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MONTHLY

MIRROR:

REFLECTING

MEN AND MANNERS.

WITH

STRICTURES ON THEIR EPITOME,

The Stage.

To hold as 'twere the MIRROR up to Nature.

VOL. XVII.

Embellished with superb Engravings.

London:

PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS,

By J. Wright, No. 38, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell.
And published by Vernor and Hood in the Poultry;
sold, also, by all the Booksellers in

the United Kingdom.

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PREFACE

TO THE SEVENTEENTH VOLUME.

OUR Volumes have been so many, and the public encouragement they have received has been so uniformby flattering, that what we have latterly offered to our Readers, in the way of PREFACE, has seldom amounted to more than a tender of our grateful acknowledgments for the favours they have shewn us. Upon a review of the past Volume, we are not conscious of having forfeited our claim to the public patronage; and we trust that the present will not manifest any departure from the principle and spirit, which first recommended the work to notice, and from that splendour of embellishment, and superior elegance of typographical execution, which distinguish it from every periodical work of a similar description.

The memoir of Sir James Mackintosh will appear in the ensuing number.

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EXTRAORDINARY DREAMS.

THOUGH it be true, that, in the multitude, or major part, of dreams, there are diverse vanities, Eccles. v. 7; though it be likewise acknowledged, that whoso regardeth (o sexwv, he that leaneth, or layeth great stress, upon) dreams in general, is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind, Eccles. xxxiv. 2; forasmuch as dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them; yet the same wise writer, from whom the two last passages are quoted, guards his remarks by the following caveat (v. 9.) Set not thy heart upon them (i. e. upon dreams), if they be not sent from the Most High in thy visitation. And we have it from an incomparably superior authority, that, in a dream, in a vision, when deep sleep falleth upon man, in slumberings upon the bed; then God openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instructions: Job xxxiii. 15, 16.

Examples of supernatural dreams occur so frequently in the sa cred volume, that no man can explode all dreams as vain, without exploding the Bible at the same time. God came to Abimelech, in a dream; Genesis xx. 3.-The angel of God spake to Jacob in a dream: Genesis xxxi. 11.—Very remarkable was Jacob's dream at Bethel: Gen. xxviii.-Joseph's two dreams were evidently prophetic: Gen. xxxvii.-So were those of king Pharaoh: Gen. xli.And of the Jewish soldier: Josh. vii. 13.- When God took away the spirit of prophecy from Saul, it is said that the Lord answered him not by dreams: 1 Sam. xxxviii. 6.—At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon, in a dream, by night: 1 Kings iii. 5.—Nebuchadnezzar's predictive dreams were, undeniably, from God: Dan ii. and iv.-As was Daniel's, concerning the four universal monarchies: Dan. vii.

Your old men shall dream dreams, is a promise made to Joel; and it began to have its accomplishment in Joseph, the espoused and nominal husband of the Virgin Mary. It was in a dream that the angel of the Lord appeared to this holy man, and forbade him to suspect the purity of his unsullied bride. In the same dream it was revealed to Joseph, that he should give to the Messiah the name of Jesus, because that blessed person was to save his people from

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