Who, with a ghastly look and doleful cry,
Said, Help me, brother, or this night I die:
Arife, and help, before all help be vain,
Or in an ox's ftall I fhall be flain.

Rous'd from his reft, he waken'd in a start,
Shivering with horror, and with aking heart;
At length to cure himself by reason tries;
'Tis but a dream, and what are dreams but lies?
So thinking, chang'd his fide, and clos'd his eyes.
His dream returns; his friend appears again :
The murderers come, now help, or I am flain :
'Twas but a vifion ftill, and vifions are but vain.
He dreamt the third: but now his friend appear'd
Pale, naked, pierc'd with wounds, with blood befinear'd:
Thrice warn'd, awake, faid he; relief is late,
The deed is done; but thou revenge my fate:
Tardy of aid, unfeal thy heavy eyes,
Awake, and with the dawning day arise :
Take to the western gate thy ready way,
For by that paffage they my corpfe convey:
My corpfe is in a tumbril laid, among

The filth and ordure, and inclos'd with dung :
That cart arreft, and raise a common cry;
For facred hunger of my gold, I die :

Then fhew'd his griefly wound and last he drew
A piteous figh; and took a long adieu.

The frighted friend arofe by break of day,
And found the stall where late his fellow lay.
Then of his impious hoft inquiring more,
Was anfwer'd that his gueft was gone before:

Muttering, he went, faid he, by morning-light,
And much complain'd of his ill reft by night.
This rais'd fufpicion in the pilgrim's mind;
Because all hofts are of an evil kind,

And oft to share the spoils with robbers join'd.

His dream confirm'd his thought: with troubled look Straight to the western gate his way he took; There, as his dream foretold, a cart he found, That carry'd compoft forth to dung the ground. This when the pilgrim faw, he stretch'd his throat, And cry'd out murder with a yelling note. My murder'd fellow in this cart lies dead, Vengeance and justice on the villain's head. Ye magiftrates, who facred laws difpenfe, On you I call, to punish this offence.

The word thus given, within a little space,
The mob came roaring out, and throng'd the place.
All in a trice they caft the cart to ground,

And in the dung the murder'd body found;
Though breathlefs, warm, and reeking from the

wound.

Good heaven, whofe darling attribute we find
Is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind,
Abhors the cruel; and the deeds of night
By wondrous ways reveals in open light:
Murder may pafs unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy juftice will o'ertake the crime.
And oft a speedier pain the guilty feels:
The hue and cry of heaven purfues him at the heels,

Fresh

Fresh from the fact; as in the prefent cafe,
The criminals are feiz'd upon the place:
Carter and hoft confronted face to face.
Stiff in denial, as the law appoints,

On engines they diftend their tortur'd joints :
So was confeffion forc'd, th' offence was known,
And public juftice on th' offenders done.

Here may you fee that visions are to dread;
And in the page that follows this, I read
Of two young merchants, whom the hope of gain.
Induc'd in partnership to cross the main
Waiting till willing winds their fails fupply'd,
Within a trading-town they long abide,
Full fairly fituate on a haven's fide.

One evening it befel, that looking out,
The wind they long had wish'd was come about:
Well-pleas'd they went to reft; and if the gale
Till morn continued, both refolv'd to fail.
But as together in a bed they lay,

The younger had a dream at break of day.
A man he thought ftood frowning at his fide:
Who warn'd him for his fafety to provide,
Nor put to fea, but fafe on fhore abide.
I come, thy genius, to command thy stay;
Truft not the winds, for fatal is the day,
And death unhop'd attends the watery way.
The vifion faid: and vanish'd from his fight:
The dreamer waken'd in a mortal fright :
Then pull'd his drowfy neighbour, and declar'd
What in his flumber he had seen and heard.

L 3

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His

His friend fiid'd fcornful, and with proud contempt

Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt.

Stay, who will stay: for me no fears restrain,
Who follow Mercury the god of gain;

Let each man do as to his fancy feems,

I wait not, I, till you have better dreams.
Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes;
When monarch reafon fleeps, this mimic wakes:
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,

A mob of coblers, and a court of kings:
Light fumes are merry, groffer fumes are fad:
Both are the reasonable foul run mad';

And many monftrous forms in fleep we see,
That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be.
Sometimes forgotten things long cast behind
Rufh forward in the brain, and come to mind.
The nurfe's legends are for truths receiv'd,
And the man dreams but what the boy believ'd.
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night reftores our actions done by day;
As hounds in fleep will open for their prey.
In short, the farce of dreams is of a piece,
Chimeras all; and more abfurd, or lefs:.
You, who believe in tales, abide alone;.
Whate'er I get this voyage is my own.

Thus while he spoke, he heard the fhouting crew
That call'd'aboard, and took his laft adieu.

The vessel went before a merry gale,

And for quick paffage put on every fail :

Bat

But when leaft fear'd, and ev'n in
open day,
The mifchief overtook her in the way:
Whether the sprung a leak, I cannot find,
Or whether she was overfet with wind,

Or that fome rock below her bottom rent;
But down at once with all her crew fhe went :'
Her fellow fhips from far her lofs defcry'd;
But only fhe was funk, and all, were fafe befide.
By this example you are taught again,

That dreams and visions are not always vain:
But if, dear Partlet, you are still in doubt,
Another tale fhall make the former out.
Kenelm the son of Kenulph, Mercia's king,
Whofe holy life the legends loudly fing,
Warn'd in a dream his murder did foretel
From point to point as after it befel;
All circumstances to his nurse he told

(A wonder from a child of seven years old):
The dream with horror heard, the good old wife
From treafon counsel'd him to guard his life;
But close to keep the secret in his mind,
For a boy's vifion fmall belief would find.
The pious child, by promise bound, obey'd,›
Nor was the fatal murder long delay'd:
By Quenda flain, he fell before his time,
Made a young martyr by his sister's crime.
The tale is told by venerable Bede,
Which at your better leisure you may read.

Macrobius too relates the vision fent

To the great Scipio, with the fam'd event: