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diff --git a/25053-h/25053-h.htm b/25053-h/25053-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..009473b --- /dev/null +++ b/25053-h/25053-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6273 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Temptation of St. Anthony, by Gustave Flaubert. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Temptation of St. Antony, by Gustave Flaubert + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Temptation of St. Antony + or A Revelation of the Soul + +Author: Gustave Flaubert + +Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25053] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + + <h1>THE TEMPTATION<br /> + OF<br /> + ST. ANTONY<br /><br /></h1> + + <h4>OR,</h4> + + <h2><i>A REVELATION OF THE SOUL</i></h2> + + <h4>BY</h4> + <h2>GUSTAVE FLAUBERT</h2> + + <h3><i>VOLUME VII.</i></h3> + + + <p class="center">SIMON P. MAGEE<br /> + PUBLISHER<br /> + CHICAGO, ILL.<br /><br /> + + + + + +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904, by</span><br /> + M. WALTER DUNNE<br /><br /> + + <i>Entered at Stationers' Hall, London</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + +<div class='centered'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER I.</td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A HOLY SAINT</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE TEMPTATION OF LOVE AND POWER</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_16'><b>16</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE DISCIPLE, HILARION</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_40'><b>40</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE FIERY TRIAL</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">ALL GODS, ALL RELIGIONS</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_99'><b>99</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE MYSTERY OF SPACE</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE CHIMERA AND THE SPHINX</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + + +<div class='centered'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="75%" cellspacing="0" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS"> +<tr><td align='left'>"DO NOT RESIST, I AM OMNIPOTENT!" (See page <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#frontis'><b><i>Frontispiece</i></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>HE LETS GO THE TORCH IN ORDER TO EMBRACE THE HEAP</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><br /><br />THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY<br /><br /></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="450" height="600" alt="" title="frontispiece" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A Holy Saint.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/006.jpg" width="150" height="130" style="margin-top: -2em;" alt="" title="I" /> +</div> +<p>T is in the Thebaïd, on the heights of a mountain, where a platform, +shaped like a crescent, is surrounded by huge stones.</p> + +<p>The Hermit's cell occupies the background. It is built of mud and reeds, +flat-roofed and doorless. Inside are seen a pitcher and a loaf of black +bread; in the centre, on a wooden support, a large book; on the ground, +here and there, bits of rush-work, a mat or two, a basket and a knife.</p> + +<p>Some ten paces or so from the cell a tall cross is planted in the +ground; and, at the other end of the platform, a gnarled old palm-tree +leans over the abyss, for the side of the mountain is scarped; and at +the bottom of the cliff the Nile swells, as it were, into a lake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>To right and left, the view is bounded by the enclosing rocks; but, on +the side of the desert, immense undulations of a yellowish ash-colour +rise, one above and one beyond the other, like the lines of a sea-coast; +while, far off, beyond the sands, the mountains of the Libyan range form +a wall of chalk-like whiteness faintly shaded with violet haze. In +front, the sun is going down. Towards the north, the sky has a +pearl-grey tint; while, at the zenith, purple clouds, like the tufts of +a gigantic mane, stretch over the blue vault. These purple streaks grow +browner; the patches of blue assume the paleness of mother-of-pearl. The +bushes, the pebbles, the earth, now wear the hard colour of bronze, and +through space floats a golden dust so fine that it is scarcely +distinguishable from the vibrations of light.</p> + +<p>Saint Antony, who has a long beard, unshorn locks, and a tunic of +goatskin, is seated, cross-legged, engaged in making mats. No sooner has +the sun disappeared than he heaves a deep sigh, and gazing towards the +horizon:</p> + +<p>"Another day! Another day gone! I was not so miserable in former times +as I am now! Before the night was over, I used to begin my prayers; then +I would go down to the river to fetch water, and would reascend the +rough mountain pathway, singing a hymn, with the water-bottle on my +shoulder. After that, I used to amuse myself by arranging everything in +my cell. I used to take up my tools, and examine the mats, to see +whether they were evenly cut, and the baskets, to see whether they were +light; for it seemed to me then that even my most trifling acts were +duties which I performed with ease. At regulated hours I left off my +work and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> prayed, with my two arms extended. I felt as if a fountain of +mercy were flowing from Heaven above into my heart. But now it is dried +up. Why is this? ..."</p> + +<p>He proceeds slowly into the rocky enclosure.</p> + +<p>"When I left home, everyone found fault with me. My mother sank into a +dying state; my sister, from a distance, made signs to me to come back; +and the other one wept, Ammonaria, that child whom I used to meet every +evening, beside the cistern, as she was leading away her cattle. She ran +after me. The rings on her feet glittered in the dust, and her tunic, +open at the hips, fluttered in the wind. The old ascetic who hurried me +from the spot addressed her, as we fled, in loud and menacing tones. +Then our two camels kept galloping continuously, till at length every +familiar object had vanished from my sight.</p> + +<p>"At first, I selected for my abode the tomb of one of the Pharaohs. But +some enchantment surrounds those subterranean palaces, amid whose gloom +the air is stifled with the decayed odour of aromatics. From the depths +of the sarcophagi I heard a mournful voice arise, that called me by +name—or rather, as it seemed to me, all the fearful pictures on the +walls started into hideous life. Then I fled to the borders of the Red +Sea into a citadel in ruins. There I had for companions the scorpions +that crawled amongst the stones, and, overhead, the eagles who were +continually whirling across the azure sky. At night, I was torn by +talons, bitten by beaks, or brushed with light wings; and horrible +demons, yelling in my ears, hurled me to the earth. At last, the drivers +of a caravan, which was journeying towards Alexandria, rescued me, and +carried me along with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>"After this, I became a pupil of the venerable Didymus. Though he was +blind, no one equalled him in knowledge of the Scriptures. When our +lesson was ended, he used to take my arm, and, with my aid, ascend the +Panium, from whose summit could be seen the Pharos and the open sea. +Then we would return home, passing along the quays, where we brushed +against men of every nation, including the Cimmerians, clad in bearskin, +and the Gymnosophists of the Ganges, who smear their bodies with +cow-dung. There were continual conflicts in the streets, some of which +were caused by the Jews' refusal to pay taxes, and others by the +attempts of the seditious to drive out the Romans. Besides, the city is +filled with heretics, the followers of Manes, of Valentinus, of +Basilides, and of Arius, all of them eagerly striving to discuss with +you points of doctrine and to convert you to their views.</p> + +<p>"Their discourses sometimes come back to my memory; and, though I try +not to dwell upon them, they haunt my thoughts.</p> + +<p>"I next took refuge in Colzin, and, when I had undergone a severe +penance, I no longer feared the wrath of God. Many persons gathered +around me, offering to become anchorites. I imposed on them a rule of +life in antagonism to the vagaries of Gnosticism and the sophistries of +the philosophers. Communications now reached me from every quarter, and +people came a great distance to see me.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, the populace continued to torture the confessors; and I was +led back to Alexandria by an ardent thirst for martyrdom. I found on my +arrival that the persecution had ceased three days before. Just as I was +returning, my path was blocked by a great crowd in front of the Temple +of Serapis. I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> told that the Governor was about to make one final +example. In the centre of the portico, in the broad light of day, a +naked woman was fastened to a pillar, while two soldiers were scourging +her. At each stroke her entire frame writhed. Suddenly, she cast a wild +look around, her trembling lips parted; and, above the heads of the +multitude, her figure wrapped, as it were, in her flowing hair, +methought I recognised Ammonaria. ... Yet this one was taller—and +beautiful, exceedingly!"</p> + +<p>He draws his hand across his brow.</p> + +<p>"No! no! I must not think upon it!</p> + +<p>"On another occasion, Athanasius asked me to assist him against the +Arians. At that time, they had confined themselves to attacking him with +invectives and ridicule. Since then, however, he has been calumniated, +deprived of his see, and banished. Where is he now? I know not! People +concern themselves so little about bringing me any news! All my +disciples have abandoned me, Hilarion like the rest.</p> + +<p>"He was, perhaps, fifteen years of age when he came to me, and his mind +was so much filled with curiosity that every moment he was asking me +questions. Then he would listen with a pensive air; and, without a +murmur, he would run to fetch whatever I wanted—more nimble than a kid, +and gay enough, moreover, to make even a patriarch laugh. He was a son +to me!"</p> + +<p>The sky is red; the earth completely dark. Agitated by the wind, clouds +of sand rise, like winding-sheets, and then fall again. All at once, in +a clear space in the heavens, a flock of birds flits by, forming a kind +of triangular battalion, resembling a piece of metal with its edges +alone vibrating.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony glances at them.</p> + +<p>"Ah! how I should like to follow them! How often, too, have I not +wistfully gazed at the long boats with their sails resembling wings, +especially when they bore away those who had been my guests! What happy +times I used to have with them! What outpourings! None of them +interested me more than Ammon. He described to me his journey to Rome, +the Catacombs, the Coliseum, the piety of illustrious women, and a +thousand other things. And yet I was unwilling to go away with him! How +came I to be so obstinate in clinging to this solitary life? It might +have been better for me had I stayed with the monks of Nitria when they +besought me to do so. They occupy separate cells, and yet communicate +with one another. On Sunday the trumpet calls them to the church, where +you may see three whips hung up, which are reserved for the punishment +of thieves and intruders, for they maintain very severe discipline.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, they do not stand in need of gifts, for the faithful +bring them eggs, fruit, and even instruments for removing thorns from +their feet. There are vineyards around Pisperi, and those of Pabenum +have a raft, in which they go forth to seek provisions.</p> + +<p>"But I should have served my brethren more effectually by being a simple +priest. I might succour the poor, administer the sacraments, and guard +the purity of domestic life. Besides, all the laity are not lost, and +there was nothing to prevent me from being, for example, a grammarian or +a philosopher. I should have had in my room a sphere made of reeds, +tablets always in my hand, young people around me, and a crown of laurel +suspended as an emblem over my door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But there is too much pride in such triumphs! Better be a soldier. I +was strong and courageous enough to manage engines of war, to traverse +gloomy forests, or, with helmet on head, to enter smoking cities. More +than this, there would be nothing to hinder me from purchasing with my +earnings the office of toll-keeper of some bridge, and travellers would +relate to me their histories, pointing out to me heaps of curious +objects which they had stowed away in their baggage.</p> + +<p>"On festival days the merchants of Alexandria sail along the Canopic +branch of the Nile and drink wine from cups of lotus, to the sound of +tambourines, which make all the taverns near the river shake. Beyond, +trees, cut cone-fashion, protect the peaceful farmsteads against the +south wind. The roof of each house rests on slender columns running +close to one another, like the framework of a lattice, and, through +these spaces, the owner, stretched on a long seat, can gaze out upon his +grounds and watch his servants thrashing corn or gathering in the +vintage, and the cattle trampling on the straw. His children play along +the grass; his wife bends forward to kiss him."</p> + +<p>Through the deepening shadows of the night pointed snouts reveal +themselves here and there with ears erect and glittering eyes. Antony +advances towards them. Scattering the wind in their wild rush, the +animals take flight. It was a troop of jackals.</p> + +<p>One of them remains behind, and, resting on two paws, with his body bent +and his head on one side, he places himself in an attitude of defiance.</p> + +<p>"How pretty he looks! I should like to pass my hand softly over his +back."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony whistles to make him come near. The jackal disappears.</p> + +<p>"Ah! he is gone to join his fellows. Oh! this solitude! this weariness!"</p> + +<p>Laughing bitterly:</p> + +<p>"This is such a delightful life—to twist palm branches in the fire to +make shepherds' crooks, to turn out baskets and fasten mats together, +and then to exchange all this handiwork with the Nomads for bread that +breaks your teeth! Ah! wretched me! will there never be an end of this? +But, indeed, death would be better! I can bear it no longer! Enough! +Enough!"</p> + +<p>He stamps his foot, and makes his way through the rocks with rapid step, +then stops, out of breath, bursts into sobs, and flings himself upon the +ground.</p> + +<p>The night is calm; millions of stars are trembling in the sky. No sound +is heard save the chattering of the tarantula.</p> + +<p>The two arms of the cross cast a shadow on the sand. Antony, who is +weeping, perceives it.</p> + +<p>"Am I so weak, my God? Courage! Let us arise!"</p> + +<p>He enters his cell, finds there the embers of a fire, lights a torch, +and places it on the wooden stand, so as to illumine the big book.</p> + +<p>"Suppose I take—the 'Acts of the Apostles'—yes, no matter where!</p> + +<p>"'<i>He saw the sky opened with a great linen sheet which was let down by +its four corners, wherein were all kinds of terrestrial animals and wild +beasts, reptiles and birds. And a voice said to him: Arise, Peter! Kill +and eat!</i>'</p> + +<p>"So, then, the Lord wished that His apostle should eat every kind of +food? ... whilst I ..."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony lets his chin sink on his breast. The rustling of the pages, +which the wind scatters, causes him to lift his head, and he reads:</p> + +<p>"'<i>The Jews slew all their enemies with swords, and made a great carnage +of them, so that they disposed at will of those whom they hated.</i>'</p> + +<p>"There follows the enumeration of the people slain by them—seventy-five +thousand. They had endured so much! Besides, their enemies were the +enemies of the true God. And how they must have enjoyed their vengeance, +completely slaughtering the idolaters! No doubt the city was gorged with +the dead! They must have been at the garden gates, on the staircases, +and packed so closely together in the various rooms that the doors could +not be closed! But here am I plunging into thoughts of murder and +bloodshed!"</p> + +<p>He opens the book at another passage.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Nebuchadnezzar prostrated himself with his face on the ground and +adored Daniel.</i>'</p> + +<p>"Ah! that is good! The Most High exalts His prophets above kings. This +monarch spent his life in feasting, always intoxicated with sensuality +and pride. But God, to punish him, changed him into a beast, and he +walked on four paws!"</p> + +<p>Antony begins to laugh; and, while stretching out his arms, disarranges +the leaves of the book with the tips of his fingers. Then his eyes fall +on these words:</p> + +<p>"'<i>Ezechias felt great joy in coming to them. He showed them his +perfumes, his gold and silver, all his aromatics, his sweet-smelling +oils, all his precious vases, and the things that were in his +treasures.</i>'</p> + +<p>"I can imagine how they beheld, heaped up to the very ceiling, gems, +diamonds, darics. A man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> who possesses such an accumulation of these +things is not the same as others. While handling them, he assumes that +he holds the result of innumerable exertions, and that he has absorbed, +and can again diffuse, the very life of the people. This is a useful +precaution for kings. The wisest of them all was not wanting in it. His +fleets brought him ivory—and apes. Where is this? It is——"</p> + +<p>He rapidly turns over the leaves.</p> + +<p>"Ah! this is the place:</p> + +<p>"'<i>The Queen of Sheba, being aware of the glory of Solomon, came to +tempt him, propounding enigmas.</i>'</p> + +<p>"How did she hope to tempt him? The Devil was very desirous to tempt +Jesus. But Jesus triumphed because He was God, and Solomon owing, +perhaps, to his magical science. It is sublime, this science; for—as a +philosopher has explained to me—the world forms a whole, all whose +parts have an influence on one another, like the different organs of a +single body. It is interesting to understand the affinities and +antipathies implanted in everything by Nature, and then to put them into +play. In this way one might be able to modify laws that appear to be +unchangeable."</p> + +<p>At this point the two shadows traced behind him by the arms of the cross +project themselves in front of him. They form, as it were, two great +horns. Antony exclaims:</p> + +<p>"Help, my God!"</p> + +<p>The shadows resume their former position.</p> + +<p>"Ah! it was an illusion—nothing more. It is useless for me to torment +my soul, I have no need to do so—absolutely no need!"</p> + +<p>He sits down and crosses his arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And yet methought I felt the approach ... But why should <i>he</i> come? +Besides, do I not know his artifices? I have repelled the monstrous +anchorite who, with a laugh, offered me little hot loaves; the centaur +who tried to take me on his back; and that vision of a beautiful dusky +maid amid the sands, which revealed itself to me as the spirit of +voluptuousness."</p> + +<p>Antony walks up and down rapidly.</p> + +<p>"It is by my direction that all these holy retreats have been built, +full of monks wearing hair-cloths beneath their goatskins, and numerous +enough to furnish forth an army. I have healed diseases at a distance. I +have banished demons. I have waded through the river in the midst of +crocodiles. The Emperor Constantine has written me three letters; and +Balacius, who treated with contempt the letter I sent him, has been torn +by his own horses. The people of Alexandria, whenever I reappeared +amongst them, fought to get a glimpse of me; and Athanasius was my guide +when I took my departure. But what toils, too, I have had to undergo! +Here, for more than thirty years, have I been constantly groaning in the +desert! I have carried on my loins eighty pounds of bronze, like +Eusebius; I have exposed my body to the stings of insects, like +Macarius; I have remained fifty-three nights without closing an eye, +like Pachomius; and those who are decapitated, torn with pincers, or +burnt, possess less virtue, perhaps, inasmuch as my life is a continual +martyrdom!"</p> + +<p>Antony slackens his pace.</p> + +<p>"Certainly there is no one who undergoes so much mortification. +Charitable hearts are growing fewer, and people never give me anything +now. My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> cloak is worn out, and I have no sandals, nor even a porringer; +for I gave all my goods and chattels to the poor and my own family, +without keeping a single obolus for myself. Should I not need a little +money to get the tools that are indispensable for my work? Oh! not +much—a little sum! ... I would husband it.</p> + +<p>"The Fathers of Nicæa were ranged in purple robes on thrones along the +wall, like the Magi; and they were entertained at a banquet, while +honours were heaped upon them, especially on Paphnutius, merely because +he has lost an eye and is lame since Dioclesian's persecution! Many a +time the Emperor has kissed his injured eye. What folly! Moreover, the +Council had such worthless members! Theophilus, a bishop of Scythia; +John, another, in Persia; Spiridion, a cattle-drover. Alexander was too +old. Athanasius ought to have made himself more agreeable to the Arians +in order to get concessions from them!</p> + +<p>"How is it they dealt with me? They would not even give me a hearing! He +who spoke against me—a tall young man with a curling beard—coolly +launched out captious objections; and while I was trying to find words +to reply to him, they kept looking at me with malignant glances, barking +at me like hyenas. Ah! if I could only get them all sent into exile by +the Emperor, or rather smite them, crush them, behold them suffering. I +have much to suffer myself!"</p> + +<p>He sinks swooning against the wall of his cell.</p> + +<p>"This is what it is to have fasted overmuch! My strength is going. If I +had eaten, only once, a morsel of meat!"</p> + +<p>He half-closes his eyes languidly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah! for some red flesh ... a bunch of grapes to nibble, some curds that +would quiver on a plate!</p> + +<p>"But what ails me now? What ails me now? I feel my heart dilating like +the sea when it swells before the storm. An overwhelming weakness bows +me down, and the warm atmosphere seems to waft towards me the odour of +hair. Still, there is no trace of a woman here."</p> + +<p>He turns towards the little pathway amid the rocks.</p> + +<p>"This is the way they come, poised in their litters on the black arms of +eunuchs. They descend, and, joining together their hands, laden with +rings, they kneel down. They tell me their troubles. The need of a +superhuman voluptuousness tortures them. They would like to die; in +their dreams they have seen gods who called them by name; and the edges +of their robes fall round my feet. I repel them. 'Oh! no,' they say to +me, 'not yet! What must I do?' Any penance will appear easy to them. +They ask me for the most severe: to share in my own, to live with me.</p> + +<p>"It is a long time now since I have seen any of them! Perhaps, though, +this is what is about to happen? And why not? If suddenly I were to hear +the mule-bells ringing in the mountains. It seems to me ..."</p> + +<p>Antony climbs upon a rock, at the entrance of the path, and bends +forward, darting his eyes into the darkness.</p> + +<p>"Yes! down there, at the very end, there is a moving mass, like people +who are trying to pick their way. Here it is! They are making a +mistake."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>Calling out:</p> + +<p>"On this side! Come! Come!"</p> + +<p>The echo repeats:</p> + +<p>"Come! Come!"</p> + +<p>He lets his arms fall down, quite dazed.</p> + +<p>"What a shame! Ah! poor Antony!"</p> + +<p>And immediately he hears a whisper:</p> + +<p>"Poor Antony."</p> + +<p>"Is that anyone? Answer!"</p> + +<p>It is the wind passing through the spaces between the rocks that causes +these intonations, and in their confused sonorities he distinguishes +voices, as if the air were speaking. They are low and insinuating, a +kind of sibilant utterance:</p> + +<p><i>The first</i>—"Do you wish for women?"</p> + +<p><i>The second</i>—"Nay; rather great piles of money."</p> + +<p><i>The third</i>—"A shining sword."</p> + +<p><i>The others</i>—"All the people admire you."</p> + +<p>"Go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"You will cut their throats. Yes! you will cut their throats."</p> + +<p>At the same time, visible objects undergo a transformation. On the edge +of the cliff, the old palm-tree, with its cluster of yellow leaves, +becomes the torso of a woman leaning over the abyss, and poised by her +mass of hair.</p> + +<p>Antony re-enters his cell, and the stool which sustains the big book, +with its pages filled with black letters, seems to him a bush covered +with swallows.</p> + +<p>"Without doubt, it is the torch that is making this play of light. Let +us put it out!"</p> + +<p>He puts it out, and finds himself in profound darkness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>And, suddenly, through the midst of the air, passes first, a pool of +water, then a prostitute, the corner of a temple, a figure of a soldier, +and a chariot with two white horses prancing.</p> + +<p>These images make their appearance abruptly, in successive shocks, +standing out from the darkness like pictures of scarlet above a +background of ebony.</p> + +<p>Their motion becomes more rapid; they pass in a dizzy fashion. At other +times they stop, and, growing pale by degrees, dissolve—or, rather, +they fly away, and instantly others arrive in their stead.</p> + +<p>Antony droops his eyelids.</p> + +<p>They multiply, surround, besiege him. An unspeakable terror seizes hold +of him, and he no longer has any sensation but that of a burning +contraction in the epigastrium. In spite of the confusion of his brain, +he is conscious of a tremendous silence which separates him from all the +world. He tries to speak; impossible! It is as if the link that bound +him to existence was snapped; and, making no further resistance, Antony +falls upon the mat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="decoration" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Temptation of Love and Power.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/021.jpg" width="150" height="143" style="margin-top: -2em;" alt="" title="T" /> +</div> +<p>HEN, a great shadow—more subtle than an ordinary shadow, from whose +borders other shadows hang in festoons—traces itself upon the ground.</p> + +<p>It is the Devil, resting against the roof of the cell and carrying under +his wings—like a gigantic bat that is suckling its young—the Seven +Deadly Sins, whose grinning heads disclose themselves confusedly.</p> + +<p>Antony, his eyes still closed, remains languidly passive, and stretches +his limbs upon the mat, which seems to him to grow softer every moment, +until it swells out and becomes a bed; then the bed becomes a shallop, +with water rippling against its sides.</p> + +<p>To right and left rise up two necks of black soil that tower above the +cultivated plains, with a sycamore here and there. A noise of bells, +drums, and singers resounds at a distance. These are caused by people +who are going down from Canopus to sleep at the Temple of Serapis. +Antony is aware of this, and he glides, driven by the wind, between the +two banks of the canal. The leaves of the papyrus and the red blossoms +of the water-lilies, larger than a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> man, bend over him. He lies extended +at the bottom of the vessel. An oar from behind drags through the water. +From time to time rises a hot breath of air that shakes the thin reeds. +The murmur of the tiny waves grows fainter. A drowsiness takes +possession of him. He dreams that he is an Egyptian Solitary.</p> + +<p>Then he starts up all of a sudden.</p> + +<p>"Have I been dreaming? It was so pleasant that I doubted its reality. My +tongue is burning! I am thirsty!"</p> + +<p>He enters his cell and searches about everywhere at random.</p> + +<p>"The ground is wet! Has it been raining? Stop! Scraps of food! My +pitcher broken! But the water-bottle?"</p> + +<p>He finds it.</p> + +<p>"Empty, completely empty! In order to get down to the river, I should +need three hours at least, and the night is so dark I could not see well +enough to find my way there. My entrails are writhing. Where is the +bread?"</p> + +<p>After searching for some time he picks up a crust smaller than an egg.</p> + +<p>"How is this? The jackals must have taken it, curse them!"</p> + +<p>And he flings the bread furiously upon the ground.</p> + +<p>This movement is scarcely completed when a table presents itself to +view, covered with all kinds of dainties. The table-cloth of byssus, +striated like the fillets of sphinxes, seems to unfold itself in +luminous undulations. Upon it there are enormous quarters of flesh-meat, +huge fishes, birds with their feathers, quadrupeds with their hair, +fruits with an almost natural colouring; and pieces of white ice and +flagons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> of violet crystal shed glowing reflections. In the middle of +the table Antony observes a wild boar smoking from all its pores, its +paws beneath its belly, its eyes half-closed—and the idea of being able +to eat this formidable animal rejoices his heart exceedingly. Then, +there are things he had never seen before—black hashes, jellies of the +colour of gold, ragoûts, in which mushrooms float like water-lilies on +the surface of a pool, whipped creams, so light that they resemble +clouds.</p> + +<p>And the aroma of all this brings to him the odour of the ocean, the +coolness of fountains, the mighty perfume of woods. He dilates his +nostrils as much as possible; he drivels, saying to himself that there +is enough there to last for a year, for ten years, for his whole life!</p> + +<p>In proportion as he fixes his wide-opened eyes upon the dishes, others +accumulate, forming a pyramid, whose angles turn downwards. The wines +begin to flow, the fishes to palpitate; the blood in the dishes bubbles +up; the pulp of the fruits draws nearer, like amorous lips; and the +table rises to his breast, to his very chin—with only one seat and one +cover, which are exactly in front of him.</p> + +<p>He is about to seize the loaf of bread. Other loaves make their +appearance.</p> + +<p>"For me! ... all! but——"</p> + +<p>Antony draws back.</p> + +<p>"In the place of the one which was there, here are others! It is a +miracle, then, exactly like that the Lord performed! ... With what +object? Nay, all the rest of it is not less incomprehensible! Ah! demon, +begone! begone!"</p> + +<p>He gives a kick to the table. It disappears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nothing more? No!"</p> + +<p>He draws a long breath.</p> + +<p>"Ah! the temptation was strong. But what an escape I have had!"</p> + +<p>He raises up his head, and stumbles against an object which emits a +sound.</p> + +<p>"What can this be?"</p> + +<p>Antony stoops down.</p> + +<p>"Hold! A cup! Someone must have lost it while travelling—nothing +extraordinary!—--"</p> + +<p>He wets his finger and rubs.</p> + +<p>"It glitters! Precious metal! However, I cannot distinguish——"</p> + +<p>He lights his torch and examines the cup.</p> + +<p>"It is made of silver, adorned with ovolos at its rim, with a medal at +the bottom."</p> + +<p>He makes the medal resound with a touch of his finger-nail.</p> + +<p>"It is a piece of money which is worth from seven to eight drachmas—not +more. No matter! I can easily with that sum get myself a sheepskin."</p> + +<p>The torch's reflection lights up the cup.</p> + +<p>"It is not possible! Gold! yes, all gold!"</p> + +<p>He finds another piece, larger than the first, at the bottom, and, +underneath that many others.</p> + +<p>"Why, here's a sum large enough to buy three cows—a little field!"</p> + +<p>The cup is now filled with gold pieces.</p> + +<p>"Come, then! a hundred slaves, soldiers, a heap wherewith to buy——"</p> + +<p>Here the granulations of the cup's rim, detaching themselves, form a +pearl necklace.</p> + +<p>"With this jewel here, one might even win the Emperor's wife!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<p>With a shake Antony makes the necklace slip over his wrist. He holds the +cup in his left hand, and with his right arm raises the torch to shed +more light upon it. Like water trickling down from a basin, it pours +itself out in continuous waves, so as to make a hillock on the +sand—diamonds, carbuncles, and sapphires mingled with huge pieces of +gold bearing the effigies of kings.</p> + +<p>"What? What? Staters, shekels, darics, aryandics! Alexander, Demetrius, +the Ptolemies, Cæsar! But each of them had not as much! Nothing +impossible in it! More to come! And those rays which dazzle me! Ah! my +heart overflows! How good this is! Yes! ... Yes! ... more! Never enough! +It did not matter even if I kept flinging it into the sea; more would +remain. Why lose any of it? I will keep it all, without telling anyone +about it. I will dig myself a chamber in the rock, the interior of which +will be lined with strips of bronze; and thither will I come to feel the +piles of gold sinking under my heels. I will plunge my arms into it as +if into sacks of corn. I would like to anoint my face with it—to sleep +on top of it!"</p> + +<p>He lets go the torch in order to embrace the heap, and falls to the +ground on his breast. He gets up again. The place is perfectly empty!</p> + +<p>"What have I done? If I died during that brief space of time, the result +would have been Hell—irrevocable Hell!"</p> + +<p>A shudder runs through his frame.</p> + +<p>"So, then, I am accursed? Ah! no, this is all my own fault! I let myself +be caught in every trap. There is no one more idiotic or more infamous. +I would like to beat myself, or, rather, to tear myself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> out of my body. +I have restrained myself too long. I need to avenge myself, to strike, +to kill! It is as if I had a troop of wild beasts in my soul. I would +like, with a stroke of a hatchet in the midst of a crowd——Ah! a +dagger! ..."</p> + +<p>He flings himself upon his knife, which he has just seen. The knife +slips from his hand, and Antony remains propped against the wall of his +cell, his mouth wide open, motionless—like one in a trance.</p> + +<p>All the surroundings have disappeared.</p> + +<p>He finds himself in Alexandria on the Panium—an artificial mound raised +in the centre of the city, with corkscrew stairs on the outside.</p> + +<p>In front of it stretches Lake Mareotis, with the sea to the right and +the open plain to the left, and, directly under his eyes, an irregular +succession of flat roofs, traversed from north to south and from east to +west by two streets, which cross each other, and which form, in their +entire length, a row of porticoes with Corinthian capitals. The houses +overhanging this double colonnade have stained-glass windows. Some have +enormous wooden cages outside of them, in which the air from without is +swallowed up.