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diff --git a/old/52225.txt b/old/52225.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 31680f7..0000000 --- a/old/52225.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7558 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Temptation of St. Anthony, by Gustave -Flaubert, Translated by Lafcadio Hearn, Illustrated by Odilon Redon - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Temptation of St. Anthony - - -Author: Gustave Flaubert - - - -Release Date: June 4, 2016 [eBook #52225] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY*** - - -E-text prepared by Laura Natal Rodriguez and Marc D'Hooghe -(http://www.freeliterature.org) from page images generously made available -by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com) and -illustrations generously made available by Bibliothèque nationale de -France (http://gallica.bnf.fr) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 52225-h.htm or 52225-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52225/52225-h/52225-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52225/52225-h.zip) - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - the Google Books Library Project. See - https://books.google.com/books?id=9g9EAAAAYAAJ - - -Transcriber's note: - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - The o-e ligature is represented by [oe]. - - - - - -THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY - -by - -GUSTAVE FLAUBERT - -Translated by Lafcadio Hearn - -Illustrations by Odilon Redon - -(Added especially for this PG e-book.) - - - - - - - -The Alice Harriman Company -New York and Seattle -1910 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -It was at some period between 1875 and 1876 that Lafcadio Hearn--still -a "cub" reporter on a daily paper in Cincinnati--began his translation -of Flaubert's "Temptation of St. Anthony." The definitive edition of -the work, over which the author had laboured for thirty years, had -appeared in 1874. - -Hearn was, in his early youth, singularly indifferent to the work of -the Englishmen of the Victorian period. Though he knew the English -masterpieces of that epoch, their large, unacademic freedom of manner -awakened no echoes in his spirit. His instinctive taste was for the -exquisite in style: for "that peculiar kneading, heightening, and -recasting" which Matthew Arnold thought necessary for perfection. -Neither did the matter, more than the manner of the Victorians appeal -to him. The circumstances of his life had at so many points set him -out of touch with his fellows that the affectionate mockery of -Thackeray's pictures of English society were alien to his interest. -The laughing heartiness of Dickens' studies of the man in the street -hardly touched him. Browning's poignant analyses of souls were too -rudely robust of manner to move him. Before essaying journalism Hearn -had served for a while as an assistant in the Public Library, and -there he had found and fallen under the spell, of the great Frenchman -of the Romantic School of the '30's--that period of rich flowering of -the Gallic genius. Gautier's tales of ancient weirdnesses fired his -imagination. The penetrating subtleties of his verse woke in the boy -the felicitous emotions which the virtuoso knows in handling cameos -and enamellings by hands which have long been dust. So, also, Hugo's -revivals of the passions and terrors of the mediaeval world stirred the -young librarian's eager interest. But most of all his spirit leapt -to meet the tremendous drama of the "Temptation." He comprehended at -once its large significance, its great import, and in his enthusiastic -recognition of its value and meaning he set at once about giving it a -language understood of the people of his own tongue. - -Tunison tells of the little shy, shabby, half-blind boy--the long -dull day of police reporting done--labouring at his desk into the -small hours, with the flickering gas jet whistling overhead, and his -myopic eyes bent close to the papers which he covered with beautiful, -almost microscopic characters--escaping thus from the crass, raw world -about him to delicately and painstakingly turn into English stories -of Cleopatra's cruel, fantastic Egyptian Night's Entertainment. -Withdrawing himself to transliterate tales of pallid beautiful vampires -draining the veins of ardent boys: of lovely faded ghosts of great -ladies descending from shadowy tapestries to coquette with romantic -dreamers; or to find an English voice for the tragedy of the soul of -the Alexandrian cenobite. - -It was in such dreams and labours that he found refuge from the -environment that was so antipathetic to his tastes, and in his -immersion in the works of these virtuosos of words, in his passionate -search for equivalents of the subtle nuances of their phrases, he -developed his own style. A style full of intricate assonances, of a -texture close woven and iridescent. - -"One of Cleopatra's Night's"--a translation of some of Gautier's tales -of glamour--was issued in 1882, but at "The Temptation of St. Anthony" -the publishers altogether balked. The manuscript could not achieve even -so much as a reading. America had in the '70's just begun to emerge -from that state of provincial propriety in which we were accused of -clothing even our piano legs in pantelettes. The very name of the work -was sufficient to start modest shivers down the spine of all well -regulated purveyors of books. It was largely due to the painters' -conceptions of the nature of the hermit's trials that the story of -Saint Anthony's spiritual struggle aroused instinctive terrors in all -truly modest natures. The painters--who so dearly love to display their -skill in drawing legs and busts--had been wont to push the poor old -saint into the obscure of the background, and fill all the foreground -with ladies of obviously the very lightest character, in garments -still lighter, if possible. What had reputable American citizens to do -with such as these jades? More especially such jades as seen through -a French imagination! That Flaubert had brushed aside the gross and -jejune conceptions of the painters the publishers would not even take -the pains to learn. - -It is amusing now to recall the nervous, timid proprieties of those -days. At the time Hearn failed to see the laughable side of it. He was -then too young and earnest, too passionate and too melancholy to have a -sense of its humours. - -He had brought his unfinished manuscript from Cincinnati to New -Orleans, and had continued to work upon it in strange lodgings in -gaunt, old half-ruined Creole houses; at the tables of odd little -French cafes, or among the queer dishes in obscure Spanish and Chinese -restaurants. He had snatched minutes for it amidst the reading and -clipping of exchanges in a newspaper office; had toiled drippingly -over it in the liquifying heats of tropic nights; had arisen from the -"inexpungable langours" of yellow fever to complete its last astounding -pages. - -I can remember applauding, with ardent youthful sympathy, his tirades -against the stultifying influence of blind puritanism upon American -literature. I recall his scornful mocking at the inconsistency which -complacently accepted the vulgar seduction, and the theatrical Brocken -revels of Faust, while shrinking piously from Flaubert's grim story of -the soul of man struggling to answer the riddle of the universe. He -had however an almost equal contempt for the author's countrymen, who -received with eager interest and pleasure the deliberate analysis--in -_Madame Bovary_--of a woman's degradation and ruin, while they yawned -over the amazing history of humanity's tremendous spiritual adventures. -Hearn's own sensitiveness shrank in pain from the cold insight which -uncovered layer by layer the brutal squalour of a woman's moral -disintegration. But he was moved and astounded by the revelation, in -St. Anthony, of the tragedy and pathos of man's long search for some -body of belief or philosophy by which he could explain to himself -the strange great phenomena of life and death, and the inscrutable -cruelties of Nature. The young translator was filled with a sort of -astonished despair at his inability to make others see the book as -he did--not realizing, in his youthful impatience, that the average -mind clings to the concrete, and is puzzled and terrified by outlines -of thought too large for its range of vision; that the commonplace -intelligence cannot "see the wood for the trees," and becomes confused -and over-weighted when confronted with the huge outlines of so great a -picture as that drawn by Flaubert in his masterpiece. - -There were many points of resemblance between Lafcadio Hearn and the -grandson of the French veterinary. A resemblance rather in certain -qualities of the spirit than in social conditions and physical -endowments. Flaubert, born in 1821, was the son of a surgeon. His -father was long connected with the Hotel Dieu of Rouen, in which the -boy was born, and in which he lived until his eighteenth year, when he -went to Paris to study law. One of the friends of his early Parisian -days describes him as "a young Greek. Tall, supple, and as graceful as -an athlete. He was charming, _mais un peu farouche._ Quite unconscious -of his physical and mental gifts; very careless of the impression he -produced, and entirely indifferent to formalities. His dress consisted -of a red flannel shirt, trousers of heavy blue cloth, and a scarf of -the same colour drawn tight about his slender waist. His hat was worn -'any how' and often he abandoned it altogether. When I spoke to him of -fame or influence.... he seemed superbly indifferent. He had no desire -for glory or gain.... What was lacking in his nature was an interest in -_les choses exterieures, choses utiles._" ... - -One who saw him in 1879 found the young Greek athlete--now close upon -sixty, and having in the interval created some of the great classics -of French literature--"a huge man, a tremendous old man. His long, -straggling gray hair was brushed back. His red face was that of a -soldier, or a sheik--divided by drooping white moustaches. A trumpet -was his voice, and he gesticulated freely ... the colour of his eyes a -bit of faded blue sky." - -The study of the law did not hold Flaubert long. It was one of those -_choses exterieures, choses utiles_ to which he was so profoundly -indifferent. Paris bored him. He longed for Rouen, and for his little -student chamber. There he had lain upon his bed whole days at a time; -apparently as lazy as a lizard; smoking, dreaming; pondering the large, -inchoate, formless dreams of youth. - -In 1845 his father died, and in the following year he lost his sister -Caroline, whom he had passionately loved, and for whom he grieved -all his life. He rejoined his mother, and they established themselves -at Croisset, near Rouen, upon a small inherited property. It was an -agreeable house, pleasantly situated in sight of the Seine. Flaubert -nourished with pleasure a local legend that Pascal had once inhabited -the old Croisset homestead, and that the Abbe Prevost had written -_Manon Lescaut_ within its walls. Near the house--now gone--he built -for himself a pavilion to serve as a study, and in this he spent the -greater portion of the following thirty-four years in passionate, -unremitting labour. - -He made a voyage to Corsica in his youth; one to Brittany, with Maxime -du Camp, in 1846; and spent some months in Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, -and Greece in 1849. This Oriental experience gave him the most intense -pleasure, and was the germ of _Salammbo_, and of the _Temptation of St. -Anthony._ He never repeated it, though he constantly talked of doing -so. He nursed a persistent, but unrealized dream of going as far as -Ceylon, whose ancient name, Taprobana, he was never weary of repeating; -utterance of its melifluous syllables becoming a positive _tic_ -with him. Despite these yearnings he remained at home. Despite his -full-blooded physique he would take no more exercise than his terrace -afforded, or an occasional swim in the Seine. He smoked incessantly, -and for months at a stretch worked fifteen hours out of the twenty-four -at his desk. Three hundred volumes might be annotated for a page of -facts. He would write twenty pages, and reduce these by exquisite -concisions, by fastidious rejections to three; would search for hours -for the one word that perfectly conveyed the colour of his thought, and -would--as in the case of the _Temptation_--wait fifteen years for a -sense of satisfaction with a manuscript before allowing it to see the -light. To Maxime du Camp, who urged him to hasten the completion of his -book in order to take advantage of a favourable opportunity, he wrote -angrily: - -"Tu me parais avoir a mon endroit un tic ou vice redhibitoire. Il -ne m'embete pas; n'aie aucune crainte; mon parti est pris la-dessus -depuis long temps. Je te dirai seulement que tous ces mots; _se -depecher, c'est le moment, place prise, se poser, ..._ sont pour moi un -vocabulaire vide de sens...." - -In one of his letters he says that on occasion he worked violently for -eight hours to achieve one page. He endeavoured never to repeat a word -in that page, and tried to force every phrase to respond to a rhythmic -law. Guy do Maupassant, his nephew and pupil, says that to ensure this -rhythm Flaubert "prenait sa feuille de papier, relevait a la hauteur du -regard et, s'appuyant sur un coude, declaimait, d'une voix mordant et -haute. Il ecoutait la rythme de sa prose, s'arretait comme pour saisir -une sonorite fuyant, combinait les tons, eloignait les assonances, -disposait les virgules avec conscience, commes les haltes d'un long -chemin." ... - -Flaubert said himself, "une phrase est viable quand elle correspond -a toutes les necessites de respiration. Je sais qu'elle est bonne -lorsqu'elle peut etre lu tout haut." - -Henry Irving used to say of himself that it was necessary he should -work harder than other actors because nature had dowered him with -flexibility of neither voice nor feature, and Faguet says that Flaubert -was forced to this excessive toil and incessant watchfulness because -he did not write well naturally. Nevertheless Flaubert's work did not -smell of the lamp. Whatever shape his ideas may have worn at birth -when full grown they moved with large classic grace and freedom, -simple, sincere, and beautiful in form. Francois Coppee calls him "the -Beethoven of French prose." - -So conscientious a workman, so laborious and self-sacrificing an artist -had a natural attraction for Lafcadio Hearn, who even in boyhood began -to feel his vocation as "a literary monk." The whole tendency of his -tastes prepared him to understand the true importance of Flaubert's -masterpiece, fitted him especially of all living writers to turn that -masterpiece into its true English equivalent. The two men had much in -common. Both were proud and timid. Both had a fundamental indifference -to _choses exterieures, choses utiles._ Both were realists of the soul. -Actions interested each but slightly; the emotions from which actions -sprung very much. To both stupidity was even more antipathetic than -wickedness, because each realized that nearly all cruelty and vice have -their germ in ignorance and stupidity rather than in innate rascality. -Flaubert declared, with a sort of rage, that "la betise entre dans -mes pores." He might too have been speaking for Hearn when he said -that the grotesque, the strange, and the monstrous had for him an -inexplicable charm. "It corresponds," he says, "to the intimate needs -of my nature--it does not cause me to laugh, but to dream long dreams." -Hearn, however, mixed with this triste interest a quality that Flaubert -seemed almost wholly to lack--a great tenderness for all things humble, -feeble, ugly and helpless. Both from childhood were curious of poignant -sensations, of the sad, the mysterious and the exotic. And for both the -tropics had an irresistible fascination. Flaubert says, in one of his -letters: - -"I carry with me the melancholy of the barbaric races, with their -instincts of migration, and their innate distaste of life, which forced -them to quit their homes in order to escape from themselves. They loved -the sun, all those barbarians who came to die in Italy; they had a -frenzied aspiration toward the light, toward the blue skies, toward an -ardent existence.... Think that perhaps I will never see China, will -never be rocked to sleep by the cadenced footsteps of camels ... will -never see the shine of a tiger's eyes in the forest.... You can treat -all this as little worthy of pity, but I suffer so much when I think of -it ... as of something lamentable and irremediable." - -This is the nostalgia for the strange, for the unaccustomed, that all -born wanderers know. Fate arranges it for many of them that their lives -shall be uneventful, passed in dull, provincial narrowness; but behind -these bars the clipped wings of their spirit are always flutteringly -spread for flight. They know not what they seek, what desire drives -them, but a sense of "the great adventure" unachieved keeps them -restless until they die. It is such as these, these _voyageurs -empassiones_, when condemned by fortune to a static existence--who find -their outlet in mental wanderings amid the unusual, the grotesque, -and the monstrous. Hearn and Flaubert both were at heart nomads, -seekers of the unaccustomed; stretching toward immensities of space -and time, toward the ghostly, the hidden, the unrealized. Like that -wild fantastic _Chimera_ of the "Temptation" each such soul declares -"_je cherche des parfums nouveaux, des fleurs plus large, des plaisirs -ineprouves._" - -Flaubert was but twenty-six when the first suggestion of his -masterpiece came to him. For _La Tentation de St. Antoine_, it is -coming to be understood, is his masterpiece; is one of the greatest -literary achievements of the French mind. _Madame Bovary_ is more -widely famous and popular, but Flaubert himself always deeply resented -this preference, and was always astonished at the comparative -indifference of the world to the "Temptation." He, too, found it -difficult to realize how hardly the average mind is awakened to an -interest in the incorporeal; how surely cosmic generalizations escape -the grasp of the commonplace intelligence. - -Wagner waited a lifetime before the world was dragged reluctantly and -resentfully up to a point from which it could discern the superiority -of the tremendous finale of the Goetterdaemmerung to the Christmas-card -chorus of angels chanting "_Ame chaste et pure_" to the beatified -Marguerite. The whole prodigious structure of Wagner's dramatic and -musical thought might have remained a mere adumbration in the soul of -one German had chance not set a mad genius upon the throne of Bavaria. -The bourgeoisie would--lacking this royal bullying--have continued to -prefer Goethe and Gounod. Flaubert's great work unfortunately failed of -such patronage. - -It was in 1845 that an old picture by Breughel, seen at Genoa, first -inspired Flaubert to attempt the story of St. Anthony. He sought -out an engraving of this conception of Peter the Younger (surnamed -"Hell-Breughel" for his fondness for such subjects), hung it on his -walls at Croisset, and after three years of brooding upon it began, -May 24, 1848, _La Tentation de St. Antoine._ In twelve months he had -finished the first draught of the work, which bulked to 540 pages. It -was laid aside for "Bovary," and a second version of the "Temptation" -was completed in 1856, but this time the manuscript had been reduced -to 193 pages, and the "blazing phrases, the jewelled words, the -turbulence, the comedy, the mysticism" of the first version had been -superseded by a larger, more dramatic conception. In 1872 he made still -a new draught, and by this time it had shrunk to 136 pages. He even -then eliminated three chapters, and finally gave to the world in 1874 -"this wonderful coloured panorama of philosophy, this Gulliver-like -travelling amid the master ideas of the antique and early Christian -worlds." - -Faguet says, "In its primitive and legendary state the temptation -of St. Anthony was nothing more than the story of a recluse tempted -by the Devil through the flesh, by all the artifices at the Devil's -disposal. In the definite thought of Flaubert the temptation of St. -Anthony has become man's soul tempted by all the illusions of human -thought and imagination. St. Anthony to the eyes of the first naive -hagiologists is a second Adam, seduced by woman, who was inspired by -Satan. St. Anthony conceived by Flaubert is a more thoughtful Faust; a -Faust incapable of irony, not a Faust who could play with illusions and -with himself--secretly persuaded that he could withdraw when he chose -to give himself the trouble to do so--rather a Faust who approached, -accosted, caressed all possible forms of universal illusions." - -Flaubert's studies for the "Temptation" were tremendous. For nearly -thirty years he touched and retouched, altered, enlarged, condensed. -He kneaded into its substance the knowledge, incessantly sought, of -all religions and philosophies; of all the forms man's speculations -had taken in his endless endeavours to explain to himself Life and -Fate; humanity's untiring, passionate effort to find the meaning of its -mysterious origin and purpose, and final destiny. How terrible, how -naive, how fantastic, bloody, grovelling, and outrageous were most of -the solutions accepted, the gigantic panorama of the book startlingly -sets forth. What gory agonies, what mystic exaltations, what dark -cruelties, frenzied abandons, and inhuman self denials have marked -those puzzled gropings for light and truth are revealed as by lightning -flashes in the crowding scenes of the epic. For the Temptation of St. -Anthony is an epic. Not a drama of man's actions, as all previous -epics have been, but a drama of the soul. All its movement is in the -adventure and conflict of the spirit. St. Anthony remains always in -the one place, almost as moveless as a mirror. His vision--clarified -of the sensual and the actual by his fastings and macerations--becomes -like the surface of an unruffled lake. A lake reflecting the aberrant -forms of thoughts that, like clouds, drift between man and the infinite -depths of knowledge. Clouds of illusion forever changing, melting, -fusing; assuming forms grotesque, monstrous, intolerable; until at -last the writhing mists of speculation and ignorance are drunk up -by the widening light of wisdom and the fogs and phantasms vanish, -leaving his consciousness aware, in poignant ecstasy, of the cloudless -deeps of truth. The temptation of the flesh is but a passing episode. -An eidolon of Sheba's queen offers him luxury, wealth, voluptuous -beauty, power, dainty delights of eye and palate in vain. Man has never -found his most dangerous seductions in the appetites. More lamentable -disintegration has grown from his attempts to pierce beyond the -body's veil. The parched and tortured saint is whirled by vertiginous -visions through cycles of man's straining efforts to know why, whence, -whither. He assists at the rites of Mithira, the prostrations of -serpent-and-devil-worshippers, worshippers of fire, of light, of the -Greeks' deified forces of nature; of the northern enthronement of brute -force and war. He is swept by the soothing breath of Quietism, plunges -into every heresy and philosophy, sees the orgies, the flagellations, -the self mutilations, the battles and furies of sects, each convinced -that it has found the answer at last to the Great Question, and -endeavouring to constrain the rest of humanity to accept the answer. -He meets the Sphinx--embodied interrogation--and the Chimera--the -simulacrum of the fantasies of the imagination--dashing madly about the -stolid querist. - -Lucifer--spirit of doubt of all dogmatic solutions--mounts with Anthony -into illimitable space. They rise beyond these struggles and furies -into the cold uttermost of the universe; among innumerable worlds; -worlds yet vaguely forming in the womb of time, newly come to birth, -lustily grown to maturity; worlds dying, decaying, crumbling again into -atomic dust. Overcome by the intolerable Vast, Anthony sinks once more -to his cell, and Lucifer, who has shown him the macrocosm, opens to -him the equal immensity of the microcosm. Makes him see the swarming -life that permeates the seas, the earth and atmosphere, the incredible -numerousness of the invisible lives that people every drop of water, -every grain of sand, every breath of air. The unity of life dawns upon -him, and his heart, withered by dubiety, melts into joyousness and -peace. As the day dawns in gold he beholds the face of Christ. - -Flaubert's Lucifer has no relation to the jejune Devil of -man's early conception of material evil, nor does he resemble -Goethe's Mephistopheles; embodiment of the Eighteenth Century's -spirit of sneering disbeliefs and negation. He is rather our own -tempter--Science. He is the spirit of Knowledge: Nature itself calling -us to look into the immensities and read just our dogmas by this new -and terrible widening of our mental and moral horizons. This last -experience of the Saint reproduces the spiritual experiences of the -modern man; cast loose from his ancient moorings, and yet finding at -last in his new knowledge a truer conception of the brotherhood of all -life in all its forms, and seeing still, in the growing light, the -benignant eyes of God. - -It is not remarkable that Flaubert resented the banality, the dull -grossness of the reception of his work, or that Hearn shared his -amazement and bitterness. Even yet the world wakes but slowly to the -true character of this masterpiece; this epic wrought with so great -a care and patience, so instinct with genius, dealing perhaps more -profoundly than any other mind has ever done with the Great Adventure -of humanity's eternal search for Truth. - -ELIZABETH BISLAND. - - - - -ARGUMENT - - - - -FRAILTY - - -Sunset in the desert. Enfeebled by prolonged fasting, the hermit -finds himself unable to concentrate his mind upon holy things. His -thoughts wonder; memories of youth evoke regrets that his relaxed will -can no longer find strength to suppress,--and, remembrance begetting -remembrance, his fancy leads him upon dangerous ground. He dreams of -his flight from home,--of Ammonaria, his sister's playmate,--of his -misery in the waste,--his visit to Alexandria with the blind monk -Didymus,--the unholy sights of the luxurious city. - -Involuntarily he yields to the nervous dissatisfaction growing upon -him. He laments his solitude, his joylessness, his poverty, the -obscurity of his life; grace departs from him; hope burns low within -his heart. Suddenly revolting against his weakness, he seeks refuge -from distraction in the study of the Scriptures. - -Vain effort! An invisible hand turns the leaves, placing perilous -texts before his eyes. He dreams of the Maccabees slaughtering -their enemies, and desires that he might do likewise with the -Arians of Alexandria;--he becomes inspired with admiration of King -Nebuchadnezzar;--he meditates voluptuously upon the visit of Sheba's -queen of Solomon;--discovers a text in the Acts of the Apostles -antagonistic to principles of monkish ascetism,--indulges in reveries -regarding the riches of Biblical kings and holy men. The Tempter comes -to tempt him with evil hallucinations for which the Saint's momentary -frailty has paved the way; and with the Evil One come also - - - -THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - - -Phantom gold is piled up to excite Covetousness; shadowy banquets -appear to evoke Gluttony. The scene shifts to aid the temptations of -Anger and of Pride.... - -Anthony finds himself in Alexandria, at the head of a wild army of -monks slaughtering the heretics and the pagans, without mercy for -age or sex. In fantastic obedience to the course of his fancy while -reading the Scriptures a while before, and like an invisible echo of -his evil thoughts, the scene changes again. Alexandria is transformed -into Constantinople. - -Anthony finds himself the honoured of the Emperor. He beholds the -vast circus in all its splendour, the ocean of faces, the tumult of -excitement. Simultaneously he beholds his enemies degraded to the -condition of slaves, toiling in the stables of Constantine. He feels -joy in the degradation of the Fathers of Nicaea. Then all is transformed. - -It is no longer the splendour of Constantinople he beholds under the -luminosity of a Greek day; but the prodigious palace of Nebuchadnezzar -by night. He beholds the orgies, the luxuries, the abominations;--and -the spirit of Pride enters triumphantly into him as the spirit of -Nebuchadnezzar.... - -Awaking as from a dream, he finds himself again before his hermitage. -A vast caravan approaches, halts; and the Queen of Sheba descends to -tempt the Saint with the deadliest of all temptations. Her beauty is -enhanced by oriental splendour of adornment; her converse is a song of -withcraft. The Saint remains firm.... The Seven Deadly Sins depart -from him. - - - -THE HERESIARCHS - - -But now the tempter assumes a subtler form. Under the guise of a former -disciple of Anthony,--Hilarion,--the demon, while pretending to seek -instruction, endeavours to poison the mind of Anthony with hatred of -the fathers of the church. He repeats all the scandals amassed by -ecclesiastical intriguers, all the calumnies created by malice;--he -cites texts only to foment doubt, and quotes the evangels only to -make confusion. Under the pretext of obtaining mental enlightenment -from the wisest of men, he induces Anthony to enter with him into -a spectral basilica, wherein are assembled all the Heresiarchs of -the third century. The hermit is confounded by the multitude of -tenets,--horrified by the blasphemies and abominations of Elkes, -Corpocrates, Valentinus, Manes, Cerdo,--disgusted by the perversions of -the Paternians, Marcosians, Montanists, Serptians,--bewildered by the -apocryphal Gospels of Eve and of Judas, of the Lord, and of Thomas. - -And Hilarion grows taller. - - -THE MARTYRS - -Anthony finds himself in the dungeons of a vast amphitheatre, among -Christians condemned to the wild beasts. By this hallucination the -tempter would prove to the Saint that martyrdom is not always suffered -for purest motives. Anthony finds the martyrs possessed by bigotry and -insincerity. He sees many compelled to die against their will; many -who would forswear their faith could it avail them aught. He beholds -heretics die for their heterodoxy more nobly than orthodox believers. - -And he finds himself transported to the tombs of the martyrs. He -witnesses the meetings of Christian women at the sepulchres. He beholds -the touching ceremonies of prayer, change into orgies,--lamentations -give place to amorous dalliance. - - - -THE MAGICIANS - - -Then the Tempter seeks to shake Anthony's faith in the excellence -and evidence of miracles. He assumes the form of a Hindoo Brahmin, -terminating a life of wondrous holiness by self-cremation;--he appears -as Simon Magus and Helen of Tyre,--as Appollonius of Tyans, greatest of -all thaumaturgists, who claims superiority to Christ. All the marvels -related by Philostratus are embodied in the converse of Apollonius and -Damis. - - - -THE GODS - - -Hilarion reappears taller than ever, growing more gigantic in -proportion to the increasing weakness of the Saint. Standing beside -Anthony he evokes all the deities of the antique world. They defile -before him in a marvellous panorama:--Gods of Egypt and India, Chaldea -and Hellas, Babylon and Ultima Thule,--monstrous and multiform, phallic -and ithyphallic, fantastic or obscene. Some intoxicate by their beauty; -others appall by their foulness. The Buddha recounts the story of his -wondrous life; Venus displays the rounded daintiness of her nudity; -Isis utters awful soliloquy. Lastly the phantom of Jehovah appears, as -the shadow of a god passing away forever. - -Suddenly the stature of Hilarion towers to the stars; he assumes the -likeness and luminosity of Lucifer; he announces himself as - - - -SCIENCE - - -And Anthony is lifted upon mighty wings and borne away beyond the -world, above the solar system, above the starry arch of the Milky Way. -All future discoveries of Astronomy are revealed to him. He is tempted -by the revelation of innumerable worlds,--by the refutation of all -his previous ideas of the nature of the Universe,--by the enigmas of -infinity,--by all the marvels that conflict with faith. Even in the -night of immensity the demon renews the temptation of reason: Anthony -wavers upon the verge of pantheism. - - - -LUST AND DEATH - - -Anthony abandoned by the spirit of Science comes to himself in the -desert. Then the Tempter returns under a two-fold aspect: as the -Spirit of Lust and the Spirit of Destruction. The latter urges him to -suicide,--the former to indulgence of sense. They inspire him with -strong fancies of palingenesis, of the illusion of death, of the -continuity of life. The pantheistic temptation intensified. - - - -THE MONSTERS - - -Anthony in reveries meditates upon the monstrous symbols painted upon -the walls of certain ancient temples. Could he know their meaning -he might learn also something of the secret lien between Matter and -Thought. Forthwith a phantasmagoria of monsters commence to pass before -his eyes:--the Sphinx and the Chimera, the Blemmyes and Astomi, the -Cynocephali and all creatures of mythologie creation. He beholds the -fabulous beings of Oriental imagining,--the abnormities described -by Pliny and Herodotus, the fantasticalities to be later adopted by -heraldry,--the grotesqueries of future medieval illumination made -animate;--the goblinries and foulnesses of superstitious fancy,--the -Witches' Sabbath of abominations. - - - -METAMORPHOSIS - - -The multitude of monsters melts away; the land changes into an Ocean; -the creatures of the briny abysses appear. And the waters in turn -also change; seaweeds are transformed to herbs, forests of coral -give place to forests of trees, polypous life changes to vegetation. -Metals crystallize; frosts effloresce; plants become living things, -inanimate matter takes animate form, monads vibrate, the pantheism of -nature makes itself manifest. Anthony feels a delirious desire to unite -himself with the Spirit of Universal Being.... - -The vision vanishes. The sun arises. The face of Christ is revealed. -The temptation has passed; Anthony kneels in prayer. - -L. H. - - - - -THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY - - -_It is in the Thebaid at the summit of a mountain, upon a platform, -rounded off into the form of a demilune, and enclosed by huge stones._ - -_The Hermit's cabin appears in the background. It is built of mud and -reeds, it is flat-roofed and doorless. A pitcher and a loaf of black -bread can be distinguished within also, in the middle of the apartment -a large book resting on a wooden STELA; while here and there, fragments -of basketwork, two or three mats, a basket, and a knife lie upon the -ground._ - -_Some ten paces from the hut, there is a long cross planted in the -soil; and, at the other end of the platform, an aged and twisted -palm tree leans over the abyss; for the sides of the mountain are -perpendicular, and the Nile appears to form a lake at the foot of the -cliff._ - -_The view to right and left is broken by the barrier of rocks. But -on the desert-side, like a vast succession of sandy beaches, immense -undulations of an ashen-blonde color extend one behind the other, -rising higher as they recede; and far in the distance, beyond the -sands, the Libyan chain forms a chalk-colored wall, lightly shaded by -violet mists. On the opposite side the sun is sinking. In the north the -sky is of a pearl-gray tint, while at the zenith purple clouds disposed -like the tufts of a gigantic mane, lengthen themselves against the blue -vault. These streaks of flame take darker tones; the azure spots turn -to a nacreous pallor; the shrubs, the pebbles, the earth, all now seem -hard as bronze; and throughout space there floats a golden dust so fine -as to become confounded with the vibrations of the light._ - -_Saint Anthony, who has a long beard, long hair, and wears a tunic of -goatskin, is seated on the ground cross-legged, and is occupied in -weaving mats. As soon as the sun disappears, he utters a deep sigh, -and, gazing upon the horizon, exclaims_:-- - -"Another day! another day gone! Nevertheless formerly I used not to -be so wretched. Before the end of the night I commenced my orisons; -then I descended to the river to get water, and remounted the rugged -pathway with the skin upon my shoulder, singing hymns on the way. Then -I would amuse myself by arranging everything in my hut. I would make my -tools; I tried to make all my mats exactly equal in size, and all my -baskets light; for then my least actions seemed to me duties in nowise -difficult or painful of accomplishment. - -"Then at regular hours I ceased working; and when I prayed with my arms -extended, I felt as though a fountain of mercy were pouring from the -height of heaven into my heart. That fountain is now dried up. Why?" - -(_He walks up and down slowly, within the circuit of the rocks._) - -"All blamed me when I left the house. My mother sank to the ground, -dying; my sister from afar off made signs to me to return; and the -other--wept, Ammonaria, the child whom I used to meet every evening -at the cistern, when she took the oxen to drink. She ran after me. Her -foot rings glittered in the dust; and her tunic, open at the hips, -fluttered loosely in the wind. The aged anchorite who was leading me -away called her vile names. Our two camels galloped forward without -respite; and I have seen none of my people since that day. - -"At first, I selected for my dwelling place, the tomb of a Pharaoh. But -an enchantment circulates through all those subterranean palaces, where -the darkness seems to have been thickened by the ancient smoke of the -aromatics. From the depths of Sarcophagi, I heard doleful voices arise, -and call my name; or else, I suddenly beheld the abominable things -painted upon the walls live and move; and I fled away to the shore -of the Red Sea, and took refuge in a ruined citadel. There my only -companions were the scorpions dragging themselves among the stones, and -the eagles continually wheeling above my head, in the blue of heaven. -At night I was torn by claws, bitten by beaks; soft wings brushed -against me; and frightful demons, shrieking in my ears, flung me upon -the ground. Once I was even rescued by the people of a caravan going -to Alexandria; and they took me away with them. - -"Then I sought to obtain instruction from the good old man Didymus. -Although blind, none equalled him in the knowledge of the Scriptures. -When the lesson was finished, he used to ask me to give him my arm -to lean upon, that we might walk together. Then I would conduct him -to the Paneum, whence may be seen the Pharos and the open sea. Then -we would return by way of the post, elbowing men of all nations, -even Cimmerians clad in the skins of bears and Gymnosophists of the -Ganges anointed with cow-dung. But there was always some fighting in -the streets--either on account of the Jews refusing to pay taxes, or -of seditious people who wished to drive the Romans from the city. -Moreover, the city is full of heretics--followers of Manes; Valentinus, -Basilides, Arius--all seeking to engross my attention in order to argue -with me and to convince me. - -"Their discourses often come back to my memory. Vainly do I seek to -banish them from my mind. They trouble me! - -"I took refuge at Colzin, and there lived a life of such penance that -I ceased to fear God. A few men, desirous of becoming anchorites, -gathered about me. I imposed a practical rule of life upon them, -hating, as I did, the extravagance of Gnosus and the assertions of the -philosophers. Messages were sent to me from all parts, and men came -from afar off to visit me. - -"Meanwhile the people were torturing the confessors; and the thirst of -martyrdom drew me to Alexandria. The persecution had ceased three days -before I arrived there! - -"While returning thence, I was stopped by a great crowd assembled -before the temple of Serapis. They told me it was a last example which -the Governor had resolved to make. In the centre of the portico, under -the sunlight, a naked woman was fettered to a column, and two soldiers -were flogging her with thongs; at every blow her whole body writhed. -She turned round, her mouth open; and over the heads of the crowd, -through the long hair half hiding her face, I thought that I could -recognize Ammonaria.... - -[Illustration: ... through the long hair half hiding her face, -I thought that I could recognize Ammonaria] - -"Nevertheless ... this one was taller ... and beautiful ... -prodigiously beautiful!" - -(_He passes his hands over his forehead._) - -"No! no! I must not think of it! - -"Another time Athanasius summoned me to assist him against the Arians. -The contest was limited to invectives and laughter. But since that -time he has been calumniated, dispossessed of his see, obliged to fly -for safety elsewhere. Where is he now? I do not know! The people give -themselves very little trouble to bring me news. All my disciples have -abandoned me--Hilarion like the rest. - -"He was perhaps fifteen years of age when he first came to me and his -intelligence was so remarkable that he asked me questions incessantly. -Then he used to listen to me with a pensive air, and whatever I needed -he brought it to me without a murmur--nimbler than a kid, merry enough -to make even the patriarchs laugh. He was a son to me." - -(_The sky is red; the earth completely black. Long drifts of sand -follow the course of the gusts of wind, rising like great shrouds and -falling again. Suddenly against a bright space in the sky a flock of -birds pass, forming a triangular battalion, gleaming like one sheet of -metal, of which the edges alone seem to quiver._ - -_Anthony watches them._) - -"Ah, how I should like to follow them. - -"How often also have I enviously gazed upon those long vessels, -whose sails resemble wings--and above all when they were bearing -far away those I had received at my hermitage! What pleasant hours -we passed!