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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Serapis, by Georg Ebers, Volume 4.
+#65 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: Serapis, Volume 4.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5504]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 5, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPIS, BY GEORG EBERS, V4 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+SERAPIS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The day had flown swiftly for Dada under the roof of Medius; there were
+costumes and scenery in wonderful variety for her to look over; the
+children were bright and friendly, and she had enjoyed playing with them,
+for all her little tricks and rhymes, which Papias was familiar with by
+this time, were to them new and delightful.  It amused her, too, to see
+what the domestic difficulties were of which the singer had described
+himself as being a victim.
+
+Medius was one of those men who buy everything that strikes them as
+cheap--for instance, that very morning, at Kibotus he had stood to watch
+a fish auction and had bought a whole tub-full of pickled fish for "a
+mere trifle;" but when, presently, the cargo was delivered, his wife flew
+into a great rage, which she vented first on the innocent lad who brought
+the fish, and then on the less innocent purchaser.  They would not get to
+the bottom of the barrel and eat the last herring, she asserted, till
+they were a century old.  Medius, while he disputed so monstrous a
+statement, vehemently declared that such wholesome and nutritious food as
+those fish was undoubtedly calculated to prolong the lives of the whole
+family to an exceptionally great age.
+
+This discussion, which was not at all by way of a jest, amused Dada
+far more than the tablets, cylinders and cones covered with numbers
+and cabalistic signs, to which Medius tried to direct her attention.
+She darted off in the midst of his eager explanations to show his
+grandchildren how a rabbit sniffs and moves his ears when he is offered
+a cabbage-leaf.
+
+The report, which reached them in the afternoon, of the proceedings in
+the square by the Prefect's house, disturbed Medius greatly, and he set
+off at once for the scene of action.
+
+He did not return till evening, and then he looked like an altered man.
+He must have witnessed something very terrible, for his face was as pale
+as death, and his usually confident and swaggering manner had given place
+to a stricken and care-worn air.  He walked up and down the room,
+groaning as he went; he flung himself on the divan and stared fixedly at
+the ground; he wandered into the atrium and gazed cautiously out on the
+street.  Dada's presence seemed suddenly to be the source of much anxiety
+to him, and the girl, painfully conscious of this, hastened to tell him
+that she would prefer to return home at once to her uncle and aunt.
+
+"You can please yourself," was all he said, with a shrug and a sigh.
+"You may stay for aught I care.  It is all the same now!"
+
+So far his wife had left him to himself, for she was used to his violent
+and eccentric behavior whenever anything had crossed him; but now she
+peremptorily desired to be informed what had happened to him and he at
+once acceded.  He had been unwilling to frighten them sooner than was
+needful, but they must learn it sooner or later: Cynegius had arrived to
+overthrow the image of Serapis, and what must ensue they knew only too
+well.  "To-day," he cried, "we will live; but by to-morrow--a thousand to
+one-by to-morrow there will be an end of all our joys and the earth will
+swallow up the old home and us with it!"
+
+His words fell on prepared ground; his wife and daughter were appalled,
+and as Medius went on to paint the imminent catastrophe in more vivid
+colors, his energy growing in proportion to its effect on them, they
+began at first to sob and whimper and then to wail loudly.  When the
+children, who by this time were in bed, heard the lamentations of their
+elders, they, too, set up a howl, and even Dada caught the infection.
+As for Medius himself, he had talked himself into such a state of terror
+by his own descriptions of the approaching destruction of the world that
+he abandoned all claim to his proud reputation as a strong-minded man,
+and quite forgot his favorite theory that everything that went by the
+name of God was a mere invention of priests and rulers to delude and
+oppress the ignorant; at last he even went so far as to mutter a, prayer,
+and when his wife begged to be allowed to join a family of neighbors in
+sacrificing a black lamb at daybreak, he recklessly gave her a handful
+of money.
+
+None of the party closed an eye that night.  Dada could not bear to
+remain in the house.  Perhaps all these horrors existed only in Medius'
+fancy; but if destruction were indeed impending, she would a thousand
+times rattier perish with her own relations than with these people, in
+whom there was something--she did not know what--for which she felt a
+deep aversion.  This she explained to her host early in the day and he
+was ready to set out at once and restore her to the care of Karnis.
+
+In fact, the purpose for which he had needed her must certainly come to
+nothing.  He himself was attached to the service of Posidonius, a great
+magician and wizard, to whom half Alexandria flocked--Christians, Jews,
+and heathens--in order to communicate with the dead, with gods and with
+demons, to obtain spells and charms by which to attract lovers or injure
+foes, to learn the art of becoming invisible, or to gain a glimpse into
+the future.  In the performance which was being planned Dada was to have
+appeared to a bereaved mother as the glorified presence of her lost
+daughter; but the disturbance in the city had driven the matron, who was
+rich, to take refuge in the country the previous afternoon.  Nor was it
+likely that the sorcerer's other clients--even if all turned out better
+than could be hoped--would venture into the streets by night.  Rich
+people were timid and suspicious; and as the Emperor had lately
+promulgated fresh and more stringent edicts against the magic arts,
+Posidonius had thought it prudent to postpone the meeting.  Hence Medius
+had at present no use for the girl; but he affected to agree so readily
+to her wishes merely out of anxiety to relieve Isarnis as soon as
+possible of his uneasiness as to her fate.
+
+The morning was bright and hot, and the town was swarming with an excited
+mob soon after sunrise.  Terror, curiosity and defiance were painted on
+every face; however, Medius and his young companion made their way
+unhindered as far as the temple of Isis by the lake.  The doors of the
+sanctuary were closed, and guarded by soldiers; but the southern and
+western walls were surrounded by thousands and thousands of heathen.
+Some hundreds, indeed, had passed the night there in prayer, or in sheer
+terror of the catastrophe which could not fail to ensue, and they were
+kneeling in groups, groaning, weeping, and cursing, or squatting in
+stolid resignation, weary, crushed and hopeless.  It was a heart-rending
+sight, and neither Dada--who till this moment had been dreading Dame
+Herse's scolding tongue far more than the destruction of the world--nor
+her companion could forbear joining in the wail that rose from this vast
+multitude.  Medius fell on his knees groaning aloud and pulled the girl
+down beside him; for, upon the wall that enclosed the temple precincts,
+they now saw a priest who, after holding the sacred Sistrum up to view
+and muttering some unintelligible prayers and invocations, proceeded to
+address the people.
+
+He was a short stout man, and the sweat streamed down his face as he
+stood under the blazing sun to sketch a fearful picture of the monstrous
+doom which was hanging over the city and its inhabitants.  He spoke with
+pompous exaggeration, in a shrill, harsh voice, wiping his face meanwhile
+with his white linen robe or gasping for air, when breath failed him,
+like a fish stranded on the beach.  All this, however, did not trouble
+his audience, for the hatred that inspired his language, and the terror
+of the immediate future which betrayed itself in every word exactly
+reflected their feelings.  Dada alone was moved to mirth; the longer she
+looked at him the more she felt inclined to laugh; besides, the day was
+so bright--a pigeon on the wall pattered round his mate, nodding and
+wriggling after the funny manner of pigeons in love--and, above all, her
+heart beat so high and she had such a happy instinctive feeling that all
+was ordered for the best, that the world seemed to her a beautiful and
+fairly secure dwelling-place, in spite of the dark forebodings of the
+zealous preacher.  On the eve of destruction the earth must surely look
+differently from this; and it struck her as highly improbable that the
+gods should have revealed their purpose to such a queer old driveller as
+this priest, and have hidden it from other men.  The very fact that this
+burly personage should prophesy evil with such conviction made her doubt
+it; and presently, when the plumes of three or four helmets became
+visible behind the speaker, and a pair of strong hands grasped his thick
+ancles and suddenly dragged him down from his eminence and back into the
+temple, she could hardly keep herself from laughing outright.
+
+Now, however, there was more real cause for alarm a trumpet-blast was
+heard, and a maniple of the twenty-second legion marched down in close
+order on the crowd who fled before them.  Medius was one of the first to
+make off; Dada kept close to his side, and when, in his alarm, he fairly
+took to his heels, she did the same; for, in spite of the reception she
+apprehended, she felt that the sooner she could rejoin her own people the
+better.  Never till now had she known how dear they were to her.  Herse
+might scold; but her sharpest words were truer and better than the smooth
+flattery of Medius.  It was a joy to think of seeing them again--Agne,
+too, and little Papias--and she felt as though she were about to meet
+them after years of separation.
+
+By this time they were at the ship-yard, which was divided only by a lane
+from the Temple-grove; there lay the barge.  Dada pulled off her veil and
+waved it in the air, but the signal met with no response.  They were at
+the house, no doubt, for some men were in the very act of drawing up the
+wooden gangway which connected the vessel with the land.  Medius hurried
+forward and was so fortunate as to overtake the steward, who had been
+superintending the operation, before he reached the garden-gate.
+
+The old man was rejoiced to see them, and told them at once that his old
+mistress had promised Herse to give Dada shelter if she should return to
+them.  But Dada was proud.  She had no liking for Gorgo or her
+grandmother; and when she had caught up to Medius, quite out of breath,
+she positively refused the old lady's hospitality.
+
+The barge was deserted.  Karnis--so the steward informed her--had
+withdrawn to the temple of Serapis with his son, intending to assist in
+its defence; and Herse had accompanied them, for Olympius had said that
+women would be found useful in the beleaguered sanctuary, in preparing
+food for the combatants and in nursing the wounded.
+
+Dada stood looking at their floating home, utterly disappointed and
+discouraged.  She longed to follow her aunt and to gain admission to the
+Serapeutn; but how could she do this now, and of what use could she hope
+to be?  There was nothing heroic in her composition, and from her infancy
+she had always sickened at the sight of blood.  She had no alternative
+but to return with Medius, and take refuge under his roof.
+
+The singer gave her ample time for reflection; he had seated himself,
+with the steward, under the shade of a sycamore, and the two men were
+absorbed in convincing each other, by a hundred arguments which they had
+picked up during the last day or two, how inevitably the earth must be
+annihilated if the statue of Serapis should be overthrown.  In the warmth
+of their discussion they paid no heed to the young girl, who was sitting
+on a fallen Hermes by the road-side.  Her vigorous and lively temperament
+rendered her little apt to dream, or even meditate, in broad daylight;
+but the heat and tie recent excitement had overwrought her and she felt
+into a drowsy reverie.  Now and again, as her heavy head drooped on her
+breast, she fancied the Serapeum had actually fallen; then, as she raised
+it again, she recovered her consciousness that it was hot, that she had
+lost her home, and that she must, however unwillingly, return with
+Medius.  But at length her eyelids closed, and as she sat in the full
+blaze of the sun, a rosy light filled her eyes and a bright vision
+floated before her: Marcus took the modius--the corn measure--from the
+head of the statue of Serapis and offered it to her; it was quite full of
+lilies and roses and violets, and she was delighted with the flowers and
+thanked him warmly when he set the modius down before her.  He held out
+his hands to her calmly and kindly, and she gave him hers, feeling very
+happy under the steady, compassionate gaze of his large eyes which had
+often watched her, on board ship, for some minutes at a time.  She longed
+to say something to him, but she could not speak; and she looked on quite
+unmoved as the statue of the god and the hall in which it stood were
+wrapt in flames.  No smoke mingled with this clear and genial blaze, but
+it compelled her to shade her dazzled eyes; and as she lifted her hand
+she woke to see Medius standing in front of her.
