Chapter III: Part 3

_There are some from the country of the Germans, from Thrace also, and from the Gauls, from Scythia and from the Indies, with snow upon their beards, feathers in their hair; thorns in the fringe of their garments; the sandals of some are black with dust, their skins are burnt by the sun. There is a vast confusion of costumes, mantles of purple and robes of linen, embroidered dalmaticas, hair shirts, sailors' caps, bishops' mitres. Their eyes fulgurate strangely. They have the look of executioners, or the look of eunuchs._

_Hilarion advances into their midst. All salute him. Anthony, shrinking closer to his shoulder, observes them. He remarks the presence of a great many women. Some of these are attired like men, and have their hair cut short. Anthony feels afraid of them._)

HILARION. "Those are Christian women who have converted their husbands. Besides, the women were always upon the side of Jesus, even the idolatrous ones, for example, Procula, the wife of Pilate, and Poppæa, the concubine of Nero. Do not tremble!--come on."

(_And others are continually arriving._

_They seem to multiply, to double themselves by self-division, light as shadows--all the while making an immense clamour, in which yells of rage, cries of love, canticles and objurgations intermingle._)

ANTHONY (_in a low voice_). "What do they desire?"

HILARION. "The Lord said: 'I have yet many things to say to you.... '[2] They possess the knowledge of those things."

(_And he pushes Anthony forward to a golden throne approached by five steps, whereon--surrounded by ninety-five disciples, all very thin and pale, and anointed with oil--sits the prophet Manes. He is beautiful as an archangel, immobile as a statue; he is clad in an Indian robe; carbuncles gleam in his plaited hair; at his left hand lies a book of painted images; his right reposes upon a globe. The images represent the creatures that erst slumbered in Chaos. Anthony bends forward to look upon them. Then----_)

MANES

(_makes his globe revolve; and regulating the tone of his words by a lyre which gives forth crystalline sounds, exclaims_:--)

"The celestial earth is at the superior extremity; the terrestrial earth at the inferior extremity. It is sustained by two angels--the Angel Splenditeneus, and Omophorus, whose faces are six.

"At the summit of the highest heaven reigns the impassible Divinity; below, face to face, are the Son of God and the Prince of Darkness.

"When the darkness had advanced even to his kingdom, God evolved from his own essence a virtue which produced the first man; and he environed him with the five elements. But the demons of darkness stole from him a part; and that part is the soul.

"There is but one soul, universally diffused, even as the waters of a river divided into many branches. It is this universal soul that sighs in the wind--that shrieks in the marble under the teeth of the saw--that roars in the voice of the sea--that weeps tears of milk when the leaves of the fig tree are torn off.

"The souls that leave this world emigrate to the stars, which are themselves animated beings."

ANTHONY (_bursts into a laugh_). "Ah! ah! what an absurd imagination!"

A MAN (_having no beard, and of a most austere aspect_). "Wherefore absurd?"

(_Anthony is about to reply when Hilarion tells him in a low voice that the questioner is none other than the tremendous Origen himself; and_:--)

MANES (_continues_). "But first they remain awhile in the Moon, where they are purified. Then they rise into the sun."

ANTHONY (_slowly_). "I do not know of anything ... which prevents us ... from believing it."

MANES. "The proper aim of every creature is the deliverance of the ray of celestial light imprisoned within matter. It finds easier escape through the medium of perfumes, spices, the aroma of warmed wine, the light things which resemble thoughts. But the acts of life retain it within its prison. The murderer shall be born again in the form of a celephus; he that kills an animal shall become that animal; if thou plantest a vine, thou shalt be thyself bound within its boughs. Food absorbs the celestial light.... Therefore abstain! fast!"

HILARION. "Thou seest, they are temperate!"

MANES. "There is much of it in meats, less of it in herbs. Moreover the Pure Ones, by means of their great merits, despoil vegetation of this luminous essence; and, thus liberated, it reascends to its source. But through generation, animals keep it imprisoned within the flesh! Therefore, avoid women!"

HILARION. "Admire their continence."

MANES. "Or rather contrive that they shall not create..............[3]

ANTHONY. "Oh--abomination!"

HILARION. "What signifies the hierarchy of turpitudes? The Church has, forsooth, made marriage a sacrament!"

SATURNINUS (_in Syrian costume_). "He teaches a most dismal system of the universe!... The Father, desiring to punish the angels who had revolted, ordered them to create the world. Christ came, in order that the God of the Jews, who was one of those angels...."

ANTHONY. "He an angel! the Creator!"

CERDO. "Did he not seek to kill Moses, to deceive his own prophets, to seduce nations?--did he not sow falsehood and idolatry broadcast?"

MARCION. "Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!"

SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. "Matter is eternal!"

BARDESANES (_in the costume of the Babylonian magi_). "It was formed by the Seven Planetary Spirits."

THE HERMIANS. "Souls were made by the angels."

THE PRISCILLIANISTS. "It was the Devil who made the world."

ANTHONY (_rushing back from the circle_). "Horror!"

HILARION (_supporting him_). "Thou despairest too hastily!--thou dost misapprehend their doctrine! Here is one who received his teaching directly from Theodas, the friend of St. Paul. Hearken to him."

(_And at a sign from Hilarion_

VALENTINUS

_appears in a tunic of cloth of silver; his skull is pointed at its summit; his voice has a wheezing sound._)

"The world is the work of a God in delirium!"

ANTHONY (_bending his head down_). "The work of a God in delirium!..."

(_After a long silence_): "How can that be?"

VALENTINE. "The most perfect of beings, and of the Æons, the Abyss; dwelt in the womb of the Deep together with Thought. By their union was begotten Intelligence, to whom Truth was given as a companion.

"Intelligence and Truth engendered the Word and Life, who in their turn begat Man and the Church; and that doth make eight Æons!"

(_He counts upon his fingers._)

"The Word and Truth also produced ten other Æons--which is to say, five couples. Man and the Church had begotten twelve more--among these the Paraclete and Faith, Hope and Charity, Perfection and Wisdom--Sophia.

