Mackenzie on Dreams

‘December 5 [1825]—…Dined at the Royal Society Club, where, as usual, was a pleasant meeting of from twenty to twenty-five. It is a very good institution; we pay two guineas only for six dinners in the year, present or absent. Dine at five, or rather half-past five, at the Royal Hotel, where we have an excellent dinner, with soups, fish, etc., and all in good order; port and sherry till half-past seven, then coffee, and we go to the Society. This has great influence in keeping up the attendance, it being found that this preface of a good dinner, to be paid for whether you partake or not, brings out many a philosopher who might not otherwise have attended the Society. Harry Mackenzie, now in his eighty-second or third year, read part of an Essay on Dreams…’

Pulling from Scott’s journal today (December 5^th), Walter Scott said of Author Henry MacKenzie’s “The Man of the World, that it was "constantly obedient to his moral sense".  One gets a sense of Mackenzie’s moral thinking in a letter he wrote to The Mirror on the topic of dreams:

‘N74- Saturday, January 22. 1780.

To the Author of the Mirror. 

 
Sir,

IN my last, I hinted that dreams may be useful as physical admonitions. What if I should go a step further, and say, that they may be serviceable as means of our moral improvement? I will not affirm, however, as some have done, that, by them, we may make a more accurate discovery of our temper and ruling passions, than by observing what passes in our minds when awake: For, in sleep, we are very incompetent judges of ourselves, and of every thing else; and one will dream of committing crimes with little remorse, which, if awake, one could not think of without horror. But, as many of our passions are inflamed ;or allayed by the temperature of the body, this, I think, may be said with truth, that, by attending to what passes in sleep, we may sometimes discern what passions are predominant, and, consequently, receive some useful cautions for the regulation of them. A man dreams, for example, that he is in a violent anger, and that he strikes a blow, which knocks a person down, and kills him. He awakes in horror at the thought of what he has done, and of the punishment he thinks he has reason to apprehend; and while, after a moment's recollection, he rejoices to find that it is but a. dream, he will also be inclinable to form resolutions against violent anger, lest it should one time or other hurry him on to a real perpetration of a like nature. If we ever derive this advantage from a dream, we cannot pronounce it useless. And this, or a similar advantage, may sometimes be derived from dreaming. For why may we not in this way reap improvement from a fiction of our own fancy, as well as from a novel, or a fable of Æsop?...’

Francis II of France

Francis II lived only 16 years, succeeding his father Henry II, dying of illness on December 5, 1560.  He is remembered mainly for being the king-consort to Mary Queen of Scots (from 1548), and her first husband.  Sir Walter Scott includes reference to Francis in the speech of Mary, in "The Abbot", which covers the time after Mary's escape from Lochleven:


"Look--look at him well," said the Queen, "thus has it been with all who loved Mary Stewart!--The royalty of Francis, the wit of Chastelar, the power and gallantry of the gay Gordon, the melody of Rizzio, the portly form and youthful grace of Darnley, the bold address and courtly manners of Bothwell--and now the deep-devoted passion of the noble Douglas--nought could save them!--they looked on the wretched Mary, and to have loved her was crime enough to deserve early death! No sooner had the victim formed a kind thought of me, than the poisoned cup, the axe and block, the dagger, the mine, were ready to punish them for casting away affection on such a wretch as I am!--Importune me not--I will fly no farther--I can die but once, and I will die here."

Francis II of France

Francis, the Dauphin of France, married Mary, Queen of Scots in 1558. Both were extremely young at the time; Francis just 14, and Mary 16. The marriage was arranged 10 years earlier, by Francis' father, King Henry II of France. Mary was four at that time, and had just been crowned Queen of Scotland, following the death of her father James V, King of Scots. Through this marriage, any offspring would inherit the Scottish throne, and also have a potential claim to the English crown through Mary's great-grandfather Henry VII of England.

Francis acceeded to the French throne in 1559, but there were to be no children to pursue future French acquisition. Francis was a sickly child all his life, and he died a year after taking the reins due to an infection that impacted his brain. He died on December 5, 1560.

Sir Walter Scott includes reference to Francis in Kenilworth. After Francis' death, Mary returned to Scotland, and Scott uses a suggestion made by Elizabeth I that Mary could Leicester, with whom she was extremely close, could gain a thone through marrying Mary.