e truth. I
have been careful not to draw any parallel between these testimonies
and the scriptural ones which preceded. My object in this was to
demonstrate that in every age, and in all civilized nations, the idea
of the immortality of the soul, of its existence after death, of its
return and appearance, is one of those truths which the length of ages
has never been able to efface from the mind of nations.

I draw the same inference from the instances which I have related, and
of which I do not pretend to guarantee either the truth or the
certainty. I willingly yield all the circumstances that are not
revealed to censure and criticism; I only esteem as true that which is
so in fact.

M. du Frenoy finds that the proof of the immortality of the soul which
I infer from the apparition of the spirit after death, is not
sufficiently solid; but it is certainly one of the most palpable and
most easy of comprehension to the generality of mankind; it would make
more impression upon them than arguments drawn from philosophy and
metaphysics. I do not intend for that reason to attack any other
proofs of the same truth, or to weaken a dogma so essential to
religion.

He endeavors to prove, at great length,[711] that the salvation of the
Emperor Trajan is not a thing which the Christian religion can
confirm. I agree with him; and it was useless to take any trouble to
demonstrate it.[712]

He speaks of the young man of Delme,[713] who having fallen into a
swoon remained in it some days; they brought him back to life, and a
languor remained upon him which at last led to his death at the end of
the year. It is thus he arranges that story.

M. du Frenoy disguises the affair a little; and although I do not
believe that the devil could restore the youth to life, nevertheless
the original and cotemporaneous authors whom I have quoted maintain
that the demon had much to do with this event.[714]

What has principally prevented me from giving rules and prescribing a
method for discerning true and false apparitions is, that I am quite
persuaded that the way in which they occur is absolutely unknown to
us; that it contains insurmountable difficulties; and that consulting
only the rules of philosophy, I should be more disposed to believe
them impossible than to affirm their truth and possibility. But I am
restrained by respect for the Holy Scriptures, by the testimony of all
antiquity and by the tradition of the Church.

"I