with their original foundations, rites, and historians, together with the entire litera- • See an account of her vision and its interpretation in Heroture of dreams, Hermippus of Berytus in five portly volumes will give you all the account of, even to satiety. But the Stoics are very fond of saying that God, in His most watchful providence over every institution, gave us dreams amongst other preservatives of the arts and sciences of divination, as the especial support of the natural oracle. So much for the dreams to which credit has to be ascribed even by ourselves, although we must interpret them in another sense. As for all other ora- cles, at which no one ever dreams, what else must we declare concerning them, than that they are the diabolical contrivance of those spirits who even at that time dwelt in the em- inent persons themselves, or aimed at reviving the memory of them as the mere stage of their evil purposes, going so far as to counterfeit a divine power under their shape and form, and, with equal persistence in evil, deceiving men by their very boons of remedies, warnings, and forecasts, — the only effect of which was to injure their victims the more they helped them; while the means whereby they rendered the help withdrew them from all search after the true God, by insinuating into their minds ideas of the false one? And of course so per- nicious an influence as this is not shut up nor limited within the boundaries of shrines and temples: it roams abroad, it flies through the air, and all the while is free and unchecked. So that nobody can doubt that our very homes lie open to these diabolical spirits, who beset their human prey with their fantasies not only in their chapels but also in their chambers.
CHAP. XLVII. DREAMS VARIOUSLY CLASSIFIED.
SOME ARE GOD-SENT, AS THE DREAMS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR; OTHERS SIMPLY PROD- UCTS OF NATURE.
We declare, then, that dreams are inflicted on us mainly by demons, although they some- times turn out true and favourable to us. When, however, with the deliberate aim after evil, of which we have just spoken, they as- sume a flattering and captivating style, they show themselves proportionately vain, and deceitful, and obscure, and wanton, and im- pure. And no wonder that the images partake of the character of the realities. But from God — who has promised, indeed, "to pour out the grace of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, and has ordained that His servants and His handmaids should see visions as well as utter prophecies"^ — must all those visions be re- garded as emanating, which may be compared to the actual grace of God, as being honest, holy, prophetic, inspired, instructive, inviting » Joel iii. I.
A TREATISE ON THE SOUL.
[chap. xlix.
to virtue, the bountiful nature of which causes them to overflow even to the profane, since God, with grand impartiality, " sends His showers and sunshine on the just and on the unjust."' It was, indeed by an inspiration from God that Nebuchadnezzar dreamt his dreams;^ and almost the greater part of man- kind get their knowledge of God from dreams. Thus it is that, as the mercy of God super- abounds to the heathen, so the temptation of the evil one encounters the saints, from whom he never withdraws his malignant efforts to steal over them as best he may in their very sleep, if unable to assault them when they are awake. The third class of dreams will consist of those which the soul itself apparently creates for itself from an intense application to special circumstances. Now, inasmuch as the soul cannot dream of its own accord (for even Epicharmus is of this opinion), how can it become to itself the cause of any vision? Then must this class of dreams be abandoned to the action of nature, reserving for the soul, even when in the ecstatic condition, the power of enduring whatever incidents befall it? Those, moreover, which evidently proceed neither from God, nor from diabolical inspira- tion, nor from the soul, being beyond the reach as well of ordinary expectation, usual interpretation, or the possibility of being intelli- gibly related, will have to be ascribed in a separate category to what is purely and simply the ecstatic state and its peculiar conditions.
CHAP. XLVIII. CAUSES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF DREAMS. WHAT BEST CONTRIBUTES TO EFFICIENT DREAMING.
They say that dreams are more sure and clear when they happen towards the end of the night, because then the vigour of the soul emerges, and heavy sleep departs. As to the seasons of the year, dreams are calmer in spring, since summer relaxes, and winter somehow hardens, the soul; while autumn, which in other respects is trying to health, is apt to enervate the soul by the lusciousness of its fruits. Then, again, as regards the position of one's body during sleep, one ought not to lie on his back, nor on his right side, nor so as to wrench ^ his intestines, as if their cavity were reversely stretched: a palpitation of the heart would ensue, or else a pressure on the liver would produce a painful disturb- ance of the mind. But however this be, I take it that it all amounts to ingenious con- jecture rather than certain proof (although »Dan. ii. i, etc. 3 Conresupinatis.
