THE FIERY TRIAL.
And 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.
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.
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 covered
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.
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.
_Hilarion_--"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 Poppaea, the
concubine of Nero. Don't tremble any more! Come on!"
There are fresh arrivals every moment.
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.
_Antony_, in a low tone--"What do they want?"
_Hilarion_--"The Lord said, 'I may still have to speak to you about many
things.' They possess those things."
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 Manes makes his globe
revolve, and, attuning his words to the music of a lyre, from which
bursts forth crystalline sounds, he says:
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"The souls that leave this world emigrate towards the stars, which are
animated beings."
Antony begins to laugh:
"Ah! ah! what an absurd hallucination!"
_A man_, beardless, and of austere aspect--"Why?"
Antony is about to reply. But Hilarion tells him in an undertone, that
this man is the mighty Origen; and Manes resumes:
"At first, they stay in the moon, where they are purified. After that,
they ascend to the sun."
_Antony_, slowly--"I know nothing to prevent us from believing it."
_Manes_--"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!"
_Hilarion_--"They are temperate, as you see!"
_Manes_--"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!"
_Hilarion_--"Admire their countenance!"
_Manes_--"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."
_Antony_--"Ah! abomination!"
_Hilarion_--"What matters the hierarchy of iniquities? The Church has
done well to make marriage a sacrament!"
_Saturninus_, 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----"
_Antony_--"An angel? He! the Creator?"
_Gerdon_--"Did He not desire to kill Moses and deceive the prophets? and
did He not lead the people astray, spreading lying and idolatry?"
_Marcion_--"Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!"
_Saint Clement of Alexandria_--"Matter is eternal!"
_Bardesanes_, as one of the Babylonian Magi--"It was formed by the seven
planetary spirits."
_The Hernians_--"The angels have made the souls!"
_The Priscillianists_--"The world was made by the Devil."
_Antony_, falls backward--"Horror!"
_Hilarion_, 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!"
And, at a signal from Hilarion, Valentinus, in a tunic of silver cloth,
with a hissing voice and a pointed skull, cries:
"The world is the work of a delirious God!"
_Antony_, hangs down his head--"The work of a delirious God!"
After a long silence:
"How is that?"
_Valentinus_--"The most perfect of the AEons, the Abysm, reposed on the
bosom of Profundity together with Thought. From their union sprang
Intelligence, who had for his consort Truth.
"Intelligence and Truth engendered the Word and Life, which in their
turn engendered Man and the Church; and this makes eight AEons."
He reckons on his fingers:
"The Word and Truth produced ten other AEons, 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.
"The entire of those thirty AEons 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.
"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 AEons, 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.
"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!"
_Origen_--"Then the Demon shall be conquered, and the reign of God shall
begin!"
Antony represses an exclamation, and immediately Basilides, catching him
by the elbow:
"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."
And he shows on his neck a little stone on which fantastic lines are
engraved.
"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."
_Antony_--"What! and the Cross?"
The Elkhesaites, in hyacinthine robes, reply to him:
"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!"
Hilarion has disappeared; and Antony, pressed forward by the crowd,
finds himself facing the Carpocratians, stretched with women upon
scarlet cushions:
"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."
The Nicolaites, assembled around a smoking dish:
"This is meat offered to idols; let us take it! Apostacy is permitted
when the heart is pure. Glut your flesh with what it asks for. Try to
destroy it by means of debaucheries. Prounikos, the mother of Heaven,
wallows in iniquity."
The Marcosians, with rings of gold and dripping with balsam:
"Come to us, in order to be united with the Spirit! Come to us, in order
to drink immortality!"
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.
Another discloses a very low bed strewn with flowers, saying as he does
so:
"The spiritual nuptials are about to be consummated."
A third holds forth a goblet of glass while he utters an invocation.
Blood appears in it:
"Ah! there it is! there it is! the blood of Christ!"
Antony turns aside; but he is splashed by the water, which leaps out of
a tub.
The Helvidians cast themselves into it head foremost, muttering:
"Man regenerated by baptism is incapable of sin!"
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:
"Oh! run over us, if you like; we shall not budge! Work is a sin; all
occupation is evil!"
