Tertullian — On the Soul 49
XLIX. [1] Those who think infants do not dream — since all things of the soul are discharged in life according to the measure of age — let them notice their starts and nods and smiles through rest, so that from the fact they grasp that the motions of a dreaming soul easily break out onto the surface through the tenderness of the flesh. [2] But also that the Libyan nation of Atlantes are said to pass in blind sleep — they are taxed as to the nature of the soul. Further, either Herodotus’s rumor lied sometimes, slanderous against barbarians, or a great force of such demons dominates in that climate… [3] But we also derive dreams from God. Why then would the Atlantes not dream even from God — or because no nation is now foreign to God, the gospel flashing into all the earth and to the ends of the world? So either the rumor lied to Aristotle, or the account is still of demons? Provided that no nature of the soul be believed immune to dreams. ****** No people is outside God’s reach now — and no soul-nature is dream-proof. Gospel light covers the map.
Latin
>XLIX. [1] Infantes qui non putant somniare, cum omnia animae pro modo aetatis expungantur in uita, animaduertant succussus et nutus et renidentias eorum per quietem, ut ex re comprehendant motus animae somniantis facile per carnis teneritatem erumpere in superficiem. [2] Sed et quod Libyca gens Atlantes caeco somno transigere dicuntur, animae utique natura taxantur. Porro aut Herodoto fama mentita est nonnunquam in barbaros calumniosa aut magna uis eiusmodi daemonum in illo climate dominatur. Si enim et Aristoteles heroem quendam Sardiniae notat incubatores fani sui uisionibus priuantem, erit et hoc in daemonum libidinibus, tam auferre somnia quam inferre, ut Neronis quoque seri somniatoris et Thrasymedis insigne inde processerit. [3] Sed et a deo deducimus somnia. Quid ergo nec a deo Atlantes somniarent, uel quia nulla iam gens dei extranea est in omnem terram et in terminos orbis euangelio coruscante? Num ergo aut fama mentita est Aristoteli aut daemonum adhuc ratio est? Dum ne animae aliqua natura credatur immunis somniorum.