"The union of these thirty Æons constitutes the Pleroma, or Universality of God. Thus, even as the echo of a passing voice, as the effluvia of a perfume evaporating, as the fires of the setting sun, the Powers that emanated from the Principle, forever continue to grow weaker.

"But Sophia, desirous to know the Father, darted from the Pleroma; and the Word then made another couple, Christ and the Holy Ghost, who reunited all the Æons; and all together formed Jesus, the flower of the Pleroma.

"But the effort of Sophia to flee away had left in the void an image of her--an evil substance, Acharamoth.[4] The Saviour took pity upon her, freed her from all passion; and from the smile of Acharamoth redeemed, light was born; her tears formed the waters; by her sorrow was dark matter begotten.

"Of Acharamoth was born the Demiurgos,--the fabricator of worlds, the creator of the heaven and of the Devil. He dwells far below the Pleroma--so far that he cannot behold it--so that he deems himself to be the true God, and repeats by the mouths of his prophets--'There is no other God but I.' Then he made man, and instilled into his soul the immaterial Seed which was the Church--a reflection of the other Church established in the Pleroma.

"One day Acharamoth shall reach the highest region and unite herself with the Saviour; the fire that is hidden in the world shall annihilate all matter, and shall even devour itself and men, becoming pure spirits, shall espouse the angels!"

ORIGEN. "Then shall the Demon be over-thrown and the reign of God commence!"

(_Anthony expresses a cry, and forthwith_)

BASILIDES (_taking him by the elbow, exclaims_:--)

"The Supreme Being with all the infinite emanations is called Abraxas; and the Saviour with all his virtues, Kaulakau--otherwise, line-upon-line, rectitude upon rectitude.

"The power of Kaulakau is obtained by the aid of certain words, which are inscribed upon this chalcedony to help the memory."

(_And he points to a little stone suspended at his neck, upon which stone fantastic characters are graven._)

"Then thou wilt be transported into the Invisible and placed above all law; thou shalt contemn all things--even virtue!

"We, the Pure, must flee from pain, after the example of Kaulakau."

ANTHONY. "What! and the cross?"

THE ELKHESAITES (_in robes of hyacinth answers him_). "The woe and the degradation, the condemnation and oppression of my fathers[5] are blotted out, through the mission which has come.

"One may deny the inferior Christ, the man--Jesus; but the other Christ must be adored--whose personality was evolved under the brooding of the Dove's wings.

"Honor marriage; the Holy Spirit is feminine!"

(_Hilarion has disappeared; and Anthony, carried along by the crowd, arrives in the presence of_--)

THE CARPOCRATIANS

(_reclining with women upon scarlet cushions._)

"Before entering into the Only thou shalt pass through a series of conditions and of actions. To free thyself from the powers of darkness, thou must at once accomplish their works. The husband shall say to the wife: 'Have charity for thy brother'--and she will kiss thee."

THE NICOLAITANS

(_gathered about a mass of smoking meats_:)

"This is a portion of the meat offered to idols;--partake of it! Apostasy is permissible when the heart is pure. Gorge thy flesh with all that it demands. Seek to exterminate it by dint of debauchery! Prounikos, the Mother of Heaven, wallowed in ignominies."

THE MARCOSIANS

(_wearing rings of gold, and glistening with precious balm and unguents_:)

"Enter among us that thou mayst unite thyself to the Spirit! Enter among us that thou mayst quaff the draught of immortality!"

(_And one of them shows him, behind a tapestry-hanging, the body of a man terminated by the head of an ass. This represents Sabaoth, father of the Devil. He spits upon the image in token of detestation._

_Another shows him a very low bed, strewn with flowers, exclaiming_:)

"The spiritual marriage is about to be consummated."

(_A third, who holds a cup of glass, utters an invocation;--blood suddenly appears in the cup_:)

"Ah! behold it! behold it!--the blood of Christ!"

(_Anthony withdraws, but finds himself be-spattered by water splashed from a cistern._)

THE HELVIDIANS

(_are flinging themselves into it head foremost, muttering_:--)

"The man regenerated by baptism is impeccable!"

(_Then he passes by a great fire at which the Adamites are warming themselves--all completely naked in imitation of the purity of Paradise; and he stumbles over_)

THE MESSALINES

(_wallowing upon the pavement, half-slumbering, stupid_:)

"Oh! crush us if thou wilt! we shall not move! Work is crime; all occupation is evil."

(_Behind these, the abject_)

PATERNIANS

(_--men, women, and children lying pell mell upon a heap of filth, lift their hideous faces, wine-besmeared, and they cry aloud_:)

"The inferior parts of the body, which were created by the Devil, belong to him! Let us eat, drink, and sin!"

ÆTIUS. "Crimes are necessities beneath the notice of God!"

(_But suddenly_--)

A MAN (--_clad in a Carthaginian mantle, bounds into their midst, brandishing a scourge of thongs in his hand; and strikes violently and indiscriminately at all in his path_:)

"Ah! imposters! simonists, heretics and demons!--vermin of the schools!--dregs of hell! Marcion, there, is a sailor of Sinopus excommunicated for incest;--Carpocrates was banished for being a magician; Ætius stole his concubine; Nicholas prostituted his wife; and this Manes, who calls himself the Buddha, and whose real name is Cubricus, was flayed alive with the point of a reed, so that his skin even now hangs at the gates of Ctesiphon!"

ANTHONY (_recognizing Tertullian, rushes to join him_): "Master! help! help!"

TERTULLIAN (_continuing_):

"Break the images! veil the virgins! Pray, fast, weep and mortify yourselves! No philosophy! no books! After Jesus, science is useless!"

(_All have fled away; and Anthony beholds, in lieu of Tertullian, a woman seated upon a bench of stone._

_She sobs; leaning her head against a column; her hair is loose; her body, weakened by grief, is clad in a long brown simar. Then they find themselves face to face and alone, far from the crowd; and a silence, an extraordinary stillness falls--as in the woods when the winds are lulled, and the leaves of the trees suddenly cease to whisper._

_This woman is still very beautiful, although faded, and pale as a sepulcher. They look at one another; and their eyes send to each other waves, as it were, of thoughts, bearing drift of a thousand ancient things, confused, mysterious. At last_--)

PRISCILLA (_speaks_:)

"I was in the last chamber of the baths; and the rumbling sounds of the street caused a sleep to fall upon me.