Behind those, the abject Paternians, men, women, and children,
pell-mell, on a heap of filth, lift up their hideous faces, besmeared
with wine:
"The inferior parts of the body, having been made by the Devil, belong
to him. Let us eat, drink, and enjoy!"
_AEtius_--"Crimes come from the need here below of the love of God!"
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:
"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; AEtius 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."
Antony has recognised Tertullian, and rushes forward to meet him.
"Help, master! help!"
_Tertullian_, continuing--"Break the images! Veil the virgins! Pray,
fast, weep, mortify yourselves! No philosophy! no books! After Jesus,
science is useless!"
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.
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. 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:
"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 AEsculapius. 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--"
_Antony_--"Whom are you talking about?"
_Priscilla_--"Why, of Montanus!"
_Antony_--"But Montanus is dead."
_Priscilla_--"That is not true."
_A voice_--"No, Montanus is not dead!"
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:
_Maximilla_--"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.
"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."
_Antony_--"A eunuch!"
_Priscilla_--"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 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."
_Maximilla_--"He has loaded me with his gifts. None of the others loved
me so much, nor is any of them better loved."
_Priscilla_--"You lie! I am the person he loves!"
_Maximilla_--"No: it is I!"
They fight.
Between their shoulders appears a negro's head.
_Montanus_, covered with a black cloak, fastened by two dead men's
bones:
"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.
"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."
Antony makes a gesture of astonishment.
_Tertullian_, coming up close to Montanus--"No doubt, since the soul has
a body, that which has no body exists not."
_Montanus_--"In order to render it less material I have introduced
numerous mortifications--three Lents 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."
The Archontics, in hair-shirts:
"The Saviour said, 'I came to destroy the work of the woman.'"
The Tatianists, in hair-cloths of rushes:
"She is the tree of evil! Our bodies are the garments of skin."
And, ever advancing on the same side, Antony encounters the Valesians,
stretched on the ground, with red plates below their stomachs, beneath
their tunics.
They present to him a knife.
"Do like Origen and like us! Is it the pain you fear, coward? Is it the
love of your flesh that restrains you, hypocrite?"
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:
"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory to Judas!
"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!"
They pass out through the band of Circoncellions, clad in wolf-skin,
crowned with thorns, and carrying iron clubs.
"Crush the fruit! Attack the fountain-head! Drown the child! Plunder the
rich man who is 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.
"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!"
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.
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.
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:
"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.
"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."
_Sabellius_--"As for me, I maintain that both are identical."
_Arius_--"The Council of Antioch has decided the other way."
_Antony_--"Who, then, is the Word? Who was Jesus?"
_The Valentinians_--"He was the husband of Acharamoth when she had
repented!"
_The Sethianians_--"He was Sem, son of Noah!"
_The Theodotians_--"He was Melchisidech!"
_The Merinthians_--"He was nothing but a man!"
_The Apollonarists_--"He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated the
Passion!"
_Marcellus of Ancyra_--"He is a development of the Father!"
_Pope Calixtus_--"Father and Son are the two forms of a single God!"
_Methadius_--"He was first in Adam, and then in man!"
_Cerinthus_--"And He will come back to life again!"
_Valentinus_--"Impossible--His body is celestial."
_Paul of Samosta_--"He is God only since His baptism."
_Hermogenes_--"He dwells in the sun."
And all the heresiarchs form a circle around Antony, who weeps, with his
head in his hands.
A Jew, with red beard, and his skin spotted with leprosy, advances close
to him, and chuckling horribly:
"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."
Antony eagerly lifts up his head, and gazes at them without uttering a
word; then, treading right over them:
"Doctors, magicians, bishops and deacons, men and phantoms, back! back!
Ye are all lies!"
_The Heresiarchs_--"We have martyrs, more martyrs than yours, prayers
more difficult, higher outbursts of love, and ecstasies quite as
protracted."
_Antony_--"But no revelation. No proofs."
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:
_The Corinthians_--"Here is the Gospel of the Hebrews!"
_The Marcionites_--"The Gospel of the Lord! The Gospel of Eve!"
_The Encratites_--"The Gospel of Thomas!"