</p> + +<p>Monuments in various styles of architecture are piled close to one +another. Egyptian pylons rise above Greek temples. Obelisks exhibit +themselves like spears between battlements of red brick. In the centres +of squares there are statues of Hermes with pointed ears, and of Anubis +with dogs' heads. Antony notices the mosaics in the court-yards, and the +tapestries hung from the cross-beams of the ceiling.</p> + +<p>With a single glance he takes in the two ports (the Grand Port and the +Eunostus), both round like two circles, and separated by a mole joining +Alexan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>dria to the rocky island, on which stands the tower of the +Pharos, quadrangular, five hundred cubits high and in nine storys, with +a heap of black charcoal flaming on its summit.</p> + +<p>Small ports nearer to the shore intersect the principal ports. The mole +is terminated at each end by a bridge built on marble columns fixed in +the sea. Vessels pass beneath, and pleasure-boats inlaid with ivory, +gondolas covered with awnings, triremes and biremes, all kinds of +shipping, move up and down or remain at anchor along the quays.</p> + +<p>Around the Grand Port there is an uninterrupted succession of Royal +structures: the palace of the Ptolemies, the Museum, the Posideion, the +Cæsarium, the Timonium where Mark Antony took refuge, and the Soma which +contains the tomb of Alexander; while at the other extremity of the +city, close to the Eunostus, might be seen glass, perfume, and paper +factories.</p> + +<p>Itinerant vendors, porters, and ass-drivers rush to and fro, jostling +against one another. Here and there a priest of Osiris with a panther's +skin on his shoulders, a Roman soldier, or a group of negroes, may be +observed. Women stop in front of stalls where artisans are at work, and +the grinding of chariot-wheels frightens away some birds who are picking +up from the ground the sweepings of the shambles and the remnants of +fish. Over the uniformity of white houses the plan of the streets casts, +as it were, a black network. The markets, filled with herbage, exhibit +green bouquets, the drying-sheds of the dyers, plates of colours, and +the gold ornaments on the pediments of temples, luminous points—all +this contained within the oval enclosure of the greyish walls, under the +vault of the blue heavens, hard by the motionless sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> But the crowd +stops and looks towards the eastern side, from which enormous whirlwinds +of dust are advancing.</p> + +<p>It is the monks of the Thebaïd who are coming, clad in goats' skins, +armed with clubs, and howling forth a canticle of war and of religion +with this refrain:</p> + +<p>"Where are they? Where are they?"</p> + +<p>Antony comprehends that they have come to kill the Arians.</p> + +<p>All at once, the streets are deserted, and one sees no longer anything +but running feet.</p> + +<p>And now the Solitaries are in the city. Their formidable cudgels, +studded with nails, whirl around like monstrances of steel. One can hear +the crash of things being broken in the houses. Intervals of silence +follow, and then the loud cries burst forth again. From one end of the +streets to the other there is a continuous eddying of people in a state +of terror. Several are armed with pikes. Sometimes two groups meet and +form into one; and this multitude, after rushing along the pavements, +separates, and those composing it proceed to knock one another down. But +the men with long hair always reappear.</p> + +<p>Thin wreaths of smoke escape from the corners of buildings. The leaves +of the doors burst asunder; the skirts of the walls fall in; the +architraves topple over.</p> + +<p>Antony meets all his enemies one after another. He recognises people +whom he had forgotten. Before killing them, he outrages them. He rips +them open, cuts their throats, knocks them down, drags the old men by +their beards, runs over children, and beats those who are wounded. +People revenge themselves on luxury. Those who cannot read, tear the +books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> to pieces; others smash and destroy the statues, the paintings, +the furniture, the cabinets—a thousand dainty objects whose use they +are ignorant of, and which, for that very reason, exasperate them. From +time to time they stop, out of breath, and then begin again. The +inhabitants, taking refuge in the court-yards, utter lamentations. The +women lift their eyes to Heaven, weeping, with their arms bare. In order +to move the Solitaries they embrace their knees; but the latter only +dash them aside, and the blood gushes up to the ceiling, falls back on +the linen clothes that line the walls, streams from the trunks of +decapitated corpses, fills the aqueducts, and rolls in great red pools +along the ground.</p> + +<p>Antony is steeped in it up to his middle. He steps into it, sucks it up +with his lips, and quivers with joy at feeling it on his limbs and under +his hair, which is quite wet with it.</p> + +<p>The night falls. The terrible clamour abates.</p> + +<p>The Solitaries have disappeared.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, on the outer galleries lining the nine stages of the Pharos, +Antony perceives thick black lines, as if a flock of crows had alighted +there. He hastens thither, and soon finds himself on the summit.</p> + +<p>A huge copper mirror turned towards the sea reflects the ships in the +offing.</p> + +<p>Antony amuses himself by looking at them; and as he continues looking at +them, their number increases.</p> + +<p>They are gathered in a gulf formed like a crescent. Behind, upon a +promontory, stretches a new city built in the Roman style of +architecture, with cupolas of stone, conical roofs, marble work in red +and blue, and a profusion of bronze attached to the volutes of +capi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>tals, to the tops of houses, and to the angles of cornices. A wood, +formed of cypress-trees, overhangs it. The colour of the sea is greener; +the air is colder. On the mountains at the horizon there is snow.</p> + +<p>Antony is about to pursue his way when a man accosts him, and says:</p> + +<p>"Come! they are waiting for you!"</p> + +<p>He traverses a forum, enters a court-yard, stoops under a gate, and he +arrives before the front of the palace, adorned with a group in wax +representing the Emperor Constantine hurling the dragon to the earth. A +porphyry basin supports in its centre a golden conch filled with +pistachio-nuts. His guide informs him that he may take some of them. He +does so.</p> + +<p>Then he loses himself, as it were, in a succession of apartments.</p> + +<p>Along the walls may be seen, in mosaic, generals offering conquered +cities to the Emperor on the palms of their hands. And on every side are +columns of basalt, gratings of silver filigree, seats of ivory, and +tapestries embroidered with pearls. The light falls from the vaulted +roof, and Antony proceeds on his way. Tepid exhalations spread around; +occasionally he hears the modest patter of a sandal. Posted in the +ante-chambers, the custodians—who resemble automatons—bear on their +shoulders vermilion-coloured truncheons.</p> + +<p>At last, he finds himself in the lower part of a hall with hyacinth +curtains at its extreme end. They divide, and reveal the Emperor seated +upon a throne, attired in a violet tunic and red buskins with black +bands.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 488px;"> +<img src="images/026.jpg" width="488" height="600" alt="" title="HE LETS GO THE TORCH IN ORDER TO EMBRACE THE HEAP" /> +</div> +<p>A diadem of pearls is wreathed around his hair, which is arranged in +symmetrical rolls. He has drooping eyelids, a straight nose, and a +heavy and cunning expression of countenance. At the corners of the daïs, +extended above his head, are placed four golden doves, and, at the foot +of the throne, two enamelled lions are squatted. The doves begin to coo, +the lions to roar. The Emperor rolls his eyes; Antony steps forward; and +directly, without preamble, they proceed with a narrative of events.</p> + +<p>"In the cities of Antioch, Ephesus, and Alexandria, the temples have +been pillaged, and the statues of the gods converted into pots and +porridge-pans."</p> + +<p>The Emperor laughs heartily at this. Antony reproaches him for his +tolerance towards the Novatians. But the Emperor flies into a passion. +"Novatians, Arians, Meletians—he is sick of them all!" However, he +admires the episcopacy, for the Christians create bishops, who depend on +five or six personages, and it is his interest to gain over the latter +in order to have the rest on his side. Moreover, he has not failed to +furnish them with considerable sums. But he detests the fathers of the +Council of Nicæa. "Come, let us have a look at them."</p> + +<p>Antony follows him. And they are found on the same floor under a terrace +which commands a view of a hippodrome full of people, and surmounted by +porticoes wherein the rest of the crowd are walking to and fro. In the +centre of the course there is a narrow platform on which stands a +miniature temple of Mercury, a statue of Constantine, and three bronze +serpents intertwined with each other; while at one end there are three +huge wooden eggs, and at the other seven dolphins with their tails in +the air.</p> + +<p>Behind the Imperial pavilion, the prefects of the chambers, the lords of +the household, and the Patri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>cians are placed at intervals as far as the +first story of a church, all whose windows are lined with women. At the +right is the gallery of the Blue faction, at the left that of the Green, +while below there is a picket of soldiers, and, on a level with the +arena, a row of Corinthian pillars, forming the entrance to the stalls.</p> + +<p>The races are about to begin; the horses fall into line. Tall plumes +fixed between their ears sway in the wind like trees; and in their leaps +they shake the chariots in the form of shells, driven by coachmen +wearing a kind of many-coloured cuirass with sleeves narrow at the +wrists and wide in the arms, with legs uncovered, full beard, and hair +shaven above the forehead after the fashion of the Huns.</p> + +<p>Antony is deafened by the murmuring of voices. Above and below he +perceives nothing but painted faces, motley garments, and plates of +worked gold; and the sand of the arena, perfectly white, shines like a +mirror.</p> + +<p>The Emperor converses with him, confides to him some important secrets, +informs him of the assassination of his own son Crispus, and goes so far +as to consult Antony about his health.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Antony perceives slaves at the end of the stalls. They are +the fathers of the Council of Nicæa, in rags, abject. The martyr +Paphnutius is brushing a horse's mane; Theophilus is scrubbing the legs +of another; John is painting the hoofs of a third; while Alexander is +picking up their droppings in a basket.</p> + +<p>Antony passes among them. They salaam to him, beg of him to intercede +for them, and kiss his hands. The entire crowd hoots at them; and he +rejoices in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> their degradation immeasurably. And now he has become one +of the great ones of the Court, the Emperor's confidant, first minister! +Constantine places the diadem on his forehead, and Antony keeps it, as +if this honour were quite natural to him.</p> + +<p>And presently is disclosed, beneath the darkness, an immense hall, +lighted up by candelabra of gold.</p> + +<p>Columns, half lost in shadow so tall are they, run in a row behind the +tables, which stretch to the horizon, where appear, in a luminous haze, +staircases placed one above another, successions of archways, colossi, +towers; and, in the background, an unoccupied wing of the palace, which +cedars overtop, making blacker masses above the darkness.</p> + +<p>The guests, crowned with violets, lean upon their elbows on low-lying +couches. Beside each one are placed amphorae, from which they pour out +wine; and, at the very end, by himself, adorned with the tiara and +covered with carbuncles, King Nebuchadnezzar is eating and drinking. To +right and left of him, two theories of priests, with peaked caps, are +swinging censers. Upon the ground are crawling captive kings, without +feet or hands, to whom he flings bones to pick. Further down stand his +brothers, with shades over their eyes, for they are perfectly blind.</p> + +<p>A constant lamentation ascends from the depths of the ergastula. The +soft and monotonous sounds of a hydraulic organ alternate with the +chorus of voices; and one feels as if all around the hall there was an +immense city, an ocean of humanity, whose waves were beating against the +walls.</p> + +<p>The slaves rush forward carrying plates. Women run about offering drink +to the guests. The baskets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> groan under the load of bread, and a +dromedary, laden with leathern bottles, passes to and fro, letting +vervain trickle over the floor in order to cool it.</p> + +<p>Belluarii lead forth lions; dancing-girls, with their hair in ringlets, +turn somersaults, while squirting fire through their nostrils; +negro-jugglers perform tricks; naked children fling snowballs, which, in +falling, crash against the shining silver plate. The clamour is so +dreadful that it might be described as a tempest, and the steam of the +viands, as well as the respirations of the guests, spreads, as it were, +a cloud over the feast. Now and then, flakes from the huge torches, +snatched away by the wind, traverse the night like flying stars.</p> + +<p>The King wipes off the perfumes from his visage with his hand. He eats +from the sacred vessels, and then breaks them, and he enumerates, +mentally, his fleets, his armies, his peoples. Presently, through a +whim, he will burn his palace, along with his guests. He calculates on +rebuilding the Tower of Babel, and dethroning God.</p> + +<p>Antony reads, at a distance, on his forehead, all his thoughts. They +take possession of himself—and he becomes Nebuchadnezzar.</p> + +<p>Immediately, he is satiated with conquests and exterminations; and a +longing seizes him to plunge into every kind of vileness. Moreover, the +degradation wherewith men are terrified is an outrage done to their +souls, a means still more of stupefying them; and, as nothing is lower +than a brute beast, Antony falls upon four paws on the table, and +bellows like a bull.</p> + +<p>He feels a pain in his hand—a pebble, as it happened, has hurt him—and +he again finds himself in his cell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>The rocky enclosure is empty. The stars are shining. All is silence.</p> + +<p>"Once more I have been deceived. Why these things? They arise from the +revolts of the flesh! Ah! miserable man that I am!"</p> + +<p>He dashes into his cell, takes out of it a bundle of cords, with iron +nails at the ends of them, strips himself to the waist, and raising his +eyes towards Heaven:</p> + +<p>"Accept my penance, O my God! Do not despise it on account of its +insufficiency. Make it sharp, prolonged, excessive. It is time! To +work!"</p> + +<p>He proceeds to lash himself vigorously.</p> + +<p>"Ah! no! no! No pity!"</p> + +<p>He begins again.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh! Oh! Each stroke tears my skin, cuts my limbs. This smarts +horribly! Ah! it is not so terrible! One gets used to it. It seems to me +even ..."</p> + +<p>Antony stops.</p> + +<p>"Come on, then, coward! Come on, then! Good! good! On the arms, on the +back, on the breast, against the belly, everywhere! Hiss, thongs! bite +me! tear me! I would like the drops of my blood to gush forth to the +stars, to break my back, to strip my nerves bare! Pincers! wooden +horses! molten lead! The martyrs bore more than that! Is that not so, +Ammonaria?"</p> + +<p>The shadows of the Devil's horns reappear.</p> + +<p>"I might have been fastened to the pillar next to yours, face to face +with you, under your very eyes, responding to your shrieks with my +sighs, and our griefs would blend into one, and our souls would +commingle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>He flogs himself furiously.</p> + +<p>"Hold! hold! for your sake! once more! ... But this is a mere tickling +that passes through my frame. What torture! What delight! Those are like +kisses. My marrow is melting! I am dying!"</p> + +<p>And in front of him he sees three cavaliers, mounted on wild asses, clad +in green garments, holding lilies in their hands, and all resembling one +another in figure.</p> + +<p>Antony turns back, and sees three other cavaliers of the same kind, +mounted on similar wild asses, in the same attitude.</p> + +<p>He draws back. Then the wild asses, all at the same time, step forward a +pace or two, and rub their snouts against him, trying to bite his +garment. Voices exclaim, "This way! this way! Here is the place!" And +banners appear between the clefts of the mountain, with camels' heads in +halters of red silk, mules laden with baggage, and women covered with +yellow veils, mounted astride on piebald horses.</p> + +<p>The panting animals lie down; the slaves fling themselves on the bales +of goods, roll out the variegated carpets, and strew the ground with +glittering objects.</p> + +<p>A white elephant, caparisoned with a fillet of gold, runs along, shaking +the bouquet of ostrich feathers attached to his head-band.</p> + +<p>On his back, lying on cushions of blue wool, cross-legged, with eyelids +half-closed and well-poised head, is a woman so magnificently attired +that she emits rays around her. The attendants prostrate themselves, the +elephant bends his knees, and the Queen of Sheba, gliding down by his +shoulder, steps lightly on the carpet and advances towards Antony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Her +robe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls, jet and +sapphires, is drawn tightly round her waist by a close-fitting corsage, +set off with a variety of colours representing the twelve signs of the +Zodiac. She wears high-heeled pattens, one of which is black and strewn +with silver stars and a crescent, whilst the other is white and is +covered with drops of gold, with a sun in their midst.</p> + +<p>Her loose sleeves, garnished with emeralds and birds' plumes, exposes to +view her little, rounded arms, adorned at the wrists with bracelets of +ebony; and her hands, covered with rings, are terminated by nails so +pointed that the ends of her fingers are almost like needles.</p> + +<p>A chain of plate gold, passing under her chin, runs along her cheeks +till it twists itself in spiral fashion around her head, over which blue +powder is scattered; then, descending, it slips over her shoulders and +is fastened above her bosom by a diamond scorpion, which stretches out +its tongue between her breasts. From her ears hang two great white +pearls. The edges of her eyelids are painted black. On her left +cheek-bone she has a natural brown spot, and when she opens her mouth +she breathes with difficulty, as if her bodice distressed her.</p> + +<p>As she comes forward, she swings a green parasol with an ivory handle +surrounded by vermilion bells; and twelve curly negro boys carry the +long train of her robe, the end of which is held by an ape, who raises +it every now and then.</p> + +<p>She says:</p> + +<p>"Ah! handsome hermit! handsome hermit! My heart is faint! By dint of +stamping with impatience my heels have grown hard, and I have split one +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> my toe-nails. I sent out shepherds, who posted themselves on the +mountains, with their bands stretched over their eyes, and searchers, +who cried out your name in the woods, and scouts, who ran along the +different roads, saying to each passer-by: 'Have you seen him?'</p> + +<p>"At night I shed tears with my face turned to the wall. My tears, in the +long run, made two little holes in the mosaic-work—like pools of water +in rocks—for I love you! Oh! yes; very much!"</p> + +<p>She catches his beard.</p> + +<p>"Smile on me, then, handsome hermit! Smile on me, then! You will find I +am very gay! I play on the lyre, I dance like a bee, and I can tell many +stories, each one more diverting than the last.</p> + +<p>"You cannot imagine what a long journey we have made. Look at the wild +asses of the green-clad couriers—dead through fatigue!"</p> + +<p>The wild asses are stretched motionless on the ground.</p> + +<p>"For three great moons they have journeyed at an even pace, with pebbles +in their teeth to cut the wind, their tails always erect, their hams +always bent, and always in full gallop. You will not find their equals. +They came to me from my maternal grandfather, the Emperor Saharil, son +of Jakhschab, son of Jaarab, son of Kastan. Ah! if they were still +living, we would put them under a litter in order to get home quickly. +But ... how now? ... What are you thinking of?"</p> + +<p>She inspects him.</p> + +<p>"Ah! when you are my husband, I will clothe you, I will fling perfumes +over you, I will pick out your hairs."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony remains motionless, stiffer than a stake, pale as a corpse.</p> + +<p>"You have a melancholy air: is it at quitting your cell? Why, I have +given up everything for your sake—even King Solomon, who has, no doubt, +much wisdom, twenty thousand war-chariots, and a lovely beard! I have +brought you my wedding presents. Choose."</p> + +<p>She walks up and down between the row of slaves and the merchandise.</p> + +<p>"Here is balsam of Genesareth, incense from Cape Gardefan, ladanum, +cinnamon and silphium, a good thing to put into sauces. There are within +Assyrian embroideries, ivories from the Ganges, and the purple cloth of +Elissa; and this case of snow contains a bottle of Chalybon, a wine +reserved for the Kings of Assyria, which is drunk pure out of the horn +of a unicorn. Here are collars, clasps, fillets, parasols, gold dust +from Baasa, tin from Tartessus, blue wood from Pandion, white furs from +Issidonia, carbuncles from the island of Palæsimundum, and tooth-picks +made with the hair of the tachas—an extinct animal found under the +earth. These cushions are from Emathia, and these mantle-fringes from +Palmyra. Under this Babylonian carpet there are ... but come, then! +Come, then!"</p> + +<p>She pulls Saint Antony along by the beard. He resists. She goes on:</p> + +<p>"This light tissue, which crackles under the fingers with the noise of +sparks, is the famous yellow linen brought by the merchants from +Bactriana. They required no less than forty-three interpreters during +their voyage. I will make garments of it for you, which you will put on +at home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Press the fastenings of that sycamore box, and give me the ivory casket +in my elephant's packing-case!"</p> + +<p>They draw out of a box some round objects covered with a veil, and bring +her a little case covered with carvings.</p> + +<p>"Would you like the buckler of Dgian-ben-Dgian, the builder of the +Pyramids? Here it is! It is composed of seven dragons' skins placed one +above another, joined by diamond screws, and tanned in the bile of a +parricide. It represents, on one side, all the wars which have taken +place since the invention of arms, and, on the other, all the wars that +will take place till the end of the world. Above, the thunderbolt +rebounds like a ball of cork. I am going to put it on your arm, and you +will carry it to the chase.</p> + +<p>"But if you knew what I have in my little case! Try to open it! Nobody +has succeeded in doing that. Embrace me, and I will tell you."</p> + +<p>She takes Saint Antony by the two cheeks. He repels her with +outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>"It was one night when King Solomon had lost his head. At length, we had +concluded a bargain. He arose, and, going out with the stride of a +wolf ..."</p> + +<p>She dances a pirouette.</p> + +<p>"Ah! ah! handsome hermit! you shall not know it! you shall not know it!"</p> + +<p>She shakes her parasol, and all the little bells begin to ring.</p> + +<p>"I have many other things besides—there, now! I have treasures shut up +in galleries, where they are lost as in a wood. I have summer palaces of +lattice-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>reeds, and winter palaces of black marble. In the midst of +great lakes, like seas, I have islands round as pieces of silver all +covered with mother-of-pearl, whose shores make music with the beating +of the liquid waves that roll over the sand. The slaves of my kitchen +catch birds in my aviaries, and angle for fish in my ponds. I have +engravers continually sitting to stamp my likeness on hard stones, +panting workers in bronze who cast my statues, and perfumers who mix the +juice of plants with vinegar and beat up pastes. I have dressmakers who +cut out stuffs for me, goldsmiths who make jewels for me, women whose +duty it is to select head-dresses for me, and attentive house-painters +pouring over my panellings boiling resin, which they cool with fans. I +have attendants for my harem, eunuchs enough to make an army. And then I +have armies, subjects! I have in my vestibule a guard of dwarfs, +carrying on their backs ivory trumpets."</p> + +<p>Antony sighs.</p> + +<p>"I have teams of gazelles, quadrigæ of elephants, hundreds of camels, +and mares with such long manes that their feet get entangled with them +when they are galloping, and flocks with such huge horns that the woods +are torn down in front of them when they are pasturing. I have giraffes +who walk in my gardens, and who raise their heads over the edge of my +roof when I am taking the air after dinner. Seated in a shell, and drawn +by dolphins, I go up and down the grottoes, listening to the water +flowing from the stalactites. I journey to the diamond country, where my +friends the magicians allow me to choose the most beautiful; then I +ascend to earth once more, and return home."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>She gives a piercing whistle, and a large bird, descending from the sky, +alights on the top of her head-dress, from which he scatters the blue +powder. His plumage, of orange colour, seems composed of metallic +scales. His dainty head, adorned with a silver tuft, exhibits a human +visage. He has four wings, a vulture's claws, and an immense peacock's +tail, which he displays in a ring behind him. He seizes in his beak the +Queen's parasol, staggers a little before he finds his equilibrium, then +erects all his feathers, and remains motionless.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, fair Simorg-anka! You who have brought me to the place where +the lover is concealed! Thanks! thanks! messenger of my heart! He flies +like desire. He travels all over the world. In the evening he returns; +he lies down at the foot of my couch; he tells me what he has seen, the +seas he has flown over, with their fishes and their ships, the great +empty deserts which he has looked down upon from his airy height in the +skies, all the harvests bending in the fields, and the plants that shoot +up on the walls of abandoned cities."</p> + +<p>She twists her arms with a languishing air.</p> + +<p>"Oh! if you were willing! if you were only willing! ... I have a pavilion +on a promontory, in the midst of an isthmus between two oceans. It is +wainscotted with plates of glass, floored with tortoise-shells, and is +open to the four winds of Heaven. From above, I watch the return of my +fleets and the people who ascend the hill with loads on their shoulders. +We should sleep on down softer than clouds; we should drink cool +draughts out of the rinds of fruit, and we gaze at the sun through a +canopy of emeralds. Come!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony recoils. She draws close to him, and, in a tone of irritation:</p> + +<p>"How so? Rich, coquettish, and in love?—is not that enough for you, eh? +But must she be lascivious, gross, with a hoarse voice, a head of hair +like fire, and rebounding flesh? Do you prefer a body cold as a +serpent's skin, or, perchance, great black eyes more sombre than +mysterious caverns? Look at these eyes of mine, then!"</p> + +<p>Antony gazes at them, in spite of himself.</p> + +<p>"All the women you ever have met, from the daughter of the cross-roads +singing beneath her lantern to the fair patrician scattering leaves from +the top of her litter, all the forms you have caught a glimpse of, all +the imaginings of your desire, ask for them! I am not a woman—I am a +world. My garments have but to fall, and you shall discover upon my +person a succession of mysteries."</p> + +<p>Antony's teeth chattered.</p> + +<p>"If you placed your finger on my shoulder, it would be like a stream of +fire in your veins. The possession of the least part of my body will +fill you with a joy more vehement than the conquest of an empire. Bring +your lips near! My kisses have the taste of fruit which would melt in +your heart. Ah! how you will lose yourself in my tresses, caress my +breasts, marvel at my limbs, and be scorched by my eyes, between my +arms, in a whirlwind——"</p> + +<p>Antony makes the sign of the Cross.</p> + +<p>"So, then, you disdain me! Farewell!"</p> + +<p>She turns away weeping; then she returns.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure? So lovely a woman?"</p> + +<p>She laughs, and the ape who holds the end of her robe lifts it up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You will repent, my fine hermit! you will groan; you will be sick of +life! but I will mock at you! la! la! la! oh! oh! oh!"</p> + +<p>She goes off with her hands on her waist, skipping on one foot.</p> + +<p>The slaves file off before Saint Antony's face, together with the +horses, the dromedaries, the elephant, the attendants, the mules, once +more covered with their loads, the negro boys, the ape, and the +green-clad couriers holding their broken lilies in their hands—and the +Queen of Sheba departs, with a spasmodic utterance which might be either +a sob or a chuckle.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="decoration" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Disciple, Hilarion.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/045.jpg" width="150" height="147" style="margin-top: -3em;" alt="" title="W" /> +</div> +<p>HEN she has disappeared, Antony perceives a child on the threshold of +his cell.</p> + +<p>"It is one of the Queen's servants," he thinks.</p> + +<p>This child is small, like a dwarf, and yet thickset, like one of the +Cabiri, distorted, and with a miserable aspect. White hair covers his +prodigiously large head, and he shivers under a sorry tunic, while he +grasps in his hand a roll of papyrus. The light of the moon, across +which a cloud is passing, falls upon him.</p> + +<p>Antony observes him from a distance, and is afraid of him.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?"</p> + +<p>The child replies:</p> + +<p>"Your former disciple, Hilarion."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"You lie! Hilarion has been living for many years in +Palestine."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"I have returned from it! It is I, in good sooth!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, draws closer and inspects him—"Why, his figure was bright as +the dawn, open, joyous. This one is quite sombre, and has an aged +look."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"I am worn out with constant toiling."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"The voice, too, is different. It has a tone that chills you."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"That is because I nourish myself on bitter fare."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"And those white locks?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"I have had so many griefs."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, aside—"Can it be possible? ..."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"I was not so far away as you imagined. The hermit, Paul, +paid you a visit this year during the month of Schebar. It is just +twenty days since the nomads brought you bread. You told a sailor the +day before yesterday to send you three bodkins."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"He knows everything!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Learn, too, that I have never left you. But you spend long +intervals without perceiving me."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"How is that? No doubt my head is troubled! To-night +especially ..."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"All the deadly sins have arrived. But their miserable +snares are of no avail against a saint like you!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! no! no! Every minute I give way! Would that I were one of +those whose souls are always intrepid and their minds firm—like the +great Athanasius, for example!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"He was unlawfully ordained by seven bishops!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What does it matter? If his virtue ..."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Come, now! A haughty, cruel man, always mixed up in +intrigues, and finally exiled for being a monopolist."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Calumny!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"You will not deny that he tried to corrupt Eustatius, the +treasurer of the bounties?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"So it is stated, and I admit it."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"He burned, for revenge, the house of Arsenius."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Alas!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"At the Council of Nicæa, he said, speaking of Jesus, 'The +man of the Lord.'"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! that is a blasphemy!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"So limited is he, too, that he acknowledges he knows +nothing as to the nature of the Word."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, smiling with pleasure—"In fact, he has not a very lofty +intellect."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"If they had put you in his place, it would have been a +great satisfaction for your brethren, as well as yourself. This life, +apart from others, is a bad thing."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"On the contrary! Man, being a spirit, should withdraw himself +from perishable things. All action degrades him. I would like not to +cling to the earth—even with the soles of my feet."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Hypocrite! who plunges himself into solitude to free +himself the better from the outbreaks of his lusts! You deprive yourself +of meat, of wine, of stoves, of slaves, and of honours; but how you let +your imagination offer you banquets, perfumes, naked women, and +applauding crowds! Your chastity is but a more subtle kind of +corruption, and your contempt for the world is but the impotence of your +hatred against it! This is the reason that persons like you are so +lugubrious, or perhaps it is because they lack faith. The possession of +the truth gives joy. Was Jesus sad? He used to go about surrounded by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +friends; He rested under the shade of the olive, entered the house of +the publican, multiplied the cups, pardoned the fallen woman, healing +all sorrows. As for you, you have no pity, save for your own +wretchedness. You are so much swayed by a kind of remorse, and by a +ferocious insanity, that you would repel the caress of a dog or the +smile of a child."