eatitude, absorbed, as the holy doctors say,
in the contemplation of the glory of God, cease not to interest
themselves in all that concerns mankind, whose miseries they have
undergone; and as they have attained the happiness of angels, all the
sacred writers ascribe to them the same privilege of possessing the
power, as aerial bodies, of rendering themselves visible to their
brethren who are still upon earth, to console them, and inform them of
the Divine will; and they relate several apparitions, which always
happened by the particular permission of God.

"The souls whose abominable crimes have plunged them into that gulf of
torment, which the Scripture terms hell, being condemned to be
detained there forever, without being able to hope for any relief,
care not to have permission to come and speak to mankind in fantastic
forms. The Scripture clearly set forth the impossibility of this
return, by the discourse which is put into the mouth of the wicked
rich man in hell, introduced speaking to Abraham; he does not ask
leave to go himself, to warn his brethren on earth to avoid the
torments which he suffers, because he knows that it is not possible;
but he implores Abraham to send thither Lazarus, who was in glory. And
to observe _en passant_ how very rare are the apparitions of the
blessed and of angels, Abraham replies to him, that it would be
useless, since those who are upon earth have the Law and the Prophets,
which they have but to follow.

"The story of the canon of Rheims, in the eleventh century, who, in
the midst of the solemn service which was being performed for the
repose of his soul, spoke aloud and said, That he was sentenced and
condemned,[664] has been refuted by so many of the learned, who have
shown that this circumstance is clearly supposititious, since it is
not found in any contemporaneous author; that I think no enlightened
person can object it against me. But even were this story as
incontestable as it is apocryphal, it would be easy for me to say in
reply, that the conversion of St. Bruno, who has won so many souls to
God, was motive enough for the Divine Providence to perform so
striking a miracle.

"It now remains for me to examine if the souls which are in purgatory,
where they expiate the rest of their crimes before they pass to the
abode of the blessed, can come and converse with men, and ask them to
pray for their relief.

"Although those who have desired to maintain this popular error,