alegrías y sus penas. Si ha estado enfermo, atraviesa de nuevo su enfermedad, su convalecencia y su restablecimiento.
"Let us, to come to details, take one of the simplest cases. The subject is a girl of eighteen, called Joséphine. She lives at Voiron, in the department of Isére. By means of downward passes she is brought back to the condition of a baby at its mother's breast The passes continue and the wonder-tale runs its course. Joséphine can no longer speak; and we have the great silence of infancy, which seems to be followed by a silence more mysterious still. Joséphine no longer answers except by signs: she is not yet born. 'She is floating in darkness.' They persist; the sleep becomes heavier; and suddenly, from the depths of that sleep, rises the voice of another being, a voice unexpected and unknown, the voice of a churlish, distrustful and discontented old man. They question him. At first he refuses to answer, saying that 'of course he's there, and he's speaking;' that 'he sees nothing;' and 'he's in the dark.' They increase the number of passes and gradually gain his confidence. His name is Jean Claude Bourdon; he is an old man; he has long been ailing and bedridden. He tells the story of his life. He was born at Champvent, in the parish of Polliat, in 1812. He went to school until he was eighteen and served his time in the army with the Seventh Artillery at Besançon; and he describes his gay time there, while the sleeping girl makes gestures of twirling an imaginary moustache. When he goes back to his native place, he does not marry, but he has a mistress. He leads a solitary life (I omit all but the essential facts), and dies at the age of seventy, after a long illness.
"Oímos ahora hablar al muerto; y sus revelaciones póstumas no son sensacionalistas, lo cual, sin embargo, no es una razón adecuada para dudar de su autenticidad. Se siente crecer fuera de su cuerpo; pero permanece unido a él durante bastante tiempo. Su cuerpo fluídico, que al principio está difuso, adquiere una forma más concentrada. Vive en la oscuridad, lo que le resulta desagradable; pero no sufre. Por fin, la noche en la que está sumergido se ve surcada por algunos destellos de luz. Le