| LIVES OF THE NOBLE | | |
| | | |
| MARCUS | no otherwise affrayd, replyed againe unto it: Well, then I | |
| BRUTUS | shall see thee agayne. The spirit presently vanished away: | |
| and Brutus called his men unto him, who tolde him that | |
| they heard no noyse, nor sawe any thinge at all. There- | |
| uppon Brutus returned agayne to thinke on his matters as he | |
| did before: and when the daye brake, he went unto Cassius, | |
| to tell him what vision had appeared unto him in the night. | |
| Cassius beeing in opinion an Epicurian, and reasoning thereon | |
| Cassius | with Brutus, spake to him touching the vision thus. In our | |
| opinion of | secte, Brutus, we have an opinion, that we doe not alwayes | |
| spirits, after | feele, or see, that which we suppose we doe both see and | |
| the Epicuri- | feele: but that our senses beeing credulous, and therefore | |
| ans sect. | easily abused (when they are idle and unoccupied in their | |
| owne objects) are induced to imagine they see and conjecture | |
| that, which they in truth doe not. For, our minde is quicke | |
| and cunning to worke (without eyther cause or matter) any | |
| thinge in the imagination whatsoever. And therefore the | |
| imagination is resembled to claye, and the minde to the | |
| potter: who without any other cause than his fancie and | |
| pleasure, chaungeth it into what facion and forme he will. | |
| And this doth the diversitie of our dreames shewe unto us. | |
| The cause | For our imagination doth uppon a small fancie growe from | |
| of dreames. | conceit to conceit, altering both in passions and formes of | |
| thinges imagined. For the minde of man is ever occupied, | |
| and that continuall moving is nothing but an imagination. | |
| But yet there is a further cause of this in you. For you | |
| being by nature given to melancholick discoursing, and of | |
| late continually occupied: your wittes and sences having | |
| bene overlabored, doe easilier yeelde to such imaginations. | |
| For, to say that there are spirits or angells, and if there | |
| were, that they had the shape of men, or such voyces, or | |
| any power at all to come unto us: it is a mockerye. And | |
| for myne owne parte, I would there were suche, bicause that | |
| we shoulde not onely have souldiers, horses, and shippes, but | |
| also the ayde of the goddes, to guide and further our honest | |
| and honorable attempts. With these words Cassius did | |
| A wonderfull | somewhat comfort and quiet Brutus. When they raysed | |
| signe by two | their campe, there came two Eagles that flying with a mar- | |
| Eagles. | velous force, lighted uppon two of the foremoste enseignes, | |
| 218 | |