"Suddenly I heard a clamour of voices. Men were shouting--'It is a magician!--it is the Devil!' And the crowd stopped before our house, in front of the Temple Æsculapius. I drew myself up with my hands to the little window.

"Upon the peristyle of the temple, there stood a man who wore about his neck a collar of iron. He took burning coals out of a chafing-dish, and with them drew lines across his breast, the while crying out--'Jesus! Jesus!' The people shouted--'This is not lawful! let us stone him!' But he continued. Oh! those were unheard of marvels--things which transported men who beheld them! Flowers broad as suns circled before my eyes, and I heard in the spaces above me the vibrations of a golden harp. Day died. My hands loosened their grasp of the window-bars; my body fell back, and when he had led me away to his house...."

ANTHONY. "But of whom art thou speaking?"

PRISCILLA. "Why, of Montanus!"

ANTHONY. "Montanus is dead!"

PRISCILLA. "It is not true!"

A VOICE. "No: Montanus is not dead!"

(_Anthony turns; and sees upon the bench near him, on the opposite side, another woman sitting; she is fair, and even paler than the other; there are swellings under her eyes, as though she had wept a long time. She speaks without being questioned_:)

MAXIMILLA. "We were returning from Tarsus by way of the mountains, when, at a turn in the road, we saw a man under a fig tree.

"He cried from afar off: 'Stop! stop!' and rushed toward us, uttering words of abuse. The slaves ran up; he burst into a loud laugh. The horses reared; the molossi all barked.

"He stood before us. The sweat streamed from his forehead; his mantle napped in the wind.

"And calling us each by our names, he reproached us with the vanity of our work, the infamy of our bodies; and he shook his fist at the dromedaries because of the silver bells hanging below their mouths.

"His fury now filled my very entrails with fear and yet there was a strange pleasure in it which fascinated me, intoxicated me!

"First the slaves came. 'Master,' they said, 'our animals are weary.' Then the women said, 'We are frightened,' and the slaves departed. Then the children began to weep,--'We are hungry.' And as the women were not answered, they disappeared also from our view.

"He still spoke. I felt some one near me. It was my husband; but I listened only to the other. My husband crawled to me upon his knees among the stones, and cried--'Dost thou abandon me,' and I replied: 'Yes! go thy way!' that I might accompany Montanus."

ANTHONY. "A eunuch!"

PRISCILLA. "Ah! does that astound thee, vulgar soul! Yet Magdalen, Johanna, Martha and Susannah did not share the couch of the Saviour. Souls may know the delirium of embrace better than bodies. That he might keep Eustolia with impunity, the bishop Leontius mutilated himself--loving his love more than his virility. And then, it was no fault of mine. Sotas could not cure me; a spirit constrained me. It is cruel, nevertheless! But what matter? I am the last of the prophetesses; and after me the end of the world shall come."

MAXIMILLA. "He showered his gifts upon me. Moreover, no one loves him as I, nor is any other so well beloved by him!"

PRISCILLA. "Thou liest! I am the most beloved!"

MAXIMILLA. "No: it is I!"

(_They fight. Between their shoulders suddenly appears the head of a negro._)

MONTANUS (_clad in a black mantle, clasped by two cross-bones_):

"Peace, my doves! Incapable of terrestrial happiness, we have obtained the celestial plentitude of our union. After the age of the Father, the age of the Son; and I inaugurate the third, which is that of the Paraclete. His light descended upon me during those forty nights when the heavenly Jerusalem appeared shining in the firmament, above my house at Pepuzza.

"Ah, how ye cry out with anguish when the thongs of the scourge lacerate! how your suffering bodies submit to the ardor of my spiritual discipline! how ye languish with irrealizable longing! So strong has that desire become that it has enabled you to behold the invisible world; and ye can now perceive souls even with the eyes of the body!"

ANTHONY. (_Makes a gesture of astonishment._)

TERTULLIAN (_who appears again, standing beside Montanus_):

"Without doubt; for the soul has a body, and that which is bodiless has no existence."

MONTANUS. "In order to render it yet more subtle, I have instituted many mortifications, three Lents a year, and prayers to be uttered nightly by the mind only, keeping the mouth closed, lest breathing might tarnish thought. It is necessary to abstain from second marriages, or rather from all marriage! The Angels themselves have sinned with women!"

THE ARCHONTICS (_wearing cilices of hair_):

"The Saviour said: 'I come to destroy the work of the Woman!'"

THE TATIANITES (_wearing cilices of reed_):

"She is the tree of evil. Our bodies are but garments of skin."

(_And continuing to advance along the same side, Anthony meets_:--)

THE VALESIANS (_extended upon the ground, with red wounds below their bellies, and blood saturating their tunics. They offer him a knife._)

"Do as Origen did and as we have done! Is it the pain that thou fearest, coward? Is it the love of thy flesh that restrains thee, hypocrite?"

(_And while he watches them writhing upon their backs, in a pool of blood_--)

THE CAINITES (_wearing knotted vipers as fillets about their hair, pass by, vociferating in his ear_):--

"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory be to Judas!

"Cain made the race of the strong; Sodom terrified the earth by her punishment, and it was by Judas that God saved the world! Yes! by Judas: without him there would have been no death and no redemption!"

(_They disappear beneath the horde of the_--)

CIRCUMCELLIONES (_all clad in the skins of wolves, crowned with thorns, and armed with maces of iron_).

"Crush the fruit! befoul the spring! drown the child! Pillage the rich who are happy--who cat their fill! Beat the poor who envy the ass his saddle-cloth, the dog his meal, the bird his nest,--and who is wretched at knowing that others are not as miserable as himself.

"We, the Saints, poison, burn, massacre, that we may hasten the end of the world.