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, bursts out sobbing—"Enough! Enough! You move my heart too +much."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Shake off the vermin from your rags! Get rid of your filth! +Your God is not a Moloch who requires flesh as a sacrifice!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Still, suffering is blessed. The cherubim bend down to +receive the blood of confessors."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Then admire the Montanists! They surpass all the rest."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"But it is the truth of the doctrine that makes the martyr."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"How can he prove its excellence, seeing that he testifies +equally on behalf of error?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Be silent, viper!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"It is not perhaps so difficult. The exhortations of +friends, the pleasure of outraging popular feeling, the oath they take, +a certain giddy excitement—a thousand things, in fact, go to help +them."</p> + +<p>Antony draws away from Hilarion. Hilarion follows him—"Besides, this +style of dying introduces great disorders. Dionysius, Cyprian, and +Gregory avoided it. Peter of Alexandria has disapproved of it; and the +Council of Elvira ..."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, stops his ears—"I will listen to no more!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>, raising his voice—"Here you are again falling into your +habitual sin—laziness. Ignorance is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the froth of pride. You say, 'My +conviction is formed; why discuss the matter?' and you despise the +doctors, the philosophers, tradition, and even the text of the law, of +which you know nothing. Do you think you hold wisdom in your hand?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I am always hearing him! His noisy words fill my head."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"The endeavours to comprehend God are better than your +mortifications for the purpose of moving him. We have no merit save our +thirst for truth. Religion alone does not explain everything; and the +solution of the problems which you have ignored might render it more +unassailable and more sublime. Therefore, it is essential for each man's +salvation that he should hold intercourse with his brethren—otherwise +the Church, the assembly of the faithful, would be only a word—and that +he should listen to every argument, and not disdain anything, or anyone. +Balaam the soothsayer, Æschylus the poet, and the sybil of Cumæ, +announced the Saviour. Dionysius the Alexandrian received from Heaven a +command to read every book. Saint Clement enjoins us to study Greek +literature. Hermas was converted by the illusion of a woman that he +loved!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What an air of authority! It appears to me that you are +growing taller ..."</p> + +<p>In fact, Hilarion's height has progressively increased; and, in order +not to see him, Antony closes his eyes.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Make your mind easy, good hermit. Let us sit down here, on +this big stone, as of yore, when, at the break of day, I used to salute +you, addressing you as 'Bright morning star'; and you at once began to +give me instruction. It is not fin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>ished yet. The moon affords us +sufficient light. I am all attention."</p> + +<p>He has drawn forth a calamus from his girdle, and, cross-legged on the +ground, with his roll of papyrus in his hand, he raises his head towards +Antony, who, seated beside him, keeps his forehead bent.</p> + +<p>"Is not the word of God confirmed for us by the miracles? And yet the +sorcerers of Pharaoh worked miracles. Other impostors could do the same; +so here we may be deceived. What, then, is a miracle? An occurrence +which seems to us outside the limits of Nature. But do we know all +Nature's powers? And, from the mere fact that a thing ordinarily does +not astonish us, does it follow that we comprehend it?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"It matters little; we must believe in the Scripture."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Saint Paul, Origen, and some others did not interpret it +literally; but, if we explain it allegorically, it becomes the heritage +of a limited number of people, and the evidence of its truth vanishes. +What are we to do, then?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Leave it to the Church."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Then the Scripture is useless?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Not at all. Although the Old Testament, I admit, has—well, +obscurities ... But the New shines forth with a pure light."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"And yet the Angel of the Annunciation, in Matthew, appears +to Joseph, whilst in Luke it is to Mary. The anointing of Jesus by a +woman comes to pass, according to the First Gospel, at the beginning of +his public life, but according to the three others, a few days before +his death. The drink which they offer him on the Cross is, in Matthew, +vinegar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> and gall, in Mark, wine and myrrh. If we follow Luke and +Matthew, the Apostles ought to take neither money nor bag—in fact, not +even sandals or a staff; while in Mark, on the contrary, Jesus forbids +them to carry with them anything except sandals and a staff. Here is +where I get lost ..."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, in amazement—"In fact ... in fact ..."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"At the contact of the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus +turned round, and said, 'Who has touched me?' So, then, He did not know +who touched Him? That is opposed to the omniscience of Jesus. If the +tomb was watched by guards, the women had not to worry themselves about +an assistant to lift up the stone from the tomb. Therefore, there were +no guards there—or rather, the holy women were not there at all. At +Emmaüs, He eats with His disciples, and makes them feel His wounds. It +is a human body, a material object, which can be weighed, and which, +nevertheless, passes through stone walls. Is this possible?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"It would take a good deal of time to answer you."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Why did He receive the Holy Ghost, although He was the Son? +What need had He of baptism, if He were the Word? How could the Devil +tempt Him—God?</p> + +<p>"Have these thoughts never occurred to you?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Yes! often! Torpid or frantic, they dwell in my conscience. I +crush them out; they spring up again, they stifle me; and sometimes I +believe that I am accursed."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Then you have nothing to do but to serve God?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I have always need to adore Him."</p> + +<p>After a prolonged silence, Hilarion resumes:</p> + +<p>"But apart from dogma, entire liberty of research is permitted us. Do +you wish to become acquainted with the hierarchy of Angels, the virtue +of Numbers, the explanation of germs and metamorphoses?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Yes! yes! My mind is struggling to escape from its prison. It +seems to me that, by gathering my forces, I shall be able to effect +this. Sometimes—even for an interval brief as a lightning-flash—I feel +myself, as it were, suspended in mid-air; then I fall back again!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"The secret which you are anxious to possess is guarded by +sages. They live in a distant country, sitting under gigantic trees, +robed in white, and calm as gods. A warm atmosphere nourishes them. All +around leopards stride through the plains. The murmuring of fountains +mingles with the neighing of unicorns. You shall hear them; and the face +of the Unknown shall be unveiled!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, sighing—"The road is long and I am old!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Oh! oh! men of learning are not rare! There are some of +them even very close to you here! Let us enter!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="decoration" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Fiery Trial.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/053.jpg" width="150" height="151" style="margin-top: -3em;" alt="" title="A" /> +</div> +<p>ND Antony sees in front of him an immense basilica. The light projects +itself from the lower end with the magical effect of a many-coloured +sun. It lights up the innumerable heads of the multitude which fills the +nave and surges between the columns towards the side-aisles, where one +can distinguish in the wooden compartments altars, beds, chainlets of +little blue stones, and constellations painted on the walls.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the crowd groups are stationed here and there; men +standing on stools are discoursing with lifted fingers; others are +praying with arms crossed, or lying down on the ground, or singing +hymns, or drinking wine. Around a table the faithful are carrying on the +love-feasts; martyrs are unswathing their limbs to show their wounds; +old men, leaning on their staffs, are relating their travels.</p> + +<p>Amongst them are people from the country of the Germans, from Thrace, +Gaul, Scythia and the Indies—with snow on their beards, feathers in +their hair, thorns in the fringes of their garments, sandals cov<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>ered +with dust, and skins burnt by the sun. All costumes are mingled—mantles +of purple and robes of linen, embroidered dalmatics, woollen jackets, +sailors' caps and bishops' mitres. Their eyes gleam strangely. They have +the appearance of executioners or of eunuchs.</p> + +<p>Hilarion advances among them. Antony, pressing against his shoulder, +observes them. He notices a great many women. Several of them are +dressed like men, with their hair cut short. He is afraid of them.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"These are the Christian women who have converted their +husbands. Besides, the women are always for Jesus—even the +idolaters—as witness Procula, the wife of Pilate, and Poppæa, the +concubine of Nero. Don't tremble any more! Come on!"</p> + +<p>There are fresh arrivals every moment.</p> + +<p>They multiply; they separate, swift as shadows, all the time making a +great uproar, or intermingling yells of rage, exclamations of love, +canticles, and upbraidings.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, in a low tone—"What do they want?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"The Lord said, 'I may still have to speak to you about many +things.' They possess those things."</p> + +<p>And he pushes him towards a throne of gold, five paces off, where, +surrounded by ninety-five disciples, all anointed with oil, pale and +emaciated, sits the prophet Manes—beautiful as an archangel, motionless +as a statue—wearing an Indian robe, with carbuncles in his plaited +hair, a book of coloured pictures in his left hand, and a globe under +his right. The pictures represent the creatures who are slumbering in +chaos. Antony bends forward to see him. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Manes makes his globe +revolve, and, attuning his words to the music of a lyre, from which +bursts forth crystalline sounds, he says:</p> + +<p>"The celestial earth is at the upper extremity, the mortal earth at the +lower. It is supported by two angels, the Splenditenens and the +Omophorus, with six faces.</p> + +<p>"At the summit of Heaven, the Impassible Divinity occupies the highest +seat; underneath, face to face, are the Son of God and the Prince of +Darkness.</p> + +<p>"The darkness having made its way into His kingdom, God extracted from +His essence a virtue which produced the first man; and He surrounded him +with five elements. But the demons of darkness deprived him of one part, +and that part is the soul.</p> + +<p>"There is but one soul, spread through the universe, like the water of a +stream divided into many channels. This it is that sighs in the wind, +grinds in the marble which is sawn, howls in the voice of the sea; and +it sheds milky tears when the leaves are torn off the fig-tree.</p> + +<p>"The souls that leave this world emigrate towards the stars, which are +animated beings."</p> + +<p>Antony begins to laugh:</p> + +<p>"Ah! ah! what an absurd hallucination!"</p> + +<p><i>A man</i>, beardless, and of austere aspect—"Why?"</p> + +<p>Antony is about to reply. But Hilarion tells him in an undertone, that +this man is the mighty Origen; and Manes resumes:</p> + +<p>"At first, they stay in the moon, where they are purified. After that, +they ascend to the sun."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, slowly—"I know nothing to prevent us from believing it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Manes</i>—"The end of every creature is the liberation of the celestial +ray shut up in matter. It makes its escape more easily through perfumes, +spices, the aroma of old wine, the light substances that resemble +thought. But the actions of daily life withhold it. The murderer will be +born again in the body of a eunuch; he who slays an animal will become +that animal. If you plant a vine-tree, you will be fastened in its +branches. Food absorbs those who use it. Therefore, mortify yourselves! +fast!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"They are temperate, as you see!"</p> + +<p><i>Manes</i>—"There is a great deal of it in flesh-meats, less in herbs. +Besides, the Pure, by the force of their merits, despoil vegetables of +that luminous spark, and it flies towards its source. The animals, by +generation, imprison it in the flesh. Therefore, avoid women!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Admire their countenance!"</p> + +<p><i>Manes</i>—"Or, rather, act so well that they may not be prolific. It is +better for the soul to sink on the earth than to languish in carnal +fetters."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! abomination!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"What matters the hierarchy of iniquities? The Church has +done well to make marriage a sacrament!"</p> + +<p><i>Saturninus</i>, in Syrian costume—"He propagates a dismal order of +things! The Father, in order to punish the rebel angels, commanded them +to create the world. Christ came in order that the God of the Jews, who +was one of those angels——"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"An angel? He! the Creator?"</p> + +<p><i>Gerdon</i>—"Did He not desire to kill Moses and deceive the prophets? and +did He not lead the people astray, spreading lying and idolatry?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Marcion</i>—"Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!"</p> + +<p><i>Saint Clement of Alexandria</i>—"Matter is eternal!"</p> + +<p><i>Bardesanes</i>, as one of the Babylonian Magi—"It was formed by the seven +planetary spirits."</p> + +<p><i>The Hernians</i>—"The angels have made the souls!"</p> + +<p><i>The Priscillianists</i>—"The world was made by the Devil."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, falls backward—"Horror!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>, holding him up—"You drive yourself to despair too quickly! +You don't rightly comprehend their doctrine. Here is one who has +received his from Theodas, the friend of Saint Paul. Hearken to him!"</p> + +<p>And, at a signal from Hilarion, Valentinus, in a tunic of silver cloth, +with a hissing voice and a pointed skull, cries:</p> + +<p>"The world is the work of a delirious God!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, hangs down his head—"The work of a delirious God!"</p> + +<p>After a long silence:</p> + +<p>"How is that?"</p> + +<p><i>Valentinus</i>—"The most perfect of the Æons, the Abysm, reposed on the +bosom of Profundity together with Thought. From their union sprang +Intelligence, who had for his consort Truth.</p> + +<p>"Intelligence and Truth engendered the Word and Life, which in their +turn engendered Man and the Church; and this makes eight Æons."</p> + +<p>He reckons on his fingers:</p> + +<p>"The Word and Truth produced ten other Æons, that is to say, five +couples. Man and the Church produced twelve others, amongst whom were +the Paraclete and Faith, Hope and Charity, Perfection and Wisdom, +Sophia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The entire of those thirty Æons constitutes the Pleroma, or +Universality of God. Thus, like the echoes of a voice that is dying +away, like the exhalations of a perfume that is evaporating, like the +fires of a sun that is setting, the Powers that have emanated from the +Highest Powers are always growing feeble.</p> + +<p>"But Sophia, desirous of knowing the Father, rushed out of the Pleroma; +and the Word then made another pair, Christ and the Holy Ghost, who +bound together all the Æons, and all together they formed Jesus, the +flower of the Pleroma. Meanwhile, the effort of Sophia to escape had +left in the void an image of her, an evil substance, Acharamoth. The +Saviour took pity on her, and delivered her from her passions; and from +the smile of Acharamoth on being set free Light was born; her tears made +the waters, and her sadness engendered gloomy Matter. From Acharamoth +sprang the Demiurge, the fabricator of the worlds, the heavens, and the +Devil. He dwells much lower down than the Pleroma, without even +beholding it, so that he imagines he is the true God, and repeats +through the mouths of his prophets: 'Besides me there is no God.' Then +he made man, and cast into his soul the immaterial seed, which was the +Church, the reflection of the other Church placed in the Pleroma.</p> + +<p>"Acharamoth, one day, having reached the highest region, shall unite +with the Saviour; the fire hidden in the world shall annihilate all +matter, shall then consume itself, and men, having become pure spirits, +shall espouse the angels!"</p> + +<p><i>Origen</i>—"Then the Demon shall be conquered, and the reign of God shall +begin!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony represses an exclamation, and immediately Basilides, catching him +by the elbow:</p> + +<p>"The Supreme Being, with his infinite emanations, is called Abraxas, and +the Saviour with all his virtues, Kaulakau, otherwise rank-upon-rank, +rectitude-upon-rectitude. The power of Kaulakau is obtained by the aid +of certain words inscribed on this calcedony to facilitate memory."</p> + +<p>And he shows on his neck a little stone on which fantastic lines are +engraved.</p> + +<p>"Then you shall be transported into the invisible; and, unfettered by +law, you shall despise everything, including virtue itself. As for us, +the Pure, we must avoid sorrow, after the example of Kaulakau."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What! and the Cross?"</p> + +<p>The Elkhesaites, in hyacinthine robes, reply to him:</p> + +<p>"The sadness, the vileness, the condemnation, and the oppression of my +fathers are effaced, thanks to the new Gospel. We may deny the inferior +Christ, the man-Jesus; but we must adore the other Christ generated in +his person under the wing of the Dove. Honour marriage! The Holy Spirit +is feminine!"</p> + +<p>Hilarion has disappeared; and Antony, pressed forward by the crowd, +finds himself facing the Carpocratians, stretched with women upon +scarlet cushions:</p> + +<p>"Before re-entering the centre of unity, you will have to pass through a +series of conditions and actions. In order to free yourself from the +Powers of Darkness, do their works for the present! The husband goes to +his wife and says, 'Act with charity towards your brother,' and she will +kiss you."</p> + +<p>The Nicolaites, assembled around a smoking dish:</p> + +<p>"This is meat offered to idols; let us take it! Apostacy is permitted +when the heart is pure. Glut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> your flesh with what it asks for. Try to +destroy it by means of debaucheries. Prounikos, the mother of Heaven, +wallows in iniquity."</p> + +<p>The Marcosians, with rings of gold and dripping with balsam:</p> + +<p>"Come to us, in order to be united with the Spirit! Come to us, in order +to drink immortality!"</p> + +<p>And one of them points out to him, behind some tapestry, the body of a +man with an ass's head. This represents Sabaoth, the father of the +Devil. As a mark of hatred he spits upon it.</p> + +<p>Another discloses a very low bed strewn with flowers, saying as he does +so:</p> + +<p>"The spiritual nuptials are about to be consummated."</p> + +<p>A third holds forth a goblet of glass while he utters an invocation. +Blood appears in it:</p> + +<p>"Ah! there it is! there it is! the blood of Christ!"</p> + +<p>Antony turns aside; but he is splashed by the water, which leaps out of +a tub.</p> + +<p>The Helvidians cast themselves into it head foremost, muttering:</p> + +<p>"Man regenerated by baptism is incapable of sin!"</p> + +<p>Then he passes close to a great fire, where the Adamites are warming +themselves completely naked to imitate the purity of Paradise; and he +jostles up against the Messalians wallowing on the stone floor +half-asleep, stupid:</p> + +<p>"Oh! run over us, if you like; we shall not budge! Work is a sin; all +occupation is evil!"</p> + +<p>Behind those, the abject Paternians, men, women, and children, +pell-mell, on a heap of filth, lift up their hideous faces, besmeared +with wine:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The inferior parts of the body, having been made by the Devil, belong +to him. Let us eat, drink, and enjoy!"</p> + +<p><i>Ætius</i>—"Crimes come from the need here below of the love of God!"</p> + +<p>But all at once a man, clad in a Carthaginian mantle, jumps among them, +with a bundle of thongs in his hand; and striking at random to right and +left of him violently:</p> + +<p>"Ah! imposters, brigands, simoniacs, heretics, and demons! the vermin of +the schools! the dregs of Hell! This fellow here, Marcion, is a sailor +from Sinope excommunicated for incest. Carpocras has been banished as a +magician; Ætius has stolen his concubine; Nicolas prostituted his own +wife; and Manes, who describes himself as the Buddha, and whose name is +Cubricus, was flayed with the sharp end of a cane, so that his tanned +skin swings at the gates of Ctesiphon."</p> + +<p>Antony has recognised Tertullian, and rushes forward to meet him.</p> + +<p>"Help, master! help!"</p> + +<p><i>Tertullian</i>, continuing—"Break the images! Veil the virgins! Pray, +fast, weep, mortify yourselves! No philosophy! no books! After Jesus, +science is useless!"</p> + +<p>All have fled; and Antony sees, instead of Tertullian, a woman seated on +a stone bench. She sobs, her head resting against a pillar, her hair +hanging down, and her body wrapped in a long brown simar.</p> + +<p>Then they find themselves close to each other far from the crowd; and a +silence, an extraordinary peacefulness, ensues, such as one feels in a +wood when the wind ceases and the leaves flutter no longer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> This woman +is very beautiful, though faded and pale as death. They stare at each +other, and their eyes mutually exchange a flood of thoughts, as it were, +a thousand memories of the past, bewildering and profound. At last +Priscilla begins to speak:</p> + +<p>"I was in the lowest chamber of the baths, and I was lulled to sleep by +the confused murmurs that reached me from the streets. All at once I +heard loud exclamations. The people cried, 'It is a magician! it is the +Devil!' And the crowd stopped in front of our house opposite to the +Temple of Æsculapius. I raised myself with my wrists to the height of +the air-hole. On the peristyle of the temple was a man with an iron +collar around his neck. He placed lighted coals on a chafing-dish, and +with them made large furrows on his breast, calling out, 'Jesus! Jesus!' +The people said, 'That is not lawful! let us stone him!' But he did not +desist. The things that were occurring were unheard of, astounding. +Flowers, large as the sun, turned around before my eyes, and I heard a +harp of gold vibrating in mid-air. The day sank to its close. My arms +let go the iron bars; my strength was exhausted; and when he bore me +away to his house—"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Whom are you talking about?"</p> + +<p><i>Priscilla</i>—"Why, of Montanus!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"But Montanus is dead."</p> + +<p><i>Priscilla</i>—"That is not true."</p> + +<p><i>A voice</i>—"No, Montanus is not dead!"</p> + +<p>Antony comes back; and near him, on the other side upon a bench, a +second woman is seated—this one being fair, and paler still, with +swellings under her eyelids, as if she had been a long time weeping. +Without waiting for him to question her, she says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Maximilla</i>—"We were returning from Tarsus by the mountains, when, at a +turn of the road, we saw a man under a fig-tree. He cried from a +distance, 'Stop!' and he sprang forward, pouring out abuse on us. The +slaves rushed up to protect us. He burst out laughing. The horses +pranced. The mastiffs all began to howl. He was standing up. The +perspiration fell down his face. The wind made his cloak flap.</p> + +<p>"While addressing us by name, he reproached us for the vanity of our +actions, the impurity of our bodies; and he raised his fist towards the +dromedaries on account of the silver bells which they wore under their +jaws. His fury filled my very entrails with terror; nevertheless, it was +a voluptuous sensation, which soothed, intoxicated me. At first, the +slaves drew near. 'Master,' said they, 'our beasts are fatigued'; then +there were the women: 'We are frightened'; and the slaves ran away. +After that, the children began to cry, 'We are hungry.' And, as no +answer was given to the women, they disappeared. And now he began to +speak. I perceived that there was some one close beside me. It was my +husband: I listened to the other. The first crawled between the stones, +exclaiming, 'Do you abandon me?' and I replied, 'Yes! begone!' in order +to accompany Montanus."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"A eunuch!"</p> + +<p><i>Priscilla</i>—"Ah! coarse heart, you are astonished at this! Yet +Magdalen, Jane, Martha and Susanna did not enter the couch of the +Saviour. Souls can be madly embraced more easily than bodies. In order +to retain Eustolia with impunity, the Bishop Leontius mutilated +himself—cherishing his love more than his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> virility. And, then, it is +not my own fault. A spirit compels me to do it; Eotas cannot cure me. +Nevertheless, he is cruel. What does it matter? I am the last of the +prophetesses; and, after me, the end of the world will come."</p> + +<p><i>Maximilla</i>—"He has loaded me with his gifts. None of the others loved +me so much, nor is any of them better loved."</p> + +<p><i>Priscilla</i>—"You lie! I am the person he loves!"</p> + +<p><i>Maximilla</i>—"No: it is I!"</p> + +<p>They fight.</p> + +<p>Between their shoulders appears a negro's head.</p> + +<p><i>Montanus</i>, covered with a black cloak, fastened by two dead men's +bones:</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, my doves! Incapable of terrestrial happiness, we by this +union attain to spiritual plenitude. After the age of the Father, the +age of the Son; and I inaugurate the third, that of the Paraclete. His +light came to me during the forty nights when the heavenly Jerusalem +shone in the firmament above my house at Pepuza.</p> + +<p>"Ah! how you cry out with anguish when the thongs flagellate you! How +your aching limbs offer themselves to my burning caresses! How you +languish upon my breast with an inconceivable love! It is so strong that +it has revealed new worlds to you, and you can now behold spirits with +your mortal eyes."</p> + +<p>Antony makes a gesture of astonishment.</p> + +<p><i>Tertullian</i>, coming up close to Montanus—"No doubt, since the soul has +a body, that which has no body exists not."</p> + +<p><i>Montanus</i>—"In order to render it less material I have introduced +numerous mortifications—three Lents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> every year, and, for each night, +prayers, in saying which the mouth is kept closed, for fear the breath, +in escaping, should sully the mental act. It is necessary to abstain +from second marriages—or, rather, from marriage altogether! The angels +sinned with women."</p> + +<p>The Archontics, in hair-shirts:</p> + +<p>"The Saviour said, 'I came to destroy the work of the woman.'"</p> + +<p>The Tatianists, in hair-cloths of rushes:</p> + +<p>"She is the tree of evil! Our bodies are the garments of skin."</p> + +<p>And, ever advancing on the same side, Antony encounters the Valesians, +stretched on the ground, with red plates below their stomachs, beneath +their tunics.</p> + +<p>They present to him a knife.</p> + +<p>"Do like Origen and like us! Is it the pain you fear, coward? Is it the +love of your flesh that restrains you, hypocrite?"</p> + +<p>And while he watches them struggling, extended on their backs swimming +in their own blood, the Cainites, with their hair fastened by vipers, +pass close to him, shouting in his ears:</p> + +<p>"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory to Judas!</p> + +<p>"Cain begot the race of the strong; Sodom terrified the earth with its +chastisement, and it is through Judas that God saved the world! Yes, +Judas! without him no death and no Redemption!"</p> + +<p>They pass out through the band of Circoncellions, clad in wolf-skin, +crowned with thorns, and carrying iron clubs.</p> + +<p>"Crush the fruit! Attack the fountain-head! Drown the child! Plunder the +rich man who is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> happy, and who eats overmuch! Strike down the poor man +who casts an envious glance at the ass's saddle-cloth, the dog's meal, +the bird's nest, and who is grieved at not seeing others as miserable as +himself.</p> + +<p>"As for us—the Saints—in order to hasten the end of the world, we +poison, burn, massacre. The only salvation is in martyrdom. We give +ourselves up to martyrdom. We take off with pincers the skin of our +heads; we spread our limbs under the ploughs; we cast ourselves into the +mouths of furnaces. Shame on baptism! Shame on the Eucharist! Shame on +marriage! Universal damnation!"</p> + +<p>Then, throughout the basilica, there is a fresh accession of frenzy. The +Audians draw arrows against the Devil; the Collyridians fling blue veils +to the ceiling; the Ascitians prostrate themselves before a wineskin; +the Marcionites baptise a corpse with oil. Close beside Appelles, a +woman, the better to explain her idea, shows a round loaf of bread in a +bottle; another, surrounded by the Sampsians, distributes like a host +the dust of her sandals. On the bed of the Marcosians, strewn with +roses, two lovers embrace each other. The Circoncellions cut one +another's throats; the Velesians make a rattling sound; Bardesanes +sings; Carpocras dances; Maximilla and Priscilla utter loud groans; and +the false prophetess of Cappadocia, quite naked, resting on a lion and +brandishing three torches, yells forth the Terrible Invocation.</p> + +<p>The pillars are poised like trunks of trees; the amulets round the necks +of the Heresiarchs have lines of flame crossing each other; the +constellations in the chapels move to and fro, and the walls recede +under the alternate motion of the crowd, in which every head is a wave +which leaps and roars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, from the very depths of the uproar rises a song with bursts +of laughter, in which the name of Jesus recurs. These outbursts come +from the common people, who all clap their hands in order to keep time +with the music. In the midst of them is Arius, in the dress of a deacon:</p> + +<p>"The fools who declaim against me pretend to explain the absurd; and, in +order to destroy them entirely, I have composed little poems so comical +that they are known by heart in the mills, the taverns, and the ports.</p> + +<p>"A thousand times no! the Son is not co-eternal with the Father, nor of +the same substance. Otherwise He would not have said, 'Father, remove +from Me this chalice! Why do ye call Me good? God alone is good! I go to +my God, to your God!' and other expressions, proving that He was a +created being. It is demonstrated to us besides by all His names: lamb, +shepherd, fountain, wisdom, Son of Man, prophet, good way, +corner-stone."</p> + +<p><i>Sabellius</i>—"As for me, I maintain that both are identical."</p> + +<p><i>Arius</i>—"The Council of Antioch has decided the other way."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Who, then, is the Word? Who was Jesus?"</p> + +<p><i>The Valentinians</i>—"He was the husband of Acharamoth when she had +repented!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sethianians</i>—"He was Sem, son of Noah!"</p> + +<p><i>The Theodotians</i>—"He was Melchisidech!"</p> + +<p><i>The Merinthians</i>—"He was nothing but a man!"</p> + +<p><i>The Apollonarists</i>—"He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated the +Passion!"</p> + +<p><i>Marcellus of Ancyra</i>—"He is a development of the Father!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Pope Calixtus</i>—"Father and Son are the two forms of a single God!"</p> + +<p><i>Methadius</i>—"He was first in Adam, and then in man!"</p> + +<p><i>Cerinthus</i>—"And He will come back to life again!"</p> + +<p><i>Valentinus</i>—"Impossible—His body is celestial."</p> + +<p><i>Paul of Samosta</i>—"He is God only since His baptism."</p> + +<p><i>Hermogenes</i>—"He dwells in the sun."</p> + +<p>And all the heresiarchs form a circle around Antony, who weeps, with his +head in his hands.</p> + +<p>A Jew, with red beard, and his skin spotted with leprosy, advances close +to him, and chuckling horribly:</p> + +<p>"His soul was the soul of Esau. He suffered from the disease of +Bellerophon; and his mother, the woman who sold perfumes, surrendered +herself to Pantherus, a Roman soldier, under the corn-sheaves, one +harvest evening."</p> + +<p>Antony eagerly lifts up his head, and gazes at them without uttering a +word; then, treading right over them:</p> + +<p>"Doctors, magicians, bishops and deacons, men and phantoms, back! back! +Ye are all lies!"</p> + +<p><i>The Heresiarchs</i>—"We have martyrs, more martyrs than yours, prayers +more difficult, higher outbursts of love, and ecstasies quite as +protracted."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"But no revelation. No proofs."</p> + +<p>Then all brandish in the air rolls of papyrus, tablets of wood, pieces +of leather; and strips of cloth; and pushing them one before the other:</p> + +<p><i>The Corinthians</i>—"Here is the Gospel of the Hebrews!"</p> + +<p><i>The Marcionites</i>—"The Gospel of the Lord! The Gospel of Eve!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Encratites</i>—"The Gospel of Thomas!"</p> + +<p><i>The Cainites</i>—"The Gospel of Judas!"</p> + +<p><i>Basilides</i>—"The treatise of the spirit that has come!"</p> + +<p><i>Manes</i>—"The prophecy of Barcouf!"