+
+He desired her to come home with him at once, and she rose to obey,
+listening in silence to his assurances that the lives of Karnis and
+Orpheus would not be worth a sesterce if they fell into the hands of the
+Roman soldiers.
+
+She walked on, more hopeless and depressed than she had ever felt in her
+life before, past the unfinished hulks in the ship-yard where no one was
+at work to-day when, coming down the lane that divided the wharf from the
+temple precincts, she saw an old man and a little boy.  She had not time
+to ask herself whether she saw rightly or was mistaken before the child
+caught sight of her, snatched his hand away from that of his companion,
+and flew towards her, shouting her name.  In the next moment little
+Papias had rushed rapturously into her arms and, as she lifted him up,
+had thrown his hands round her neck, clinging to her as if he would never
+leave go again, while she hugged him closely for joy, and kissed him with
+her eyes full of tears.  She was herself again at once; the sad and
+anxious girl was the lively Dada once more.
+
+The man who had been leading the little boy was immediately besieged with
+questions, and from his answers they learnt that he had found the child
+the evening before at the corner of a street, crying bitterly; that he
+had taken him home, and with some little difficulty had ascertained from
+him that he belonged to some people who were living on board a barge,
+close to a ship-yard.  In spite of the excitement that prevailed he had
+brought the child home as soon as possible, for he could fancy how
+anxious his parents must be.  Dada thanked the kind-hearted artisan with
+sincere warmth, and the man, seeing how happy the girl and the child were
+at having met, went his way quite satisfied.
+
+Medius had stood by and had said nothing, but he looked on the pretty
+little boy with much favor.  If the earth were not to crumble into
+nothingness after all, this child would be a real treasure trove; and
+when Dada begged him to find a corner for Papias in his house, though he
+hinted at the smallness of his earnings and the limited space at his
+command, he yielded, if reluctantly, to her entreaties, on her offering
+him her gold brooch to cover his expenses.
+
+As they made their way back she cast many loving glances at the child;
+she was extremely fond of him, and he seemed a link to bind her to her
+own people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The singer's wife and daughter had joined some neighbors in sacrificing
+a black lamb to Zeus, a ceremony that was usual on the occasion of
+earthquakes or very severe storms; but it was done very secretly, for the
+edicts prohibiting the sacrifice of victims to the gods were promptly and
+rigidly enforced.  The more the different members of the family came into
+contact with other citizens, the more deeply rooted was their terror that
+the end of all things was at hand.  As soon as it was dark the old man
+buried all his savings, for even if everyone else were to perish, he felt
+that he--though how or why he knew not--might be exempt from the common
+doom.
+
+The night was warm, and great and small alike slept--or lay awake--under
+the stars so as not to be overwhelmed by the crash of roofs and walls;
+the next day was oppressively hot, and the family cowered in a row in the
+scanty shade of a palm and of a fig-tree, the only growth of any size in
+the singer's garden.  Medius himself, in spite of the scorching sun,
+could not be still.
+
+He rushed off to the town again and again, but only to return each time
+to enhance the anguish of the household by relating all sorts of horrors
+which he had picked up in his wanderings.  They were obliged to satisfy
+their hunger with bread, cheese, and fruit, for the two slave-women
+positively refused to risk their lives by cooking in the house.
+
+Medius' temper varied as he came and went; now he was gentle and
+affectionate, and then again he raged like a madman; and his wife outdid
+him.  At one moment she would abandon him and the children, while she
+anointed the household altar and put up prayers; at the next she railed
+at the baseness and cruelty of the gods.  When her husband brought the
+news that the Serapeum was surrounded by the Imperial troops, she scoffed
+and spit at the sacred images, and five minutes later she was vowing a
+sacrifice to the deities of Olympus.  The general confusion was
+distracting; as the sun rose, the anguish, physical and mental, of the
+whole family greatly increased, and by noon had reached an appalling
+pitch.
+
+Dada looked on intensely disgusted, and only shook her head when one or
+another of her companions was sure she felt a shock of earthquake or
+heard the roll of distant thunder.  She could not explain to herself why
+she, who was usually timid enough, was exempt from the universal panic
+though she felt deeply pitiful towards the terrified women and children.
+None of them troubled themselves about her; the day dragged on with
+intolerable slowness, quenching all her gay vivacity, while she was
+utterly exhausted by the scorching African sun, of which, till now, she
+had never known the power.  At last, in the afternoon, she found the
+little garden, which was by this time heated like an oven, quite
+unbearable, and she looked round for Papias.  The child was sitting on
+the wall looking at the congregation streaming into the basilica of St.
+Mark.  Dada followed his example, and when the many-voiced psalms rang
+out of the open door of the church, she listened to the music, for it
+seemed long since she had heard any, and after wiping the perspiration
+from the little boy's face with her peplos, she pointed to the building
+and said: "It must be nice and cool in there."
+
+"Of course it is," said Papias.
+
+"It is never too hot in church.  I will tell you what--we will go there."
+This was a bright idea; for, thought Dada, any place must be pleasanter
+than this; and she felt strongly tempted, too, to see the inside of one
+of Agne's temples and to sing once more, or, at any rate, hear others
+sing.
+
+"Come along," she said, and they stole through the deserted house to get
+into the street by the atrium.  Medius saw them, but he made no attempt
+to detain them; he had sunk into lethargic indifference.  It was not an
+hour since he had taken stock of his life and means, setting the small
+figure of his average income against his hospitality to Dada and her
+little companion; but then, again, he had calculated that, if all went
+well, he might make considerable profits out of the girl and the child.
+Now, he felt it was all the same to him whether he and his family and
+Dada met their doom in the house or out of it.
+
+Dada and Papias soon reached the church of St. Mark, the oldest Christian
+basilica in the city.  It consisted of a vestibule--the narthex--and the
+body of the church, a very long hall, with a flat roof ceiled with
+stained wood and supported on a double row of quite simple columns.  This
+space was divided into two parts by a screen of pierced work; the
+innermost portion had a raised floor or podium, on which stood a table
+with chairs placed round it in a semicircle.  The centre seat was higher
+and more richly decorated than the others.  These chairs were unoccupied;
+a few deacons in 'talares' of light-colored brocade were busied about the
+table.
+
+In the middle of the vestibule there was a small tank; here a number of
+penitents had collected who, with their flayed ribs and abject
+lamentations, offered a more melancholy spectacle than even the terrified
+crowd whom Dada had seen the day before, gathered round the temple of
+Isis.  Indeed, site would have withdrawn at once but that Papias dragged
+her forward, and when she had passed through the great door into the nave
+she breathed a sigh of relief.  A soothing sense of respite came over
+her, such as she had rarely felt; for the lofty building, which was only
+half full, was deliciously cool and the subdued light was restful to her
+eyes.  The slight perfume of incense and the sober singing of the
+assembled worshippers were soothing to her senses, and, as she took a
+seat on one of the benches, she felt sheltered and safe.
+
+The old church struck her as a home of perfect peace; in all the city,
+she thought, there could hardly be another spot where she might rest so
+quietly and contentedly.  So for some little time she gave herself up,
+body and soul, to the refreshing influences of the coolness, the
+solemnity, the fragrance and the music; but presently her attention was
+attracted to two women in the seats just in front of her.
+
+One of them, who had a child on her arm, whispered to her neighbor:
+
+"You here, Hannah, among the unbaptized?  How are you going on at home?"
+
+"I cannot stay long," was the answer.  "It is all the same where one
+sits, and when I leave I shall disturb no one.  But my heart is heavy;
+the child is very bad.  The doctor says he cannot live through the day,
+and I felt as if I must come to church."
+
+Very right, very right.  Do you stay here and I will go to your house at
+once; my husband will not mind waiting."
+
+"Thank you very much, but Katharine is staying with the boy and he is
+quite safe there."
+
+"Then I will stay and pray with you for the dear little child."
+
+Dada had not missed a word of this simple dialogue.  The woman whose
+child was ill at home, and who had come here to pray for strength or
+mercy, had a remarkably sweet face; as the girl saw the two friends bow
+their heads and fold their hands with downcast eyes, she thought to
+herself: "Now they are praying for the sick child.  .  ."  and
+involuntarily she, too, bent her curly head, and murmured softly: "O ye
+gods, or thou God of the Christians, or whatever thou art called that
+hast power over life and death, make this poor woman's little son well
+again.  When I get home again I will offer up a cake or a fowl--a lamb is
+so costly."
+
+And she fancied that some invisible spirit heard her, and it gave her a
+vague satisfaction to repeat her simple supplication over and over again.
+
+Meanwhile a miserable blind dwarf had seated himself by her side; near
+him stood the old dog that guided him.  He held him by a string and had
+been allowed to bring his indispensable comrade into the church.  The old
+man joined loudly and devoutly in the psalm which the rest of the
+congregation were singing; his voice had lost its freshness, no doubt,
+but he sang in perfect tune.  It was a pleasure to Dada to listen, and
+though she only half understood the words of the psalm she easily caught
+the air and began to sing too, at first timidly and hardly audibly; but
+she soon gained courage and, following the example of little Papias,
+joined in with all her might.
+
+She felt as though she had reached land after a stormy and uncomfortable
+voyage, and had found refuge in a hospitable home; she looked about her
+to discover whether the news of the approaching destruction of the world
+had not penetrated even here, but she could not feel certain; for, though
+many faces expressed anguish of mind, contrition, and a passionate
+desire--perhaps for help or, perhaps, for something quite different--
+not a cry of lamentation was to be heard, such as had rent the air by
+the temple of Isis, and most of the men and women assembled here were
+singing, or praying in silent absorption.  There were none of the
+frenzied monks who had terrified her in the Xenodochium and in the
+streets; on this day of tumult and anxiety they are devoting all their
+small strength and great enthusiasm to the service of the Church
+militant.
+
+This meeting, at so unusual an hour, had been convened by Eusebius, the
+deacon of the district, with the intention of calming the spirits of
+those who had caught the general infection of alarm.  Dada could see
+the old man step up into a raised pulpit on the inner side of the screen
+which parted the baptized from the unbaptized members of the
+congregation; his silvery hair and beard, and the cheerful calm of his
+face, with the high white forehead and gentle, loving gaze, attracted her
+greatly.  She had heard Karnis speak of Plato, and knew by heart some
+axioms of his doctrine, and she had always thought of the sage as a young
+man; but in advanced age, she fancied, he might have looked like
+Eusebius.  Aye, and it would have well beseemed this old man to die,
+like the great Athenian, at a mirthful wedding-feast.
