a palace of extraordinary beauty. This widow asked him for
whom they were making these preparations; he replied that it was for
the youth who died the preceding day. At the same time, a venerable
old man, who was in the same palace, commanded two young men, arrayed
in white, to take the deceased young man out of his grave and conduct
him to this place. As soon as he had left the grave, fresh roses and
rose-beds sprang up; and the young man appeared to a monk, and told
him that God had received him into the number of his elect, and had
sent him to fetch his father, who in fact died four days after of slow
fever.

Evodius asks himself diverse questions on this recital: If the soul on
quitting its (mortal) body does not retain a certain subtile body,
with which it appears, and by means of which it is transported from
one spot to another? If the angels even have not a certain kind of
body?--for if they are incorporeal, how can they be counted? And if
Samuel appeared to Saul, how could it take place if Samuel had no
members? He adds, "I remember well that Profuturus, Privatus and
Servitus, whom I had known in the monastery here, appeared to me, and
talked with me after their decease; and what they told me, happened.
Was it their soul which appeared to me, or was it some other spirit
which assumed their form?" He concludes from this that the soul is not
absolutely bodiless, since God alone is incorporeal.[351]

St. Augustine, who was consulted on this matter by Evodius, does not
think that the soul, after the death of the body, is clothed with any
material substantial form; but he confesses that it is very difficult
to explain how an infinite number of things are done, which pass in
our minds, as well in our sleep as when we are awake, in which we seem
to see, feel, and discourse, and do things which it would appear could
be done only by the body, although it is certain that nothing bodily
occurs. And how can we explain things so unknown, and so far beyond
anything that we experience every day, since we cannot explain even
what daily experience shows us.[352] Evodius adds that several persons
after their decease have been going and coming in their houses as
before, both day and night; and that in churches where the dead were
buried, they often heard a noise in the night as of persons praying
aloud.

St. Augustine, to whom Evodius writes all this, acknowledges that
there is a great distinction to be made between true and fa