</p> + +<p>Antony makes a struggle and escapes them, and he perceives, in a corner +filled with shadows, the old Ebionites, dried up like mummies, their +glances dull, their eyebrows white.</p> + +<p>They speak in a quavering tone:</p> + +<p>"We have known, we ourselves have known, the carpenter's son. We were of +his own age; we lived in his street. He used to amuse himself by +modelling little birds with mud; without being afraid of cutting the +benches, he assisted his father in his work, or rolled up, for his +mother, balls of dyed wool. Then he made a journey into Egypt, whence he +brought back wonderful secrets. We were in Jericho when he discovered +the eater of grasshoppers. They talked together in a low tone, without +anyone being able to hear them. But it was since that occurrence that he +made a noise in Galilee and that many stories have been circulated +concerning him."</p> + +<p>They repeat, tremulously:</p> + +<p>"We have known, we ourselves; we have known him."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"One moment! Tell me! pray tell me, what was his face like?"</p> + +<p><i>Tertullian</i>—"Fierce and repulsive in its aspect; for he was laden with +all the crimes, all the sorrows, and all the deformities of the world."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! no! no! I imagine, on the contrary, that there was about +his entire person a superhuman beauty."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Eusebius of Cæsarea</i>—"There is at Paneadæ, close to an old ruin, in +the midst of a rank growth of weeds, a statue of stone, raised, as it is +pretended, by the woman with the issue of blood. But time has gnawed +away the face, and the rain has obliterated the inscription."</p> + +<p>A woman comes forth from the group of Carpocratians.</p> + +<p><i>Marcellina</i>—"I was formerly a deaconess in a little church at Rome, +where I used to show the faithful images, in silver, of St. Paul, Homer, +Pythagoras and Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>"I have kept only his."</p> + +<p>She draws aside the folds of her cloak.</p> + +<p>"Do you wish it?"</p> + +<p><i>A voice</i>—"He reappears himself when we invoke him. It is the hour. +Come!"</p> + +<p>And Antony feels a brutal hand laid on him, which drags him along.</p> + +<p>He ascends a staircase in complete darkness, and, after proceeding for +some time, arrives in front of a door. Then his guide (is it Hilarion? +he cannot tell) says in the ear of a third person, "The Lord is about to +come,"—and they are introduced into an apartment with a low ceiling and +no furniture. What strikes him at first is, opposite him, a long +chrysalis of the colour of blood, with a man's head, from which rays +escape, and the word <i>Knouphis</i> written in Greek all around. It rises +above a shaft of a column placed in the midst of a pedestal. On the +other walls of the apartment, medallions of polished brass represent +heads of animals—that of an ox, of a lion, of an eagle, of a dog, and +again, an ass's head! The argil lamps, suspended below these images, +shed a flickering light. Antony, through a hole in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> wall, perceives +the moon, which shines far away on the waves, and he can even +distinguish their monotonous ripple, with the dull sound of a ship's +keel striking against the stones of a pier.</p> + +<p>Men, squatting on the ground, their faces hidden beneath their cloaks, +give vent at intervals to a kind of stifled barking. Women are sleeping, +with their foreheads clasped by both arms, which are supported by their +knees, so completely shrouded by their veils that one would say they +were heaps of clothes arranged along the wall. Beside them, children, +half-naked, and half devoured with vermin, watch the lamps burning, with +an idiotic air;—and they are doing nothing; they are awaiting +something.</p> + +<p>They speak in low voices about their families, or communicate to one +another remedies for their diseases. Many of them are going to embark at +the end of the day, the persecution having become too severe. The +Pagans, however, are not hard to deceive. "They believe, the fools, that +we adore Knouphis!"</p> + +<p>But one of the brethren, suddenly inspired, places himself in front of +the column, where they have laid a loaf of bread, which is on the top of +a basket full of fennel and hartwort.</p> + +<p>The others have taken their places, forming, as they stand, three +parallel lines.</p> + +<p>The inspired one unrolls a paper covered with cylinders joined together, +and then begins:</p> + +<p>"Upon the darkness the ray of the Word descended, and a violent cry +burst forth, which seemed like the voice of light."</p> + +<p>All responding, while they sway their bodies to and fro:</p> + +<p>"Kyrie eleison!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The inspired one</i>—"Man, then, was created by the infamous God of +Israel, with the assistance of those here,"—pointing towards the +medallions—"Aristophaios, Oraios, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi and Iaô!</p> + +<p>"And he lay on the mud, hideous, feeble, shapeless, without the power of +thought."</p> + +<p>All, in a plaintive tone:</p> + +<p>"Kyrie eleison!"</p> + +<p><i>The inspired one</i>—"But Sophia, taking pity on him, quickened him with +a portion of her spirit. Then, seeing man so beautiful, God was seized +with anger, and imprisoned him in His kingdom, interdicting him from the +tree of knowledge. Still, once more, the other one came to his aid. She +sent the serpent, who, with its sinuous advances, prevailed on him to +disobey this law of hate. And man, when he had tasted knowledge, +understood heavenly matters."</p> + +<p>All, with energy:</p> + +<p>"Kyrie eleison!"</p> + +<p><i>The inspired one</i>—"But Jaldalaoth, in order to be revenged, plunged +man into matter, and the serpent along with him!"</p> + +<p>All, in very low tones:</p> + +<p>"Kyrie eleison!"</p> + +<p>They close their mouths and then become silent.</p> + +<p>The odours of the harbour mingle in the warm air with the smoke of the +lamps. Their wicks, spluttering, are on the point of being extinguished, +and long mosquitoes flutter around them. Antony gasps with anguish. He +has the feeling that some monstrosity is floating around him—the horror +of a crime about to be perpetrated.</p> + +<p>But the inspired one, stamping with his feet, snapping his fingers, +tossing his head, sings a psalm,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> with a wild refrain, to the sound of +cymbals and of a shrill flute:</p> + +<p>"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!</p> + +<p>"Swift One, that runs without feet, captor that takes without hands! +Sinuous as the waves, round as the sun, darkened with spots of gold; +like the firmament, strewn with stars! like the twistings of the +vine-tree and the windings of entrails!</p> + +<p>"Unbegotten! earth-devourer! ever young! perspicacious! honoured at +Epidaurus! good for men! who cured King Ptolemy, the soldiers of Moses, +and Glaucus, son of Minos!</p> + +<p>"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"</p> + +<p>All repeat:</p> + +<p>"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"</p> + +<p>However, there is no manifestation.</p> + +<p>"Why, what is the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>They proceed to deliberate, and to make suggestions. One old man offers +a clump of grass. Then there is a rising in the basket. The green herbs +are agitated; the flowers fall, and the head of a python appears.</p> + +<p>He passes slowly over the edge of the loaf, like a circle turning round +a motionless disc; then he develops, lengthens; he becomes of enormous +weight. To prevent him from grazing the ground, the men support him with +their breasts, the women with their heads, and the children with the +tips of their fingers; and his tail, emerging through the hole in the +wall, stretches out indefinitely, even to the depths of the sea. His +rings unfold themselves, and fill the apartment. They wind themselves +round Antony.</p> + +<p>The Faithful, pressing their mouths against his skin, snatch the bread +which he has nibbled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is thou! it is thou!</p> + +<p>"Raised at first by Moses, crushed by Ezechias, re-established by the +Messiah. He drank thee in the waters of baptism; but thou didst quit him +in the Garden of Olives, and then he felt all his weakness.</p> + +<p>"Writhing on the bar of the Cross, and higher than his head, slavering +above the crown of thorns, thou didst behold him dying; for thou art +Jesus! yes, thou art the Word! thou art the Christ!"</p> + +<p>Antony swoons in horror, and falls in his cell, upon the splinters of +wood, where the torch, which had slipped from his hand, is burning +mildly. This commotion causes him to half-open his eyes; and he +perceives the Nile, undulating and clear, under the light of the moon, +like a great serpent in the midst of the sands—so much so that the +hallucination again takes possession of him. He has not quitted the +Ophites; they surround him, address him by name, carry off baggages, and +descend towards the port. He embarks along with them.</p> + +<p>A brief period of time flows by. Then the vault of a prison encircles +him. In front of him, iron bars make black lines upon a background of +blue; and at its sides, in the shade, are people weeping and praying, +surrounded by others who are exhorting and consoling them.</p> + +<p>Without, one is attracted by the murmuring of a crowd, as well as by the +splendour of a summer's day. Shrill voices are crying out watermelons, +water, iced drinks, and cushions of grass to sit down on. From time to +time, shouts of applause burst forth. He observes people walking on +their heads.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, comes a continuous roaring, strong and cavernous, like the +noise of water in an aqueduct:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> and, opposite him, he perceives, behind +the bars of another cage, a lion, who is walking up and down; then a row +of sandals, of naked legs, and of purple fringes.</p> + +<p>Overhead, groups of people, ranged symmetrically, widen out from the +lowest circle, which encloses the arena, to the highest, where masts +have been raised to support a veil of hyacinth hung in the air on ropes. +Staircases, which radiate towards the centre, intersect, at equal +distances, those great circles of stone. Their steps disappear from +view, owing to the vast audience seated there—knights, senators, +soldiers, common people, vestals and courtesans, in woollen hoods, in +silk maniples, in tawny tunics with aigrettes of precious stones, tufts +of feathers and lictors' rods; and all this assemblage, muttering, +exclaiming, tumultuous and frantic, stuns him like an immense tub +boiling over. In the midst of the arena, upon an altar, smokes a vessel +of incense.</p> + +<p>The people who surround him are Christians, delivered up to the wild +beasts. The men wear the red cloak of the high-priests of Saturn, the +women the fillets of Ceres. Their friends distribute fragments of their +garments and rings. In order to gain admittance into the prison, they +require, they say, a great deal of money; but what does it matter? They +will remain till the end.</p> + +<p>Amongst these consolers Antony observes a bald man in a black tunic, a +portion of whose face is plainly visible. He discourses with them on the +nothingness of the world, and the happiness of the Elect. Antony is +filled with transports of Divine love. He longs for the opportunity of +sacrificing his life for the Saviour, not knowing whether he is himself +one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> these martyrs. But, save a Phrygian, with long hair, who keeps +his arms raised, they all have a melancholy aspect. An old man is +sobbing on a bench, and a young man, who is standing, is musing with +downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>The old man has refused to pay tribute at the angle of a cross-road, +before a statue of Minerva; and he regards his companions with a look +which signifies:</p> + +<p>"You ought to succour me! Communities sometimes make arrangements by +which they might be left in peace. Many amongst you have even obtained +letters falsely declaring that you have offered sacrifice to idols."</p> + +<p>He asks:</p> + +<p>"Is it not Peter of Alexandria who has regulated what one ought to do +when one is overcome by tortures?"</p> + +<p>Then, to himself:</p> + +<p>"Ah! this is very hard at my age! my infirmities render me so feeble! +Perchance, I might have lived to another winter!"</p> + +<p>The recollection of his little garden moves him to tears; and he +contemplates the side of the altar.</p> + +<p>The young man, who had disturbed by violence a feast of Apollo, murmurs:</p> + +<p>"My only chance was to fly to the mountains!"</p> + +<p>"The soldiers would have caught you," says one of the brethren.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I could have done like Cyprian; I should have come back; and the +second time I should have had more strength, you may be sure!"</p> + +<p>Then he thinks of the countless days he should have lived, with all the +pleasures which he will not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> known;—and he, likewise, contemplates +the side of the altar.</p> + +<p>But the man in the black tunic rushes up to him:</p> + +<p>"How scandalous! What? You a victim of election? Think of all these +women who are looking at you! And then, God sometimes performs a +miracle. Pionius benumbed the hands of his executioners; and the blood +of Polycarp extinguished the flames of his funeral-pile."</p> + +<p>He turns towards the old man. "Father, father! You ought to edify us by +your death. By deferring it, you will, without doubt, commit some bad +action which will destroy the fruit of your good deeds. Besides, the +power of God is infinite. Perhaps your example will convert the entire +people."</p> + +<p>And, in the den opposite, the lions stride up and down, without +stopping, rapidly, with a continuous movement. The largest of them all +at once fixes his eyes on Antony and emits a roar, and a mass of vapour +issues from his jaws.</p> + +<p>The women are jammed up against the men.</p> + +<p>The consoler goes from one to another:</p> + +<p>"What would ye say—what would any of you say—if they burned you with +plates of iron; if horses tore you asunder; if your body, coated with +honey, was devoured by insects? You will have only the death of a hunter +who is surprised in a wood."</p> + +<p>Antony would much prefer all this than the horrible wild beasts; he +imagines he feels their teeth and their talons, and that he hears his +back cracking under their jaws.</p> + +<p>A belluarius enters the dungeon; the martyrs tremble. One alone amongst +them is unmoved—the Phrygian, who has gone into a corner to pray. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +had burned three temples. He now advances with lifted arms, open mouth, +and his head towards Heaven, without seeing anything, like a +somnambulist.</p> + +<p>The consoler exclaims:</p> + +<p>"Keep back! Keep back! The Spirit of Montanus will destroy ye!"</p> + +<p>All fall back, vociferating:</p> + +<p>"Damnation to the Montanist!"</p> + +<p>They insult him, spit upon him, would like to strike him. The lions, +prancing, bite one another's manes. The people yell:</p> + +<p>"To the beasts! To the beasts!"</p> + +<p>The martyrs, bursting into sobs, catch hold of one another. A cup of +narcotic wine is offered to them. They quickly pass it from hand to +hand.</p> + +<p>Near the door of the den another belluarius awaits the signal. It opens; +a lion comes out.</p> + +<p>He crosses the arena with great irregular strides. Behind him in a row +appear the other lions, then a bear, three panthers, and leopards. They +scatter like a flock in a prairie.</p> + +<p>The cracking of a whip is heard. The Christians stagger, and, in order +to make an end of it, their brethren push them forward.</p> + +<p>Antony closes his eyes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He opens them again. But darkness envelops him. Ere long, it grows +bright once more; and he is able to trace the outlines of a plain, arid +and covered with knolls, such as may be seen around a deserted quarry. +Here and there a clump of shrubs lifts itself in the midst of the slabs, +which are on a level with the soil, and above which white forms are +bending, more undefined than clouds. Others rapidly make their +ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>pearance. Eyes shine through the openings of long veils. By their +indolent gait and the perfumes which exhale from them, Antony knows they +are ladies of patrician rank. There are also men, but of inferior +condition, for they have visages at the same time simple and coarse.</p> + +<p>One of the women, with a long breath:</p> + +<p>"Ah! how pleasant is the air of the chilly night in the midst of +sepulchres! I am so fatigued with the softness of couches, the noise of +day, and the oppressiveness of the sun!"</p> + +<p><i>A woman</i>, panting—"Ah! at last, here I am! But how irksome to have +wedded an idolater!"</p> + +<p><i>Another</i>—"The visits to the prisons, the conversations with our +brethren, all excite the suspicions of our husbands! And we must even +hide ourselves from them when making the sign of the Cross; they would +take it for a magical conjuration."</p> + +<p><i>Another</i>—"With mine, there was nothing but quarrelling all day long. I +did not like to submit to the abuses to which he subjected my person; +and, for revenge, he had me persecuted as a Christian."</p> + +<p><i>Another</i>—"Recall to your memory that young man of such striking beauty +who was dragged by the heels behind a chariot, like Hector, from the +Esquiline Gate to the Mountains of Tibur; and his blood stained the +bushes on both sides of the road. I collected the drops—here they are!"</p> + +<p>She draws from her bosom a sponge perfectly black, covers it with +kisses, and then flings herself upon the slab, crying:</p> + +<p>"Ah! my friend! my friend!"</p> + +<p><i>A man</i>—"It is just three years to-day since Domitilla's death. She was +stoned at the bottom of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the Wood of Proserpine. I gathered her bones, +which shone like glow-worms in the grass. The earth now covers them."</p> + +<p>He flings himself upon a tombstone.</p> + +<p>"O my betrothed! my betrothed!"</p> + +<p>And all the others, scattered through the plain:</p> + +<p>"O my sister!" "O my brother!" "O my daughter!" "O my mother!"</p> + +<p>They are on their knees, their foreheads clasped with their hands, or +their bodies lying flat with both arms extended; and the sobs which they +repress make their bosoms swell almost to bursting. They gaze up at the +sky, saying:</p> + +<p>"Have pity on her soul, O my God! She is languishing in the abode of +shadows. Deign to admit her into the Resurrection, so that she may +rejoice in Thy light!"</p> + +<p>Or, with eyes fixed on the flagstones, they murmur:</p> + +<p>"Be at rest—suffer no more! I have brought thee wine and meat!"</p> + +<p><i>A widow</i>—"Here is pudding, made by me, according to his taste, with +many eggs, and a double measure of flour. We are going to eat together +as of yore, is not that so?"</p> + +<p>She puts a little of it on her lips, and suddenly begins to laugh in an +extravagant fashion, frantically.</p> + +<p>The others, like her, nibble a morsel and drink a mouthful; they tell +one another the history of their martyrs; their sorrow becomes vehement; +their libations increase; their eyes, swimming with tears, are fixed on +one another; they stammer with inebriety and desolation. Gradually their +hands touch; their lips meet; their veils are torn away, and they +em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>brace one another upon the tombs in the midst of the cups and the +torches.</p> + +<p>The sky begins to brighten. The mist soaks their garments; and, as if +they were strangers to one another, they take their departure by +different roads into the country.</p> + +<p>The sun shines forth. The grass has grown taller; the plain has become +transformed. Across the bamboos, Antony sees a forest of columns of a +bluish-grey colour. Those are trunks of trees springing from a single +trunk. From each of its branches descend other branches which penetrate +into the soil; and the whole of those horizontal and perpendicular +lines, indefinitely multiplied, might be compared to a gigantic +framework were it not that here and there appears a little fig-tree with +a dark foliage like that of a sycamore. Between the branches he +distinguishes bunches of yellow flowers and violets, and ferns as large +as birds' feathers. Under the lowest branches may be seen at different +points the horns of a buffalo, or the glittering eyes of an antelope. +Parrots sit perched, butterflies flutter, lizards crawl upon the ground, +flies buzz; and one can hear, as it were, in the midst of the silence, +the palpitation of an all-permeating life.</p> + +<p>At the entrance of the wood, on a kind of pile, is a strange sight—a +man coated over with cows' dung, completely naked, more dried-up than a +mummy. His joints form knots at the extremities of his bones, which are +like sticks. He has clusters of shells in his ears, his face is very +long, and his nose is like a vulture's beak. His left arm is held erect +in the air, crooked, and stiff as a stake; and he has remained there so +long that birds have made a nest in his hair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the four corners of his pile four fires are blazing. The sun is right +in his face. He gazes at it with great open eyes, and without looking at +Antony.</p> + +<p>"Brahmin of the banks of the Nile, what sayest thou?"</p> + +<p>Flames start out on every side through the partings of the beams; and +the gymnosophist resumes:</p> + +<p>"Like a rhinoceros, I am plunged in solitude. I dwelt in the tree that +was behind me."</p> + +<p>In fact, the large fig-tree presents in its flutings a natural +excavation of the shape of a man.</p> + +<p>"And I fed myself on flowers and fruits with such an observance of +precepts that not even a dog has seen me eat.</p> + +<p>"As existence proceeds from corruption, corruption from desire, desire +from sensation, and sensation from contact, I have avoided every kind of +action, every kind of contact, and—without stirring any more than the +pillar of a tombstone—exhaling my breath through my two nostrils, +fixing my glances upon my nose; and, observing the ether in my spirit, +the world in my limbs, the moon in my heart, I pondered on the essence +of the great soul, whence continually escape, like sparks of fire, the +principles of life. I have, at last, grasped the supreme soul in all +beings, all beings in the supreme soul; and I have succeeded in making +my soul penetrate the place into which my senses used to penetrate.</p> + +<p>"I receive knowledge directly from Heaven, like the bird Tchataka, who +quenches his thirst only in the droppings of the rain. From the very +fact of my having knowledge of things, things no longer exist. For me +now there is no hope and no anguish, no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> goodness, no virtue, neither +day nor night, neither thou nor I—absolutely nothing.</p> + +<p>"My frightful austerities have made me superior to the Powers. A +contraction of my brain can kill a hundred kings' sons, dethrone gods, +overrun the world."</p> + +<p>He utters all this in a monotonous voice. The leaves all around him are +withered. The rats fly over the ground.</p> + +<p>He slowly lowers his eyes towards the flames, which are rising, then +adds:</p> + +<p>"I have become disgusted with form, disgusted with perception, disgusted +even with knowledge itself—for thought does not outlive the transitory +fact that gives rise to it; and the spirit, like the rest, is but an +illusion.</p> + +<p>"Everything that is born will perish; everything that is dead will come +to life again. The beings that have actually disappeared will sojourn in +wombs not yet formed, and will come back to earth to serve with sorrow +other creatures. But, as I have resolved through an infinite number of +existences, under the guise of gods, men, and animals, I give up +travelling, and no longer wish for this fatigue. I abandon the dirty inn +of my body, walled in with flesh, reddened with blood, covered with +hideous skin, full of uncleanness; and, for my reward, I shall, finally, +sleep in the very depths of the absolute, in annihilation."</p> + +<p>The flames rise to his breast, then envelop him. His head stretches +across as if through the hole of a wall. His eyes are perpetually fixed +in a vacant stare.</p> + +<p>Antony gets up again. The torch on the ground has set fire to the +splinters of wood, and the flames have singed his beard. Bursting into +an exclamation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Antony tramples on the fire; and, when only a heap of +cinders is left:</p> + +<p>"Where, then, is Hilarion? He was here just now. I saw him! Ah! no; it +is impossible! I am mistaken! How is this? My cell, those stones, the +sand, have not, perhaps, any more reality. I must be going mad. Stay! +where was I? What was happening here?</p> + +<p>"Ah! the gymnosophist! This death is common amongst the Indian sages. +Kalanos burned himself before Alexander; another did the same in the +time of Augustus. What hatred of life they must have had!—unless, +indeed, pride drove them to it. No matter, it is the intrepidity of +martyrs! As to the others, I now believe all that has been told me of +the excesses they have occasioned.</p> + +<p>"And before this? Yes, I recollect! the crowd of heresiarchs ... What +shrieks! what eyes! But why so many outbreaks of the flesh and +wanderings of the spirit?</p> + +<p>"It is towards God they pretend to direct their thoughts in all these +different ways. What right have I to curse them, I who stumble in my own +path? When they have disappeared, I shall, perhaps, learn more. This one +rushed away too quickly; I had not time to reply to him. Just now it is +as if I had in my intellect more space and more light. I am tranquil. I +feel myself capable ... But what is this now? I thought I had +extinguished the fire."</p> + +<p>A flame flutters between the rocks; and, speedily, a jerky voice makes +itself heard from the mountains in the distance.</p> + +<p>"Are those the barkings of a hyena, or the lamentations of some lost +traveller?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony listens. The flame draws nearer.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And he sees approaching a woman who is weeping, resting on the shoulder +of a man with a white beard. She is covered with a purple garment all in +rags. He, like her, is bare-headed, with a tunic of the same colour, and +carries a bronze vase, whence arises a small blue flame.</p> + +<p>Antony is filled with fear,—and yet he would fain know who this woman +is.</p> + +<p><i>The stranger</i> (<i>Simon</i>)—"This is a young girl, a poor child, whom I +take everywhere with me."</p> + +<p>He raises the bronze vase. Antony inspects her by the light of this +flickering flame. She has on her face marks of bites, and traces of +blows along her arms. Her scattered hair is entangled in the rents of +her rags; her eyes appear insensible to the light.</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"Sometimes she remains thus a long time without speaking or +eating, and utters marvellous things."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Really?"</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"Eunoia! Eunoia! relate what you have to say!"</p> + +<p>She turns around her eyeballs, as if awakening from a dream, passes her +fingers slowly across her two lids, and in a mournful voice:</p> + +<p><i>Helena</i> (<i>Eunoia</i>)—"I have a recollection of a distant region, of the +colour of emerald. There is only a single tree there."</p> + +<p>Antony gives a start.</p> + +<p>"At each step of its huge branches a pair of spirits stand. The branches +around them cross each other, like the veins of a body, and they watch +the eternal life circulating from the roots, where it is lost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> in shadow +up to the summit, which reaches beyond the sun. I, on the second branch, +illumined with my face the summer nights."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, touching his forehead—"Ah! ah! I understand! the head!"</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>, with his finger on his lips—"Hush! Hush!"</p> + +<p><i>Helena</i>—"The vessel remained convex: her keel clave the foam. He said +to me, 'What does it matter if I disturb my country, if I lose my +kingdom! You will be mine, in my own house!'</p> + +<p>"How pleasant was the upper chamber of his palace! He would lie down +upon the ivory bed, and, smoothing my hair, would sing in an amorous +strain. At the end of the day, I could see the two camps and the +lanterns which they were lighting; Ulysses at the edge of his tent; +Achilles, armed from head to foot, driving a chariot along the +seashore."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Why, she is quite mad! Wherefore? ..."</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"Hush! Hush!"</p> + +<p><i>Helena</i>—"They rubbed me with unguents, and sold me to the people to +amuse them. One evening, standing with the sistrum in my hand, I was +coaxing Greek sailors to dance. The rain, like a cataract, fell upon the +tavern, and the cups of hot wine were smoking. A man entered without the +door having been opened."</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"It was I! I found you. Here she is, Antony; she who is called +Sigeh, Eunoia, Barbelo, Prounikos! The Spirits who govern the world were +jealous of her, and they bound her in the body of a woman. She was the +Helen of the Trojans, whose memory the poet Stesichorus had rendered +infamous. She has been Lucretia, the patrician lady violated by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> the +kings. She was Delilah, who cut off the hair of Samson. She was that +daughter of Israel who surrendered herself to he-goats. She has loved +adultery, idolatry, lying and folly. She was prostituted by every +nation. She has sung in all the cross-ways. She has kissed every face. +At Tyre, she, the Syrian, was the mistress of thieves. She drank with +them during the nights, and she concealed assassins amid the vermin of +her tepid bed."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! what is coming over me?"</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>, with a furious air—</p> + +<p>"I have redeemed her, I tell you, and re-established her in all her +splendour, such as Caius Cæsar Agricola became enamoured of when he +desired to sleep with the Moon!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—-"Well! well!"</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"But she really is the Moon! Has not Pope Clement written that +she was imprisoned in a tower? Three hundred persons came to surround +the tower; and on each of the murderers, at the same time, the moon was +seen to appear,—though there are not many moons in the world, or many +Eunoias!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Yes! ... I think I recollect ..."</p> + +<p>And he falls into a reverie.</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"Innocent as Christ, who died for men, she has devoted herself +to women. For the powerlessness of Jehovah is demonstrated by the +transgression of Adam, and we must shake off the old law, opposed, as it +is, to the order of things. I have preached the new Gospel in Ephraim +and in Issachar, along the torrent of Bizor, behind the lake of Houleh, +in the valley of Mageddo, and beyond the mountains, at Bostra and at +Damas. Let those who are covered with wine-dregs, those who are covered +with dirt,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> those who are covered with blood, come to me; and I will +wash out their defilement with the Holy Spirit, called by the Greeks, +Minerva. She is Minerva! She is the Holy Spirit! I am Jupiter Apollo, +the Christ, the Paraclete, the great power of God incarnated in the +person of Simon!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! it is you! ... it is you! But I know your crimes! You were +born at Gittha on the borders of Samaria. Dositheus, your first master, +dismissed you! You execrate Saint Paul for having converted one of your +women; and, vanquished by Saint Peter, in your rage and terror, you +flung into the waves the bag which contained your magical instruments!"</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i>—"Do you desire them?"</p> + +<p>Antony looks at him, and an inner voice murmurs in his breast, "Why +not?"</p> + +<p>Simon resumes:</p> + +<p>"He who understands the powers of Nature and the substance of spirits +ought to perform miracles. It is the dream of all sages—and the desire +of which gnaws you; confess it!</p> + +<p>"Amongst the Romans I flew so high in the circus that they saw me no +more. Nero ordered me to be decapitated; but it was a sheep's head that +fell to the ground instead of mine. Finally, they buried me alive; but I +came back to life on the third day. The proof of it is that I am here!"</p> + +<p>He gives him his hands to smell. They have the odour of a corpse. Antony +recoils.</p> + +<p>"I can make bronze serpents move, marble statues laugh, and dogs speak. +I will show you an immense quantity of gold, I will set up kings, you +shall see nations adoring me. I can walk on the clouds and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> on the +waves; pass through mountains; assume the appearance of a young man, or +of an old man; of a tiger, or of an ant; take your face, give you mine; +and drive the thunderbolt. Do you hear?"</p> + +<p>The thunder rolls, followed by flashes of lightning.</p> + +<p>"It is the voice of the Most High, 'for the Eternal, thy God, is a +fire,' and all creations operate by the emanations of this central fire. +You are about to receive the baptism of it—that second baptism, +announced by Jesus, which fell on the Apostles one stormy day when the +window was open!"</p> + +<p>And all the while stirring the flame with his hand, slowly, as if to +sprinkle Antony with it:</p> + +<p>"Mother of Mercies, thou who discoverest secrets in order that we may +have rest in the eighth house ..."</p> + +<p>Antony exclaims:</p> + +<p>"Ah! if I had holy water!"</p> + +<p>The flame goes out, producing much smoke.</p> + +<p>Eunoia and Simon have disappeared.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An extremely cold fog, opaque and f[oe]tid, fills the atmosphere.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, extending his arms like a blind man—</p> + +<p>"Where am I? ... I am afraid of falling into the abyss. And the cross, no +doubt, is too far away from me. Ah! what a night! what a night!"</p> + +<p>A sudden gust of wind cleaves the fog asunder; and he perceives two men +covered with long white tunics. The first is of tall stature, with a +sweet expression of countenance and grave deportment. His white hair, +parted like that of Christ, descends regularly over his shoulders. He +has thrown down a wand which he was carrying in his hand, and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> his +companion has taken up, making a respectful bow after the fashion of +Orientals. The other is small, coarse-looking, flat-nosed, with a thick +neck, curly hair, and an air of simplicity. Both of them are +bare-footed, bare-headed, and covered with dust, like people who have +come on a long journey.