--what out-pourings of feeling! No one ever interested me -more than Ammon: he told me of his voyage to Rome, of the Catacombs, -the Coliseum, the piety of illustrious women, and a thousand other -things!--and it grieved me to part with him! Wherefore my obstinacy -in continuing to live such a life as this? I would have done well to -remain with the monks of Nitria, inasmuch as they supplicated me to -do so. They have cells apart, and nevertheless communicate with each -other. On Sundays a trumpet summons them to assemble at the church, -where one may see three scourges hanging up, which serve to punish -delinquents, robbers, and intruders; for their discipline is severe. - -"Nevertheless they are not without some enjoyments. The faithful bring -them eggs, fruits, and even instruments with which they can extract -thorns from their feet. There are vineyards about Prisperi; those -dwelling at Pabena have a raft on which they may journey when they go -to seek provisions. - -"But I might have served my brethren better as a simple priest. As a -priest one may aid the poor, administer the sacraments, and exercise -authority over families. - -"Furthermore, all laics are not necessarily damned, and it only -depended upon my own choice to become--for example--a grammarian, a -philosopher. I would then have had in my chamber a sphere of reeds, -and tablets always ready at hand, young men around me, and a wreath of -laurel suspended above my door, as a sign. - -"But there is too much pride in triumphs such as those. A soldier's -life would have been preferable. I was robust and bold: bold enough to -fasten the cables of the military machines--to traverse dark forests, -or to enter, armed and helmeted, into smoking cities.... Neither was -there anything to have prevented me from purchasing with my money the -position of publican at the toll-office of some bridge; and travellers -would have taught me many strange things, and told me strange stories, -the while showing me many curious objects packed up among their -baggage.... - -"The merchants of Alexandria sail upon the river Canopus on holidays, -and drink wine in the chalices of lotus-flowers, to a music of -tambourines which makes the taverns along the shore tremble! Beyond, -trees, made cone-shaped by pruning, protect the quiet farms against -the wind of the south. The roof of the lofty house leans upon thin -colonettes placed as closely together as the laths of a lattice; -and through their interspaces the master, reclining upon his long -couch, beholds his plains stretching about him--the hunter among the -wheat-fields--the winepress where the vintage is being converted into -wine, the oxen treading out the wheat. His children play upon the floor -around him; his wife bends down to kiss him." - -(_Against the grey dimness of the twilight, here and there appear -pointed muzzles, with straight, pointed ears and bright eyes. Anthony -advances toward them. There is a sound of gravel crumbling down; the -animals take flight. It was a troop of jackals._ - -_One still remains, rising upon his hinder legs, with his body half -arched and head raised in an attitude full of defiance._) - -"How pretty he is! I would like to stroke his back gently!" - -(_Anthony whistles to coax him to approach. The jackal disappears._) - -"Ah! he is off to join the others. What solitude! what weariness!" -(_Laughing bitterly._) - -"A happy life this indeed!--bending palm-branches in the fire to make -shepherds' crooks, fashioning baskets, stitching mats together--and -then exchanging these things with the Nomads for bread which breaks -one's teeth! Ah! woe, woe is me! will this never end? Surely death were -preferable! I can endure it no more! Enough! enough!" - -(_He stamps his foot upon the ground, and rushes frantically to and fro -among the rocks; then pauses, out of breath, bursts into tears, and -lies down upon the ground, on his side._ - -_The night is calm; multitudes of stars are palpitating; only the -crackling noise made by the tarantulas is audible._ - -_The two arms of the cross make a shadow upon the sand; Anthony, who is -weeping, observes it._) - -"Am I, then, so weak, O my God! Courage, let me rise from here!" - -(_He enters his hut, turns over a pile of cinders, finds a live ember, -lights his torch and fixes it upon the wooden desk, so as to throw a -light upon the great book._) - -"Suppose I take the Acts of the Apostles?--yes!--no matter where!" - -_'And he saw the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as it -were a great linen sheet let down by the four corners from heaven to -the earth--wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, and creeping -things of the earth and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to -him: Arise, Peter! Kill and eat!'_[1] - -"Then the Lord desired that his apostle should eat of all things?... -while I...." - -(_Anthony remains thoughtful, his chin resting against his breast. The -rustling of the pages, agitated by the wind, causes him to lift his -head again; and he reads_:) - -_'So the Jews made a great slaughter of their enemies with the sword, -and killed them, repaying according to what they had prepared to do to -them...._[2] - -"Then, comes the number of people slain by them--seventy-five thousand. -They had suffered so much! Moreover, their enemies were the enemies of -the true God. And how they must have delighted in avenging themselves -thus by the massacre of idolaters! Doubtless the city must have been -crammed with the dead! There must have been corpses at the thresholds -of the garden gates, upon the stairways, in all the chambers, and piled -up so high that the doors could no longer move upon their hinges!... -But lo! here I am permitting my mind to dwell upon ideas of murder and -of blood!..." - -(_He opens the book at another place._) - -_'Then King Nabuchodonosor fell on his face, and worshipped -Daniel...._'[3] - -"Ah! that was just! The _Most High_ exalts his prophets above Kings; -yet that monarch spent his life in banqueting, perpetually drunk with -pleasure and pride. But God, to punish him, changed him into a beast! -He walked upon four feet!" - -(_Anthony begins to laugh; and in extending his arms, involuntarily -disarranges the leaves of the book with the tips of his fingers. His -eyes fell upon this phrase_:--) - -_'And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he showed them the house -of his aromatical spices, and the gold and the silver, and divers -precious odours and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all -that he had in his treasures....'_[4] - -"I can imagine that spectacle; they must have beheld precious stones, -diamonds and darics heaped up to the very roof. One who possesses so -vast an accumulation of wealth is no longer like other men. While -handling his riches he knows that he controls the total result of -innumerable human efforts--as it were the life of nations drained by -him and stored up, which he can pour forth at will. It is a commendable -precaution on the part of Kings. Even the _Wisest_ of all did not -neglect it. His navy brought him elephants' teeth and apes.... Where is -that passage?" - -(_He turns the leaves over rapidly._) - -"Ah! here it is:" - -_'And the Queen of Saba, having heard of the fame of Solomon in the -name of the Lord, came to try him with hard questions.'_[5] - -"How did she hope to tempt him? The _Devil_ indeed sought to tempt -Jesus! But Jesus triumphed because he was God; and Solomon, perhaps, -owing this knowledge of magic! It is sublime--that science! For the -world--as a philosopher once explained it to me, forms a whole, of -which all parts mutually influence one another, like the organs of one -body. It is science which enables us to know the natural loves and -natural repulsions of all things, and to play upon them?... Therefore, -it is really possible to modify what appears to be the immutable order -of the universe?" - -(_Then the two shadows formed behind him by the arms of the cross, -suddenly lengthen and project themselves before him. They assume the -form of two great horns. Anthony cries out_:--) - -"Help me! O my God!" - -[Illustration: Saint Anthony: Help me, O my God!] - -(_The shadows shrink back to their former place._) - -"Ah!... it was an illusion ... nothing more. It is needless for me to -torment my mind further! I can do nothing!--absolutely nothing." - -(_He sits down and folds his arms._) - -"Nevertheless ... it seems to me that I felt the approach of.... But -why should _He_ come? Besides, do I not know all his artifices? I -repulsed the monstrous anchorite who laughingly offered me little -loaves of warm, fresh bread, the centaur who sought to carry me away -upon his croup, and that black child who appeared to me in the midst of -the sands, who was very beautiful, and who told me that he was called -the Spirit of Lust!" - -(_Anthony rises and walks rapidly up and down, first to the right, then -to the left._) - -"It was by my order that this multitude of holy retreats was -constructed--full of monks all wearing sackcloth of camel's hair -beneath their garments of goatskin, and numerous enough to form an -army. I have cured the sick from afar off; I have cast out demons; -I have passed the river in the midst of crocodiles; the Emperor -Constantine wrote me throe letters; Balacius, who had spat upon mine, -was torn to pieces by his own horses; when I reappeared the people of -Alexandria fought for the pleasure of seeing me, and Athanasius himself -escorted me on the way back. But what works have I not accomplished -Lo! for these thirty years and more I have been dwelling and groaning -unceasingly in the desert! Like Eusebius, I have carried thirty-eight -pounds of bronze upon my loins; like Macarius, I have exposed my body -to the stings of insects; like Pacomus, I have passed fifty-three -nights without closing my eyes; and those who are decapitated, tortured -with red hot pincers, or burned alive, are perhaps less meritorious -than I, seeing that my whole life is but one prolonged martyrdom." -(_Anthony slackens his pace._) - -"Assuredly there is no human being in a condition of such unutterable -misery! Charitable hearts are becoming scarcer. I no longer receive -aught from any one. My mantle is worn out. I have no sandals--I have -not even a porringer!--for I have distributed all I possessed to the -poor and to my family, without retaining so much as one obolus. Yet -surely I ought to have a little money to obtain the tools indispensable -to my work? Oh, not much! a very small sum.... I would be very saving -of it.... - -"The fathers of Nicaea, clad in purple robes, sat like magi, upon -thrones ranged along the walls; and they were entertained at a great -banquet and overwhelmed with honours, especially Paphnutius, because he -is one-eyed and lame, since the persecution of Diocletian! The Emperor -kissed his blind eye several times; what foolishness! Besides, there -were such infamous men members of that Council! A bishop of Scythia, -Theophilus! another of Persia, John! a keeper of beasts, Spiridion! -Alexander was too old. Athanasius ought to have shown more gentleness -towards the Arians, so as to have obtained concessions from them. - -"Yet would they have made any? They would not hear me! The one who -spoke against me--a tall young man with a curly beard--uttered the -most captious objections to my argument; and while I was seeking words -to express my views they all stared at me with their wicked faces, -and barked like hyenas. Ah! why cannot I have them all exiled by the -Emperor! or rather have them beaten, crushed, and see them suffer! I -suffer enough myself." - -(_He leans against his cabin in a fainting condition._) - -"It is because I have fasted too long; my strength is leaving me. If I -could eat--only once more--a piece of meat." (_He half closes his eyes -with languor._) - -"Ah! some red flesh--a bunch of grapes to bite into ... curdled milk -that trembles on a plate!... - -"But what has come upon me? What is the matter with me? I feel my heart -enlarging like the sea, when it swells before the storm. An unspeakable -feebleness weighs down upon me, and the warm air seems to waft me -the perfume of a woman's hair. No woman has approached this place; -nevertheless?--" - -(_He gazes toward the little pathway between the rocks._) - -"That is the path by which they come, rocked in their litters by the -black arms of the eunuchs. They descend and joining their hands, -heavy with rings, kneel down before me. They relate to me all their -troubles. The desire of human pleasure tortures them; they would -gladly die; they have seen in their dreams God calling to them ... and -all the while the hems of their robes fall upon my feet. I repel them -from me. 'Ah! no!' they cry, 'not yet! What shall I do?' They gladly -accept any penitence I impose on them. They ask for the hardest of all; -they beg to share mine and to live with me. - -"It is now a long time since I have seen any of them! Perhaps some of -them will come! why not? If I could only hear again, all of a sudden, -the tinkling of mule-bells among the mountains. It seems to me...." - -(_Anthony clambers upon a rock at the entrance of the pathway, and -leans over, darting his eyes into the darkness._) - -"Yes! over there, far off I see a mass moving, like a band of -travellers seeking the way. _She_ is there!... They are making a -mistake." (_Calling._) - -"This way! Come! Come!" - -(_Echo repeats: Come! Come! he lets his arms fall, stupefied._) - -"What shame for me! Alas! poor Anthony." - -(_And all of a sudden he hears a whisper:--"Poor Anthony"!_) - -"Who is there? Speak!" - -(_The wind passing through the intervals between the rocks, makes -modulations; and in those confused sonorities he distinguishes Voices, -as though the air itself were speaking. They are low, insinuating, -hissing._) - -_The First_: "Dost thou desire women?" - -_The Second_: "Great heaps of money, rather!" - -_The Third_: "A glittering sword?" (_and_) - -_The Others_: "All the people admire thee! Sleep!" - -"Thou shalt slay them all, aye, thou shalt slay them!" - -(_At the same moment objects become transformed. At the edge of the -cliff, the old palm tree with its tuft of yellow leaves, changes into -the torso of a woman leaning over the abyss, her long hair waving in -the wind. - -Anthony turns toward his cabin; and the stool supporting the great book -whose pages are covered with black letters, seems to him changed into a -bush all covered with nightingales._) - -"It must be the torch which is making this strange play of light.... -Let us put it out!" - -(_He extinguishes it; the obscurity becomes deeper, the darkness -profound._ - -_And suddenly in the air above there appear and disappear -successively--first, a stretch of water; then the figure of a -prostitute; the corner of a temple, a soldier; a chariot with two white -horses, prancing._ - -_These images appear suddenly, as in flashes--outlined against the -background of the night, like scarlet paintings executed upon ebony._ - -_Their motion accelerates. They defile by with vertiginous rapidity. -Sometimes again, they pause and gradually pale and melt away; or else -float off out of sight, to be immediately succeeded by others._ - -_Anthony closes his eyelids._ - -_They multiply, surround him, besiege him. An unspeakable fear takes -possession of him; and he feels nothing more of living sensation, save -a burning contraction of the epigastrium. In spite of the tumult in -his brain, he is aware of an enormous silence which separates him from -the world. He tries to speak;--impossible! He feels as though all the -bands of his life were breaking and dissolving;--and, no longer able to -resist, Anthony falls prostrate upon his mat._) - - -[1] Acts X: 11-13--T. - -[2] Esther IX: 5--T. - -[3] Daniel II: 46.--T. - -[4] Kings XX: 13 (Vulg.).--T. - -[5] III Kings X: I (Vulg.).--T. - - - - -II - - -(_Then a great shadow, subtler than any natural shadow, and festooned -by other shadows along its edges, defines itself upon the ground._ - -_It is the Devil, leaning upon the roof of the hut, and bearing beneath -his wings--like some gigantic bat suckling its little ones--the Seven -Deadly Sins, whose grimacing heads are dimly distinguishable._ - -_With eyes still closed, Anthony yields to the pleasure of inaction; -and stretches his limbs upon the mat._ - -_It seems to him quite soft, and yet softer--so that it becomes as if -padded; it rises up; it becomes a bed. The bed becomes a shallop; water -laps against its sides._ - -_To right and left rise two long tongues of land, overlooking low -cultivated plains, with a sycamore tree here and there. In the distance -there is a tinkling of bells, a sound of drums and of singers. It is a -party going to Canopus to sleep upon the temple of Serapis, in order -to have dreams. Anthony knows this; and impelled by the wind, his boat -glides along between the banks. Papyrus-leaves and the red flowers of -the nymphaea, larger than the body of a man, bend over him. He is lying -at the bottom of the boat; one oar at the stem, drags in the water. -From time to time, a lukewarm wind blows; and the slender reeds rub one -against the other, and rustle. Then the sobbing of the wavelets becomes -indistinct. A heavy drowsiness falls upon him. He dreams that he is a -Solitary of Egypt._ - -_Then he awakes with a start._) - -"Did I dream? It was all so vivid that I can scarcely believe I was -dreaming! My tongue burns. I am thirsty." - -(_He enters the cabin, and gropes at random in the dark._) - -"The ground is wet; can it have been raining? What can this mean! My -pitcher is broken into atoms! But the goatskin?" (_He finds it._) - -"Empty!--completely empty! In order to get down to the river, I should -have to walk for at least three hours; and the night is so dark that I -could not see my way. - -"There is a gnawing in my entrails. Where is the bread!" - -(_After long searching, he picks up a crust not so large as an egg._) - -"What? Have the jackals taken it? Ah! malediction!" - -(_And he flings the bread upon the ground with fury._ - -_No sooner has the action occurred than a table makes its appearance, -covered with all things that are good to eat._ - -_The byssus cloth, striated like the bandelets of the sphinx, produces -of itself luminous undulations. Upon it are enormous quarters of red -meats; huge fish; birds cooked in their plumage, and quadrupeds in -their skins; fruits with colors and tints almost human in appearance; -while fragments of cooling ice, and flagons of violet crystal reflect -each other's glittering. Anthony notices in the middle of the table -a boar smoking at every pore--with legs doubled up under its belly, -and eyes half closed--and the idea of being able to eat so formidable -an animal greatly delights him. Then many things appear which he has -never seen before--black hashes, jellies, the color of gold, ragouts in -which mushrooms float like nenuphars upon ponds, dishes of whipt cream -light as clouds._ - -_And the aroma of all this comes to him together with the salt smell of -the ocean, the coolness of mountains, the great perfumes of the woods. -He dilates his nostrils to their fullest extent; his mouth waters; he -thinks to himself that he has enough before him for a year, for ten -years, for his whole life!_ - -_As he gazes with widely-opened eyes at all these viands, others -appear; they accumulate, forming a pyramid crumbling at all its angles. -The wines begin to flow over--the fish palpitate--the blood seethes in -the dishes--the pulp of the fruit protrudes like amorous lips--and the -table rises as high as his breast, up to his very chin at last--now -bearing only one plate and a single loaf of bread, placed exactly in -front of him._ - -_He extends his hand to seize the loaf. Other loaves immediately -present themselves to his grasp._) - -"For me!... all these! But ..." (_Anthony suddenly draws back._) - -"Instead of one which was there, lo! there are many! It must be a -miracle, then, the same as our Lord wrought! - -"Yet for what purpose?... Ah! all the rest of these things are equally -incomprehensible! Demon, begone from me! depart! begone!" - -(_He kicks the table from him. It disappears._) - -"Nothing more?--no!" (_He draws a lung breath._) - -"Ah! the temptation was strong! But how well I delivered myself from -it!" - -(_He lifts his head, and at the same time stumbles over some sonorous -object._) - -"Why! what can that be?" (_Anthony stoops down._) - -"How! a cup! Some traveller must have lost it here. There is nothing -extraordinary...." - -(_He wets his finger, and rubs._) - -"It glitters!--metal! Still, I cannot see very clearly...." - -(_He lights his torch, and examines the cup._) - -"It is silver, ornamented with ovules about the rim, with a medal at -the bottom of it." - -(_He detaches the medal with his nail!_) - -"It is a piece of money worth about seven or eight drachmas--not more! -It matters not! even with that I could easily buy myself a sheepskin." - -(_A sudden flash of the torch lights up the cup._) - -"Impossible! gold? Yes, all gold, solid gold!" - -(_A still larger piece of money appears at the bottom. Under it he -perceives several others._) - -"Why, this is a sum ... large enough to purchase three oxen ... and a -little field!" - -(_The cup is now filled with pieces of gold._) - -"What! what!... a hundred slaves, soldiers, a host ... enough to -buy...." - -(_The granulations of the rim, detaching themselves form a necklace of -pearls._) - -"With such a marvel of jewelry as that, one could win even the wife of -the Emperor!" - -(_By a sudden jerk, Anthony makes the necklace slip down over his -wrist. He holds the cup in his left hand, and with his right lifts -up the torch so as to throw the light upon it. As water streams -overflowing from the basin of a fountain, so diamonds, carbuncles, and -sapphires, all mingled with broad pieces of gold bearing the effigies -of Kings, overflow from the cup in never ceasing streams, to form a -glittering hillock upon the sand._) - -"What! how! Staters, cycles, dariacs, aryandics; Alexander, Demetrius, -the Ptolemies, Caesar!--yet not one of them all possessed so much! -Nothing is now impossible! no more suffering for me! how these -gleams dazzle my eyes! Ah! my heart overflows! how delightful it is! -yes--yes!--more yet! never could there be enough! Vainly I might -continually fling it into the sea, there would always be plenty -remaining for me. Why should I lose any of it? I will keep all, and say -nothing to any one about it; I will have a chamber hollowed out for me -in the rock, and lined with plates of bronze, and I will come here from -time to time to feel the gold sinking down under the weight of my heel; -I will plunge my arms into it as into sacks of grain! I will rub my -face with it, I will lie down upon it!" - -(_He flings down the torch in order to embrace the glittering heap, and -falls flat upon the ground._ - -_He rises to his feet. The place is wholly empty._) - -"What have I done! - -"Had I died during those moments, I should have gone to hell--to -irrevocable damnation." - -(_He trembles in every limb._) - -"Am I, then, accursed? Ah! no; it is my own fault! I allow myself -to be caught in every snare! No man could be more imbecile, more -infamous! I should like to beat myself, or rather to tear myself out -of my own body! I have restrained myself too long. I feel the want of -vengeance--the necessity of striking, of killing!--as though I had a -pack of wild beasts within me! Would that I could hew my way with an -axe, through the midst of a multitude.... Ah, a poniard!..." - -(_He perceives his knife, and rushes to seize it. The knife slips from -his hand; and Anthony remains leaning against the wall of his hut, with -wide-open mouth, motionless, cataleptic._ - -_Everything about him has disappeared._ - -_He thinks himself at Alexandria, upon the Paneum--an artificial -mountain in the centre of the city, encircled by a winding stairway._ - -_Before him lies Lake Mareolis; on his right hand is the sea, on his -left the country; and immediately beneath him a vast confusion of -flat roofs, traversed from north to south and from east to west by -two streets which intercross, and which offer throughout their entire -length the spectacle of files of porticoes with Corinthian columns. The -houses overhanging this double colonnade have windows of stained glass. -Some of them support exteriorly enormous wooden cages, into which the -fresh air rushes from without._ - -_Monuments of various architecture tower up in close proximity. -Egyptian pylons dominate Greek temples. Obelisks appear like lances -above battlements of red brick. In the middle of public squares there -are figures of Hermes with pointed ears, and of Anubis with the head of -a dog. Anthony can distinguish the mosaic pavements of the courtyards, -and tapestries suspended from the beams of ceilings._ - -_He beholds at one glance, the two ports (the Great Port and the -Eunostus), both round as circuses, and separated by a mole connecting -Alexandria with the craggy island upon which the Pharos-tower -rises--quadrangular, five hundred cubits high, nine storied, having at -its summit a smoking heap of black coals._ - -_Small interior ports open into the larger ones. The mole terminates at -each end in a bridge supported upon marble columns planted in the sea. -Sailing vessels pass beneath it, while heavy lighters overladen with -merchandise, thalamegii[1] inlaid with ivory, gondolas covered with -awnings, triremes, biremes, and all sorts of vessels are moving to and -fro, or lie moored at the wharves._ - -_About the Great Port extends an unbroken array of royal construction: -the palace of the Ptolomies, the Museum, the Posidium, the Caesareum, -the Timonium where Mark Anthony sought refuge, the Soma which contains -the tomb of Alexander; while at the other extremity of the city, beyond -the Eunostus, the great glass factories, perfume factories, and papyrus -factories may be perceived in a suburban quarter._ - -_Strolling peddlers, porters, ass-drivers run and jostle together. -Here and there one observes some priest of Isis wearing a panther skin -on his shoulders, a Roman soldier with his bronze helmet, and many -negroes. At the thresholds of the shops women pause, artisans ply their -trades; and the grinding noise of chariot wheels puts to flight the -birds that devour the detritus of the butcher-shops and the morsels of -fish left upon the ground._ - -_The general outline of the streets seems like a black network flung -upon the white uniformity of the houses. The markets stocked with -herbs make green bouquets in the midst of it; the drying-yards of the -dyers, blotches of color; the golden ornaments of the temple-pediments, -luminous points--all comprised within the oval enclosure of the grey -ramparts, under the vault of the blue heaven, beside the motionless -sea._ - -_But suddenly the movement of the crowd ceases; all turn their -eyes toward the west, whence enormous whirlwinds of dust are seen -approaching._ - -_It is the coming of the monks of the Thebaid, all clad in goatskins, -armed with cudgels, roaring a canticle of battle and of faith with the -refrain_: - -"Where are they? Where are they?" - -_Anthony understands that they are coming to kill the Arians._ - -_The streets are suddenly emptied--only flying feet are visible._ - -_The Solitaries are now in the city. Their formidable cudgels, studded -with nails, whirl in the air like suns of steel. The crash of things -broken in the houses is heard. There are intervals of silence. Then -great screams arise._ - -_From one end of the street to the other there is a continual eddy of -terrified people._ - -_Many grasp pikes. Sometimes two bands meet, rush into one; and this -mass of men slips upon the pavement--fighting, disjointing, knocking -down. But the men with the long hair always reappear._ - -_Threads of smoke begin to escape from the corners of edifices! folding -doors burst open. Portions of walls crumble down. Architraves fall._ - -_Anthony finds all his enemies again, one after the other. He even -recognizes some whom he had altogether forgotten; before killing them -he outrages them. He disembowels--he severs throats--he fells as in -a slaughter house--he hales old men by the beard, crushes children, -smites the wounded. And vengeance is taken upon luxury, those who -do not know how to read tear up hooks; others smash and deface the -statues, paintings, furniture, caskets,--a thousand dainty things -the use of which they do not know, and which simply for that reason -exasperates them. At intervals they pause, out of breath, in the work -of destruction; then they recommence._ - -_The inhabitants moan in the courtyards where they have sought refuge. -The women raise their tearful eyes and lift their naked arms to heaven. -In hope of moving the Solitaries they embrace their knees; the men cast -them off and fling them down, and the blood gushes to the ceilings, -falls back upon the walls like sheets of rain, streams from the trunks -of decapitated corpses, fills the aqueducts, forms huge red pools upon -the ground._ - -_Anthony is up to his knees in it. He wades in it; he sucks up the -blood-spray on his lips; he is thrilled with joy as he feels it upon -his limbs, under his hair-tunic which is soaked through with it._ - -_Night comes. The immense uproar dies away._ - -_The Solitaries have disappeared._ - -_Suddenly, upon the outer galleries corresponding to each of the nine -stories of the Pharos, Anthony observes thick black lines forming, like -lines of crows perching. He hurries thither; and soon finds himself at -the summit._ - -_A huge mirror of brass turned toward the open sea, reflects the forms -of the vessels in the offing._ - -_Anthony amuses himself by watching them; and while he watches, their -number increases._ - -_They are grouped together within a gulf which has the form of a -crescent. Upon a promontory in the background, towers a new city of -Roman architecture, with cupolas of stone, conical roofs, gleams of -pink and blue marbles, and a profusion of brazen ornamentation applied -to the volutes of the capitals, to the angles of the cornices, to the -summits of the edifices. A cypress-wood overhangs the city. The line of -the sea is greener, the air colder. The mountains lining the horizon -are capped with snow._ - -_Anthony is trying to find his way, when a man approaches him, and -says_: - -"Come! they are waiting for you." - -_He traverses a forum, enters a great court, stoops beneath a low -door; and he arrives before the facade of the palace, decorated -with a group in wax, representing Constantine overcoming a dragon. -There is a porphyry basin, from the centre of which rises a golden -conch-shell full of nuts. His guide tells him that he may take some of -them. He does so. Then he is lost, as it were, in a long succession of -apartments._ - -_There are mosaics upon the walls representing generals presenting -the Emperor with conquered cities, which they hold out upon the -palms of their hands. And there are columns of basalt everywhere, -trellis-work in silver filigree, ivory chairs, tapestries embroidered -with pearls. The light falls from the vaults above; Anthony still -proceeds. Warm exhalations circulate about him; occasionally he hears -the discreet clapping sound of sandals upon the pavement. Posted in -the anti-chambers are guards, who resemble automata, holding wands of -vermillion upon their shoulders._ - -[Illustration: And there are columns of basalt everywhere,... The -light falls from the vaults above] - -_At last he finds himself in a great hall, with hyacinth-colored -curtains at the further end. They part, and display the Emperor seated -on a throne, clad in a violet tunic, and wearing red shoes striped with -bands of black._ - -_A diadem of pearls surround his head; his locks are arranged -symmetrically in rouleaux. He has a straight nose, drooping eyelids, -a heavy and cunning physiognomy. At the four corners of the dais -stretched above his head are placed four golden doves; and at the foot -of the throne are two lions in enamel crouching. The doves begin to -sing, the lions to roar. The Emperor rolls his eyes; Anthony advances; -and forthwith, without preamble, they commence to converse about -recent events. In the cities of Antioch, Ephesus, and Alexandria, -the temples have been sacked, and the statues of the gods converted -into pots and cooking utensils; the Emperor laughs heartily about it. -Anthony reproaches him with his tolerance toward the Novations. But the -Emperor becomes vexed. Novations, Arians or Meletians--he is sick of -them all! Nevertheless, he admires the episcopate; for inasmuch as the -Christians maintain bishops, who depend for their position upon five or -six important personages, it is only necessary to gain over the latter, -in order to have all the rest on one's side. Therefore he did not fail -to furnish them with large sums. But he detests the Fathers of the -Council of Nicaea._ - -"Let us go and see them!" - -_Anthony follows him._ - -_And they find themselves on a terrace, upon the same floor._ - -_It overlooks a hippodrome thronged with people, and surmounted by -porticoes where other spectators are walking to and fro. From the -centre of the race-course rises a narrow platform of hewn stone, -supporting a little temple of Mercury, the statue of Constantine, and -three serpents of brass twisted into a column; there are three huge -wooden eggs at one end, and at the other a group of seven dolphins with -their tails in the air._ - -_Behind the imperial pavilion sit the Prefects of the Chambers, the -Counts of the Domestics, and the Patricians--in ranks rising by tiers -to the first story of a church whose windows are thronged with women. -On the right is the tribune of the Blue Faction; on the left, that of -the Green; below, a picket of soldiers is stationed; and on a level -with the arena is a row of Corinthian arches, forming the entrances to -the stables._ - -_The races are about to commence; the horses are drawn up in line. -Lofty plumes, fastened between their ears, bend to the wind like -saplings; and with every restive bound, they shake their chariots -violently, which are shell-shaped, and conducted by charioteers clad -in a sort of multi-colored cuirass, having sleeves tight at the wrist -and wide in the arms; their legs are bare; their beards, faces and -foreheads are shaven after the manner of the Huns._ - -_Anthony is at first deafened by the billowy sound of voices. From -the summit of the hippodrome to its lowest tiers, he sees only faces -painted with rouge, garments checkered and variegated with many colors, -flashing jewelry; and the sand of the arena, all white, gleams like a -mirror._ - -_The Emperor entertains him. He confides to him many matters of high -importance, many secrets; he confesses the assassination of his son -Criopus, and even asks Anthony for advice regarding his health._ - -_Meanwhile Anthony notices some slaves in the rear portion of the -stables below. They are the Fathers of Nicaea, ragged and abject. The -martyr Paphnutius is brushing the mane of one horse; Theophilus is -washing the legs of another; John is painting the hoofs of a third; -Alexander is collecting dung in a basket._ - -_Anthony passes through the midst of them. They range themselves on -either side respectfully; they beseech his intercession; they kiss his -hands. The whole assemblage of spectators hoots at them; and he enjoys -the spectacle with immeasurable pleasure. Lo! he is now one of the -grandees of the Court--the Emperor's confidant--the prime minister! -Constantine places his own diadem upon his brows. Anthony allows it to -remain upon his head, thinking this honor quite natural._ - -_And suddenly in the midst of the darkness a vast hall appears, -illuminated by golden candelabra._ - -_Candles so lofty that they are half lost in the darkness, stretch away -in huge files beyond the lines of banquet-tables, which seem to extend -to the horizon, where through a luminous haze loom superpositions of -stairways, suites of arcades, colossi, towers, and beyond all a vague -border of palace walls, above which rise the crests of cedars, making -yet blacker masses of blackness against the darkness._ - -_The guests, crowned with violet wreaths, recline upon very low couches -and are leaning upon their elbows. Along the whole length of this -double line of couches, wine is being poured out from amphorae, and at -the further end, all alone, coiffed with the tiara and blazing with -carbuncles, King Nebuchadnezzar eats and drinks._ - -_On his right and left, two bands of priests in pointed caps are -swinging censers. On the pavement below crawl the captive kings whose -hands and feet have been cut off; from time to time he flings them -bones to gnaw. Further off sit his brothers, with bandages across their -eyes, being all blind._ - -_From the depths of the ergastula arise moans of ceaseless pain. Sweet -slow sounds of a hydraulic organ alternate with choruses of song; and -one feels that all about the palace without extends an immeasurable -city--an ocean of human life whose waves break against the walls. The -slaves run hither and thither carrying dishes. Women walk between the -ranks of guests, offering drinks to all; the baskets groan under their -burthen of loaves; and a dromedary, laden with perforated water-skins: -passes and repasses through the hall, sprinkling and cooling the -pavement with vervain._ - -_Lion tamers are leading tamed lions about. Dancing girls--their -hair confined in nets--balance themselves and turn upon their hands, -emitting fire through their nostrils; negro boatmen are juggling; naked -children pelt each other with pellets of snow, which burst against the -bright silverware. There is an awful clamor as of a tempest; and a huge -cloud hangs over the banquet--so numerous are the meats and breaths. -Sometimes a flake of fire torn from the great flambeaux by the wind, -traverses the night like a shooting star._ - -_The king wipes the perfumes from his face with his arm. He eats from -the sacred vessels--then breaks them; and secretly reckons up the -number of his fleets, his armies, and his subjects. By and by, for a -new caprice, he will burn his palace with all its guests. He dreams of -rebuilding the tower of Babel, and dethroning God._ - -_Anthony, from afar off, reads all these thoughts upon his brow. They -penetrate his own brain, and he becomes Nebuchadnezzar. Immediately he -is cloyed with orgiastic excesses, sated with fury of extermination; -and a great desire comes upon him to wallow in vileness. For the -degradation of that which terrifies men is an outrage inflicted upon -their minds--it affords yet one more way to stupefy them; and as -nothing is viler than a brute, Anthony goes upon the table on all -fours, and bellows like a bull._ - -_He feels a sudden pain in his hand--a pebble has accidentally wounded -him--and he finds himself once more in front of his cabin._ - -_The circle of the rocks is empty. The stars are glowing in the sky. -All is hushed._) - -"Again have I allowed myself to be deceived! Why these things? They -come from the rebellion of the flesh. Ah! wretch!" - -(_He rushes into his cabin, and seizes a bunch of thongs, with metallic -hooks attached to their ends, strips himself to the waist and, lifting -his eyes to heaven exclaims_:) - -"Accept my penance, O my God: disdain it not for its feebleness. Render -it sharp, prolonged, excessive! It is time, indeed!