The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
bled and sometimes calm; and true dreams are sometimes quite similar to future events or even clear forecasts, while at other times they are predictions given with dark meanings and, as it were, in figurative expressions. And the same is to be said of all these visions. But men like to gaze in wonder at what is strange and seek the causes of the unusual, while they generally do not care to know about daily occurrences of this sort, even though their origin may often be more obscure.®° In the case of words, namely, the signs that we use in speech, when an unusual one is heard, men ask first what it is (that is, what it means), and after learning this, they enquire about its origin; and yet there are many words in use in our daily speech about whose origin they are content to be ignorant. Similarly, when an unusual event occurs, whether in the material or spiritual order, they anxiously enquire about its causes and its nature and demand an explanation from the savants.
40. When, for example, someone asks me the meaning of catus,87 and I say that it means "wise" or "sharp," and when he, not satisfied, goes on to enquire about the origin of catus, 1 usually rejoin and ask about the origin of acutus ("sharp"). On this point he would be equally uninformed, but because of the familiarity of the word he would willingly bear his ignorance about its origin. But when a word has a sound which is strange to his ears, he does not think he knows its meaning unless he traces out its derivation.
And so, when anyone asks me about the origin of the images of bodies that appear in ecstasy, an experience that happens but rarely to the soul, I, in turn, ask about the origin of the images that appear daily to the soul in sleep—an enquiry which men care little or nothing about. One would think that the nature of these visions was less remarkable because they are daily occurrences, or less interesting because they are a common experience. Or, if men do well in not investigating them, they will do better in restraining their curiosity about extraordinary visions; but Iam much more impressed and profoundly amazed when I consider the rapidity and ease with which the soul fashions within itself images of bodies seen through the eyes of the body than when I consider the visions of dreams and even of ecstasies.