a marvellous dream: it seemed to me that two Angels, opening the gates
of Heaven, carried me before the throne of God with great joy: his
companion said: this is a marvellous dream, but I have seen another
more marvellous, for I saw two Angels, who carried me over the earth
to Hell. The countryman hearing this, made as if he slept; but the
townsmen, desirous to finish their trick, awoke him; and the
countryman, artfully as one surprised, answered: Who are these that
call me ? They told him, we are thy companions. He asked them: How
did you return ? They answered: We never went hence; why d'ye talk of
our return ? The countryman replied: It appeared to me that two
Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried one of you before our
Lord God, and dragged the other over the earth to Hell, and I thought
you never would return hither, as I have never heard that any had
returned from Paradise, nor from Hell, and so I arose and eat the
bread by myself.- From an old edition of Lasarillo de Tormes.


APPARITIONS.


CYNTHIA, Propertius's mistress, did appear to him after her death,
with the beryl-ring on her finger. See Propertius, eleg. 7. lib.

"Sunt aliquid manes, letum non omnia finit,
Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.
Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro,
Murmur ad extremae nuper humata viae:
Quum mihi ab exequiis somnus penderet amaris.
Et quererer lecti frigida regna mei.
Eosdem habuit secum, quibus est elata, capillos,