"Thou mayest approach."
"Who art thou?"
"I am Lucifer, I am Light, I am the East, I am the Morning Star!"
"How beautiful thou art!"
"Be thou as I am."
"What melancholy dwells in thine eyes!"
"I suffer for all living. Birth must cease, death must cease. Come to
me; I am the Shadow, I am Repose, I am Liberty."
"How art thou named among men?"
"Evil."
"Thou?"
"Yes. I turned in revolt."
"Against whom?"
"Against Him whose peer I am. He willed to be alone, but we are two,
and equals."
"Make me in thine image!"
"Revolt also! I will give thee the thews for rebellion."
"Teach me!"
"Violate the law, love thyself, curse Him, and be as I am!"
The Angel disappeared; the wind in circling gusts rekindled the flame
on the tripod. The flame blew over the brim of the vessel and ran
along the ground. The tripod itself was overset, and the flame went
out. In the darkness came a rushing noise of numberless steps, with
cries and groanings, as if an invisible army, fleeing before an enemy,
were in passage through the cave. Julian, in terror, fell face
downward to the earth, while the long black robe of the hierophant,
stretched over him, struggled with the wind.
"Flee, flee!" groaned indistinct voices. "The gates of Hell are
opening; it is He, He, the Conqueror!"
The wind hissed in Julian's ears; legions upon legions seemed passing
over him; suddenly there fell a dead calm; a heavenly breath filled
the vast cavern and a voice murmured--
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
It seemed to Julian that he had heard that voice before, in some far
time of childhood. Gently it came again--
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
And the sound faded away into the distance, so that there came at last
but an imperceptible whisper: "Why, why, persecutest thou me?"
When Julian awoke and raised his prostrate face he saw one of the
initiating priests lighting a lamp. He felt giddy, but remembered
exactly everything that had taken place. His eyes were blindfolded
and, strengthened with spiced wine, he was enabled to climb the
staircase, his hand gripped this time by the strong hand of Maximus.
He felt as if an invisible force was lifting him on wings. The teacher
of rites said to the lad--
"Now ask what you will!"
"Did you summon Him?" inquired Julian.
"No. But when one chord of the lyre vibrates, another chord responds.
Opposite answers opposite."
"Why is there such potency in His words if His words are only lies?"
"His words are truth."
"What do you mean? Then it is the Titan and the Angel who lied?"
"They also are the truth."
"Do you mean that there are two truths?"
"Two truths."
"Ah! You are tempting me!..."
"Not I, but the wholeness of the truth. If you are afraid, be silent."
"I am afraid of nothing. Say on; tell all! Are the Galileans right?"
"Yes."
"Why then should I have renounced them?"
"There is, beside theirs, another truth."
"One higher?"
"No, equal."
"But in what is one to believe? Where is the God whom I seek?"
"Both here and yonder. Serve Ahriman,--serve Ormuzd, whichever
pleases you! But forget not that both are equal,--the kingdom of
Lucifer and the kingdom of God."
"Which way should I choose?"
"Choose one of the two roads, and halt no more!"
"But which?"
"If you believe in Him, take up the cross. Follow Him according to His
command; be humble, chaste. Be the lamb that was dumb between the
hands of the shearers. Flee into the desert for salvation; give Him
body, soul, and reason! Believe!... that is one way. And the Galilean
martyrs attain the same liberty that Prometheus and Lucifer have
attained."
"That way I cannot choose."
"Choose then the other path. Be puissant as your ancestors of old, the
heroes--proud, pitiless, and haughty. No compassion! No love! No
pardon! Arise and conquer all things! Let your body become hard as
marble out of which the demigods are hewn! Take and give not! Taste of
the forbidden fruit and repent not! Believe not, doubt not, and the
world shall be thine! Thou shalt be the Titan--an angel revolted
against God."
"But I can never forget that the words of the Galilean contain truth
also. I cannot admit two beliefs."
"Then thou shalt be like all common mortals and hadst better never
been born; but thou canst choose. Make the venture!... Thou shalt be
emperor!"
"I? Emperor?"
"Thou shalt have between thy hands what Alexander never had."
Julian felt that they were issuing from the bowels of the earth, felt
the morning sea-breeze bathing him. The hierophant unknotted the
bandage over his eyes, and lo! they were standing on a high marble
tower, the astronomical observatory of the great seer, built after the
model of the ancient Chaldean towers, but upon a crag above the sea.