--to the work!" - -(_He gives himself a vigorous lash--and shrieks._) - -"No! no!--without mercy it must be." - -(_He recommences._) - -"Oh! oh! oh! each lash tears my skin, rends my limbs! It burns me -horribly!" - -"Nay!--it is not so very terrible after all!--one becomes accustomed to -it. It even seems to me...." - -(_Anthony pauses._) - -"Continue, coward! continue! Good! good!--upon the arms, on the back, -on the breast, on the belly--everywhere! Hiss, ye thongs! bite me! -tear me! I would that my blood could spurt to the stars!--let my bones -crack!--let my tendons be laid bare! O for pincers, racks, and melted -lead! The martyrs have endured far worse; have they not, Ammonaria?" - -(_The shadow of the Devil's horns reappears._) - -"I might have been bound to the column opposite to thine,--face to -face--under thy eyes--answering thy shrieks by my sighs; and our pangs -might have been interblended, our souls intermingled." - -(_He lashes himself with fury._) - -"What! what! again. Take that!--But how strange a titillation thrills -me! What punishment! what pleasure! I feel as though receiving -invisible kisses; the very marrow of my bones seems to melt. I die...." - -_And he sees before him three cavaliers, mounted upon onagers, clad in -robes of green--each holding a lily in his hand, and all resembling -each other in feature._ - -_Anthony turns round, and beholds three other cavaliers exactly -similar, riding upon similar onagers, and preserving the same attitude._ - -_He draws back. Then all the onagers advance one pace at the same time, -and rub their noses against him, trying to bite his garment. Voices -shout_:-- - -"Here! here! this way!" - -_And between the clefts of the mountain, appear standards,--camels' -heads with halters of red silk--mules laden with baggage, and women -covered with yellow veils, bestriding piebald horses._ - -_The panting beasts lie down; the slaves rush to the bales and -packages, motley-striped carpets are unrolled; precious glimmering -things are laid upon the ground._ - -_A white elephant, caparisoned with a golden net, trots forward, -shaking the tuft of ostrich plumes attached to his head-band._ - -_Upon his back, perched on cushions of blue wool, with her legs -crossed, her eyes half closed, her comely head sleepily nodding, is a -woman so splendidly clad that she radiates light about her. The crowd -falls prostrate; the elephant bends his knees; and_ - -THE QUEEN OF SHEBA - -_letting herself glide down from his shoulder upon the carpets spread -to receive her, approaches Saint Anthony._ - -_Her robe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls, -of jet, and of sapphires, sheaths her figure closely with its -tight-fitting bodice, set off by colored designs representing the -twelve signs of the Zodiac. She wears very high pattens--one of which -is black, and sprinkled with silver stars, with a moon crescent; the -other, which is white, is sprinkled with a spray of gold, with a golden -sun in the middle._ - -_Her wide sleeves, decorated with emeralds and bird-plumes, leave -exposed her little round bare arms, clasped at the wrist by ebony -bracelets; and her hands, loaded with precious rings, are terminated by -nails so sharply pointed that the ends of her fingers seem almost like -needles._ - -_A chain of dead gold, passing under her chin, is caught up on either -side of her face, and spirally coiled about her coiffure, whence, -redescending, it grazes her shoulders and is attached upon her bosom -to a diamond scorpion, which protrudes a jewelled tongue between her -breasts. Two immense blond pearls depend heavily from her ears. The -borders of her eyelids are painted black. There is a natural brown spot -upon her left cheek; and she opens her mouth in breathing, as if her -corset inconvenienced her._ - -_She shakes, as she approaches, a green parasol with an ivory handle, -and silver-gilt bells attached to its rim; twelve little woolly-haired -negro-boys support the long train of her robe, whereof an ape holds the -extremity, which it raises up from time to time. She exclaims_: - -"Ah! handsome hermit! handsome hermit!--my heart swoons! - -"By dint of stamping upon the ground with impatience, callosities have -formed upon my heel, and I have broken one of my nails. I sent out -shepherds, who remained upon the mountain tops, shading their eyes with -their hands--and hunters who shouted thy name in all the forests--and -spies who travelled along the highways, asking every passer-by: - -"'Hast thou seen him?' - -"By night I wept, with my face turned to the wall. And at last my tears -made two little holes in the mosaic, like two pools of water among the -rocks;--for I love thee!--oh! how I love thee!" - -(_She takes him by the beard._) - -"Laugh now, handsome hermit! laugh! I am very joyous, very gay: thou -shalt soon see! I play the lyre; I dance like a bee; and I know a host -of merry tales to tell, each more diverting than the other. - -"Thou canst not even imagine how mighty a journey we have made. See! -the onagers upon which the green couriers rode are dead with fatigue!" - -(_The onagers are lying motionless upon the ground._) - -"For three long moons they never ceased to gallop on with the same -equal pace, holdings flints between their teeth to cut the wind, their -tails ever streaming out behind them, their sinews perpetually strained -to the uttermost, always galloping, galloping. Never can others be -found like them. They were bequeathed me by my paternal grand-father, -the Emperor Saharil, son of Iakhschab, son of Iaarab, son of Kastan. -Ah! if they were still alive, we should harness them to a litter that -they might bear us back speedily to the palace! But ... what ails -thee?--of what art thou dreaming?" - -(_She stares at him, examines him closely._) - -"Ah, when thou shalt be my husband, I will robe thee, I will perfume -thee, I will depilate thee." - -(_Anthony remains motionless, more rigid than a stake, more pallid -than a corpse._) - -"Thou hast a sad look--is it because of leaving thy hermitage? Yet I -have left everything for thee--even King Solomon, who, nevertheless, -possesses much wisdom, twenty thousand chariots of war, and a beautiful -beard. I have brought thee my wedding gifts. Choose!" - -(_She walks to and fro among the ranks of slaves and the piles of -precious goods._) - -"Here is Genezareth balm, incense from Cape Gardefui, labdanum, -cinnamon, and silphium--good to mingle with sauces. In that bale are -Assyrian embroideries, ivory from the Ganges, purple from Elissa; -and that box of snow contains a skin of chalybon, the wine, which -is reserved for the Kings of Assyria, and which is drunk from the -horn of a unicorn. Here are necklaces, brooches, nets for the hair, -parasols, gold powder from Baasa, cassiteria from Tartessus, blue wood -from Pandio, white furs from Issidonia, carbuncles from the Island -Palaesimondus, and toothpicks made of the bristles of the tachas--that -lost animal which is found under the earth. These cushions come from -Emath, and these mantle-fringes from Palmyra. On this Babylonian carpet -there is.... But come hither! come! come!" - -(_She pulls Saint Anthony by the sleeve. He resists. She continues_:) - -"This thin tissue which crackles under the finger with a sound as of -sparks, is the famous yellow cloth which the merchants of Bactria bring -us. I will have robes made of it for thee, which thou shalt wear in the -house. Unfasten the hooks of that sycamore box, and hand me also the -little ivory casket tied to my elephant's shoulder." - -(_They take something round out of a box--something covered with a -cloth--and also bring a little ivory casket covered with carving._) - -"Dost thou desire the buckler of Dgian-ben-Dgian, who built the -pyramids?--behold it!--It is formed of seven dragon-skins laid one over -the other, tanned in the bile of parricides, and fastened together by -adamantine screws. Upon one side are represented all the wars that have -taken place since the invention of weapons; and upon the other, all the -wars that will take place until the end of the world. The lightning -itself rebounds from it like a ball of cork. I am going to place it -upon thy arm; and thou wilt carry it during the chase. - -"But if thou didst only know what I have in this little box of mine! -Turn it over and over again! try to open it! No one could ever succeed -in doing that. Kiss me! and I will tell thee how to open it." - -(_She takes Saint Anthony by both cheeks. He pushes her away at arms' -length._) - -"It was one night that King Solomon lost his head. At last we concluded -a bargain. He arose, and stealing out on tiptoe...." - -(_She suddenly executes a pirouette._) - -"Ah, ah! comely hermit, thou shalt not know it! thou shalt not know!" - -(_She shakes her parasol, making all its little bells tinkle._) - -"And I possess many other strange things--oh! yes! I have treasures -concealed in winding galleries where one would lose one's way, as -in a forest. I have summer-palaces constructed in trellis-work of -reeds, and winter-palaces all built of black marble. In the midst of -lakes vast as seas, I have islands round as pieces of silver, and all -covered with mother-of-pearl,--islands whose shores make music to -the lapping of tepid waves upon the sand. The slaves of my kitchens -catch birds in my aviaries, and fish in my fishponds. I have engravers -continually seated at their benches to hollow out my likeness in hard -jewel-stones, and panting molders forever casting statues of me, and -perfumers incessantly mingling the sap of rare plants with vinegar, -or preparing cosmetic pastes. I have female dressmakers cutting out -patterns in richest material, goldsmiths cutting and mounting jewels of -price, and careful painters pouring upon my palace wainscoting boiling -resins, which they subsequently cool with fans. I have enough female -attendants to form a harem, eunuchs enough to make an army. I have -armies likewise; I have nations! In the vestibule of my palace I keep a -guard of dwarfs--all bearing ivory trumpets at their backs." (_Anthony -sighs._) - -"I have teams of trained gazelles; I have elephant quadrigae; I have -hundreds of pairs of camels, and mares whose manes are so long that -their hoofs become entangled therein when they gallop, and herds of -cattle with horns so broad that when they go forth to graze the woods -have to be hewn down before them. I have giraffes wandering in my -gardens; they stretch their heads over the edge of my roof, when I take -the air after dinner. - -"Seated in a shell drawn over the waters by dolphins, I travel -through the grottoes, listening lo the dropping of the water from the -stalactites. I go down to the land of diamonds, where my friends the -magicians allow me to choose the finest: then I reascend to earth and -return to my home." - -(_She utters a sharp whistle; and a great bird, descending from the -sky, alights upon her hair, from which it makes the blue powder fall._ - -_Its orange-colored plumage seems formed of metallic scales. Its little -head, crested with a silver tuft, has a human face._ - -_It has four wings, the feet of a vulture, and an immense peacock's -tail which it spreads open like a fan._ - -_It seizes the Queen's parasol in its beak, reels a moment ere -obtaining its balance; then it erects all its plumes, and remains -motionless._) - -"Thanks! my beautiful Simorg-Anka!--thou didst tell me where the loving -one was hiding! Thanks! thanks! my heart's messenger! - -"He flies swiftly as Desire! He circles the world in his flight. At eve -he returns; he perches at the foot of my couch and tells me all he has -seen--the seas that have passed far beneath him with all their fishes -and ships, the great void deserts he has contemplated from the heights -of the sky, the harvests that were bowing in the valleys, and the -plants that were growing upon the walls of cities abandoned." - -(_She wrings her hands, languorously._) - -"Oh! if thou wast willing! if thou wast willing!... I have a pavilion -on a promontory in the middle of an isthmus dividing two oceans. It is -all wain-scoted with sheets of glass, and floored with tortoise shell, -and open to the four winds of heaven. From its height I watch my fleets -come in, and my nations toiling up the mountain-slopes with burthens -upon their shoulders. There would we sleep upon downs softer than -clouds; we would drink cool draughts from fruit-shells, and we would -gaze at the sun through emeralds! Come!" ... - -(_Anthony draws back. She approaches him again, and exclaims in a tone -of vexation_:--) - -"How? neither the rich, nor the coquettish, nor the amorous woman can -charm thee: is it so? None but a lascivious woman, with a hoarse voice -and lusty person, with fire-colored hair and superabundant flesh? Dost -thou prefer a body cold as the skin of a serpent, or rather great dark -eyes deeper than the mystic caverns?--behold them, my eyes!--look into -them!" - -(_Anthony, in spite of him, gazes into her eyes._) - -"All the women thou hast ever met--from the leman of the cross-roads, -singing under the light of her lantern, even to the patrician lady -scattering rose-petals abroad from her litter,--all the forms thou hast -ever obtained glimpses of--all the imaginations of thy desire thou hast -only to ask for them! I am not a woman: I am a world! My cloak has only -to fall in order that thou mayest discover a succession of mysteries." -(_Anthony's teeth chatter._) - -"Place but thy finger upon my shoulder: it will be as though a stream -of fire shot through all thy veins. The possession of the least part -of me will fill thee with a joy more vehement than the conquest of an -Empire could give thee! Approach thy lips: there is a sweetness in my -kisses as of a fruit dissolving within thy heart. Ah! how thou wilt -lose thyself beneath my long hair, inhale the perfume of my bosom, -madden thyself with the beauty of my limbs: and thus, consumed by the -fire of my eyes, clasped within my arms as in a whirlwind...." - -[Illustration: ... there is a sweetness in my kisses as of a fruit -dissolving within thy heart] - -(_Anthony makes the sign of the cross._) - -"Thou disdainest me! farewell!" - -(_She departs, weeping; then, suddenly turning round_:--) - -"Art quite sure?--so beautiful a woman...." - -(_She laughs, and the ape that bears her train, lifts it up._) - -"Thou wilt regret it, my comely hermit! thou wilt yet weep! thou wilt -again feel weary of thy life; but I care not a whit! La! la! la!--oh! -oh! oh!" - -(_She takes her departure, hopping upon one foot and covering her face -with her hands._ - -_All the slaves file off before Saint Anthony--the horses, the -dromedaries, the elephant, the female attendants, the mules (which -have been reloaded), the negro boys, the ape, the green couriers each -holding his broken lily in his hand; and the Queen of Sheba departs, -uttering a convulsive hiccough at intervals, which might be taken -either for a sound of hysterical sobbing, or the half-suppressed -laughter of mockery._) - - -[1] _Thalamegii_--pleasure-boats having apartments. - - - - -III - - -(_When she has disappeared in the distance, Anthony observes a child -seated upon the threshold of his cabin._) - -"It is one of the Queen's servants, no doubt," (_he thinks_). - -(_This child is small like a dwarf, and nevertheless squat of build, -like one of the Cabiri; deformed withal, and wretched of aspect. His -prodigiously large head is covered with white hair; and he shivers -under a shabby tunic, all the while clutching a roll of papyrus. The -light of the moon passing through a cloud falls upon him._) - -ANTHONY - -(_watches him from a distance, and is afraid of him._) "Who art thou?" - -THE CHILD (_replies_). "Thy ancient disciple, Hilarion." - -ANTHONY. "Thou liest! Hilarion hath been dwelling in Palestine for -many long years." - -HILARION. "I have returned! It is really I!" - -ANTHONY (_draws near and examines him closely_). "Yet his face was -radiant as the dawn, candid, joyous. This face is the face of one -gloomy and old." - -HILARION. "Long and arduous labor hath wearied me!" - -ANTHONY. "The voice is also different. It hath an icy tone." - -HILARION. "Because I have nourished me with bitter things!" - -ANTHONY. "And those white hairs?" - -HILARION. "I have endured many woes!" - -ANTHONY (_aside_). "Could it be possible?" - -HILARION. "I was not so far from thee as thou doest imagine. The hermit -Paul visited thee this year, during the month of Schebar. It is just -twenty days since the Nomads brought thee bread. Thou didst tell a -sailor, the day before yesterday, to send thee three bodkins." - -ANTHONY. "He knows all!" - -HILARION. "Know further more that I have never left thee. But there are -long periods during which thou hast no knowledge of my presence." - -ANTHONY. "How can that be? Yet it is true that my head is so much -troubled--this night especially." - -HILARION. "All the Capital Sins came hither. But their wretched snares -can avail nothing against such a Saint as thou." - -ANTHONY. "Oh! no!--no! I fall at every moment! Why am I not of those -whose souls are ever intrepid, whose minds are always firm,--for -example, the great Athanasius?" - -HILARION. "He was illegally ordained by seven bishops." - -ANTHONY. "What matter if his virtue...." - -HILARION. "Go to!--a most vainglorious and cruel man, forever involved -in intrigues, and exiled at last as a monopolist."[1] - -ANTHONY. "Calumny!" - -HILARION. "Thou wilt not deny that he sought to corrupt Eustates, the -treasurer of largesses?" - -ANTHONY. "It is affirmed, I acknowledge." - -HILARION. "Through vengeance he burned down the house of Arsenius." - -ANTHONY. "Alas!" - -HILARION. "At the council of Nicaea he said in speaking of Jesus: 'The -man of the Lord.'" - -ANTHONY. "Ah! that is a blasphemy!" - -HILARION. "So limited in understanding, moreover, that he confesses he -comprehends nothing of the nature of the "Word!" - -ANTHONY (_smiling with gratification_). "In sooth his intelligence is -not ... very lofty." - -HILARION. "Hypocrite! burying thyself in solitude only in order the -more fully to abandon thyself to the indulgence of thy envious desires! -What if thou dost deprive thyself of meats, of wine, of warmth, of -bath, of slaves, or honours?--dost thou not permit thy imagination to -offer thee banquets, perfumes, women, and the applause of multitudes? -Thy chastity is but a more subtle form of corruption, and thy contempt -of this world is but the impotence of thy hatred against it! Either -this it is that makes such as thyself so lugubrious, or else 'tis -doubt. The possession of truth giveth joy. Was Jesus sad? Did he not -travel in the company of friends, repose beneath the shade of olive -trees, enter the house of the publican, drink many cups of wine, pardon -the sinning woman, and assuage all sorrows? Thou!--thou hast no pity -save for thine own misery! It is like a remorse that gnaws thee, a -savage madness that impels thee to repel the caress of a dog or to -frown upon the smile of a child." - -ANTHONY (_bursting into tears_). "Enough! enough! thou dost wound my -heart deeply." - -HILARION. "Shake the vermin from thy rags! Rise up from thy filth! Thy -God is not a Moloch who demands human flesh in sacrifice!" - -ANTHONY. "Yet suffering is blessed. The cherubim stoop to receive the -blood of confessors." - -HILARION. "Admire, then, the Montanists!--they surpass all others." - -ANTHONY. "But it is the truth of the doctrine which makes the -martyrdom." - -HILARION. "How can martyrdom prove the excellence of the doctrine, -inasmuch as it bears equal witness for error?" - -HILARION. "Silence!--thou viper!" - -ANTHONY. "Perhaps martyrdom is not so difficult as thou dost imagine! -The exhortations of friends, the pleasure of insulting the people, -the oath one has taken, a certain dizzy excitement, a thousand -circumstances all aid the resolution of the martyrs...." - -(_Anthony turns his back upon Hilarion, and moves away from him. -Hilarion follows him._) - -" ... Moreover this manner of dying often brings about great disorders. -Dionysius, Cyprian and Gregory fled from it. Peter of Alexandria has -condemned it; and the council of Elvira...." - -ANTHONY (_stops his ears_). "I will listen to thee no longer!" - -HILARION (_raising his voice_). "Lo! thou fallest again into the -habitual sin, which is sloth! Ignorance is the foam of pride. One says, -forsoth:--'My conviction is formed! wherefore argue further?'--and one -despises the doctors, the philosophers, tradition itself, and even the -text of the law whereof one is ignorant! Dost thou imagine that thou -dost hold all wisdom in the hollow of thy hand?" - -ANTHONY. "I hear him still! His loud words fill my brain." - -HILARION. "The efforts of others to comprehend God are mightier than -all thy mortifications to move Him. We obtain merit only by our thirst -for truth. Religion alone cannot explain all things; and the solution -of problems ignored by thee can render faith still more invulnerable -and noble. Therefore, for our salvation we must communicate with our -brethren--otherwise the Church, the assembly of the faithful, would -be a meaningless word--and we must listen to all reasoning, despising -nothing, nor any person. The magician Balaam, the poet Aeschylus, -and the Sybil of Cumae--all foretold the Saviour. Dionysius, the -Alexandrian, received from heaven the command to read all books. Saint -Clement orders us to cultivate Greek letters. Hennas was converted by -the illusion of a woman he had loved...." - -ANTHONY. "What an aspect of authority! It seems to me thou art growing -taller...." - -(_And, in very truth, the stature of Hilarion is gradually increasing; -and Anthony shuts his eyes, that he may not see him._) - -HILARION. "Reassure thyself, good Hermit. Let us seat ourselves there, -upon that great stone, as we used to do in other years, when, at the -first dawn of day, I was wont to salute thee with the appellation, -'Clear star of morning'--and thou wouldst therewith commence to -instruct me. Yet my instruction is not yet completed. The moon gives us -light enough. I am prepared to hear thy words." - -(_He has drawn a calamus from his girdle, and seating himself -cross-legged upon the ground, with the papyrus roll still in his hand, -he lifts his face toward Saint Anthony, who sits near him, with head -bowed down._ - -_After a moment of silence Hilarion continues_:--) - -"Is not the word of God confirmed for us by miracles? Nevertheless -the magicians of Pharaoh performed miracles; other imposters can -perform them; one may be thereby deceived. What then is a miracle? -An event which seems to us outside of nature. But do we indeed know -all of Nature's powers; and because a common occurrence causes us no -astonishment, does it therefore follow that we understand it." - -ANTHONY. "It matters little! We must believe the Scriptures!" - -HILARION. "Saint Paul, Origen, and many others did not understand -the Scriptures in a literal sense: yet if Holy Writ be explained by -allegories it becomes the portion of a small number, and the evidence -of the truth disappears. What must we do?" - -ANTHONY. "We must rely upon the Church!" - -HILARION. "Then the Scriptures are useless?" - -ANTHONY. "No! no! although I acknowledge that in the Old Testament -there are some ... some obscurities. But the New shines with purest -light." - -HILARION. "Nevertheless, the Angel of the annunciation, in Matthew, -appears to Joseph; while, in Luke, he appears to Mary. The anointing -of Jesus by a woman takes place, according to the first Gospel, at the -commencement of his public life; and, according to the other three, a -few days before his death. The drink offered to him on the cross, is, -in Matthew, vinegar mixed with gall; in Mark, it is wine and myrrh. -According to Luke and Matthew, the apostles should take with them -neither money nor scrip for their journey--not even sandals nor staff; -in Mark, on the contrary, Jesus bids them take nothing with them, -except sandals and a staff. I am thereby bewildered!" - -ANTHONY (_in amazement_). "Aye, indeed!... in fact...." - -HILARION. "At the contact of the woman who had an issue of blood, Jesus -turned and said, 'Who hath touched my garments?' He did not know, then, -who had touched him? That contradicts the omniscience of Jesus! If the -tomb was watched by guards, the women need have felt no anxiety about -finding help to roll away the stone from the tomb. Therefore there -were no guards, or the holy women were not there. At Emmaus, he eats -with his disciples and makes them feel his wounds. It is a human body, -a material and ponderable object; and nevertheless it passes through -walls! Is that possible?" - -ANTHONY. "It would require much time to answer thee properly!" - -HILARION. "Why did he receive the Holy Spirit, being himself Son of -the Holy Spirit? What need had he of baptism if he was the Word? How -could the Devil have tempted him, inasmuch as he was God? Have these -thoughts never occurred to thee?" - -ANTHONY. "Yes!... often! Sometimes torpid, sometimes furious--they -remain forever in my conscience. I crush them; they rise again, they -stifle me; and sometimes I think that I am accursed." - -HILARION. "Then it is needless for thee to serve God?" - -ANTHONY. "I shall always need to adore Him." - -(_After a long silence Hilarion continues_:) - -"But aside from dogma, all researches are allowed us. Dost thou desire -to know the hierarchy of the Angels, the virtue of the Numbers, the -reason of germs and of metamorphoses?" - -ANTHONY. "Yes! yes! my thought struggles wildly to escape from its -prison. It seems to me that by exerting all my force I might succeed. -Sometimes, for an instant, brief as a lightning flash, I even feel -myself as thought uplifted,--then I fall back again!" - -HILARION. "The secret thou wouldst obtain is guarded by sages. They -dwell in a distant land; they are seated beneath giant trees; they -are robed in white; they are calm as Gods! A warm air gives them -sufficient nourishment. All about them, leopards tread upon grassy -turf. The murmuring of fountains and the neighing of unicorns mingle -with their voices. Thou shalt hear them; and the face of the Unknown -shall be unveiled!" - -ANTHONY (_sighing_). "The way is long; and I am old." - -HILARION. "Oh! oh! wise men are not rare! there are some even very nigh -thee!--here! Let us enter!" - - -[1] Gibbon, a sincere admirer of Athanasius, gives a curious history of -these charges, and expresses his disbelief in their truth. The story -regarding the design to intercept the corn-fleet of Alexandria is -referred to in the use of the word "monopolist." - - - - -IV - - -(_And Anthony beholds before him a vast basilica._ - -_The light gushes from the further end, marvellous as a multi-colored -sun. It illuminates the innumerable heads of the crowd that fills the -nave, and that eddies about the columns toward the side-aisles--where -can be perceived, in wooden compartments, altars, beds, little chains -of blue stones linked together, and constellations painted upon the -walls._ - -_In the midst of the throng there are groups which remain motionless. -Men standing upon stools harangue with fingers uplifted; others are -praying, with arms outstretched in form of a cross; others are lying -prostrate upon the pavement, or singing hymns, or drinking wine; others -of the faithful, seated about a table, celebrate their agape;[1] -martyrs are unbandaging their limbs in order to show their wounds; and -aged men, leaning upon staffs, recount their voyages._ - -_There are some from the country of the Germans, from Thrace also, and -from the Gauls, from Scythia and from the Indies, with snow upon their -beards, feathers in their hair; thorns in the fringe of their garments; -the sandals of some are black with dust, their skins are burnt by the -sun. There is a vast confusion of costumes, mantles of purple and -robes of linen, embroidered dalmaticas, hair shirts, sailors' caps, -bishops' mitres. Their eyes fulgurate strangely. They have the look of -executioners, or the look of eunuchs._ - -_Hilarion advances into their midst. All salute him. Anthony, shrinking -closer to his shoulder, observes them. He remarks the presence of a -great many women. Some of these are attired like men, and have their -hair cut short. Anthony feels afraid of them._) - -HILARION. "Those are Christian women who have converted their husbands. -Besides, the women were always upon the side of Jesus, even the -idolatrous ones, for example, Procula, the wife of Pilate, and Poppaea, -the concubine of Nero. Do not tremble!--come on." - -(_And others are continually arriving._ - -_They seem to multiply, to double themselves by self-division, light -as shadows--all the while making an immense clamour, in which yells of -rage, cries of love, canticles and objurgations intermingle._) - -ANTHONY (_in a low voice_). "What do they desire?" - -HILARION. "The Lord said: 'I have yet many things to say to you.... -'[2] They possess the knowledge of those things." - -(_And he pushes Anthony forward to a golden throne approached by five -steps, whereon--surrounded by ninety-five disciples, all very thin and -pale, and anointed with oil--sits the prophet Manes. He is beautiful -as an archangel, immobile as a statue; he is clad in an Indian robe; -carbuncles gleam in his plaited hair; at his left hand lies a book of -painted images; his right reposes upon a globe. The images represent -the creatures that erst slumbered in Chaos. Anthony bends forward to -look upon them. Then----_) - -MANES - -(_makes his globe revolve; and regulating the tone of his words by a -lyre which gives forth crystalline sounds, exclaims_:--) - -"The celestial earth is at the superior extremity; the terrestrial -earth at the inferior extremity. It is sustained by two angels--the -Angel Splenditeneus, and Omophorus, whose faces are six. - -"At the summit of the highest heaven reigns the impassible Divinity; -below, face to face, are the Son of God and the Prince of Darkness. - -"When the darkness had advanced even to his kingdom, God evolved from -his own essence a virtue which produced the first man; and he environed -him with the five elements. But the demons of darkness stole from him a -part; and that part is the soul. - -"There is but one soul, universally diffused, even as the waters of -a river divided into many branches. It is this universal soul that -sighs in the wind--that shrieks in the marble under the teeth of the -saw--that roars in the voice of the sea--that weeps tears of milk when -the leaves of the fig tree are torn off. - -"The souls that leave this world emigrate to the stars, which are -themselves animated beings." - -ANTHONY (_bursts into a laugh_). "Ah! ah! what an absurd imagination!" - -A MAN (_having no beard, and of a most austere aspect_). "Wherefore -absurd?" - -(_Anthony is about to reply when Hilarion tells him in a low voice -that the questioner is none other than the tremendous Origen himself; -and_:--) - -MANES (_continues_). "But first they remain awhile in the Moon, where -they are purified. Then they rise into the sun." - -ANTHONY (_slowly_). "I do not know of anything ... which prevents us -... from believing it." - -MANES. "The proper aim of every creature is the deliverance of the ray -of celestial light imprisoned within matter. It finds easier escape -through the medium of perfumes, spices, the aroma of warmed wine, the -light things which resemble thoughts. But the acts of life retain it -within its prison. The murderer shall be born again in the form of a -celephus; he that kills an animal shall become that animal; if thou -plantest a vine, thou shalt be thyself bound within its boughs. Food -absorbs the celestial light.... Therefore abstain! fast!" - -HILARION. "Thou seest, they are temperate!" - -MANES. "There is much of it in meats, less of it in herbs. Moreover -the Pure Ones, by means of their great merits, despoil vegetation of -this luminous essence; and, thus liberated, it reascends to its source. -But through generation, animals keep it imprisoned within the flesh! -Therefore, avoid women!" - -HILARION. "Admire their continence." - -MANES. "Or rather contrive that they shall not create..............[3] - -ANTHONY. "Oh--abomination!" - -HILARION. "What signifies the hierarchy of turpitudes? The Church has, -forsooth, made marriage a sacrament!" - -SATURNINUS (_in Syrian costume_). "He teaches a most dismal system of -the universe!... The Father, desiring to punish the angels who had -revolted, ordered them to create the world. Christ came, in order that -the God of the Jews, who was one of those angels...." - -ANTHONY. "He an angel! the Creator!" - -CERDO. "Did he not seek to kill Moses, to deceive his own prophets, to -seduce nations?--did he not sow falsehood and idolatry broadcast?" - -MARCION. "Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!" - -SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. "Matter is eternal!" - -BARDESANES (_in the costume of the Babylonian magi_). "It was formed by -the Seven Planetary Spirits." - -THE HERMIANS. "Souls were made by the angels." - -THE PRISCILLIANISTS. "It was the Devil who made the world." - -ANTHONY (_rushing back from the circle_). "Horror!" - -HILARION (_supporting him_). "Thou despairest too hastily!--thou dost -misapprehend their doctrine! Here is one who received his teaching -directly from Theodas, the friend of St. Paul. Hearken to him." - -(_And at a sign from Hilarion_ - -VALENTINUS - -_appears in a tunic of cloth of silver; his skull is pointed at its -summit; his voice has a wheezing sound._) - -"The world is the work of a God in delirium!" - -ANTHONY (_bending his head down_). "The work of a God in delirium!..." - -(_After a long silence_): "How can that be?" - -VALENTINE. "The most perfect of beings, and of the AEons, the Abyss; -dwelt in the womb of the Deep together with Thought. By their union was -begotten Intelligence, to whom Truth was given as a companion. - -"Intelligence and Truth engendered the Word and Life, who in their turn -begat Man and the Church; and that doth make eight AEons!" - -(_He counts upon his fingers._) - -"The Word and Truth also produced ten other AEons--which is to say, five -couples. Man and the Church had begotten twelve more--among these the -Paraclete and Faith, Hope and Charity, Perfection and Wisdom--Sophia. - -"The union of these thirty AEons constitutes the Pleroma, or -Universality of God. Thus, even as the echo of a passing voice, as the -effluvia of a perfume evaporating, as the fires of the setting sun, -the Powers that emanated from the Principle, forever continue to grow -weaker. - -"But Sophia, desirous to know the Father, darted from the Pleroma; -and the Word then made another couple, Christ and the Holy Ghost, who -reunited all the AEons; and all together formed Jesus, the flower of the -Pleroma. - -"But the effort of Sophia to flee away had left in the void an image of -her--an evil substance, Acharamoth.