+
+The priest was evidently about to give a discourse, and much as she
+admired him, this idea prompted her to quit the church; for, though she
+could sit still for hours to hear music, she found nothing more irksome
+than to be compelled to listen for any length of time to a speech she
+might not interrupt.  She was therefore rising to leave; but Papias held
+her back and entreated her so pathetically with his blue baby-eyes not
+to take him away and spoil his pleasure that she yielded, though the
+opportunity was favorable for moving unobserved, as the woman in front of
+her was preparing to go and was shaking hands with her neighbor.  She had
+indeed risen from her seat when a little girl came in behind her and
+whispered, loud enough for Dada's keen ears to catch the words:  "Come
+mother, come home at once.  He has opened his eyes and called for you.
+The physician says all danger is over."
+
+The mother in her turn whispered to her friend in glad haste: "All is
+well!"  and hurried away with the girl.  The friend she had left raised
+her hands and eyes in thanksgiving, and Dada, too, smiled in sympathy and
+pleasure.  Had the God of the Christian heard her prayer with theirs.
+
+Meanwhile the preacher had ended his preliminary prayer and began to
+explain to his hearers that he had bidden them to the church in order to
+warn them against foolish terrors, and to lead them into the frame of
+mind in which the true Christian ought to live in these momentous times
+of disturbance.  He wished to point out to his brethren and sisters in
+the Lord what was to be feared from the idols and their overthrow, what
+the world really owed to the heathen, and what he expected from his
+fellow-believers when the splendid and imminent triumph of the Church
+should be achieved.
+
+"Let us look back a little, my beloved," he said, after this brief
+introduction.  "You have all heard of the great Alexander, to whom this
+noble city owes its existence and its name.  He was a mighty instrument
+in the hand of the Lord, for he carried the tongue and the wisdom of the
+Greeks throughout all lands, so that, in the fulness of time, the
+doctrine which should proceed from the only Son of God might be
+understood by all nations and go home to all hearts.  In those days
+every people had its own idols by hundreds, and in every tongue on earth
+men put up their prayers to the supreme Power which makes itself felt
+wherever mortal creatures dwell.  Here, by the Nile, after Alexander's
+death, reigned the Ptolemies; and the Egyptian citizens of Alexandria
+prayed to other gods than their Greek neighbors, so that they could never
+unite in worshipping their divinities; but Philadelphus, the second
+Ptolemy, a very wise man, gave them a god in common.  In consequence of a
+vision seen in a dream he had the divinity brought from Sinope, on the
+shores of Pontus, to this town.  This idol was Serapis, and he was raised
+to the throne of divinity here, not by Heaven, but by a shrewd and
+prudent man; a grand temple was built for him, which is to this day one
+of the wonders of the world, and a statue of him was made, as beautiful
+as any image ever formed by the hand of man.  You have seen and know
+them both, and you know too, how, before the gospel was preached in
+Alexandria, crowds of all classes, excepting the Jews, thronged the
+Serapeum.
+
+"A dim perception of the sublime teaching of the Lord by whom God has
+redeemed the world had dawned, even before His appearance on earth, on
+the spirit of the best of the heathen, and in the hearts of those wise
+men who--though not born into the state of grace--sought and strove after
+the truth, after inward purity, and an apprehension of the Almighty.
+The Lord chose them out to prepare the hearts of mankind for the good
+tidings, and make them fit to receive the gospel when the Star should
+rise over Bethlehem.
+
+"Many of these sages had infused precious doctrine into the worship of
+Serapis before the hour of true redemption had come.  They enjoined the
+servants of Serapis to be more zealous in the care of the soul than in
+that of the body, for they had detected the imperishable nature of the
+spiritual and divine part of man; they saw that we are brought into
+existence by sin and love, and we must therefore die to our sinful love
+and rise again through the might of love eternal.  These Hellenes, like
+the Egyptian sages of the times of the Pharaohs, divined and declared
+that the soul was held responsible after death for all it had done of
+good or evil in its mortal body.  They distinguished virtue and sin by
+the eternal law, which was written in the hearts even of the heathen, to
+the end that they, by nature, might do the works of the law; nay, there
+were some of their loftiest spirits who, though they knew not the Lord,
+it is true, required the repentance in the sinner, in the name of
+Serapis, and pronounced that it was good to give up the delusive joys and
+vain pleasures of the flesh and to break away from the evil--whether of
+body or of soul--which we are led into by the senses.  They called upon
+their disciples to hold meetings for meditation whereby they might
+discern truth and the divinity; and the vast precincts of the Serapeum
+contained cells and alcoves for penitents and devotees, in which many a
+soul touched by grace, dead to the world and absorbed in the
+contemplation of such things as they esteemed high and heavenly, has
+ripened to old age and death.
+
+"But, my beloved, the Light in which we rejoice, through no merits or
+deserts of our own, had not yet been shed on the lost children of those
+days of darkness; and all those noble, and indeed most admirable efforts
+were polluted by an admixture, even here, of coarse superstition, bloody
+sacrifices, and foolish adoration of perishable stone idols and beasts
+without understanding; and in other places by the false and delusive arts
+of Magians and sorcerers.  Even the dim apprehension of true salvation
+was darkened and distorted by the subtleties of a vain and inconsistent
+philosophy, which held a theory as immutably true one day and overthrew
+or denied it the next.  Thus, by degrees, the temple of the idol of
+Sinope degenerated into a stronghold of deceit and bloodshed, of the
+basest superstition, the pleasures of the flesh, and abominations that
+cried to Heaven.  Learning, to be sure, was still cherished in the halls
+of the Serapeum; but its disciples turned with hardened hearts from the
+truth which was sent into the world by the grace of God, and they
+remained the prophets of error.  The doctrines which the sages had
+associated with the idea of Serapis, debased and degraded by the most
+contemptible trivialities; lost all their worth and dignity; and after
+the great Apostle to whom this basilica is dedicated, had brought the
+gospel to Alexandria, the idol's throne began to totter, and the tidings
+of salvation shook its foundations and brought it to the verge of
+destruction in spite of the persecutions, in spite of the edicts of the
+apostate Julian, in spite of the desperate efforts of the philosophers,
+sophists, and heathen--for our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, has given
+certainty and actuality to the fleeting shadow of half-divined truth
+which lies in the core of the worship of Serapis.  The pure and radiant
+star of Christian love has risen in the place of the dim nebulous mist of
+Serapis; and just as the moon pales when the sun appears triumphant, the
+worship of Serapis has died away in a thousand places where the gospel
+has been received.  Even here, in Alexandria, its feeble flame is kept
+alive only by infinite care, and if the might of our pious and Christian
+Emperor makes itself felt-tomorrow, or next day--then, my beloved, it
+will vanish in smoke, and no power on earth can fan it into life again.
+Not our grandsons, no, but our own children will ask: Who--what was
+Serapis?  For he who shall be overthrown is no longer a mighty god but
+an idol bereft of his splendor and his dignity.  This is no struggle of
+might against might; it is the death-stroke given to a wounded and
+vanquished foe.  The tree is rotten to the core and can crush no one in
+its fall, but it will cover all who stand near it with dust and rubbish.
+The sovereign has outlived his dominion, and when his fingers drop the
+sceptre few indeed will bewail him, for the new King has already mounted
+the throne and His is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever!
+Amen."
+
+Dada had listened to the deacon's address with no particular interest,
+but the conclusion struck her attention.  The old man looked dignified
+and honest; but Father Karnis was a well-meaning man, no doubt, and one
+of those who are wont to keep on the winning side.  How was it that the
+preacher could draw so pitiable a picture of the very same god whose
+greatness her uncle had praised in such glowing terms only two days
+since?  How could the same thing appear so totally different to two
+different people?
+
+The priest looked more sagacious than the musician; Marcus, the young
+Christian, had a most kind heart; there was not a better or gentler
+creature under the sun than Agne--it was quite possible that Christianity
+was something very different in reality from what her foster parents
+chose to represent.  As to the frightful consequences of the overthrow of
+the temple of Serapis, on that point she was completely reassured, and
+she prepared to listen with greater attention as Eusebius went on:
+
+"Let us rejoice, beloved!  The great idol's days are numbered!  Do you
+know what that false worship has been in our midst?  It has been like a
+splendid and richly-dressed trireme sailing, plague-stricken, into a
+harbor full of ships and boats.  Woe to those who allow themselves to be
+tempted on board by the magnificence of its decorations!  How great is
+their chance of infection, how easily they will carry it from ship to
+ship, and from the ships on to the shore, till the pestilence has spread
+from the harbor to the city!  Let us then be thankful to those who
+destroy the gorgeous vessel, who drive it from amongst us, or sink or
+burn it.  May our Father in Heaven give courage to their hearts, strength
+to their hands and blessing on their deeds!  When we hear: "Great Serapis
+has fallen to the earth and is no more, we and the world are free from
+him! then, in this city, and wherever Christians dwell and worship, let a
+solemn festival be held.
+
+"But still let us be just, still let us bear in mind all the great and
+good gifts that the trireme brought to our parents when it rode the waves
+manned by a healthy crew.  If we do, it will be with sincere pity that we
+shall watch the proud vessel sink to the bottom, and we shall understand
+the grief of those whom once it bore over ebb and flow, and who believe
+they owe every thing to it.  We shall rejoice doubly, too, to think that
+we ourselves have a safe bark with stout planks and strong masts, and a
+trustworthy pilot at the helm; and that we may confidently invite others
+to join us on board as soon as they have purified themselves of the
+plague with which they have been smitten.
+
+"I think you will all have understood this parable.  When Serapis falls
+there will be lamentation and woe among the heathen; but we, who are true
+Christians, ought not to pass them by, but must strive to heal and save
+the wounded and sick at heart.  When Serapis falls you must be the
+physicians--healers of souls, as the Lord hath said; and if we desire to
+heal, our first task must be to discover in what the sufferings consist
+of those we wish to succor, for our choice of medicine must depend on the
+nature of the injury.
+
+"What I mean is this: None can give comfort but those who know how to
+sympathize with the soul that craves it, who feel the sorrows of others
+as keenly as though they were their own.  And this gift, my brethren, is,
+next to faith, the Christian grace which of all others best pleases our
+Heavenly Master.
+
+"I see it in my mind's eye!  The ruined edifice of the Serapeum, the
+masterpiece of Bryaxis laid in fragments in the dust, and thousands of
+wailing heathen!  As the Jews wept and hung their harps on the trees by
+the waters of Babylon when they remembered Zion, so do I see the heathen
+weep as they think of the perished splendor.  They themselves, indeed,
+ruined and desecrated the glory they bewail; and when something higher
+and purer took its place they hardened their hearts, and, instead of
+leaving the dead to bury their dead and throwing themselves hopefully
+into the new life, they refused to be parted from the putrefying corpse.