"Salvation may be obtained through martyrdom only. We give ourselves martyrdom. We tear the skin from our heads with pincers; we expose our members to the plough; we cast ourselves into the mouths of furnaces!

"Out upon baptism! out upon the Eucharist! out upon marriage! universal damnation!"

(_Then throughout all the basilica there is a redoubling of fury._

_The Audians shoot arrows against the Devil; the Collyridians throw blue cloths toward the roof; the Ascites prostrate themselves before a waterskin; the Marcionites baptise a dead man with oil. A woman, standing near Appelles, exhibits a round loaf within a bottle, in order the better to explain her idea. Another, standing in the midst of an assembly of Sampseans distributes, as a sacrament, the dust of her own sandals. Upon the rose-strewn bed of the Marcosians, two lovers embrace. The Circumcellionites slaughter one another; the Valesians utter the death-rattle; Bardesanes sings; Carpocras dances; Maximilla and Priscilla moan; and the false prophetess of Cappadocia, completely naked, leaning upon a lion, and brandishing three torches, shrieks the Terrible Invocation._

_The columns of the temple sway to and fro like the trunks of trees in a tempest; the amulets suspended about the necks of the Heresiarchs seem to cross each other in lines of fire; the constellations in the chapels palpitate; and the walls recoil with the ebb and flow of the crowd, in which each head is a wave that leaps and roars._

_Nevertheless, from the midst of the clamor arises the sound of a song, in which the name of Jesus is often repeated, accompanied by bursts of laughter._

_The singers belong to the rabble of the people; they all keep time to the song by clapping their hands. In their midst stands_--)

ARTUS (_in a deacon's vestments_):

"The fools who declaim against me pretend to explain the absurd; and in order to confound them utterly, I have composed ditties so droll that they are learned by heart in all the mills, in the taverns and along the ports.

"No! a thousand times no!--the Son is not coeternal with the Father, nor of the same substance! Otherwise he would not have said: 'Father, remove this chalice from me! Why dost thou call me good? God alone is good! I go to my God, to your God!'--and many other things testifying to his character of creature. The fact is further demonstrated for us by all his names:--lamb, shepherd, fountain, wisdom, son-of-man, prophet; the way, the corner-stone!"

SABELLIUS. "I hold that both are identical."

ARIUS. "The Council of Antioch has decided the contrary."

ANTHONY. "Then what is the Word?... What was Jesus?"

THE VALENTINIANS. "He was the husband of Acharamoth repentant!"

THE SETHIANIANS. "He was Shem, the son of Noah!"

THE THEODOTIANS. "He was Melchisedech!"

THE MERINTHIANS. "He was only a man!"

THE APOLLINARISTS. "He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated the Passion!"

MARCEL OF ANCYRA. "He was a development of the Father!"

POPE CALIXTUS. "Father and Son are but two modes of one God's manifestation!"

METHODIUS. "He was first in Adam, then in man!"

CERINTHUS. "And He will rise again!"

VALENTINUS. "Impossible--his body being celestial!"

PAUL OF SAMOSATA. "He became God _only_ from the time of his baptism!"

HERMOGENES. "He dwells in the sun!"

(_And all the Heresiarchs form a circle about Anthony, who weeps, covering his face with his hands._)

A JEW (_with a red beard, and spots of leprosy upon his shin, approaches close to Anthony, and, with a hideous sneer, exclaims_):

"His soul was the soul of Esau! He suffered from the Bellephorentian sickness. Was not his mother, the seller of perfumes, seduced by a Roman soldier, one Pantherus?.......................... [6]

ANTHONY (_suddenly raising his head, looks at them a moment in silence; then advancing boldly upon them, exclaims_):

"Doctors, magicians, bishops, and deacons, men and phantoms, away from me! begone! Ye are all lies!"

THE HERESIARCHS. "We have martyrs more martyrs than thine, prayers that are more difficult, outbursts of love more sublime, ecstasies as prolonged as thine are."

ANTHONY. "But ye have no revelation! no proofs!"

(_They all at once brandish in the air their rolls of papyrus, tablets of wood, scrolls of leather, rolls of woven stuff bearing inscriptions; and elbowing; and pushing each other, they all shout to Anthony._)

THE CERINTHIANS. "Behold the Gospel of the Hebrews!"

THE MARCIONITES. "Behold the Gospel of the Lord!"

THE MARCOSIANS. "The Gospel of Eve!"

THE EUCRATITES. "The Gospel of Thomas!"

THE CAINITES. "The Gospel of Judas!"

BASILIDES. "The Treatise upon the Destiny of the Soul!"

MANES. "The Prophecy of Barkouf!"

(_Anthony struggles, breaks from them, escapes them; and in a shadowy corner perceives_--)

THE AGED EBIONITES

(_withered as mummies, their eyes dull and dim, their eyebrows white as frost._

_In tremulous voices they exclaim_:--)

"We have known him, we have seen him! We knew the Carpenter's Son! We were then the same age as he; we dwelt in the same street. He used to amuse himself by modelling little birds of mud; aided his father at his work without fear of the sharp tools, or selected for his mother the skeins of dyed wool. Then he made a voyage to Egypt, from whence he brought back wondrous secrets. We were at Jericho when he came to find the Eater of Locusts. They talked together in a low voice, so that no one could hear what was said. But it was from that time that his name began to be noised abroad in Galilee, and that men began to relate many fables regarding him."

(_They reiterate, tremulously_:)

"We knew him! we others, we knew him!"

ANTHONY. "Ah, speak on, speak! What was his face like?"

TERTULLIAN. "His face was wild and repulsive; forasmuch as he had burthened himself with all the crimes, all the woes, all the deformities of mankind."

ANTHONY. "Oh! no, no! I imagine, on the contrary, that his entire person must have been glorious with a beauty greater than the beauty of man!"

EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. "There is indeed, at Paneades, propped up against the walls of a crumbling edifice surrounded by a wilderness of weeds and creeping plants, a certain statue of stone which, some say, was erected by the Woman healed of the issue of blood. But time has gnawed the face of the statue, and the rains have worn the inscription away."

