Chap. V. A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. 295 



Things^ at certain periods. Upon this fubjeft we have a mofl excel- 

 lent Poem of Virgil in his fourth Eclogue*. 



But, to conclude this long chapter upon Dreams, I think, I 

 have fhown that the Final Caufe of all Dreams, natural or fu- 

 pernatural, is the fame as the Final Caufe of all the works of 

 God— ——the happinefs of all Intelligent and Senfitive Beings du- 

 ring their whole Lives, not only their Waking but their Sleeping 

 Life. And I will only add, that if I have not given full fatis- 

 faftion to the philofophical reader, I have, at leaft, the merit of 

 treating the fubjed more fully and methodically than any other 

 modern author, and of giving him an opportunity of thinking 

 upon it himfelf, and trying to difcover fomething better with refped 

 to a phaenomenon, which, if it were not fo common, would be 

 thought the moft extraordinary belonging to Human Nature, and 

 which alone appears to me fufficient to convince the moft deter- 

 mined Materialift, that there is fomething in our compofition be- 

 fides Matter and Mechanifm. 



Magnus ab integro faeclorum nafcitur ordo : 

 Jam rcdit ct Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna ; 

 Jam nova progenies coclo demittitur alto. 



V. 5. ttfeq. 



CHAP. 



