[141]
But do you suppose that there
ever would have been any old woman crazy enough
to believe in dreams, if by some lucky accident or
chance they had not come true sometimes? But
let us consider Alexander's dream of the talking
serpent. The story may be true and it may be
wholly false. In either case it is no miracle; for
he did not hear the serpent speak, but thought he
heard it and, strangest thing of all, he thought it
[p. 529]
spoke while it held the root in its mouth! But
nothing seems strange to a man when he is dreaming.
Now, if Alexander ever had such a vivid and trustworthy dream as this, I want to ask why he never had
another one like it and why other men have not
had many of the same kind? As for me, except for
that dream about Marius, I really never had one that
I can recall. Think then how many nights in my long
life I have spent in vain!
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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