Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
1
303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
25
The
story
is
reproduced
because
it
is
clearly
one
of
the
tales
which
come
round
in
cycles,
either
because
events
repeat
themselves
or
because
people
will
unconsciously
localise
old
legends
in
new
places
and
assign
old
occurrences
or
fables
to
new
persons.
Thus
every
one
has
heard
how
Lord
Westbury
called
a
certain
man
in
the
Herald's
office
"a
foolish
old
fellow
who
did
not
even
know
his
own
foolish
old
business".
Lord
Westbury
may
very
well
have
said
this,
but
long
before
his
time
the
remark
was
attributed
to
the
famous
Lord
Chesterfield.
Lord
Westbury
may
have
quoted
it
from
Chesterfield
or
hit
on
it
by
accident,
or
the
old
story
may
have
been
assigned
to
him.
In
the
same
way
Mr.
Rutherford
may
have
had
his
dream
or
the
following
tale
of
St.
Augustine's
(also
cited
by
Scott)
may
have
been
attributed
to
him,
with
the
picturesque
addition
about
the
piece
of
Portuguese
gold.
Except
for
the
piece
of
Portuguese
gold
St.
Augustine
practically
tells
the
anecdote
in
his
De
Cura
pro
Mortuis
Habenda,
adding
the
acute
reflection
which
follows.
{16}
"Of
a
surety,
when
we
were
at
Milan,
we
heard
tell
of
a
certain
person
of
whom
was
demanded
payment
of
a
debt,
with
production
of
his
deceased
father's
acknowledgment,
which
debt,
unknown
to
the
son,
the
father
had
paid,
whereupon
the
man
began
to
be
very
sorrowful,
and
to
marvel
that
his
father
while
dying
did
not
tell
him
what
he
owed
when
he
also
made
his
will.
Then
in
this
exceeding
anxiousness
of
his,
his
said
father
appeared
to
him
in
a
dream,
and
made
known
to
him
where
was
the
counter
acknowledgment
by
which
that
acknowledgment
was
cancelled.
Which
when
the
young
man
had
found
and
showed,
he
not
only
rebutted
the
wrongful
claim
of
a
false
debt,
but
also
got
back
his
father's
note
of
hand,
which
the
father
had
not
got
back
when
the
money
was
paid.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
