prevented their coming together, and he took another, which the first lady resented so, as that it cost her too dear, for she died soon after.

The affliction of this was very heavy to him, after he found himself abused in his real marriage, as above. I say after, for at first, it seems, it was not. Under the melancholy reflections of these contrary circumstances, which frequently loaded his mind, he dreams one night that his former mistress came to him with a smiling countenance; I might have expressed it rather, that his former mistress appeared to him in a dream, and with a smiling, cheerful countenance, told him that his runaway wife was dead; And now you are mine, says the apparition. He received the news with a particular satisfaction, and embraced the lady, as his former inclinations dictated to him; he had not the least notion, as he protested solemnly, or the least remembrance that she was dead.

When he awaked, and found it all a dream, he was exceedingly afflicted with the surprise, looking upon himself to be as really guilty as if he had been awake, and the lady alive; and I cannot but say he had some reason.

Whether this, if really true, could be anything but an apparition of an evil spirit, the Devil laying a snare for him, and prevailing with him in dream, in a manner, and to commit a crime which he could not prevail with him to be guilty of when she was alive.

I could give an account of another person whom the Devil haunted frequently, and that for many years together, with lewd apparitions; tempting him in his sleep with the company of beautiful women, sometimes naked, sometimes even in bed with him, and at other times in conversation prompting him to wickedness; and that sometimes he was prevailed upon to consent, but always happily prevented

by waking in time: but the case has, on two or three occasions, been mentioned by other hands, and the person is too much known to allow the further description of it without his consent.

I cannot doubt but these things are stated formal apparitions of the Devil; and though the person may be asleep, and not thoroughly sensible either of what he is doing, or of what is doing with him, yet that the evil spirit is actually present with him in apparition I think will not admit of any question.

The world is too full of examples of this kind to enter into a long account of the particulars. There is hardly a book upon the subject but is filled up with historical relations; hardly a person to be conversed with upon the subject, but is full of them, either for themselves or some of their acquaintance; and every one is rendering their dreams to be considerable, and all to come to pass: but out of five hundred dreams so told, and which so much stress is seemingly laid on, it is hard to find one that we can call a real apparition in dream.

The great, and perhaps one of the greatest difficulties of life, I mean that relates to dreams, is to distinguish between such as are real apparitions, and such as are only the product of an encumbered brain, a distempered head, or, which is worse, a distempered mind; but some dreams are so significant, and there follows such an immediate visible effect, answering the designed illumination, that it cannot but be significant.

A certain gentleman who had lately buried his wife, a lady of great piety and virtue, was so exceedingly afflicted at his loss, that, among other melancholy things which were the effect of it, this was one, that he was so far from desiring to marry again, that he entertained a settled, riveted aversion to the whole sex, and was never thoroughly easy in their company; and thus he lived near two years.

After a certain time his wife appeared to him in his dream, or he dreamed that he saw his wife; but I rather put it in the first sense: she came to him, as he thought, to the bed-side, with a smiling and pleasant countenance, and calling him by the term which she always gave him, My dearest.

He was in a great consternation, but could not speak to her; but she said, Don't be afraid of me, I will do you no hurt; and then said, What's the reason that you mourn thus for me?

He still said nothing; that is to say, he dreamed that he said nothing, but that he fetched a deep sigh.

Come, come, says she, friends lost are friends lost, and cannot be recalled.

Then he spoke, that is, dreamed that he spoke, and asked her why she appeared to him.

She said, to put an end to his unreasonable grief.

How can that be? says he; you now increase my grief, by bringing yourself thus to my remembrance.

No, no, says she, you must forget me, and pray take another wife, which will be the way to cause you to forget me effectually.

No, no, said he, that I can never do; and how can you desire it of me?

Yes, says she, I do desire it of you, and I come to direct you whom you shall have.

He desired she would talk no more to him; for says he, you cannot be my wife; it must be some evil spirit come to tempt me in such a shape, and to destroy me.

With that she seemed to weep, and to pity him.

He sighed again, and desired that, if she was able to retain any affection to him in the condition she was then in, that she would show it by coming no more to disorder him in that manner.

She said, Well, I will trouble you no more, if you listen to the directions I shall now give you, and will perform them.

What are they? says he.

On the first Wednesday in October, says she, you will be invited to dinner to such a house, there you will see a gentlewoman dressed in white sit over against you at the table; she shall be your wife, and she will be a kind mother to my children.

It seems she gave other particulars of the gentlewoman's dress, and in particular that she would drink to him; all which came to pass accordingly.

After she had said this, she disappeared; the story does not say she went away with a melodious sound, or with rich perfumes, or the like, as is pretended often in such-like cases; nor do I remember to have heard that he married the person, though he really saw her at the feast.

But the question from all this story is only this, viz., whether, supposing the case to be literally true, was this an apparition, or was it only a simple dream? I affirm it must be an apparition, that is to say, a spirit came to him in the person of, or personating his wife.

The following story I had from the mouth of the very person who was chiefly concerned in it, I mean the captain of the ship itself.

One captain Thomas Rogers, commander of a ship called the Society, was bound on a voyage from London to Virginia about the year 1694.

The ship was hired in London, and being sent light, as they call it, to Virginia for a loading of tobacco, had not many goods in her outward bound, suppose about two or three hundred ton, which was not counted a loading, or indeed half her loading; the ship being very large, above five hundred ton burden.

They had had a pretty good passage, and the day before had had an observation, whereupon the mates and proper officers had brought their books and cast up their reckonings with the captain, to see how near they were to the coasts of America; they all agreed that they were at least about an hundred leagues' distance from the capes of Virginia. Upon these customary reckonings, and withal heaving the lead, and finding no ground at an hundred fathom, they set the watch, and the captain turned in (as they call it at sea), that is, went to bed.

The weather was good, a moderate gale of wind, and blowing fair for the coast, so that the ship might have run about twelve or fifteen leagues in the night after the captain was in his cabin.

He fell asleep, and slept very soundly for about three hours, when he waked again, and lay till he heard his second mate turn out, and relieve the watch; and then he called his chief mate, as he was going off from the watch, and asked him how all things fared; who answered, that all was well, and the gale freshened, and they run at a great rate, but it was a fair wind and a fine clear night; so the captain went to sleep again.

About an hour after he had been asleep again, he dreamed that a man pulled him or waked him, and he did wake. I am not sure, but I think he said the thing that waked him bade him get up, that is, turn out and look abroad. But whether it was so or no, he lay still and composed himself to sleep, and dropped again, and suddenly awaked again, and thus several times; and though he knew nothing what was the reason, yet he found it was impossible for him to go to sleep, and still he heard the vision say, or thought he heard it say, Turn out, and look abroad.

He lay in this uneasiness near two hours, hut at