1 ground for one hundred years - and when lie revived, he related
2 mapy eircuinstances connected with the times in which be had
3 lived. Whether tliis tradition be true or false, it is impossible to
4 say; but I am of opinion, that lie who can pass four months
5 below th ■ grovuul without, becoming a prey to corruption, may
6 also remain there for one year. Granting this, it is impossible
7 to fix a limit Jo the time during winch a suspension of the vital
8 functions may continue, without injury to their subsequent
9 power,
10 However paradoxical or absurd this statement may appear,
11 and however persuaded I may be that many a reader, believing
12 himself to be a wise man, will smile at the relation, I cannot,
13 nevertheless, avoid confessing freely, that I do not entirely reject
14 all tlu details given respecting the circumstance, for as Haller
15 observes:—“ In the interior of nature no mortal can penetrate;
16 happy is he wlu knows a small part, even of its surface.'' We
17 find much credence given to such phenomena in the most ancient
18 traditions. Who will not remember the history of Epimenidos
19 of Creta, who, after a sleep of forty years in a grotto there, is
20 reported to have again re-entered the world from which he h id
21 so long been separated? Who will not remember also the seven
22 holy sleepers, who, according to a Vatican manuscript, were
23 concealed in a grotto near Ephesus, in order to .-scape the
24 persecutions of the Christians, during the reign of the Emperor
25 Decius; . nd who, 15.3 years subsequently-, in the time of
26 Theodosius TI, returned to consciousness? Hitt even rejecting
27 these traditions, have we not also similar examples in the animal
28 kingdom ? Have not animals, especially toads, been detected in
29 rocks, wherein, according to the calculations made, they had been
30 enclosed for several centuries, in a state of-sleep or torpor, and
31 which animals, after having been brought into the air, have
32 recovered their vitality; and it is not necessary to remind the
33 naturalist of the fact, that many species of animals invariably
34 pass the winter season in a kind of sleep, awaking in the spring
35 with renewed and unimpaired energies. Among recent cases,
36 which demonstrate the great cmdurance of human life, i.< -hr
37 VOL. t m