Chap. V. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S T C S. 28y 



That there will be Dreams in that long Sleep, no man can doubt, 

 %vho fludies human nature as a philofopher, and confidcrs particu- 

 larly this phaenomenon of Dreaming ; for, if we have Dreams in the 

 death of each day's life, why fhould we not have them in that 

 longer death, which differs not from the other in any refped, ex- 

 cept that the one concludes the life of many days, the other that of 

 only one. In both, the Mind has no ufe of Senfcs ; and if, never- 

 thelefs, it be adive in the one, why not in the other ? And, upon 

 the whole, I think the argument in favour of a feparate ftate of the 

 Soul, and of a future life, is fo ftrongly fupported by Dreaming, 

 that, if it could not be proved to ferve any other purpofe, but to give 

 the righteous hopes of a blefled Immortality, and to deter the wicked 

 from their flagitious courfes by the fear of future mifery in a feparate 

 ftate, I fhould think that fufficient. 



With refpe6t to fupernatural and prophetic Dreams, as I do not 

 believe with Epicurus, that the Divinity takes no concern in the af- 

 fairs of men, nor am convinced, by the arguments offome of our mo- 

 dern philofophers, that there is no fuch thing as a particular Provi- 

 dence, but that the affairs of men are governed by general laws, 

 fuch as thofe which govern Matter and Motion *, I believe moll 

 firmly, that, in fome ages and fome nations of the world, 

 future events were revealed to men in Dreams, by which great 

 calamities, both to private men and to nations, have been pre- 

 vented ; and my reafon for fo believing is, that I do not think hu- 

 man wifdom fufficient to condudl men profperoufly through this 

 Vol. II. O o Life, 



• There is a Diflertation to prove this, In the preface of Hawkefworth's publica- 

 tion of Captain Coolc's firft voyage round the world. It is as foreign to the purpofe 

 as any thing that can be imagined : But fuch writers are fond of every opportunity 

 of (bowing their infidelity, like the French Abbe Chappe, who, in giving an account 

 of his journey through Ruflia and Siberia to Tobolfki, takes occafion to inform the 

 reader that the human boul is nothing but eledlrical Fire> 