_The Cainites_--"The Gospel of Judas!"
_Basilides_--"The treatise of the spirit that has come!"
_Manes_--"The prophecy of Barcouf!"
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.
They speak in a quavering tone:
"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."
They repeat, tremulously:
"We have known, we ourselves; we have known him."
_Antony_--"One moment! Tell me! pray tell me, what was his face like?"
_Tertullian_--"Fierce and repulsive in its aspect; for he was laden with
all the crimes, all the sorrows, and all the deformities of the world."
_Antony_--"Oh! no! no! I imagine, on the contrary, that there was about
his entire person a superhuman beauty."
_Eusebius of Caesarea_--"There is at Paneadae, 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."
A woman comes forth from the group of Carpocratians.
_Marcellina_--"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.
"I have kept only his."
She draws aside the folds of her cloak.
"Do you wish it?"
_A voice_--"He reappears himself when we invoke him. It is the hour.
Come!"
And Antony feels a brutal hand laid on him, which drags him along.
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 _Knouphis_ 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 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.
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.
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!"
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.
The others have taken their places, forming, as they stand, three
parallel lines.
The inspired one unrolls a paper covered with cylinders joined together,
and then begins:
"Upon the darkness the ray of the Word descended, and a violent cry
burst forth, which seemed like the voice of light."
All responding, while they sway their bodies to and fro:
"Kyrie eleison!"
_The inspired one_--"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 Iao!
"And he lay on the mud, hideous, feeble, shapeless, without the power of
thought."
All, in a plaintive tone:
"Kyrie eleison!"
_The inspired one_--"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."
All, with energy:
"Kyrie eleison!"
_The inspired one_--"But Jaldalaoth, in order to be revenged, plunged
man into matter, and the serpent along with him!"
All, in very low tones:
"Kyrie eleison!"
They close their mouths and then become silent.
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.
But the inspired one, stamping with his feet, snapping his fingers,
tossing his head, sings a psalm, with a wild refrain, to the sound of
cymbals and of a shrill flute:
"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!
"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!
"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!
"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"
All repeat:
"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"
However, there is no manifestation.
"Why, what is the matter with him?"
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.
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.
The Faithful, pressing their mouths against his skin, snatch the bread
which he has nibbled.
"It is thou! it is thou!
"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.
"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!"
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.
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.
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.
Suddenly, comes a continuous roaring, strong and cavernous, like the
noise of water in an aqueduct: 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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:
"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."
He asks:
"Is it not Peter of Alexandria who has regulated what one ought to do
when one is overcome by tortures?"
Then, to himself:
"Ah! this is very hard at my age! my infirmities render me so feeble!
Perchance, I might have lived to another winter!"
The recollection of his little garden moves him to tears; and he
contemplates the side of the altar.
The young man, who had disturbed by violence a feast of Apollo, murmurs:
"My only chance was to fly to the mountains!"
"The soldiers would have caught you," says one of the brethren.
"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!"
Then he thinks of the countless days he should have lived, with all the
pleasures which he will not have known;--and he, likewise, contemplates
the side of the altar.
But the man in the black tunic rushes up to him:
"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."
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."
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.
The women are jammed up against the men.
The consoler goes from one to another:
"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."
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.
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
had burned three temples. He now advances with lifted arms, open mouth,
and his head towards Heaven, without seeing anything, like a
somnambulist.
The consoler exclaims:
"Keep back! Keep back! The Spirit of Montanus will destroy ye!"
All fall back, vociferating:
"Damnation to the Montanist!"
They insult him, spit upon him, would like to strike him. The lions,
prancing, bite one another's manes. The people yell:
"To the beasts! To the beasts!"
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.
Near the door of the den another belluarius awaits the signal. It opens;
a lion comes out.
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.
The cracking of a whip is heard. The Christians stagger, and, in order
to make an end of it, their brethren push them forward.
Antony closes his eyes.
* * * * *
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
appearance. 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.
One of the women, with a long breath:
"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!"
_A woman_, panting--"Ah! at last, here I am! But how irksome to have
wedded an idolater!"
_Another_--"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."
_Another_--"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."
