"He who would receive true dreams should keep a pure, undisturbed and imaginative spirit and so compose it that it may be worthy of knowledge and government by the mind, for such a spirit is most fit for prophesying and is a most clear glass for all images which flow everywhere from all things. When, therefore, we are sound in body, are not disturbed in mind, our intellect not made dull by heavy meats and strong drink, not sad through poverty, not provoked through lust, not incited by any vice, nor stirred up by wrath or anger, not being irreligiously or profanely inclined, nor given to levity nor lost in drunkenness, but chastely going to bed fall asleep, then our pure and divine soul being free from all the evils above recited and separated from all hurtful thoughts and now freed by dreaming - is endowed-with this divine spirit as an instrument and doth perceive these beams and representations which are darted down as it were and shine forth from the Divine Mind into itself in a deifying glass."

And even in present day enlightenment, when the average person will call it nonsense, fraud, black art or magic, as the case may be, he will nevertheless have his divination; and with his head aside and a sneer on his lips he will peer into the future and eagerly recount his dreams. There are eight hundred million believers in divination and black magic in the world to-day, according to Mme. Blavatsky, and dreaming, whether natural or induced by artificial means, is one of the principal methods employed in the translation thereof.

The following formulae for the manufacture of dreams were whispered, blushed over, tried and trusted by our grandmothers, who none the less believed them to have been derived from Satan:

St. Agnes's Charm

"It must be only used on the 21st of January, known as St. Agnes's day. You must prepare yourself by a twenty-four hours fast, drinking nothing but pure spring water, beginning at midnight on the 20th to the same hour on the 21st; go to bed, and mind you sleep by yourself, and do not tell what you are trying to do to any one, or you will break the spell. Go to rest on your left side and repeat these lines:

'St. Agnes, be a friend to me

In the gift I ask of thee;

Let me this night my husband see.'

"You will then dream of your future spouse; if you see more than one in your dream you will wed two or three times; if you sleep and dream not, you will never marry."

The Myrtle Charm

A method of having your future husband revealed in a dream is by the Myrtle Charm, which must be used on the 25th of November, St. Catherine's day.

Let a number of young women, not exceeding seven, assemble in a room where they will be safe from interlopers.

As the clock strikes 11 at night, take from your bosom a spray of myrtle which you have worn all day and fold it up in a bit of tissue paper. Light up a small chafing dish of charcoal and on it let each maiden throw nine hairs from her head and a paring of her toe and fingernails; then let each sprinkle a small quantity of myrrh and frankincense in the charcoal, and while your vapor rises fumigate your myrtle; the plant is sacred to Venus. Go to bed while the clock is striking twelve and you will dream of your future husband. Place the myrtle exactly under your head. Only virgins find this charm efficacious. The myrtle hour must be passed in silence.

Bannich Brauder, or dreaming bannocks, are much esteemed by the Scotch. They contain: 'A little of that substance which chimney sweeps call soot.' In baking them the baker must be 'mute as a stone' - one word will destroy the whole concern.

"Each person has one, slips off quietly to bed, lays his or her head on the bannock and the sweetheart of each person appears during sleep."

The efficacy of these formulae in the production of dreams must obviously depend upon the sleeper's power of self hypnosis. The dreams themselves may be divided into two classes, those that hardheaded fact may trail to their very inception amid the processes of the subconscious, repressed desires and half-shamed wishes, and which may be accurately labeled and learnedly accounted for; and on the other hand there are the dreams of hope and love and youth, halcyon dreams whose very sweetness and innocence causes them to pass beyond the plummet of science..