The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Thomas Sheridan to Jonathan Swift - 12
I HAD a pleasure and grief at once in your letter, to find you had not forgotten me, and to find you uneasy
at a thing which God only can mend. The dream, which I had before the receipt of yours, was so odd and out of the way, that if Artemidorus were living, he would confess it to be out of all methods of interpretation; yet I cannot avoid imparting it to you, because if you be not much changed, no man ever could sift a matter to the truth beyond you. Thus it was;
Imprimis, I fell asleep (or I could not dream) and what was the first thing I saw, but honest Cato in a cockboat by himself, engaging not only a large fleet of foreigners, but now and then obliged to tack about against some dirty shattered floats, filled with his own countrymen. All were his enemies, except a very few, who were pressed and carried on against their will by the arbitrary power of the rowers. I would give a shilling, as low as money is reduced, to know the meaning of it. * * * *