+They were fools, but their folly was fidelity; and if we can win them
+over to our holy faith they will be faithful unto death, as they have
+been to their old gods, clinging to Jesus and earning the crown of life.
+'There will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth than
+over ninety and nine that need no repentance,'--that you have heard; and
+whichever among you loves the Saviour can procure him a great joy if he
+guides only one of these weeping heathen into the Kingdom of Heaven.
+
+"But perhaps you will ask: Is not the sorrow of the heathen a vain thing?
+What is it after all that they bewail?  To understand that, try to
+picture to yourselves what it is that they think they are losing.  Verily
+it is not a small matter, and it includes many things for which we and
+all mankind owe them a debt of gratitude.  We call ourselves Christians
+and are proud of the name; but we also call ourselves Hellenes, and are
+proud of that name too.  It was under the protection of the old gods,
+whose fall is about to be consummated, that the Greeks achieved
+marvellous deeds, nurturing the gifts of the intellect which the Almighty
+bestowed on their race, like faithful gardeners, and making them bring
+forth marvellous fruit.  In the realm of thought the Greek is sovereign
+of the nations, and he has given to perishable matter a perfection of
+form which has elevated and vivified it to immortality.  Nothing more
+beautiful has ever been imagined or executed, before or since, or by any
+other people, than was produced by Greece in its prime.  But perhaps you
+will ask, why did not the Redeemer come down among our fathers in those
+glorious days?  Because beauty, as they conceived and still conceive of
+it, is a mere perishable accident of matter, and because a race which
+thus devoted every thought and feeling to an inspired and fervent worship
+of beauty--which was so absorbed in the contemplation of the visible,
+could have no longing for the invisible which is the real life that came
+down among us with the only-begotten Son of God.  Nevertheless Beauty is
+beautiful; and when the time shall come when the visible is married to
+the invisible, when eternal Truth is clothed in perfect form, then, and
+not till then, will the ideal which our fathers strove after in the great
+old days be realized, by the grace of the Saviour.
+
+"But this visible beauty, which they so passionately cherished, does us
+good service too, so long as we do not allow it to dazzle us and lead us
+astray from the one thing needful.  To whom, if not to the heathen
+Hellenes, do our great teachers owe, under God, the noble art of
+coordinating their loftiest feelings, and casting them in forms which are
+intelligible to the Christian and at once instruct, delight, and edify
+him?  It was in a heathen school that each one of your pastors--that even
+I, the humblest of them--studied that rhetoric which enables me to utter
+with a flowing tongue the things which the Spirit gives me to speak to
+you; and if some day there are Christian schools, in which our sons may
+acquire the same power, they must adopt many of the laws devised by the
+heathen.  If in the future we are rich enough to raise churches to the
+Almighty, to the Virgin Mary and the great Saints, in any way worthy of
+their sublime merits, we shall owe our skill to the famous architects of
+heathen Hellas.  We are indebted to the arts of the heathen for a
+thousand things in daily use, beside numberless others that lend charm to
+existence.  Yes, my beloved, when we consider all they did for us we
+cannot in justice withhold our tribute of gratitude and admiration.
+
+"Nor can we doubt that the best of them were acceptable to the Almighty
+himself, for he granted to them to see darkly and from afar what he has
+brought nigh to us, and poured into our hearts by divine revelation.
+You all know the name of Plato.  He, from whom Salvation was hidden,
+saw remotely, by presentiment as it were, many things which to us, the
+Redeemed, are clear and plain and near.  He perceived the relation of
+earthly beauty and heavenly truth.  The great gift of Love binds and
+supports us all and Plato gave the name of the divine Eros, that is
+divine love, to an inspired devotion to the Imperishable.  He placed
+goodness--the Good--at the top of the great scale of Ideas which he
+constructed.  The Good was, to him, the highest Idea and the uttermost of
+which we can conceive:--Good, whose properties he made manifest by every
+means his lofty and lucid mind could command.  This heathen, my brethren
+and sisters, was well worthy of the grace bestowed on us.  Do justice
+then to the blinded souls, justice in Plato's sense of the word; he calls
+the virtue of reason Wisdom; the virtue of spirit Courage, and the virtue
+of the senses Temperance.  Well, well!  'Prove all things and hold fast
+that which is good.'  That is to say: consider what may be worth anything
+in the works of the heathen that it may be duly preserved; but, on the
+other hand, tread all that is idolatry in the dust, all that brings the
+unclean thing among us, all that imperils our souls and bodies, or
+anything that is high and pure in life; but do not forget, my beloved,
+all that the heathen have done for us.  Be temperate in all things; avoid
+excess of zeal; for thus, and thus only, can we be just.  'It is not to
+hate, but to love each other that we are here.'  It was not a Christian
+but Sophocles, one of the greatest of the heathen, who uttered those
+words, and he speaks them still to us!"
+
+Eusebius paused and drew a deep breath.
+
+Dada had listened eagerly, for it pleased her to hear all that she had
+been wont to prize spoken of here with due appreciation.  But since
+Eusebius had begun to discourse about Plato she had been disturbed by two
+men sitting just in front of her.  One was tall and lean, with a long
+narrow head, and the other a shorter and more comfortable-looking
+personage.  The first fidgeted incessantly, nudging and twitching his
+companion, and looking now and then as if he were ready to start up and
+interrupt the preacher.  This behavior evidently annoyed his neighbors
+who kept signing to him to be quiet and hushing him down, while he took
+no notice of their demonstrations but kept clearing his throat with
+obtrusive emphasis and at last scraped and shuffled his feet on the
+floor, though not very noisily.  But Eusebius began again:
+
+"And now, my brethren, how ought we to demean ourselves in these fateful
+times of disturbance?  As Christians; only--or rather, by God's aiding
+grace as Christians in the true sense of our Lord and Master, according
+to the precepts given by Him through the Apostles.  Their words shall be
+mine.  They say there are two paths--the path of Life and the path of
+Death, and there is a great difference between them.  The path of Life is
+this: First, Thou shalt love God who hath created thee; next thou shalt
+love thy neighbor as thyself, and whatsoever thou wouldst men should do
+unto thee even so do unto them; but what thou wouldst not have done unto
+thee do thou not to them.  And the sum of the doctrine contained in these
+words is this: Bless those that curse you, pray for your enemies and
+repent for those who persecute you, for 'if ye love them that love you
+what thank have ye?  Do not even the heathen the same?'  Love those that
+hate you and you will have no enemies.
+
+"Take this teaching of the holy Apostles to heart this day.  Beware of
+mocking or persecuting those who have been your enemies.  Even the nobler
+heathen regarded it as an act of grace to respect the conquered foe, and
+to you, as Christians, it should be a law.  It is not so hard to forgive
+an enemy when we regard him as a possible friend in the future; and the
+Christian can go so far as to love him when he remembers that every man
+is his brother and neighbor, and equally precious in the sight of the
+Saviour who is dearer to us than life.
+
+"The heathen, the idolater, is the Christian's archfoe; but soon he will
+he in fetters at our feet.  And, then, my brethren, pray for him; for
+if the Almighty, who is without spot or stain and perfect beyond words,
+can forgive the sinner, ye who are base and guilty may surely forgive.
+'Fishers of souls' we all should be; try to fulfil the injunction.  Draw
+the enemy to you by kindness and love; show him by your example the
+beauty of the Christian life; let him perceive the benefits of Salvation;
+lead those whose gods and temples we have overthrown, into our churches;
+and when, after triumphing over those blind souls by the sword, we have
+also conquered them by love, faith and prayer--when they can rejoice with
+us in the Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ--then shall we all be as
+one fold under one shepherd, and peace and joy shall reign in the city
+which is now torn by dissension and strife."
+
+At this point the preacher was interrupted, for a loud uproar broke out
+in the Narthex--[The vestibule of the early Christian basilica which was
+open to penitents.]--shouts and cries of men fighting, mingled with the
+dull roar of a bull.
+
+The congregation started to their feet in extreme consternation, and the
+door was flung open and a host of heathen youths rushed into the nave,
+followed by an overwhelming force of Christians from whom they had sought
+refuge in the sanctuary.  Here they turned at bay to make a last
+desperate resistance.  Garlands, stripped of their leaves and flowers,
+still crowned their heads and hung over their shoulders.  They had been
+attacked close to the church, by a party of monks when in the act of
+driving a gaily-decorated steer to the temple of Apollo, in defiance of
+the Imperial edict; and the beast, terrified by the tumult, had rushed
+into the narthex for shelter.
+
+The fight in the church was a short one; the idolaters were soon
+vanquished; but Eusebius threw himself between them and the monks, and
+tried to save the victims from the revengeful fury of the conquerors.
+The women had all made for the door, but they did not venture out into
+the vestibule, for the young bull was still raging there, trampling or
+tossing everything that came in his way.  At last, however, a soldier of
+the city-watch dealt him a sword-thrust in the neck, and he fell rolling
+in his own blood.  At once the congregation forced their way out,
+shrieking with alarm and excitement, Dada among the number, dragging the
+child with her.  Papias pulled with all his might to keep her back,
+declaring with vehement insistence that he had seen Agne in the church
+and wanted to go back to her.  Dada, however, neither heard nor heeded;
+frightened out of her wits she went on with the crowd, taking him with
+her.
+
+She never paused till she reached the house of Medius, quite out of
+breath; but then, as the little boy still asserted that he had seen his
+sister in the sanctuary, she turned back with him, as soon as the throng
+had dispersed.  In the church there was no one to hinder them; but they
+got no further than the dividing screen, for on the floor beyond lay the
+mutilated and bleeding bodies of many a youth who had fallen in the
+contest.
+
+How she made her way back to the house of Medius once more she never
+knew.  For the first time she had been brought face to face with life in
+hideous earnest, and when the singer went to look for her in her room, at
+dusk, he was startled to find her bright face clouded and her eyes dim
+with tears.  How bitterly she had been weeping Medius indeed could not
+know; he ascribed her altered appearance to fear of the approaching
+cataclysm and was happy to be able to tell her, in all good faith, that
+the danger was as good as over.  Posidonius, the Magian, had been to see
+him, and had completely reassured him.  This man, whose accomplice he had
+been again and again in producing false apparitions of spirits and
+demons, had once gained an extraordinary influence over him by casting
+some mysterious spell upon him and reducing his will to abject subjection
+to his own; and this magician, who had recovered his own self-possession,
+had assured him, with an inimitable air of infallibility, that the fall
+of the Temple of Serapis would involve no greater catastrophe than that
+of any old worn-out statue.  Since this announcement Medius had laughed
+at his own alarms; he had recovered his "strong-mindedness," and when
+Posidonius had given him three tickets for the Hippodrome he had jumped
+at the offer.
+
+The races were to be run next day, in spite of the general panic that had
+fallen on the citizens; and Dada, when he invited her to join him and his
+daughter in-the enjoyment of so great a treat, dried her eyes and
+accepted gleefully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Alarming as was the outlook in Alexandria, the races, were to be held as
+usual.  This had been decided only a few hours since at the Bishop's
+palace, and criers had been sent abroad throughout the streets and
+squares of the city to bid the inhabitants to this popular entertainment.
