was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon's[1] dream, I think it was a jest. It was, that he was devoured of[2] a long dragon; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of the like kind; especially if you include dreams, and predictions of astrology. But I have set down these few only of certain credit, for example. My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised; and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised. For they have done much mischief; and I see many severe laws made to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss; as they do generally also of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions, many times turn themselves into prophecies; while the nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril
- ↑ The Knights of Aristophanes is a satire on Cleon, an Athenian demagogue. In the comedy Demos, or the State, is represented as an old man who has put himself into the hands of a rascally Paphlagonian steward. Nicias and Demosthenes, slaves of Demos, contrive that the Paphlagonian shall be supplanted by a sausage-seller. No sooner has Demos been thus rescued than his youthfulness and his good sense return together. Cleon, who was a tanner's son, was killed at Amphipolis, Macedon, in 422 B.C.
- ↑ Of in this use introduces the agent after a passive verb, and is now superseded by by, except as a biblical, poetic, or stylistic Archaism.
"I have been told so of many."
Shakspere. As You Like It. iii. 9.
