CHAP. IV.
Nor yet alone by day the unerring hand
Of Providence, un&longs;een directs man's path;
But, in the boding vi&longs;ion of the night,
By antic &longs;hapes, in gay fanta&longs;tic dream,
Gives dubious pro&longs;pect of the coming good;
Or, with &longs;ell precipice, or deep &longs;woln flood,
Dank dungeon, or vain flight from &longs;avage foe,
The labouring &longs;lumberer warns of future ill.
Author's Manu&longs;cript Poems.
ARGUMENT.
The Author's Birth, and a remarkable Dream
of his Mother: Ob&longs;ervations on foreboding
Dreams: The Author reciteth a
Dream of Sir William Phipps, Governour
of Ma&longs;&longs;acbu&longs;etts, and re&longs;ereth &longs;mall
Infidels to Mather's Magnalia.
[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]
I was born on the &longs;ixteenth of
July, Anno Domini, one thou&longs;and &longs;even
hundred and &longs;ixty two. My mother, &longs;ome
months before my birth, dreamed that &longs;he
-- 050 --
[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]
was delivered of me; that I was lying
in the cradle, that the hou&longs;e was be&longs;et by
Indians, who broke into the next room,
and took me into the fields with them;
that, alarmed by their hideous yellings and
warhoops, &longs;he ran to the window, and
&longs;aw a number of young tawny &longs;avages,
playing at foot ball with my head; while
&longs;everal &longs;achems and &longs;agamores were looking
on unconcerned.
This dream made a deep impre&longs;&longs;ion on
my mother. I well recollect, when a
boy, her &longs;troking my flaxen locks, repeating
her dream, and ob&longs;erving with a &longs;igh
to my father, that &longs;he was &longs;ure Updike
was born to be the &longs;port of fortune, and
that he would one day &longs;uffer among savages.
Dear woman, &longs;he had the native
Indians in her mind, but never apprehended
her poor &longs;on's &longs;uffering, many
years as a &longs;lave, among barbarians,
more cruel than the mon&longs;ters of our own
woods.
-- 051 --
[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]
The learned reader will &longs;mile contemptuously,
perhaps, upon my mentioning
dreams, in this enlightened age. I only
relate facts, and leave the reader to his
own comments. My own opinion of
dreams I &longs;hall conceal, perhaps becau&longs;e I
am a&longs;hamed to di&longs;clo&longs;e it. I will venture
to ob&longs;erve that, if we in&longs;pect the
&longs;acred &longs;criptures, we &longs;hall find frequent
in&longs;tances, both of direction to duty, and
forewarning of future events, communicated
by Providence, through the intervention
of dreams. Is not the modern
chri&longs;tian equally the care of indulgent
Heaven, as the favoured Jew, or the beloved
patriarch?
Many modern examples, of the foreboding
vi&longs;ions of the night, may be adduced.
William Phipps, a poor journeyman
&longs;hip carpenter, dreamed that he &longs;hould
one day ride in his coach, and live in a
grand hou&longs;e near Bo&longs;ton common. Many
years afterwards, when he was knighted
-- 052 --
[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]
by King William the third, and came from
England, governour of Ma&longs;&longs;achu&longs;etts Bay,
this dream, even as to the &longs;ituation of the
grand hou&longs;e, was literally and minutely
fulfilled. If the in&longs;ect infidels of the day
doubt this fact, let them con&longs;ult, for their
edification, the learned Doctor Mather's
Magnalia, where the whole &longs;tory, at
large, is minutely and amply related.—It
was the errour of the times of monki&longs;h ignorance,
to believe every thing. It may possibly
be the errour of the pre&longs;ent day, to credit
nothing.
-- 053 --
Tyler, Royall, 1757-1826 [1797], The Algerine captive, or, The life and adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill, six years a prisoner among the Algerines, volume 1 (, Walpole, NH) [word count] [eaf407v1].