[4] The Saviour took pity upon her, -freed her from all passion; and from the smile of Acharamoth redeemed, -light was born; her tears formed the waters; by her sorrow was dark -matter begotten. - -"Of Acharamoth was born the Demiurgos,--the fabricator of worlds, -the creator of the heaven and of the Devil. He dwells far below the -Pleroma--so far that he cannot behold it--so that he deems himself to -be the true God, and repeats by the mouths of his prophets--'There is -no other God but I.' Then he made man, and instilled into his soul the -immaterial Seed which was the Church--a reflection of the other Church -established in the Pleroma. - -"One day Acharamoth shall reach the highest region and unite herself -with the Saviour; the fire that is hidden in the world shall annihilate -all matter, and shall even devour itself and men, becoming pure -spirits, shall espouse the angels!" - -ORIGEN. "Then shall the Demon be over-thrown and the reign of God -commence!" - -(_Anthony expresses a cry, and forthwith_) - -BASILIDES (_taking him by the elbow, exclaims_:--) - -"The Supreme Being with all the infinite emanations is called -Abraxas; and the Saviour with all his virtues, Kaulakau--otherwise, -line-upon-line, rectitude upon rectitude. - -"The power of Kaulakau is obtained by the aid of certain words, which -are inscribed upon this chalcedony to help the memory." - -(_And he points to a little stone suspended at his neck, upon which -stone fantastic characters are graven._) - -"Then thou wilt be transported into the Invisible and placed above all -law; thou shalt contemn all things--even virtue! - -"We, the Pure, must flee from pain, after the example of Kaulakau." - -ANTHONY. "What! and the cross?" - -THE ELKHESAITES (_in robes of hyacinth answers him_). "The woe and -the degradation, the condemnation and oppression of my fathers[5] are -blotted out, through the mission which has come. - -"One may deny the inferior Christ, the man--Jesus; but the other Christ -must be adored--whose personality was evolved under the brooding of the -Dove's wings. - -"Honor marriage; the Holy Spirit is feminine!" - -(_Hilarion has disappeared; and Anthony, carried along by the crowd, -arrives in the presence of_--) - -THE CARPOCRATIANS - -(_reclining with women upon scarlet cushions._) - -"Before entering into the Only thou shalt pass through a series of -conditions and of actions. To free thyself from the powers of darkness, -thou must at once accomplish their works. The husband shall say to the -wife: 'Have charity for thy brother'--and she will kiss thee." - -THE NICOLAITANS - -(_gathered about a mass of smoking meats_:) - -"This is a portion of the meat offered to idols;--partake of it! -Apostasy is permissible when the heart is pure. Gorge thy flesh with -all that it demands. Seek to exterminate it by dint of debauchery! -Prounikos, the Mother of Heaven, wallowed in ignominies." - -THE MARCOSIANS - -(_wearing rings of gold, and glistening with precious balm and -unguents_:) - -"Enter among us that thou mayst unite thyself to the Spirit! Enter -among us that thou mayst quaff the draught of immortality!" - -(_And one of them shows him, behind a tapestry-hanging, the body of a -man terminated by the head of an ass. This represents Sabaoth, father -of the Devil. He spits upon the image in token of detestation._ - -_Another shows him a very low bed, strewn with flowers, exclaiming_:) - -"The spiritual marriage is about to be consummated." - -(_A third, who holds a cup of glass, utters an invocation;--blood -suddenly appears in the cup_:) - -"Ah! behold it! behold it!--the blood of Christ!" - -(_Anthony withdraws, but finds himself be-spattered by water splashed -from a cistern._) - -THE HELVIDIANS - -(_are flinging themselves into it head foremost, muttering_:--) - -"The man regenerated by baptism is impeccable!" - -(_Then he passes by a great fire at which the Adamites are warming -themselves--all completely naked in imitation of the purity of -Paradise; and he stumbles over_) - -THE MESSALINES - -(_wallowing upon the pavement, half-slumbering, stupid_:) - -"Oh! crush us if thou wilt! we shall not move! Work is crime; all -occupation is evil." - -(_Behind these, the abject_) - -PATERNIANS - -(_--men, women, and children lying pell mell upon a heap of filth, lift -their hideous faces, wine-besmeared, and they cry aloud_:) - -"The inferior parts of the body, which were created by the Devil, -belong to him! Let us eat, drink, and sin!" - -AETIUS. "Crimes are necessities beneath the notice of God!" - -(_But suddenly_--) - -A MAN (--_clad in a Carthaginian mantle, bounds into their midst, -brandishing a scourge of thongs in his hand; and strikes violently and -indiscriminately at all in his path_:) - -"Ah! imposters! simonists, heretics and demons!--vermin of the -schools!--dregs of hell! Marcion, there, is a sailor of Sinopus -excommunicated for incest;--Carpocrates was banished for being a -magician; AEtius stole his concubine; Nicholas prostituted his wife; -and this Manes, who calls himself the Buddha, and whose real name is -Cubricus, was flayed alive with the point of a reed, so that his skin -even now hangs at the gates of Ctesiphon!" - -ANTHONY (_recognizing Tertullian, rushes to join him_): "Master! help! -help!" - -TERTULLIAN (_continuing_): - -"Break the images! veil the virgins! Pray, fast, weep and mortify -yourselves! No philosophy! no books! After Jesus, science is useless!" - -(_All have fled away; and Anthony beholds, in lieu of Tertullian, a -woman seated upon a bench of stone._ - -_She sobs; leaning her head against a column; her hair is loose; her -body, weakened by grief, is clad in a long brown simar. Then they find -themselves face to face and alone, far from the crowd; and a silence, -an extraordinary stillness falls--as in the woods when the winds are -lulled, and the leaves of the trees suddenly cease to whisper._ - -_This woman is still very beautiful, although faded, and pale as a -sepulcher. They look at one another; and their eyes send to each other -waves, as it were, of thoughts, bearing drift of a thousand ancient -things, confused, mysterious. At last_--) - -PRISCILLA (_speaks_:) - -"I was in the last chamber of the baths; and the rumbling sounds of the -street caused a sleep to fall upon me. - -"Suddenly I heard a clamour of voices. Men were shouting--'It is a -magician!--it is the Devil!' And the crowd stopped before our house, in -front of the Temple AEsculapius. I drew myself up with my hands to the -little window. - -"Upon the peristyle of the temple, there stood a man who wore about his -neck a collar of iron. He took burning coals out of a chafing-dish, and -with them drew lines across his breast, the while crying out--'Jesus! -Jesus!' The people shouted--'This is not lawful! let us stone him!' -But he continued. Oh! those were unheard of marvels--things which -transported men who beheld them! Flowers broad as suns circled before -my eyes, and I heard in the spaces above me the vibrations of a golden -harp. Day died. My hands loosened their grasp of the window-bars; my -body fell back, and when he had led me away to his house...." - -ANTHONY. "But of whom art thou speaking?" - -PRISCILLA. "Why, of Montanus!" - -ANTHONY. "Montanus is dead!" - -PRISCILLA. "It is not true!" - -A VOICE. "No: Montanus is not dead!" - -(_Anthony turns; and sees upon the bench near him, on the opposite -side, another woman sitting; she is fair, and even paler than the -other; there are swellings under her eyes, as though she had wept a -long time. She speaks without being questioned_:) - -MAXIMILLA. "We were returning from Tarsus by way of the mountains, -when, at a turn in the road, we saw a man under a fig tree. - -"He cried from afar off: 'Stop! stop!' and rushed toward us, uttering -words of abuse. The slaves ran up; he burst into a loud laugh. The -horses reared; the molossi all barked. - -"He stood before us. The sweat streamed from his forehead; his mantle -napped in the wind. - -"And calling us each by our names, he reproached us with the vanity -of our work, the infamy of our bodies; and he shook his fist at the -dromedaries because of the silver bells hanging below their mouths. - -"His fury now filled my very entrails with fear and yet there was a -strange pleasure in it which fascinated me, intoxicated me! - -"First the slaves came. 'Master,' they said, 'our animals are weary.' -Then the women said, 'We are frightened,' and the slaves departed. Then -the children began to weep,--'We are hungry.' And as the women were not -answered, they disappeared also from our view. - -"He still spoke. I felt some one near me. It was my husband; but I -listened only to the other. My husband crawled to me upon his knees -among the stones, and cried--'Dost thou abandon me,' and I replied: -'Yes! go thy way!' that I might accompany Montanus." - -ANTHONY. "A eunuch!" - -PRISCILLA. "Ah! does that astound thee, vulgar soul! Yet Magdalen, -Johanna, Martha and Susannah did not share the couch of the Saviour. -Souls may know the delirium of embrace better than bodies. That he -might keep Eustolia with impunity, the bishop Leontius mutilated -himself--loving his love more than his virility. And then, it was -no fault of mine. Sotas could not cure me; a spirit constrained me. -It is cruel, nevertheless! But what matter? I am the last of the -prophetesses; and after me the end of the world shall come." - -MAXIMILLA. "He showered his gifts upon me. Moreover, no one loves him -as I, nor is any other so well beloved by him!" - -PRISCILLA. "Thou liest! I am the most beloved!" - -MAXIMILLA. "No: it is I!" - -(_They fight. Between their shoulders suddenly appears the head of a -negro._) - -MONTANUS (_clad in a black mantle, clasped by two cross-bones_): - -"Peace, my doves! Incapable of terrestrial happiness, we have obtained -the celestial plentitude of our union. After the age of the Father, -the age of the Son; and I inaugurate the third, which is that of the -Paraclete. His light descended upon me during those forty nights when -the heavenly Jerusalem appeared shining in the firmament, above my -house at Pepuzza. - -"Ah, how ye cry out with anguish when the thongs of the scourge -lacerate! how your suffering bodies submit to the ardor of my spiritual -discipline! how ye languish with irrealizable longing! So strong has -that desire become that it has enabled you to behold the invisible -world; and ye can now perceive souls even with the eyes of the body!" - -ANTHONY. (_Makes a gesture of astonishment._) - -TERTULLIAN (_who appears again, standing beside Montanus_): - -"Without doubt; for the soul has a body, and that which is bodiless has -no existence." - -MONTANUS. "In order to render it yet more subtle, I have instituted -many mortifications, three Lents a year, and prayers to be uttered -nightly by the mind only, keeping the mouth closed, lest breathing -might tarnish thought. It is necessary to abstain from second -marriages, or rather from all marriage! The Angels themselves have -sinned with women!" - -THE ARCHONTICS (_wearing cilices of hair_): - -"The Saviour said: 'I come to destroy the work of the Woman!'" - -THE TATIANITES (_wearing cilices of reed_): - -"She is the tree of evil. Our bodies are but garments of skin." - -(_And continuing to advance along the same side, Anthony meets_:--) - -THE VALESIANS (_extended upon the ground, with red wounds below their -bellies, and blood saturating their tunics. They offer him a knife._) - -"Do as Origen did and as we have done! Is it the pain that thou -fearest, coward? Is it the love of thy flesh that restrains thee, -hypocrite?" - -(_And while he watches them writhing upon their backs, in a pool of -blood_--) - -THE CAINITES (_wearing knotted vipers as fillets about their hair, pass -by, vociferating in his ear_):-- - -"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory be to Judas! - -"Cain made the race of the strong; Sodom terrified the earth by her -punishment, and it was by Judas that God saved the world! Yes! by -Judas: without him there would have been no death and no redemption!" - -(_They disappear beneath the horde of the_--) - -CIRCUMCELLIONES (_all clad in the skins of wolves, crowned with thorns, -and armed with maces of iron_). - -"Crush the fruit! befoul the spring! drown the child! Pillage the rich -who are happy--who cat their fill! Beat the poor who envy the ass -his saddle-cloth, the dog his meal, the bird his nest,--and who is -wretched at knowing that others are not as miserable as himself. - -"We, the Saints, poison, burn, massacre, that we may hasten the end of -the world. - -"Salvation may be obtained through martyrdom only. We give ourselves -martyrdom. We tear the skin from our heads with pincers; we expose our -members to the plough; we cast ourselves into the mouths of furnaces! - -"Out upon baptism! out upon the Eucharist! out upon marriage! universal -damnation!" - -(_Then throughout all the basilica there is a redoubling of fury._ - -_The Audians shoot arrows against the Devil; the Collyridians throw -blue cloths toward the roof; the Ascites prostrate themselves before -a waterskin; the Marcionites baptise a dead man with oil. A woman, -standing near Appelles, exhibits a round loaf within a bottle, in order -the better to explain her idea. Another, standing in the midst of an -assembly of Sampseans distributes, as a sacrament, the dust of her -own sandals. Upon the rose-strewn bed of the Marcosians, two lovers -embrace. The Circumcellionites slaughter one another; the Valesians -utter the death-rattle; Bardesanes sings; Carpocras dances; Maximilla -and Priscilla moan; and the false prophetess of Cappadocia, completely -naked, leaning upon a lion, and brandishing three torches, shrieks the -Terrible Invocation._ - -_The columns of the temple sway to and fro like the trunks of trees in a -tempest; the amulets suspended about the necks of the Heresiarchs seem -to cross each other in lines of fire; the constellations in the chapels -palpitate; and the walls recoil with the ebb and flow of the crowd, in -which each head is a wave that leaps and roars._ - -_Nevertheless, from the midst of the clamor arises the sound of a song, -in which the name of Jesus is often repeated, accompanied by bursts of -laughter._ - -_The singers belong to the rabble of the people; they all keep time to -the song by clapping their hands. In their midst stands_--) - -ARTUS (_in a deacon's vestments_): - -"The fools who declaim against me pretend to explain the absurd; and in -order to confound them utterly, I have composed ditties so droll that -they are learned by heart in all the mills, in the taverns and along -the ports. - -"No! a thousand times no!--the Son is not coeternal with the Father, -nor of the same substance! Otherwise he would not have said: 'Father, -remove this chalice from me! Why dost thou call me good? God alone is -good! I go to my God, to your God!'--and many other things testifying -to his character of creature. The fact is further demonstrated for -us by all his names:--lamb, shepherd, fountain, wisdom, son-of-man, -prophet; the way, the corner-stone!" - -SABELLIUS. "I hold that both are identical." - -ARIUS. "The Council of Antioch has decided the contrary." - -ANTHONY. "Then what is the Word?... What was Jesus?" - -THE VALENTINIANS. "He was the husband of Acharamoth repentant!" - -THE SETHIANIANS. "He was Shem, the son of Noah!" - -THE THEODOTIANS. "He was Melchisedech!" - -THE MERINTHIANS. "He was only a man!" - -THE APOLLINARISTS. "He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated the -Passion!" - -MARCEL OF ANCYRA. "He was a development of the Father!" - -POPE CALIXTUS. "Father and Son are but two modes of one God's -manifestation!" - -METHODIUS. "He was first in Adam, then in man!" - -CERINTHUS. "And He will rise again!" - -VALENTINUS. "Impossible--his body being celestial!" - -PAUL OF SAMOSATA. "He became God _only_ from the time of his baptism!" - -HERMOGENES. "He dwells in the sun!" - -(_And all the Heresiarchs form a circle about Anthony, who weeps, -covering his face with his hands._) - -A JEW (_with a red beard, and spots of leprosy upon his shin, -approaches close to Anthony, and, with a hideous sneer, exclaims_): - -"His soul was the soul of Esau! He suffered from the Bellephorentian -sickness. Was not his mother, the seller of perfumes, seduced by a -Roman soldier, one Pantherus?.......................... [6] - -ANTHONY (_suddenly raising his head, looks at them a moment in silence; -then advancing boldly upon them, exclaims_): - -"Doctors, magicians, bishops, and deacons, men and phantoms, away from -me! begone! Ye are all lies!" - -THE HERESIARCHS. "We have martyrs more martyrs than thine, prayers -that are more difficult, outbursts of love more sublime, ecstasies as -prolonged as thine are." - -ANTHONY. "But ye have no revelation! no proofs!" - -(_They all at once brandish in the air their rolls of papyrus, tablets -of wood, scrolls of leather, rolls of woven stuff bearing inscriptions; -and elbowing; and pushing each other, they all shout to Anthony._) - -THE CERINTHIANS. "Behold the Gospel of the Hebrews!" - -THE MARCIONITES. "Behold the Gospel of the Lord!" - -THE MARCOSIANS. "The Gospel of Eve!" - -THE EUCRATITES. "The Gospel of Thomas!" - -THE CAINITES. "The Gospel of Judas!" - -BASILIDES. "The Treatise upon the Destiny of the Soul!" - -MANES. "The Prophecy of Barkouf!" - -(_Anthony struggles, breaks from them, escapes them; and in a shadowy -corner perceives_--) - -THE AGED EBIONITES - -(_withered as mummies, their eyes dull and dim, their eyebrows white as -frost._ - -_In tremulous voices they exclaim_:--) - -"We have known him, we have seen him! We knew the Carpenter's Son! We -were then the same age as he; we dwelt in the same street. He used to -amuse himself by modelling little birds of mud; aided his father at his -work without fear of the sharp tools, or selected for his mother the -skeins of dyed wool. Then he made a voyage to Egypt, from whence he -brought back wondrous secrets. We were at Jericho when he came to find -the Eater of Locusts. They talked together in a low voice, so that no -one could hear what was said. But it was from that time that his name -began to be noised abroad in Galilee, and that men began to relate many -fables regarding him." - -(_They reiterate, tremulously_:) - -"We knew him! we others, we knew him!" - -ANTHONY. "Ah, speak on, speak! What was his face like?" - -TERTULLIAN. "His face was wild and repulsive; forasmuch as he -had burthened himself with all the crimes, all the woes, all the -deformities of mankind." - -ANTHONY. "Oh! no, no! I imagine, on the contrary, that his entire -person must have been glorious with a beauty greater than the beauty of -man!" - -EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA. "There is indeed, at Paneades, propped up against -the walls of a crumbling edifice surrounded by a wilderness of weeds -and creeping plants, a certain statue of stone which, some say, was -erected by the Woman healed of the issue of blood. But time has gnawed -the face of the statue, and the rains have worn the inscription away." - -(_A woman steps forward from the group of the Carpocratians._) - -MARCELLINA. "I was once a deaconess at Rome, in a little church, where -I used to exhibit to the faithful, the silver images, of Saint Paul, -Homer, Pythagoras and Jesus Christ. - -"I have only kept that of Jesus." - -(_She half opens her mantle._) - -"Dost thou desire it?" - -A VOICE. "He reappears himself when we call upon him! It is the -hour!--come!" - -(_And Anthony feels a brutal hand seize him by the arm, and drag him -away._ - -_He mounts a stairway in complete darkness; and after having ascended -many steps, he finds himself before a door._ - -_Then the one who is leading him--(is it Hilarion?--he does not -know)--whispers in the ear of another_: "The Lord is about to -come!"--_and they are admitted into a chamber, with a very low ceiling, -and without furniture._ - -_The first object which attracts his attention is a long blood-colored -chrysalis, with a human head surrounded by rays, and the word_ Knouphus -_inscribed all around it in Greek characters. It is placed upon the -shaft of a column, which is in turn supported by a broad pedestal. -Hanging upon the walls of the chamber are medallions of polished iron -representing the heads of various animals:--the head of an ox, the head -of a lion, the head of an eagle, the head of a dog, and the head of an -ass--again!_ - -[Illustration: ... a long blood-colored chrysalis] - -_Earthen lamps, suspended below these images, create a vacillating -light. Through a hole in the wall, Anthony can see the moon shining -far off upon the waves; he can even hear the feeble regular sound of -lapping water; together with the heavy thud occasionally caused by the -bumping of a ship's hull against the stones of the mole._ - -_There are men crouching down, with their faces hidden by their -mantles. From time to time they utter sounds resembling a smothered -bark. There are women also, sleeping with their foreheads resting upon -their arms, and their arms supported by their knees; they are so hidden -by their garments as to resemble heaps of cloth piled up at intervals -against the wall. Near them are half naked children, whose persons -swarm with vermin. They watch with idiotic stare the burning of the -lamps; and nothing is done: all are waiting for something._ - -_They talk in undertones about family matters, or recommend to each -other various remedies for their ailments. Some of them must embark -at earliest daylight; the persecution is becoming too terrible to be -endured. Nevertheless, the pagans are easily enough deceived_:--"The -fools imagine that we are really adoring Knouphus!" - -_But one of the brethren, feeling himself suddenly inspired, takes his -place before the column, where a basket has already been placed, filled -with fennel and aristolochia. On the top of the basket is placed a -loaf._) - -THE INSPIRED BROTHER - -(_unrolling a placard covered with designs representing cylinders -blending with and fitting into one another, commences to pray_:) - -"The ray of the Word descended upon the darknesses; and there arose a -mighty cry, like unto the voice of Light." - -ALL (_swaying their bodies in unison, respond_): - -"Kyrie eleison!" - -THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "Then was Man created by the infamous -God of Israel, aided by those who are these (_pointing to the -medallions_)--Astophaios, Oraios, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi, Iao! - -"And Man, hideous, feeble, formless and thoughtless, lay upon the slime -of the earth." - -ALL (_in plaintive accents_): - -"Kyrie eleison!" - -THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Sophia, compassionating him, vivified him -with a spark of her own soul. - -"Then God, beholding Man so beautiful, waxed wroth; and imprisoned him -within His own kingdom, forbidding him to touch the Tree of Knowledge. - -"Again did the other succor him. She sent to him the Serpent, who, by -many long subterfuges, made him disobey that law of hate. - -"And Man, having tasted knowledge, understood celestial things." - -ALL (_raising their voices_): - -"Kyrie Eleison!" - -THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Iabdalaoth through vengeance cast down man -into the world of matter, and the Serpent with him." - -ALL (_in a very low tone_): - -"Kyrie Eleison!" - -(_Then all hold their peace, and there is silence._ - -_The odors of the port mingle with the smoke of the lamps in the warm -air. The lamp-wicks crepitate; their flames are about to go out, long -mosquitoes flit in rapid circlings about them. And Anthony groans -in an agony of anguish, as with the feeling that a monstrosity is -floating about him, as with the fear of a crime that is about to be -accomplished._ - -_But_--) - -THE INSPIRED BROTHER (_stamping his heel upon the floor, snapping his -fingers, tossing his head wildly, suddenly chants to a furious rhythm, -with accompaniment of cymbals and a shrill flute_:--) - -"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern! - -"O swift one, who runneth without feet, captor who seizeth without hand! - -"Sinuous as the rivers, orbicular as the sun, black, with spots of -gold, like the firmament star-besprinkled! Like unto the intertwinings -of the vine, and the circumvolutions of entrails! - -"Unengendered! eater of earth! immortally young! unfailing -perspicacious! honored at Epidaurus! Kindly to man! thou who didst heal -King Ptolemy, and the warriors, of Moses, and Glaucus, son of Minos! - -"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!" - -ALL (_repeat_): - -"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!" - -(_Nevertheless, nothing yet appears._) - -"Why? What aileth him?" - -(_And they concert together, devise means._ - -_An old man presents a clod of turf as an offering. Then something -upheaves within the basket. The mass of verdure shakes; the flowers -fall, and the head of a python appears._ - -[Illustration: ... the flowers fall and the head of a python -appears] - -_It passes slowly around the edge of the loaf, like a circle moving -around an immovable disk;--then it unfolds itself, lengthens out; it is -enormous and of great weight. Lest it should touch the floor, the men -uphold it against their breasts, the women support it upon their heads, -the children hold it up at arms' length; and its tail, issuing through -the hole in the wall, stretches away indefinitely to the bottom of the -sea. Its coils double; they fill the chamber; they enclose Anthony._) - -THE FAITHFUL (_press their mouths against its skin, snatch from one -another the loaf which it has bitten, and cry aloud_:--) - -"It is thou! it is thou! - -"First raised up by Moses, broken by Ezechias, re-established by the -Messiah. He drank thee in the waters of baptism; but thou didst leave -him in the Garden of Olives; and then indeed he felt his own weakness! - -"Writhing about the arms of the cross, and above his head, while -casting thy slime upon the crown of thorns, thou didst behold him die! -For thou art not Jesus, thou!--thou art the Word! thou art the Christ!" - -(_Anthony faints with horror, and falls prostrate in front of his hut -upon the splinters of wood, where the torch that had slipped from his -hand, is burning low._ - -_The shock arouses him. Opening his eyes again, he perceives the Nile, -brightly undulating under the moon, like a vast serpent winding over -the sands; so that the hallucination returns upon him again; he has not -left the company of the Ophites; they surround him, call him; he sees -them carrying baggage, descending to the port. He embarks along with -them._ - -_An inappreciable time elapses._ - -_Then the vaults of a prison environ him. Iron bars in front of him -make black lines against a background of blue; and in the darkness -beside him people are praying and weeping surrounded by others who -exhort and console._ - -[Illustration: ... and in the darkness beside him people are -praying] - -_Without, there is a murmur like the deep humming of a vast crowd, and -there is splendour as of a summer's day._ - -_Shrill voices announce watermelons for sale, iced drinks, and cushions -of woven grass to sit upon. From time to time there are bursts of -applause. He hears the sound of footsteps above his head._ - -_Suddenly a long roar is heard, mighty and cavernous as the roar of -water in an aqueduct._ - -_And he sees, directly opposite, behind the bars of another compartment -across the arena a lion walking to and fro, then a line of sandals, -bare legs, and purple fringes. Beyond are the vast circling wreaths -of people, in symmetrical tiers, enlarging as they rise, from the -lowest which hems in the arena to the uppermost above which masts -rise to sustain a hyacinth-colored awning, suspended in air by ropes. -Stairways radiating toward the centre, divide these huge circles of -stone at regular intervals. The benches disappear under a host of -spectators--knights, senators, soldiers, plebeians, vestals, and -courtesans--in woollen hoods, in silken maniples, in fallow-colored -tunics; together with aigrettes of precious stones, plumes of feathers, -the fasces of lictors; and all this swarming multitude deafens and -stupefies Anthony with its shoutings, its tumultuous fury, as of an -enormous boiling vat. In the middle of the arena, a vase of incense -smokes upon an altar._ - -_Anthony thus knows that the people with him are Christians condemned -to be thrown to the wild beasts. The men wear the red mantle of the -pontiffs of Saturn; the women, the bandellettes of Ceres. Their friends -divide among themselves shreds of their garments, and rings. To obtain -access to the prison, they say, costs a great deal of money. But what -matter! They will remain until it is all over._ - -_Anthony notices among these consolers, a certain bald-headed man, -in a black tunic: Anthony has seen that face somewhere before. The -consoler discourses to them concerning the nothingness of this world, -and the felicity of the Elect. Anthony feels within him a transport of -celestial love; he longs for the opportunity to lay down his life for -the Saviour--not knowing as yet whether he himself is to be numbered -among the martyrs._ - -_But all--except a certain Phrygian, with long hair, who stands with -his arms uplifted--have a look of woe. One old man is sobbing upon a -bench; a youth standing close by, with drooping head, abandons himself -to a reverie of sorrow._ - -THE OLD MAN _had refused to pay the customary contribution before the -statue of Minerva, erected at the angle of the cross-roads; and he -gazes at his companions with a look that signifies_:--) - -"Ye ought to have succored me! Communities can sometimes so arrange -matters as to insure their being left in peace. Some among ye also -procured those letters which falsely allege that one has sacrificed to -idols." - -(_He asks aloud_:--) - -"Was it not Petrus of Alexandria who laid down the rule concerning what -should be done by those who have yielded to torture?" - -(_Then, to himself_:--) - -"Ah! how cruel this at my age! My infirmities make me so weak! -Nevertheless, I might easily have lived until the coming winter, or -longer!" - -(_The memory of his little garden makes him sad, and he gazes toward -the altar._) - -THE YOUNG MAN (_who disturbed the festival of Apollo by violence and -blows, murmurs_:--) - -"Yet it would have been easy for me to have fled to the mountains!" - -(_One of the brothers answers_:--) - -"But the soldiers would have captured thee!" - -THE YOUNG MAN. "Oh! I would have done as Cyprian did--I would have -returned, and the second time I would surely have had more force!" - -(_Then he thinks of the innumerable days that he might have lived, of -all the joys that he might have known, but will never know; and he -gazes toward the altar._ - -_But_--) - -THE MAN IN THE BLACK TUNIC (_rushes to his side._) - -"What scandal! What! Thou! a victim of God's own choice! And all these -women here who are looking at thee! Nay, think what thou art doing! -Moreover, remember that God sometimes vouchsafes to perform a miracle. -Pionius numbed and made powerless the hands of his executioners; the -blood of Polycarp extinguished the fire of the stake." - -(_Then he turns to the Old Man_:--) - -"Father, father! it behooves thee to edify us by thy death! By longer -delaying it, thou wouldst doubtless commit some evil action that would -lose thee the fruit of all thy good works. Remember, also, that the -power of God is infinite; and it may come to pass that all the people -will be converted by thy example." - -(_And in the great den opposite, the lions stride back and forth, -ceaselessly, with a rapid continuous motion. The largest suddenly looks -at Anthony and roars, and a vapour issues from his jaws._ - -_The women are huddled against the men._) - -THE CONSOLER (_goes from one to the other._) - -"What would ye say, what wouldst thou say if thou wert to be burned -with red-hot irons, if thou wert to be torn asunder by horses, if thou -hadst been condemned to have thy body smeared with honey, and thus -exposed to be devoured by flies! As it is, thou wilt only suffer the -death of a hunter surprised by a beast in the woods." - -(_Anthony would prefer all those things to death by the fangs of the -horrible wild beasts; he fancies already that he feels their teeth and -their claws, that he hears his bones cracking between their jaws._ - -_A keeper enters the dungeon; the martyrs tremble._ - -_Only one remains impassable, the Phrygian, who prays standing apart -from the rest. He has burned three temples; and he advances with arms -uplifted, mouth open, face turned toward heaven, seeing nothing around -him, like a somnambulist._) - -THE CONSOLER (_shouts_). "Back! back! lest the spirit of Montanus might -come upon you." - -ALL (_recoil from the Phrygian, and vociferate_) - -"Damnation to the Montanist!" - -(_They insult him, spit upon him, excite each other to beat him._ - -_The rearing lions bite each other's manes_;) - -THE PEOPLE "To the beasts with them, to the beasts." - -_The Martyrs burst into sobs, and embrace each other passionately. A -cup of narcotic wine is offered them. It is passed from hand to hand, -quickly._ - -_Another keeper, standing at the door of the den, awaits the signal. -The den opens; a lion comes out._ - -_He crosses the arena with great oblique strides. Other lions follow in -file after him; then a bear, three panthers, and some leopards. They -scatter through the arena like a flock in a meadow._ - -_The crack of a whip resounds. The Christians stagger forward; and -their brethren push them, that it may be over the sooner._ - -_Anthony closes his eyes._ - -_He opens them again. But darkness envelopes him._ - -_Soon the darkness brightens; and he beholds an arid plain, mamillated -with knolls, such as might be seen about abandoned quarries._ - -[Illustration: ... and he beholds an arid plain, mamillated -with knolls] - -_Here and there a tuft of shrubbery rises among the slabs of stone, -level with the soil; and there are white figures, vaguer than clouds, -bending over the slabs._ - -_Others approach, softly, silently. Eyes gleam through the slits of -long veils. By the easy indifference of their walk, and the perfumes -exhaled from their garments, Anthony knows they are patrician women. -There are men also, but of inferior condition; for their faces are at -once simple-looking and coarse._ - -(_One of the Women, taking a long breath_:) - -"Ah! how good the cool air of night is, among the sepulchers! I am so -weary of the softness of beds, the turmoil of days, the heavy heat of -the sun!" - -(_Her maid-servant takes from a canvas bag, a torch which she ignites. -The faithful light other torches by it, and plant them upon the tombs._) - -A WOMAN (_panting_). - -"I am here at last! Oh how wearisome to be the wife of an idolator!" - -ANOTHER. "These visits to the prisons, interviews with our brethren, -are all matters of suspicion to our husbands! And we must even hide -ourselves in order to make the sign of the cross; they would take it -for a magical conjuration!" - -ANOTHER. "With my husband it was a quarrel every day. I would not -submit myself to his brutal exactions; therefore he has had me -prosecuted as a Christian." - -ANOTHER. "Do you remember Lucius, that young man who was so beautiful, -who was dragged like Hector, with his heels attached to a chariot, -from the Esquiline Gate to the mountains of Tibur?