! how this world is given to folly! Well, I will allow for once the
Oneirocritical science - I will give faith to the exposition of dreams, and say
a Daniel hath arisen to interpret them, if you can prove to me that that dream
of yours has pointed to a prudent line of conduct.«
    »Tell me, then,« answered Lovel, »why when I was hesitating whether to
abandon an enterprise, which I have perhaps rashly undertaken, I should last
night dream I saw your ancestor pointing to a motto which encouraged me to
perseverance? - why should I have thought of those words which I cannot remember
to have heard before, which are in a language unknown to me, and which yet
conveyed, when translated, a lesson which I could so plainly apply to my own
circumstances?«
    The Antiquary burst into a fit of laughing. »Excuse me, my young friend -
but it is thus we silly mortals deceive ourselves, and look out of doors for
motives which originate in our own wilful will. I think I can help out the cause
of your vision. You were so abstracted in your contemplations yesterday after
dinner, as to pay little attention to the discourse between Sir Arthur and me,
until we fell upon the controversy concerning the Piks, which terminated so
abruptly; - but I remember producing to Sir Arthur a book printed by my
ancestor, and making him observe the motto; your mind was bent elsewhere, but
your ear had mechanically received and retained the sounds, and your busy fancy,
stirred by Grizel's legend I presume, had introduced this scrap of German into
your dream. As for the waking wisdom which seized on so frivolous a circumstance
as an apology for persevering in some course which it could find no better
reason to justify, it is exactly one of those juggling tricks which the sagest
of us play off now and then, to gratify our inclination at the expense of our
understanding.«
    »I own it,« said Lovel, blushing deeply; - »I believe you are right, Mr.
Oldbuck, and I ought to sink in your esteem for attaching a moment's consequence
to such a frivolity; - but I was tossed by contradictory wishes and resolutions,
and you know how slight a line will tow a boat when afloat on the billows,
though a cable would hardly move her when pulled up on the beach.«
    »Right, right,« exclaimed the Antiquary. »Fall in my opinion! - not a whit -
I love thee the better, man; - why, we have story for story