(_A woman steps forward from the group of the Carpocratians._)

MARCELLINA. "I was once a deaconess at Rome, in a little church, where I used to exhibit to the faithful, the silver images, of Saint Paul, Homer, Pythagoras and Jesus Christ.

"I have only kept that of Jesus."

(_She half opens her mantle._)

"Dost thou desire it?"

A VOICE. "He reappears himself when we call upon him! It is the hour!--come!"

(_And Anthony feels a brutal hand seize him by the arm, and drag him away._

_He mounts a stairway in complete darkness; and after having ascended many steps, he finds himself before a door._

_Then the one who is leading him--(is it Hilarion?--he does not know)--whispers in the ear of another_: "The Lord is about to come!"--_and they are admitted into a chamber, with a very low ceiling, and without furniture._

_The first object which attracts his attention is a long blood-colored chrysalis, with a human head surrounded by rays, and the word_ Knouphus _inscribed all around it in Greek characters. It is placed upon the shaft of a column, which is in turn supported by a broad pedestal. Hanging upon the walls of the chamber are medallions of polished iron representing the heads of various animals:--the head of an ox, the head of a lion, the head of an eagle, the head of a dog, and the head of an ass--again!_

_Earthen lamps, suspended below these images, create a vacillating light. Through a hole in the wall, Anthony can see the moon shining far off upon the waves; he can even hear the feeble regular sound of lapping water; together with the heavy thud occasionally caused by the bumping of a ship's hull against the stones of the mole._

_There are men crouching down, with their faces hidden by their mantles. From time to time they utter sounds resembling a smothered bark. There are women also, sleeping with their foreheads resting upon their arms, and their arms supported by their knees; they are so hidden by their garments as to resemble heaps of cloth piled up at intervals against the wall. Near them are half naked children, whose persons swarm with vermin. They watch with idiotic stare the burning of the lamps; and nothing is done: all are waiting for something._

_They talk in undertones about family matters, or recommend to each other various remedies for their ailments. Some of them must embark at earliest daylight; the persecution is becoming too terrible to be endured. Nevertheless, the pagans are easily enough deceived_:--"The fools imagine that we are really adoring Knouphus!"

_But one of the brethren, feeling himself suddenly inspired, takes his place before the column, where a basket has already been placed, filled with fennel and aristolochia. On the top of the basket is placed a loaf._)

THE INSPIRED BROTHER

(_unrolling a placard covered with designs representing cylinders blending with and fitting into one another, commences to pray_:)

"The ray of the Word descended upon the darknesses; and there arose a mighty cry, like unto the voice of Light."

ALL (_swaying their bodies in unison, respond_):

"Kyrie eleison!"

THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "Then was Man created by the infamous God of Israel, aided by those who are these (_pointing to the medallions_)--Astophaios, Oraios, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi, Iao!

"And Man, hideous, feeble, formless and thoughtless, lay upon the slime of the earth."

ALL (_in plaintive accents_):

"Kyrie eleison!"

THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Sophia, compassionating him, vivified him with a spark of her own soul.

"Then God, beholding Man so beautiful, waxed wroth; and imprisoned him within His own kingdom, forbidding him to touch the Tree of Knowledge.

"Again did the other succor him. She sent to him the Serpent, who, by many long subterfuges, made him disobey that law of hate.

"And Man, having tasted knowledge, understood celestial things."

ALL (_raising their voices_):

"Kyrie Eleison!"

THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Iabdalaoth through vengeance cast down man into the world of matter, and the Serpent with him."

ALL (_in a very low tone_):

"Kyrie Eleison!"

(_Then all hold their peace, and there is silence._

_The odors of the port mingle with the smoke of the lamps in the warm air. The lamp-wicks crepitate; their flames are about to go out, long mosquitoes flit in rapid circlings about them. And Anthony groans in an agony of anguish, as with the feeling that a monstrosity is floating about him, as with the fear of a crime that is about to be accomplished._

_But_--)

THE INSPIRED BROTHER (_stamping his heel upon the floor, snapping his fingers, tossing his head wildly, suddenly chants to a furious rhythm, with accompaniment of cymbals and a shrill flute_:--)

"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!

"O swift one, who runneth without feet, captor who seizeth without hand!

"Sinuous as the rivers, orbicular as the sun, black, with spots of gold, like the firmament star-besprinkled! Like unto the intertwinings of the vine, and the circumvolutions of entrails!

"Unengendered! eater of earth! immortally young! unfailing perspicacious! honored at Epidaurus! Kindly to man! thou who didst heal King Ptolemy, and the warriors, of Moses, and Glaucus, son of Minos!

"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!"

ALL (_repeat_):

"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!"

(_Nevertheless, nothing yet appears._)

"Why? What aileth him?"

(_And they concert together, devise means._

_An old man presents a clod of turf as an offering. Then something upheaves within the basket. The mass of verdure shakes; the flowers fall, and the head of a python appears._

_It passes slowly around the edge of the loaf, like a circle moving around an immovable disk;--then it unfolds itself, lengthens out; it is enormous and of great weight. Lest it should touch the floor, the men uphold it against their breasts, the women support it upon their heads, the children hold it up at arms' length; and its tail, issuing through the hole in the wall, stretches away indefinitely to the bottom of the sea. Its coils double; they fill the chamber; they enclose Anthony._)

THE FAITHFUL (_press their mouths against its skin, snatch from one another the loaf which it has bitten, and cry aloud_:--)

"It is thou! it is thou!

"First raised up by Moses, broken by Ezechias, re-established by the Messiah. He drank thee in the waters of baptism; but thou didst leave him in the Garden of Olives; and then indeed he felt his own weakness!

"Writhing about the arms of the cross, and above his head, while casting thy slime upon the crown of thorns, thou didst behold him die! For thou art not Jesus, thou!--thou art the Word! thou art the Christ!"