the author of the conjecture be no less a man than Plato); * and possibly all may be no other than the result of chance But, gener- ally speaking, dreams will be under control of a man's will, if they be capable of direction at all; for we must not examine what opinion on the one hand, and superstitioti on the other, have to prescribe for the treatment of dreams, in the matter of distinguishing and modifying different sorts of food. As for the super sti- tiofi, we have an instance when fasting is pre- scribed for such persons as mean to submit to the sleep which is necessary for receiving the oracle, in order that such abstinence may produce the required purity; while we find an instance of the opinioji when the disciples of Pythagorasj in order to attain the same end, reject the bean as an aliment which would load the stomach, and produce indigestion. But the three brethren, who were the com- panions of Daniel, being content with pulse alone, to escape the contamination of the royal dishes, 5 received from God, besides other wisdom, the gift especially of penetrating and explaining the sense of dreams. For my own part, I hardly know whether fasting would not simply make me dream so profoundly, that I should not be aware whether I had in fact dreamt at all. Well, then, you ask, has not sobriety something to do in this matter? Certainly it is as much concerned in this as it is in the entire subject: if it contributes some good service to superstition, much more does it to religion. For even demons require such discipline from their dreamers as a gratification to their divinity, because they know that it is acceptable to God, since Daniel (to quote him again) " ate no pleasant bread " for the space of three weeks.* This abstinence, however, he used in order to please God by humiliation, and not for the purpose of producing a sensi- bility and wisdom for his soul previous to re- ceiving communication by dreams and visions, as if it were not rather to effect such action in an ecstatic state. This sobriety, then, (in which our question arises,) will have nothing to do with exciting ecstasy, but will rather serve to recommend its being wrought by God.
CHAP. XLIX. NO SOUL NATURALLY EXEMPT FROM DREAMS.
As for those persons who suppose that in- fants do not dream, on the ground that all the functions of the soul throughout life are ac- complished according to the capacity of age, they ought to observe attentively their 4 See his Titmeus, c. xxxii. p. 71.
CHAP. L.]
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tremors, and nods, and bright smiles as they sleep, and from such facts understand that they are the emotions of their soul as it dreams, which so readily escape to the surface through the delicate tenderness of their in- fantine body. The fact, however, that the African nation of the Atlantes are said to pass through the night in a deep lethargic sleep, brings down on them the censure that some- thing is wrong in the constitution of their soul. Now either report, which is occasionally ca- lumnious against barbarians, deceived Herod- otus,' or else a large force of demons of this sort domineers in those barbarous regions. Since, indeed, Aristotle remarks of a certain hero of Sardinia that he used to withhold the power of visions and dreams from such as re- sorted to his shrine for inspiration, it must lie at the will and caprice of the demons to take away as well as to confer the faculty of dreams; and from this circumstance may have arisen the remarkable fact (which we have mentioned - ) of Nero and Thrasymedes only dreaming so late in life. We, however, derive dreams from God. Why, then, did not the Atlantes receive the dreaming faculty from God, because there is really no nation which is now a stranger to God, since the gospel flashes its glorious light through the world to the ends of the earth? Could it then be that rumour deceived Aristotle, or is this caprice still the way of demons? (Let us take any view of the case), only do not let it be im- agined that any soul is by its natural constitu- tion exempt from dreams.
CHAP. L. THE ABSURD OPINION OF EPICURUS AND THE PROFANE CONCEITS OF THE HERETIC MENANDER ON DEATH. EVEN ENOCH AND ELIJAH RESERVED FOR DEATH.
We have by this time said enough about sleep, the mirror and image of death; and likewise about the occupations of sleep, even dreams. Let us now go on to consider the cause of our departure hence — that is, the ap- pointment and course of death — because we must not leave even it unquestioned and un- examined, although it is itself the very end of all questions and investigations. According to the general sentiment of the human race, we declare death to be " the debt of nature." So much has been settled by the voice of God; 3 such is the contract with everything which is born: so that even from this the frigid conceit of Epicurus is refuted, who says that no such debt is due from us; and not only so, but the insane opinion of the Samari- ' Who mentions this story of the Atlantes in iv. 184.
