Excerpts from Pantagruel,Chapter 3.XIII
Of what kind?asked Panurge.Of a good ancient and authentic fashion,answered Pantagruel;it is by dreams.
When our body is at rest,the concoction is everywhere accomplished,and that,till it awake,it lacks for nothing,our soul delighteth to disport itself and is well pleased in that frolic to take a review of its native country,which is the heavens,where it receiveth a most notable participation of its first beguining with an imbuement from its divine source, and in contemplation of that infinite and intellectual sphere, whereof the centre is everywhere to wit.
No new thing happeneth,nothing that is path escapeth,all things are alike present,bringing a relation of those future events into the body of the outward senses and exterior organs.
Whereupon the owner of that soul deserveth to be termed a vaticinator, or a prophet.
Nevertheless,the truth is,that the soul is seldom able to report those things in such sincerity as it hath seen them, by reason of the imperfection and frailty of the corporeal senses,which obstruct the effectuating of that office;
even as the Moon doth not communicate unto this Earth of ours that light which she receiveth from the Sun with so much splendour,heat,vigour,purity and liveliness as it was given her.
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