+In the writing-office of the Ephemeris, which would be given to the
+public the first thing in the morning, five hundred slaves or more were
+occupied in writing from dictation a list of the owners of the horses, of
+the 'agitatores' who would drive them, and of the prizes offered to the
+winners, whether Christians or heathen.
+
+     [Ephemeris--The news-sheet, which was brought out, not only in Rome,
+     but in all the cities of the Empire, and which kept the citizens
+     informed of all important events.]
+
+The heat in the Episcopal council-hall had been oppressive, and not less
+so the heat of temper among the priests assembled there; for they had
+fully determined, for once, not to obey their prelate with blind
+submission, and they knew full well that Theophilus, on occasion, if his
+will were opposed, could not merely thunder but wield the bolt.
+
+Besides the ecclesiastical members of the council, Cynegius, the Imperial
+legate--Evagrius, the Prefect--and Romanus, the commander-in-chief and
+Comes of Egypt,--had all been present.  The officials of the Empire--
+Roman statesmen who knew Alexandria and her citizens well, and who had
+often smarted under the spiritual haughtiness of her Bishop--were on the
+prelate's side.  Cynegius was doubtful; but the priests, who had not
+altogether escaped the alarms that had stricken the whole population,
+were so bold as to declare against a too hasty decision, and to say that
+the celebration of the games at a time of such desperate peril was not
+only presumptuous but sinful, and a tempting of God.
+
+In answer to a scornful enquiry from Theophilus as to where the danger
+lay if--as the Comes promised--Serapis were to be overthrown on the
+morrow, one of the assembly answered in the name of his colleagues.  This
+man, now very old, had formerly been a wonderfully successful exorcist,
+and, notwithstanding that he was a faithful Christian, he was the leader
+of a gnostic sect and a diligent student of magic.  He proceeded to
+argue, with all the zeal and vehemence of conviction, that Serapis was
+the most terrible of all the heathen daemons, and that all the oracles
+of antiquity, all the prophecies of the seers, and all the conclusions
+of the Magians and astrologers would be proved false if his fall--which
+the present assembly could only regard as a great boon from Heaven--did
+not entail some tremendous convulsion of nature.
+
+At this Theophilus gave the reins to his wrath; he snatched a little
+crucifix from the wall above his episcopal throne, and broke it in
+fragments, exclaiming in deep tones that quavered with wrath:
+
+"And which do you regard as the greater: The only-begotten Son of God,
+or that helpless image?"  And he flung the pieces of the broken crucifix
+down on the table round which they were sitting.  Then, as though horror-
+stricken at his own daring act, he fell on his knees, raised his eyes and
+hands in prayer, and gathering up the broken image, kissed it devoutly.
+
+This rapid scene had a tremendous effect.  Amazement and suspense were
+painted on every face, not a hand, not a lip moved as Theophilus rose
+again and cast a glance of proud and stern defiance round the assembly,
+which each man took to himself.  For some moments he remained silent, as
+though awaiting a reply; but his repellent mien and majestic bearing made
+it sufficiently clear that he was ready to annihilate any opponent.  In
+fact none of the priests contradicted him; and, though Evagrius looked at
+him with a doubting shake of his shrewd head, Cynegius on the other hand
+nodded assent.  The Bishop, however, seemed to care for neither dissent
+nor approval, and it was in brief and cutting terms, with no flourish of
+rhetoric, that he laid it down that wood and stone had nothing to do with
+the divine Majesty, even though they were made in the image of all that
+was Holy and worshipful or were most lavishly beautified by the hand of
+man with the foul splendors of perishable wealth.  The greater the power
+ascribed by superstition to the base material--whatever form it bore--the
+more odious must it be to the Christian.  Any man who should believe that
+a daemon could turn even a breath of the Most High to its own will and
+purpose, would do well to beware of idolatry, for Satan had already laid
+his clutches somewhere on his robe.
+
+At this sweeping accusation many a cheek colored wrathfully, and not a
+word was spoken when the Bishop proceeded to require of his hearers that,
+if the Serapeum should fall into the hands of the Imperial troops, it
+should be at once and ruthlessly destroyed, and that his hearers should
+not cease from the work of ruin till this scandal of the city should be
+swept from the face of the earth.
+
+"If then the world crumbles to atoms!"  he cried, "well and good--the
+heathen are right and we are wrong, and in that case it were better to
+perish; but as surely as I sit on this throne by the grace of God,
+Serapis is the vain imagining of fools and blind, and there is no god
+but the God whose minister I am!"
+
+"Whose Kingdom is everlasting, Amen!"  chanted an old priest; and
+Cynegius rose to explain that he should do nothing to hinder the total
+overthrow of the temple and image.
+
+Then the Comes spoke in defence of the Bishop's resolution to allow the
+races to be held, as usual, on the morrow.  He sketched a striking
+picture of the shallow, unstable nature of the Alexandrians, a people
+wholly given over to enjoyment.  The troops at his command were few in
+number in comparison with the heathen population of the city, and it was
+a very important matter to keep a large proportion of the worshippers of
+Serapis occupied elsewhere at the moment of the decisive onset.
+Gladiator-fights were prohibited, and the people were tired of wild
+beasts; but races, in which heathen and Christian alike might enter their
+horses for competition, must certainly prove most attractive just at this
+time of bitter rivalry and oppugnancy between the two religions, and
+would draw thousands of the most able-bodied idolaters to the Hippodrome.
+All this he had already considered and discussed with the Bishop and
+Cynegius; nay, that zealous destroyer of heathen worship had come to
+Alexandria with the express purpose of overthrowing the Serapeum; but,
+as a prudent statesman, he had first made sure that the time and
+circumstances were propitious for the work of annihilation.  All that
+he had here seen and heard had only strengthened his purpose; so, after
+suggesting a few possible difficulties, and enjoining moderation and
+mercy as the guiding principles of his sovereign, he commanded, in the
+Emperor's name, that the sanctuary of Serapis should be seized by force
+of arms and utterly destroyed, and that the races should be held on the
+morrow.
+
+The assembled council bowed low; and when Theophilus had closed the
+meeting with a prayer he withdrew to his ungarnished study, with his head
+bent and an air of profound humility, as though he had met with a defeat
+instead of gaining a victory.
+
+                    .......................
+
+The fate of the great god of the heathen was sealed, but in the wide
+precincts of the Serapeum no one thought of surrender or of prompt
+defeat.  The basement of the building, on which stood the grandest temple
+ever erected by the Hellenes, presented a smooth and slightly scarped
+rampart of impregnable strength to the foe.  A sloping way extended up
+over a handsomely-decorated incline, and from the middle of the grand
+curve described by this road, two flights of steps led up to the three
+great doors in the facade of the building.
+
+The heathen had taken care to barricade this approach in all haste,
+piling the road and steps with statuary-images of the gods of the finest
+workmanship, figures and busts of kings, queens, and heroes, Hermes,
+columns, stelae, sacrificial stones, chairs and benches-torn from their
+places by a thousand eager hands.  The squared flags of the pavement and
+the granite blocks of the steps had been built up into walls and these
+were still being added to after the besiegers had surrounded the temple;
+for the defenders tore down stones, pilasters, gutters and pieces of the
+cornice, and flung them on to the outworks, or, when they could, on to
+the foe who for the present were not eager to commence hostilities.
+
+The captains of the Imperial force had miscalculated the strength of the
+heathen garrison.  They supposed a few hundreds might have entrenched
+themselves, but on the roof alone above a thousand men were to be seen,
+and every hour seemed to increase the number of men and women crowding
+into the Serapeum.  The Romans could only suppose that this constantly
+growing multitude had been concealed in the secret halls and chambers of
+the temple ever since Cynegius had first arrived, and had no idea that
+they were still being constantly reinforced.
+
+Karnis, Herse, and Orpheus, among others, had made their way thither from
+the timber-yard, down the dry conduit, and an almost incessant stream of
+the adherents of the old gods had preceded and followed them.
+
+While Eusebius had been exhorting his congregation in the church of St.
+Mark to Christian love towards the idolaters, these had collected in the
+temple precincts to the number of about four thousand, all eager for the
+struggle.  A vast multitude!  But the extent of the Serapeum was so
+enormous that the mass of people was by no means densely packed on the
+roof, in the halls, and in the underground passages and rooms.  There was
+no crowding anywhere, least of all in the central halls of the temple
+itself; indeed, in the great vestibule crowned with a dome which formed
+the entrance, in the vast hall next to it, and in the magnificent
+hypostyle with a semicircular niche on the furthest side in which stood
+the far-famed image of the god, there were only scattered groups of men,
+who looked like dwarfs as the eye compared them with the endless rows of
+huge columns.
+
+The full blaze of day penetrated nowhere but into the circular vestibule,
+which was lighted by openings in the drum of the cupola that rested on
+four gigantic columns.  In the inner hall there was only dim twilight;
+while the hypostyle was quite dark, but for a singularly contrived shaft
+of light which produced a most mysterious effect.
+
+The shadows of the great columns in the fore hall, and of the double
+colonnade on each side of the hypostyle, lay like bands of crape on the
+many-colored pavement; borders, circles, and ellipses of mosaic
+diversified the smooth and lucent surface, in which were mirrored the
+astrological figures which sparkled in brighter hues on the ceiling, the
+trophies of symbols and mythological groups that graced the walls in
+tinted high relief, and the statues and Hermes between the columns.  A
+wreath of lovely forms and colors dazzled the eye with their multiplicity
+and profusion, and the heavy atmosphere of incense which filled the halls
+was almost suffocating, while the magical and mystical signs and figures
+were so many and so new that the enquiring mind, craving for an
+explanation and an interpretation of all these incomprehensible
+mysteries, hardly dared investigate them in detail.
+
+A heavy curtain, that looked as though giants must have woven it on a
+loom of superhuman proportions, hung, like a thick cloud shrouding a
+mountain-peak, from the very top of the hypostyle, in grand folds over
+the niche containing the statue, and down to the floor; and while it hid
+the sacred image from the gaze of the worshipper it attracted his
+attention by the infinite variety of symbolical patterns and beautiful
+designs which were woven in it and embroidered on it.
