24& ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



duced by Demons, if not by Gods*. But, upon going farther into 

 this work, we dilcover that he believed thofe Dreams, which are 

 commonly faid to be prophetic, to be neither the Caufes nor the 

 Signs or Prognoftics of future events, but merely a-wirTuiAixTx, or Jcr- 

 iiiitoiis CQinciUences of thefe events witli our Dreams. 



From this account of Ariltotle's do<fl:rine of Dreams, it is plain that 

 he derives them all from Material Caufes ; nor is it to be wondered 

 at, thai he did not believe in the Divinity of Dreams, as Homer did "fi 

 and all antient nations before philofophy came in among them j for 

 Ariflotle not only had not the leaft grain of enthufiafra or fuperftition 

 in him, but it is evident that he did not believe in the cxiftence of 

 fo many Gods or Daemons as the followers of Plato did ; and he is 

 blamed by Proclus, in a paffage that I have quoted in my Firfl; Vo- 

 lume X, for afcribing the Motions of the heavenly Bodies to Mind 

 inhabiting them, but not accounting in the fame way for the vari- 

 ous Motions here on earth. 



But to his fyftem I think feveral obje<n:loTis may be made. In the 

 ftjl place, I cannot be convinced that the Phantafms in our Sleep 

 are nothing but reliefs of the Motion produced by external Objeds 

 upon the Organs of Senfe : For thefe flionld be much weaker than 

 the firfl; impreHions of Objedls upon the Organs ; whereas, in fadt, 

 they are often much flronger,, and more lively, and make a greater 



im- 



* His words are, 0j»7rs^?rT» ^sv ««« «« an t« OfTrxa, *«i^»»ia funci muitnot' i! y«{ 

 ^vri; ^«ius>;«, «AA cv tux. cap 2- in imtio. 



•}■ — x«i yaf t' oy«^ tK Aim Krri, Iliad. I- V, 63- 



And an <i»«{«t«a<i5, or Interpreter of Dreams, mentioned in the preceding line, was. 

 a man held in great ellimation in thofe times. 

 \ Page 208. 



