"fettle what we are to talk about? What kind of

dreams are you speaking of, and how do you "diftinguifh dreams?"" I fee no diftinction "between them," I replied; "Dreams vifit our "fancies in fleep, and are all, according to "Mr. Locke's idea, made up of the waking man's "thoughts."" Does Mr. Locke fay that ?" exclaimed my uncle. "Then Mr. Locke's an "impoftor for telling you fo, and you are a fool "for believing him: wifer men than Mr. Locke "have fettled that matter many centuries before " he was born or even dreamt of; but perhaps "Mr. Locke forgot to tell you how many precife "forts of dreams there are, and how to denomi"nate and define them; perhaps he forgot that "I fay." I confeffed that neither knew any thing of the matter myfelf, nor did I believe the author alluded to had left any clue towards the discovery.

"I thought as much," retorted my uncle Antony in a tone of triumph, "and yet this is the man who fets up for an investigator of the "human understanding, but I will tell you, Sir, "though he could not, that there are neither 66 more nor lefs thin five feveral forts of dreams

particularly diftinguished, and I defy even the "feven fleepers themfelves to name a fixth. The "first of thefe was by the Greeks denominated

Oneiros, by the Latins Somnium, (fimply a "Dream) and you must be afleep to dream it." "Granted," quoth I. "What is granted?" rejoined the philofopher, "Not that fleep is in all

cafes indifpenfable to the man who dreams.""Humph!" quoth I.-My uncle proceeded.

"The fecond fort of dreams you fhall under"fland was by the aforefaid Greeks called

"Orama,

"Orama, by the Latins Vifio, or as we might fay a vifion; in this cafe take notice you may be "afleep, or you may be awake, or neither, or as "it were between both; your eyes may be fhut,

or they may be open, looking inwards or out"wards or upwards, either with fight or without fight, as it pleases God, but the vifion you must "fee, or how elfe can it rightly be called a vifion?" "True," replied I," there is a fect who are parti"cularly favoured with this kind of vifions." "Prythee, don't interrupt me," faid my uncle, and again went on.

"The third fort of dreams to speak according "to the Greeks we fhall call Chrematismos, according to the Latins we muft denominate it "Oraculum, (an oracle); now this differs from

a vifion, in as much as it may happen to a man "born blind as well as to Argus himself, for he "has nothing for it but to liften, understand and "believe, and whatever it tells him fhall come

:

true, though it never entered into his head to "preconceive one tittle of what is told and "where is Mr. Locke and his waking thoughts "here?""He is done for," I answered, "there "is no difputing against an oracle."

"The fourth fort," refumed he, " is the Enup"tion of the aforefaid Greeks and anfwers to the "Latin Infomnium, which is in fact a dream and

no dream, a kind of refverie, when a man dofes "between fleeping and waking and builds caftles "(as we fay) in the air upon the ramblings of his " own fancy.

"The fifth and last fort of dreams is by Greeks "and Latins mutually filed Phantafma, a word "adopted into our own language by the greatest poet, who ever wrote in it now this phantafma

:

is

" is a vifitation peculiar to the first mental abfence or flumber, when the man fancies himself yet waking, and in fact can scarce be called asleep; 66 at which time ftrange images and appearances "feem to float before him and terrify his imagi"nation. Here then you have all the feveral de"nominations of dreams perfectly distinguished " and defined," quoth the old fophift, and throwing himself back in his chair with an air of triumph, waited for the applaufe, which I was not backward in beftowing upon this pedantic farrago of dogmatizing dullness.

It will readily be believed that my uncle Antony did not fail to revive his favourite controversy, which had produced fuch fatal confequences to his discarded son : in fact he held fast with those antient philofophers, who maintained the eternity of this material world, and as he faw no period when men would not be in existence, no moment in time to come when mortality fhall ceafe, he by confequence argued that there could be no moment in time, when immortality shall commence. There were other points refpecting this grand ftumbling block of his philofophy, the human foul, upon which he was equally puzzled, for he fided with Ariftotle against Plato in the unintelligible controverfy concerning its power of motion: but whilft my uncle Antony was thus unluckily wedded to the wrong fide in all cafes, where reafon ought to have been his guide, in points of mere quibble and fophiftry, which reafon has nothing to say to, and where a wife man would take neither fide, he regularly took both, or hung fufpended between them like Socrates in the bafket.

Of

Of this fort was the celebrated question-Ovumne prius fuerit, an gallina-viz. "Whether the egg was anterior to the hen, or the hen to the egg."-This enquiry never failed to intereft his paffions in a peculiar degree, and he found so much to fay on both fides, that he could never well determine which fide to be of; at length however, hoping to bring it to fome point, he took up the caufe of Egg verfus Hen, and having compofed a learned effay, published it in one of the monthly magazines, as a lure to future controverfialifts. This effay he had fo often avowed in my hearing, and piqued himself fo highly upon it, that I muft have been dull indeed not to understand how to flatter him upon it; but when he had found month after month flip away, and nobody mounting the ftage upon his challenge, he felt angry at the contempt with which his labours were paffed over, and without imparting to me his purpose, furnished the fame magazine with a counter-effay, in which his former argument was handled with an afperity truly controverfial, and the hen was triumphantly made to cackle over the new-laid egg decidedly pofterior to herself.

I am inclined to think that if Antony had any partiality, it was not to this fide; but as the fecond effay was clearly posterior to the first (whatever the egg may have been to the hen) it had the advantage of being couched in all the fpirit of a reply with an agreeable tinge of the malice of one, fo that when at length it came down printed in a fair type, and refpectfully placed in the front of the long-wifht-for magazine, his heart beat with joy, and calling out to me in a lofty tone of counterfeited anger, as he run his eye over it-" By

"the

"the horns of Jupiter Ammon," quoth he, "here " is a fellow has the confidence to enter the lift "against me in the notable question of the egg." "Then I hope you will break that egg about his "ears," replied I." Hold your tongue, puppy, "and liften," quoth the fophift and immediately began to read. At every paufe I was ready with a pooh! or a pish! which I hooked in with every mark of contempt I could give it both by accent and action. At the conclufion of the effay my uncle Antony fhut the book and demanded what I thought of the author-" Hang him," I exclaim

ed,

"C poor Grub-street Garreteer; the fellow is "too contemptible for your notice; he can nei "ther write nor reafon; he is a mere ignoramus, "and does not know the commoneft rules of lo"gic; he has no feature of a critic about him, "but the malice of one."-" Hold your tongue,' cried Antony, no longer able to contain himself, you are a booby; I will maintain it to be as "fine an effay as ever was written."-With these words he fnatched up the magazine and departed; I faw no more of him that night, and early next morning was presented by a fervant with the following billet-" The Grub-street Garreteer finds "himfelf no longer fit company for the fagacious “Mr. William Simper; therefore defires him "without lofs of time to feek out better fociety "than that of a mere ignoramus, who does not "know the common ru es of logic: one rule however he makes bold to lay down, which is, "Never again to fee the face of an impertinent "upftart, called William Simper, whilft he re"mains on this earth."

A. S.

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