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, with a start—"What do ye seek? Speak! Go on!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—He is the little man—</p> + +<p>"La, la! ... worthy hermit! what do you say? I know nothing about it. +Here is the Master!"</p> + +<p>He sits down; the other remains standing. Silence.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, resumes—"Ye come in this fashion? ..."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Oh! a great distance—a very great distance!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"And ye are going? ..."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, pointing at his companion—"Wherever he wishes."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Who, then, is he?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Look at him."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"He has the appearance of a saint. If I dared ..."</p> + +<p>The fog by this time is quite gone. The atmosphere has become perfectly +clear. The moon shines out.</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"What are you thinking of now that you say nothing more?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I am thinking of——Oh! nothing."</p> + +<p>Damis draws close to Apollonius, makes many turns round him, with his +figure bent, and without moving his head.</p> + +<p>"Master, this is a Galilean hermit who wishes to know the sources of +your wisdom."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Let him approach."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>Antony hesitates.</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Approach!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>, in a voice of thunder—</p> + +<p>"Approach! You would like to know who I am, what I have done, what I am +thinking of? Is that not so, child?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—" ... If at the same time those things contribute to my +salvation."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Rejoice! I am about to tell them to you!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, in a low tone to Antony—</p> + +<p>"Is it possible? He must have, at the first glance, recognised your +extraordinary inclinations for philosophy! I shall profit by it also +myself."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I will first describe to you the long road I travelled to +gain doctrine; and, if you find in all my life one bad action, you will +stop me—for he must scandalise by his words who has offended by his +actions."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i> to Antony:</p> + +<p>"What a just man! eh?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Decidedly, I believe he is sincere."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"The night of my birth, my mother thought she saw herself +gathering flowers on the border of a lake. A flash of lightning +appeared; and she brought me into the world amid the cries of swans who +were singing in her dream. Up to my fifteenth year, they plunged me +three times a day into the fountain Asbadeus, whose waters render +perjurers dropsical; and they rubbed my body with leaves of cnyza, to +make me chaste. A princess from Palmyra sought me out, one evening, and +offered me treasures, which she knew were hidden in tombs. A priest of +the temple of Diana cut his throat in de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>spair with the sacrificial +knife; and the Governor of Cilicia, after repeated promises, declared +before my family that he would put me to death; but it was he who died +three days after, assassinated by the Romans."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, to Antony, striking him on the elbow—"Eh? Just as I told you! +What a man!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I have for four years in succession observed the complete +silence of the Pythagoreans. The most unforeseen calamity did not draw +one sigh from me; and, at the theatre, when I entered, they turned aside +from me as from a phantom."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Would you have done that—you?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"The time of my ordeal ended, I undertook to instruct the +priests who had lost the tradition."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What tradition?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Let him continue. Be silent!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I have conversed with the Samaneans of the Ganges, with +the astrologers of Chaldea, with the magi of Babylon, with the Gaulish +druids, with the priests of the negroes. I have climbed the fourteen +Olympi; I have sounded the Lakes of Sythia; I have measured the vastness +of the desert!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"All this is undoubtedly true. I was there myself!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"At first, I went as far as the Hyrcanian Sea. I have gone +all round it, and through the country of the Baraomatæ, where Bucephalus +is buried. I have gone down to Nineveh. At the gates of the city a man +came up to me."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"I! I! my good Master! I loved you from the very beginning. You +were sweeter than a girl, and more beautiful than a god!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Appollonius</i>, without listening to him—"He wished to accompany me, in +order to act as an interpreter for me."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"But you replied that you understood every language, and that +you divined all thoughts. Then I kissed the end of your mantle, and I +walked behind you."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"After Ctesiphon, we entered into the land of Babylon."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"And the satrap uttered an exclamation on seeing a man so +pale."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, to himself—"Which signifies——?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"The King received me standing near a throne of silver, in +a circular hall studded with stars, and from a cupola hung, from unseen +threads, four great golden birds, with both wings extended."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, musing—"Are there such things on the earth?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"That is, indeed, a city—Babylon! Everyone is rich there! The +houses, painted blue, have gates of bronze, with staircases that lead +down to the river."</p> + +<p>Making a sketch with his stick on the ground:</p> + +<p>"Like that, do you see? And then there are temples, squares, baths, +aqueducts! The palaces are covered with copper! and then the interior, +if you only saw it!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"On the northern wall rises a tower, which supports a +second, a third, a fourth, a fifth; and there are three others besides! +The eighth is a chapel with a bed in it. Nobody enters there but the +woman chosen by the priests for the God Belus. The King of Babylon made +me take up my quarters in it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"They scarcely paid any heed to me. I was left, too, to walk +about the streets by myself. I enquired into the customs of the people; +I visited the workshops; I examined the huge machines which bring water +into the gardens. But it annoyed me to be separated from the Master."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"At last, we left Babylon; and, by the light of the moon, +we suddenly saw a wild mare."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Yes, indeed! she sprang forth on her iron hoofs; she neighed +like an ass; she galloped amongst the rocks. He burst into angry abuse +of her; and she disappeared."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, aside—"Where can they have come from?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"At Taxilla, capital of five thousand fortresses, +Phraortes, King of the Ganges, showed us his guard of tall black men, +five cubits high, and in the gardens of his palace, under a pavilion of +green brocade, an enormous elephant, whom the queens used to amuse +themselves in perfuming. This was the elephant of Porus, who fled after +the death of Alexander."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"And which was found again in a forest."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"They talk a great deal, like drunken people."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Phraortes made us sit down at his table."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"What an odd country! The noblemen, while drinking, amuse +themselves by flinging arrows under the feet of a child who is dancing. +But I do not approve ..."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"When I was ready to depart, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> King gave me a parasol, +and said to me: 'I have, on the Indus, a stud of white camels. When you +do not want them any longer, blow into their ears, and they will +return.' We proceeded along the river, walking in the night by the +gleaming of the glow-worms, who emitted their radiance through the +bamboos. The slave whistled an air to keep off the serpents; and our +camels bent the reins while passing under the trees, as if under doors +that were too low. One day, a black child, who held in his hand a +caduceus of gold, conducted us to the College of Sages. Iarchas, their +chief, spoke to me of my ancestors, of all my thoughts, of all my +actions, and all my existences. He had been the river Indus, and he +recalled to my mind that I had conducted the boats on the Nile in the +time of King Sesostris."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"As for me, they told me nothing, so that I do not know what I +was."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"They have the unsubstantial air of shadows."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"We met on the seashore the cynocephali, glutted with +milk, who were returning from their expedition in the Island of +Taprobane. The tepid waves pushed white pearls before us. The amber +cracked under our footsteps. Whales' skeletons were bleaching in the +crevices of the cliffs. In short, the earth grew more contracted than a +sandal;—and, after casting towards the sun drops from the ocean, we +turned to the right to go back. We returned through the region of the +Aromatæ, through the country of the Gangaridæ, the promontory of +Comaria, the land of the Sachalitæ, of the Aramitæ, and the Homeritæ; +then across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island of +Topazes, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> penetrated into Ethiopia, through the kingdom of the +Pygmæi."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, aside—"How large the earth is!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"And when we got home again, all those whom we had known in +former days were dead."</p> + +<p>Antony hangs his head. Silence.</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i> goes on:</p> + +<p>"Then they began talking about me in the world. The plague ravaged +Ephesus; I made them stone an old mendicant."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"And the plague was gone!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What! He banishes diseases?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"At Cnidus, I cured the lover of Venus."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Yes, a madman, who had even promised to marry her. To love a +woman is bad enough; but a statue—what idiocy! The Master placed his +hand on this man's heart, and immediately the love was extinguished."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What! He drives out demons?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"At Tarentum, they brought to the stake a young girl who +was dead."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"The Master touched her lips; and she arose, calling on her +mother."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Can it be? He brings the dead back to life?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I foretold that Vespasian would be Emperor."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What! He divines the future?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"There was at Corinth——"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"While I was supping with him at the waters of Baia——"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Excuse me, strangers; it is late!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"——A young man named Menippus."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"No! no! go away!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"——A dog entered, carrying in its mouth a hand that had +been cut off."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"——One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"You do not hear me. Take yourselves off!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"——He prowled vacantly around the couches."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Enough!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"——They wanted to drive him away."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"——Menippus, then, surrendered himself to her; and they +became lovers."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"——And, beating the mosaic floor with his tail, he +deposited this hand on the knees of Flavius."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"——But, in the morning, at the school-lectures, Menippus was +pale."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, with a bound—"Still at it! Well, let them go on, since there +is not ..."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"The Master said to him: 'O beautiful young man, you are +caressing a serpent; and a serpent is caressing you. For how long are +these nuptials?' Every one of us went to the wedding."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I am doing wrong, surely, in listening to this!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Servants were busily engaged at the vestibule; the doors flew +open; nevertheless, one could hear neither the noise of footsteps, nor +the sound of opening doors. The Master seated himself beside Menippus. +Immediately, the bride was seized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> with anger against the philosophers. +But the vessels of gold, the cup-bearers, the cooks, the attendants, +disappeared; the roof flew away; the walls fell in; and Apollonius +remained alone, standing with this woman all in tears at his feet. It +was a vampire, who satisfied the handsome young men in order to devour +their flesh—because nothing is better for phantoms of this kind than +the blood of lovers."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"If you wish to know the art——"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I wish to know nothing."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"On the evening of our arrival at the gates of Rome——"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! yes, tell me about the City of the Popes."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"——A drunken man accosted us who sang with a sweet +voice. It was an epithalamium of Nero; and he had the power of causing +the death of anyone who heard him with indifference. He carried on his +back in a box a string taken from the cithara of the Emperor. I shrugged +my shoulders. He threw mud in our faces. Then I unfastened my girdle and +placed it in his hands."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"In this instance you were quite wrong!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"The Emperor, during the night, made me call at his +residence. He played at ossicles with Sporus, leaning with his left arm +on a table of agate. He turned round, and, knitting his fair brows: 'Why +are you not afraid of me?' he asked. 'Because the God who made you +terrible has made me intrepid,' I replied."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, to himself—"Something unaccountable fills me with fear."</p> + +<p>Silence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Damis</i> resumes, in a shrill voice—"All Asia, moreover, could tell +you ..."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, starting up—"I am sick. Leave me!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Listen now. At Ephesus, he witnessed the death of Domitian, +who was at Rome."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i> making an effort to laugh—"Is this possible?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Yes, at the theatre, in broad daylight, on the fourteenth of +the Kalends of October, he suddenly exclaimed: 'They are murdering +Cæsar!' and he added, every now and then, 'He rolls on the ground! Oh! +how he struggles! He gets up again; he attempts to fly; the gates are +shut. Ah! it is finished. He is dead!' And that very day, in fact, Titus +Flavius Domitianus was assassinated, as you are aware."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Without the aid of the Devil ... No doubt ..."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"He wished to put me to death, this Domitian. Damis fled +by my direction, and I remained alone in my prison."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"It was a terrible bit of daring, I must confess!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me to the +tribunal. I had my speech quite ready, which I kept under my cloak."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"The rest of us were on the bank of Puzzoli! We saw you die; we +wept; when, towards the sixth hour, all at once, you appeared, and said +to us, 'It is I.'"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, aside—"Just like Him!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, very loudly—"Absolutely!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh, no! you are lying, are you not? You are lying!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"He came down from Heaven—I ascend there, thanks to my +virtue, which has raised me even to the height of the Most High!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Tyana, his native city, has erected a temple with priests in +his honour!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i> draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says:</p> + +<p>"The truth is, I know all the gods, all the rites, all the prayers, all +the oracles. I have penetrated into the cavern of Trophonius, the son of +Apollo. I have moulded for the Syracusans the cakes which they use on +the mountains. I have undergone the eighty tests of Mithra. I have +pressed against my heart the serpent of Sabacius. I have received the +scarf of the Cabiri. I have bathed Cybele in the waves of the Campanian +Gulf; and I have passed three moons in the caverns of Samothrace!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, laughing stupidly—"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the Bona +Dea!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"And now we are renewing our pilgrimage. We are going to +the North, the side of the swans and the snows. On the white plain the +blind hippopodes break with the ends of their feet the ultramarine +plant."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Come! it is morning! The cock has crowed; the horse has +neighed; the ship is ready."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"The cock has not crowed. I hear the cricket in the sands, and +I see the moon, which remains in its place."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"We are going to the South, behind the mountains and the +huge waves, to seek in the perfumes for the cause of love. You shall +inhale the odour of myrrhodion, which makes the weak die. You shall +bathe your body in the lake of pink oil of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the Island of Juno. You +shall see sleeping under the primroses the lizard who awakens all the +centuries when at his maturity the carbuncle falls from his forehead. +The stars glitter like eyes, the cascades sing like lyres, an +intoxicating fragrance arises from the opening flowers. Your spirit +shall expand in this atmosphere, and it will show itself in your heart +as well as in your face."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Master, it is time! The wind is about to rise; the swallows +are awakening; the myrtle-leaf is shed."</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Yes, let us go!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"No—not I! I remain!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Do you wish me to show you the plant Balis, which +resuscitates the dead?"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Ask him rather for the bloodstone, which attracts silver, iron +and bronze!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! how sick I feel! how sick I feel!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"You shall understand the voices of all creatures, the +roarings, the cooings!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I will make you mount the unicorns, the dragons, and the +dolphins!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, weeps—"Oh! oh! oh!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"You shall know the demons who dwell in the caverns, those +who speak in the woods, those who move about in the waves, those who +drive the clouds."</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>—"Fasten your girdle! tie your sandals!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I will explain to you the reasons for the shapes of +divinities; why it is that Apollo is upright, Jupiter sitting down, +Venus black at Corinth, square at Athens, conical at Paphos."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, clasping his hands—"I wish they would go away! I wish they +would go away!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"I will snatch off before your eyes the armour of the +Gods; we shall force the sanctuaries; I will make you violate the +pythoness!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Help, Lord!"</p> + +<p>He flings himself against the cross.</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"What is your desire? your dream? There's barely time to +think of it ..."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Jesus, Jesus, come to my aid!"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Do you wish me to make Jesus appear?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What? How?"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"It shall be He—and no other! He shall cast off His +crown, and we shall speak together face to face!"</p> + +<p><i>Damis</i>, in a low tone—"Say what you wish for most! Say what you wish +for most!"</p> + +<p>Antony, at the foot of the cross, murmurs prayers. Damis continues to +run around him with wheedling gestures.</p> + +<p>"See, worthy hermit, dear Saint Antony! pure man, illustrious man! man +who cannot be sufficiently praised! Do not be alarmed; this is an +exaggerated style of speaking, borrowed from the Orientals. It in no way +prevents—"</p> + +<p><i>Apollonius</i>—"Let him alone, Damis! He believes, like a brute, in the +reality of things. The fear which he has of the gods prevents him from +comprehending them; and he eats his own words, just like a jealous king! +But you, my son, quit me not!"</p> + +<p>He steps back to the verge of the cliffs, passes over it and remains +there, hanging in mid-air:</p> + +<p>"Above all forms, farther than the earth, beyond the skies, dwells the +World of Ideas, entirely filled with the Word. With one bound we leap +across<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Space, and you shall grasp in its infinity the Eternal, the +Absolute Being! Come! give me your hand. Let us go!"</p> + +<p>The pair, side by side, rise softly into the air.</p> + +<p>Antony, embracing the cross, watches them ascending.</p> + +<p>They disappear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="decoration" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">All Gods, All Religions.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/053.jpg" width="150" height="151" style="margin-top: -3em;" alt="" title="A" /> +</div> +<p>NTONY, walking slowly—"That was really Hell!</p> + +<p>"Nebuchadnezzar did not dazzle me so much. The Queen of Sheba did not +bewitch me so thoroughly. The way in which he spoke about the gods +filled me with a longing to know them.</p> + +<p>"I recollect having seen hundreds of them at a time, in the Island of +Elephantinum, in the reign of Dioclesian. The Emperor had given up to +the nomads a large territory, on condition that they should protect the +frontiers; and the treaty was concluded in the name of the invisible +Powers. For the gods of every people were ignorant about other people. +The Barbarians had brought forward theirs. They occupied the hillocks of +sand which line the river. One could see them holding their idols +between their arms, like great paralytic children, or else, sailing amid +cataracts on trunks of palm-trees, they pointed out from a distance the +amulets on their necks and the tattooings on their breasts; and that is +not more criminal than the religion of the Greeks, the Asiatics, and the +Romans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When I dwelt in the Temple of Heliopolis, I used often to contemplate +all the objects on the walls: vultures carrying sceptres, crocodiles +playing on lyres, men's faces joined to serpents' bodies, women with +cows' heads prostrated before the ithyphallic deities; and their +supernatural forms carried me away into other worlds. I wished to know +what those calm eyes were gazing at. In order that matter should have so +much power, it should contain a spirit. The souls of the gods are +attached to their images. Those who possess external beauty may +fascinate us; but the others, who are abject or terrible ... how to +believe in them? ..."</p> + +<p>And he sees moving past, close to the ground, leaves, stones, shells, +branches of trees, vague representations of animals, then a species of +dropsical dwarfs. These are gods. He bursts out laughing.</p> + +<p>Behind him, he hears another outburst of laughter; and Hilarion presents +himself, dressed like a hermit, much bigger than before—in fact, +colossal.</p> + +<p>Antony is not surprised at seeing him again.</p> + +<p>"What a brute one must be to adore a thing like that!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Oh! yes; very much of a brute!"</p> + +<p>Then advance before them, one by one, idols of all nations and all ages, +in wood, in metal, in granite, in feathers, and in skins sewn together. +The oldest of them, anterior to the Deluge, are lost to view beneath the +seaweed which hangs from them like hair. Some, too long for their lower +portions, crack in their joints and break their loins while walking. +Others allow sand to flow out through holes in their bellies.</p> + +<p>Antony and Hilarion are prodigiously amused. They hold their sides from +sheer laughter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>After this, idols pass with faces like sheep. They stagger on their +bandy legs, open wide their eyelids, and bleat out, like dumb animals: +"Ba! ba! ba!"</p> + +<p>In proportion as they approach the human type, they irritate Antony the +more. He strikes them with his fist, kicks them, rushes madly upon them. +They begin to present a horrible aspect, with high tufts, eyes like +bulls, arms terminated with claws, and the jaws of a shark. And, before +these gods, men are slaughtered on altars of stone, while others are +pounded in vats, crushed under chariot-wheels, or nailed to trees. There +is one of them, all in red-hot iron, with the horns of a bull, who +devours children.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Horror!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"But the gods always demand sufferings. Your own, even, has +wished—"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, weeping—"Say no more—hold your tongue!"</p> + +<p>The enclosure of rocks changes into a valley. A herd of oxen pastures +there on the shorn grass. The shepherd who has charge of them perceives +a cloud; and in a sharp voice pierces the air with words of urgent +entreaty.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"As he wants rain, he tries, by his strains, to coerce the +King of Heaven to open the fruitful cloud."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, laughing—"This is too silly a form of presumption!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Why, then, do you perform exorcisms?"</p> + +<p>The valley becomes a sea of milk, motionless and illimitable.</p> + +<p>In the midst of it floats a long cradle, formed by the coils of a +serpent, all whose heads, bending for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>ward at the same time, overshadow +a god who lies there asleep. He is young, beardless, more beautiful than +a girl, and covered with diaphanous veils. The pearls of his tiara shine +softly, like moons; a chaplet of stars winds itself many times above his +breast, and, with one hand under his head and the other arm extended, he +reposes with a dreamy and intoxicated air. A woman squatted before his +feet awaits his awakening.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"This is the primordial duality of the Brahmans—the +absolute not expressing itself by any form."</p> + +<p>Upon the navel of the god a stalk of lotus has grown; and in its calyx +appears another god with three faces.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Hold! what an invention!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in the same way make only one +person!"</p> + +<p>The three heads are turned aside, and three immense gods appear. The +first, who is of a rosy hue, bites the end of his toe. The second, who +is blue, tosses four arms about. The third, who is green, weaves a +necklace of human skulls. Immediately in front of them rise three +goddesses, one wrapped in a net, another offering a cup, and the third +brandishing a bow.</p> + +<p>And these gods, these goddesses multiply, become tenfold. On their +shoulders rise arms, and at the ends of their arms are hands holding +banners, axes, bucklers, swords, parasols and drums. Fountains spring +from their heads, grass hangs from their nostrils.</p> + +<p>Riding on birds, cradled on palanquins, throned on seats of gold, +standing in niches of ivory, they dream,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> travel, command, drink wine +and inhale flowers. Dancing-girls whirl around; giants pursue monsters; +at the entrances to the grottoes, solitaries meditate. Myriads of stars +and clouds of streamers mingle in an indistinguishable throng. Peacocks +drink from the streams of golden dust. The embroidery of the pavilions +blends with the spots of the leopards. Coloured rays cross one another +in the blue air, amid the flying of arrows and the swinging of censers. +And all this unfolds itself, like a lofty frieze, leaning with its base +on the rocks and mounting to the very sky.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, dazzled—"What a number of them there are! What do they wish?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"The one who is scratching his abdomen with his elephant's +trunk is the solar god, the inspirer of wisdom. That other, whose six +heads carry towers and fourteen handles of javelins, is the prince of +armies, the fire-devourer. The old man riding on a crocodile is going to +bathe the souls of the dead on the seashore. They will be tormented by +this black woman with rotten teeth, the governess of hell. The chariot +drawn by red mares, which a legless coachman is driving, is carrying +about in broad daylight the master of the sun. The moon-god accompanies +him in a litter drawn by three gazelles. On her knees, on the back of a +parrot, the goddess of beauty is presenting her round breast to Love, +her son. Here she is farther on; she leaps with joy in the prairies. +Look! look! With a radiant mitre on her head, she runs over the +cornfields, over the waves, mounts into the air, and exhibits herself +everywhere. Between these gods sit the genii of the winds, of the +planets, of the months,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> of the days, and a hundred thousand others! And +their aspects are multiplied, their transformations rapid. Here is one +who from a fish has become a tortoise, he assumes the head of a wild +boar, the stature of a dwarf!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"For what purpose?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"To establish equilibrium, to combat evil. Life is +exhausted, its forms are used up; and it is necessary to progress by +metamorphoses of them."</p> + +<p>Suddenly a naked man appears, seated in the middle of the sand with his +legs crossed. A large circle vibrates, suspended behind him. The little +curls of his black hair, deepening into an azure tint, twist +symmetrically around a protuberance at the top of his head. His arms, of +great length, fall straight down his sides. His two hands, with open +palms, rest evenly on his thighs. The lower portions of his feet present +the figures of two suns; and he remains completely motionless in front +of Antony and Hilarion, with all the gods around him placed at intervals +upon the rocks, as if on the seats of a circus. His lips open, and in a +deep voice he says:</p> + +<p>"I am the master of the great charity, the help of creatures, and I +expound the law to believers and to the profane alike. To save the world +I wished to be born amongst men; the gods wept when I went away. At +first, I sought a woman suitable for the purpose—of warlike race, the +spouse of a king, exceedingly virtuous and beautiful, with a deep navel, +a body firm as a diamond; and at the time of the full moon, without the +intervention of any male, I entered her womb. I came out through her +right side. Then the stars stopped in their motions."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hilarion murmurs between his teeth:</p> + +<p>"'And when they saw the stars stop, they conceived a great joy!'"</p> + +<p>Antony looks more attentively at the Buddha, who resumes:</p> + +<p>"From the bottom of the Himalaya, a religious centenarian set forth to +see me."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"'A man called Simeon, who was not to die before he had seen +the Christ!'"</p> + +<p><i>The Buddha</i>—"They brought me to the schools. I knew more than the +doctors."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—" ... 'In the midst of the doctors; and all those who heard +him were ravished by his wisdom.'"</p> + +<p>Antony makes a sign to Hilarion to keep silent.</p> + +<p><i>The Buddha</i>—"I went continually to meditate in the gardens. The +shadows of the trees used to move; but the shadow of the one that +sheltered me did not move. No one could equal me in the knowledge of the +Sacred Writings, the enumeration of atoms, the management of elephants, +waxworks, astronomy, poetry, boxing, all exercises and all arts. In +compliance with custom, I took a wife; and I passed the days in my royal +palace, arrayed in pearls, under a shower of perfumes, fanned by the +fly-flappers of thirty-three thousand women, and gazing at my people +from the tops of my terraces adorned with resounding bells. But the +sight of the world's miseries made me turn aside from pleasures. I fled. +I went a-begging on high-ways, covered with rags collected in the +sepulchres; and, as there was a very learned hermit, I offered myself as +his servant. I guarded his door; I washed his feet. All sensation, all +joy, all languor, were annihilated. Then, con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>centrating my thoughts on +a larger field of meditation, I came to know the essence of things, the +illusion of forms. I speedily abandoned the science of the Brakhmans. +They are eaten up with lusts beneath their austere exterior; they anoint +themselves with filth, and sleep upon thorns, believing that they arrive +at happiness through the path of death!