interred, which has the power of drying up the radical humidity
and the principles of corruption. I do not stop to prove all these
things, which besides are very well known.

Sometimes the body, without being dead and forsaken by its reasonable
soul, remains as if dead and motionless, or at least with so slow a
motion and such feeble respiration, that it is almost imperceptible,
as it happens in faintings, swoons, in certain disorders very common
amongst women, in trances--as we remarked in the case of Pretextat,
priest of Calame; we have also reported more than one instance,
considered dead and buried as such; I may add that of the Abbe Salin,
prior of St. Christopher,[586] who being in his coffin, and about to
be interred, was resuscitated by some of his friends, who made him
swallow a glass of champagne.

Several instances of the same kind are related.[587] In the "Causes
Celebres," they make mention of a girl who became _enceinte_ during a
long swoon; we have already noticed this. Pliny cites[588] a great
number of instances of persons who have been thought dead, and who
have come to life again, and lived for a long time. He mentions a
young man, who having fallen asleep in a cavern, remained there forty
years without waking. Our historians[589] speak of the seven sleepers,
who slept for 150 years, from the year of Christ 253 to 403. It is
said that the philosopher Epimenides slept in a cavern during
fifty-seven years, or according to others, forty-seven, or only forty
years; for the ancients do not agree concerning the number of years;
they even affirm, that this philosopher had the power to detach his
soul from his body, and recall it when he pleased. The same thing is
related of Aristaeus of Proconnesus. I am willing to allow that that is
fabulous; but we cannot gainsay the truth of several other stories of
persons who have come to life again, after having appeared dead for
three, four, five, six, and seven days. Pliny acknowledges that there
are several instances of dead people who have appeared after they were
interred; but he will not mention them more particularly, because, he
says, he relates only natural things and not prodigies--"Post
sepulturam quoque visorum exempla sunt, nisi quod naturae opera non
prodigia sectamur." We believe that Enoch and Elijah are still living.
Several have thought that St. John the Evangelist was not dead,[590]
but that he is still alive in his tomb.

Plato and St. Clement of