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Jerome Cardan, De Subtilitate Rerum Libri XXI (Nuremberg, in-folio 1550), XIX.

13 August 1491, Milan, Italy :   Seven "men" appeared before Philosopher Facius Cardan (Fazio Cardano) in his study. According to his son Jerome the story left by his father, a mathematically-gifted lawyer and friend of Leonardo da Vinci, read as follows:

"When I had completed the customary rites, at about the 20th hour of the day, seven men duly appeared to me clothed in silken garments resembling Greek togas, and wearing, as it were, shining shoes. The undergarments beneath their glistening and ruddy breastplates seemed to be wrought of crimson and were of extraordinary glory and beauty. Nevertheless all were not dressed in this fashion, but only two who seemed of nobler rank than the others. The taller of them who was of ruddy complexion was attended by two companions, and the second, who was fairer and of shorter stature, by three. Thus in all there were seven. They were about forty years of age, but they did not appear to be above thirty. When asked who they were, they said they were men composed, as it were, of air, and subject to birth and death. It was true that their lives were much longer than ours, and might even reach to three hundred years' duration. Questioned on the immortality of our soul, they affirmed that nothing survived which is peculiar to the individual...

"When my father asked them if they did not reveal treasures to men if they knew where they were, they answered that it was forbidden by a peculiar law under the heaviest penalties for anyone to communicate this knowledge to men. They remained with my father for over three hours. But when he questioned them as to the cause of the universe they were not agreed. The tallest of them denied that God had made the world from eternity. On the contrary, the other added that God created it from moment to moment, so that should He desist for an instant the world would perish."