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, race of vipers!"</p> + +<p><i>The Buddha</i>—"I, too, have done astonishing things—eating for a day +only a single grain of rice—and at that time grains of rice were not +bigger than they are now—my hair fell off; my body became black; my +eyes, sunken in their sockets, seemed like stars seen at the bottom of a +well. For six years I never moved, remaining exposed to flies, to lions, +and to serpents; and I subjected myself to burning suns, heavy showers, +snow, lightning, hail, and tempest, without even shielding myself with +my hand. The travellers who passed, assuming that I was dead, flung +clods of earth at me from a distance.</p> + +<p>"There only remained for me to be tempted by the Devil.</p> + +<p>"I invoked him.</p> + +<p>"His sons came—hideous, covered with scales, nauseous as charcoal, +howling, hissing, bellowing, flinging at each other armour and dead +men's bones. Some of them spirted out flames through their nostrils; +others spread around darkness with their wings; others carried chaplets +of fingers that had been cut off; others drank the venom of serpents out +of the hollows of their hands. They have the heads of pigs, +rhinoceroses, or toads—all kinds of figures calculated to inspire +respect or terror."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, aside—"I endured that myself in former times."</p> + +<p><i>The Buddha</i>—"Then he sent me his daughters—beautiful, well-attired +with golden girdles, teeth white as the jasmine, and limbs round as an +elephant's trunk. Some of them stretched up their arms when they yawned +to display the dimples in their elbows; others blinked their eyes; +others began to laugh and others unfastened one another's garments. +Amongst them were blushing virgins, matrons full of pride, and queens +with great trains of baggage and attendants."</p> + +<p><i>Antony, aside</i>—"Ah! that also!"</p> + +<p><i>The Buddha</i>—"Having vanquished the demon. I passed twelve years in +nourishing myself exclusively on perfumes,—and, as I had acquired the +five virtues, the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteen +substances and penetrated into the four spheres of the invisible world, +the Intelligence was mine, and I became the Buddha!"</p> + +<p>All the gods bow down, those who have many heads lower them all at the +same time. He raises his hand on high in the air, and resumes:</p> + +<p>"In view of the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds of thousands +of sacrifices; I have given to the poor robes of silk, beds, chariots, +houses, heaps of gold and diamonds. I have given my hands to the +one-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind; I have cut off my +head for the decapitated. At the time when I was king, I distributed the +provinces; at the time when I was Brakhman, I despised nobody. When I +was a solitary I spoke words of tenderness to the thief who tried to cut +my throat. When I was a tiger, I let myself die of hunger. And in this +final stage of existence, having preached the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> law, I have nothing more +to do. The great period is accomplished. The men, the animals, the gods, +the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the grains of sand of the +Ganges, with the myriads of myriads of stars, everything, must perish; +and, until the new births, a flame will dance on the ruins of a world's +overthrow."</p> + +<p>Then a vertigo seizes the gods. They stagger, fall into convulsions, and +vomit forth their existences. Their crowns break to pieces; their +standards fly away. They get rid of their attributes and their sexes, +fling over their shoulders the cups from which they drink immortality, +strangle themselves with their serpents, and vanish in smoke; and, when +they have all disappeared:</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>, slowly—"You have just seen the creed of many hundreds of +millions of men!"</p> + +<p>Antony is on the earth, his face in his hands. Standing close to him, +and turning his back to the cross, Hilarion watches him.</p> + +<p>A rather lengthened period elapses.</p> + +<p>Then a singular being appears, with the head of a man and the body of a +fish. He advances straight through the air, tossing the sand with his +tail; and his patriarchal face and his little arms make Antony laugh.</p> + +<p><i>Oannes</i>, in a plaintive voice—"Treat me with respect! I am the +contemporary of the beginning of things.</p> + +<p>"I have dwelt in the shapeless world, where slumbered hermaphrodite +animals, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the depths of +gloomy waves—when the fingers, the fins, and the wings were confounded, +and eyes without heads floated like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> molluscs amongst human-faced bulls +and dog-footed serpents.</p> + +<p>"Over the whole of those beings Omoroca, bent like a hoop, stretched her +woman's body. But Belus cut her clean in two halves, made the earth with +one, and the heavens with another; and the two worlds alike mutually +contemplate each other. I, the first consciousness of chaos, I have +arisen from the abyss to harden matter, to regulate forms; and I have +taught men fishing, the sowing of seed, the scripture, and the history +of the gods. Since then, I live in the ponds that remained after the +Deluge. But the desert grows larger around them; the wind flings sand +into them; the sun consumes them; and I expire on my bed of lemon while +gazing across the water at the stars. Thither am I returning."</p> + +<p>He makes a plunge and disappears in the Nile.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"This is an ancient god of the Chaldeans!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, ironically—"Who, then, were the gods of Babylon?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"You can see them!"</p> + +<p>And they find themselves upon the platform of a quadrangular tower +rising above other towers, which, growing narrower in proportion as they +rise, form a monstrous pyramid. You may distinguish below a great, black +mass—the city, without doubt—stretching along the plain. The air is +cold; the sky is of a sombre blue; the multitudinous stars palpitate.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the platform stands a column of white stone. Priests in +linen robes pass and return all round, so as to describe in their +evolutions a moving circle, and, with heads raised, they contemplate the +stars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hilarion points out several of them to Saint Antony:</p> + +<p>"There are thirty chief priests. Fifteen gaze upon the region above the +earth, and fifteen on the region below it. At regular intervals one of +them rushes from the upper regions to the lower, whilst another abandons +the lower to mount towards the empyrean.</p> + +<p>"Of the seven planets, two are benevolent, two malevolent, and three +ambiguous; everything in the world depends on these eternal fires. +According to their position and their movements, one may draw +prognostications, and you are now treading on the most sacred spot on +earth. There Pythagoras and Zoroaster may be met. Two thousand years +have these men been observing the sky, the better to comprehend the +gods."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"The stars are not gods!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Yes! say they; for, while things are continually passing +around us, the sky, like eternity, remains unchangeable!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Nevertheless, it has a master."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>, pointing at the column—"That is Belus, the first ray, the +sun, the male!—the other, which is fruitful, is under him!"</p> + +<p>Antony observes a garden lighted up with lamps. He is in the midst of +the crowd in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and left little paths +lead towards huts erected in a wood of pomegranate-trees, which protect +lattices of reeds. The men, for the most part, have pointed caps with +laced robes, like the plumage of peacocks. There are people from the +North clad in bearskins; nomads in brown woollen cloaks; pale Gangarides +with long ear-rings; and the classes, like the nationalities, appear to +be confused,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> for sailors and stone-cutters jostle against princes +wearing tiaras of carbuncles and carrying large walking-sticks with +carved heads. All hurry forward with dilated nostrils, filled with the +same desire.</p> + +<p>From time to time they got out of the way, in order to allow a long, +covered chariot, drawn by oxen, to pass, or perhaps it is an ass jolting +on his back a woman closely veiled, who also disappears in the direction +of the huts.</p> + +<p>Antony is frightened. He desires to turn back. However, an inexpressible +curiosity leads him on.</p> + +<p>Beneath the cypress-trees women are squatted in rows upon deerskins, +each of them having for a diadem a plait of cords. Some of them, +magnificently attired, address the passers-by in loud tones. The more +timid keep their features hidden between their hands, whilst, from +behind, a matron—no doubt, their mother—encourages them. Others, with +heads enveloped in black shawls, and the rest of their bodies quite +nude, seem, at a distance, like statues of flesh. As soon as a man +flings money on their knees, they rise. And one can hear kisses amid the +foliage, and sometimes a great, bitter cry.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Those are the virgins of Babylon who prostitute themselves +to the goddess."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What goddess?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"There she is!"</p> + +<p>And he shows Antony, at the very end of the avenue, on the threshold of +an illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Infamy! What an abomination to give a sex to God!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"You conceive Him, surely, as a living person!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>Once more Antony finds himself in darkness.</p> + +<p>He perceives in the air a luminous circle placed on horizontal wings. +This species of ring surrounds, like a girdle that is too loose, the +figure of a small man with a mitre on his head and a crown in his hand, +the lower part of whose body is shut out from view by the huge feathers +exhibited in his kilt.</p> + +<p>This is Ormuz, the God of the Persians. He flutters while he exclaims:</p> + +<p>"I am terrified! I catch a glimpse of his mouth. I have vanquished thee, +Ahriman! But thou art beginning again!</p> + +<p>"At first, revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of +creatures, Kaiomortz, the man-bull. Then, thou didst seduce the first +human pair, Meschia and Meschiana, and didst fill their hearts with +darkness, and press forward thy battalions towards Heaven.</p> + +<p>"I had my own, the inhabitants of the stars, and I gazed down from my +throne on all the planets in their different spheres.</p> + +<p>"Mithra, my son, dwelt in an inaccessible spot. There he received souls, +and sent them forth, and, each morning he arose to pour out his riches.</p> + +<p>"The splendour of the firmament was reflected by the earth. The fire +shone on the mountains—image of the other fire with which I have +created all beings. To secure it from defilement, they did not burn the +dead, who were transported to Heaven on the beaks of birds.</p> + +<p>"I have regulated pasturages, labours, the wood of sacrifice, the forms +of cups, the words that must be uttered in insomnia; and my priests +prayed continually in order that their worship should correspond to the +eternity of God. They purified themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> with water; they offered up +loaves on the altars; they confessed their sins in loud tones.</p> + +<p>"Homa gave himself to men to drink in order to communicate his strength +to them.</p> + +<p>"While the genii of Heaven were fighting the demons, the children of +Iran chased the serpents. The King, whom a countless train of courtiers +served on bended knees, was attired so as to resemble me in person, and +wore my head-dress. His gardens had the magnificence of a celestial +earth; and his tomb represented him slaying a monster—emblem of the +good which exterminates evil. For, one day, it came to pass—thanks to +the endless course of time—that I triumphed over Ahriman. But the +interval that separates us is disappearing; the night is rising! Help, +Amschaspands, Irzeds, Ferouers! Come to my assistance, Mithra! take thy +sword! Caosyac, who must come back to save the world, defend me! How is +this? ... No one!</p> + +<p>"Ah! I am dying! Ahriman, thou art the master!"</p> + +<p>Hilarion, behind Antony, restrains an exclamation of joy, and Ormuz +plunges into the darkness.</p> + +<p>Then appears the great Diana of Ephesus, black, with enamelled eyes, +elbows at her sides, forearms turned out, and hands open.</p> + +<p>Lions crouch upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers and stars cross one +another upon her chest; further down three rows of breasts exhibit +themselves, and from the belly to the feet she is caught in a close +sheath, from which sprout forth, in the centre of her body, bulls, +stags, griffins and bees. She is seen in the white gleaming caused by a +disc of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind her head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where is my temple? Where are my amazons? How is it with me—me, the +incorruptible—that I find myself so impotent?"</p> + +<p>Her flowers wither; her fruits, over-ripe, hang loose; the lions and the +bulls bow down their necks; the stags, exhausted, begin to pant; the +bees, with a faint buzzing, fall dying upon the ground. She presses her +breasts one after the other. They are empty! But, yielding to a +desperate pressure, her sheath bursts open. She clutches the end of it, +like the skirt of a dress, flings into it her animals and her +flower-wreaths, then goes back into the darkness; and in the distance +voices murmur, grumble, roar, cry, or bellow. The density of the night +is increased by the winds. A warm shower begins to fall in heavy drops.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"How pleasant is this odour of palm-trees, this rustling of +green leaves, this transparency of fountains! I would like to lie down +flat upon the ground, in order to feel it close to my heart, and my life +would be renewed in eternal youth!"</p> + +<p>He hears the sound of castanets and cymbals, and, in the midst of a +rustic crowd, men clad in white tunics, with red bands, lead out an ass, +richly harnessed, his tail adorned with ribands and his hoofs painted. A +box, covered with a saddle-cloth of yellow linen, sways to and fro upon +his back, between two baskets, one of which receives the offerings +deposited there—eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, poultry, and small +coins—while the second is full of roses, which the drivers of the ass +scatter before him as they move along. The latter wear pendants in their +ears, large cloaks, plaited tresses, and have their cheeks painted. Each +of them has an olive crown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> fastened around his forehead by a figured +medallion. They carry daggers in their girdles, and flourish whips with +ebony handles, each having three thongs mounted with ossicles. The last +in the procession fix in the ground erect, as a chandelier, a huge +pine-tree, whose summit is on fire, and the lowest branches of which +overshadow a little sheep.</p> + +<p>The ass stops. The saddle-cloth is removed; and underneath appears a +second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in a white tunic +begins to dance, while playing upon castanets; while another, on his +knees before the box, beats a tambourine; and the oldest of the band +commences:</p> + +<p>"Here is the Bona Dea, the divinity of the mountains, the great mother +of Syria! Draw hither, honest people! She procures joy, heals the sick, +bestows fortunes, and satisfies lovers. It is we who bring her out to +walk in the country in fine weather and bad weather. We often sleep in +the open air, and we have not a well-served table every day. The thieves +dwell in the woods. The beasts rush forth from their dens. Slippery +paths line the precipices. Look here! look here!"</p> + +<p>They raise the coverlet and disclose a box incrusted with little +pebbles.</p> + +<p>"Higher than the cedar-trees she hovers in the blue ether. More +circumambient than the winds, she surrounds the world. Her respiration +is exhaled through the nostrils of tigers; her voice growls beneath the +volcanoes; her anger is the storm; and the pallor of her face has made +the moon white. She ripens the harvests; she swells out the rinds; she +makes the beard grow. Give her something, for she hates the +avaricious!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>The box flies open; and beneath an awning of blue silk is seen a little +image of Cybele, glittering with spangles, crowned with towers, and +seated on a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions with raised paws.</p> + +<p>The crowd presses forward to see.</p> + +<p>The archi-gallus continues:</p> + +<p>"She loves the sounds of dulcimers, the stamping of feet, the howling of +wolves, the echoing mountains and the deep gorges, the flower of the +almond-tree, the pomegranate and the green figs, the whirling dance, the +high-sounding flute, the sweet sap, the salt tear,—blood! Help! help! +Mother of mountains!"</p> + +<p>They flagellate themselves with their whips, and the strokes resound on +their breasts. The skins of the tambourines vibrate till they almost +burst. They seize their knives and inflict gashes on their arms:</p> + +<p>"She is sad: let us be sad! He who is doomed to suffer must weep! In +that way your sins will be remitted. Blood washes out everything: shed +drops of it around, then, like flowers. She demands that of another—of +one who is pure!"</p> + +<p>The archi-gallus raises his knife above the sheep,</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, seized with horror—"Don't slaughter the lamb!"</p> + +<p>A purple flood gushes forth. The priests sprinkle the crowd with it; and +all—including Antony and Hilarion—ranged around the burning tree, +silently watch the last palpitations of the victim. From the midst of +the priests comes a woman, exactly like the image enclosed in the little +box. She stops on seeing a young man in a Phrygian cap.</p> + +<p>His thighs are covered with tight-fitting breeches opened here and there +by lozenges which are fas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>tened with coloured bows. He rests his elbows +against one of the branches of the tree, holding a flute in his hand, in +a languishing attitude.</p> + +<p><i>Cybele</i>, encircling his figure with her arms—</p> + +<p>"To rejoin thee I have travelled through every region—and famine +ravaged the fields. Thou hast deceived me! No matter,—I love thee! Warm +my body! Let us unite!"</p> + +<p><i>Atys</i>—"The spring-time will return no more, O eternal Mother! Despite +my love, it is not possible to penetrate thy essence. I should like to +cover myself with a coloured robe like thine. I envy thy breasts, +swollen with milk, the length of thy tresses, thy mighty sides from +which spring living creatures. Would that I were like thee! Would that I +were woman! But no! that can never be! My virility fills me with +horror!"</p> + +<p>With a sharp stone he mutilates himself; then he begins to run madly +around.</p> + +<p>The priests imitate the god; the faithful, the priests. Men and women +exchange their garments and embrace one another; and this whirlwind of +blood-stained flesh hurries away, whilst the voices, ever continuing, +become more clamorous and shrill, like those one hears at funerals.</p> + +<p>A great catafalque hung with purple carries on its summit a bed of +ebony, surrounded by torches and baskets of silver filigree, in which +are contained green lettuces, mallows, and fennel. Upon the seats, above +and below, are seated women, all attired in black, with girdles undone +and naked feet, and holding with a melancholy air huge bouquets of +flowers.</p> + +<p>On the ground, at the corners of the platform, alabaster urns filled +with myrrh are sending up light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> wreaths of smoke. On the bed may be +seen the corpse of a man. Blood trickles from his thigh. His arm is +hanging down, and a dog, who is howling, licks his nails. The line of +torches placed too close to one another prevents his figure from being +completely visible. Antony is seized with anguish. He is afraid of +seeing the face of some one he knew.</p> + +<p>The women cease their sobbing; and, after an interval of silence, all, +at the same time, burst into a psalm:</p> + +<p>"Beautiful! beautiful! he is beautiful! Enough of sleep—raise his head! +Up! Inhale our bouquets! These are narcissi and anemones gathered in thy +gardens to please thee. Return to life! thou fillest us with fear!</p> + +<p>"Speak! What dost thou require? Dost thou wish to drink wine? Dost thou +wish to sleep in our beds? Dost thou wish to eat the honey-cakes which +have the form of little birds?</p> + +<p>"Let us press close to his hips! let us kiss his breast! Hold! hold! +feel thou our fingers covered with rings which are stealing over thy +body, and our lips which are seeking thy mouth, and our hair which is +sweeping thy legs, insensible god, deaf to our prayers!"</p> + +<p>They burst into shrieks, tearing their faces with their nails, then +become silent; and only the howling of the dog is heard.</p> + +<p>"Alas! alas! The dark blood rushes over his snowy flesh. See how his +knees writhe, how his sides give way! The flowers upon his face have +soaked the gore. He is dead! Let us weep! let us lament!"</p> + +<p>They come all in a row to fling down between the torches their flowing +locks, resembling at a dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>tance black or yellow serpents; and the +catafalque is softly lowered to the level of a cave—a gloomy sepulchre, +which is yawning in the background.</p> + +<p>Then a woman bends over the corpse. Her hair, which never has been cut, +covers her from head to foot. She sheds so many tears that her grief +does not seem to be like that of others, but superhuman, infinite.</p> + +<p>Antony thinks of the mother of Jesus.</p> + +<p>She says:</p> + +<p>"Thou didst escape from the East, and thou didst press me in thy arms +all quivering with dew, O sun! Doves fluttered above the azure of thy +mantle, our kisses caused breezes amid the foliage, and I abandoned +myself to thy love, delighting in the exquisite sensation of my own +weakness.</p> + +<p>"Alas! alas! Why art thou about to rush away over the mountains? At the +autumnal equinox a wild boar wounded thee! Thou art dead, and the +fountains weep and the trees droop, and the winter wind is whistling +through the leafless branches.</p> + +<p>"My eyes are about to close, seeing that darkness is covering thee. By +this time thou art dwelling on the other side of the world, near my more +powerful rival.</p> + +<p>"O Persephone, all that is beautiful goes down to thee and returns no +more!"</p> + +<p>While she has been speaking, her companions have taken the dead body to +lower it into the sepulchre. It remains in their hands. It was only a +corpse of wax!</p> + +<p>Antony experiences a kind of relief. The whole scene vanishes, and the +cell, the rocks, and the cross reappear! And now he distinguishes on the +other side of the Nile a woman standing in the middle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> the desert. +She holds with her hand the end of a long black veil, which conceals her +figure; while she carries on her left arm a little child, which she is +suckling. At her side a huge ape is squatted on the sand. She lifts her +head towards the sky, and, in spite of the distance, her voice can be +heard.</p> + +<p><i>Isis</i>—"O Neith, beginning of things! Ammon, lord of eternity! Ptha, +demiurgus! Thoth, his intelligence! Gods of Amenthi! Special Triads of +the Nomes! Sparrow-hawks in the azure! Sphinxes on the outsides of +temples! Ibises standing between the horns of oxen! Planets! +Constellations! River-banks! Murmurs of wind! Reflections of light! Tell +me where to find Osiris!</p> + +<p>"I have sought for him through all the water-courses and all the lakes, +and, farther still, in the Ph[oe]nician Byblos. Anubis, with ears erect, +jumped round me, barking, and with his nose scenting out the clumps of +tamarind. Thanks, good Cynocephalus, thanks!"</p> + +<p>She gives the ape two or three friendly little slaps on the head.</p> + +<p>"The hideous red-haired Typhon killed him and tore him to pieces. We +have found all his members. But I have not got that which made me +fruitful!"</p> + +<p>She utters bitter lamentations.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i> is seized with rage. He casts pebbles at her insultingly:</p> + +<p>"Impure one! begone, begone!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Respect her! This is the religion of your ancestors! You +have worn her amulets in your cradle!"</p> + +<p><i>Isis</i>—"In former times, when the summer returned, the inundation drove +to the desert the impure beasts. The dykes flew open; the boats dashed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +against one another; the panting earth drank the stream till it was +glutted. O god! with horns of bull, thou didst stretch thyself upon my +breast, and the lowing of the eternal cow was heard!</p> + +<p>"The new-sown crops, the harvests, the thrashing of corn, and the +vintages succeeded each other regularly in unison with the changes of +the seasons. In the nights, ever clear, the great stars shed forth their +beams. The days were steeped in an unchanging splendour. The sun and the +moon were seen like a royal pair on either side of the horizon.</p> + +<p>"We were enthroned in a world more sublime—twin monarchs, spouses from +the bosom of eternity; he holding a sceptre with the head of a +conchoupha, and I a sceptre with a lotus-flower, we stood with hands +joined;—and the crash of empires did not change our attitude.</p> + +<p>"Egypt lay stretched beneath us, monumental and solemn, long, like the +corridor of a temple, with obelisks at the right, pyramids at the left, +its labyrinth in the middle; and everywhere avenues of monsters, forests +of columns, massive archways flanking gates which have for their summit +the earth's sphere between two wings.</p> + +<p>"The animals of her zodiac found their counterparts in her plains, and +with their forms and colours filled her mysterious writings. Divided +into twelve regions, as the year is into twelve months—each month, each +day, having its god—she reproduced the immutable order of the heavens; +and man, though he died, did not lose his lineaments, but, saturated +with perfumes and becoming imperishable, he went to sleep for three +thousand years in a silent Egypt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The latter, greater than the other, spread out beneath the earth. +Thither one descended by means of staircases leading to halls where were +reproduced the joys of the good, the tortures of the wicked, everything +that takes place in the third invisible world. Ranged along the walls, +the dead, in painted coffins, awaited each their turn; and the soul, +free from migrations, continued its sleep till it awakened in another +life.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, Osiris sometimes came back to see me. His shade made me the +mother of Harpocrates."</p> + +<p>She gazes on the child:</p> + +<p>"It is he! Those are his eyes; those are his tresses, curling like a +ram's horns. Thou shalt begin his works over again. We shall bloom +afresh, like the lotus. I am always the great Isis! Nobody has ever yet +lifted my veil! My offspring is the sun!</p> + +<p>"Sun of spring, let the clouds obscure thy face! The breath of Typhon +devours the pyramids. Just now I have seen the Sphinx fly away. He +galloped off like a jackal.</p> + +<p>"I am seeking for my priests—my priests in their linen robes, with +great harps, carrying along a mystic skiff ornamented with pateræ of +silver. No more feasts on the lakes! no more illuminations in my Delta! +no more cups of milk at Philæ! For a long time Apis has not reappeared.</p> + +<p>"Egypt! Egypt! Thy great immovable gods have their shoulders whitened by +the dung of birds, and the wind, as it passes along the desert, carries +with it the ashes of the dead!—Anubis, protector of shadows, do not +leave me!"</p> + +<p>The Cynocephalus vanishes.</p> + +<p>She gives her child a shaking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But what aileth thee? ... thy hands are cold, thy head fallen back!"</p> + +<p>Harpocrates has just died. Then she utters a cry so bitter, mournful, +and heartrending, that Antony replies to it by another cry, while he +opens his arms to support her.</p> + +<p>She is no longer there. He hangs his head, overwhelmed with shame.</p> + +<p>All that he has just seen becomes confused in his mind. It is like the +stunning effect of a voyage, the uncomfortable sensation of drunkenness. +Fain would he hate; and yet a vague pity softens his heart. He begins to +weep abundantly.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"What is it now that makes you sad?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, after questioning himself for a long time—"I am thinking of +all the souls lost through these false gods!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Do you not find that they have—in some +respects—resemblances to the true?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"This is a trick of the Devil the better to seduce the +faithful. He attacks the strong through the spirit, and the others +through the flesh."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"But lust, in its furies, possesses the disinterestedness of +penitence. The frantic love of the body accelerates its destruction—and +by its weakness proclaims the extent of the impossible."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"How is it that this affects me? My heart revolts with disgust +against those brutish gods, always occupied with carnage and incest."</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Recall to yourself in the Scriptures all the things that +scandalise you because you cannot understand them. In the same way, +these gods, under the outward form of criminals, may contain the truth. +There are some of them left to see. Turn aside!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"No! no! it is a peril!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"A moment ago you wished to make their acquaintance. Do +falsehoods make your faith totter? What do you fear?"</p> + +<p>The rocks in front of Antony have become a mountain.</p> + +<p>A range of clouds intersects it half-way from the top; and overhead +appears another mountain, enormous, quite green, which hollows out the +valley unevenly, having on its summit, in a wood of laurels, a palace of +bronze, with tiles of gold and ivory capitals.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the peristyle, upon a throne, Jupiter, colossal, and +with a naked torso, holds victory in one hand, and the thunderbolt in +the other; and his eagle, between his legs, erects its head.</p> + +<p>Juno, close to him, rolls her great eyes, surmounted by a diadem, from +which escapes, like a vapour, a veil floating in the wind.</p> + +<p>Behind, Minerva, standing on a pedestal, leans upon her spear. The +Gorgon's skin covers her breast, and a linen peplum descends in regular +folds even to her toe-nails. Her grey eyes, which shine beneath her +vizor, gaze intently into the distance.</p> + +<p>At the right of the palace the aged Neptune is riding on a dolphin +beating with its fins a vast expanse of azure, which is the sky or the +sea, for the perspective of the ocean prolongs the blue ether; the two +elements become mingled in one.</p> + +<p>On the other side, Pluto, fierce, in a mantle black as night, with a +tiara of diamonds and a sceptre of ebony, is in the midst of an isle +enclosed by the windings of the Styx;—and this ghostly stream rushes +into the darkness, which forms under the cliff a great black gap, a +shapeless abyss.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mars, clad in bronze, brandishes, with an air of fury, his huge sword +and shield.</p> + +<p>Hercules, standing lower, gazes up at him, leaning on his club.</p> + +<p>Apollo, with radiant face, is driving, with his right arm extended, four +white horses at a gallop; and Ceres, in a chariot drawn by oxen, is +advancing towards him with a sickle in her hand.</p> + +<p>Bacchus goes before her on a very low car slowly drawn along by lynxes. +Erect, beardless, with vine-branches over his forehead, he passes, +holding a goblet from which wine is flowing. Silenus, at his side, is +dangling upon an ass. Pan, with pointed ears, is blowing his pipe; the +Mimallones beat drums; Mænads scatter flowers; the Bacchantes throw back +their heads with hair dishevelled.</p> + +<p>Diana, with her tunic tucked up, sets out from the wood with her nymphs.</p> + +<p>At the bottom of a cavern, Vulcan is hammering the iron between the +Cabiri; here and there, the old river-gods, resting upon green stones, +water their urns; and the Muses, standing up, are singing in the dales.</p> + +<p>The Hours, of equal height, hold each other by the hand; and Mercury is +placed in a slanting posture, upon a rainbow, with his magic wand, his +winged sandals and his broad-brimmed hat.</p> + +<p>But at the top of the staircase of the gods, amid clouds soft as +feathers, whose folds as they wind around let fall roses, Venus +Anadyomene is gazing at her image in a mirror; her pupils cast +languishing glances underneath her rather heavy eyelashes. She has long, +fair tresses, which spread out over her shoulders, her dainty breasts, +her slender figure, her hips widening like the curves of a lyre, her +two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> rounded thighs, the dimples around her knees, and her delicate +feet. Not far from her mouth a butterfly is fluttering. The splendour of +her body sheds around her a halo of brilliant mother-of-pearl; and all +the rest of Olympus is bathed in a rosy dawn, which, by insensible +degrees, reaches the heights of the azure sky.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! my bosom dilates. A joy, which I cannot analyse, descends +into the depths of my soul. How beautiful it is! how beautiful it is!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"They stooped down from the height of the clouds to direct +the swords. You might meet them on the roadsides. You kept them in your +home; and this familiarity made life divine.