So the butler presses the cluster for Pharaoh's cup: so the baker seemed to carry his baskets; each supposing himself in sleep to be engaged in those services with which he was busied when awake: for the images of their customary occupations imprinted on the prescient element of their soul, gave them for a time the power of foretelling, by this sort of prophecy on the part of the mind, what should come to pass.

But if Daniel and Joseph and others like them were instructed by Divine power, without any confusion of perception, in the knowledge of things to come, this is nothing to the present statement; for no one would ascribe this to the power of dreams, since he will be constrained as a consequence to suppose that those Divine appearances also which took place in wakefulness were not a miraculous vision but a result of nature brought about spontaneously. As then, while all men are guided by their own minds, there are some few who are deemed worthy of evident Divine communication; so, while the imagination of sleep naturally occurs in a like and equivalent manner for all, some, not all, share by means of their dreams in some more Divine manifestation: but to all the rest even if a foreknowledge of anything does occur as a result of dreams, it occurs in the way we have spoken of.

And again, if the Egyptian and the Assyrian king were guided by God to the knowledge of the future, the dispensation wrought by their means is a different thing: for it was necessary that the hidden wisdom of the holy men should be made known, that each of them might not pass his life without profit to the state. For how could Daniel have been known for what he was, if the soothsayers and magicians had not been unequal to the task of discovering the dream? And how could Egypt have been preserved while Joseph was shut up in prison, if his interpretation of the dream had not brought him to notice? Thus we must reckon these cases as exceptional, and not class them with common dreams.

Οὕτως ὁ οἰνοχόος ἐκθλίβει τὴν βότρυν τῇ κύλικι τοῦ Φαραώ, οὕτω κανηφορεῖν ὁ σιτοποιὸς ἐφαντάσθη͵ ἐν οἷς καθ' ὕπαρ ἑκάτερος τὴν σπουδὴν εἶχεν͵ ἐν τούτοις εἶναι καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων οἰόμενος. Τῶν γὰρ συνήθων αὐτοῖς ἐπιτηδευμάτων τὰ εἴδωλα τῷ προγνωστικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐντυπωθέντα͵ παρέσχεν ἐπὶ καιροῦ τῶν ἐκβησομένων διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης τοῦ νοῦ προφητείας καταμαντεύσασθαι.

Εἰ δὲ Δανιὴλ καὶ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ οἱ κατ' ἐκείνους θείᾳ δυνάμει μηδεμιᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιθολούσης αἰσθήσεως τὴν τῶν μελλόντων γνῶσιν προεπαιδεύοντο͵ οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν προκείμενον λόγον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄν τις ταῦτα τῇ δυνάμει τῶν ἐνυπνίων λογίσαιτο͵ ἐπεὶ πάντως ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου καὶ τὰς καθ' ὕπαρ γινομένας θεοφανείας οὐκ ὀπτασίαν͵ ἀλλὰ φύσεως ἀκολουθίαν κατὰ τὸ αὐτόματον ἐνεργουμένην οἰήσεται. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν πάντων ἀνθρώπων κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον νοῦν διοικουμένων͵ ὀλίγοι τινές εἰσιν οἱ τῆς θείας ὁμιλίας ἐκ τοῦ ἐμφανοῦς ἀξιούμενοι, οὕτω κοινῶς πᾶσι καὶ ὁμοτίμως τῆς ἐν ὕπνοις φαντασίας κατὰ φύσιν ἐγγινομένης͵ μετέχουσί τινες͵ οὐχὶ πάντες͵ θειοτέρας τινὸς διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων τῆς ἐμφανείας. Τοῖς δ' ἄλλοις πᾶσι κἂν γένηταί τις ἐξ ἐνυπνίων περί τι πρόγνωσις͵ κατὰ τὸν εἰρημένον γίνεται τρόπον.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος καὶ ὁ Ἀσσύριος τύραννος θεόθεν πρὸς τὴν τῶν μελλόντων ὡδηγοῦντο γνῶσιν͵ ἑτερόν ἐστι τὸ διὰ τούτων οἰκονομούμενον, φανερωθῆναι γὰρ ἔδει κεκρυμμένην τὴν τῶν ἁγίων σοφίαν͵ ὡς ἂν μὴ ἄχρηστος τῷ κοινῷ παραδράμῃ τὸν βίον. Πῶς γὰρ ἐγνώσθη τοιοῦτος ὢν Δανιήλ͵ μὴ τῶν ἐπαοιδῶν καὶ μάγων πρὸς τὴν εὕρεσιν τῆς φαντασίας ἀτονησάντων͵ Πῶς δ' ἂν περιεσώθη τὸ Αἰγύπτιον ἔθνος͵ ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ καθειργμένου τοῦ Ἰωσήφ͵ εἰ μὴ παρήγαγεν εἰς μέσους αὐτὸν ἡ τοῦ ἐνυπνίου κρίσις; Οὐκοῦν ἄλλο τι ταῦτα͵ καὶ οὐχὶ κατὰ τὰς κοινὰς φαντασίας λογίζεσθαι χρή.