(_Anthony faints with horror, and falls prostrate in front of his hut upon the splinters of wood, where the torch that had slipped from his hand, is burning low._

_The shock arouses him. Opening his eyes again, he perceives the Nile, brightly undulating under the moon, like a vast serpent winding over the sands; so that the hallucination returns upon him again; he has not left the company of the Ophites; they surround him, call him; he sees them carrying baggage, descending to the port. He embarks along with them._

_An inappreciable time elapses._

_Then the vaults of a prison environ him. Iron bars in front of him make black lines against a background of blue; and in the darkness beside him people are praying and weeping surrounded by others who exhort and console._

_Without, there is a murmur like the deep humming of a vast crowd, and there is splendour as of a summer's day._

_Shrill voices announce watermelons for sale, iced drinks, and cushions of woven grass to sit upon. From time to time there are bursts of applause. He hears the sound of footsteps above his head._

_Suddenly a long roar is heard, mighty and cavernous as the roar of water in an aqueduct._

_And he sees, directly opposite, behind the bars of another compartment across the arena a lion walking to and fro, then a line of sandals, bare legs, and purple fringes. Beyond are the vast circling wreaths of people, in symmetrical tiers, enlarging as they rise, from the lowest which hems in the arena to the uppermost above which masts rise to sustain a hyacinth-colored awning, suspended in air by ropes. Stairways radiating toward the centre, divide these huge circles of stone at regular intervals. The benches disappear under a host of spectators--knights, senators, soldiers, plebeians, vestals, and courtesans--in woollen hoods, in silken maniples, in fallow-colored tunics; together with aigrettes of precious stones, plumes of feathers, the fasces of lictors; and all this swarming multitude deafens and stupefies Anthony with its shoutings, its tumultuous fury, as of an enormous boiling vat. In the middle of the arena, a vase of incense smokes upon an altar._

_Anthony thus knows that the people with him are Christians condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts. The men wear the red mantle of the pontiffs of Saturn; the women, the bandellettes of Ceres. Their friends divide among themselves shreds of their garments, and rings. To obtain access to the prison, they say, costs a great deal of money. But what matter! They will remain until it is all over._

_Anthony notices among these consolers, a certain bald-headed man, in a black tunic: Anthony has seen that face somewhere before. The consoler discourses to them concerning the nothingness of this world, and the felicity of the Elect. Anthony feels within him a transport of celestial love; he longs for the opportunity to lay down his life for the Saviour--not knowing as yet whether he himself is to be numbered among the martyrs._

_But all--except a certain Phrygian, with long hair, who stands with his arms uplifted--have a look of woe. One old man is sobbing upon a bench; a youth standing close by, with drooping head, abandons himself to a reverie of sorrow._

THE OLD MAN _had refused to pay the customary contribution before the statue of Minerva, erected at the angle of the cross-roads; and he gazes at his companions with a look that signifies_:--)

"Ye ought to have succored me! Communities can sometimes so arrange matters as to insure their being left in peace. Some among ye also procured those letters which falsely allege that one has sacrificed to idols."

(_He asks aloud_:--)

"Was it not Petrus of Alexandria who laid down the rule concerning what should be done by those who have yielded to torture?"

(_Then, to himself_:--)

"Ah! how cruel this at my age! My infirmities make me so weak! Nevertheless, I might easily have lived until the coming winter, or longer!"

(_The memory of his little garden makes him sad, and he gazes toward the altar._)

THE YOUNG MAN (_who disturbed the festival of Apollo by violence and blows, murmurs_:--)

"Yet it would have been easy for me to have fled to the mountains!"

(_One of the brothers answers_:--)

"But the soldiers would have captured thee!"

THE YOUNG MAN. "Oh! I would have done as Cyprian did--I would have returned, and the second time I would surely have had more force!"

(_Then he thinks of the innumerable days that he might have lived, of all the joys that he might have known, but will never know; and he gazes toward the altar._

_But_--)

THE MAN IN THE BLACK TUNIC (_rushes to his side._)

"What scandal! What! Thou! a victim of God's own choice! And all these women here who are looking at thee! Nay, think what thou art doing! Moreover, remember that God sometimes vouchsafes to perform a miracle. Pionius numbed and made powerless the hands of his executioners; the blood of Polycarp extinguished the fire of the stake."

(_Then he turns to the Old Man_:--)

"Father, father! it behooves thee to edify us by thy death! By longer delaying it, thou wouldst doubtless commit some evil action that would lose thee the fruit of all thy good works. Remember, also, that the power of God is infinite; and it may come to pass that all the people will be converted by thy example."

(_And in the great den opposite, the lions stride back and forth, ceaselessly, with a rapid continuous motion. The largest suddenly looks at Anthony and roars, and a vapour issues from his jaws._

_The women are huddled against the men._)

THE CONSOLER (_goes from one to the other._)

"What would ye say, what wouldst thou say if thou wert to be burned with red-hot irons, if thou wert to be torn asunder by horses, if thou hadst been condemned to have thy body smeared with honey, and thus exposed to be devoured by flies! As it is, thou wilt only suffer the death of a hunter surprised by a beast in the woods."

(_Anthony would prefer all those things to death by the fangs of the horrible wild beasts; he fancies already that he feels their teeth and their claws, that he hears his bones cracking between their jaws._

_A keeper enters the dungeon; the martyrs tremble._

_Only one remains impassable, the Phrygian, who prays standing apart from the rest. He has burned three temples; and he advances with arms uplifted, mouth open, face turned toward heaven, seeing nothing around him, like a somnambulist._)

THE CONSOLER (_shouts_). "Back! back! lest the spirit of Montanus might come upon you."

ALL (_recoil from the Phrygian, and vociferate_)

"Damnation to the Montanist!"

(_They insult him, spit upon him, excite each other to beat him._

_The rearing lions bite each other's manes_;)

THE PEOPLE "To the beasts with them, to the beasts."

