We may make two reflections on this recital; the first on this soul, which quits its body for three days and then comes back to reanimate it; the second, on the certainty of the oracle, which promised Thespisius a happier life when he should be dead.
In the Sicilian war[[627]] between Cæsar and Pompey, Gabienus, commander of Cæsar's fleet, having been taken, was beheaded by order of Pompey. He remained all day on the sea-shore, his head only held on to his body by a fillet. Towards evening he begged that Pompey or some of his people might come to him, because he came from the shades, and he had things of consequence to impart to him. Pompey sent to him several of his friends, to whom Gabienus declared that the gods of the infernal regions favored the cause and the party of Pompey, and that he would succeed according to his wishes; that he was ordered to announce this, "and as a proof of the truth of what I say, I must die directly," which happened. But we do not see that Pompey's party succeeded; we know, on the contrary, that it fell, and Cæsar was victorious. But the God of the infernal regions, that is to say, the devil, found it very good for him, since it sent him so many unhappy victims of revenge and ambition.[[628]]
Footnotes:
[[621]] Job xxvi. 5.
[[622]] Prov. ix. 18.
[[623]] Isa. xix. 9, et seq.
[[624]] Ezek. xxxi. 15.
[[625]] Luke xvi. 26.
[[626]] Plutarch, de his qui misero à Numine puniuntur.
[[627]] Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. vii. c. 52.