No limit can be set to the possible duration of a trance when the external conditions protect the body from physical injury.

This trance of yours is indeed the longest of which there is any positive record, but there is no known reason wherefore, had you not been discovered and had the chamber in which we found you continued intact, you might not have remained in a state of suspended animation till, at the end of indefinite ages, the gradual refrigeration of the earth had destroyed the bodily tissues and set the spirit free." I had to admit that, if I were indeed the victim of a practical joke, its authors had chosen an admirable agent for carrying out their imposition.

The impressive and even eloquent manner of this man would have lent dignity to an argument that the moon was made of cheese.

The smile with which I had regarded him as he advanced his trance hypothesis did not appear to confuse him in the slightest degree.
"Perhaps," I said, "you will go on and favor me with some particulars as to the circumstances under which you discovered this chamber of which you speak, and its contents.

I enjoy good fiction." "In this case," was the grave reply, "no fiction could be so strange as the truth.