_The Martyrs burst into sobs, and embrace each other passionately. A cup of narcotic wine is offered them. It is passed from hand to hand, quickly._

_Another keeper, standing at the door of the den, awaits the signal. The den opens; a lion comes out._

_He crosses the arena with great oblique strides. Other lions follow in file after him; then a bear, three panthers, and some leopards. They scatter through the arena like a flock in a meadow._

_The crack of a whip resounds. The Christians stagger forward; and their brethren push them, that it may be over the sooner._

_Anthony closes his eyes._

_He opens them again. But darkness envelopes him._

_Soon the darkness brightens; and he beholds an arid plain, mamillated with knolls, such as might be seen about abandoned quarries._

_Here and there a tuft of shrubbery rises among the slabs of stone, level with the soil; and there are white figures, vaguer than clouds, bending over the slabs._

_Others approach, softly, silently. Eyes gleam through the slits of long veils. By the easy indifference of their walk, and the perfumes exhaled from their garments, Anthony knows they are patrician women. There are men also, but of inferior condition; for their faces are at once simple-looking and coarse._

(_One of the Women, taking a long breath_:)

"Ah! how good the cool air of night is, among the sepulchers! I am so weary of the softness of beds, the turmoil of days, the heavy heat of the sun!"

(_Her maid-servant takes from a canvas bag, a torch which she ignites. The faithful light other torches by it, and plant them upon the tombs._)

A WOMAN (_panting_).

"I am here at last! Oh how wearisome to be the wife of an idolator!"

ANOTHER. "These visits to the prisons, interviews with our brethren, are all matters of suspicion to our husbands! And we must even hide ourselves in order to make the sign of the cross; they would take it for a magical conjuration!"

ANOTHER. "With my husband it was a quarrel every day. I would not submit myself to his brutal exactions; therefore he has had me prosecuted as a Christian."

ANOTHER. "Do you remember Lucius, that young man who was so beautiful, who was dragged like Hector, with his heels attached to a chariot, from the Esquiline Gate to the mountains of Tibur?--and how his blood spattered the bushes on either side of the road? I gathered up the drops of his blood. Behold it!"

(_She drags a black sponge from her bosom, covers it with kisses, and flings herself down upon the slabs, crying aloud_:--)

"Ah! my friend! my friend!"

A MAN. "It is just three years to-day since Domitilla died. They stoned her at the further end of the Grove of Proserpine. I gathered her bones, which shone like glowworms in the grass. The earth how covers them."

(_He casts himself down upon a tomb._)

"O my betrothed! my betrothed!"

(_And all the others scattered over the plain_:--)

"O my sister! O my brother! O my daughter! O my mother!"

(_Some kneel, covering their faces with their hands; others lie down upon the ground with their arms extended; and the sobs they smother shake their breasts with such violence as though their hearts were breaking with grief. Sometimes they look up to heaven, exclaiming_:--)

"Have mercy upon her soul, O my God! She languishes in the sojourn of Shades; vouchsafe to admit her to thy Resurrection, that she may enjoy Thy Light!"

(_Or, with eyes fixed upon the gravestones, they murmur to the dead_:--)

"Be at peace, beloved! and suffer not! I have brought thee wine and meats!"

A WIDOW. "Here is pultis, made by my own hands, as he used to like it, with plenty of eggs and a double measure of flour! We are going to eat it together as in other days, are we not?"

(_She lifts a little piece to her lips, and suddenly bursts into an extravagant and frenzied laugh._

_The others also nibble a little bit as she does and drink a mouthful of wine._

_They recount to each other the stories of their martyrs; grief becomes exalted! libations redouble. Their tear-swimming eyes are fixed upon each other's faces. They stammer with intoxication and grief; gradually hands touch hands, lips join themselves to lips, and they seek each other upon the tombs, between the cups and the torches._

_The sky begins to whiten. The fog makes damp their garments; and, without appearing even to know one another, they depart by different ways and seek their homes._

_The sun shines; the weeds and the grass have grown higher; the face of the plain is changed._

_And Anthony, looking between tall bamboos, sees distinctly a forest of columns, of bluish-grey color. These are tree-trunks, all originating from one vast trunk. From each branch of the colossal tree descend other branches which may bury themselves in the soil; and the aspect of all these horizontal and perpendicular lines, indefinitely multiplied, would closely resemble a monstrous timber-work, were it not that they have small figs[7] growing upon them here and there, and a blackish foliage, like that of the sycamore._

_He perceives in the forkings of their branches, hanging bunches of yellow flowers, violet flowers also, and ferns that resemble the plumes of splendid birds._

_Under the lowest branches the horns of a bubalus gleam at intervals, and the bright eyes of antelopes are visible; there are hosts of parrots; there are butterflies flittering hither and thither; lizards lazily drag themselves up or down; flies buzz and hum; and in the midst of the silence, a sound is audible as of the palpitation of a deep and mighty life._

_Seated upon a sort of pyre at the entrance of the wood is a strange being--a man--besmeared with cow-dung, completely naked, more withered than a mummy; his articulations form knots at the termination of bones that resemble sticks. He has bunches of shells suspended from his ears; his face is very long, and his nose like a vulture's beak. His left arm remains motionlessly erect in air, anchylosed, rigid as a stake; and he has been seated here so long that birds have made themselves a nest in his long hair._

_At the four corners of his wooden pyre flame four fires. The sun is directly in front of him. He gazes steadily at it with widely-opened eyes; and, then without looking at Anthony, asks him_:--)

"Brahmin from the shores of the Nile, what hast thou to say regarding these things?"

(_Flames suddenly burst out on all sides of him, through the intervals between the logs of the pyre; and_--)

THE GYMNOSOPHIST (_continues_).

"Lo! I have buried myself in solitude, like the rhinoceros. I dwelt in the tree behind me."

(_The vast fig-tree, indeed, shows in one of its groves, a natural excavation about the size of a man._)

"And I nourished me with flowers and fruits, observing the precepts so rigidly that not even a dog ever beheld me eat.

"Inasmuch as existence originates from corruption, corruption from desire, desire from sensation, sensation from contact, I have ever avoided all action, all contact, and perpetually--motionless as the stela of a tomb, exhaling my breath from my two nostrils, fixing my eyes upon my nose, and contemplating the ether in my mind, the world in my members, the moon in my heart--I dreamed of the essence of the great Soul whence continually escape the principles of life, even as sparks escape from fire.