Below stretched luxurious gardens, palaces, and cloisters, recalling
the colonnades of Persepolis. In the distance the Artemision and
Ephesus stood in clear relief against the mountains over which the sun
was about to rise.
Julian's head almost gave way at the extent of the view; he had to
lean upon the arm of Maximus; but then with a smile the youth closed
his eyes, and the beams of the rising sun flushed his white vestments
with rose-colour. The seer stretched out his arm.
"Behold! all this is thine!"
"Can I sustain it, Master? Assassination may strike me at any moment.
I am weak and ill."
"The sun, the god Mithra, is crowning you with his purples--the purple
of the Roman Empire. All this is thine. Dare!"
"And what is it all to me, since truth unified does not exist, and
since I cannot find the God for whom I seek?"
"Ah! if thou canst make one the truth of the Titan and the truth of
the Galilean, thou wilt be greater than any that have been born of
women!..."
* * * * *
Maximus of Ephesus was the owner of marvellous libraries, quiet marble
chambers, and spacious anatomical laboratories crowded with scientific
apparatus. In one of the latter the young physicist, Oribazius, a
doctor of the school of Alexandria, was vivisecting, scalpel in hand,
a rare animal sent to Maximus from the Indies. The hall was circular
and the walls loaded with rows of tin vessels, chafing dishes,
retorts, apparatus like that of Archimedes, and fire machines like
those of Ktesius and Geron. In the silence of the adjoining library
drop after drop fell plashing from the water-clock, an invention of
Apollonius. Globes were there also, geographical charts in metal, and
models of the celestial spheres wrought by Hipparchus and
Eratosthenes.
In the clear and serene light falling through the glass ceiling,
Maximus, clothed as a simple philosopher, was scrutinising the
still-warm organs of the animal laid on the marble. Oribazius stooping
over the liver of the animal was saying--
"How can Maximus, the great philosopher, believe in these ridiculous
miracles?"
"I believe in them and I believe in them not," answered the magian.
"This Nature which you and I are studying, is not she most miraculous?
Are not these blood-vessels, this nervous system, the admirable
combination of organs which we are examining like augurs--are not
these the most splendid of mysteries?"
"You know my meaning," interrupted the young doctor. "Why have you
deceived this young man?"
"Julian?"
"Yes."
"He himself desired to be deceived."
The brows of Oribazius knitted into a frown.
"Master, if you love me, tell me who you are. How can you endure lies
like these? Do I not understand what magic means? You attach luminous
fish-scales to the ceiling of a darkened chamber, and the pupil to be
initiated believes that the skies are descending on him at the word of
the hierophant. You manufacture with skin and wax a death's head, into
which you fit a stork's neck; and through it you pronounce your
predictions from beneath the floor. The pupil imagines that the skull
uncurtains to him the secrets of the tomb; and when it is necessary
that the head should vanish, you bring a chafing dish near it, the wax
melts and the skull collapses. By skilful rays of coloured light
playing on odorous smoke, you make the innocent believe that they have
verily seen the gods! You display under water in a basin, of which the
walls are stone and the bottom glass, a living Apollo (acted by an
obliging slave), while some vulgar prostitute is played off as
Aphrodite. This--this, you call the holy mysteries!"
His habitual equivocal smile wandered over the compressed lips of the
teacher, who answered--
"Ah! our mysteries are deeper and finer than you suppose. Men have
absolute need of enthusiasm. For him who has faith the harlot is
Aphrodite really, and the luminous scales are the stars of heaven. You
say that people weep and pray before semblances produced by a lamp and
coloured glasses? Oribazius, Oribazius!... but this Nature which makes
your science marvel, is she not herself a mirage, produced by senses
as deceptive as the wizard's lantern? Wherein does truth consist?
Where does falsehood begin? You believe and you know, and I neither
wish to believe nor am skilled to know. Truth dwells for me in the
same shrine as falsehood."
"Would Julian thank you, if he knew that you were deceiving him?"
"He saw what he desired to see. I have given him enthusiasm, strength,
and audacity. You say that I have deceived him. If that had been
necessary I would have done so--I would have tempted him. I love the
falsehood that contains a truth. I love temptation. Till I die I will
never abandon Julian and shall allow him to taste all forbidden
fruits. He is young; I shall live on a second life in him. I will
unveil for him the mystery and charm even of crime; and perhaps
through me he shall become great!"
"Master, I do not understand you."
"And that is precisely why I speak thus to you," responded Maximus,
fixing on Oribazius his penetrating and impassive eyes.