a
resurrection can be the work of the almighty power of God alone.

That persons who have been drowned, fallen into syncope, into a
lethargy or trance, or looked upon as dead, in any manner whatever,
can be cured and brought back to life, even to their former state of
life, without any miracle, but by the power of medicine alone, or by
natural efforts, or by dint of patience; so that nature re-establishes
herself in her former state, that the heart resumes its pulsation, and
the blood circulates freely again in the arteries, and the vital and
animal spirits in the nerves.

That the oupires, or vampires, or _revenans_ of Moravia, Hungary,
Poland, &c., of which such extraordinary things are related, so
detailed, so circumstantial, invested with all the necessary
formalities to make them believed, and to prove them even judicially
before judges, and at the most exact and severe tribunals; that all
which is said of their return to life; of their apparition, and the
confusion which they cause in the towns and country places; of their
killing people by sucking their blood, or in making a sign to them to
follow them; that all those things are mere illusions, and the
consequence of a heated and prejudiced imagination. They cannot cite
any witness who is sensible, grave and unprejudiced, who can testify
that he has seen, touched, interrogated these ghosts, who can affirm
the reality of their return, and of the effects which are attributed
to them.

I shall not deny that some persons may have died of fright, imagining
that their near relatives called them to the tomb; that others have
thought they heard some one rap at their doors, worry them, disturb
them, in a word, occasion them mortal maladies; and that these persons
judicially interrogated, have replied that they had seen and heard
what their panic-struck imagination had represented to them. But I
require unprejudiced witnesses, free from terror and disinterested,
quite calm, who can affirm upon serious reflection, that they have
seen, heard, and interrogated these vampires, and who have been the
witnesses of their operations; and I am persuaded that no such witness
will be found.

I have by me a letter, which has been sent me from Warsaw, the 3d of
February, 1745, by M. Slivisk, visitor of the province of priests of
the mission of Poland. He sends me word, that having studied with
great care this matter, and having proposed to compose on this subject
a theological and