"Thus at last I found the supreme Soul in all beings, and all beings in the supreme Soul; and I have been able to make mine own soul all my senses.

"I receive knowledge directly from heaven, like the bird Tchataka, who quenches his thirst from falling rain only.

"Even by so much as things are known to me, things no longer exist.

"For me now there is no more hope, no more anguish, there is neither happiness nor virtue, nor day nor night, nor Thou nor I--absolutely nothing!

"My awful austerities have made me superior to the Powers. A single contraction of my thought would suffice to kill a hundred sons of kings, to dethrone gods, to overturn the world."

(_He utters all these things in a monotonous voice._

_The surrounding leaves shrivel up. Fleeing rats rush over the ground._

_He slowly turns his eyes downward toward the rising flames, and then continues_:--)

"I have loathed Form, I have loathed Perception, I have loathed even Knowledge itself, for the thought does not survive the transitory fact which caused it; and mind, like all else, is only an illusion.

"All that is engendered will perish; all that is dead must live again; the beings that have even now disappeared shall sojourn again in wombs as yet unformed, and shall again return to earth to serve in woe other creatures.

"But inasmuch as I have rolled through the revolution of an indefinite multitude of existences, under the envelopes of gods, of men, and of animals, I renounce further wanderings; I will endure this weariness no more! I abandon the filthy hostelry of this body of mine, built with flesh, reddened with blood, covered with a hideous skin, full of uncleanliness; and, for my recompense, I go at last to slumber in the deepest deeps of the Absolute--in Annihilation."

(_The flames rise to his chest, then envelope him. His head rises through them as through a hole in the wall. His cavernous eyes still remain icicle open, gazing._)

ANTHONY (_rises_).

(_The torch, which had fallen to the ground, has ignited the splinters of wood; and the flames have singed his beard._

_With a loud cry, Anthony tramples the fire out; and, when nothing remains but ashes, he exclaims_:--)

"Where can Hilarion be? He was here a moment ago. I saw him!

"What! No; it is impossible; I must have been mistaken!

"Yet why?... Perhaps my cabin, these stones, this sand, have no real existence. I am becoming mad! Let me be calm! Where was I? What was it that happened?

"Ah! the gymnosophist!... Such a death is frequent among the sages of India. Kalanos burned himself before Alexander; another did likewise in the time of Augustus. What hatred of life men must have to do thus! Unless, indeed, they are impelled by pride alone?... Yet in any event they have the intrepidity of martyrs.... As for the latter, I can now well believe what has been told me regarding the debauchery they cause.

"And before that? Yes: I remember now! the host of the Heresiarchs! What outcries! What eyes! Yet why so much rebellion of the flesh, so much dissoluteness, so many aberrations of the intellect.

"They claim, nevertheless, to seek God through all those ways! What right have I to curse them--I, who stumble so often in mine own path? I was perhaps about to learn more of them at the moment when they disappeared. Too rapid was the whirl; I had no time to answer. Now I feel as though there were more space, more light in my understanding. I am calm. I even feel myself able to.... What is this? I thought I had put out the fire!"

(_A flame flits among the rocks; and soon there comes the sound of a voice--broken, convulsed as by sobs--from afar off, among the mountains._)

"Can it be the cry of a hyena, or the lamentation of some traveler that has lost his way?"

(_Anthony listens. The flame draws nearer._

_And he beholds a weeping woman approach, leaning upon the shoulder of a white-bearded man._

_She is covered with a purple robe in rags. He is bareheaded like lier, wears a tunic of the same color, and carries in his hands a brazen vase, whence arises a thin blue flame._

_Anthony feels a fear come upon him, and wishes to know who this woman may be._)

THE STRANGER SIMON. "It is a young girl, a poor child that I lead about with me everywhere."

(_He uplifts the brazen vase._

_Anthony contemplates the girl, by the light of its vacillating flame._

_There are marks of bites upon her face, traces of blows upon her arms; her dishevelled hair entangles itself in the rents of her rags; her eyes appear to be insensible to light._)

SIMON. "Sometimes she remains thus for a long, long time without speaking; then all at once she revives, and discourses of marvellous things."

ANTHONY. "In truth?"

SIMON. "Ennoia; Ennoia! Ennoia!--tell us what thou hast to say!"

(_She rolls her eyes like one awaking from a dream, slowly passes her fingers over her brows, and in a mournful voice, speaks_:--)

Helena[8] (_Ennoia_).

"I remember a distant land, of the color of emerald. Only one tree grows there.

(_Anthony starts_).

"Upon each of its tiers of broad-extending arms, a pair of Spirits dwell in air. All about them the branches intercross, like the veins of a body; and they watch the eternal Life circulating, from the roots deep plunging into darkness even to the leafy summit that rises higher than the sun. I, dwelling upon the second branch, illuminated the nights of Summer with my face."

ANTHONY, (_tapping his own forehead_:--)

"Ah! ah! I comprehend! her head!..."

SIMON (_placing his finger to his lips_:--)

"Hush!"

HELENA. "The sail remained well filled by the wind; the keel cleft the foam. He said to me: 'What though I afflict my country, though I lose my kingdom! Thou wilt belong to me, in my house!'

"How sweet was the lofty chamber of his palace! Lying upon the ivory bed, he caressed my long hair, singing amorously the while.

"Even at the close of the day I beheld the two camps, the watchfires being lighted, Ulysses at the entrance of his tent, armed Achilles driving a chariot along the sea-beach."

ANTHONY. "Why! she is utterly mad! How came this to pass?..."

SIMON. "Hush! hush!"

HELENA. "They anointed me with unguents, and sold me to the people that I might amuse them.

"One evening I was standing with the sistrum in my hand, making music for some Greek sailors who were dancing. The rain was falling upon the roof of the tavern like a cataract, and the cups of warm wine were smoking.

"A man suddenly entered, although the door was not opened to let him pass."

SIMON. "It was I! I found thee again!