But loves to anchor 'midst the truths he taught Which Angels feel, and ransomed Saints above: In early days, the fiercer name bestowed The thing that portrait seems, Believer! be, Make thee nor rudely judge, nor rashly trust : THE DREAM. 66 BY THE AUTHOR OF PRIVATE LIFE," &c. I cannot tell how the truth may be,- SCOTT. It was a bright morning early in June-that month of fragrance and sunshine, the laughing May of the old Poets—that a lively party assembled around the breakfast table of General Falkland. One guest, in addition to sons and daughters of various ages,from twenty-five to sweet fifteen,-formed the gay group. They were talking of dreams. "I shall sit next to William," exclaimed Emma Falkland; "for I am quite tired of you, Raymond; you have been in my dreams all night." 66 Why, what a favoured mortal you are,” replied Raymond, laughing; "your good genius must have presided over your slumbers!" "Not at all," returned Emma; "you were like a great many persons in this waking, breathing world, who talk a great deal, and say nothing." 66 'Well, I cannot pay anybody the compliment of dreaming of them," observed William, "for I never dream.” "As few persons ever dream any thing worth dreaming of or recording, you need not deplore your delinquency very deeply," observed the General. 66 My dear Sir," interrupted Raymond, 66 persons of active imaginations certainly dream most." "Persons of perfect digestion certainly dream least," returned the General drily. "You do not mean to refer dreaming to mere physical causes, I hope?" said Raymond. 66 Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it may be so referred," returned the General. "Ah! my dear father," said Emma, laughing, "what would the whole race of poets and philosophers say to you?" "Why, poets and philosophers contrive to make a great deal out of nothing," said the General: “I am less skilful.” "Well, but may we not consider dreams as a proof that the soul is independent of matter?" observed Raymond: "does not the mind think vigorously eloquently, even when the senses are steeped in forgetfulness? Do we not see, hear, feel, act? Can we not, like Ariel, 'compass the wandering moon,' or soar, as with a seraph-wing, to the seventh heaven?" "I can answer for never having performed any feats of the kind," replied the General. “Well, I would not give up that world of our own, in which, as Heraclitus said, we live in dreams," observed Raymond, "for the best share of this common world, where we meet to eat and drink, and where wise men and fools jostle and weary each other." My world of dreams so precisely resembles this dull, substantial earth," said the General, "that I cannot any how mistake it for Elysium or Paradise." "But will you not allow," continued Raymond, "that there have been persons whose faculties and perceptions were even more acute in a sleeping state? Did not Sir Thomas Browne declare, that though he never said or thought a witty thing in his waking hours, yet, in sleep he could compose a whole comedy, and laugh himself awake at the conceits thereof?" Perhaps the merriment would have been all his own, even if he had favoured the world with these |