+
+The gold and silver vessels and precious jewels that lay concealed by
+this hanging were of more value than many a mighty king's treasure; and
+everything was on so vast a scale that man shuddered to feel his own
+littleness, and the mind sought some new standard of measurement by which
+to realize such unwonted proportions.  The finite here seemed to pass
+into the infinite; and as the spectator gazed up, with his head thrown
+back, at the capitals of the lofty columns and the remote height of the
+ceiling, his sight failed him before he had succeeded in distinguishing
+or even perceiving a small portion only of the bewildering confusion of
+figures and emblems that were crowded on to the surface.  Greek feeling
+for beauty had here worked hand in hand with Oriental taste for gorgeous
+magnificence, and every detail could bear examination; for there was not
+a motive of the architecture, not a work of sculpture, painting, or
+mosaic, not a product of the foundry or the loom, which did not bear the
+stamp of thorough workmanship and elaborate finish.  The ruddy, flecked
+porphyry, the red, white, green, or yellow marbles which had been used
+for the decorations were all the finest and purest ever wrought upon by
+Greek craftsmen.  Each of the hundreds of sculptured works which here had
+found a home was the masterpiece of some great artist; as the curious
+visitor lingered in loving contemplation of the mosaics on the polished
+floor, or examined the ornamental mouldings that framed the reliefs,
+dividing the walls into panels, he was filled with wonder and delight at
+the beauty, the elegance and the inventiveness that had given charm,
+dignity, and significance to every detail.
+
+Adjoining these great halls devoted especially to the worship of the god,
+were hundreds of courts, passages, colonnades and rooms, and others not
+less numerous lay underground.  There were long rows of rooms containing
+above a hundred thousand rolls of books, the famous library of the
+Serapeum, with separate apartments for readers and copyists; there were
+store-rooms, refectories and assembly-rooms for the high-priests of the
+temple, for teachers and disciples; while acrid odors came up from the
+laboratories, and the fragrance of cooking from the kitchen and bake-
+houses.  In the very thickness of the walls of the basement were cells
+for penitents and recluses, long since abandoned, and rooms for the
+menials and slaves, of whom hundreds were employed in the precincts;
+under ground spread the mystical array of halls, grottoes, galleries and
+catacombs dedicated to the practice of the Mysteries and the initiation
+of neophytes; on the roof stood various observatories--among them one
+erected for the study of the heavens by Eratosthenes, where Claudius
+Ptolemaeus had watched and worked.  Up here astronomers, star-gazers,
+horoscopists and Magians spent their nights, while, far below them, in
+the temple-courts that were surrounded by store-houses and stables, the
+blood of sacrificed beasts was shed and the entrails of the victims were
+examined.
+
+The house of Serapis was a whole world in little, and centuries had
+enriched it with wealth, beauty, and the noblest treasures of art and
+learning.  Magic and witchcraft hedged it in with a maze of mystical and
+symbolical secrets, and philosophy had woven a tissue of speculation
+round the person of the god.  The sanctuary was indeed the centre of
+Hellenic culture in the city of Alexander; what marvel then, that the
+heathen should believe that with the overthrow of Serapis and his temple,
+the earth, nay the universe itself must sink into the abyss?
+
+Anxious spirits and throbbing hearts were those that now sought shelter
+in the Serapeum, fully prepared to perish with their god, and yet eager
+with enthusiasm to avert his fall if possible.
+
+A strange medley indeed of men and women had collected within these
+sacred precincts!  Grave sages, philosophers, grammarians,
+mathematicians, naturalists, and physicians clung to Olympius and obeyed
+him in silence.  Rhetoricians with shaven faces, Magians and sorcerers,
+whose long beards flowed over robes embroidered with strange figures;
+students, dressed after the fashion of their forefathers in the palmy
+days of Athens; men of every age, who dubbed themselves artists though
+they were no more than imitators of the works of a greater epoch, unhappy
+in that no one at this period of indifference to beauty called upon them
+to prove what they could do, or to put forth their highest powers.
+Actors, again, from the neglected theatres, starving histrions, to whom
+the stage was prohibited by the Emperor and Bishop, singers and flute-
+players; hungry priests and temple-servitors expelled from the closed
+sanctuaries; lawyers, scribes, ships' captains, artisans, though but very
+few merchants, for Christianity had ceased to be the creed of the poor,
+and the wealthy attached themselves to the faith professed by those in
+authority.
+
+One of the students had contrived to bring a girl with him, and several
+others, seeing this, went back into the streets by the secret way and
+brought in damsels of no very fair repute, till the crowd of men was
+diversified by a considerable sprinkling of wreathed and painted girls,
+some of them the outcast maids of various temples, and others priestesses
+of higher character, who had remained faithful to the old gods or who
+practised magic arts.
+
+Among these women one, a tall and dignified matron in mourning robes, was
+a conspicuous figure.  This was Berenice, the mother of the young heathen
+who had been ridden down and wounded in the skirmish near the Prefect's
+house, and whose eyes Eusebius had afterwards closed.  She had come to
+the Serapeum expressly to avenge her son's death and then to perish with
+the fall of the gods for whom he had sacrificed his young life.  But the
+mad turmoil that surrounded her was more than she could bear; she stood,
+hour after hour, closely veiled and absorbed in her own thoughts, neither
+raising her eyes nor uttering a word, at the foot of a bronze statue of
+justice dispensing rewards and punishments.
+
+Olympius had entrusted the command of the little garrison of armed men to
+Memnon, a veteran legate of great experience, who had lost his left arm
+in the war against the Goths.  The high-priest himself was occupied
+alternately in trying to persuade the hastily-collected force to obey
+their leader, and in settling quarrels, smoothing difficulties,
+suppressing insubordination, and considering plans with reference to
+supplies for his adherents, and the offering of a great sacrifice at
+which all the worshippers of Serapis were to assist.  Karnis kept near
+his friend, helping him so far as was possible; Orpheus, with others of
+the younger men, had been ordered to the roof, where they were employed--
+under the scorching sun, reflected from the copper-plated covering and
+the radiating surface of the dome--in loosening blocks of stone from the
+balustrade to be hurled down to-morrow on the besieging force.
+
+Herse devoted herself to the sick and wounded, for a few who had ventured
+forth too boldly to aid in barricading the entrance, had been hurt by
+arrows and lances flung by the idle soldiery; and a still greater number
+were suffering from sun-stroke in consequence of toiling on the top of
+the building.
+
+Inside the vast, thick-walled halls it was much cooler than in the
+streets even, and the hours glided fast to the besieged heathen.  Many of
+them were fully occupied, or placed on guard; others were discussing the
+situation, and disputing or guessing at what the outcome might, or must
+be.  Numbers, panic-stricken or absorbed in pious awe, sat huddled on the
+ground, praying, muttering magical formulas, or wailing aloud.  The
+Magians and astrologers had retired with knots of followers into the
+adjoining studies, where they were comparing registers, making
+calculations, reading signs, devising new formulas and defending them
+against their opponents.
+
+An incessant bustle went on, to and fro between these rooms and the great
+library, and the tables were covered with rolls and tablets containing
+ancient prophecies, horoscopes and potent exorcisms.  Messengers, one
+after another, were sent out from thence to command silence in the great
+halls, where the assembled youths and girls were kissing, singing,
+shouting and dancing to the shrill pipe of flutes and twang of lutes,
+clapping their hands, rattling tambourines--in short, enjoying to the
+utmost the few hours that might yet be theirs before they must make the
+fatal leap into nothingness, or at least into the dim shades of death.
+
+The sun was sinking when suddenly the great brazen gong was loudly
+struck, and the hard, blatant clatter rent the air of the temple-hall.
+The mighty waves of sound reverberated from the walls of the sanctuary
+like the surge of a clangorous sea, and sent their metallic vibration
+ringing through every room and cell, from the topmost observatory-turret
+to the deepest vault beneath, calling all who were within the precincts
+to assemble.  The holy places filled at once; the throng poured in
+through the vestibule, and in a few minutes even the hypostyle, the
+sanctum of the veiled statue, was full to overflowing.  Without any
+distinction of rank or sex, and regardless of all the usual formalities
+or the degrees of initiation which each had passed through, the
+worshippers of Serapis crowded towards the sacred niche, till a chain,
+held up by neokores--[Temple-servants]--at a respectful distance from the
+mystical spot, checked their advance.  Densely packed and in almost
+breathless silence, they filled the nave and the colonnades, watching for
+what might befall.
+
+Presently a dull low chant of men's voices was heard.  This went on for a
+few minutes, and then a loud pean in honor of the god rang through the
+temple with an accompaniment of flutes, cymbals, lutes and trumpets.
+
+Karnis had found a place with his wife and son; all three, holding hands,
+joined enthusiastically in the stirring hymn; and, with them, Porphyrius,
+who by accident was close to them, swelling the song of the multitude.
+All now stood with hands uplifted and eyes fixed in anxious expectancy on
+the curtain.  The figures and emblems on the hanging were invisible in
+the gloom--but now-now there was a stir, as of life, in the ponderous
+folds,--they moved--they began to ripple like streams, brooks, water-
+falls, recovering motion after long stagnation--the curtain slowly sank,
+and at length it fell so suddenly that the eye could scarcely note the
+instant.  From every lip, as but one voice, rose a cry of admiration,
+amazement, and delight, for Serapis stood revealed to his people.
+
+The noble manhood of the god sat with dignity on a golden throne that was
+covered with a blaze of jewels; his gracious and solemn face looked down
+on the crowd of worshippers.  The hair that curled upon his thoughtful
+brow, and the kalathos that crowned it were of pure gold  At his feet
+crouched Cerberus, raising his three fierce heads with glistening ruby
+eyes.  The body of the god--a model of strength in repose--and the
+drapery were of gold and ivory.  In its perfect harmony as a whole, and
+the exquisite beauty of every detail, this statue bore the stamp of
+supreme power and divine majesty.  When such a divinity as this should
+rise from his throne the earth indeed might quake and the heavens
+tremble!  Before such a Lord the strongest might gladly bow, for no
+mortal ever shone in such radiant beauty.  This Sovereign must triumph
+over every foe, even over death--the monster that lay writhing in
+impotent rage at his feet!
+
+Gasping and thrilled with pious awe, enraptured but dumb with reverent
+fear, the assembled thousands gazed on the god dimly revealed to them in
+the twilight, when suddenly, for a moment of solemn glory, a ray of the
+setting sun--a shaft of intense brightness--pierced the star-spangled
+apse of the niche and fell on the lips of the god as though to kiss its
+Lord and Father.
+
+A shout like a thunder-clap-like the roar of breakers on a reef, burst
+from the spectators; a shout of triumph so mighty that the statues
+quivered, the brazen altars rang, the hangings swayed, the sacred vessels
+clattered and the lamps trembled and swung; the echo rolled round the
+aisles like a whirlpool at the flood, and was dashed from pillar to
+column in a hundred wavelets of sound.  The glorious sun still recognized
+its lord; Serapis still reigned in undiminished might; he had not yet
+lost the power to defend himself, his world and his children!
+
+The sun was gone, night fell on the temple and suddenly there was a
+swaying movement of the apse above the statue; the stars were shaken by
+invisible hands, and colored flames twinkled with dazzling brightness
+from a myriad five-rayed perforations.  Once more the god was revealed to
+his worshippers under a flood of magical glory, and now fully visible in
+his unique beauty.  Again the great halls rang with the acclamations of
+the delirious throng; Olympius stepped forth, arrayed in a flowing robe
+with the insignia and decorations of the high-priesthood; standing in
+front of the image he poured on the pedestal a libation to the gods out
+of a golden cup, and waved a censer of the costliest incense.  Then, in
+burning words, he exhorted all the followers of Serapis to fight and
+conquer for their god, or--if need must--to perish for and with him.  He
+added a fervent prayer in a loud ringing voice--a cry for help that came
+from the bottom of his heart, and went to the souls of his hearers.