</p> + +<p>"Her only aim was to be free and beautiful. Her ample robes rendered her +movements more graceful. The orator's voice, exercised beside the sea, +struck the marble porticoes in unison with the sonorous waves. The +stripling, rubbed with oil, wrestled, quite naked, in the full light of +day. The most religious action was to expose pure forms.</p> + +<p>"Those men, too, respected spouses, the aged and suppliants. Behind the +Temple of Hercules, an altar was raised to Pity.</p> + +<p>"They used to immolate victims with flowers around their fingers. Memory +was not even troubled by the decay of the dead, for there remained of +them only a handful of ashes. The soul, mingled with the boundless +ether, ascended to the gods!"</p> + +<p>Bending towards Antony's ear:</p> + +<p>"And they live for ever! The Emperor Constantine adores Apollo. You will +find the Trinity in the mysteries of Samothrace, baptism in the case of +Isis, the redemption in that of Mithra, the martyrdom of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> a god in the +feasts of Bacchus. Proserpine is the Virgin; Aristæus, Jesus!"</p> + +<p>Antony keeps his eyes cast down; then all at once he repeats the creed +of Jerusalem—as he recollects it—emitting, after each phrase, a long +sigh:</p> + +<p>"'I believe in one only God, the Father;—and in one only Lord, Jesus +Christ, first-born son of God, who became incarnate and was made man; +who was crucified and buried; who ascended into Heaven; who will come to +judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom will have no end;—and in +one only Holy Ghost;—and in one only baptism of repentance;—and in one +holy Catholic Church;—and in the resurrection of the flesh;—and in the +life everlasting!'"</p> + +<p>Immediately the cross becomes larger, and, piercing the clouds, it casts +a shadow over the heaven of the gods.</p> + +<p>They all grow dim. Olympus vanishes.</p> + +<p>Antony distinguishes near its base, half lost in the caverns, or +supporting the stones on their shoulders, huge bodies chained. These are +the Titans, the Giants, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclops.</p> + +<p>A voice rises, indistinct and formidable,—like the murmur of the waves, +like the sound heard in woods during a storm, like the roaring of the +wind down a precipice:</p> + +<p>"We knew it, we of all others! The gods were doomed to die. Uranus was +mutilated by Saturn, and Saturn by Jupiter. He will be himself +annihilated. Each in its turn. It is destiny!"</p> + +<p>And, by degrees, they plunge into the mountain, and disappear.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the roof of the palace of gold flies away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>Jupiter descends from his throne. The thunder at his feet smokes like a +brand that is almost extinguished; and the eagle, stretching its neck, +gathers with its beak its falling plumes.</p> + +<p>"So, then, I am no longer the master of things, all-good, all-powerful, +god of the phratriæ and of the Greek peoples, ancestor of all the kings, +the Agamemnon of Heaven!</p> + +<p>"Eagle of the apotheoses, what breath of Erebus has driven thee to me? +or, flying from the Campus Martius, dost thou bring to me the soul of +the last of the Emperors?</p> + +<p>"I no longer desire those of men! Let the earth guard them, and let them +be moved on a level with its baseness. They now have hearts of slaves; +they forget injuries, ancestors, oaths; and everywhere the folly of +mobs, the mediocrity of the individual, and the hideousness of races +reign supreme!"</p> + +<p>His respiration makes his sides swell even to bursting, and he writhes +with his hands. Hebe in tears presents a cup to him. He seizes it:</p> + +<p>"No! no! As long as there will be, no matter where, a head enclosing +thought which hates disorder and realises the idea of Law, the spirit of +Jupiter will live!"</p> + +<p>But the cup is empty. He turns it around slowly on his finger-nail.</p> + +<p>"Not a drop! When ambrosia fails, there is an end of the Immortals!"</p> + +<p>It slips out of his hand, and he leans against a pillar, feeling that he +is dying.</p> + +<p><i>Juno</i>—"There was no need of so many loves! Eagle, bull, swan, golden +shower, cloud and flame, thou hast assumed every form, scattered thy +light in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> every element, hidden thy head on every couch! This time the +divorce is irrevocable—and our sway, our very existence, is dissolved!"</p> + +<p>She rushes away into the air!</p> + +<p>Minerva no longer has her spear; and the ravens, which nestled in the +sculptures of the frieze, whirl round her, and bite at her helmet.</p> + +<p>"Let me see whether my vessels, cleaving the shining sea, have returned +into my three ports, wherefore the fields are deserted, and what the +daughters of Athens are now doing.</p> + +<p>"In the month of Hecatombæon, all my people came to me led by their +magistrates and priests. Then, in white robes, with chitons of gold, the +long files of virgins advanced, holding cups, baskets, and parasols; +then, the three hundred oxen for the sacrifice, old men shaking green +boughs, soldiers clashing their armour against each other, youths +singing hymns, players on the flute and on the lyre, rhapsodists and +dancing-girls—and finally, on the mast of a trireme, supported by coils +of rope, my great veil embroidered by virgins, who, for the space of a +year, had been nourished in a particular fashion; and, when it had been +shown in every street, in every square, and before every temple, in the +midst of a procession continually chanting, it ascended to the +Acropolis, brushed passed the Propylæum, and entered the Parthenon.</p> + +<p>"But a difficulty faces me—me, the ingenious one! What! what! not a +single idea! Here am I more terrified than a woman."</p> + +<p>She perceives behind her a ruin, utters a cry, and, struck on the +forehead, falls backward to the ground.</p> + +<p>Hercules has cast off his lion's skin, and, resting on his feet, bending +his back, and biting his lips, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> makes desperate efforts to sustain +Olympus, which is toppling down.</p> + +<p>"I have vanquished the Cercopes, the Amazons, and the Centaurs. I have +slain many kings, I have broken the horn of Achelous, a great river. I +have cut through mountains; I have brought oceans together. I have +liberated enslaved nations; I have peopled uninhabited countries. I have +travelled over Gaul. I have traversed the desert where one feels thirst. +I have defended the gods, and I have freed myself from Omphale. But +Olympus is too heavy. My arms are growing feeble. I am dying!"</p> + +<p>He is crushed beneath the ruins.</p> + +<p><i>Pluto</i>—"It is thine own fault, Amphitrionades! Why didst thou descend +into my realms? The vulture who devours the entrails of Tityus has +raised its head; Tantalus has had his lips moistened; and Ixion's wheel +is stopped.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, the Keres stretch forth their nails to detain the souls; the +Furies in despair twist the serpents in their locks; and Cerberus, +fastened by thee with a chain, has a rattling in the throat, while he +slavers from his three mouths.</p> + +<p>"Thou didst leave the gate ajar. Others have come. The light of human +day has penetrated Tartarus!"</p> + +<p>He sinks into the darkness.</p> + +<p><i>Neptune</i>—"My trident no longer raises tempests. The monsters who +caused terror have rotted at the bottom of the sea.</p> + +<p>"Amphitrite, whose white feet rushed over the foam; the green nereids, +who could be seen on the horizon; the scaly sirens, who used to stop the +ships to tell stories; and the old tritons, who used to blow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> into +shells, all are dead! The gaiety of the sea has vanished!</p> + +<p>"I will not survive it! Let the vast ocean cover me."</p> + +<p>He disappears into the azure.</p> + +<p><i>Diana</i>, attired in black, among her dogs, who have become wolves—</p> + +<p>"The freedom of great woods intoxicated me with its odour of deer and +exhalations of swamps. The women, over whose pregnancy I watched, bring +dead children into the world. The moon trembles under the incantations +of sorcerers. I am filled with violent and boundless desires. I long to +drink poisons, to lose myself in vapours or in dreams! ..."</p> + +<p>And a passing cloud bears her away.</p> + +<p><i>Mars</i>, bare-headed and blood-stained—</p> + +<p>"At first, I fought single-handed, provoking by insults an entire army, +indifferent to countries, and for the pleasure of carnage. Then, I had +companions. They marched to the sound of flutes, in good order, with +even step, breathing upon their bucklers, with lofty plume and slanting +spear. We flung ourselves into the battle with loud cries like those of +eagles. War was as joyous as a feast. Three hundred men withstood all +Asia.</p> + +<p>"But they returned, those barbarians! and in tens of thousands, nay, in +millions! Since numbers, war-engines, and strategy are more powerful, it +is better to make an end of it, like a brave man!"</p> + +<p>He kills himself.</p> + +<p><i>Vulcan</i>, wiping the sweat from his limbs with a sponge—</p> + +<p>"The world is getting cold. It is necessary to heat the springs, the +volcanoes, and the rivers, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> run from metals under the +earth!—Strike harder! with vigorous arm! with all your strength!"</p> + +<p>The Cabiri hurt themselves with their hammers, blind themselves with the +sparks, and, groping their way along, are lost in the shadow.</p> + +<p><i>Ceres</i>, standing in her chariot which is drawn by wheels having wings +in their naves—"Stop! Stop!</p> + +<p>"They had good reason to exclude the strangers, the atheists, the +epicureans, and the Christians! The mystery of the basket is unveiled, +the sanctuary profaned—all is lost!"</p> + +<p>She descends with a rapid fall—bursting into exclamation of despair, +and dragging back the horses.</p> + +<p>"Ah! falsehood! Daira is not given up to me. The brazen bell calls me to +the dead. It is another kind of Tartarus. There is no returning from it. +Horror!"</p> + +<p>The abyss swallows her up.</p> + +<p><i>Bacchus</i>, laughing frantically:</p> + +<p>"What does it matter! The wife of Archontes is my spouse! Even the law +goes down before drunkenness. For me the new song and the multiplied +forms!</p> + +<p>"The fire which consumed my mother runs in my veins. Let it burn the +stronger, even though I perish!</p> + +<p>"Male and female, good for both, I deliver myself to ye, Bacchantes! I +deliver myself to ye, Bacchantes! and the vine will twist around the +trunks of trees! Howl! dance! writhe! Unbind the tiger and the slave! +bite the flesh with ferocious teeth!"</p> + +<p>And Pan, Silenus, the Satyrs, the Bacchantes, the Mimallones, and the +Mænades, with their serpents, their torches, and their black masks, +scatter flowers, then shake their dulcimers, strike their thyrsi, pelt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +each other with shells, crunch grapes, strangle a he-goat, and rend +Bacchus.</p> + +<p><i>Apollo</i>, lashing his coursers, whose glistening hairs fly off—</p> + +<p>"I have left behind me Delos the stony, so empty that everything there +now seems dead; and I am striving to reach the Delphian oracle before +its inspiring vapour should be completely lost. The mules browse on its +laurel. The pythoness, gone astray, is found there no longer.</p> + +<p>"By a stronger concentration, I will have sublime poems, eternal +monuments; and all matter will be penetrated with the vibrations of my +cithara."</p> + +<p>He fingers its chords. They break and snap against his face. He flings +down the instrument, and driving his four-horse chariot furiously:</p> + +<p>"No! enough of forms! Farther still—to the very summit—to the world of +pure thought!"</p> + +<p>But the horses, falling back, begin to prance so that the chariot is +smashed; and, entangled in the fragments of the pole and the knottings +of the horses, he falls head-foremost into the abyss.</p> + +<p>The sky is darkened. Venus, blue as a violet from the cold, shivers.</p> + +<p>"I covered with my girdle the entire horizon of Hellas. Its fields shone +with the roses of my cheeks; its shores were cut according to the form +of my lips; and its mountains, whiter than my doves, palpitated under +the hands of the sculptors. My spirit showed itself in the order of +festivities, the arrangements of head-dresses, the dialogues of +philosophers, and the constitution of republics. But I have loved men +too much. It is Love that has dishonoured me!"</p> + +<p>She falls back in tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The world is abominable. My bosom feels the lack of air.</p> + +<p>"O Mercury, inventor of the lyre, and conductor of souls, bear me away!"</p> + +<p>She places a finger upon her mouth, and, describing an immense parabola, +topples over into the abyss.</p> + +<p>And now nothing can be seen. The darkness is complete.</p> + +<p>In the meantime two red arrows seem to escape from the pupils of +Hilarion.</p> + +<p>Antony at length notices his high stature:</p> + +<p>"Many times already, while you were speaking, you appeared to me to be +growing tall; and it was not an illusion. How is this? Explain it to me. +Your appearance appals me!"</p> + +<p>Steps draw nigh.</p> + +<p>"What is this now?"</p> + +<p>Hilarion stretches forth his arms:</p> + +<p>"Look!"</p> + +<p>Then, under a pale ray of the moon, Antony distinguishes an interminable +caravan which defiles over the crest of the rocks; and each passenger, +one after another, falls from the cliff into the gulf.</p> + +<p>First, there are the three great gods of Samothrace—Axieros, Axiokeros, +and Axiokersa—joined in a cluster, with purple masks, and their hands +raised.</p> + +<p>Æsculapius advances with a melancholy air, without even seeing Samos and +Telesphorus, who question him with anguish. Sosipolis, the Elean, with +the form of a python, rolls out his rings towards the abyss. +Doesp[oe]na, through vertigo, flings herself in there of her own accord. +Britomartis, shrieking with fear, clasps the folds of her fillet. The +Centaurs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> arrive with a great galloping, and dash, pell-mell, into the +black hole.</p> + +<p>Limping behind them come the sad group of nymphs. Those of the meadows +are covered with dust; those of the woods groan and bleed, wounded by +the woodcutters' axes.</p> + +<p>The Gelludæ, the Stryges, the Empusæ, all the infernal goddesses +intermingling their hooks, their torches, and their snakes, form a +pyramid; and at the summit, upon a vulture's skin, Eurynomus, bluish +like flesh-flies, devours his own arms.</p> + +<p>Then in a whirlwind disappears at the same time, Orthia the sanguinary, +Hymnia of Orchomena, the Saphria of the Patræans, Aphia of Ægina, Bendis +of Thrace, and Stymphalia with the leg of a bird. Triopas, in place of +three eyeballs, has nothing more than three orbits. Erichthonius, with +spindle-shanks, crawls like a cripple on his wrists.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"What happiness, is it not, to see all of them in a state of +abjectness and agony? Mount with me on this stone, and you will be like +Xerxes reviewing his army.</p> + +<p>"Yonder, at a great distance, in the midst of fogs, do you perceive that +giant with yellow beard who lets fall a sword red with blood? He is the +Scythian Zalmoxis between two planets—Artimpasa, Venus; and Orsiloche, +the Moon.</p> + +<p>"Farther off, emerging out of the pale clouds, are the gods who are +adored by the Cimmerians, beyond even Thule!</p> + +<p>"Their great halls were warm, and by the light of the naked swords that +covered the vault they drank hydromel in horns of ivory. They ate the +liver of the whale in copper plates forged by the demons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> or else they +listened to the captive sorcerers sweeping their hands across the harps +of stone. They are weary! they are cold! The snow wears down their +bearskins, and their feet are exposed through the rents in their +sandals.</p> + +<p>"They mourn for the meadows where, upon hillocks of grass, they used to +recover breath in the battle, the long ships whose prows cut through the +mountains of ice, and the skates they used in order to follow the orbit +of the poles while carrying on the extremities of their arms the +firmament, which turned around with them."</p> + +<p>A shower of hoar-frost pours down upon them. Antony lowers his glance to +the opposite side, and he perceives—outlining themselves in black upon +a red background—strange personages with chin-pieces and gauntlets, who +throw balls at one another, leap one on top of the other, make grimaces, +and dance frantically.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"These are the gods of Etruria, the innumerable Æsars. Here +is Tages, the inventor of auguries. He attempts with one hand to +increase the divisions of the heavens, while with the other he leans +upon the earth. Let him come back to it!</p> + +<p>"Nortia is contemplating the wall into which she drove nails to mark the +number of the years. Its surface is covered and its last period +accomplished. Like two travellers driven about by a tempest, Kastur and +Polutuk take shelter under the same mantle."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, closes his eyes—"Enough! Enough!"</p> + +<p>But now through the air with a great noise of wings pass all the +Victories of the Capitol, hiding their foreheads in their hands, and +losing the trophies suspended from their arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>Janus, master of the twilight, flies away upon a black ram, and of his +two faces one is already putrefied, while the other is benumbed with +fatigue.</p> + +<p>Summanus—god of the gloomy sky, who no longer has a head—presses +against his heart an old cake in the form of a wheel.</p> + +<p>Vesta, under a ruined cupola, tries to rekindle her extinguished lamp.</p> + +<p>Bellona gashes her cheeks without causing the blood, which used to +purify her devotees, to flow out.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Pardon! They weary me!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"Formerly they used to be entertaining!"</p> + +<p>And he points out to Antony, in a grove of beech-trees a woman perfectly +naked—with four paws like a beast—bestridden by a black man holding in +each hand a torch.</p> + +<p>"This is the goddess Aricia with the demon Virbius. Her priest, the +monarch of the woods, happened to be an assassin; and the fugitive +slaves, the despoilers of corpses, the brigands of the Salarian road, +the cripples of the Sublician bridge, all the vermin of the garrets of +the Suburra, had not dearer devotion!</p> + +<p>"The patrician ladies of Mark Antony's time preferred Libitina."</p> + +<p>And he shows him under the cypresses and rose-trees another woman +clothed in gauze. She smiles, though she is surrounded by pickaxes, +litters, black hangings, and all the utensils of funerals. Her diamonds +glitter from afar among cobwebs. The Larvæ, like skeletons, display +their bones amid the branches, and the Lemures, who are phantoms, spread +out their bats' wings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the side of a field the god Terma is bent down, torn asunder, and +covered with filth.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a ridge the huge corpse of Vertumnus is being devoured +by red dogs. The rustic gods depart weeping, Sartor, Sarrator, +Vervactor, Eollina, Vallona, and Hostilenus—all covered with little +hooded cloaks, and each bearing a mattock, a fork, a hurdle, and a +boar-spear.</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"It was their spirits that made the villa prosper with its +dove-cotes, its park for dormice, its poultry-yards protected by snares, +and its hot stables embalmed with cedar.</p> + +<p>"They protected all the wretched people who dragged the fetters with +their legs over the pebbles of the Sabina, those who called the hogs +with the sound of the trumpet, those who gathered the grapes on the tops +of the elm-trees, those who drove through the by-roads the asses laden +with dung. The husbandman, while he panted over the handle of his +plough, prayed to them to strengthen his arms; and the cow-herds, in the +shadow of the lime-trees, beside gourds of milk, chanted their eulogies +by turns upon flutes of reeds."</p> + +<p>Antony sighs.</p> + +<p>And in the middle of a chamber, upon a platform, a bed of ivory is +revealed, surrounded by persons lifting up pine-torches.</p> + +<p>"Those are the gods of marriage. They are awaiting the bride.</p> + +<p>"Domiduca has to lead her in, Virgo to undo her girdle, Subigo to +stretch her upon the bed, and Præma to keep back her arms, whispering +sweet words in her ear.</p> + +<p>"But she will not come! and they dismiss the others—Nona and Decima, +the nurses; the three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Nixii, who are to deliver her; the two +wet-nurses, Educa and Potina; and Carna, the cradle-rocker, whose bunch +of hawthorns drives away bad dreams from the infant. Later, Ossipago +will have strengthened its knees, Barbatus will have given the beard, +Stimula the first desires, and Volupia the first enjoyment; Fabulinus +will have taught it how to speak, Numera how to count, Cam[oe]na how to +sing, and Consus how to think."</p> + +<p>The chamber is empty, and there remains no longer at the side of the bed +anyone but Nænia—a hundred years old—muttering to herself the lament +which she poured forth on the death of old men.</p> + +<p>But soon her voice is lost amid bitter cries, which come from the +domestic lares, squatted at the end of the atrium, clad in dogs' skins, +with flowers around their bodies, holding their closed hands up to their +cheeks, and weeping as much as they can.</p> + +<p>"Where is the portion of food which is given to us at each meal, the +good attentions of maid-servant, the smile of the matron, and the gaiety +of the little boys playing with huckle-bones on the mosaic of the +courtyard? Then, when they have grown big, they hang over our breasts +their gold or leather bullæ.</p> + +<p>"What happiness, when, on the evening of a triumph, the master, +returning home, turned towards us his humid eyes! He told the story of +his contests, and the narrow house was more stately than a palace, and +more sacred than a temple.</p> + +<p>"How pleasant were the repasts of the family, especially the day after +the Feralia! The feeling of tenderness towards the dead dispelled all +discords; and people embraced one another, drinking to the glories of +the past, and to the hopes of the future.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But the ancestors in painted wax, shut up behind us, became gradually +covered with mouldiness. The new races, to punish us for their own +deceptions, have broken our jaws; and under the rats' teeth our bodies +of wood have crumbled away."</p> + +<p>And the innumerable gods, watching at the doors, in the kitchen, in the +cellar, and in the stoves, disperse on all sides, under the appearance +of enormous ants running away, or huge butterflies on the wing.</p> + +<p>Then a thunderclap.</p> + +<p><i>A voice</i>—"I was the God of armies, the Lord, the Lord God!</p> + +<p>"I have unfolded on the hills the tents of Jacob, and nourished in the +sands my fugitive people. It was I who burned Sodom! It was I who +engulfed the earth beneath the Deluge! It was I who drowned Pharaoh, +with the royal princes, the war-chariots, and the charioteers. A jealous +God, I execrated the other gods. I crushed the impure; I overthrew the +proud; and my desolation rushed to right and left, like a dromedary let +loose in a field of maize.</p> + +<p>"To set Israel free, I chose the simple. Angels, with wings of flame, +spoke to them in the bushes.</p> + +<p>"Perfumed with spikenard, cinnamon, and myrrh, with transparent robes +and high-heeled shoes, women of intrepid heart went forth to slay the +captains. The passing wind bore away the prophets.</p> + +<p>"I engraved my law on tablets of stone. It shut in my people as in a +citadel. They were my people. I was their God! The earth was mine, and +men were mine, with their thoughts, their works, the implements with +which they tilled the soil, and their posterity.</p> + +<p>"My ark rested in a triple sanctuary, behind purple curtains and flaming +lamps. For my ministry I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> had an entire tribe, who swung the censers, +and the high-priest in a robe of hyacinth, and wearing precious stones +upon his breast arranged in regular order.</p> + +<p>"Woe! woe! The Holy of Holies is flung open; the veil is rent; the +odours of the holocaust are scattered to all the winds. The jackals +whine in the sepulchres; my temple is destroyed; my people are +dispersed!</p> + +<p>"They have strangled the priests with the cords of their vestments. The +women are captives; the sacred vessels are all melted down!"</p> + +<p>The voice, dying away:</p> + +<p>"I was the God of armies, the Lord, the Lord God!" Then comes an +appalling silence, a profound darkness.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"They are all gone!"</p> + +<p>"I remain!" says some one.</p> + +<p>And, face to face with him stands Hilarion, but transfigured—beautiful +as an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so tall that, in order to see +him, Antony lifts up his head—"Who, then, are you?"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>—"My kingdom is as wide as the universe, and my desire has no +limits. I am always going about enfranchising the mind and weighing the +worlds, without hate, without fear, without love, and without God. I am +called Science."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, recoiling backwards—"You must be, rather, the Devil!"</p> + +<p><i>Hilarion</i>, fixing his eyes upon him—"Do you wish to see him?"</p> + +<p>Antony no longer avoids his glance. He is seized with curiosity +concerning the Devil. His terror increases; his longing becomes +measureless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If I saw him, however—if I saw him?" ... Then, in a spasm of rage:</p> + +<p>"The horror that I have of him will rid me of him forever. Yes!"</p> + +<p>A cloven foot reveals itself. Antony is filled with regret. But the +Devil overshadows him with his horns, and carries him off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Mystery of Space.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/148.jpg" width="150" height="141" style="margin-top: -3em;" alt="" title="H" /> +</div> +<p>E flies under Antony's body, extended like a swimmer; his two great +wings, outspread, entirely concealing him, resemble a cloud.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Where am I going? Just now I caught a glimpse of the form of +the Accursèd One. No! a cloud is carrying me away. Perhaps I am dead, +and am mounting up to God? ...</p> + +<p>"Ah! how well I breathe! The untainted air inflates my soul. No more +heaviness! no more suffering!</p> + +<p>"Beneath me, the thunderbolt darts forth, the horizon widens, rivers +cross one another. That light spot is the desert; that pool of water the +ocean. And other oceans appear—immense regions of which I had no +knowledge. There are black lands that smoke like live embers, a belt of +snow ever obscured by the mists. I am trying to discover the mountains +where each evening the sun goes to sleep."</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"The sun never goes to sleep!"</p> + +<p>Antony is not startled by this voice. It appears to him an echo of his +thought—a response of his memory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the earth takes the form of a ball, and he perceives it in +the midst of the azure turning on its poles while it winds around the +sun.</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"So, then, it is not the centre of the world? Pride of man, +humble thyself!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I can scarcely distinguish it now. It is intermingled with +the other fires. The firmament is but a tissue of stars."</p> + +<p>They continue to ascend.</p> + +<p>"No noise! not even the crying of the eagles! Nothing! ... and I bend +down to listen to the music of the spheres."</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"You cannot hear them! No longer will you see the +antichthon of Plato, the focus of Philolaüs, the spheres of Aristotle, +or the seven heavens of the Jews with the great waters above the vault +of crystal!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"From below it appeared as solid as a wall. But now, on the +contrary, I am penetrating it; I am plunging into it!"</p> + +<p>And he arrives in front of the moon—which is like a piece of ice, quite +round, filled with a motionless light.</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"This was formerly the abode of souls. The good Pythagoras +had even supplied it with birds and magnificent flowers."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"I see nothing there save desolate plains, with extinct +craters, under a black sky.</p> + +<p>"Come towards those stars with a softer radiance, so that we may gaze +upon the angels who hold them with the ends of their arms, like +torches!"</p> + +<p>The Devil carries him into the midst of the stars.</p> + +<p>"They attract one another at the same time that they repel one another. +The action of each has an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> effect on the others, and helps to produce +their movements—and all this without the medium of an auxiliary, by the +force of a law, by the virtue simply of order."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Yes ... yes! my intelligence grasps it! It is a joy greater +than the sweetness of affection! I pant with stupefaction before the +immensity of God!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"Like the firmament, which rises in proportion as you +ascend, He will become greater according as your imagination mounts +higher; and you will feel your joy increase in proportion to the +unfolding of the universe, in this enlargement of the Infinite."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Ah! higher! ever higher!"</p> + +<p>The stars multiply and shed around their scintillations. The Milky Way +at the zenith spreads out like an immense belt, with gaps here and +there; in these clefts, amid its brightness, dark tracts reveal +themselves. There are showers of stars, trains of golden dust, luminous +vapours which float and then dissolve.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a comet sweeps by suddenly; then the tranquillity of the +countless lights is renewed.</p> + +<p>Antony, with open arms, leans on the Devil's two horns, thus occupying +the entire space covered by his wings. He recalls with disdain the +ignorance of former days, the limitation of his ideas. Here, then, close +beside him, were those luminous globes which he used to gaze at from +below. He traces the crossing of their paths, the complexity of their +directions. He sees them coming from afar, and, suspended like stones in +a sling, describing their orbits and pushing forward their parabolas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>He perceives, with a single glance, the Southern Cross and the Great +Bear, the Lynx and the Centaur, the nebulæ of the Gold-fish, the six +suns in the constellation of Orion, Jupiter with his four satellites, +and the triple ring of the monstrous Saturn! all the planets, all the +stars which men should, in future days, discover! He fills his eyes with +their light; he overloads his mind with a calculation of their +distances;—then he lets his head fall once more.</p> + +<p>"What is the object of all this?"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"There is no object!</p> + +<p>"How could God have had an object? What experience could have +enlightened Him, what reflection enabled Him to judge? Before the +beginning of things, it would not have operated, and now it would be +useless."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Nevertheless, He created the world, at one period of time, by +His mere word!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"But the beings who inhabit the earth came there +successively. In the same way, in the sky, new stars arise—different +effects from various causes."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"The variety of causes is the will of God!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"But to admit in God several acts of will is to admit +several causes, and thus to destroy His unity!</p> + +<p>"His will is not separable from His essence. He cannot have a second +will, inasmuch as He cannot have a second essence—and, since He exists +eternally, He acts eternally.</p> + +<p>"Look at the sun! From its borders escape great flames emitting sparks +which scatter themselves to become new worlds; and, further than the +last, beyond those depths where only night is visible, other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> suns whirl +round, and behind these others again, and others still, to infinity ..."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Enough! enough! I am terrified! I am about to fall into the +abyss."</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i> stops, and gently balancing himself—</p> + +<p>"There is no such thing as nothingness! There is no vacuum! Everywhere +there are bodies moving over the unchangeable realms of space—and, as +if it had any bounds it would not be space but a body, it consequently +has no limits!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, open-mouthed—"No limits!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"Ascend into the sky forever and ever, and you will never +reach the top! Descend beneath the earth for millions upon millions of +centuries, and you will never get to the bottom—inasmuch as there is no +bottom, no top, no end, above or below; and space is, in fact, comprised +in God, who is not a part of space, of a magnitude that can be measured, +but immensity!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, slowly—"Matter, in that case, would be part of God?"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"Why not? Can you tell where He comes to an end?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"On the contrary, I prostrate myself, I efface myself before +His power!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"And you pretend to move Him! You speak to Him, you even +adorn Him with virtues—goodness, justice, clemency,—in place of +recognising the fact that He possesses all perfections!</p> + +<p>"To conceive anything beyond is to conceive God outside of God. Being +outside of Being. But then He is the only Being, the only Substance.</p> + +<p>"If substance could be divided, it would lose its nature—it would not +be itself; God would no longer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> exist. He is, therefore, indivisible as +well as infinite, and if He had a body, He would be made up of parts. He +would no longer be one; He would no longer be infinite. Therefore, He is +not a person!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"What? My prayers, my sobs, the sufferings of my flesh, the +transports of my zeal, all these things would be no better than a lie +... in space ... uselessly—like a bird's cry, like a whirlwind of dead +leaves!"</p> + +<p>He weeps.</p> + +<p>"Oh! no! There is above everything some One, a Great Spirit, a Lord, a +Father, whom my heart adores, and who must love me!