and above the sarcophagus hung this lamp burning brightly. 

 The lamp had been filled with an unquenchable oil and had 

 been lit about fifteen hundred years before ; according to some 

 it continued to burn for one hour and three quarters after 

 opening the tomb, but I am privately informed by one of those 

 present at the discovery that it became extinguished the in- 

 stant that air was freely admitted; the latter statement is 

 more credible because it is evident that the miraculous oil 

 had burned only in the absence of air. 



The shrewd dealer in antiquities, who obtained posses- 

 sion of this lamp, thinking to impose on your Majesty, re- 

 presented to me that this discovery was unique, but my 

 extended researches in archaeology have enabled me to prove 

 that sepulchral and perpetual lamps were known to the 

 ancient Romans. That most illustrious and holy Father of 

 the Church, St. Augustine, describes the lamp in the Temple 

 of Venus which burned perpetually ; he says, "the flame ad- 

 hered so strongly to the combustible matter that neither 

 wind, rain nor tempests could extinguish it, though contin- 

 ually exposed to the inclemency of the seasons." St. Augustine 

 conjectures that "the inexhaustible aliment was the work of 

 demons, who wrought the infernal wonder in order to blind 

 the pagans completely and to attach them to the worship of 

 the infamous goddess worshipped in that Temple." But your 

 Majesty has knowledge of the secrets of nature far greater 

 then was possessed by the Saint, and is aware that the 

 skilled alchemists employed in the imperial laboratories could 

 manufacture the wonder-oil used in the sepulchral lamps if 

 such were the imperial will. 



My investigations further show that discoveries of per- 

 petual lamps are by no means excessively rare ; about 800 A. D. 

 the lamp of Pallas, son of Evander, whose brave deeds were 

 sung by Vergil, was discovered near Rome where it had 



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