+
+Then a solemn hymn was chanted as the curtain was raised; and while the
+assembled multitude watched it rise in reverent silence, the temple-
+servants lighted the lamps that illuminated the sanctuary from every
+cornice and pillar.
+
+Karnis had left hold of his companions' hands, for he wanted to wipe away
+the tears of devotional excitement that flowed down his withered cheeks;
+Orpheus had thrown his arms round his mother, and Porphyrius, who had
+joined a group of philosophers and sages, sent a glance of sympathy to
+the old musician.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+By an hour after sunset the sacrifice of a bull in the great court of the
+Serapeum was consummated, and the Moscosphragist announced that the god
+had graciously accepted it--the examination of the entrails showed more
+favorable indications than it had the day before.  The flesh of the
+slaughtered beast went forthwith to the kitchen; and, if the savor of
+roast beef that presently rose up was as grateful to Serapis as to his
+worshippers, they might surely reckon on a happy issue from the struggle.
+
+The besieged, indeed, were, ere long, in excellent spirits; for Olympius
+had taken care to store the cellars of the sanctuary with plenty of good
+wine, and the happy auguries drawn from the appearance of the god and the
+state of the victim had filled them with fresh confidence.  As there was
+not sleeping accommodation for nearly all the men, they had to turn night
+into day; and as, to most of them, life consisted wholly in the enjoyment
+of the moment, and all was delightful that was new or strange, they soon
+eat and drank themselves into a valiant frame of mind.
+
+Couches, such as they were wont to be on at meals, there were not, so
+each man snatched up the first thing he could lay his hands on to serve
+as a seat.  When cups were lacking the jugs and vessels from the
+sanctuary were sent for, and passed from one to another.  Many a youth
+lounged with his head in some fair one's lap; many a girl leaned back to
+back with some old man; and as flowers were not to be had, messengers
+were sent to the town to buy them, with vine-wreaths and other greenery.
+
+They were easily procured, and with them came the news that the races
+were to be held next morning.
+
+This information was regarded by many as being of the first importance;
+Nicarchus, the son of the rich Hippocleides, and Zenodotus a weaver of
+tapestry--whose quadriga had once proved victorious--hastily made their
+way into the town to give the requisite orders in their stables, and they
+were closely followed by Hippias, the handsome agitator, who was the
+favorite driver in the arena for the horses belonging to wealthy owners.
+In the train of these three every lover of horses vanished from the
+scene, with a number of Hippias' friends, and of flower-sellers, door-
+keepers, and ticket-holders-in short, of all who expected to derive
+special pleasure or profit from the games.  Each man reflected that one
+could not be missed, and as the god was favorably disposed he might
+surely contrive to defend his own temple till after the races were over;
+they would then return to conquer or die with the rest.
+
+Then some others began to think of wives and children in bed at home,
+and they, too, departed; still, by far the larger proportion remained
+behind--above three thousand in all, men and women.  These at once
+possessed themselves of the half-emptied wine-jars left by the deserters;
+gay music was got up, and then, wreathed with garlands on their heads and
+shoulders, and 'filled with the god' they drank, shouted and danced far
+into the night.  The merry feast soon became a wild orgy; loud cries of
+Evoe, and tumultuous singing reached the ears of the Magians, who had
+once more settled down to calculations and discussions over their rolls
+and tablets.
+
+The mother of the youth that had been killed still sat huddled at the
+foot of the statue of justice, enduring the anguish of listening to these
+drunken revels with dull resignation.  Every shout of laughter, every
+burst of mad mirth from the revellers above cut her to the heart--and
+yet, how they would have gladdened her if only one other voice could have
+mingled with those hundreds!  When Olympius, still in his fullest dress,
+and carrying his head loftily as became him, made his way through the
+temple at the head of his subordinates, he noticed Berenice--whom he had
+known as a proud and happy mother--and begged her to join the friends
+whom he had bidden to his own table; but she dreaded any social contact
+with men whom she knew, and preferred to remain where she was at the feet
+of the goddess.
+
+Wherever the high-priest went he was hailed with enthusiasm: "Rejoice,"
+he would say to encourage the feasters, cheering them with wise and
+fervid exhortations, reminding them of Pharaoh Mycerinus who, having been
+told by an oracle that he had only six years to live, determined to prove
+the prophecy false, and by carousing through every night made the six
+years allotted to him a good dozen.
+
+"Imitate him!"  cried Olympius as he raised a cup to his lips, "crowd the
+joys of a year into the few hours that still are left us, and pour a
+libation to the god as I do, out of every cup ere you drink."
+
+His appeal was answered by a rapturous shout; the flutes and cymbals
+piped and clanged, metal cups rang sharply as the drinkers pledged each
+other, and the girls thumped their tambourines, till the calf-skin droned
+and the bells in the frames tinkled shrilly.
+
+Olympius thanked them, and bowed on all sides, as he walked from group to
+group of his adherents.  Seldom, indeed, had his heart beat so high!  His
+end perhaps was very near, but it should at least be worthy of his life.
+
+He knew how the sunbeam had been reflected so as to kiss the statue's
+lips.  For centuries had this startling little scene and the sudden
+illumination of the niche round the head of the god been worked in
+precisely the same way at high festivals--[They are mentioned by
+Rufinus.]--these were mere stimulants to the dull souls of the vulgar who
+needed to be stirred up by the miraculous power of the god, which the
+elect recognized throughout the universe, in the wondrous co-operation of
+forces and results in nature, and in the lives of men.  He, for his part,
+firmly believed in Serapis and his might, and in the prophecies and
+calculations which declared that his fall must involve the dissolution
+of the organic world and its relapse into chaos.
+
+Many winds were battling in the air, each one driving the ship of life
+towards the whirlpool.  To-day or to-morrow--what matter which?  The
+threatened cataclysm had no terrors for Olympius.  One thing only was a
+pang to his vanity:  No succeeding generations would preserve the memory
+of his heroic struggle and death for the cause of the gods.  But all was
+not yet lost, and his sunny nature read in the glow of the dying clay the
+promise and dawn of a brilliant morrow.  If the expected succor should
+arrive--if the good cause should triumph here in Alexandria--if the
+rising were to be general throughout Greek heathendom, then indeed had he
+been rightly named Olympius by his parents--then he would not change
+places with any god of Olympus--then the glory of his name, more lasting
+than bronze or marble, would shine forth like the sun, so long as one
+Greek heart honored the ancient gods and loved its native land.
+
+This night--perhaps its last--should see a grand, a sumptuous feast; he
+invited his friends and adherents--the leaders of spiritual life in
+Alexandria--to a 'symposium', after the manner of the philosophers and
+dilettanti of ancient Athens, to be held in the great concert-hall of the
+Serapeum.
+
+How different was its aspect from that of the Bishop's council-chamber!
+The Christians sat within bare walls, on wooden benches, round a plain
+table; the large room in which Olympius received his supporters was
+magnificently decorated, and furnished with treasures of art in fine
+inlaid work, beaten brass and purple stuffs-a hall for kings to meet in.
+Thick cushions, covered with lion and panther-skins, tempted fatigue or
+indolence; and when the hero of the hour joined his guests, after his
+progress through the precincts, every couch was occupied.  To his right
+lay Helladius, the famous grammarian and high-priest of Zeus; Porphyrius,
+the benefactor of the Serapeum, was on his left; even Karnis had been
+allotted a place in his old friend's social circle, and greatly
+appreciated the noble juice of the grape, that was passed round, as well
+as the eager and intelligent friction of minds, from which he had long
+been cut off.
+
+Olympius himself was unanimously chosen Symposiarch, and he invited the
+company to discuss, in the first instance, the time-honored question:
+Which was the highest good?
+
+One and all, he said, they were standing on a threshold, as it were;
+and as travellers, quitting an old and beloved home to seek a new and
+unknown one in a distant land, pause to consider what particular joy that
+they have known under the shelter of the old Penates has been the
+dearest, so it would beseem them to reflect, at this supreme moment, what
+had been the highest good of their life in this world.  They were on the
+eve, perhaps, of a splendid victory; but, perchance, on the other hand,
+their foot was already on the plank that led from the shore of life to
+Charon's bark.
+
+The subject was a familiar one and a warm discussion was immediately
+started.  The talk was more flowery and brilliant, no doubt, than in old
+Athens, but it led to no deeper views and threw no clearer light on the
+well-worn question.  The wranglers could only quote what had been said
+long since as to the highest Good, and when presently Helladius called
+upon them to bring their minds to bear on the nature of humanity, a
+vehement disputation arose as to whether man were the best or the worst
+of created beings.  This led to various utterances as to the mystical
+connection of the spiritual and material worlds, and nothing could be
+more amazing than the power of imagination which had enabled these
+mystical thinkers to people with spirits and daemons every circle of the
+ladder-like structure which connected the incomprehensible and self-
+sufficing One with the divine manifestation known as Man.  It became
+quite intelligible that many Alexandrians should fear to fling a stone
+lest it might hit one of the good daemons of which the air was full--
+a spirit of light perhaps, or a protecting spirit.  The more obscure
+their theories, the more were they overloaded with image and metaphor;
+all simplicity of statement was lost, and yet the disputants prided
+themselves on the brilliancy of their language and the wealth of their
+ideas.  They believed that they had brought the transcendental within the
+grasp of intelligent sense, and that their empty speculations had carried
+them far beyond the narrow limits of the Ancients.
+
+Karnis was in raptures; Porphyrius only wished for Gorgo by his side,
+for, like all fathers, he would rather that his child should have enjoyed
+this supreme intellectual treat than himself.
+
+                    ........................
+
+In Porphyrius' house, meanwhile, all was gloom and anxiety.  In spite of
+the terrific heat Damia would not be persuaded to come down from the
+turret-room where she had collected all the instruments, manuals and
+formulas used by astrologers and Magians.  A certain priest of Saturn,
+who had a great reputation as a master of such arts, and who, for many
+years, had been her assistant whenever she sought to apply her science
+to any important event, was in attendance--to give her the astrological
+tables, to draw circles, ellipses or triangles at her bidding, to
+interpret the mystical sense of numbers or letters, which now and then
+escaped her aged memory; he made her calculations or tested those she
+made herself, and read out the incantations which she thought efficacious
+under the circumstances.  Occasionally, too, he suggested some new method
+or fresh formula by which she might verify her results.