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"You desire that God should not be God; for, if He +experienced love, anger, or pity, He would pass from His perfection to a +greater or less perfection. He cannot descend to a sentiment, or be +contained under a form."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"One day, however, I shall see Him!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"With the Blessèd, is it not? When the finite shall enjoy +the Infinite, enclosing the Absolute in a limited space!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"No matter! There must be a Paradise for the good, as well as +a Hell for the wicked!"</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"Does the exigency of your reason constitute the law of +things? Without doubt, evil is a matter of indifference to God, seeing +that the earth is covered with it!</p> + +<p>"Is it from impotence that He endures it, or from cruelty that He +preserves it?</p> + +<p>"Do you think that He can be continually putting the world in order like +an imperfect work, and that He watches over all the movements of all +beings, from the flight of the butterfly to the thought of man?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If He created the universe His providence is superfluous. If Providence +exists, creation is defective.</p> + +<p>"But good and evil only concern you—like day and night, pleasure and +pain, death and birth, which have relationship merely to a corner of +space, to a special medium, to a particular interest. Inasmuch as what +is infinite alone is permanent, the Infinite exists; and that is all!"</p> + +<p>The Devil has gradually extended his huge wings, and now they cover +space.</p> + +<p>Antony can no longer see. He is on the point of fainting:</p> + +<p>"A horrible chill freezes me to the bottom of my soul. This exceeds the +utmost pitch of pain. It is, as it were, a death more profound than +death. I wheel through the immensity of darkness. It enters into me. My +consciousness is shivered to atoms under this expansion of nothingness."</p> + +<p><i>The Devil</i>—"But things happen only through the medium of your mind. +Like a concave mirror, it distorts objects, and you need every resource +in order to verify facts.</p> + +<p>"Never shall you understand the universe in its full extent; +consequently you cannot form an idea as to its cause, so as to have a +just notion of God, or even say that the universe is infinite, for you +should first comprehend the Infinite!</p> + +<p>"Form is perhaps an error of your senses, substance an illusion of your +intellect. Unless it be that the world, being a perpetual flux of +things, appearances, by a sort of contradiction, would not be a test of +truth, and illusion would be the only reality.</p> + +<p>"But are you sure that you see? Are you sure that you live? Perhaps +nothing at all exists!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Devil has seized Antony, and, holding him by the extremities of his +arms, stares at him with open jaws ready to swallow him up.</p> + +<p>"Come, adore me! and curse the phantom that you call God!"</p> + +<p>Antony raises his eyes with a last movement of lingering hope.</p> + +<p>The Devil quits him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/020.jpg" width="150" height="101" alt="" title="decoration" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Chimera and the Sphinx.</span></h3> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/053.jpg" width="150" height="151" style="margin-top: -3em;" alt="" title="A" /> +</div> +<p>NTONY finds himself stretched on his back at the edge of the cliff. The +sky is beginning to grow white.</p> + +<p>"Is this the brightness of dawn? or is it the reflection of the moon?" +He tries to rise, then sinks back, and with chattering teeth:</p> + +<p>"I feel fatigued ... as if all my bones were broken!</p> + +<p>"Why?</p> + +<p>"Ah! it is the Devil! I remember; and he even repeated to me all I had +learned from old Didymus concerning the opinions of Xenophanes, of +Heraclitus, of Melissus, and of Anaxagoras, as well as concerning the +Infinite, the creation, and the impossibility of knowing anything!</p> + +<p>"And I imagined that I could unite myself to God!"</p> + +<p>Laughing bitterly:</p> + +<p>"Ah! madness! madness! Is it my fault? Prayer is intolerable to me! My +heart is drier than a rock! Formerly it overflowed with love! ...<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The sand, in the morning, used to send forth exhalations on the +horizon, like the fumes of a censer. At the setting of the sun blossoms +of fire burst forth from the cross, and, in the middle of the night, it +often seemed to me that all creatures and all things, gathered in the +same silence, were with me adoring the Lord. Oh! charm of prayer, bliss +of ecstasy, gifts of Heaven, what has become of you?</p> + +<p>"I remember a journey I made with Ammon in search of a solitude in which +we might establish monasteries. It was the last evening, and we +quickened our steps, murmuring hymns, side by side, without uttering a +word. In proportion as the sun went down, the shadows of our bodies +lengthened, like two obelisks, always enlarging and marching on in front +of us. With the pieces of our staffs we planted the cross here and there +to mark the site of a cell. The night came on slowly, and black waves +spread over the earth, while an immense sheet of red still occupied the +sky.</p> + +<p>"When I was a child, I used to amuse myself in constructing hermitages +with pebbles. My mother, close beside me, used to watch what I was +doing.</p> + +<p>"She was going to curse me for abandoning her, tearing her white locks. +And her corpse remained stretched in the middle of the cell, beneath the +roof of reeds, between the tottering walls. Through a hole, a hyena, +sniffing, thrusts forward his jaws! ... Horror! horror!"</p> + +<p>He sobs.</p> + +<p>"No: Ammonaria would not have left her!</p> + +<p>"Where is Ammonaria now?</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, in a hot bath she is drawing off her garments one by one, +first her cloak, then her girdle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> then her outer tunic, then her inner +one, then the wrappings round her neck; and the vapour of cinnamon +envelops her naked limbs. At last she sinks to sleep on the tepid floor. +Her hair, falling around her hips, looks like a black fleece—and, +almost suffocating in the overheated atmosphere, she draws breath, with +her body bent forward and her breasts projecting. Hold! here is my flesh +breaking into revolt. In the midst of anguish, I am tortured by +voluptuousness. Two punishments at the same time—it is too much! I can +no longer endure my own body!"</p> + +<p>He stoops down and gazes over the precipice.</p> + +<p>"The man who falls over that will be killed. Nothing easier, by simply +rolling over on the left side: it is necessary to take only one step! +only one!"</p> + +<p>Then appears an old woman.</p> + +<p>Antony rises with a start of error. He imagines that he sees his mother +risen from the dead.</p> + +<p>But this one is much older and excessively emaciated. A winding-sheet, +fastened round her head, hangs with her white hair down to the very +extremities of her legs, thin as sticks. The brilliancy of her teeth, +which are like ivory, makes her clayey skin look darker. The sockets of +her eyes are full of gloom, and in their depths flicker two flames, like +lamps in a sepulchre.</p> + +<p>"Come forward," she says; "what keeps you back?"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, stammering—"I am afraid of committing a sin!"</p> + +<p>She resumes:</p> + +<p>"But King Saul was slain! Razias, a just man, was slain! Saint Pelagius +of Antioch was slain!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> Dominius of Aleppo and his two daughters, three +more saints, were slain;—and recall to your mind all the confessors +who, in their eagerness to die, rushed to meet their executioners. In +order to taste death the more speedily, the virgins of Miletus strangled +themselves with their cords. The philosopher, Hegesias, at Syracuse +preached so well on the subject, that people deserted the brothels to +hang themselves in the fields. The Roman patricians sought for death as +if it were a debauch."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Yes, it is a powerful passion! Many an anchorite has yielded +to it."</p> + +<p><i>The old woman</i>—"To do a thing which makes you equal to God—think of +that! He created you; you are about to destroy His work, you, by your +courage, freely. The enjoyment of Erostrates was not greater. And then, +your body is thus mocked by your soul in order that you may avenge +yourself in the end. You will have no pain. It will soon be over. What +are you afraid of? A large black hole! It is empty, perhaps!"</p> + +<p>Antony listens without saying anything in reply;—and, on the other +side, appears another woman, marvellously young and beautiful. At first, +he takes her for Ammonaria. But she is taller, fair as honey, rather +plump, with paint on her cheeks, and roses on her head. Her long robe, +covered with spangles, is studded with metallic mirrors. Her fleshly +lips have a look of blood, and her somewhat heavy eyelashes are so much +bathed in languor that one would imagine she was blind. She murmurs:</p> + +<p>"Come, then, and enjoy yourself. Solomon recommends pleasure. Go where +your heart leads you, and according to the desire of your eyes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"To find what pleasure? My heart is sick; my eyes are dim!"</p> + +<p>She replies:</p> + +<p>"Hasten to the suburb of Racotis; push open a door painted blue; and, +when you are in the atrium, where a jet of water is gurgling, a woman +will present herself—in a peplum of white silk edged with gold, her +hair dishevelled, and her laugh like sounds made by rattlesnakes. She is +clever. In her caress you will taste the pride of an initiation, and the +satisfaction of a want. Have you pressed against your bosom a maiden who +loved you? Recall to your mind her remorse, which vanished under a flood +of sweet tears. You can imagine yourself—can you not?—walking through +the woods beneath the light of the moon. At the pressure of your hands +joined with hers a shudder runs through both of you; your eyes, brought +close together, overflow from one to the other like immaterial waves, +and your heart is full; it is bursting; it is a delicious whirlwind, an +overpowering intoxication."</p> + +<p><i>The old woman</i>—"You need not experience joys to feel their bitterness! +You need only see them from afar, and disgust takes possession of you. +You must needs be wearied with the monotony of the same actions, the +duration of the days, the ugliness of the world, and the stupidity of +the sun!"</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! yes; all that it shines upon is displeasing to me."</p> + +<p><i>The young woman</i>—"Hermit! hermit! you shall find diamonds among the +pebbles, fountains beneath the sand, a delight in the dangers which you +despise; and there are even places on the earth so beautiful that you +are filled with a longing to embrace them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The old woman</i>—"Every evening when you lie down to sleep on the earth, +you hope that it may soon cover you."</p> + +<p><i>The young woman</i>—"Nevertheless, you believe in the resurrection of the +flesh, which is the transport of life into eternity."</p> + +<p>The old woman, while speaking, has been growing more emaciated, and, +above her skull, which has no hair upon it, a bat has been making +circles in the air.</p> + +<p>The young woman has become plumper. Her robe changes colour; her +nostrils swell; her eyes roll softly.</p> + +<p>The first says, opening her arms:</p> + +<p>"Come! I am consolation, rest, oblivion, eternal peace!"</p> + +<p>And the second offering her breast:</p> + +<p>"I am the soother, the joy, the life, the happiness inexhaustible!"</p> + +<p>Antony turns on his heel to fly. Each of them places a hand upon his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>The winding-sheet flies open, and reveals the skeleton of Death. The +robe bursts open, and presents to view the entire body of Lust, which +has a slender figure, with an enormous development behind, and great, +undulating masses of hair, disappearing towards the end.</p> + +<p>Antony remains motionless between the pair, contemplating them.</p> + +<p><i>Death</i> says to him—</p> + +<p>"This moment, or a little later—what does it matter? You belong to me, +like the suns, the nations, the cities, the kings, the snow on the +mountains, and the grass in the fields. I fly higher than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the +sparrow-hawk, I run more quickly than the gazelle; I keep pace even with +hope; I have conquered God!"</p> + +<p><i>Lust</i>—"Do not resist; I am omnipotent. The forests echo with my sighs; +the waves are stirred by my agitations. Virtue, courage, piety, are +dissolved in the perfume of my breath. I accompany man at every step he +takes; and on the threshold of the tomb he comes back to me."</p> + +<p><i>Death</i>—"I will reveal to you what you tried to grasp by the light of +torches on the features of the dead—or when you rambled beyond the +Pyramids in those vast sand-heaps composed of human remains. From time +to time, a piece of skull rolled under your sandal. You took it out of +the dust; you made it slip between your fingers; and your mind, becoming +absorbed in it, was plunged into nothingness."</p> + +<p><i>Lust</i>—"Mine is a deeper gulf! Marble slabs have inspired impure loves. +People rush towards meetings that terrify them, and rivet the very +chains which they curse. Whence comes the witchery of courtesans, the +extravagance of dreams, the immensity of my sadness?"</p> + +<p><i>Death</i>—"My irony surpasses that of all other things. There are +convulsions of joy at the funerals of kings and at the extermination of +peoples; and they make war with music, plumes, flags, golden harnesses, +and a display of ceremony to pay me the greater homage."</p> + +<p><i>Lust</i>—"My anger is as strong as yours. I howl, I bite, I have sweats +of agony, and corpse-like appearances."</p> + +<p><i>Death</i>—"It is I who make you serious; let us embrace each other!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>Death chuckles; Lust roars. They seize each other's figures, and sing +together:</p> + +<p>"I hasten the dissolution of matter."</p> + +<p>"I facilitate the scattering of germs!"</p> + +<p>"Thou destroyest that I may renew!"</p> + +<p>"Thou engenderest that I may destroy!"</p> + +<p>"Active my power!"</p> + +<p>"Fruitful my decay!"</p> + +<p>And their voices, whose echoes, rolling forth, fill the horizon, become +so powerful that Antony falls backward.</p> + +<p>A shock, from time to time, causes him to half open his eyes; and he +perceives, in the midst of the darkness, a kind of monster before him.</p> + +<p>It is a death's-head with a crown of roses. It rises above the torso of +a woman white as mother-of-pearl. Beneath, a winding-sheet, starred with +points of gold, makes a kind of train;—and the entire body undulates, +like a gigantic worm holding itself erect.</p> + +<p>The vision grows fainter, and then fades away.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, rises again—"This time, once more, it was the Devil, and +under his two-fold aspect—the spirit of voluptuousness and the spirit +of destruction. Neither terrifies me. I thrust happiness aside, and feel +that I am eternal.</p> + +<p>"Thus, death is only an illusion, a veil, masking at certain points the +continuity of life. But substance, being one, why is there a variety of +forms? There must be somewhere primordial figures, whose bodies are only +images. If one could see, one would know the bond between mind and +matter, wherein Being consists!</p> + +<p>"There are those figures which were painted at Babylon on the wall of +the temple of Belus, and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> covered a mosaic in the port of Carthage. +I, myself, have sometimes seen in the sky what seemed like forms of +spirits. Those who traverse the desert meet animals passing all +conception ..."</p> + +<p>And, opposite him, on the other side of the Nile, lo! the Sphinx +appears.</p> + +<p>It stretches out its feet, shakes the fillets on its forehead, and lies +down upon its belly.</p> + +<p>Jumping, flying, spirting fire through its nostrils, and striking its +wings with its dragon's tail, the Chimera with its green eyes, winds +round, and barks. The curls of its head, thrown back on one side, +intermingle with the hair on its haunches; and on the other side they +hang over the sand, and move to and fro with the swaying of its entire +body.</p> + +<p>The Sphinx is motionless, and gazes at the Chimera:</p> + +<p>"Here, Chimera; stop!"</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"No, never!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"Do not run so quickly; do not fly so high; do not bark so +loud!"</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"Do not address me, do not address me any more, since you +remain forever silent!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"Cease casting your flames in my face and flinging your +yells in my ears; you shall not melt my granite!"</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"You will not get hold of me, terrible Sphinx!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"You are too foolish to live with me!"</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"You are too clumsy to follow me!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"And where are you going that you run so quickly?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"I gallop into the corridors of the labyrinth; I hover +over the mountains; I skim along the waves; I yelp at the bottoms of +precipices; I hang by my jaws on the skirts of the clouds. With my +trailing tail I scratch the coasts, and the hills have taken their curb +according to the form of my shoulders. But as for you, I find you +perpetually motionless; or, rather, with the end of your claw tracing +letters on the sand."</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"That is because I keep my secret! I reflect and I +calculate. The sea returns to its bed; the blades of corn balance +themselves in the wind; the caravans pass; the dust flies off; the +cities crumble;—but my glance, which nothing can turn aside, remains +concentrated on the objects which cover an inaccessible horizon."</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"As for me, I am light and joyous! I discover in men +dazzling perspectives, with Paradises in the clouds and distant +felicities. I pour into their souls the eternal insanities, projects of +happiness, plans for the future, dreams of glory, and oaths of love, as +well as virtuous resolutions. I drive them on perilous voyages and on +mighty enterprises. I have carved with my claws the marvels of +architecture. It is I that hung the little bells on the tomb of +Porsenna, and surrounded with a wall of Corinthian brass the quays of +the Atlantides.</p> + +<p>"I seek fresh perfumes, larger flowers, pleasures hitherto unknown. If +anywhere I find a man whose soul reposes in wisdom, I fall upon him and +strangle him."</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"All those whom the desire of God torments, I have +devoured.</p> + +<p>"The strongest, in order to climb to my royal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> forehead, mount upon the +stripes of my fillets as on the steps of a staircase. Weariness takes +possession of them, and they fall back of their own accord."</p> + +<p>Antony begins to tremble. He is not before his cell, but in the desert, +having at either side of him those two monstrous animals, whose jaws +graze his shoulders.</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"O Fantasy, bear me on thy wings to enliven thy sadness!"</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"O Unknown One, I am in love with thine eyes! I turn +round thee, soliciting allayment of that which devours me!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"My feet cannot raise themselves. The lichen, like a +ringworm, has grown over my mouth. By dint of thinking, I have no longer +anything to say."</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"You lie, hypocritical Sphinx! How is it that you are +always addressing me and abjuring me?"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"It is you, unmanageable caprice, who pass and whirl +about."</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"Is that my fault? Come, now, just let me be!"</p> + +<p>It barks.</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"You move away; you avoid me!"</p> + +<p>The Sphinx grumbles.</p> + +<p><i>The Chimera</i>—"Let us make the attempt! You crush me!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sphinx</i>—"No; impossible!"</p> + +<p>And sinking, little by little, it disappears in the sand, while the +Chimera, crawling, with its tongue out, departs with a winding movement.</p> + +<p>The breath issuing from its mouth has produced a fog.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this fog Antony traces masses of clouds and imperfect curves. +Finally, he distinguishes what appear to be human bodies.</p> + +<p>And first advances the group of Astomi, like air-balls passing across +the sun.</p> + +<p>"Don't puff too strongly! The drops of rain bruise us; the false sounds +excoriate us; the darkness blinds us. Composed of breezes and of +perfumes, we roll, we float—a little more than dreams, not entirely +beings."</p> + +<p>The Nisnas have but one eye, one cheek, one hand, one leg, half a body, +and half a heart. And they say, in a very loud tone:</p> + +<p>"We live quite at our ease in our halves of houses with our halves of +wives and our halves of children."</p> + +<p><i>The Blemmyes</i>, absolutely bereft of heads—</p> + +<p>"Our shoulders are the largest;—and there is not an ox, a rhinoceros, +or an elephant that is capable of carrying what we carry.</p> + +<p>"Arrows, and a sort of vague outline are imprinted on our breasts—that +is all! We reduce digestion to thought; we subtilise secretions. For us +God floats peacefully in the internal chyle.</p> + +<p>"We proceed straight on our way, passing through every mire, running +along the verge of every abyss; and we are the most industrious, happy, +and virtuous people."</p> + +<p><i>The Pygmies</i>—"Little good-fellows, we swarm over the world, like +vermin on the hump of a dromedary.</p> + +<p>"We are burnt, drowned, or run over; but we always reappear more full of +life and more numerous—terrible from the multitude of us that exists!"</p> + +<p><i>The Sciapodes</i>—"Kept on the ground by our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> flowing locks, long as +creeping plants, we vegetate under the shelter of our feet, which are as +large as parasols; and the light reaches us through the spaces between +our wide heels. No disorder and no toil! To keep the head as low as +possible—that is the secret of happiness!"</p> + +<p>Their lifted thighs, resembling trunks of trees, increase in number. And +now a forest appears in which huge apes rush along on four paws. They +are men with dogs' heads.</p> + +<p><i>The Cynocephali</i>—"We leap from branch to branch to suck the eggs, and +we pluck the little birds; then we put their nests upon our heads after +the fashion of caps.</p> + +<p>"We do not fail to snatch away the worst of the cows, and we destroy the +lynxes' eyes. Tearing the flowers, crushing the fruits, agitating the +springs, we are the masters—by the strength of our arms and the +fierceness of our hearts.</p> + +<p>"Be bold, comrades, and snap your jaws!"</p> + +<p>Blood and milk flow from their lips. The rain streams over their hairy +backs.</p> + +<p>Antony inhales the freshness of green leaves which are agitated as the +branches of the trees dash against each other. All at once appears a +large black stag with a bull's head, carrying between his two ears a +mass of white horns.</p> + +<p><i>The Sadhuzag</i>—"My seventy-four antlers are hollow like flutes. When I +turn myself towards the south wind, sounds go forth from them that draw +around me the ravished beasts. The serpents come winding to my feet; the +wasps stick in my nostrils; and the parrots, the doves, and the ibises +alight upon my branches. Listen!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>He bends back his horns, from which issues an unutterably sweet music.</p> + +<p>Antony presses both his hands above his heart. It seems to him as if +this melody were about to carry off his soul.</p> + +<p><i>The Sadhuzag</i>—"But, when I turn towards the north wind, my horns, more +bushy than a battalion of spears, emit a howling noise. The forests +thrill; the rivers swell; the husks of the fruit burst, and blades of +grass stand erect like a coward's hair. Listen!"</p> + +<p>He bows down his branches, from which now come forth discordant cries. +Antony feels as if he were torn asunder, and his horror is increased on +seeing the Mantichor, a gigantic red lion with a human figure and three +rows of teeth:</p> + +<p>"The silky texture of my scarlet hair mingles with the yellowness of the +sands. I breathe through my nostrils the terror of solitudes. I spit +forth the plague. I devour armies when they venture into the desert. My +nails are twisted like gimlets; my teeth are cut like a saw; and my +hair, wriggled out of shape, bristles with darts which I scatter, right +and left, behind me. Hold! hold!"</p> + +<p>The Mantichor casts thorns from his tail, which radiate, like arrows, in +all directions. Drops of blood flow, spattering over the foliage.</p> + +<p>The Catoblepas appears, a black buffalo, with a pig's head hanging to +the earth, and connected with his shoulders by a slender neck, long and +flabby as an empty gut. He is wallowing on the ground; and his feet +disappear under the enormous mane of hard hairs that descend over his +face:</p> + +<p>"Fat, melancholy, savage, I remain continually feeling the mire under my +stomach. My skull is so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> heavy that it is impossible for me to carry it. +I roll it around slowly; and, opening my jaws, I snatch with my tongue +the poisonous herbs that are moistened with my breath. I once devoured +my paws without noticing it.</p> + +<p>"No one, Antony, has ever seen my eyes, or those who have seen them are +dead. If I but raised my eyelids—my eyelids red and swollen—that +instant you would die."</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>—"Oh! that thing! ... Well! well! As if I had any such longing! +Its stupidity attracts me. No! no! I will not!" He looks fixedly on the +ground. But the grass lights up, and, in the twistings of the flames, +stands erect the Basilisk, a huge, violet serpent, with a trilobate +crest and two teeth—one above, the other below:</p> + +<p>"Take care! You are about to fall into my jaws! I drink fire. I am fire +myself; and from every quarter I suck it in—from clouds, from pebbles, +from dead trees, from the hair of animals, and from the surface of +marshes. My temperature supports the volcanoes. I cause the lustre of +precious stones and the colour of metals."</p> + +<p><i>The Griffin</i>, a lion with a vulture's beak, white wings, red paws, and +blue neck—"I am the master of the profound splendours. I know the +secret of the tombs where the old kings sleep. A chain, which issues +from the wall, keeps their heads erect. Near them, in basins of +porphyry, women whom they have loved float upon black liquids. Their +treasures are ranged in halls, in lozenges, in hillocks, and in +pyramids; and, lower, far below the tombs, after long journeys in the +midst of suffocating darkness, are rivers of gold with forests of +diamonds, meadows of carbuncles, and lakes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> of quicksilver. With my back +against the door of the vault, and my claws in the air, I watch with my +flaming eyes those who may think fit to come there. The immense plain, +even to the furthest point of the horizon, is quite bare and whitened +with travellers' bones. For you the bronze doors will open, and you will +inhale the vapour of the mines; you will descend into the caverns ... +Quick! quick!"</p> + +<p>He digs the earth with his claws, crowing like a cock.</p> + +<p>A thousand voices reply to him. The forest trembles.</p> + +<p>And all sorts of horrible beasts arise: the Tragelaphus, half-stag, +half-ox; the Myrmecoleo, a lion in front, an ant behind, whose genitals +are turned backwards; the python, Aksar, of sixty cubits, who frightened +Moses; the great weasel, Pastinaca, which kills trees by its odour; the +Presteros, which renders idiotic those who touch it; the Mirag, a horned +hare dwelling in the islands of the sea. The Copard Phalmant bursts his +belly by dint of howling; the Senad, a bear with three heads, tears its +little ones with its mouth; the dog, Cepus, scatters on the rocks the +blue milk of its dugs. Mosquitoes begin to buzz, toads to jump, and +serpents to hiss. Lightnings flash; down comes the hail.</p> + +<p>Then there are squalls, which reveal anatomical marvels. There are +alligators' heads with roebucks' feet, owls with serpents' tails, swine +with tigers' muzzles, goats with asses' rumps, frogs covered with hair +like bears, chameleons large as hippopotami, calves with two heads, one +of which weeps while the other bellows, four f[oe]tuses holding each +other by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> navel and spinning like tops, and winged bellies which +flutter like gnats.</p> + +<p>They rain down from the sky; they spring out of the ground; they glide +from the rocks. Everywhere eyes flash, mouths roar; the breasts bulge +out; the claws lengthen; the teeth gnash; the flesh quivers. Some of +them bring forth their young; others with a single bite, devour one +another.</p> + +<p>Suffocating from their very numbers, multiplying by their contact, they +climb on top of one another; and they all keep stirring about Antony +with a regular swaying motion, as if the soil were the deck of a vessel.</p> + +<p>He feels close to his calves the trailing of slugs, and on his hands the +cold touch of vipers; and spiders spinning their webs enclose him in +their network.</p> + +<p>But the circle of monsters begins to open; the sky suddenly becomes +blue, and the unicorn makes its appearance:</p> + +<p>"Off I gallop! Off I gallop!</p> + +<p>"I have hoofs of ivory, teeth of steel, a head coloured purple, a body +like snow, and the horn on my forehead has the varied hues of the +rainbow.</p> + +<p>"I travel from Chaldea to the Tartar desert, on the banks of the Ganges, +and into Mesopotamia. I outstrip the ostriches. I run so rapidly that I +draw the wind along with me. I rub my back against the palm-trees; I +roll myself in the bamboos. With one bound I jump across the rivers. +Doves fly above my head. Only a virgin can bridle me.</p> + +<p>"Off I gallop! Off I gallop!"</p> + +<p>Antony watches him flying away.</p> + +<p>And, keeping his eyes still raised, he perceives all the birds that are +nourished by the wind: the Gouith,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> the Ahuti, the Alphalim, the Jukneth +from the mountains of Caff, and the Homaï of the Arabs, which are the +souls of murdered men. He hears the parrots utter human speech, then the +great web-footed Pelasgians, who sob like children or chuckle like old +women.</p> + +<p>A briny breath of air strikes his nostrils. A seashore is now before +him.</p> + +<p>At a distance rise waterspouts, lashed up by the whales; and at the +extremity of the horizon the beasts of the sea, round, like leather +bottles, flat, like strips of metal, or indented, like saws, advance, +crawling over the sand:</p> + +<p>"You are about to come with us into our unfathomable depths, never +penetrated by man before. Different races dwell in the country of the +ocean. Some are in the abode of the tempests; others swim openly in the +transparency of the cold waves, browse like oxen over the coral plains, +sniff in with their nostrils the ebbing tide, or carry on their +shoulders the weight of the ocean-springs."</p> + +<p>Phosphorescences flash from the hairs of the seals and from the scales +of the fishes. Sea-hedgehogs turn around like wheels; Ammon's horns +unroll themselves like cables; oysters make sounds with the fastenings +of their shells; polypi spread out their tentacles; medusæ quiver like +crystal balls; sponges float; anemones squirt out water; and mosses and +seaweed shoot up.</p> + +<p>And all kinds of plants spread out into branches, twist themselves into +tendrils, lengthen into points, and grow round like fans. Pumpkins +present the appearance of bosoms, and creeping plants entwine themselves +like serpents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Dedaims of Babylon, which are trees, have as their fruits human +heads; mandrakes sing; and the root Baaras runs into the grass.</p> + +<p>And now the plants can no longer be distinguished from the animals. +Polyparies, which have the appearance of sycamores, carry arms on their +branches. Antony fancies he can trace a caterpillar between two leaves; +it is a butterfly which flits away. He is on the point of walking over +some shingle when up springs a grey grasshopper. Insects, like petals of +roses, garnish a bush; the remains of ephemera make a bed of snow upon +the soil.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And, next, the plants are indistinguishable from the stones.</p> + +<p>Pebbles bear a resemblance to brains, stalactites to udders, and +iron-dust to tapestries adorned with figures. In pieces of ice he can +trace efflorescences, impressions of bushes and shells—so that one +cannot tell whether they are the impressions of those objects or the +objects themselves. Diamonds glisten like eyes, and minerals palpitate.</p> + +<p>And he is no longer afraid! He lies down flat on his face, resting on +his two elbows, and, holding in his breath, he gazes around.</p> + +<p>Insects without stomachs keep eating; dried-up ferns begin to bloom +afresh; and limbs which were wanting sprout forth again.</p> + +<p>Finally, he perceives little globular bodies as large as pins' heads, +and garnished all round with eyelashes. A vibration agitates them.</p> + +<p><i>Antony</i>, in ecstasy—</p> + +<p>"O bliss! bliss! I have seen the birth of life; I have seen the +beginning of motion. The blood beats<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> so strongly in my veins that it +seems about to burst them. I feel a longing to fly, to swim, to bark, to +bellow, to howl. I would like to have wings, a tortoise-shell, a rind, +to blow out smoke, to wear a trunk, to twist my body, to spread myself +everywhere, to be in everything, to emanate with odours, to grow like +plants, to flow like water, to vibrate like sound, to shine like light, +to be outlined on every form, to penetrate every atom, to descend to the +very depths of matter—to be matter!"</p> + +<p>The dawn appears at last; and, like the uplifted curtains of a +tabernacle, golden clouds, wreathing themselves into large volutes, +reveal the sky.</p> + +<p>In the very middle of it, and in the disc of the sun itself, shines the +face of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>Antony makes the sign of the Cross, and resumes his prayers.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Temptation of St. Antony, by Gustave Flaubert + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEMPTATION OF ST. 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