{"product_id":"2940015634686","title":"Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted","description":"PREFACE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e``Dreams are rudiments of the great state to come.\u003cbr\u003eWe dream what is about to happen.''--BAILEY,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bible, as well as other great books of historical and\u003cbr\u003erevealed religion, shows traces of a general and substantial\u003cbr\u003ebelief in dreams.  Plato, Goethe, Shakespeare and Napoleon\u003cbr\u003eassigned to certain dreams prophetic value.  Joseph saw\u003cbr\u003eeleven stars of the Zodiac bow to himself, the twelfth star.\u003cbr\u003eThe famine of Egypt was revealed by a vision of fat and lean cattle.\u003cbr\u003eThe parents of Christ were warned of the cruel edict of Herod,\u003cbr\u003eand fled with the Divine Child into Egypt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePilate's wife, through the influence of a dream, advised her husband\u003cbr\u003eto have nothing to do with the conviction of Christ.  But the gross\u003cbr\u003ematerialism of the day laughed at dreams, as it echoed the voice and\u003cbr\u003everdict of the multitude, ``Crucify the Spirit, but let the flesh live.''\u003cbr\u003eBarabbas, the robber, was set at liberty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ultimatum of all human decrees and wisdom is to gratify\u003cbr\u003ethe passions of the flesh at the expense of the spirit.\u003cbr\u003eThe prophets and those who have stood nearest the fountain\u003cbr\u003eof universal knowledge used dreams with more frequency than\u003cbr\u003eany other mode of divination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProfane, as well as sacred, history is threaded with incidents\u003cbr\u003eof dream prophecy.  Ancient history relates that Gennadius\u003cbr\u003ewas convinced of the immortality of his soul by conversing\u003cbr\u003ewith an apparition in his dream.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough the dream of Cecilia Metella, the wife of a Consul, the Roman Senate\u003cbr\u003ewas induced to order the temple of Juno Sospita rebuilt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Emperor Marcian dreamed he saw the bow of the Hunnish conqueror\u003cbr\u003ebreak on the same night that Attila died.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlutarch relates how Augustus, while ill, through the dream\u003cbr\u003eof a friend, was persuaded to leave his tent, which a few hours\u003cbr\u003eafter was captured by the enemy, and the bed whereon he had lain\u003cbr\u003ewas pierced with the enemies' swords.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf Julius Caesar had been less incredulous about dreams he would\u003cbr\u003ehave listened to the warning which Calpurnia, his wife,\u003cbr\u003ereceived in a dream.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCroesus saw his son killed in a dream.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePetrarch saw his beloved Laura, in a dream, on the day she died,\u003cbr\u003eafter which he wrote his beautiful poem, ``The Triumph of Death.''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCicero relates the story of two traveling Arcadians who went to\u003cbr\u003edifferent lodgings--one to an inn, and the other to a private house.\u003cbr\u003eDuring the night the latter dreamed that his friend was begging for help.\u003cbr\u003eThe dreamer awoke; but, thinking the matter unworthy of notice, went to\u003cbr\u003esleep again.  The second time he dreamed his friend appeared, saying it would\u003cbr\u003ebe too late, for he had already been murdered and his body hid in a cart,\u003cbr\u003eunder manure.  The cart was afterward sought for and the body found.\u003cbr\u003eCicero also wrote, ``If the gods love men they will certainly disclose\u003cbr\u003etheir purposes to them in sleep.''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChrysippus wrote a volume on dreams as divine portent.\u003cbr\u003eHe refers to the skilled interpretations of dreams as a true divination;\u003cbr\u003ebut adds that, like all other arts in which men have to proceed\u003cbr\u003eon conjecture and on artificial rules, it is not infallible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlato concurred in the general idea prevailing in his day,\u003cbr\u003ethat there were divine manifestations to the soul in sleep.\u003cbr\u003eCondorcet thought and wrote with greater fluency in his dreams\u003cbr\u003ethan in waking life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTartini, a distinguished violinist, composed his ``Devil's Sonata''\u003cbr\u003eunder the inspiration of a dream.  Coleridge, through dream influence,\u003cbr\u003ecomposed his ``Kubla Khan.''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe writers of Greek and Latin classics relate many instances\u003cbr\u003eof dream experiences.  Homer accorded to some dreams divine origin.\u003cbr\u003eDuring the third and fourth centuries, the supernatural origin\u003cbr\u003eof dreams was so generally accepted that the fathers, relying upon\u003cbr\u003ethe classics and the Bible as authority, made this belief a doctrine\u003cbr\u003eof the Christian Church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSynesius placed dreaming above all methods of divining the future;\u003cbr\u003ehe thought it the surest, and open to the poor and rich alike.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAristotle wrote:  ``There is a divination concerning some things\u003cbr\u003ein dreams not incredible.''  Camille Flammarion, in his great book\u003cbr\u003eon ``Premonitory Dreams and Divination of the Future,'' says:\u003cbr\u003e``I do not hesitate to affirm at the outset that occurrence of dreams\u003cbr\u003eforetelling future events with accuracy must be accepted as certain.''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoan of Arc predicted her death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCazotte, the French philosopher and transcendentalist, warned Condorcet\u003cbr\u003eagainst the manner of his death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople dream now, the same as they did in medieval and ancient times.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146347725040,"sku":"2940015634686","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015634686","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}