DREAMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. DREAM OF ACHILLES. HOMER. 'He spoke; they hear him and the word obey; The rage of hunger and of thirst allay, Then ease in sleep the labours of the day. 'But great Pelides, stretched along the shore, Where, dashed on rocks, the broken billows roar, Lies inly groaning; while on either hand The martial myrmidons confusedly stand: Along the grass his languid members fall, Tired with his chase around the Trojan wall; Hushed by the murmurs of the rolling deep, At length he sinks in the soft arms of sleep. When lo! the shade before his closing eyes Of sad Patroclus rose, or seemed to rise; In the same robe he living wore he came, In stature, voice, and pleasing look the same. 42 REMONSTRANCE OF PATROCLUS. The form familiar hovered o'er his head, "And sleeps Achilles "-thus the phantom said— Let my pale corse the rights of burial know, Now give thy hand, for to the farther shore, No more shall meet Achilles and his friend; No more our thoughts to those we loved make known, Or quit the dearest to converse alone. Me fate has severed from the sons of earth, The fate fore-doomed that waited from my birth. Thee, too, it waits; before the Trojan wall May mix our ashes in one common grave." But grant one last embrace, unhappy boy! Afford at least that melancholy joy." 1. ACHILLES MORALISES. 'He said, and with his longing arms essayed In vain to grasp the visionary shade; Like a thin smoke he sees the spirit fly, And hears a feeble lamentable cry. Confused he wakes; amazement breaks the bands """Tis true, 'tis certain; man, though dead, retains 43 Alas, how different! yet how like the same!" 'Thus, while he spake, each eye grew big with tears.' Iliad. DREAM OF THE MOTHER OF ZARTUSHT. ZARTUSHT-BEHRÁM. The following is the dream that heralded the birth of Zartusht, or Zoroaster, the great prophet and teacher of the Persians: 'She dreamed she wondering marked in heaven's clear skies A cloud like to an eagle's pinion rise. 44 A PRECOCIOUS INFANT. So thick a gloom its gathering shadow spread, While hapless Daghdú strove for aid to cry- Then dread not, though you view assembled here 1 |