Quid signum, et de sompno
The Nature of Signs
A sign is defined as an indication that reveals truth or falsehood to the mind, whether through the senses or directly.
By this, we understand signs to be anything that, through any indication, suggests the divine will to a person. A sign is, in fact, something that shows itself to the senses and, beyond itself, reveals something to the mind. Yet there are certain signs that show nothing to any of the bodily senses, but instead frequently convey truth or falsehood to the mind, either through the appearance of some object or without the difficulty of any intermediary. For signs are sometimes true and sometimes false.
Dreams and the Interior Life
Dreams serve as a unique space where the soul, freed from bodily senses, may contemplate truth or be misled by illusions.
Who doesn't know that dreams have various meanings, which both custom approves and the authority of the ancients confirms? In them, since sleep is present, the animal powers—that is, the senses, which are said to belong to the body and are of the soul—rest, but the natural powers are intensified. It happens at times that the soul, relieved from the exercise of the body, returns more freely into itself and contemplates the truth more unreservedly, sometimes through figures and riddles, and sometimes face-to-face. This didn't escape the one who, in depicting the gates of dreams, fashioned one of ivory and the other of horn; for horn is transparent to the sight and doesn't often deceive, while ivory is of a denser nature and, even when shaved to extreme thinness, cannot be penetrated by any sharpness of vision.1 The former is more like the teeth, the latter more like the eyes; from the one, the spirits send true dreams to the heavens, and from the other, they send false ones.
Read the original Latin
Hic uero intelliguntur signa, quaecumque quouis indicio diuinam homini innuimt uoluntatem. Signum siquidem est, quod seipsum sensui, et praeter se aliquid animo ostendit. Quaedam tamen signa sunt, quae nulli corporalium sensuum aliquid ostendunt, sed animo cuiuscumqae rei specie mediante aut citra medii difficultatem uerum falsumue frequenter ingerunt. Signa etenim interdum uera, interdum falsa sunt. Quis nescit somniorum uarias esse significationes, quas et usus approbat et maiorum confirmat auctoritas? In eis utique quoniam sompnus est, animales uirttltes, scilicet sensus, qui dicuntur corporis et sunt animae, quiescunt, sed naturales intenduntur. Contingit interim ut animus corporis exercitio releuatus in seipsum liberius redeat, et ueritatem nunc per figuras et enigmata nunc immediata facie licentius contempletur. Quod et illum non latuit, qui sompni depingens portas alteram ebumeam, alteram comeam finxit; cum et cornu sit peraium uisui, qui non frequenter errat, et ebur naturae densioris et usque ad extremam tenuitatem rasum nuUo uisus acumine penetretur.
Hoc quidem dentibus, illud oculis uerioribus similius est; hinc uera somnia, hinc falsa ad celum mittunt insomnia manes.
Notes
- 1 ↩A reference to the classical myth of the gates of sleep (Vergil, Aeneid 6.893-896).
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
Pair the outline with the Chosen Portion app, which serves short daily portions from the same royal devotional tradition — free on iOS.
John of Salisbury argued that rulers must keep the law of God before their eyes daily; Chosen Portion gives modern readers that same daily discipline in five minutes a morning.
- 8 weeks, one book per week, with the 3-4 key chapters flagged in each
- Discussion questions usable for a reading group from week one
- A daily 5-minute companion portion in the app alongside your weekly study