+
+She had fasted, according to rule, the whole forenoon, and was frequently
+so far overcome by the heat as to drop asleep in the midst of her
+studies; then, when she woke with a start, if her assistant had meanwhile
+worked out his calculation to a result contrary to her anticipations, she
+took him up sharply and made him begin again from the beginning.  Gorge,
+went up from time to time; but, though she offered the old woman
+refreshment prepared by her own hand, she could not persuade her even to
+moisten her lips with a little fruitsyrup, for to break the prescribed
+fast might endanger 3the accuracy of her prognostications and the result
+of all her labor.  However, when she seemed to doze, her granddaughter
+sprinkled strong waters about the room to freshen the air, poured a few
+drops on the old lady's dress, wiped the dews from her brow, and fanned
+her to cool her.  Damia submitted to all this; and though she had only
+closed her weary eyes, she pretended to be asleep in order to have the
+pleasure of being cared for by her darling.
+
+Towards noon she dismissed the Magian and allowed herself a short
+interval of rest and sleep; but as soon as she woke she collected her
+wits, and set to work again with fresh zeal and diligence.  When, at
+last, she had mastered all the signs and omens, she knew for certain that
+nothing could avert the awful doom foretold by the oracles of old.
+
+The fall of Serapis and the end of the world were at hand.
+
+The Magian covered his head as he saw, plainly demonstrated, how she had
+reached this conclusion, and he groaned in sincere terror; she, however,
+dismissed him with perfect equanimity, handing him her purse, which she
+had filled in the morning, and saying:
+
+"To last till the end."
+
+The sun was now long past the meridian and the old woman, quite worn out,
+threw herself back in her chair and desired Gorgo to let no one disturb
+her; nay, not to return herself till she was sent for.  As soon as Damia
+was alone she gazed at herself in a mirror for some little time,
+murmuring the seven vocables incessantly while she did so; and then she
+fixed her eyes intently on the sky.  These strange proceedings were
+directed to a particular end, she was endeavoring to close her senses to
+the external world, to become blind, deaf, and impervious to everything
+material--the polluting burthen which divided her divine and spiritual
+part from the celestia fount whence it was derived; to set her soul free
+from its earthly shroud--free to gaze on the god that was its father.
+She had already more than once nearly attained to this state by long
+fasting and resolute abstraction and once, in a moment she could never
+forget, had enjoyed the dizzy ecstasy of feeling herself float, as it
+were through infinite space, like a cloud, bathed in glorious radiance.
+The fatigue that had been gradually over powering her now seconded her
+efforts; she soon felt slight tremor; a cold sweat broke out all over
+her; she lost all consciousness of her limbs, and all sense of sighs and
+hearing; a fresher and cooler air seemed to revive not her lungs only,
+but every part of her body, while undulating rays of red and violet light
+danced before her eyes.  Was not their strange radiance an emanation
+from the eternal glory that she sought?  Was not some mysterious power
+uplifting her, bearing her towards the highest goal?  Was her soul
+already free from the bondage of the flesh?  Had she indeed become
+one with God and had her earnest seeking for the Divinity ended in
+glorification?  No; her arms which she had thrown up as if to fly,
+fell by her side it was all in vain.  A pain--a trifling pain in her
+foot, had brought her down again to the base world of sense which she
+so ardently strove to soar away from.
+
+Several times she took up the mirror, looked in it fixedly as before,
+and then gazed upwards; but each time that she lost consciousness of the
+material world and that her liberated soul began to move its unfettered
+pinions, some little noise, the twitch of a muscle, a fly settling on her
+hand, a drop of perspiration falling from her brow on to her cheek,
+roused her senses to reassert themselves.
+
+Why--why was it so difficult to shake off this burthen of mortal clay?
+She thought of herself as of a sculptor who chisels away all superfluous
+material froth his block of marble, to reveal the image of the god
+within; but it was easier to remove the enclosing stone than to release
+the soul from the body to which it was so closely knit.  Still, she did
+not give up the struggle to attain the object which others had achieved
+before her; but she got no nearer to it--indeed, less and less near, for,
+between her and that hoped-for climax, rose up a series of memories and
+strange faces which she could not get rid of.  The chisel slipped aside,
+went wrong or lost its edge before the image could be extracted from the
+block.
+
+One illusion after another floated before her eyes first it was Gorgo,
+the idol of her old heart, lying pale and fair on a sea of surf that
+rocked her on its watery waste--up high on the crest of a wave and then
+deep down in the abyss that yawned behind it.  She, too--so young, a
+hardly-opened blossom--must perish in the universal ruin, and be crushed
+by the same omnipotent hand that could overthrow the greatest of the
+gods; and a glow of passionate hatred snatched her away from the aim of
+her hopes.  Then the dream changed she saw a scattered flock of ravens
+flying in wide circles, at an unattainable height, against the clouds;
+suddenly they vanished and she saw, in a grey mist, the monument to
+Porphyrius' wife, Gorgo's long-departed mother.  She had often visited
+the mausoleum with tender emotion, but she did not want to see it now--
+not now, and she shook it off; but in its place rose up the image of her
+daughter-in-law herself, the dweller in that tomb, and no effort of will
+or energy availed to banish that face.  She saw the dead woman as she had
+seen her on the last fateful occasion in her short life.  A solemn and
+festal procession was passing out through the door of their house, headed
+by flute-players and singing-girls; then came a white bull; a garland of
+the scarlet flowers of the pomegranate--[This tree was regarded as the
+symbol of fertility, on account of its many-seeded fruit.]--hung round
+its massive neck, and its horns were gilt.  By its side walked slaves,
+carrying white baskets full of bread and cakes and heaps of flowers, and
+these were followed by others, bearing light-blue cages containing geese
+and doves.  The bull, the calves, the flowers and the birds were all to
+be deposited in the temple of Eileithyia, as a sacrifice to the
+protecting goddess of women in child-birth.  Close behind the bull came
+Gorgo's mother, dressed with wreaths, walking slowly and timidly, with
+shy, downcast eyes-thinking perhaps of the anguish to come, and putting
+up a silent prayer.
+
+Damia followed with the female friends of the house, the clients and
+their wives and some personal attendants, all carrying pomegranates in
+the right hand, and holding in the left a long wreath of flowers which
+thus connected the whole procession.
+
+In this order they reached the ship-yard; but at that spot they were met
+by a band of crazy monks from the desert monasteries, who, seeing the
+beast for sacrifice, abused them loudly, cursing the heathen.  The slaves
+indignantly drove them off, but then the starveling anchorites fell upon
+the innocent beast which was the chief abomination in their eyes.  The
+bull tossed his huge head, snuffing and snorting to right and left, stuck
+out his tail and rushed away from the boy whose guidance he had till now
+meekly followed, flung a monk high in the air with his huge horns, and
+then turned in his fury on the women who were behind.
+
+They fled like a flock of doves on which a hawk comes swooping down; some
+were driven quite into the lake and others up against the paling of the
+shipyard, while Damia herself--who was going through it all again in the
+midst of her efforts to rise to the divinity--and the young wife whom she
+had vainly tried to shelter and support, were both knocked down.  To that
+hour of terror Gorgo owed her birth, while to her mother it was death.
+
+On the following day Alexandria beheld a funeral ceremony as solemn,
+as magnificent, and as crowded as though a conquering hero were being
+entombed; it was that of the monk whom the bull had gored; the Bishop had
+proclaimed that by this attack on the abomination of desolation--the
+blood-sacrifice of idolatry--he had won an eternal crown in Paradise.
+
+But now the black ravens crossed Damia's vision once more, till presently
+a handsome young Greek gaily drove them off with his thyrsus.  His
+powerful and supple limbs shone with oil, applied in the gymnasium of
+Timagetes, the scene of his frequent triumphs in all the sports and
+exercises of the youthful Greeks.  His features and waving hair were
+those of her son Apelles; but suddenly his aspect changed: he was an
+emaciated penitent, his knees bent under the weight of a heavy cross; his
+widow, Mary, had declared him a martyr to the cause of the crucified Jew
+and defamed his memory in the eyes of his own son and of all men.  Damia
+clenched her trembling hands.  Again those ravens came swirling round,
+flapping their wings wildly over the prostrate penitent.
+
+Then her husband appeared to her, calmly indifferent to the birds of ill-
+omen.  He looked just as she remembered him many--so many years ago, when
+he had come in smiling and said: "The best stroke of business I ever did!
+For a sprinkling of water I have secured the corn trade with Thessalonica
+and Constantinople; that is a hundred gold solidi for each drop."
+
+Yes, he had made a good bargain.  The profits of that day's work were
+multiplied by tens, and water, nothing in the world but Nile water--
+Baptismal water the priest had called it--had filled her son's money-
+bags, too, and had turned their plot of land into broad estates; but it
+had been tacitly understood that this sprinkling of water established a
+claim for a return, and this both father and son had solemnly promised.
+Its magic turned everything they touched to gold, but it brought a blight
+on the peace of the household.  One branch, which had grown up in the
+traditions of the old Macedonian stock, had separated from the other; and
+her husband's great lie lay between them and the family still living in
+the Canopic way, like a wide ocean embittered with the salt of hatred.
+That he had infused poison into his son's life and compelled him, proud
+as he was, to forfeit the dignity of a free and high-minded man.  Though
+devoted in his heart to the old gods he had humbled himself, year after
+year, to bow the knee with the hated votaries of the Christian faith, and
+in their church, to their crucified Lord, and had publicly confessed
+Christ.  The water--the terrible thaumaturgic stream--clung to him more
+inseparably than the brand-mark on a slave's arm.  It could neither be
+dried up nor wiped away; for if the false Christian, who was really a
+zealous heathen, had boldly confessed the Olympian gods and abjured the
+odious new faith, the gifts of the all-powerful water and all the
+possessions of their old family would be confiscated to the State and
+Church, and the children of Porphyrius, the grandchildren of the wealthy
+Damia, would be beggars.  And this--all this--for the sake of a crucified
+Jew.
+
+The gods be praised the end of all this wretchedness was at hand!  A
+thrill of ecstasy ran through her as she reflected that with herself and
+her children, every soul, everything that bore the name of Christian
+would be crushed, shattered and annihilated.  She could have laughed
+aloud but that her throat was so dry, her tongue so parched; but her
+scornful triumph was expressed in every feature, as her fancy showed her
+Marcus riding along the Canopic street with that little heathen hussy
+Dada, the singing girl, while her much-hated daughter-in-law looked
+after them, beating her forehead in grief and rage.
+
+Quite beside herself with delight the old woman rocked backwards and
+forwards in her chair; not for long, however, for the black birds seemed
+to fill the whole room, describing swift, interminable spirals round her
+head.  She could not hear them, but she could see them, and the whirling
+vortex fascinated her; she could not help turning her head to follow
+their flight; she grew giddy and she was forced to try to recover her
+balance.
+
+The old woman sat huddled in her chair, her hands convulsively clutching
+the arms, like a horseman whose steed has run away with him round and
+round the arena; till at length, worn out by excitement and exhaustion,
+she became unconscious, and sank in a heap on the ground, rigid and
+apparently lifeless.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Christianity had ceased to be the creed of the poor
+He spoke with pompous exaggeration
+Whether man were the best or the worst of created beings
+
+
+
+
+
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