--and how his blood -spattered the bushes on either side of the road? I gathered up the -drops of his blood. Behold it!" - -(_She drags a black sponge from her bosom, covers it with kisses, and -flings herself down upon the slabs, crying aloud_:--) - -[Illustration: She drags a black sponge from her bosom, covers -it with kisses ...] - -"Ah! my friend! my friend!" - -A MAN. "It is just three years to-day since Domitilla died. They stoned -her at the further end of the Grove of Proserpine. I gathered her -bones, which shone like glowworms in the grass. The earth how covers -them." - -(_He casts himself down upon a tomb._) - -"O my betrothed! my betrothed!" - -(_And all the others scattered over the plain_:--) - -"O my sister! O my brother! O my daughter! O my mother!" - -(_Some kneel, covering their faces with their hands; others lie down -upon the ground with their arms extended; and the sobs they smother -shake their breasts with such violence as though their hearts were -breaking with grief. Sometimes they look up to heaven, exclaiming_:--) - -"Have mercy upon her soul, O my God! She languishes in the sojourn of -Shades; vouchsafe to admit her to thy Resurrection, that she may enjoy -Thy Light!" - -(_Or, with eyes fixed upon the gravestones, they murmur to the dead_:--) - -"Be at peace, beloved! and suffer not! I have brought thee wine and -meats!" - -A WIDOW. "Here is pultis, made by my own hands, as he used to like it, -with plenty of eggs and a double measure of flour! We are going to eat -it together as in other days, are we not?" - -(_She lifts a little piece to her lips, and suddenly bursts into an -extravagant and frenzied laugh._ - -_The others also nibble a little bit as she does and drink a mouthful -of wine._ - -_They recount to each other the stories of their martyrs; grief becomes -exalted! libations redouble. Their tear-swimming eyes are fixed upon -each other's faces. They stammer with intoxication and grief; gradually -hands touch hands, lips join themselves to lips, and they seek each -other upon the tombs, between the cups and the torches._ - -_The sky begins to whiten. The fog makes damp their garments; and, -without appearing even to know one another, they depart by different -ways and seek their homes._ - -_The sun shines; the weeds and the grass have grown higher; the face of -the plain is changed._ - -_And Anthony, looking between tall bamboos, sees distinctly a forest of -columns, of bluish-grey color. These are tree-trunks, all originating -from one vast trunk. From each branch of the colossal tree descend -other branches which may bury themselves in the soil; and the aspect of -all these horizontal and perpendicular lines, indefinitely multiplied, -would closely resemble a monstrous timber-work, were it not that they -have small figs[7] growing upon them here and there, and a blackish -foliage, like that of the sycamore._ - -_He perceives in the forkings of their branches, hanging bunches of -yellow flowers, violet flowers also, and ferns that resemble the plumes -of splendid birds._ - -_Under the lowest branches the horns of a bubalus gleam at intervals, -and the bright eyes of antelopes are visible; there are hosts of -parrots; there are butterflies flittering hither and thither; lizards -lazily drag themselves up or down; flies buzz and hum; and in the midst -of the silence, a sound is audible as of the palpitation of a deep and -mighty life._ - -_Seated upon a sort of pyre at the entrance of the wood is a strange -being--a man--besmeared with cow-dung, completely naked, more withered -than a mummy; his articulations form knots at the termination of bones -that resemble sticks. He has bunches of shells suspended from his ears; -his face is very long, and his nose like a vulture's beak. His left arm -remains motionlessly erect in air, anchylosed, rigid as a stake; and he -has been seated here so long that birds have made themselves a nest in -his long hair._ - -_At the four corners of his wooden pyre flame four fires. The sun is -directly in front of him. He gazes steadily at it with widely-opened -eyes; and, then without looking at Anthony, asks him_:--) - -"Brahmin from the shores of the Nile, what hast thou to say regarding -these things?" - -(_Flames suddenly burst out on all sides of him, through the intervals -between the logs of the pyre; and_--) - -THE GYMNOSOPHIST (_continues_). - -"Lo! I have buried myself in solitude, like the rhinoceros. I dwelt in -the tree behind me." - -[Illustration: I have buried myself in solitude, like the -rhinoceros. I dwelt in the tree behind me.] - -(_The vast fig-tree, indeed, shows in one of its groves, a natural -excavation about the size of a man._) - -"And I nourished me with flowers and fruits, observing the precepts so -rigidly that not even a dog ever beheld me eat. - -"Inasmuch as existence originates from corruption, corruption from -desire, desire from sensation, sensation from contact, I have ever -avoided all action, all contact, and perpetually--motionless as the -stela of a tomb, exhaling my breath from my two nostrils, fixing my -eyes upon my nose, and contemplating the ether in my mind, the world in -my members, the moon in my heart--I dreamed of the essence of the great -Soul whence continually escape the principles of life, even as sparks -escape from fire. - -"Thus at last I found the supreme Soul in all beings, and all beings -in the supreme Soul; and I have been able to make mine own soul all my -senses. - -"I receive knowledge directly from heaven, like the bird Tchataka, who -quenches his thirst from falling rain only. - -"Even by so much as things are known to me, things no longer exist. - -"For me now there is no more hope, no more anguish, there is neither -happiness nor virtue, nor day nor night, nor Thou nor I--absolutely -nothing! - -"My awful austerities have made me superior to the Powers. A single -contraction of my thought would suffice to kill a hundred sons of -kings, to dethrone gods, to overturn the world." - -(_He utters all these things in a monotonous voice._ - -_The surrounding leaves shrivel up. Fleeing rats rush over the ground._ - -_He slowly turns his eyes downward toward the rising flames, and then -continues_:--) - -"I have loathed Form, I have loathed Perception, I have loathed even -Knowledge itself, for the thought does not survive the transitory fact -which caused it; and mind, like all else, is only an illusion. - -"All that is engendered will perish; all that is dead must live again; -the beings that have even now disappeared shall sojourn again in wombs -as yet unformed, and shall again return to earth to serve in woe other -creatures. - -"But inasmuch as I have rolled through the revolution of an indefinite -multitude of existences, under the envelopes of gods, of men, and of -animals, I renounce further wanderings; I will endure this weariness -no more! I abandon the filthy hostelry of this body of mine, built -with flesh, reddened with blood, covered with a hideous skin, full of -uncleanliness; and, for my recompense, I go at last to slumber in the -deepest deeps of the Absolute--in Annihilation." - -(_The flames rise to his chest, then envelope him. His head rises -through them as through a hole in the wall. His cavernous eyes still -remain icicle open, gazing._) - -ANTHONY (_rises_). - -(_The torch, which had fallen to the ground, has ignited the splinters -of wood; and the flames have singed his beard._ - -_With a loud cry, Anthony tramples the fire out; and, when nothing -remains but ashes, he exclaims_:--) - -"Where can Hilarion be? He was here a moment ago. I saw him! - -"What! No; it is impossible; I must have been mistaken! - -"Yet why?... Perhaps my cabin, these stones, this sand, have no real -existence. I am becoming mad! Let me be calm! Where was I? What was it -that happened? - -"Ah! the gymnosophist!... Such a death is frequent among the sages of -India. Kalanos burned himself before Alexander; another did likewise -in the time of Augustus. What hatred of life men must have to do thus! -Unless, indeed, they are impelled by pride alone?... Yet in any event -they have the intrepidity of martyrs.... As for the latter, I can now -well believe what has been told me regarding the debauchery they cause. - -"And before that? Yes: I remember now! the host of the Heresiarchs! -What outcries! What eyes! Yet why so much rebellion of the flesh, so -much dissoluteness, so many aberrations of the intellect. - -"They claim, nevertheless, to seek God through all those ways! What -right have I to curse them--I, who stumble so often in mine own path? -I was perhaps about to learn more of them at the moment when they -disappeared. Too rapid was the whirl; I had no time to answer. Now I -feel as though there were more space, more light in my understanding. I -am calm. I even feel myself able to.... What is this? I thought I had -put out the fire!" - -(_A flame flits among the rocks; and soon there comes the sound of -a voice--broken, convulsed as by sobs--from afar off, among the -mountains._) - -"Can it be the cry of a hyena, or the lamentation of some traveler that -has lost his way?" - -(_Anthony listens. The flame draws nearer._ - -_And he beholds a weeping woman approach, leaning upon the shoulder of -a white-bearded man._ - -_She is covered with a purple robe in rags. He is bareheaded like lier, -wears a tunic of the same color, and carries in his hands a brazen -vase, whence arises a thin blue flame._ - -_Anthony feels a fear come upon him, and wishes to know who this woman -may be._) - -THE STRANGER SIMON. "It is a young girl, a poor child that I lead about -with me everywhere." - -(_He uplifts the brazen vase._ - -_Anthony contemplates the girl, by the light of its vacillating flame._ - -_There are marks of bites upon her face, traces of blows upon her arms; -her dishevelled hair entangles itself in the rents of her rags; her -eyes appear to be insensible to light._) - -SIMON. "Sometimes she remains thus for a long, long time without -speaking; then all at once she revives, and discourses of marvellous -things." - -ANTHONY. "In truth?" - -SIMON. "Ennoia; Ennoia! Ennoia!--tell us what thou hast to say!" - -(_She rolls her eyes like one awaking from a dream, slowly passes her -fingers over her brows, and in a mournful voice, speaks_:--) - -Helena[8] (_Ennoia_). - -[Illustration: Helena - Ennoia] - -"I remember a distant land, of the color of emerald. Only one tree -grows there. - -(_Anthony starts_). - -"Upon each of its tiers of broad-extending arms, a pair of Spirits -dwell in air. All about them the branches intercross, like the veins -of a body; and they watch the eternal Life circulating, from the roots -deep plunging into darkness even to the leafy summit that rises higher -than the sun. I, dwelling upon the second branch, illuminated the -nights of Summer with my face." - -ANTHONY, (_tapping his own forehead_:--) - -"Ah! ah! I comprehend! her head!..." - -SIMON (_placing his finger to his lips_:--) - -"Hush!" - -HELENA. "The sail remained well filled by the wind; the keel cleft the -foam. He said to me: 'What though I afflict my country, though I lose -my kingdom! Thou wilt belong to me, in my house!' - -"How sweet was the lofty chamber of his palace! Lying upon the ivory -bed, he caressed my long hair, singing amorously the while. - -"Even at the close of the day I beheld the two camps, the watchfires -being lighted, Ulysses at the entrance of his tent, armed Achilles -driving a chariot along the sea-beach." - -ANTHONY. "Why! she is utterly mad! How came this to pass?..." - -SIMON. "Hush! hush!" - -HELENA. "They anointed me with unguents, and sold me to the people that -I might amuse them. - -"One evening I was standing with the sistrum in my hand, making music -for some Greek sailors who were dancing. The rain was falling upon the -roof of the tavern like a cataract, and the cups of warm wine were -smoking. - -"A man suddenly entered, although the door was not opened to let him -pass." - -SIMON. "It was I! I found thee again! - -"Behold her, Anthony, she whom they call Sigeh, Ennoia, Barbelo, -Prounikos! The Spirits governing the world were jealous of her; and -they imprisoned her within the body of a woman. - -"She was that Helen of Troy, whose memory was cursed by the poet -Stesichorus. She was Lucretia, the patrician woman violated by a king. -She was Delilah, by whom Samson's locks were shorn.... She has loved -adultery, idolatry, lying and foolishness. She has prostituted herself -to all nations. She has sung at the angles of all cross-roads. She has -kissed the faces of all men. - -"At Tyre, she, the Syrian, was the mistress of robbers. She caroused -with them during the nights; and she concealed assassins amidst the -vermin of her tepid bed." - -ANTHONY. "Ah! what is this to me?..." - -SIMON (_with a furious look_:--) - -"I tell thee that I have redeemed her, and re-established her in her -former splendor; insomuch that Caius Caesar Caligula became enamoured of -her, desiring to sleep with the Moon!" - -ANTHONY. "What then?..." - -SIMON. "Why this, that she herself is the Moon! Has not Pope Clement -written how she was imprisoned in a tower? Three hundred persons -surrounded the tower to watch it; and the moon was seen at each of the -loop-holes at the same time, although there is not more than one moon -in the world, nor more than one Ennoia!" - -ANTHONY. "Yes ... it seems to me that I remember...." - -(_He falls into a reverie._) - -SIMON. "Innocent as the Christ who died for men, so did she devote -herself for women. For the impotence of Jehovah is proven by the -transgression of Adama, and we must shake off the yoke of the old law, -which is antipathetic to the order of things.[9] - -"I have preached the revival in Ephraim and in Issachar by the torrent -of Bizor, beyond the Lake of Houleh, in the valley of Maggedo, further -than the mountains, at Bostra and at Damascus. Let all come to me who -are covered with wine, who are covered with filth, who are covered with -blood! and I shall take away their uncleanliness with the Holy Spirit, -called Minerva by the Greeks. She is Minerva! she is the Holy Spirit! I -am Jupiter, Apollo, the Christ, the Paraclete, the great might of God, -incarnated in the person of Simon!" - -ANTHONY. "Ah! it is thou!... so it is thou! But I know thy crimes! - -"Thou wast born at Gittoi near Samaria, Dositheas, thy first master, -drove thee from him. Thou didst execrate Saint Paul because he -converted one of thy wives; and, vanquished by Saint Peter, in thy rage -and terror thou didst cast into the waves the bag which contained thy -artifices!" - -SIMON. "Dost thou desire them?" - -(_Anthony looks at him, and an interior voice whispers hi his -heart:--"Why not?"_) - -SIMON (_continues_). - -"He who knows the forces of Nature and the essence of Spirits must be -able to perform miracles. It has been the dream of all sages; it is the -desire which even now gnaws thee!--confess it!" - -"In the sight of the multitude of the Romans, I flew in the air so -high that none could behold me move. Nero ordered that I should be -decapitated; but it was the head of a sheep which fell upon the ground -in lieu of mine. At last they buried me alive; but I rose again upon -the third day. The proof is that thou dost behold me before thee!" - -(_He presents his hands to Anthony to smell. They have the stench of -corpse-flesh. Anthony recoils with loathing._) - -"I can make serpents of bronze writhe; I can make marble statues -laugh; I can make dogs speak. I will show thee vast quantities of gold; -I will reestablish kings; thou shalt see nations prostrate themselves -in adoration before me! I can walk upon the clouds and upon the waves, -I can pass through mountains, I can make myself appear as a youth, as -an old man, as a tiger, or as an ant; I can assume thy features; I can -give thee mine; I can make the thunder follow after me. Dost hear it?" - -(_The thunder rumbles; flashes of lightning succeed._) - -"It is the voice of the Most High; for 'the Lord thy God is a fire;' -and all creations are accomplished by sparks from the fire-centre of -all things. - -Thou shalt even now receive the baptism of it--that second baptism -announced by Jesus, which fell upon the apostles on a day of tempest -when the windows were open!" - -(_And stirring up the flame with his hand, slowly, as though preparing -to sprinkle Anthony with it, he continues_:--) - -"Mother of mercies, thou who discoverest all secrets, in order that we -may find rest in the eighth mansion...." - -ANTHONY (_cries out_:--) - -"Oh! that I had only some holy water!..." - -(_The flame goes out, producing much smoke._ - -_Ennoia and Simon have disappeared._ - -_An exceedingly cold, opaque and f[oe]tid mist fills the atmosphere._) - -ANTHONY (_groping with his hands like a blind man_:--) - -"Where am I?... I fear lest I fall into the abyss! And the cross, -surely, is too far from me. Ah! what a night! what a terrible night!" - -(_The mist is parted by a gust of wind; and Anthony sees two men -covered with long white tunics._ - -_The first is of lofty stature, with a gentle face, and a grave mien. -His blond hair, parted like that of Christ, falls upon his shoulders. -He has cast aside a wand that he had been holding in his hand; his -companion takes it up, making a reverence after the fashion of the -Orientals._ - -_The latter is small of stature, thick set, flat-nosed; his neck and -shoulders expresses good natured simplicity._ - -_Both are barefooted, bareheaded, and dusty, like persons who have made -a long journey._) - -ANTHONY (_starting up_:--) - -"What do ye seek? Speak!... Begone from here!" - -DAMIS (_who is a little man_). - -"Nay! nay! be not angered, good hermit. As for that I seek, I know not -myself what it is! Here is the Master!" - -(_He sits down. The other stranger remains standing. Silence._) - -ANTHONY (_asks_). - -"Then ye come?..." - -DAMIS. "Oh! from afar off--very far off!" - -ANTHONY. "And ye go?..." - -DAMIS (_pointing to the other_) - -"Whithersoever he shall desire!" - -ANTHONY. "But who may he be?" - -DAMIS. "Look well upon him!" - -ANTHONY (_aside_). - -"He looks like a saint! If I could only dare...." - -(_The mist is all gone. The night is very clear. The moon shines._) - -DAMIS. "Of what art thou dreaming, that thou dost not speak?" - -ANTHONY. "I was thinking.... Oh! nothing!" - -DAMIS (_approaches Apollonius, and walks all round him several times, -bending himself as he walks, never raising his head_:--) - -"Master, here is a Galilean hermit who desires to know the beginnings -of wisdom." - -APOLLONIUS. "Let him approach!" (_Anthony hesitates._) - -DAMIS. "Approach!" - -APOLLONIUS (_in a voice of thunder_:--) - -"Approach! Thou wouldst know who I am, what I have done, and what I -think,--is it not so, child?" - -ANTHONY. "Always supposing that these things can contribute to the -salvation of my soul." - -APOLLONIUS. "Rejoice! I am about to inform thee of them!" - -DAMIS (_in an undertone, to Anthony_:--) - -"Is it possible? He must surely have at the first glance discerned in -thee extraordinary aptitude for philosophy. I shall also strive to -profit by his instruction." - -APOLLONIUS. "First of all, I shall tell thee of the long course which -I have followed in order to obtain the doctrine; and if thou canst -discover in all my life one evil action, thou shalt bid me pause, for -he who hath erred in his actions may well give scandal by his words." - -DAMIS (_to Anthony_). - -"How just a man? Is he not?" - -ANTHONY. "Indeed I believe him to be sincere." - -APOLLONIUS. "Upon the night of my birth, my mother imagined that -she was gathering flowers by the shore of a great lake. A flash of -lightning appeared; and she brought me into the world to the music of -the voices of swans singing to her in her dream. - -"Until I had reached the age of fifteen I was plunged thrice a day into -the fountain, Asbadeus, whose waters make perjurers hydropical; and my -body was rubbed with the leaves of the onyza, that I might be chaste. - -"A Palmyrian princess came one evening to seek me, offering me -treasures that she knew to be in the tombs. A hierodule of the temple -of Diana, slew herself in despair with the sacrificial knife; and the -governor of Cilicia, finding all his promises of no avail, cried out in -the presence of my family that he would cause my death; but it was he -that died only three days after, assassinated by the Romans." - -DAMIS (_nudging Anthony with his elbow_). - -"Eh? did I not tell thee? What a man!" - -APOLLONIUS. "For the space of four successive years I maintained the -unbroken silence of the Pythagoreans. The most sudden and unexpected -pain never extorted a sigh from me; and when I used to enter the -theatre, all drew away from me, as from a phantom." - -DAMIS. "Wouldst thou have done so much?--thou?" - -APOLLONIUS. "After the period of my trial had been accomplished, I -undertook to instruct the priests regarding the tradition they had -lost." - -ANTHONY. "What tradition?" - -DAMIS. "Interrupt him not! Be silent!" - -APOLLONIUS. "I have conversed with the Samaneans of the Ganges, with -the astrologers of Chaldea, with the magi of Babylon, with the Gaulish -Druids, with the priests of the negroes! I have ascended the fourteen -Olympii; I have sounded the Scythian lakes; I have measured the breadth -of the Desert!" - -DAMIS. "It is all true! I was with him the while!" - -APOLLONIUS. "But first I had visited the Hyrcanian Sea; I made the tour -of it; and descending by way of the country of the Baraomati, where -Bucephalus is buried, I approached the city of Nineveh. At the gates of -the city, a man drew near me...." - -DAMIS. "I--even I, good master! I loved thee from the first. Thou wert -gentler than a girl and more beautiful than a god!" - -APOLLONIUS (_without hearing him_). - -"He asked me to accompany him, that he might serve as interpreter." - -DAMIS. "But thou didst reply that all languages were familiar to thee, -and that thou couldst divine all thoughts. Then I kissed the hem of thy -mantle, and proceeded to walk behind thee." - -APOLLONIUS. "After Ctesiphon, we entered upon the territory of Babylon." - -DAMIS. "And the Satrap cried aloud on beholding a man so pale." - -ANTHONY (_aside_). - -"What signifies this?..." - -APOLLONIUS. "The king received me standing, near a throne of silver, -in a hall constellated with stars; from the cupola hung suspended by -invisible threads four great birds of gold, with wings extended." - -ANTHONY (_dreamily_). - -"Can there be such things in the world?" - -DAMIS. "Ah! that is a city! that Babylon! everybody there is rich! The -houses, which are painted blue, have doors of bronze, and flights of -steps descending to the river." - -(_Drawing lines upon the ground, with his stick_:) - -"Like that, seest thou? And then there are temples, there are squares, -there are baths, there are aqueducts! The palaces are roofed with red -brass; and the interior ... ah! if thou only knewest!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Upon the north wall rises a tower which supports a second, -a third, a fourth, a fifth, and there are also three others! The eighth -is a chapel containing a bed. No one enters it save the woman chosen by -the priests for the God Belus. I was lodged there by order of the King -of Babylon." - -DAMIS. "As for me, they hardly deigned to give me any attention! So I -walked through the streets all by myself. I informed myself regarding -the customs of the people; I visited the workshops; I examined the -great machines that carry water to the gardens. But I soon wearied of -being separated from the Master." - -APOLLONIUS. "At last we left Babylon; and as we travelled by the light -of the moon, we suddenly beheld an Empusa." - -DAMIS. "Aye, indeed! She leaped upon her iron hoof; she brayed like an -ass; she galloped among the rocks. He shouted imprecations at her; she -disappeared." - -ANTHONY (_aside_). - -"What can be their motive?" - -APOLLONIUS. "At Taxilla, the capital of five thousand fortresses, -Phraortes, King of the Ganges, showed us his guard of black men, whose -stature was five cubits, and under a pavilion of green brocade in his -gardens, an enormous elephant, which the queens amused themselves by -perfuming. It was the elephant of Porus which had taken flight after -the death of Alexander." - -DAMIS. "And which had been found again in a forest." - -ANTHONY. "Their speech is superabundant, like that of drunken men!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Phraortes seated us at his own table." - -DAMIS. "How strange a country that was! During their drinking -carousels, the lords used to amuse-themselves by shooting arrows under -the feet of a dancing child. But I do not approve...." - -APOLLONIUS. "When I was ready to depart, the king gave me a parasol, -and he said to me: 'I have a stud of white camels upon the Indus. When -thou shalt have no further use for them, blow in their ears. They will -come back.' - -"We descended along the river, marching at night by the light of the -fire-flies, which glimmered among the bamboos. The slave whistled an -air to drive away the serpents; and our camels bent down in passing -below the branches of the trees, as if passing under low gates. - -"One day a black child, who held a golden caduceus in his hand, -conducted us to the College of the Sages. Iarchas, their chief, spoke -to me of my ancestors, told me of all my thoughts, of all my actions, -of all my existences. In former time he had been the River Indus; and -he reminded me that I had once been a boatman upon the Nile, in the -time of King Sesostris." - -DAMIS. "As for me, they told me nothing; so that I know not who or what -I have been." - -ANTHONY. "They have a vague look, like shadows!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Upon the shores of the sea we met with the milk-gorged -Cynocephali, who were returning from their expedition to the Island -Taprobana. The tepid waves rolled blond pearls to our feet. The amber -crackled beneath our steps. Whale-skeletons were whitening in the -crevasses of the cliffs. At last the land became narrow as a sandal; -and after casting drops of ocean water toward the sun, we turned to the -right to return. - -"So we returned through the Region of Aromatics, by way of the country -of the Gangarides, the promontory of Comaria, the country of the -Sachalites, of the Adramites and of the Homerites; then, across the -Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island Topazos, we penetrated -into Ethiopia through the country of the Pygmies." - -ANTHONY (_to himself_). - -"How vast the world is!" - -DAMIS. "And after we had returned home, we found that all those whom we -used to know, were dead." - -(_Anthony lowers his head. Silence._) - -APOLLONIUS (_continues_). - -"Then men began to talk of me the world over. - -"The plague was ravaging Ephesus; I made them stone an old mendicant -there." - -DAMIS. "And forthwith the plague departed." - -ANTHONY. "What! Does he drive away pestilence?" - -APOLLONIUS. "At Cnidos, I cured the man that had become enamored of -Venus." - -DAMIS. "Aye! a fool who had even vowed to espouse her! To love a woman -is at least comprehensible; but to love a statue--what madness! The -Master placed his hand upon the young man's heart; and the fire of that -love was at once extinguished." - -ANTHONY. "How! does he also cast out devils?" - -APOLLONIUS. "At Tarentum they were carrying the dead body of a young -girl to the funeral pyre." - -DAMIS. "The Master touched her lips; and she arose and called her -mother." - -ANTHONY. "What! he raises the dead!" - -APOLLONIUS. "I predicted to Vespasian his accession to power." - -ANTHONY. "What! he foretells the future!" - -DAMIS. "At Corinth there was a ..." - -APOLLONIUS. "It was when I was at table with him, at the waters of -Baia ..." - -ANTHONY. "Excuse me, strangers--it is very late ..." - -DAMIS. "At Corinth there was a young man called Menippus ..." - -ANTHONY. "No! no!--go ye away!" - -APOLLONIUS. "A dog came in, bearing a severed hand in his mouth." - -DAMIS. "One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman." - -ANTHONY. "Do ye not hear me? Begone!" - -APOLLONIUS. "He wandered in a bewildered way around the couches ..." - -ANTHONY. "Enough!" - -APOLLONIUS. "They sought to drive him out." - -DAMIS. "So Menippus went with her to her house; they loved one -another." - -APOLLONIUS. "And gently beating the mosaic pavement with his tail, he -laid the severed hand upon the knees of Flavius." - -DAMIS. "But next morning, during the lessons in the school, Menippus -was pale." - -ANTHONY (_starting up in anger_). - -"Still continuing! Ah! then let them continue till they be weary, -inasmuch as there is no ..." - -DAMIS. "The Master said to him: 'O beautiful youth, thou dost caress -a serpent; by a serpent thou art caressed! And when shall be the -nuptials?' We all went to the wedding." - -ANTHONY. "Assuredly I am doing wrong, to hearken to such a story!" - -DAMIS. "Servants were hurrying to and fro in the vestibule; doors were -opening; nevertheless there was no sound made either by the fall of -the footsteps nor the closing of the doors. The Master placed himself -beside Menippus. And the bride forthwith became angered against the -philosophers. But the vessels of gold, the cupbearers, the cooks, the -panthers disappeared; the roof receded and vanished into air; the walls -crumbled down; and Apollonius stood alone with the woman at his feet, -all in tears. She was a vampire who satisfied the beautiful young men -in order to devour their flesh, for nothing is more desirable for such -phantoms than the blood of amorous youths." - -APOLLONIUS. "If thou shouldst desire to learn the art ..." - -ANTHONY. "I do not wish to learn anything!" - -APOLLONIUS. "The same evening that we arrived at the gates of Rome ..." - -ANTHONY. "Oh! yes!--speak to me rather of the City of Popes!" - -APOLLONIUS. "A drunken man accosted us, who was singing in a low voice. -The song was an epithalamium of Nero; and he had the power to cause -the death of whosoever should hear it with indifference. In a box upon -his shoulders he carried a string taken from the Emperor's cithara. I -shrugged my shoulders. He flung mud in our faces. Then I unfastened my -girdle and placed it in this hand." - -DAMIS. "In sooth, thou wert most imprudent!" - -APOLLONIUS. "During the night the Emperor summoned me to his house. He -was playing at osselets with Sporus, supporting his left arm upon a -table of agate. He turned and, knitting his brows, demanded: 'How comes -it that thou dost not fear me?' 'Because,' I replied, 'the God who made -thee terrible, also made me intrepid." - -ANTHONY (_to himself_). - -"There is something inexplicable that terrifies me!" - -(_Silence._) - -DAMIS (_breaking the silence with his shrill voice_). - -"Moreover, all Asia can tell thee ..." - -ANTHONY (_starting up_). - -"I am ill! let me be!" - -DAMIS. "But listen! At Ephesus, he beheld them killing Domitian, who -was at Rome." - -ANTHONY (_with a forced laugh_). "Is it possible?" - -DAMIS. "Yes: at the theatre at noon-day, the fourteenth of the Kalenda -of October, he suddenly cried out: 'Caesar is being murdered!' and -from time to time he would continue to ejaculate: 'He rolls upon the -pavement ... Oh! how he struggles ... He rises ... He tries to flee -... The doors are fastened ... Ah! it is all over! He is dead!' And in -fact Titus Flavius Domitianus was assassinated upon that very day, as -thou knowest." - -ANTHONY. "Without the aid of the Devil ... certainly ..." - -APOLLONIUS. "He had purposed putting me to death, that same Domitian! -Damis had taken flight according to my order, and I remained alone in -my prison." - -DAMIS. "A terrible hardihood on thy part, it must be confessed!" - -APOLLONIUS. "About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me before the -tribunal. I had my harangue all ready hidden beneath my mantle." - -DAMIS. "We others were then upon the shores of Puteoli, we believed -thee dead; we were all weeping, when all of a sudden about the sixth -hour, thou didst suddenly appear before us, exclaiming: 'It is I.'" - -ANTHONY (_to himself_). "Even as He...!" - -DAMIS (_in a very loud voice_). "Precisely!" - -ANTHONY. "Oh! no! ye lie! is it not so?--ye lie!" - -APOLLONIUS. "He descended from heaven. I rise thither, by the power of -my virtue that has lifted me up even to the height of the Principle of -all things!" - -DAMIS. "Thyana, his natal city, has established in his honor a temple -and a priesthood!" - -APOLLONIUS (_draws near Anthony, and shouts in his ear_:--) - -"It is because I know all gods, all rites, all prayers, all oracles! -I have penetrated into the cave of Trophonius, son of Apollo! I -have kneaded for Syracusan women the cakes which they carry to the -mountains. I have endured the eighty tests of Mithra! I have pressed to -my heart the serpent of Sabasius! I have received the scarf of Kabiri! -I have laved Cybele in the waters of the Campanian gulfs! and I have -passed three moons in the caverns of Samothracia!" - -DAMIS (_with a stupid laugh_). - -"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the good Goddess!" - -APOLLONIUS. "And now we recommence our pilgrimage. - -"We go to the North to the land of Swans and of snows. Upon the vast -white plains, the blind hippopodes break with the tips of their feet -the ultramarine plant." - -DAMIS. "Hasten! it is already dawn. The cock has crowed, the horse has -neighed, the sail is hoisted!" - -ANTHONY. "The cock has not crowed! I hear the locusts in the sands, and -I see the moon still in her place." - -APOLLONIUS. "We go to the South, beyond the mountains and the mighty -waters, to seek in perfumes the secret source of love. Thou shalt -inhale the odor of myrrhodion which makes the weak die. Thou shalt -bathe thy body in the lake of Rose-oil which is in the Island Junonia. -Thou shalt see slumbering upon primroses that Lizard which awakes -every hundred years when the carbuncle upon its forehead, arriving -at maturity, falls to the ground. The stars palpitate like eyes; the -cascades sing like the melody of lyres; strange intoxication is exhaled -by blossoming flowers; thy mind shall grow vaster in that air; and thy -heart shall change even as thy face." - -DAMIS. "Master! it is time! The wind has risen, the swallows awaken, -the myrtle leaves are blown away." - -APOLLONIUS. "Yes! let us go!" - -ANTHONY. "Nay! I remain here!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Shall I tell thee where grows the plant Balis, that -resurrects the dead?" - -DAMIS "Nay; ask him rather for the audrodamas which attracts silver, -iron and brass!" - -ANTHONY. "Oh! how I suffer! how I suffer!" - -DAMIS. "Thou shalt comprehend the voices of all living creatures, the -roarings, the cooings!" - -APOLLONIUS. "I shall enable thee to ride upon unicorns and upon -dragons, upon hippocentaurs and dolphins!" - -ANTHONY (_weeping_). "Oh ... oh!... oh!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Thou shalt know the demons that dwell in the caverns, the -demons that mutter in the woods, the demons that move in the waves, the -demons that push the clouds!" - -DAMIS. "Tighten thy girdle, fasten thy sandals!" - -APOLLONIUS. "I shall explain to thee the reason of divine forms--why -Apollo stands, why Jupiter is seated, why Venus is black, at Corinth, -square-shaped at Athens, conical at Paphos." - -ANTHONY (_clasping his hands_). - -"Let them begone! let them begone!" - -APOLLONIUS. "In thy presence I will tear down the panoplies of the -Gods; we shall force open the sanctuaries, I will enable thee to -violate the Pythoness!" - -ANTHONY. "Help! O my God!" - -(_He rushes to the cross._) - -APOLLONIUS. "What is thy desire? What is thy dream? Thou needst only -devote the moment of time necessary to think of it ..." - -ANTHONY. "Jesus! Jesus! Help me!" - -APOLLONIUS. "Dost thou wish me to make him appear, thy Jesus?" - -ANTHONY. "What? How!" - -APOLLONIUS. "It shall be He!--no other! He will cast off his crown, and -we shall converse face to face!" - -DAMIS (_in an undertone_). - -"Say thou dost indeed wish it! say thou dost desire it!" - -(_Anthony kneeling before the cross, murmurs prayers. Damis walks -around him, with wheedling gestures._) - -"Nay, nay! good hermit. Be not horrified! These are only exaggerated -forms of speech, borrowed from the Orientals. That need in no way ..." - -APOLLONIUS. "Let him alone, Damis! - -"He believes, like a brute, in the reality of things. The terror which -he entertains of the Gods prevents him from comprehending them; and he -debases his own God to the level of a jealous king! - -"But thou, my son, do not leave me!" - -(_He moves to the edge of the cliff, walking backward, passes beyond -the verge of the precipice, and remains suspended in air._) - -"Above all forms, further than the ends of the earth, beyond the -heavens themselves, lies the world of Idea, replete with the splendor -of the Word! With one bound we shall traverse the impending spaces, and -thou shalt behold in all his infinity, the Eternal, the Absolute, the -Being! Come! give me thy hand! Let us rise." - -(_Side by side, both rise up through the air, slowly. Anthony, clinging -to the cross, watches them rise. They disappear._) - - -[1] Agape.--Love-feast of the primitive Christians. - -[2] John XVI: 12.--T. - -[3] See note at end. - -[4] Masheim gives _Achamoth._ I prefer to remain faithful to the -orthography given by Flaubert. - -[5] The French text gives _mes peres_ not _nos peres._ Elxai, or -Elkhai, who established his sect in the reign of Trajan, was a Jew. - -[6] See note. - -[7] The banyan is a fig-tree--the _Ficus indicus._--Trans. - -[8] Readers may remember Longfellow's exquisite poem "Helena of Tyre." - -[9] See the second part of "Faust," and _Kundry_ in "Parsifal." - - - - -V. - - -ANTHONY (_walking to and fro, slowly_). - -"That one, indeed, seems in himself equal to all the powers of Hell! - -"Nebuchadnezzar did not so much dazzle me with his splendours;--the -Queen of Sheba herself charmed me less deeply. - -"His manner of speaking of the gods compels one to feel a desire to -know them. - -"I remember having beheld hundreds of them at one time, in the island -of Elephantius, in the time of Diocletian. The emperor had ceded to the -Nomads a great tract of country, upon the condition that they should -guard the frontiers; and the treaty was concluded in the name of the -'Powers Invisible.' For the gods of each people were unknown unto the -other people. - -"The Barbarians had brought theirs with them. They occupied the -sand-hills bordering the river. We saw them supporting their idols in -their arms, like great paralytic children;--others, paddling through -the cataracts upon trunks of palm tree, displayed from afar off the -amulets hung about their necks, the tattooings upon their breasts; and -these things were not more sinful than the religion of the Greeks, the -Asiatics, and the Romans! - -"When I was dwelling in the temple of Heliopolis I would often consider -the things I beheld upon the walls:--vultures bearing sceptres, -crocodiles playing upon lyres, faces of men with the bodies of -serpents, cow-headed women prostrating themselves before ithyphallic -gods:--and their supernatural forms attracted my thoughts to other -worlds. I longed to know that which drew the gaze of all those calm and -mysterious eyes. - -"If matter can exert such power, it must surely contain a spirit. The -souls of the Gods are attached to their images ... - -"Those possessing the beauty of forms might seduce. But the others -... those of loathsome or terrible aspect ... how can men believe in -them?..." - -(_And he beholds passing over the surface of the ground,--leaves, -stones, shells, branches of trees,--then a variety of hydropical -dwarfs: these are gods. He bursts into a laugh. He hears another laugh -behind him;--and Hilarion appears, in the garb of a hermit, far taller -than before, colossal._) - -ANTHONY (_who feels no surprise at seeing him_). - -"How stupid one must be to worship such things!" - -HILARION. "Aye!--exceedingly stupid!" - -(_Then idols of all nations and of all epochs--of wood, of metal, of -granite, of feathers, of skins sewn together,--pass before them._ - -_The most ancient of all anterior to the Deluge are hidden under masses -of seaweed hanging down over them like manes. Some that are too long -for their bases, crack in all their joints, and break their own backs -in walking. Others have rents torn in their bellies through which sand -trickles out._ - -_Anthony and Hilarion are prodigiously amused. They hold their sides -for laughter. Then appear sheep-headed idols. They totter upon their -bandy-legs, half-open their eye-lids, and stutter like the dumb,_ "Ba! -ba! ba!" - -_The more that the idols commence to resemble the human forms, the -more they irritate Anthony. He strikes them with his fist, kicks them, -attacks them with fury. They become frightful,--with lofty plumes, eyes -like balls, fingers terminated by claws, the jaws of sharks._ - -_And before these gods men are slaughtered upon altars of stone; others -are brayed alive in huge mortars, crushed under chariots, nailed upon -trees. There is one all of red-hot iron with the horns of a bull, who -devours children._) - -ANTHONY. "Horror!" - -HILARION. "But the gods always demand tortures--and suffering. Even -thine desired ..." - -ANTHONY (_weeping_). "Ah! say no more!--do not speak to me!" - -(_The space girdled by the rocks suddenly changes into a valley. A herd -of cattle are feeding upon the short grass._ - -_The herdman who leads them, observes a cloud;--and in a sharp voice, -shouts out words of command, as if to heaven._) - -HILARION. "Because he needs rain, he seeks by certain chants to compel -the King of heaven to open the fecund cloud." - -ANTHONY (_laughing_). - -"Verily, such pride is the extreme of foolishness!" - -HILARION. "Why dost thou utter exorcisms?" - -(_The valley changes into a sea of milk, motionless and infinite. In -its midst floats a long cradle formed by the coils of a serpent, whose -many curving heads shade, like a dais, the god slumbering upon its -body._ - -_He is beardless, young, more beautiful than a girl, and covered with -diaphanous veils. The pearls of his tiara gleam softly like moons; a -chaplet of stars is entwined many times about his breast, and with one -hand beneath his head, he slumbers with the look of one who dreams -after wine._ - -_A woman crouching at his feet, awaits the moment of his awaking._) - -HILARION. "Such is the primordial duality of the Brahmans,--the -Absolute being inexpressible by any form." - -(_From the navel of the god has grown the stem of a lotus flower; it -blossoms, and within its chalice appears another god with three faces._) - -ANTHONY. "How strange an invention!" - -HILARION. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but one and the same -Person!" - -(_The three faces separate; and three great gods appear._ - -_The first, who is pink, bites the end of his great toe._ - -_The second, who is blue, uplifts his four arms._ - -_The third, who is green, wears a necklace of human skulls._ - -_Before them instantly arise three goddesses--one is enveloped in a -net; another offers a cup; the third brandishes a bow._ - -[Illustration: ... instantly arise three goddesses] - -_And these gods, these goddesses, decuple themselves, multiply. Arms -grow from their shoulders; at the end of these arms hands appear -bearing standards, axes, bucklers, swords, parasols and drums. -Fountains gush from their heads, plants grow from their nostrils._ - -_Riding upon birds rocked in palanquins, enthroned upon seats of gold, -standing in ivory niches,--they dream, voyage, command, drink wine, -respire the breath of flowers. Dancing girls whirl in the dance; giants -pursue monsters; at the entrances of grottoes solitaries meditate. Eyes -cannot be distinguished from stars; nor clouds from banderolles; -peacocks quench their thirst at rivers of gold dust; the embroidery -of pavilions seems to blend with the spots of leopards; coloured rays -intercross in the blue air, together with flying arrows, and swinging -censers._ - -_And all this develops like a lofty frieze, resting its base upon the -rocks, and rising to the sky._) - -ANTHONY (_dazzled by the sight_). - -"How vast is their number! What do they seek?" - -HILARION. "The god who rubs his abdomen with his elephant-trunk, is the -solar Deity, the inspiring spirit of wisdom. - -"That other whose six heads are crowned with towers, and whose fourteen -arms wield javelins,--is the prince of armies,--the Fire-Consumer. - -"The old man riding the crocodile washes the soul of the dead upon -the shore. They will be tormented by that black woman with the putrid -teeth, who is the Ruler of Hell. - -"That chariot drawn by red mares, driven by one who has no legs, bears -the master of the sun through heaven's azure. The moon-god accompanies -him, in a litter drawn by three gazelles. - -"Kneeling upon the back of a parrot, the Goddess of Beauty presents to -Love, her son, her rounded breast. Behold her now, further off, leaping -for joy in the meadows. Look! Look! Coiffed with dazzling mitre, she -trips lightly over the ears of growing wheat, over the waves; she rises -in air, extending her power over all elements. - -"And among these gods are the Genii of the winds, of the planets, of -the months, of the days,--a hundred thousand others;--multiple are -their aspects, rapid their transformations. Behold, there is one who -changes from a fish into a tortoise: he assumes the form of a boar, the -shape of a dwarf." - -ANTHONY. "Wherefore?" - -HILARION. "That he may preserve the equilibrium of the universe, and -combat the works of evil. But life exhausts itself; forms wear away; -and they must achieve progression in their metamorphoses." - -(_All upon a sudden appears a_ NAKED MAN _seated in the midst of the -sand, with legs crossed._) - -(_A large halo vibrates, suspended in air behind him. The little -ringlets of his black hair in which blueish tints shift symmetrically -surround a protuberance upon the summit of his skull. His arms, -which are very long, hang down against his sides. His two hands rest -flat upon his thighs, with the palms open. The soles of his feet -are like the faces of two blazing suns; and he remains completely -motionless--before Anthony and Hilarion--with all the gods around him, -rising in tiers above the rocks, as if upon the benches of some vast -circus. His lips, half-open; and he speaks in a deep voice_): - -"I am the Master of great charities, the succor of all creatures; and -not less to the profane than to believers, do I expound the law. - -"That I might deliver the world, I resolved to be born among men. The -gods wept when I departed from them. - -"I sought me first a woman worthy to give me birth: a woman of warrior -race, the wife of a king, exceedingly good, excessively beautiful, -with body firm as adamant;--and at time of the full moon, without the -auxiliation of any male, I entered her womb. - -"I issued from it by the right side. Stars stopped in their courses." - -HILARION (_murmurs between his teeth_). - -"And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy!"[1] - -(_Anthony watches more attentively._) - -THE BUDDHA[2] (_continuing_). - -"From the furthest recesses of the Himalayas, a holy man one hundred -years of age, hurried to see me." - -HILARION. "A man named Simeon ... who should not see death, before he -had seen the Christ of the Lord."[3] - -THE BUDDHA. "I was led unto the schools; and it was found that I knew -more than the teachers." - -HILARION. "... In the midst of the doctors ... and all that heard him -were astonished at his wisdom!"[4] - -(_Anthony makes a sign to Hilarion to be silent._) - -THE BUDDHA. "Continually did I meditate in the gardens. The shadows of -the trees turned with the turning of the sun; but the shadow of that -which sheltered me turned not. - -"None could equal me in the knowledge of the Scriptures, the -enumeration of atoms, the conduct of elephants, the working of wax, -astronomy, poetry, pugilism, all the exercises and all the arts! - -"In accordance with custom, I took to myself a wife; and I passed the -days in my kingly palace;--clad in pearls, under a rain of perfumes, -refreshed by the fans of thirty thousand women,--watching my peoples -from the height of my terraces adorned with fringes of resonant bells. - -"But the sight of the miseries of the world turned me away from -pleasure. I fled. - -"I begged my way upon the high roads, clad myself in rags gathered -within the sepulchres;--and, hearing of a most learned hermit, I chose -to become his slave. I guarded his gate! I washed his feet. - -"Thus I annihilated all sensation, all joy, all languor. - -"Then, concentrating my thoughts within vaster meditation, I learned to -know the essence of things, the illusion of forms. - -"Soon I exhausted the science of the Brahmans. They are gnawed by -covetousness and desire under their outward aspect of austerity; they -daub themselves with filth, they live upon thorns,--hoping to arrive at -happiness by the path of death!" - -HILARION.... "Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, generation of -vipers!" - -THE BUDDHA. "I also accomplished wondrous things,--eating but one -grain of rice each day (and the grains of rice in those times were no -larger than at present)--my hair fell off; my body became black; my -eyes receding within their sockets, seemed even as stars beheld at the -bottom of a well. - -"During six years I kept myself motionless, exposed to the flies, the -lions and the serpents; and the great summer suns, the torrential -rains, lightnings and snows, hails and tempests,--all of these I -endured without even the shelter of my lifted hand. - -"The travellers who passed by, believing me dead, cast clods of earth -upon me! - -"Only the temptation of the Devil remained! - -"I summoned him. - -"His sons came,--hideous, scale-covered, nauseous as -charnel-houses,--shrieking, hissing, bellowing; interclashing their -panoplies, rattling together the bones of dead men. Some belched -flame through their nostrils; some made darkness about me with their -wings; some wore chaplets of severed fingers; some drank serpent-venom -from the hollows of their hands;--they were swine-headed; they were -rhinoceros-headed or toad-headed; they assumed all forms that inspire -loathing or affright." - -ANTHONY (_to himself_). - -"I also endured all that in other days!" - -THE BUDDHA. "Then did he send me his daughters--beautiful with -daintily painted faces, and wearing girdles of gold. Their teeth were -whiter than the jasmine-flower; their thighs round as the trunk of -an elephant. Some extended their arms and yawned, that they might so -display the dimples of their elbows; some winked their eyes; some -laughed; some half-opened their garments. There were blushing virgins, -matrons replete with dignity, queens who came with great trains of -baggage and of slaves." - -ANTHONY (_aside_). "Ah! he too ..." - -THE BUDDHA. "Having vanquished the Demon, I nourished myself for twelve -years with perfumes only;--and as I had acquired the five virtues, -the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteen substances, and had -entered into the four spheres of the invisible world, Intelligence -became mine! I became the Buddha." - -[Illustration: Intelligence became mine! I became the Buddha.] - -(_All the gods bow themselves down. Those having several heads, bend -them all simultaneously. He lifts his mighty hand aloft, and resumes_:) - -"That I might effect the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds -of thousands of sacrifices! To the poor I gave robes of silk, beds, -chariots, houses, heaps of gold and of diamonds. I gave my hands to the -one-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind;--even my head I -severed for the sake of the decapitated. In the day that I was King, I -gave away provinces;--when I was a Brahman I despised no one. When I -was a solitary, I spake kindly words to the robber who slew me. When I -was a tiger I allowed myself to die of hunger. - -"And having, in this last existence, preached the law, nothing now -remains for me to do. The great period is accomplished! Men, animals, -the gods, the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the sand-grains of -the Ganges, together with the myriad myriads of the stars,--all shall -die;--and until the time of the new births, a flame shall dance upon -the wrecks of worlds destroyed!" - -(_Then a great dizziness comes upon the gods. They stagger, fall into -convulsions, and vomit forth their existences. Their crowns burst -apart; their banners fly away. They tear off their attributes, their -sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they quaffed -immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, vanish in -smoke;--and when all have disappeared_ ...) - -HILARION (_solemnly exclaims_): - -"Thou hast even now beheld the belief of many hundreds of millions of -men." - -(_Anthony is prostrate upon the ground, covering his face with his -hands. Hilarion, with his back turned to the cross, stands near him and -watches him._ - -_A considerable time elapses._ - -_Then a singular being appears--having the head of a man upon the body -of a fish. He approaches through the air, upright, beating the sand -from time to time with his tail; and the patriarchal aspect of his face -by contrast with his puny little arms, causes Anthony to laugh._) - -OANNES (_in a plaintive voice_): - -"Respect me! I am the contemporary of beginnings. - -"I dwelt in that formless world where hermaphroditic creatures -slumbered, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the deeps of -dark waters--when fingers, fins, and wings were blended, and eyes -without heads were floating like mollusks, among human-headed bulls, -and dog-footed serpents. - -[Illustration: ... and eyes without heads were floating like -mollusks] - -"Above the whole of these beings, OMOROCA, bent like a hoop, extended -her woman-body. But Belus cleft her in two halves; with one he made the -earth; with the other, heaven;--and the two equal worlds do mutually -contemplate each other. - -"I, the first consciousness of CHAOS, arose from the abyss that I might -harden matter, and give a law unto forms:--also I taught men to fish -and to sow: I gave them knowledge of writing, and of the history of the -gods. - -[Illustration: I, the first consciousness of Chaos, arose from -the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms ...] - -"Since then I have dwelt in the deep pools left by the Deluge. But the -desert grows vaster about them; the winds cast sand into them; the sun -devours them;--and I die upon my couch of slime, gazing at the stars -through the water. Thither I return!" - -(_He leaps and disappears in the Nile._) - -HILARION. "That is an ancient God of the Chaldaeans!" - -ANTHONY (_ironically_). "What, then, were those of Babylon?" - -HILARION. "Thou canst behold them!" - -(_And they find themselves upon the platform of a lofty quadrangular -tower dominating six other towers, which, narrowing as they rise, form -one monstrous pyramid. Far below a great black mass is visible--the -city, doubtless--extending over the plains. The air is cold; the sky -darkly blue; multitudes of stars palpitate above._ - -_In the midst of the platform rises a column of white stone. Priests -in linen robes pass and repass around it, so as to describe by their -evolutions a moving circle; and with faces uplifted, they gaze upon the -stars._ ...) - -HILARION. (_pointing out several of these stars to Anthony_): - -"There are thirty principal stars. Fifteen look upon the upper side -of the earth; fifteen below. At regular intervals one shoots from the -upper regions to those below; while another abandons the inferior deeps -to rise to sublime altitudes ... - -"Of the seven planets, two are beneficent; two evil; three -ambiguous:--all things in the world depend upon the influence of these -eternal fires. According to their position or movement presages may be -drawn;--and here thou dost tread the most venerable place upon earth. -Here Pythagoras and Zoroaster have met;--here for twelve thousand years -these men have observed the skies that they might better learn to know -the gods." - -ANTHONY. "The stars are not gods." - -HILARION. "Aye, they say the stars are gods; for all things about us -pass away;--the heavens only remain immutable as eternity." - -ANTHONY. "Yet there is a master!" - -HILARION (_pointing to the column_): - -"He! Belus!--the first ray, the Sun, the Male! The Other, whom he -fecundates, is beneath him!" - -(_Anthony beholds a garden, illuminated by lamps_: _He finds himself -in the midst of the crowd, in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and -left are little pathways leading to huts constructed within a wood of -pomegranate trees, and enclosed by treillages of bamboo._ - -_Most of the men wear pointed caps, and garments bedizened like the -plumage of a peacock. But there are also people from the North clad -in bearskins, nomads wearing mantles of brown wool, pallid Gangarides -with long earrings;--and there seems to be as much confusion of rank -as there is confusion of nations; for sailors and stone-cutters elbow -the princes who wear tiaras blazing with carbuncles and who carry -long canes with carven knobs. All proceed upon their way with dilated -nostrils, absorbed by the same desire._ - -_From time to time, they draw aside to make way for some long covered -wagon drawn by oxen, or some ass jolting upon his back a woman bundled -up in thick veils, who finally disappears in the direction of the -cabins._ - -_Anthony feels afraid; he half-resolves to turn back. But an -unutterable curiosity takes possession of him, and draws him on._ - -_At the foot of the cypress-trees there are ranks of women squatting -upon deerskins, all wearing in lieu of diadem, a plaited fillet of -ropes. Some, magnificently attired, loudly call upon the passers-by. -Others, more timid, seek to veil their faces with their arms, while -some matron standing behind them, their mother doubtless, exhorts -them. Others, their heads veiled with a black shawl, and their bodies -entirely nude, seem from afar off to be statues of flesh. As soon as a -man has thrown some money upon their knees, they arise._ - -_And the sound of kisses is heard under the foliage,--sometimes a great -sharp cry._) - -HILARION. "These are the virgins of Babylon, who prostitute themselves -to the goddess." - -ANTHONY. "What goddess?" - -HILARION. "Behold her!" - -(_And he shows him at the further end of the avenue, upon the threshold -of an illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman._) - -ANTHONY. "Ignominy!--how abominable to give a sex to God!" - -HILARION. "Thou thyself dost figure him in thy mind as a living person!" - -(_Anthony again finds himself in darkness._ - -_He beholds in the air a luminous circle, poised upon horizontal -wings. This ring of light, girdles like a loose belt, the waist of a -little man wearing a mitre upon his head and carrying a wreath in his -hand. The lower part of his figure is completely concealed by immense -feathers outspreading about him like a petticoat._ - -_It is_--ORMUZD--_the God of the Persians. He hovers in the air above, -crying aloud_:) - -"I fear! I can see his monstrous jaws! I did vanquish thee, O Ahriman! -But again thou dost war against me. - -"First revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of -creatures, Kaiomortz, the Man-Bull. Then didst thou seduce the first -human couple, Meschia and Meschiane; and thou didst fill all hearts -with darkness, thou didst urge thy battalions against heaven! - -"I also had mine own, the people of the stars; and from the height of -my throne I contemplated the marshalling of the astral hosts. - -"Mithra, my son, dwelt in heavens inaccessible. There he received -souls, from thence did he send them forth; and he arose each morning to -pour forth the abundance of his riches. - -"The earth reflected the splendour of the firmament. Fire blazed upon -the crests of the mountains,--symbolizing that other fire of which -I had created all creatures. And that the holy flame might not be -polluted, the bodies of the dead were not burned; the beaks of birds -carried them aloft toward heaven. - -"I gave to men the laws regulating pastures, labour, the choice of wood -for the sacrifices, the form of cups, the words to be uttered in hours -of sleeplessness;--and my priests unceasingly offered up prayers, so -that worship might be as the eternity of God in its endlessness. Men -purified themselves with water; loaves were offered upon the altars, -sins were confessed aloud. - -"Homa[5] gave himself to men to be drank, that they might have his -strength communicated to them while the Genii of heaven were combating -the demons, the children of Iran were pursuing the serpents. The -King, whom an innumerable host of courtiers served upon their knees, -represented me in his person, and wore my coiffure. His gardens had the -magnificence of a heaven upon earth; and his tomb represented him in -the act of slaying a monster,--emblem of Good destroying Evil. - -"For it was destined that I should one day definitely conquer Ahriman, -by the aid of Time-without-limits. - -"But the interval between us disappears;--the deep night rises! To -me! ye Amschaspands, ye Izeds, ye Ferouers! Succor me, Mithra! seize -thy sword! And thou, Kaosyac, who shall return for the universal -deliverance, defend me! What!--none to aid! Ah! I die! Thou art the -victor, Ahriman!" - -(_Hilarion, standing behind Anthony, restrains a cry of joy;--and_ -ORMUZD _is swallowed up in the darkness._) - -(_Then appears_:) - -THE GREAT DIANA OF EPHESUS - -(_black with enamelled eyes, her elbows pressed to her side, her -forearms extended, with hands open._ - -_Lions crawl upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers, and stars intercross -upon her bosom; further down three rows of breasts appear; and from her -belly to her feet she is covered with a tightly fitting sheath from -which bulls, stags, griffins, and bees, seem about to spring, their -bodies half-protruding from it. She is illuminated by the white light -emanating from a disk of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind -her head._) - -"Where is my temple? Where are my Amazons? - -"What is this I feel?--I, the Incorruptible!--a strange faintness comes -upon me!"... - -(_Her flowers wither, her over-ripe fruits become detached and fall. -The lions and the bulls hang their heads; the deer foam at the mouth, -with a slimy foam, as though exhausted; the buzzing bees die upon the -ground._ - -_She presses her breasts, one after the other. All are empty! But under -a desperate effort her sheath bursts. She seizes it by the bottom, like -the skirt of a robe, throws her animals, her fruits, her flowers, into -it,--then withdraws into the darkness._ - -_And afar off there are voices, murmuring, growling, roaring, -bellowing, belling. The density of the night is augmented by breaths. -Drops of warm rain fall._) - -ANTHONY. "How sweet the odour of the palm trees, the trembling of -leaves, the transparency of springs! I feel the desire to lie flat upon -the Earth that I might feel her against my heart; and my life would be -reinvigorated by her eternal youth!" - -(_He hears the sound of castanets and of cymbals; and men appear, clad -in white tunics with red stripes,--leading through the midst of a -rustic crowd an ass, richly harnessed, its tail decorated with knots of -ribbons, and its hoofs painted._ - -_A box, covered with a saddle-cloth[6] of yellow material shakes to -and fro upon its back, between two baskets,--one receives the offerings -contributed,--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, fowls, little coins; and -the other basket is full of roses, which the leaders of the ass pluck -to pieces as they walk before the animal, shedding the leaves upon the -ground._ - -_They wear earrings and large mantles; their locks are plaited, their -cheeks painted, olive-wreaths are fastened upon their foreheads by -medallions bearing figurines;--all wear poniards in their belts, and -brandish ebony-handled whips, having three thongs to which osselets are -attached._[7] - -_Those who form the rear of the procession, place upon the soil,--so as -to remain upright as a candelabrum,--a tall pine, which burns at its -summit, and shades under its lower branches a lamb._ - -_The ass halts. The saddle-cloth is removed. Underneath appears a -second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in white tunics -begins to dance, rattling his crotali;--another, kneeling before the -box, beats a tambourine and_--) - -THE OLDEST OF THE BAND, _begins_:-- - -"Here is the Good Goddess, the Idaean of the mountains, the Great Mother -of Syria! Come ye hither, good people all! - -[Illustration: Here is the Good Goddess, the Idaean of the mountains ...] - -"She gives joy to men, she heals the sick; she sends inheritances; she -satisfies the hunger of love! - -"We bear her through the land, rain or shine, in fair weather, or in -foul. - -"Oft times we lie in the open air, and our table is not always well -served. Robbers dwell in the woods. Wild beasts rush from their -caverns. Slippery paths border the precipices. Behold her! behold her!" - -(_They lift off the covering; and a box is seen, inlaid with little -pebbles._) - -"Loftier than the cedars, she looks down from the blue ether. Vaster -than the wind she encircles the world. Her breath is exhaled by the -nostrils of tigers; the rumbling of her voice is heard beneath the -volcanoes; her wrath is the tempest; the pallor of her face has -whitened the moon. She ripens the harvest; by her the tree-bark swells -with sap; she makes the beard to grow. Give her something; for she -hates the avaricious!" - -(_The box opens; and under a little pavilion of blue silk appears a -small image of Cybele--glittering with spangles, crowned with towers, -and seated in a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions, with uplifted -paws._ - -_The crowd presses forward to see._) - -THE ARCHIGALLUS (_continues_): - -"She loves the sound of resounding tympanums, the echo of dancing -feet, the howling of wolves, the sonorous mountains and the deep -gorges, the flower of the almond tree, the pomegranate and the green -fig, the whirling dance, the snoring flute, the sugary sap, the salty -tear,--blood! To thee, to thee!--Mother of the mountains!" - -(_They scourge themselves with their whips; and their chests resound -with the blows;--the skins of the tambourines vibrate almost to -bursting. They seize their knives; they gash their arms._) - -"She is sorrowful; let us be sorrowful! Thereby your sins will be -remitted. Blood purifies all--fling its red drops abroad like blossoms! -She, the Great Mother, demands the blood of another creature--of a pure -being!" - -(_The Archigallus raises his knife above the head of a lamb._) - -ANTHONY (_seized with horror_): - -"Do not slay the lamb!" - -(_There is a gush of purple blood. The priest sprinkles the crowd -with it; and all--including Anthony and Hilarion--standing around the -burning tree, silently watch the last palpitations of the victim._ - -_A Woman comes forth from the midst of the priests; she resembles -exactly the image within the little box._ - -_She pauses, perceiving before her a Young Man wearing a Phrygian -cap. His thighs are covered with a pair of narrow trousers, with -lozenge-shaped openings here and there at regular intervals, closed by -bow knots of coloured material. He stands in an attitude of languor, -resting his elbow against a branch of the tree, holding a flute in his -hand._) - -CYBELE (_flinging her arms about his waist_). - -"I have traversed all regions of the earth to join thee--and famine -ravaged the fields Thou hast deceived me! It matters not! I love thee! -Warm my body in thine embrace! Let us be united!" - -ATYS. "The springtime will never again return, O eternal Mother! -Despite my love, it is no longer possible for me to penetrate thy -essence! Would that I might cover myself with a painted robe like -thine! I envy thy breasts, swelling with milk, the length of thy -tresses, thy vast flanks that have borne and brought forth all -creatures! Why am I not thou?--Why am I not a woman?--No, never! depart -from me! My virility fills me with horror!" - -(_With a sharp stone he dismembers himself, and runs furiously from -her ..._ - -_The priests imitate the god; the faithful do even as the priests. Men -and women exchange garments, embrace;--and the tumult of bleeding flesh -passes away, while the sound of voices remaining, becomes even more -strident,--like the shrieking of mourners, like the voices heard at -funerals._ - -_ ... A huge catafalque, hung with purple, supports upon its summit an -ebony bed, surrounded by torches and baskets of silver filagree, in -which are verdant leaves of lettuce, mallow and fennel. Upon the steps -of the construction, from summit to base, sit women all clad in black, -with loosened girdles and bare feet, holding in their hands with a -melancholy air, great bouquets of flowers._ - -_At each corner of the estrade urns of alabaster, filled with myrrh, -slowly send up their smoke._ - -_Upon the bed can be perceived the corpse of a man. Blood flows from -his thigh. One of his arms hangs down lifelessly;--and a dog licks his -finger nails and howls._ - -_The row of torches placed closely together, prevents his face from -being seen; and Anthony feels a strange anguish within him. He fears -lest he should recognize some one._ - -_The sobs of the women cease--and after an interval of silence_,) - -ALL (_psalmody together_): - -"Fair! fair!--all fair he is! Thou hast slept enough!--lift thy -head!--arise! - -"Inhale the perfume of our flowers--narcissus--blossoms and anemones, -gathered in thine own gardens to please thee. Arouse thee! thou dost -make us fear for thee! - -"Speak to us! What dost thou desire? Wilt thou drink wine?--wilt thou -lie in our beds?--dost wish to eat the honeycakes which have the form -of little birds? - -"Let us press his lips,--kiss his breast! Now!--now!--dost thou not -feel our ring-laden fingers passing over thy body?--and our lips that -seek thy mouth?--and our tresses that sweep thy thighs? O faint God, -deaf to our prayers!" - -(_They cry aloud, and rend their faces with their nails; then all -rush,--and the howling of the dog continues in the silence._) - -"Alas! alas! Woe!--the black blood trickles over his snowy flesh! -See! his knees writhe!--his sides sink in! The bloom of his face hath -dampened the purple. He is dead, dead! O weep for him! Lament for him!" - -(_In long procession they ascend to lay between the torches the -offerings of their several tresses, that seem from afar off like -serpents, black or blond;--and the catafalque is lowered gently to the -level of, a grotto,--the opening of a shadowy sepulchre that yawns -behind it._ - -_Then_--) - -A WOMAN (_bends over the corpse. Her long hair, uncut, envelopes her -from head to feet. She sheds tears so abundantly that her grief cannot -be as that of the others, but more than human--infinite!_ - -_Anthony dreams of the Mother of Jesus. She speaks_:--) - -"Thou didst emerge from the Orient, and didst take me, all trembling -with the dew, into thy arms, O Sun! Doves fluttered upon the azure -of thy mantle; our kisses evoked low breezes among the foliage; and I -abandoned myself wholly to thy love, delighting in the pleasure of my -weakness. - -"Alas! alas--Why didst thou depart, to run upon the mountains! A boar -did wound thee at the time of the autumnal equinox! - -"Thou art dead; and the fountains weep,--the trees bend down. The wind -of winter whistles through the naked brushwood. - -"My eyes are about to close, seeing that darkness covers them! Now thou -dwellest in the underworld near the mightiest of my rivals. - -"O Persephone, all that is beautiful descends to thee, never to return!" - -(_Even while she speaks, her companions lift the dead, to place him -within the sepulchre. He remains in their hands! It was only a waxen -corpse._ - -_Wherefore Anthony feels something resembling relief._ - -_All vanish;--and the hut, the rocks, and the cross reappear._ - -_But upon the other side of the Nile, Anthony beholds a Woman, -standing in the midst of the desert._ - -_She retains in her hand the lower part of a long black veil that hides -all her face; supporting with her left arm a little child to whom she -is giving suck. A great ape crouches down in the sand beside her._ - -_She uplifts her head toward heaven; and in spite of the great -distance, her voice is distinctly heard_:) - -ISIS. "O Neith, Beginning of all things! Ammon, Lord of Eternity; -Pthah, demiurgos; Thoth, his intelligence; gods of the Amenthi, -particular triads of the Nomes,--falcons in the azure of heaven, -sphinxes before the temples, ibises perched between the horns of oxen, -planets, constellations, shore, murmurs of the wind, gleams of the -light,--tell me where I may find Osiris. - -"I have sought him in all the canals and all the lakes--aye, further -yet, even to Ph[oe]nician Byblos. Anubis, with ears pricked up, leaped -about me, and yelped, and thrust his muzzle searchingly into the tufts -of the tamarinds. - -"Thanks, good Cynocephalos--thanks to thee!" - -(_She gives the ape two or three friendly little taps upon the head._) - -"Hideous Typhon, the red-haired slew him, tore him in pieces! We have -found all his members. But I have not that which rendered me fecund!" - -(_She utters wild lamentations._) - -ANTHONY (_is filled with fury. He casts stones at her, reviles her._) - -"Begone! thou shameless one!--Begone!" - -HILARION. "Nay! respect her! Her religion was the faith of thy -fathers!--thou didst wear her amulets when thou wert a child in the -cradle!" - -ISIS. "In the summers of long ago, the inundation drove the impure -beasts into the desert. The dykes were opened, the boats dashed against -each other; the panting earth drank the river with the intoxication of -joy. Then, O God, with the horns of the bull, thou didst lie upon my -breast, and then was heard, the lowings of the Eternal Cow! - -"The seasons of sowing and reaping, of threshing and of vintage, -followed each other in regular order with the years. In the eternal -purity of the nights, broad stars beamed and glowed. The days were -bathed in never-varying splendour. Like a royal couple the Sun and the -Moon appeared simultaneously, at either end of the horizon. - -"Then did we both reign above a sublimer world, twin-monarchs, wedded -within, the womb of eternity--he bearing a concupha-headed sceptre; I, -the sceptre that is tipped with a lotus-flower; both of us erect with -hands joined; and the crumblings of empires affected not our attitude. - -"Egypt extended, below us, monumental and awful, long-shaped like the -corridor of a temple; with obelisks on the right, pyramids on the -left, and its labyrinth in the midst. And everywhere were avenues -of monsters, forests of columns, massive pylons flanking gates -summit-crowned with the mysterious globe--the globe of the world, -between two wings. - -"The animals of her Zodiac also existed in her pasture lands; and -filled her mysterious writing with their forms and colours. Divided -into twelve regions as the year is divided into-twelve months--each -month, each day also having its own god--she reproduced the immutable -order of heaven. And man even in dying changed not his face; but -saturated with perfumes, invulnerable to decay, he lay down to sleep -for three thousand years in another and silent Egypt. - -"And that Egypt, vaster than the Egypt of the living, extended beneath -the earth. - -"Thither one descended by dark stairways leading into halls where were -represented the joys of the good, the tortures of the wicked, all that -passes in the third and invisible world. Ranged along the wall the dead -in their painted coffins awaited their turn; and the soul, exempted -from migrations, continued its heavy slumber until the awakening into a -new life. - -"Nevertheless, Osiris sometimes came to see me. And by his ghost I -became the mother of Harpocrates." - -(_She contemplates the child._) - -"Aye! it is he. Those are his eyes; those are his locks, plaited into -ram horns! Thou shalt recommence his works. We shall bloom again like -the lotus. I am still the Great Isis!--none has yet lifted my veil! My -fruit is the Sun! - -[Illustration: I am still the Great Isis!--none has yet lifted -my veil! My fruit is the Sun!] - -"Sim of Springtime, clouds now obscure thy face! The breath of Typhon -devours the pyramids. But a little while ago I beheld the Sphinx flee -away. He was galloping like a jackal. - -"I look for my priests,--my priests clad in mantles of linen, with -their great harps, and bearing a mysterious bark, adorned with -silver pateras. There are no more festivals upon the lakes!--no more -illuminations in my delta!--no more cups of milk at Philae! Apis has -long ceased to reappear. - -"Egypt! Egypt! thy great motionless gods have their shoulders already -whitened by the dung of birds; and the wind that passes over the desert -rolls with it and the ashes of thy dead!--Anubis, guardian of ghosts, -abandon me not!" - -(_The Cynocephalos has vanished. She shakes her child._) - -"But ... what ails thee ... thy hands are cold, thy head droops!" - -(_Harpocrates expires. Then she cries aloud with a cry so piercing, -funereal, heart-rending, that Anthony answers it with another cry, -extending his arms as to support her._ - -_She is no longer there. He lowers his face, overwhelmed by shame._ - -_All that he has seen becomes confused within his mind. It is like the -bewilderment of travel, the illness of drunkenness. He wishes to hate; -but a vague and vast pity fills his heart. He begins to weep, and weeps -abundantly._) - -HILARION. "What makes thee sorrowful?" - -ANTHONY (_after having long sought within himself for a reply_): - -"I think of all the souls that have been lost through these false gods!" - -HILARION. "Dost thou not think that they ... sometimes ... bear much -resemblance to the TRUE?" - -ANTHONY. "That is but a device of the Devil to seduce the faithful more -easily. He attacks the strong through the mind, the weak through the -flesh." - -HILARION. "But luxury, in its greatest fury, has all the -disinterestedness of penitence. The frenzied love of the body -accelerates the destruction thereof,--and proclaims the extent of the -impossible by the exposition of the body's weakness." - -ANTHONY. "What signifies that to me! My heart sickens with disgust -of these beautiful bestial gods, forever busied with carnages and -incests!" - -HILARION. "Yet recollect all those things in the Scripture which -scandalize thee because thou art unable to comprehend them! So also may -these Gods conceal under their sinful forms some mighty truth. There -are more of them yet to be seen. Look around!" - -ANTHONY. "No, no!--it is dangerous!" - -HILARION. "But a little while ago thou didst desire to know them! Is -it because thy faith might vacillate in the presence of lies? What -fearest thou?" - -(_The rocks fronting Anthony have become as a mountain. A line of -clouds obscures the mountain half way between summit and base; and -above the clouds appears another mountain, enormous, all green, -unequally hollowed by valleys nestling in its slopes, and supporting at -its summit, in the midst of laurel-groves a palace of bronze, roofed -with tiles of gold, and supported by columns having capitals of ivory._ - -_In the centre of the peristyle Jupiter,--colossal, with torso -nude,--holds Victory in one hand, his thunderbolts in the other; and -his eagle, perched between his feet, rears its head._ - -_Juno, seated near him, rolls her large eyes, beneath a diadem whence -her wind-blown veil escapes like a vapour._ - -_Behind them, Minerva, standing upon a pedestal, leans on her spear. -The skin of the Gorgon covers her breast, and a linen peplos falls in -regular folds to the nails of her toes. Her glaucous eyes, which gleam -beneath her vizor, gaze afar off, attentively._ - -_On the right of the palace, the aged Neptune bestrides a dolphin -beating with its fins a vast azure expanse which may be sea or sky, for -the perspective of the Ocean seems a continuation of the blue ether: -the two elements are interblended._ - -_On the other side weird Pluto in night-black mantle, crowned with -diamond tiara and bearing a sceptre of ebony, sits in the midst of an -islet surrounded by the circumvolutions of the Styx;--and this river of -shadow empties itself into the darknesses, which form a vast black gulf -below the cliff,--a bottomless abyss!_ - -_Mars, clad in brass, brandishes as in wrath his broad shield and his -sword._ - -_Hercules, leaning upon his club, gazes at him from below._ - -_Apollo, his face ablaze with light, grasps with outstretched right -arm the reins of four white horses urged to a gallop; and Ceres in her -ox-drawn chariot advances toward him with a sickle in her hand._ - -_Behind her comes Bacchus, riding in a very low chariot, gently drawn -by lynxes. Plump and beardless, with vine leaves garlanding his brow, -he passes by holding in his hand an overflowing cup of wine. Silenus -riding beside him reels upon his ass. Pan of the pointed ears, blows -upon his syrinx; the Mimalonaeides beat drums; the Maenads strew -flowers; the Bacchantes turn in the dance with heads thrown back and -hair dishevelled._ - -_Diana, with tunic tucked up, issues from the wood together with her -nymphs._ - -_At the further end of a cavern, Vulcan among his Cabiri, hammers the -heated iron; here and there the aged Rivers leaning recumbent upon -green rocks pour water from their urns; the Muses stand singing in the -valleys_. - -_The Hours, all of equal stature, link hands; and Mercury poses -obliquely upon a rainbow, with his caduceus, winged sandals, and winged -petasus._ - -_But at the summit of the stairway of the Gods,--among clouds soft -as down, from whose turning volutes a rain of roses falls,--Venus -Anadyomene stands gazing at herself in a mirror:--her eyes move -languorously beneath their slumbrous lids._ - -_She has masses of rich blond hair rolling down over her shoulders; her -breasts are small; her waist is slender; her hips curve out like the -sweeping curves of a lyre; her thighs are perfectly rounded; there are -dimples about her knees; her feet are delicate: a butterfly hovers near -her mouth. The splendour of her body makes a nacreous-tinted halo of -bright light about her; while all the rest of Olympus is bathed in a -pink dawn, rising gradually to the heights of the blue sky._) - -ANTHONY. "Ah! my heart swells! A joy never known before thrills me to -the depths of my soul! How beautiful, how beautiful it is!" - -HILARION. "They leaned from the heights of cloud to direct the way of -swords; one used to meet them upon the high roads; men had them in -their houses--and this familiarity divinized life. - -"Life's aim was only to be free and beautiful. Nobility of attitude was -facilitated by the looseness of garments. The voice of the orator, -trained by the sea, rolled its sonorous waves against the porticoes of -marble. The ephebus, anointed with oil, wrestled all naked in the full -light of the sun. The holiest of actions was to expose perfection of -forms to all. - -"And these men respected wives, aged men, suppliants. - -"Behind the temple of Hercules there was an altar erected to Pity. - -"Victims were immolated with flowers wreathed about the fingers of the -sacrificer. Even memory was exempted from thoughts of the rottenness -of death. Nothing remained but a little pile of ashes. And the Soul, -mingling with the boundless ether, rose up to God." - -(_Bending to whisper in Anthony's ear_:--) - -"And they still live! The Emperor Constantine adores Apollo. Thou wilt -find the Trinity in Samothracian mysteries,--baptism in the religion of -Isis,--redemption in the faith of Mithra,--a martyrdom of a God in the -festivals of Bacchus. Prosperpine is the Virgin!... Aristaeus is Jesus!" - -ANTHONY (_remains awhile with downcast eyes, as if in deep thought; -then suddenly repeats aloud the Symbol of Jerusalem, as he remembers -it, uttering a long sigh between each phrase_):-- - -"I believe in one only God, the Father,--and in one only Lord, Jesus -Christ,--the first born son of God, who was incarnated and made -man,--who was crucified, and buried,--who ascended into Heaven,--who -will come to judge the living and the dead,--of whose Kingdom there -shall be no end;--and in one Holy Spirit,--and in one baptism of -repentance,--and in one Holy Catholic Church,--and in the resurrection -of the flesh,--and in the life everlasting!" - -(_Immediately the cross becomes loftier and loftier; it pierces the -clouds, and casts its shadow upon the heaven of the gods._ - -_All grow pale;--Olympus shudders._ - -_And at its base Anthony beholds vast bodies enchained, sustaining the -rocks upon their shoulders,--giant figures half buried in the deeps -of caverns. These are the Titans, the Giants, the Hecatonchires, the -Cyclops._) - -A VOICE - -(_rises, indistinct and awful, like the far roar of leaves, like the -voice of forests in time of tempest, like the mighty moaning of the -wind among the precipices_): - -"We knew these things!--we knew them! There must come an end even for -the Gods! Uranus was mutilated by Saturn,--Saturn by Jupiter. And -Jupiter himself shall be annihilated. Each in his turn;--it is Destiny!" - -(_And little by little they sink into the mountain, and disappear._ - -_Meanwhile the golden tiles of the palace rise and fly away._) - -JUPITER (_has descended from his throne. At his feet the thunderbolts -lie, smoking like burning coals about to expire;--and the great eagle -bends its neck to pick up its falling feathers_): - -"Then I am no longer the master of all things,--most holy, most -mighty, god of the phatrias and Greek peoples,--ancestor of all the -Kings,--Agamemnon of heaven. - -"Eagle of apotheoses, what wind from Erebus has wafted thee to me? or, -fleeing from the Campus Martins, dost thou bear me the soul of the last -of the Emperors? - -"I no longer desire to receive those of men. Let the Earth keep them; -and let them move upon the level of its baseness. Their hearts are now -the hearts of slaves;--they forget injuries, forget their ancestors, -forget their oaths,--and everywhere the folly of crowds, the mediocrity -of individuals, the hideousness of races, hold sway!" - -(_He pants with such violence that his sides seem ready to burst -asunder; he clenches his hands. Weeping_, HEBE _offers him a cup. He -seizes it._) - -"No, no! So long as there shall be a brain enclosing a thought, in -whatsoever part of the world;--so long as there shall exist a mind -hating disorder, creating LAW,--so long will the spirit of Jupiter -live!" - -(_But the cup is empty. He turns its edge down over his thumbnail._) - -"Not one drop left! When the ambrosia fails, the Immortals must indeed -depart!" - -(_The cup drops from his hands; and he leans against a column, feeling -himself about to die._) - -JUNO. "Thou shouldst not have had so many amours! Eagle, bull, swan, -rain of gold, cloud and flame, thou didst assume all forms,--dissipate -thy light in all elements,--lose thy hair upon all beds! This time -the divorce is irrevocable; and our domination, our very existence, -dissolved." - -(_She passes away in air._) - -MINERVA (_has no longer her spear; and the ravens nesting among the -sculptures of the friezes, wheel about her, peeking at her helmet._) - -"Let me see whether my vessels cleave the bright sea, returning to my -three ports,--let me discover why the fields are deserted, and learn -what the daughters of Athens are now doing. - -"In the month of Hecatombeon my whole people came to worship me, under -the guidance of their magistrates and priests. Then, all in white robes -and wearing chitons of gold, they advanced the long line of virgins -bearing cups, baskets, parasols; then the three hundred sacrificial -oxen, and the old men having green boughs, the soldiers with clashing -of armour, the ephebi singing hymns, flute players, lyre players, -rhapsodists, dancing women;--and lastly attached to the mast of a -trireme mounted upon wheel, my great veil embroidered by virgins who -had been nourished in a particular way for a whole year. And when it -had been displayed in all the streets, in all the squares, and before -the temples, in the midst of the ever-chanting procession, it was borne -step by step up the hill of the Acropolis, grazed the Propylaea, and -entered the Parthenon.... - -"But a strange feebleness comes upon me,--me the Industrious One! What! -what! not one idea comes to me! Lo! I am trembling more than a woman!" - -(_She turns, beholds a ruin behind her, utters a cry, and stricken by a -fallen fragment, falls backward upon the ground._) - -HERCULES (_has flung away his lion-skin; and with feet firmly braced, -back arched, teeth clenched, he exhausts himself in immeasurable -efforts to bear up the mass of crumbling Olympus._) - -"I vanquished the Cercopes, the Amazons, and the Centaurs. Many were -the kings I slew. I broke the horn of the great river, Achelous. I cut -the mountains asunder; I freed nations from slavery; and I peopled -lands that were desolate. I travelled through the countries of Gaul; -I traversed the deserts where thirst prevails. I defended the gods -from their enemies; and I freed myself from Omphale. But the weight of -Olympus is too great for me. My arms grow feebler:--I die!" - -(_He is crushed beneath the ruins._) - -PLUTO. "It is thy fault, Amphytrionad;--wherefore didst thou descend -into my empire? - -"The vulture that gnaws the entrails of Tityus lifted its head;--the -lips of Tantalus were moistened;--the wheel of Ixion stopped. - -"Meanwhile the Kaeres extended their claws to snatch back the escaping -ghosts; the Furies tore the serpents of their locks; and Cerberus -fettered by thee with a chain, sounded the death rattle in his throat, -and foamed at all his three mouths. - -"Thou didst leave the gate ajar; others have come. The daylight of men -has entered into Tartarus!" - -(_He sinks into the darkness._) - -NEPTUNE. "My trident can no longer call up the tempests. The monsters -that terrified of old, lie rotting at the bottom of the sea. - -"Amphitrite whose white feet tripped lightly over the foam, the green -Nereids seen afar off in the horizon, the scaly Sirens who stopped -the passing vessels to tell stories, and the ancient Tritons mightily -blowing upon their shells, all have passed away. All is desolate and -dead; the gaiety of the great Sea is no more!" - -(_He vanishes beneath the azure._) - -DIANA (_clad in black and surrounded by her dogs, which have been -changed into wolves_). - -"The freedom of the deep forests once intoxicated me; the odours of the -wild beasts and the exhalations of the marshes made me as one drank -with joy. But the women whose maternity I protected, now bring dead -children into the world. The moon trembles with the incantations of -witches. Desires of violence, of immensity, seize me, fill me! I wish -to drink poisons,--to lose myself in vapours, in dreams...!" - -(_And a passing cloud carries her away._) - -MARS (_unhelmed and covered with blood_). - -"At first I fought alone;--singlehanded I would provoke a whole army by -my insults,--caring nothing for countries or nations, demanding battle -for the pleasure of carnage alone. - -"Afterward I had comrades. They marched to the sound of flutes, in good -order, with equal step, respiring above their bucklers, with plumes -loftily nodding, lances oblique. Then on rushed to battle with mighty -eagle cries. War was joyous as a banquet. Three hundred men strove -against all Asia. - -"But the Barbarians are returning;--by myriads they come, by millions! -Ah! since numbers, and engines, and cunning are stronger than valour, -it were better that I die the death of the brave!" - -(_He kills himself._) - -VULCAN (_sponging the sweat from his limbs_): - -"The world is growing cold. The source of heat must be nourished, the -volcanoes and rivers of flowing metal underground. Strike harder!--with -full swing of the arms,--with might and main!" - -(_The Cabiri wound themselves with their hammers, blind themselves with -sparks, and groping, lose themselves in the darkness._) - -CERES (_standing in her chariot, impelled by wheels having wings at -their hubs_): - -"Stop! Stop! Ah! it was with good reason that the exclusion of -strangers, atheists, Epicureans, and Christians was commended! Now the -mystery of the basket has been unveiled; the sanctuary profaned: all is -lost!" - -(_She descends a precipitous slope--shrieking, despairing, tearing her -hair._) - -"Ah! lies, lies! Daira has not been restored to me. The voice of brass -calls me to the dead. This is another Tartarus, whence there is no -return! Horror!" - -(_The abyss engulfs her._) - -BACCHUS (_with a frenzied laugh_). - -"What matters it? The Archon's wife is my spouse! The law itself reels -in drunkenness! To me the new song, the multiplied forms! - -"The fire by which my mother was devoured, flows in my veins! Let it -burn yet more fiercely, even though I perish! - -"Male and female, complaisant to all, I abandon myself to you, -Bacchantes! I abandon myself to you, Bacchanalians!--and the vine shall -twine herself about the tree-trunks! Howl! dance! writhe! Loosen the -tiger and the slave!--rend flesh with ferocious bitings!" - -(_And Pan, Silenus, the Bacchantes, the Mimalonaeides, and the -Maenads,--with their serpents, torches, sable masks,--cast flowers at -each other ... shake their tympanums, strike their thyrsi, pelt each -other with shells, devour grapes, strangle a goat, and tear Bacchus -asunder._) - -APOLLO (_furiously whipping his coursers, while his blanching locks are -falling from his head_): - -"I have left far behind me stony Delos, so pure that all now there -seems dead; and I must strive to reach Delphi ere its inspiring vapour -be wholly lost. The mules browse in its laurel groves. The Pythoness -has wandered away, and cannot be found. - -"By a stronger concentration of my power, I will obtain sublime hymns, -eternal monuments; and all matter will be penetrated by the vibrations -of my cithara!" - -(_He strikes the strings of the instrument. They burst, lashing his -face with their broken ends. He flings the cithara away; and furiously -whipping his quadriga, cries_): - -"No! enough of forms!--Further, higher!--to the very summit!--to the -realm of pure thought!" - -(_But the horses back, rear, dash the chariot to pieces. Entangled by -the harness, caught by the fragments of the broken pole, he falls head -foremost into the abyss._ - -[Illustration: ... he falls head foremost into the abyss.] - -_The sky is darkened._) - -VENUS (_blue with cold, shivering_): - -"Once with my girdle I made all the horizon of Hellas. - -"Her fields glowed with the roses of my cheeks; her shores were -outlined after the fashion of my lips; and her mountains, whiter than -my doves, palpitated beneath the hands of the statuaries. My spirit's -manifestation was found in the ordinances of the festivals, in the -arrangement of coiffures, in the dialogues of philosophers, in the -constitution of republics. But I have doted too much upon men! It is -Love that has dishonoured me!" - -(_She casts herself back weeping_): - -"This world is abominable;--there is no air for me to breathe! - -"O Mercury, inventor of the lyre, conductor of souls, take me away!" - -(_She places one finger upon her lips, and describing an immense -parabola, falls into the abyss._ - -_Nothing is now visible. The darkness is complete._ - -_Only, that from the eyes of Hilarion escape two flashes, two rays of -lurid light._) - -ANTHONY (_begins at last to notice his immense stature_): - -"Already several times, while thou wert speaking, it seemed to me thou -wert growing taller; and it was no illusion! How? Explain to me ... Thy -aspect terrifies me!" - -(_Footsteps are heard approaching._) - -"What is that?" - -HILARION (_extending his arm_): - -"Look!" - -(_Then, under a pale beam of moonlight, Anthony distinguishes an -interminable caravan defiling over the summit of the rocks;--and each -voyager, one after the other, falls from the cliff into the gulf below._ - -_First comes the three great gods of_ Samothrace,--AXIEROS, AXIOKEROS, -AXIOKERSA,--_united together as in a fascia, purple-masked, all with -hands uplifted._ - -_AEsculapius advances with a melancholy air, not even perceiving -Samos and Telesphorus, who question him with gestures of anguish._ -ELEAN SOSIPOLIS, _of python-form, rolls his coils toward the abyss._ -DOSIPOENA, _becomes dizzy, leaps in of her own accord._ BRITOMARTIS, -_shrieking with fear, clutches fast the meshes of her net. The Centaurs -come at a wild gallop, and roll pell-mell into the black gulf._ - -_Behind them, all limping, advance the bands of the mourning Nymphs. -Those of the meadows are covered with dust; those of the woods moan and -bleed; wounded by the axes of the woodcutters._ - -_The Gelludes, the Strygii, the Empusae, all the infernal goddesses, -form one pyramid of blended fangs, vipers, and torches;--and seated -upon a vulture-skin at its summit, Eurynome, blue as the flies that -corrupt meat, devours her own arms._ - -_Then in one great whirl simultaneously disappear the bloody Orthia, -Hymina of Orchomenus, the Laphria of the Patraens, Aphia of Agina, -Bendis of Thrace, Stymphalia with thighs like a bird's. Triopas, in -lieu of three eyes, has now but three empty orbits. Erichthonius, his -legs paralysed, crawls upon his hands like a cripple._) - -HILARION. "What a pleasure, is it not!--to see them all in the -abjection of their death-agony! Climb up here beside me, on this rock; -and thou shalt be even as Xerxes, reviewing his army. - -"Beyond there, very far, dost thou behold that fair-bearded giant, -who even now lets fall his sword crimsoned with blood?--that is -the Scythian Zalmoxis between two planets,--Artimpasa, Venus, and -Orsiloche, the Moon. - -"Still further away, now emerging from pallid clouds, are the gods whom -the Cimmerians adore, even beyond Thule. - -"Their huge halls were warm, and by the gleam of swords that tapestried -the vault, they drank their hydromel from horns of ivory. They ate the -liver of the whale in dishes of brass wrought by the hammers of demons; -or, betimes, they listened to captive sorcerers whose fingers played -upon harps of stone. - -"They are feeble! They are cold! The snow makes heavy their bearskins; -and their feet show through the rents in their sandals. - -"They weep for the vast fields upon whose grassy knolls they were -wont to draw breath in pauses of battle; they weep for the long ships -whose prows forced a way through the mountains of ice;--and the skates -wherewith they followed the orb of the poles, upbearing at the length -of their mighty arms all the firmament that turned with them." - -(_A gust of frosty wind carries them off. Anthony turns his eyes -another way. And he perceives--outlined in black against a red -background--certain strange personages, with chinbands and gauntlets, -who throw balls at one another, leap over each other's heads, make -grimaces, dance a frenzied dance._) - -HILARION. "Those are the divinities of Etruria, the innumerable AEsars. - -"There is Tages, by whom augury was invented. With one hand he seeks to -augment the divisions of the sky; with the other he supports himself -upon the earth: let him sink therein! - -"Nortia gazes at the wall into which she drave nails to mark the number -of the passing years. Its whole surface is now covered; and the period -is accomplished. - -"Like two travellers overtaken by a storm, Kastur and Pulutuk, -trembling, seek to shelter themselves beneath the same mantle." - -ANTHONY (_closes his eyes_): - -"Enough! Enough!" - -(_But with a mighty noise of wings, all the Victories of the Capitol -pass through the air,--hiding their faces with their hands, dropping -the trophies hanging upon their arms._ - -_Janus,--lord of crepuscules,--flees upon a black ram; and one of his -two faces is already putrified; the other slumbers with fatigue._ - -_Summanus, the headless god of the dark heavens, presses against his -heart an odd cake shaped like a wheel._ - -_Vesta, beneath a ruined cupola, tries to relight her extinguished -lamp._ - -_Bellona gashes her cheeks,--without being able to make that blood flow -by which her devotees were purified._) - -ANTHONY. "Mercy!--they weary me!" - -HILARION. "Before, they amused thee!" - -(_And he shows him in a grove of bean-trees,_ A WOMAN, _naked.... -.........and a black man, holding in each hand a torch._[8]) - -"It is the goddess of Aricia, with the demon Virbius. Her sacerdote, -the King of the grove, had to be an assassin;[9] and the fugitive -slaves, the despoilers of corpses, the brigands of the Via Salaria, the -cripples of the Pons Sublicius, all the human vermin of the Suburra -worshipped no deities so fervently. - -"In the time of Marcus Antonius the patrician women preferred Libitina." - -(_And he shows him under the shadow of cypresses and rose-trees_, -ANOTHER WOMAN, _clad in gauze. Around her lie spades, litters, black -hangings, all the paraphernalia of funerals. She smiles. Her diamonds -shine afar off through spiders' webs. The Larvae, like skeletons, show -their bones through the branches; and the Lemures, who are phantoms, -extend their bat-like wings._ - -_At the end of a field lies the god Terminus, uprooted, and covered -with ordures._ - -_In the centre of a furrow, the great corpse of Vertumnus is being -devoured by red dogs._ - -_The rustic deities all depart, weeping:--Sartor, Sarrator, Vervactor, -Collina, Vallona, Hostilinus--all wearing little hooded mantles, and -carrying either a hoe, a pitchfork, a hurdle, or a boar-spear._) - -HILARION. "Their spirits made prosperous the villa,--with its dovecots, -its parks of dormice, its poultry-yards protected by nets, its warm -stables fragrant with odours of cedar. - -"Also they protected all the wretched population who dragged the irons -upon their legs over the flinty ways of the Sabine country,--those who -called the swine together by sound of horn,--those who were wont to -gather the bunches at the very summits of the elms,--those who drove -the asses, laden with manure, over the winding bypaths. The panting -labourer, leaning over the handle of his plough, prayed them to give -strength to his arms; and under the shade of the lindens, beside -calabashes filled with milk, the cow-herds were wont, in turn, to sound -their praises upon flutes of reed." - -ANTHONY (_sighs._) - -(_And in the centre of a chamber, upon a lofty estrade, an ivory bed is -visible, surrounded by persons bearing torches of pine._) - -"Those are the deities of marriage. They await the coming of the bride. - -"Domiduca should lead her in,--Virgo unfasten her girdle,--Subigo place -her in the bed,--and Praema open her arms, and whisper sweet words into -her ear. - -"But she will not come!--and they dismiss the others:--Nona and Decima -who watch by sick-beds; the three Nixii who preside over child-birth; -the two nurses, Educa and Potina; and Carna, guardian of the cradle, -whose bouquet of hawthorne keeps evil dreams from the child. - -"Afterwards, Ossipago should strengthen his knees;--Barbatus give him -his first beard; Stimula inspire his first desires; Volupia grant him -his first enjoyment; Fabulimus should have taught him to speak, Numera -to count, Cam[oe]na to sing, Consus to reflect." - -(_This chamber is empty; and there remains only the centenarian Naenia -beside the bed,--muttering to herself the dirge she was wont to howl at -the funerals of aged men._ - -_But her voice is soon drowned by sharp cries. These are uttered by_-- - -_The_ LARES DOMESTICI, _crouching at the further end of the atrium, -clad in dog-skins, with flowers wreathed about their bodies,--pressing -their clenched hands against their cheeks, and weeping as loudly as -they can._) - -"Where is the portion of food we received at each repast, the kindly -care of the maid-servant, the smile of the matron, the merriment of -the little boys playing at knuckle-bones on the mosaic pavement of the -court-yard? When grown up, they used to hang about our necks their -bullae of gold or leather! - -"What happiness it was, when on the evening of a triumph, the master, -entering, turned his humid eyes upon us! He would recount his combats; -and the little house would be prouder than a palace; sacred as a temple! - -"How sweet were the family repasts, above all on the morrow of the -Feralia! Tenderness for the dead appeased all discords; all kissed each -other, while drinking to the glories of the past, and the hopes of the -future. - -"But the ancestors, of painted wax, locked up behind us, are slowly -becoming covered with mold. The new races, visiting their own -deceptions upon us, have shattered our jaws; our wooden bodies are -disappearing piece-meal under the teeth of rats." - -(_And the innumerable gods, watching over doors, kitchens, cellars, -baths, disperse in every direction--under the form of enormous ants -running over the pavement, or great butterflies soaring away._ - -_Then a roll of thunder is heard._) - - -A VOICE: - -"I was the God of Armies, the Lord, the Lord God! I pitched the tents -of Jacob on the hills; and in the midst of the sands I nourished my -chosen people in their flight. - -"It was I who consumed the city of Sodom with fire! It was I who -overwhelmed the world with the waters of the Deluge! It was I that -drowned Pharaoh, with all the princes, sons of Kings,--making the sea -to swallow up his chariots of war, and his charioteers! - -"I, the Jealous God, held all other gods in abomination. I brayed the -impure in my anger; the mighty I cast down; and swiftly the desolation -of my wrath ran to the right and to the left, like a dromedary loosened -in a field of maize. - -"I chose the humble to deliver Israel. Angels, flame-winged, spake to -them from out the bushes. - -"Perfumed with spikenard, with cinnamon and myrrh, clad in transparent -robes, and shod with high-heeled sandals,--women of valiant heart went -forth to slay captains. The passing wind carried my prophets with it. - -"My law I graved upon tables of stone. Within that law my people were -enclosed, as within a strong citadel. They were my people. I was their -God! The land was mine; the men also belonged to me, together with -their every thought, and all their works, and the tools they wrought -with, and their prosperity. - -"My ark reposed within a triple sanctuary,--surrounded by curtains -of purple and lighted candelabra. I had a whole tribe to serve me as -servants, swinging censers; and the high-priest, robed in robes of -hyacinth, wore upon his breast precious stones disposed in symmetrical -order. - -"Woe! Woe! the Holy of Holies is open, the veil is rent, the perfumes -of the holocaust are dissipated by all the winds of heaven! The jackal -whines in the sepulchres; my temple is destroyed; my people dispersed! - -"The priests have been strangled with the girdles of their robes. The -women languish in captivity; the holy vessels have all been melted!" - -(_The voice, becoming more distant_): - -"I was the God of Armies; the Lord, the Lord God!" - -(_An enormous silence follows,--and deepest night._) - -ANTHONY. "All have passed away!" - -SOME ONE (_replies_): - -"I remain!" - -(_And Hilarion stands before him--but transfigured wholly,--beautiful -as an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so lofty that in order to -behold his face_-- - -ANTHONY - -_is compelled to throw back his head, to look up as though gazing as a -star_): - -"Who art thou?" - -HILARION. "My kingdom is vast as the universe; and my desire knows no -limits. I go on forever,--freeing minds, weighing worlds,--without -hatred, without fear, without pity, without love, and without God. Men -call me SCIENCE!" - -ANTHONY (_recoiling from him_): - -"Say, rather, that thou art ... the Devil!" - -HILARION (_fixing his eyes upon him_:) - -"Wouldst thou behold him?" - -ANTHONY (_cannot detach his eyes from that mighty gaze:--the curiosity -of the Devil comes upon him. His terror augments; yet his wish grows -even to boundlessness_): - -"Yet if I should see him ... if I were to see him!" - -(_Then in a sudden spasm of wrath_): - -"The horror that I have of him will free me from his presence -forever!... Yes!" - -(_A cloven foot appears. Anthony regrets his wish._ - -_But the Devil flings him upon his horns and bears him away._) - - - -[1] Matthew II: 10--T. - -[2] "Buddha, or more correctly, the Buddha, for Buddha is an -appellative meaning Enlightened."--Max Mueller (Chips, Vol. I., 206). - -[3] Luke II: 25-26.--T. - -[4] Ibid II: 46-47.--T. - -[5] Or, Haoma, also Hom, the sacred plant, whose fermented juice -occupied an important place in the practical rites of Iran. Supposed -to be the same plant known in botany as _Sarcostemma viminalis._ -Deified in Iranian worship, like the sacred drink _Soma_ in the Vedic -hymns. The _Soma_ was the fermented extract of the _Asclepias acida_ -or _Sarcostemma ritalis._ See Marius Fontane, "L'Inde Vedique," "Les -Iraniens."--Trans. - -[6] Apuleius says, "a silken mantle."--Trans. - -[7] Apuleius says, "strung with knuckle-bones of sheep."--Trans. - -[8] This scene, like certain paintings in the Naples museum, is all -suited for public exhibition.--Trans. - -[9] Readers will recollect the lines in Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient -Rome_: - -"Beneath Aricia's trees, - Those trees in whose dim shadow - A ghastly priest doth reign, - The priest who slew the slayer, - And must himself be slain." - - - - - -VI - - -(_He flies beneath him, outstretched like a swimmer; his vast-spreading -wings, wholly concealing him, seem like one huge cloud._) - -ANTHONY. "Whither do I go? But a little while ago I beheld in a glimpse -the form of the Accurst. Nay!--'tis a cloud that upbears me! Perhaps I -am dead, and am ascending to God.... - -"How freely I respire. The immaculate air seems to vivify my soul. No -sense of weight!--no more suffering. - -"Far below me the lightning breaks,--the horizon broadens, widens,--the -rivers cross each other. That blond-bright spot is the desert; that -pool of water the ocean! - -"And other oceans appear!--vast regions of which I knew nothing! -There are the countries of the blacks, which seem to smoke like -brasiers!--then is the zone of snows always made dim by fog! Would I -might behold those mountains where the sun, each evening, sinks to -rest!" - -THE DEVIL. "The sun never sinks to rest; the sun never rests!" - -(_Anthony is not surprised at this voice. It seems to him an echo of -his own thought--a response made by his own memory._ - -_Meanwhile the earth gradually assumes the shape of a ball; and he -beholds it in the midst of the azure, turning upon its poles, and -revolving with the sun._) - -THE DEVIL. "So it does not form the centre of the universe! Pride of -man! humiliate thyself!" - -ANTHONY. "Now I can scarcely distinguish it. It mingles confusedly with -other glowing worlds. The firmament itself is but one tissue of stars." - -(_And they still rise._) - -"No sound!--not even the hoarse cry of eagles! Nothing? I listen for -the harmony of the spheres." - -THE DEVIL. "Thou wilt not hear them! Nor wilt thou behold the -antichtonus of Plato,--or the central furnace of Philolaus,--or the -spheres of Aristotle, or the seven heavens of the Jews, with the great -waters above the vault of crystal!" - -ANTHONY. "Yet from below the vault seemed solid as a wall!--on the -contrary I penetrate it, I lose myself in it!" - -(_And he beholds the moon,--like a rounded fragment of ice filled with -motionless light._) - -THE DEVIL. "Formerly it was the sojourn of souls! Even the good -Pythagoras adorned it with magnificent flowers, populated it with -birds!" - -ANTHONY. "I can see only desolate plains there, with extinct craters -yawning under a black sky! - -"Let us go towards those milder-beaming stars, that we may contemplate -the angels who uphold them at arms' length, like torches!" - -THE DEVIL (_bears him into the midst of the stars_): - -"They attract at the same time that they repel each other. The -action of each one results from that of others, and contributes -thereunto,--without the aid of any auxiliary, by the force of a law, -the virtue of order alone!" - -ANTHONY. "Yes!...yes! My intelligence grasps the great truth! It is -a joy greater than all tender pleasures! Breathless I find myself with -astonishment at the enormity of God!" - -THE DEVIL. "Even as the firmament ever rises as thou dost ascend, so -with the expansion of thy thought will He become greater to thee; and -after this discovery of the universe thou wilt feel thy joy augment -with the broadening and deepening of the infinite." - -ANTHONY. "Ah! higher!--higher still!--- forever higher!" - -(_Then the stars multiply, scintillate. The Milky Way develops in the -zenith like a monstrous belt, with holes at intervals; through these -rents in its brightness stretches of prolonged darkness are visible. -There are rains of stars, long trains of golden dust, luminous vapours -that float and dissolve. - -At times a comet suddenly passes by; then the tranquillity of -innumerable lights recommences. - -Anthony, with outstretched arms, supports himself upon the Devil's -horns, and thus occupies all the space between them. - -He remembers with disdain the ignorance of other days, the mediocrity -of his dreams. And now those luminous globes he was wont to gaze upon -from below, are close to him. He distinguishes the intercrossing of -the lines of their orbits, the complexity of their courses. He beholds -them coming from afar,--and, like stones suspended in a sling, describe -their circles, form their hyperbolas. - -He perceives, all within the field of his vision at once, the Southern -Cross and the Great Bear, the Lynx and the Centaur, the nebula of -Dorado, the six suns in the constellation of Orion, Jupiter with his -four satellites, and the triple ring of the monstrous Saturn!--all the -planets, all the stars that men will discover in the future. He fills -his eyes with their light; he over-burthens his mind with calculation -of their distances: then, bowing his head, he murmurs_): - -"What is the purpose of all that?" - -THE DEVIL. "There is no purpose. How could God have a purpose? What -experience could have instructed him?--what reflection determined him? - -[Illustration: Anthony: What is the purpose of all that? The -Devil: There is no purpose.] - -"Before the beginning he could not have acted;--and now his action -would be useless." - -ANTHONY. "Yet he created the world, at one time, by his word only." - -THE DEVIL. "But the beings that people the earth come upon it -successively. So also, in heaven, new stars arise--different effects of -varying causes." - -ANTHONY. "The varying of causes is the will of God!" - -THE DEVIL. "But to admit several acts of will in God is to admit -various causes, and therefore to deny his unity. - -"His will is inseparable from his essence. He can have but one will, -having but one essence; and inasmuch as he externally exists, he acts -eternally. - -"Contemplate the sun! From its surface leap vast jets of flame, casting -forth sparks that disperse beyond to become worlds here-after;--and -further than the last, far beyond those deeps where thou seest only -night, whirl other suns,--and behind them others again, and beyond -those yet others ... without end!" - -ANTHONY. "Enough! Enough! I fear!--I will fall into the abyss!" - -THE DEVIL (_pauses, and rocks Anthony gently in the midst of space_). - -"Nothingness is--not--there is no void! Everywhere and forever bodies -move upon the immovable deeps of space! Were there boundaries to -space, it would not be space, but a body only: it is limitless!" - -ANTHONY (_stupefied by wonder_): - -"Limitless!" - -THE DEVIL. "Ascend skyward forever and forever,--yet thou wilt not -attain the summit. Descend below the earth for billions of billions of -centuries: never wilt thou reach the bottom. For there is no summit, -there is no bottom; there is no Above, no Below--nor height, nor -depth as signified by the terms of human utterance. And Space itself -is comprised in God, who is not a portion thereof of such or such a -size,--but is Immensity itself!" - -ANTHONY (_slowly_): - -"Matter ..., then, ... must be a part of God?" - -THE DEVIL. "Why not? Canst thou know the end of God?" - -ANTHONY. "Nay: on the contrary, I prostrate, I crush myself beneath his -mightiness!" - -THE DEVIL. "And yet thou dost pretend to move him! Thou dost speak to -him,--thou dost even adorn him with virtues,--with goodness, justice, -mercy,--in lieu of recognising that all perfections are his! - -"To conceive aught beyond him is to conceive God above God, the Being -above the Being. For He is the only being, the only substance. - -"If the Substance could be divided, it would not be the Substance, it -would lose its nature: God could not exist. He is therefore indivisible -as infinite;--and if he had a body, he would be composed of parts, -he would not be One--he would not be infinite. Therefore he is not a -Person!" - -ANTHONY. "What? my prayers, my sobs, my groans, the sufferings of my -flesh, the transports of my love,--have all these things gone out to a -lie,--to emptiness, unavailingly--like the cry of a bird, like a whirl -of dead leaves?" - -(_Weeping_): - -"Oh, no!--there is Some One above all things,--a great Soul, a Lord, a -Father whom my heart adores and who must love me!" - -THE DEVIL. "Thou dost desire that God were not God;--for did he feel -love, or anger, or pity,--he would abandon his perfection for a greater -or a lesser perfection. He can stoop to no sentiment, nor be contained -in any form." - -ANTHONY. "One day, nevertheless, I shall see him!" - -THE DEVIL. "With the blessed, is it not?--when the finite shall enjoy -the infinite in some restricted place, containing the Absolute!" - -ANTHONY. "Matters not!--there must be a paradise for the good, as there -is a hell for the wicked." - -THE DEVIL. "Can the desire of thy mind create the law of the universe? -Without doubt evil is indifferent to God,--forasmuch as the Earth is -covered with it! - -"Is it through impotence that he endures it, or through cruelty that he -maintains it? - -"Dost thou fancy that he is eternally readjusting the world, like an -imperfect machine?--that he is forever watching the movements of all -beings, from the flight of a butterfly to the thought of a man? - -"If he have created the universe, his providence is superfluous. If -Providence exists, then creation is defective. - -"But evil and good concern only thee--even like night and day, pleasure -and pain, death and birth, which are relative only to one corner -of space, to a special centre, to a particular interest. Since the -Infinite is permanent, the Infinite is;--and that is all." - -(_The Devil's wings have been gradually expanding: now they cover all -space._) - -ANTHONY (_now perceives nothing: a great faintness comes upon him_): - -"A hideous cold freezes me, even to the depths of my soul! This is -beyond the extreme of pain! It is like a death that is deeper than -death! I roll in the immensity of darkness; and the darkness itself -enters within me. My consciousness bursts beneath this dilation of -nothingness!" - -THE DEVIL. "Yet the knowledge of things comes to thee only through the -medium of thy mind. Even as a concave mirror, it deforms the objects -it reflects; and thou hast no means whatever of verifying their -exactitude." - -"Never canst thou know the universe in all its vastness; consequently -it will never be possible for thee to obtain an idea of its cause, -to have a just notion of God, nor even to say that the universe is -infinite,--for thou must first be able to know what the Infinite is!" - -"May not Form be, perhaps, an error of thy senses,--Substance a figment -of thy imagination?" - -"Unless, indeed, that the world being a perpetual flux[1] of things, -appearance, on the contrary, be wholly true; illusion the only reality." - -"But art thou sure thou dost see?--art thou even sure thou dost live? -Perhaps nothing exists!" - -(_The Devil has seized Anthony, and, holding him at arms' length, -glares at him with mouth yawning as though to devour him_): - -"Adore me, then!--and curse the phantom thou callest God!" - -(_Anthony lifts his eyes with a last effort of hope._ - -_The Devil abandons him._) - - -[1] The original text seems to me slightly obscure. The idea of the -universe being a perpetual ebb and flow of shapes, is that of forms -passing away to reappear like waves, is that of the Nidana-Sutris: -"Individuality is only a form ... _Everything is only a flux of -aggregates_, interminably uniting and disuniting," as Barth observes in -his "Religions of India."--Trans. - - - - -VII - - -ANTHONY (_finds himself lying upon his back, at the verge of the cliff._ - -_The sky commences to blanch._) - -"Is it the glow of dawn, or only an effect of moonlight?" - -(_He tries to rise, falls back,--his teeth chattering_): - -"I feel such a helplessness of weakness, as though all my bones were -broken! - -"Why? - -"Ah! the Devil!--I remember!--he even repeated to me all that I -learned from the aged Didymus respecting the opinions of Xenophanes, -Heraclitus, of Melissus, of Anaxagoras,--concerning the infinite, the -creation, the impossibility of knowing anything! - -"And yet I believed that I could unite myself to God!" - -(_Laughing bitterly_): - -"Ah! madness! madness! Is the fault mine? Prayer has become -intolerable to me! My heart is dry as a rock! Once, it was wont to -overflow with love!... - -"The sand used to smoke of mornings like the odourous dust of a -censer;--at sunset flowers of fire used to bloom upon the cross; and in -the middle of the night, it often seemed as though all beings and all -things, lying under the same awful silence, were adoring the Lord with -me. O charms of prayer, felicities of ecstasy, gifts of heaven,--what -have become of you? - -"I remember a voyage I made with Ammon in search of a solitary place -suited for the establishment of a monastery. It was the last evening; -we hastened our steps, walked side by side, murmuring hymns, without -conversing. As the sun sank, the shadows of our bodies lengthened like -two obelisks, continually growing taller, and moving before us. Here -and there we planted crosses, made with fragments of our sticks, to -mark the site of a future cell. Night was tardy in her coming; and -waves of darkness overspread the earth, even while a vast rose-coloured -light still glowed in heaven. - -"When I was a child, I used to amuse myself by building hermitages -with pebbles. My mother sitting beside me would watch me so attentively! - -"Will she not have cursed me for having abandoned her?--will she not -have plucked out her white hair by handfuls in the despair of her -grief? And her corpse remains lying on the floor of the hut, under the -roof of reeds, between the crumbling walls. Through an orifice a hyena, -snuffing, thrusts his head, advances his mouth ... horror! horror!" - -(_Sobbing_): - -"No: Ammonaria will not have abandoned her! Where is she -now,--Ammonaria? - -"Perhaps at the further end of a bathroom, she removes her garments -one after the other: first the mantle, then the girdle, then the first -tunic, the second lighter tunic, all her necklaces,--and the vapour -of cinnamon envelops her naked limbs. At last she lies down upon the -tepid mosaic. Her long hair spreading below the curve of her hips, -seems like a sable fleece; and the oppressiveness of the heated air -causes her to pant; her waist arched, her breasts standing out ... -What! my flesh rebels again! Even in the midst of grief am I tortured -by concupiscence. To be subjected thus unto two tortures at once is -beyond endurance! I can no longer bear myself!" - -(_He leans over, and gazes into the abyss._) - -"The man who should fall would be killed. Nothing easier: it were only -necessary to roll over upon my left side:--only one movement--one!" - -(_Then suddenly appears_--AN AGED WOMAN. _Anthony starts to his feet in -affright. It seems to him that he beholds his mother arisen._ - -_But this woman is far older, and prodigiously thin._ - -_A shroud, knotted about her head, hangs down, together with her white -hair, so as to cover her legs, slender as crutches. The brilliancy of -her ivory-coloured teeth make her earthy skin darker still. The orbits -of her eyes are full of shadow; and far back within them two flames -vacillate, like the lamps of sepulchres._ - -_She exclaims_): - -"Advance! What hinders thee?" - -ANTHONY (_stammering_): - -"I fear ... to commit a sin!" - -SHE (_replies_): - -"But King Saul killed himself! Razias, a just man, killed himself! -Saint Pelagia of Antioch killed herself! Dommina of Aleppo and her two -daughters--all three saints--killed themselves: and remember also how -many confessors delivered themselves up to the executioner in their -impatient longing for death! That they might enjoy death more speedily, -the virgins of Miletus strangled themselves with their girdles. At -Syracuse the philosopher Hegesias preached so eloquently upon death -that men deserted the lupanars to go hang themselves in the fields. The -patricians of Borne sought for death as a new form of debauch." - -ANTHONY. "Aye! the love of death is strong; and many a anchorite has -succumbed to it." - -THE OLD WOMAN. "To do that which will make thee equal unto God--think! -He created thee: thou wilt destroy his work--thou! and by thy -courage,--of thy own free will! The enjoyment that Erostratus knew was -not greater than this. And moreover thy body has so long mocked thy -soul that it is full time thou shouldst take vengeance upon it. Thou -wilt not suffer. It will soon be over. Of what art thou afraid?--a -wide, black hole! Perhaps it is a void!" - -[Illustration: The Old Woman: Of what art thou afraid?--a wide, -black hole! Perhaps it is a void!] - -(_Anthony hearkens without replying; and upon the other side appears_-- - -ANOTHER WOMAN--_young and marvellously beautiful. At first he takes -her to be Ammonaria. But she is taller, blond as honey, very plump, -with paint upon her cheeks and roses upon her head. Her long robe, -weighty with spangles, gleams with metallic lustre;--her fleshy lips -are sanguinolent; and her somewhat heavy eyelids are so drowned with -languor that one would almost take her to be blind._ - -_She murmurs_): - -"Nay, live! enjoy! Solomon counsels joy! Follow the guiding of thy -heart and the desire of thine eyes!" - -ANTHONY. "What joy is there for me? My heart is weary; my eyes are dim!" - -SHE (_answers_): - -"Seek the suburb of Racotis; push open a door that is painted -blue;--and when thou shalt be in the atrium where a fountain jet -murmurs unceasingly, a woman will present herself before thee--in -peplos of white silk striped with gold; her hair is unloosed, her -laugh like the clatter of crotali. She is skilful. In her caress thou -wilt taste the pride of initiation and the appeasement of desire. - -"Hast ever pressed to thy bosom a virgin who loved thee? Dost remember -the surrenders of her modesty,--the passing away of her remorse in a -sweet flow of tears? - -"Thou canst even now imagine thyself walking with her--canst thou -not?--in the wood by the light of the moon? At each pressure of your -joined hands, a sweet shuddering passes through you both,--looking -closely into each other your eyes seem to outpour into one another -something like immaterial fluid;--and thy heart fills: it bursts: it is -a suave whirl of eddying passion, an overflowing of intoxication...." - -THE OLD WOMAN. "One need not possess joys in order to taste their -bitterness! Even to view them from afar off begets loathing of them. -Thou must be fatigued by the monotony of the same actions, the length -of the days, the hideousness of the world, the stupidity of the sun?" - -ANTHONY. "Aye, indeed!--I loathe all that he shines upon." - -THE YOUNG WOMAN. "Hermit! hermit! thou wilt find diamonds among the -flints, fountains beneath the sand, a delectation in all the hazards -thou dost despise; and there are even upon earth places of such beauty -that the sight of them would make thee desire to press the whole world -against thy heart with love!" - -THE OLD WOMAN. "Each evening that thou liest down upon the earth to -slumber, thou dost hope that it may soon lie upon thee and cover thee." - -THE YOUNG WOMAN. "Yet thou dost believe in the resurrection of the -flesh--which is but the translation of life into eternity!" - -(_Even as she speaks, the Old Woman becomes still more fleshless; and -above her skull, from which the white hair has disappeared, a bat -circles in the air._ - -_The Young Woman has become fatter. Her robe gleams with shifting -colours; her nostrils palpitate, her eyes roll softly._) - -THE FORMER (_opening her arms, exclaiming_): - -"Come to me!--I am Consolation, repose, oblivion, eternal calm!" - -THE OTHER. - -"I am the sleep-giver, life, happiness inexhaustible!" - -(_Anthony turns to fee from them. Each lays a hand on his shoulder._ - -_The Shroud parts, exposes the Skeleton of Death._ - -_The robe splits asunder, and leaves the whole body of Lust -exposed:--her waist is slender; her long and undulating hair flutters -in the wind._ - -_Anthony stands motionless between the two, considering them_): - -DEATH (_says to him_): - -"What matters it, whether now or at another time! Thou art mine,--like -suns, nations, cities, kings, mountain-snows, and the grasses of the -fields. I fly higher than the hawks of heaven. I run more swiftly than -the gazelle; I overtake even Hope; I vanquished the Son of God!" - -LUST. "Resist not! I am the Omnipotent! The forests re-echo with my -sighs; the waters tremble with my agitations. Virtue, courage, piety, -dissolve in the perfume of my mouth. Man I accompany in every step -that he makes; and even from the threshold of the tomb he turns to me!" - -DEATH. "I will find for thee that which thou hast vainly sought for, -by the gleam of torches, upon the faces of the dead,--or among those -awful sands that are formed of human remains, where thou wast wont to -wander beyond the Pyramids. From time to time, the fragment of a skull -rolled under thy sandal. Thou didst take up the dust: thou didst let it -trickle through thy fingers; and thy thought, blending with it, sank -into nothingness." - -LUST. "My gulf is deeper! Marbles have inspired loves. Men rush to -conjunctures that terrify. Fetters are riveted that the fettered curse. -Whence the bewitchment of courtesans, the extravagance of dreams, the -immensity of my sadness?" - -DEATH. "Mine irony depasseth all others! There are convulsions of -delight at the funerals of kings, at the extermination of a whole -people; and war is made with music, with plumes, with harness of -gold,--with vast display of ceremony that my due of homage may be -greater!" - -[Illustration: Death: Mine irony depasseth all others!] - -LUST. "My rage equals thine! I also yell; I bite! I, too, have sweats -of agony, and aspects cadaverous!" - -DEATH. "It is I that make thee awful! Let us intertwine!" - -[Illustration: Death: It is I that make thee awful! Let us -intertwine!] - -(_Death laughs mockingly; Lust roars. They clasp each other about the -waist, and chant alternately_): - -"I hasten the dissolution of matter!" - -"I facilitate the dispersion of germs!" - -"Thou dost destroy for my renovations!" - -"Thou dost engender for my destructions!" - -"Ever-active my power!" - -"Fecund, my putrefaction!" - -(_And their voices, whose rolling echoes fill the horizon, deepen and -become so mighty that Anthony falls backward as if thunder-stricken. A -shock from time to time causes him to reopen his eyes; and he perceives -in the midst of the darkness a manner of monster before him._ - -_It is a skull, crowned with roses, dominating the torso of a woman -nacreously white. Below, a shroud starred with specks of gold forms -something like a tail; and the whole body undulates, after the fashion -of a gigantic worm erect on end._ - -_The vision attenuates,--disappears._) - -ANTHONY (_rising to his feet_): - -"The Devil yet again, and under his two-fold aspect: the spirit of -fornication, and the spirit of destruction. - -"Neither affrights me! I repel happiness; and I know myself to be -eternal. - -"Thus death is only an illusion, a veil-masking betimes the continuity -of life. - -"But Substance being unique, wherefore should forms be varied? - -"Somewhere there must be primordial figures, whose bodily forms are -only symbols. Could I but see them, I would know the link between -matter and thought; I would know in what Being consists. - -[Illustration: Anthony: Somewhere there must be primordial -figures, whose bodily forms are only symbols.] - -"Such were the figures painted at Babylon upon the walls of the -temple of Belus; and others like them covered a mosaic in the port of -Carthage. I myself have sometime beheld in the sky, as it were, forms -of spirits. Those who cross the desert meet with animals surpassing all -conception...." - -[Illustration: I myself have sometime beheld in the sky, as it -were, forms of spirits.] - -(_And opposite, upon the further side of the Nile, suddenly appears -the Sphinx.[1] He stretches his paws, shakes the bandelets upon his -forehead, and crouches upon his belly._ - -_Leaping, flying, spitting fire through her nostrils, lashing her -winged sides with her dragon-tail, the green-eyed Chimera circles, -barks._ - -_The thick curls of her head tossed back upon one side mingle with -the hair of her loins; on the other side they hang down to the sand, -quivering with the swinging of her body, to and fro._) - -THE SPHINX (_remaining motionless, and gazing at the Chimera_): - -"Hither, Chimera! rest awhile!" - -THE CHIMERA. "No! never!" - -THE SPHINX. "Do not run so fast, do not fly so high, do not bark so -loudly!" - -THE CHIMERA. "DO not call me!--call me no more; since thou must remain -forever dumb." - -THE SPHINX. "Cease casting thy flames in my face, and uttering thy -yells in my ear: thou canst not melt my granite." - -THE CHIMERA. "Thou shalt not seize me, terrible sphinx!" - -THE SPHINX. "Thou art too mad to dwell with me!" - -THE CHIMERA. "Thou art too heavy to follow me!" - -THE SPHINX. "Yet whither goest thou, that thou shouldst run so fast?" - -THE CHIMERA. "I gallop in the corridors of the Labyrinth--I hover above -the mountains--I graze the waves in my flight--I yelp at the bottom of -precipices--I suspend myself with my mouth from the skirts of clouds--I -sweep the shores with my dragging tail; and the curves of the hills -have taken their form from the shape of my shoulders! But thee I find -perpetually immobile, or perhaps making strange designs with thy claws -upon the sand." - -THE SPHINX. "It is because I keep my secret;--I dream and calculate. - -"The sea returns to its bed; the wheat bends back and forth in the -wind; the caravans pass by; the dust flies; cities crumble; and yet -my gaze, which naught can deviate, remains fixed, gazing through all -intervening things, upon a horizon that none may reach." - -[Illustration: The Sphinx: ... and yet my gaze, which naught -can deviate, remains fixed, gazing through all intervening -things, upon a horizon that none may reach. The Chimera: I am -light and joyous!] - -THE CHIMERA. "I am light and joyous! I offer to the eyes of men -dazzling perspectives with Paradise in the clouds above, and -unspeakable felicity afar off. Into their souls I pour the eternal -madnesses; projects of happiness, plans for the future, dreams of glory -and vows of love, and all virtuous resolutions. - -"I urge men to perilous voyages and great enterprises. I have chiselled -with my claws the wonders of architecture. It was I who suspended the -little bells above the tomb of Porsenna, and surrounded the quays of -Atlantis with a wall of orichalcum. - -"I seek for new perfumes, for vaster flowers, for pleasures never felt -before. If I perceive in any place a man whose mind reposes in wisdom, -I fall upon him, and strangle him." - -THE SPHINX. "All those tormented by the desire of God, I have devoured. - -"In order to climb up to my royal brow, the strongest ascend upon the -flutings of my bandelets as upon the steps of a stairway. Then a great -lassitude comes upon them, and they fall backward." - -(_Anthony begins to tremble._ - -_He is no longer before his cabin, but in the desert itself, with those -two monsters beside him, whose breath is hot upon his shoulders._) - -THE SPHINX. "O thou Fantasy, bear me away upon thy wings that my -sadness may be lightened!" - -THE CHIMERA. "O thou Unknown, I am enamoured of thine eyes! Like a -hyena in heat I turn about thee, soliciting those fecundations whereof -the desires devour me! - -"Ope thy mouth, lift thy feet--mount upon my back!" - -THE SPHINX. "My feet, since they have been outstretched, can move no -more. The lichen, like an eruption, has formed upon my jaws. By dint of -long dreaming I have no longer aught to say." - -THE CHIMERA. "Thou liest, hypocrite Sphinx! Wherefore dost thou always -call me and always disown me!" - -THE SPHINX. "It is thou, indomitable caprice, that dost forever pass -and repass, whirling in thy course!" - -THE CHIMERA. "Is the fault mine? What? Let me be!" - -(_She barks._) - -THE SPHINX. "Thou movest away! thou dost escape me!" - -(_He growls._) - -THE CHIMERA. "Essay!--Thou crushest me!" - -THE SPHINX. "Nay!--impossible!" - -(_And gradually sinking down he disappears in the sand; while the -Chimera, ramping with tongue protruding, departs, describing circles on -her way._ - -_The breath of her mouth has produced a fog._ - -_Through this mist Anthony perceives wreathings of clouds, undecided -curves._ - -_At last he can distinguish something like the appearance of human -bodies._ - -_And first_:-- - -THE ASTOMI--_approach, like bubbles of air traversed by sunlight. They -cry_): - -"Do not breathe too hard! The drops of rain bruise us, false notes -excoriate us, darknesses blind us! Composed wholly of breezes and of -perfumes, we float along, we roll along:--a little more than Dreams, -yet not quite beings...." - -THE NISNAS - -(_have only one eye, one cheek, one hand, one leg, half a body, half a -heart. They say_): - -"We live quite in our halves of houses, with our halves of wives and -our halves of children!" - -THE BLEMMYES - -(_who have no head at all_): - -"Our shoulders are all the broader;--and there is no ox, rhinoceros, or -elephant able to carry what we carry. - -"Something dimly resembling features--as it were a vague -face--imprinted upon our breasts: that is all! We think digestions; we -subtleize secretions. God, in our belief, floats peacefully within the -interior chyles. - -"We go straight upon our way, through all mires, crossing all morasses, -skirting the edges of all abysses: and we are the most laborious, the -most happy, the most virtuous of all peoples!" - -THE PYGMIES: - -"We, good little men, swarm upon the world like vermin upon the hump of -a dromedary. - -"We are burned, drowned, crushed; and we always reappear, more -vivacious and countless than before--terrible by reason of our numbers!" - -THE SCIAPODS: - -"Fettered to the earth by our hair, long as lianas, we vegetate beneath -the shelter of our feet, broad as parasols; and the light comes to us -through the thickness of our heels. No annoyances for us, no work! The -head as low as possible--That is the secret of happiness." - -[Illustration: The Sciapods: The head as low as possible--That is -the secret of happiness.] - -(_Their lifted thighs,--resembling the trunks of trees,--multiply._ - -_And a forest appears. Great apes clamber through it on all -fours:--these are men with the heads of dogs._) - -THE CYNOCEPHALI: - -"We leap from branch to branch in search of eggs to suck; and we pluck -the little fledglings alive; then we put their nests upon our heads in -lieu of caps. - -"We tear off the teats of cows; and we put out the eyes of lynxes: -we let fall our dung from the heights of the trees--we parade our -turpitude in the full light of the sun. - -"Lacerating the flowers, crushing the fruits, befouling the springs, -violating women, we are the masters of all,--by the strength of our -arms, and the ferocity of our hearts. - -"Ho! companions!--gnash with your jaws!" - -(_Blood and milk pour down their chops. The rain streams over their -hairy backs._ - -_Anthony inhales the freshness of the green leaves._ - -_There is a movement among them, a clashing of branches; and all of -a sudden appears a huge black stag, with the head of a bull, having -between his ears a thicket of white horns._) - -THE SADHUZAG: - -"My seventy-four antlers are hollow like flutes. - -"When I turn me toward the wind of the South, there issue from them -sounds that draw all the ravished animals around me. The serpents twine -about my legs; the wasps cluster in my nostrils; and the parrots, the -doves, the ibises, alight upon the branches of my horns. - -"Listen!" - -(_He throws back his horns, whence issues a music of sweetness -ineffable._ - -_Anthony presses both hands upon his heart. It seems to him as though -his soul were being borne away by the melody._) - -THE SADHUZAG: - -"But when I turn me toward the wind of the North, my antlers, more -thickly bristling than a battalion of lances, give forth a sound of -howlings: the forests are startled with fear; the rivers remount toward -their sources; the husks of fruits burst open; and the bending grasses -stand erect on end, like the hair of a coward. - -"Listen!" - -(_He bends his branching antlers forward: hideous and discordant cries -proceed from them. Anthony feels as though his heart were torn asunder._ - -_And his horror augments upon beholding_)-- - -THE MARTICHORAS - -(_A gigantic red lion, with human face, and three rows of teeth_): - -"The gleam of my scarlet hair mingles with the reflection of the great -sands. I breathe through my nostrils the terror of solitudes. I spit -forth plague. I devour armies when they venture into the desert. - -"My claws are twisted like screws, my teeth shaped like saws; and my -curving tail bristles with darts which I cast to right and left, before -and behind! - -"See! see!" - -(_The Martichoras shoots forth the keen bristles of his tail, which -irradiate in all directions like a volley of arrows. Drops of blood -rain down, spattering upon the foliage._) - -THE CATOBLEPAS - -(_A black buffalo with a pig's head, falling to the ground, and -attached to his shoulders by a neck long, thin, and flaccid as an empty -gut._ - -_He wallows flat upon the ground, and his feet entirely disappear -beneath the enormous mane of coarse hair which covers his face_): - -"Fat, melancholy, fierce--thus I continually remain, feeling against -my belly the warmth of the mud. So heavy is my skull that it is -impossible for me to lift it. I roll it slowly all around me, -open-mouthed; and with my tongue I tear up the venemous plants bedewed -with my breath. Once, I even devoured my own feet without knowing it! - -"No one, Anthony, has ever beheld mine eyes,--or at least, those who -have beheld them are dead. Were I to lift my eyelids--my pink and -swollen eyelids, thou wouldst forthwith die!" - -ANTHONY. "Oh, that one! Ugh! As though I could desire it?--Yet his -stupidity fascinates me! No, no! I will not!" - -(_He gazes fixedly upon the ground._ - -_But the weeds take fire; and amidst the contorsions of the flames, -arises_)-- - -THE BASILISK - -(_A great violet serpent, with trilobate crest, and two fangs, one -above, one below_): - -"Beware, lest thou fall into my jaws! I drink fire. I am fire!--and I -inhale it from all things: from clouds, from flints, from dead trees, -the fur of animals, the surface of marshes. My temperature maintains -the volcanoes: I lend glitter to jewels: I give colours to metals!" - -THE GRIFFIN - -(_A lion with a vulture's beak, and white wings, red paws and blue -neck_): - -"I am the master of deep splendours. I know the secrets of the tombs -wherein the Kings of old do slumber. - -"A chain, issuing from the wall, maintains their heads upright. Near -them, in basins of porphyry, the women they loved float upon the -surfaces of black liquids. Their treasures are all arrayed in halls, in -lozenge-shaped designs, in little heaps, in pyramids;--and down below, -far below the tombs, and to be reached only after long travelling -through stifling darkness, there are rivers of gold bordered by forests -of diamonds, there are fields of carbuncles and lakes of mercury. - -"Addossed against the subterranean gate I remain with claws uplifted; -and my flaming eyes spy out those who seek to approach. The vast and -naked plain that stretches away to the end of the horizon is whitened -with the bones of travellers. But for thee the gates of bronze shall -open; and thou shalt inhale the vapour of the mines, thou shalt descend -into the caverns.... Quick! quick!" - -(_He burrows into the earth with his paws, and crows like a cock._ - -_A thousand voices answer him. The forest trembles._ - -_And all manner of frightful creatures arise:--The Tragelaphus, half -deer, half ox; the Myrmecoles, lion before-and ant behind, whose -genitals are set reversely; the python Askar, sixty cubits long, that -terrified Moses; the huge weasel Pastinaca, that kills the trees with -her odour; the Presteros, that makes those who touch it imbecile; -the Mirag, a horned hare, that dwells in the islands of the sea. The -leopard Phalmant bursts his belly by roaring; the triple-headed bear -Senad tears her young by licking them with her tongue; the dog Cepus -pours out the blue milk of her teats upon the rocks. Mosquitoes begin -to hum, toads commence to leap; serpents hiss. Lightnings flicker. Hail -falls._ - -_Then come gusts, bearing with them marvellous anatomies:--Heads of -alligators with hoofs of deer; owls with serpent tails; swine with -tiger-muzzles; goats with the crupper of an ass; frogs hairy as bears; -chameleons huge as hippopotami; calves with two heads, one bellowing, -the other weeping; winged bellies flitting hither and thither like -gnats._ - -_They rain from the sky, they rise from the earth, they pour from the -rocks; everywhere eyes flame, mouths roar, breasts bulge, claws are -extended, teeth gnash, flesh clacks against flesh. Some crouch; some -devour each other at a mouthful._ - -_Suffocating under their own numbers, multiplying by their own contact, -they climb over one another; and move about Anthony with a surging -motion as though the ground were the deck of a ship. He feels the trail -of snails upon the calves of his legs, the chilliness of vipers upon -his hands:--and spiders spinning about him enclose him within their -network._ - -_But the monstrous circle breaks, parts; the sky suddenly becomes blue; -and_)-- - -THE UNICORN (_appears_): - -"Gallop! Gallop! - -"I have hoofs of ivory, teeth of steel; my head is the colour of -purple, my body the colour of snow; and the horn of my forehead is -bestreaked with the tints of the rainbow. - -"I travel from Chaldea to the Tartar desert,--upon the shores of the -Ganges and in Mesopotamia. I overtake the ostriches. I run so swiftly -that I draw the wind after me. I rub my back against the palm-trees. I -roll among the bamboos. I leap rivers with a single bound. Doves fly -above me. Only a virgin can bridle me. - -"Gallop! Gallop!" - -(_Anthony watches him depart._ - -_And as he gazes he beholds all the birds that nourish themselves -with wind: the Gouith, the Ahuti, the Alphalim, the Iukneth, of the -mountains of Kaf, the homai of the Arabs--which are the souls of -murdered men. He hears the parrots that utter human speech; and the -great Pelasgian palmipeds that sob like children or chuckle like old -women._ - -_A saline air strikes his nostrils. Now a vast beach stretches before -him._ - -_In the distance jets of water arise, spouted by whales; and from the -very end of the horizon come_)-- - -THE BEASTS OF THE SEA - -(_round as wineskins, flat as blades, denticulated like saws, dragging -themselves over the sand as they approach_): - -[Illustration: The beasts of the sea round as wineskins ...] - -"Thou wilt accompany us to our immensities, whither as yet no one has -descended. - -"Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean. Some dwell in the -sojourn of tempests; others swim freely amid the transparency of chill -waves;--or, like oxen, graze upon the coral plains, or suck in through -their trunks the reflux of the tides,--or bear upon their shoulders the -vast weight of the sources of the sea." - -[Illustration: Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean.] - -(_Phosphorences gleam in the moustaches of the seals, shift in the -scales of fish. Echini whirl like wheels; ammonites uncoil like cables; -oysters make their shell hinges squeak; polypi unfold their tentacles; -medusae quiver like balls of crystal suspended; sponges float hither and -thither, anemones ejaculate water; wrack and sea-mosses have grown all -about._ - -_And all sorts of plants extend themselves into branches, twist -themselves into screws, lengthen into points, round themselves out like -fans. Gourds take the appearance of breasts; lianas interlace like -serpents._ - -_The Dedaims of Babylon, which are trees, bear human heads for fruit; -Mandragoras sing;--the root Baaras runs through the grass._ - -_And now the vegetables are no longer distinguishable from the animals. -Polyparies that seem like trees, have arms upon their branches. Anthony -thinks he sees a caterpillar between two leaves: it is a butterfly that -takes flight. He is about to step on a pebble: a grey locust leaps -away. One shrub is bedecked with insects that look like petals of -roses; fragments of ephemerides form a snowy layer upon the soil._ - -_And then the plants become confounded with the stones._ - -_Flints assume the likeness of brains; stalactites of breasts; the -flower of iron resembles a figured tapestry._[2] - -_He sees efflorescences in fragments of ice, imprints of shrubs and -shells--yet so that one cannot detect whether they be imprints only, or -the things themselves. Diamonds gleam like eyes; metals palpitate._ - -_And all fear has departed from him! He throws himself down upon the -ground, and leaning upon his elbows, watches breathlessly._ - -_Insects that have no stomachs persistently eat; withered ferns bloom -again and reflower; absent members grow again._ - -_At last he perceives tiny globular masses, no larger than pinheads, -with cilia all round them. They are agitated with a vibratile motion_): - -ANTHONY (_deliriously_): - -"O joy! O bliss! I have beheld the birth of life! I have seen the -beginning of motion! My pulses throb even to the point of bursting! -I long to fly, to swim, to bark, to bellow, to howl! Would that I -had wings, a carapace, a shell,--that I could breathe out smoke, -wield a trunk,--make my body writhe,--divide myself everywhere,--be -in everything,--emanate with odours,--develop myself like the -plants,--flow like water,--vibrate like sound--shine like light, -squatting upon all forms--penetrate each atom--descend to the very -bottom of matter,--be matter itself!" - -(_Day at last appears;--and, like tabernacle curtains uplifted, clouds -of gold uprolling in broad volutes unveil the sky._ - -_Even in the midst thereof, and in the very disk of the sun, beams the -face of Jesus Christ._ - -[Illustration: Day at last appears ... in the midst thereof and -in the very disk of the sun, beams the face of Jesus Christ.] - -_Anthony makes the sign of the cross, and resumes his devotions._) - - -FINIS - - -[1] Winkelmann claims to have been the first to discover that the -Egyptian sphinxes were bisexual--females before--males otherwise. (See -Book II, chap. I, Sec. 25.) Flaubert speaks of the Sphinx in the -masculine like Philemon. (See also Signor Carlo Fea's note upon the -paragraph in Winkelmann, old French edition. An II, R. F.)--Trans. - -[2] Fleurs de fer, "flowers of iron." In mineralogy _flos ferri_, a -form of Aragonite.--Trans. - - - - -[NOTE - -Those who compare this translation with the original will observe the -omission of some few paragraphs on pages 77, 96 and 211. They are -speeches put in the mouths of certain Heresiarchs, or complaints of -certain of the minor Roman household gods. The translator relegated -these to an addenda, which the publishers have omitted as being -unnecessary. Those who are familiar with the original will be able to -supply them, and will realize that while they might be offensive to -some persons, they are in no respect an integral or important part of -the great drama.] - - - - -ADDENDA (added by transcribers) - - -A. Observation of Manes, pages 82-3, original text; page 89 of -translation. - - -MANES - -_Ou plutot, faites si bien qu'elle ne soit pas fecondes. Mieux vaut -pour l'ame tomber sur la terre que de languir dans des entraves -charnelles._ - -Probably a calumny against Manes; for the Eastern philosophy, -especially that of Zoroaster, which is said to have inspired the tenets -of Manichaeism, advocated no such abominations. - - -B. Page 105 of original; page 108 translation. The realistic -phraseology of the original passage is rather brutal. The French text -reads: "_Il souffrait de la maladie Bellerephontienne; et sa mere, la -parfumeuse, s'est livree a Pantherus, un soldat Romain, sur des gerbes -de mais, un soir de moisson._" C. Descriptive text, page 237 original, -partly suppressed on page 223 translation: "_Et il lui montre dans un -bosquet d'aliziers Une Femme toute nue, a quatre pattes comme une bete, -et saillie par un homme noir, tenant dans chaque main un flambeau._" - -D. Curious text of Crepitus, on page 228, pages 241-3 of original: - -CREPITUS - -(----se fait entendre): - -_Moi aussi l'on m'honora jadis. On me faisait des libations. Je fus un -Dieu!_ - -_L'Athenien me saluait comme un presage de fortune, tandis que le -Romain devot me maudissait les poings leves et que le pontife d'Egypte, -s'abstinant des feves, tremblait a ma voix et palissait a mon odeur._ - -_Quand le vinaigre militaire coulait sur les barbes non rasees, qu'on -se regalait de glands, de pois, et d'oignons crus, et que le bouc en -morceau cuissait dans le beurre rance des pasteurs, sans souci du -voisin, personne alors ne se genait. Les nourritures solides faisaient -digestions retentissantes. Au soleil de la campagne les hommes se -soulageaient avec lenteur._ - -_Ainsi, je passais sans scandale, comme les autres besoins de la vie, -comme Mena, tourment des vierges, et la douce Rumina qui protege le -sein de la nourrice, gonfle, des veines bleuatres. J'etais joyeux. Je -faisais rire. Et se dilatant d'aise a cause de moi, le convive exhalait -toute sa gaiete par les ouvertures de son corps._ - -_J'ai eu mes jours d'orgeuil. Le bon Aristophane me promena sur la -scene, et l'empereur Claudius Drusus[1] me fit asseoir a sa table. Dans -les laticlaves des patriciens j'ai circule majestueusement! Les vases -d'or, comme des tympanons, resonnaient sous moi; et, quand plein de -murenes, de truffles, et de pates, l'intestin du maitre se degageait -avec fracas, l'univers attentif apprenait que Cesar avait dine!_ - -_Mais a present, je suis confine dans la populace_[2] _et l'on se -recrie, meme a mon nom!_ - -_Et Crepitus s'eloigne, en poussant un gemissement...._ - -E. For descriptions of the Martichoras and other monsters, appearing -page 287 in the original and 263 in the translation, see also Rabelais' -Pantagruel, Book V, Chap. XXX. - - - -[1] Needless to refer to the comedies of Aristophanes, with which -English readers have been familiarized through the Bohn translations. -The reference to Claudius ius Drusus seems based upon the following -lines in Suetonius: "_Dicitur etiam meditatus edictum, quo veniam daret -flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi: cum periclitatum -quemdam prae pudore ex continentia reperisset._" (_Suetonius-Tiberius -Claudius Drusus_: 32.) - -[2] The so-called divinities, _Deus Crepitus, Dea Pertunda, Deus -Stercutius, Dea Rumina_ (or _Rumilia_), _Dea Mena_, concerning whose -curious attributes the reader may consult English or French classical -encyclopedists, were doubtless regarded by the intelligent classes -of antiquity much as certain religious superstitions are regarded by -educated moderns. It is true that they furnished grotesque themes -to artists; but many existing superstitions regarding elves and -goblins have inspired modern sculptors, painters and designers. -Certainly, seriously worshipped as deities, Priapus might seem equally -contemptible as a divinity; but his worship, degenerate as it became -in later years, was primitively symbolical. The obscene image merely -typified the procreative Spirit of Nature. The eccentric gods and -goddesses above referred to had no such excuse for being. As previously -observed, however, Flaubert artistically represents these divinities -not as they were really considered in the antique world, but rather as -they would have appeared to the eyes of zealous Christians in the third -century--infamous and loathsome.--Translator. - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -This translation of the "Tentation" by Lafcadio Hearn, still regarded -by many as the best up until now in English, still misses some small -fragments (of a couple of words) not deemed fit for the Anglo-Saxon -temperament of that time. There is a contemporary version (2002) of -this translation available, with introduction by Michel Foucault and -the inclusion of some missing expressions. The original French by -Gustave Flaubert is also available at Project Gutenberg--see -http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10982 - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEMPTATION OF ST. 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