3 Gen. ii. 17. [Not ex natura, but as penalty.]
tan heretic Menander is also rejected, who will have it that death has not only nothing to do with his disciples, but in fact never reaches them. He pretends to have received such a commission from the secret power of One above, that all who partake of his baptism become immortal, incorruptible and instanta- neously invested with resurrection-life. We read, no doubt, of very many wonderful kinds of waters: how, for instance, the vinous qual- ity of the stream intoxicates people who drink of the Lyncestis; how at Colophon the waters of an oracle-inspiring fountain'* affect men with madness; how Alexander was killed by the poisonous water from Mount Nonacris in Arcadia. Then, again, there was in Judea before the time of Christ a pool of medicinal virtue. It is well known how the poet has commemorated the marshy Styx as preserving men from death; although Thetis had, in spite of the preservative, to lament her son. And for the matter of that, were Menander himself to take a plunge into this famous Styx, he would certainly have to die after all; for you must come to the Styx, placed as it is by all accounts in the regions of the dead. Well, but what and where are those blessed and charming waters which not even John Baptist ever used in his preministrations, nor Christ after him ever revealed to His disciples? What was this wondrous bath of Menander? He is a comical fellow, I ween.s But why (was such a font) so seldom in request, so ob- scure, one to which so very few ever resorted for their cleansing? I really see something to suspect in so rare an occurrence of a sacra- ment to which is attached so very much se- curity and safety, and which dispenses with the ordinary law of dying even in the service of God Himself, when, on the contrary, all nations have " to ascend to the mount of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob," who demands of His saints in martyrdom that death which He exacted even of His Christ. No one will ascribe to magic such influence as shall exempt from death, or which shall refresh and vivify life, like the vine by the renewal of its condition. Such power was not accorded to the great Medea herself — over a human being at any rate, if allowed her over a silly sheep. Enoch no doubt was translated,^ and so was Elijah; ^ nor did they experience death: it was postponed, (and only postponed,) most certainly: they are reserved for the suffering of death, that by their blood 4Scaturigo daemonica.
5 It is difficult to say what Tertullian means by his "comicum credo." Is it a plavful parody on the heretic's name, the same as the comic poet's (Menander)?
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[chap. LI.
they may extinguish Antichrist.' Even John underwent death, although concerning him there had prevailed an ungrounded expecta- tion that he would remain alive until the com- ing of the Lord.^ Heresies, indeed, for the most part spring hurriedly into existence, from examples furnished by ourselves: they pro- cure their defensive armour from the very place which they attack. The whole question resolves itself, in short, into this challenge: Where are to be found the men whom Me- nander himself has baptized? whom he has plunged into his Styx? Let them come forth and stand before us — those apostles of his whom he has made immortal? Let my (doubting) Thomas see them, let him hear them, let him handle them — and he is con- vinced.
CHAP, LI. DEATH ENTIRELY SEPARATES THE SOUL FROM THE BODY.
But the operation of death is plain and ob- vious: it is the separation of body and soul. Some, however, in reference to the soul's im- mortality, on which they have so feeble a hold through not being taught of God, maintain it with such beggarly arguments, that they would fain have it supposed that certain souls cleave to the body even after death. It is indeed in this sense that Plato, although he despatches at once to heaven such souls as he pleases, ^ yet in his Republic'- exhibits to us the corpse of an unburied person, which was preserved a long time without corruption, by reason of the soul remaining, as he says, unseparated from the body. To the same purport also Democritus remarks on the growth for a con- siderable while of the human nails and hair in the grave. Now, it is quite possible that the nature of the atmosphere tended to the preservation of the above-mentioned corpse. What if the air were particularly dry, and the ground of a saline nature? What, too, if the substance of the body itself were unusually dry and arid? What, moreover, if the mode of the death had already eliminated from the corpse all corrupting matter? As for the nails, since they are the commencement of the nerves, they may well seem to be pro- longed, owing to the nerves themselves being relaxed and extended, and to be protruded more and more as the flesh fails. The hair, again, is nourished from the brain, which would cause it endure for a long time as its secret aliment and defence. Indeed, in the case of living persons themselves, the whole head of hair is copious or scanty in proportion