Joseph's first observation on hearing Pharaoh relate his dream is strictly in accord with modern theories of analysis.

"The dream of Pharaoh is one." He then proceeds to interpret the symbolism. "The seven good kine are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years." Then, for the Latent Content, the fear that must haunt the heart of every dweller of the desert: "And the seven thin and ill-favored kine that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty years blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine."

The number seven, for which modern dream analysis fails to account, despite the importance attached to it by repetition, Joseph construes as the most important element of the dream, that of prophecy. Whether the elimination of this ancient constituent of the dream has strengthened the art of dream interpretation, or has weakened it, is a mooted question.

The dreams of Nebuchadnezzar are amenable to modern analytical methods.

Daniel ii, 31. "Thou, O King, sawest and behold a great image: This great image whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee and the form thereof was terrible.

"The image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass.

"His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and of clay.

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and brake them to pieces.

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."

The Manifest Content of this dream is plainly the great, golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had in mind at the time and that be erected not long afterwards in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon, and before which he commanded the mighty men of his realm to bow down and worship. His fury at the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, is an index of the king's mental condition. Of this condition Daniel must have been aware and naturally his knowledge assisted him in the discovery of the Latent Content of the dream.

The Latent Content includes the several elements of the clay and iron feet of the statue, the stone cut without hands that became a mountain and filled the earth. The interpretation of the Latent Content is Fear. It is rendered concrete in the knowledge of Daniel's mysterious power; subconsciously it forecasts the fall of his nation through the various races that will not amalgamate, typified by the metals representing the various portions of the statue; and finally awe of the Unknown God is personified in the wind and in the power that wielded the stone. The erection of the statue was evidently an attempt on the part of the objective to uproot fear from the subjective mind.

Apart from the prophecy, which was verified, Daniel's interpretation is in scientific order:

"For thou, O King, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory.

"... Thou are this head of gold.

"And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over the earth.

"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things. . . .

"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay ... So the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken . . . they shall mingle themselves with men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

The prophetic element in Nebuchadnezzar's second dream is sufficiently pathological to satisfy Dr. Coriat, Dr. Brill, or even Dr. Freud.

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.

"The leaves thereof were fair and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven.

"He cried aloud and said thus: Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.

"Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

"Let' his heart be changed from a man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him."

The vision of the tree is the Manifest Content, an evident disguise of the terrifying fact revealed by the Latent Content in the destruction of the tree as a poisonous, harmful thing. The heart too was changed to the heart of a beast, a reinforcement of the idea in the Latent Content, which is purely pathological and formed from the king's subconscious knowledge of his own physical condition, rapidly approaching the climax which should send him forth with the beasts of the field until his "understanding returned to him."

In view of the affliction to which this dream was a psychophysiological forerunner, there is small wonder that the prophet should have remained a whole hour "while his thoughts troubled him" before giving his interpretation, which he knew would be verified.

Homer's method of interpretation was similar to that of the Biblical characters. He makes Ulysses interpret and carefully verify his wife's dream: