Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 257 



mofl; fiihtile and various thing in t!ie work!, and the moft unlike in 

 different men * The other method, therefore, is that which he 

 appioves of, by which every man in this matter is made a rule or 

 ftandard for hlmfclf j fo that a man, in order to learn the art of in- 

 terpreting his Dreams, needs only ftudy himfelf, obferving diligently 

 and accurately after what dreams of his what events happen f ; and 

 thus from Memory will arife Experience, and from Experience 

 Art, according to the genealogy of Art given by Ariftotle J. 



With this account of Dreams, Synefius has mixed a great deal of 

 the Myflical Platonic Philofophy, concerning the dcfcent of Miads 

 into Bodies, the way they are afFeded by the contagion of Body 

 and their rcafcenty or «^«yay»i, towards their native manfions. 



This is the fyftem of Synefius upon the fubjecl of Drcanis, in 

 which the Reader will obferve a great deal of truth and found 

 philofophy, mixed with a good deal of what appears to me very 

 whimfical and fanciful. For his fJaAa I take to be as much a fic- 

 tion as the £»JwA« of Epicurus, and a more extraordinary fidion in 

 two refpeds : Firft, the ikTciX* of Epicurus are all material, being 

 films which come off from the fuperficies of things, and which fo far 

 no doubt, have a foundation in reality, that there are conftant efBu- 

 \ias, more or lefs, from all Bodies ; whereas the *iSu\x of Synefius 

 are caft off from the immaterial forms of things. — 2^/;', Epicurus had 

 no idea of any tJuAat, except of things that either do exift, or 

 have exifted ; whereas Synefius tells us that there are images of 

 things that are only to exift, and that thefe images produce our pro- 

 phetic Dreams. 



Vol. II. Kk But, 



• Page 126. and 127. 

 t Page 128- et fi-q. 

 X Metaplu in initio- 



