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2 ground for one hundred years ; and when lie revived, he related
3 many circumstances connected with the times in which he had
4 lived. Whether this tradition be true or false, it is impossible to
5 say ; but I am of opinion, that he who can pass four months
6 below the ground without becoming a prey to corruption, may
7 also remain there for one year. Granting this, it is impossible
8 to fix a limit to the time during which a suspension of the vital
9 functions may continue, without injury to their subsequent
10 power.
11 However paradoxical or absurd this statement may appear,
12 and however persuaded I may be that many a reader, believing
13 himself to be a wise man, will smile at the relation, I cannot,
14 nevertheless, avoid confessing freely, that I do not entirely reject
15 all the details given respecting the circumstance, for as Haller
16 observes : — 66 In the interior of nature no mortal can penetrate ;
17 happy is he who knows a small part, even of its surface.” We
18 find much credence given to such phenomena in the most ancient
19 traditions. Who will not remember the history of Epimenides
20 of Creta, who, after a sleep of forty years in a grotto there, is
21 reported to have again re-entered the world from which he had
22 so long been separated ? Who will not remember also the seven
23 holy sleepers, who, according to a Vatican manuscript, were
24 concealed in a grotto near Ephesus, in order to escape the
25 persecutions of the Christians, during the reign of the Emperor
26 Decius; and who, 155 years subsequently, in the time of
27 Theodosius II, returned to consciousness? But even rejecting
28 these traditions, have we not also similar examples in the animal
29 kingdom ? Have not animals, especially toads, been detected in
30 rocks, wherein, according to the calculations made, they had been
31 enclosed for several centuries, in a state of sleep or torpor, and
32 which animals, after having been brought into the air, have
33 recovered their vitality; and it is not necessary to remind the
34 naturalist of the fact, that manv species of animals invariably
35 pass the winter season in a kind of sleep, awaking in the spring
36 with renewed and unimpaired energies. Among recent cases,
37 which demonstrate the great endurance of human life, is th$
38 VOL. 1.
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