_Another_--"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!"
She draws from her bosom a sponge perfectly black, covers it with
kisses, and then flings herself upon the slab, crying:
"Ah! my friend! my friend!"
_A man_--"It is just three years to-day since Domitilla's death. She was
stoned at the bottom of the Wood of Proserpine. I gathered her bones,
which shone like glow-worms in the grass. The earth now covers them."
He flings himself upon a tombstone.
"O my betrothed! my betrothed!"
And all the others, scattered through the plain:
"O my sister!" "O my brother!" "O my daughter!" "O my mother!"
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:
"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!"
Or, with eyes fixed on the flagstones, they murmur:
"Be at rest--suffer no more! I have brought thee wine and meat!"
_A widow_--"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?"
She puts a little of it on her lips, and suddenly begins to laugh in an
extravagant fashion, frantically.
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
embrace one another upon the tombs in the midst of the cups and the
torches.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"Brahmin of the banks of the Nile, what sayest thou?"
Flames start out on every side through the partings of the beams; and
the gymnosophist resumes:
"Like a rhinoceros, I am plunged in solitude. I dwelt in the tree that
was behind me."
In fact, the large fig-tree presents in its flutings a natural
excavation of the shape of a man.
"And I fed myself on flowers and fruits with such an observance of
precepts that not even a dog has seen me eat.
"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.
"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 goodness, no virtue, neither
day nor night, neither thou nor I--absolutely nothing.
"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."
He utters all this in a monotonous voice. The leaves all around him are
withered. The rats fly over the ground.
He slowly lowers his eyes towards the flames, which are rising, then
adds:
"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.
"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."
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.
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, Antony tramples on the fire; and, when only a heap of
cinders is left:
"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?
"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.
"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?
"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."
A flame flutters between the rocks; and, speedily, a jerky voice makes
itself heard from the mountains in the distance.
"Are those the barkings of a hyena, or the lamentations of some lost
traveller?"
Antony listens. The flame draws nearer.
* * * * *
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.
Antony is filled with fear,--and yet he would fain know who this woman
is.
_The stranger_ (_Simon_)--"This is a young girl, a poor child, whom I
take everywhere with me."
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.
_Simon_--"Sometimes she remains thus a long time without speaking or
eating, and utters marvellous things."
_Antony_--"Really?"
_Simon_--"Eunoia! Eunoia! relate what you have to say!"
She turns around her eyeballs, as if awakening from a dream, passes her
fingers slowly across her two lids, and in a mournful voice:
_Helena_ (_Eunoia_)--"I have a recollection of a distant region, of the
colour of emerald. There is only a single tree there."
Antony gives a start.
"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 in shadow
up to the summit, which reaches beyond the sun. I, on the second branch,
illumined with my face the summer nights."
_Antony_, touching his forehead--"Ah! ah! I understand! the head!"
_Simon_, with his finger on his lips--"Hush! Hush!"
_Helena_--"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!'
"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."
_Antony_--"Why, she is quite mad! Wherefore? ..."
_Simon_--"Hush! Hush!"
_Helena_--"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."
_Simon_--"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 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."
_Antony_--"Ah! what is coming over me?"
_Simon_, with a furious air--
"I have redeemed her, I tell you, and re-established her in all her
splendour, such as Caius Caesar Agricola became enamoured of when he
desired to sleep with the Moon!"
_Antony_---"Well! well!"
_Simon_--"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!"
_Antony_--"Yes! ... I think I recollect ..."
And he falls into a reverie.
_Simon_--"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, 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!"
_Antony_--"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!"
_Simon_--"Do you desire them?"
Antony looks at him, and an inner voice murmurs in his breast, "Why
not?"
Simon resumes:
"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!
"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!"
He gives him his hands to smell. They have the odour of a corpse. Antony
recoils.
"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 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?"
The thunder rolls, followed by flashes of lightning.
"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!"
And all the while stirring the flame with his hand, slowly, as if to
sprinkle Antony with it:
"Mother of Mercies, thou who discoverest secrets in order that we may
have rest in the eighth house ..."
Antony exclaims:
"Ah! if I had holy water!"
The flame goes out, producing much smoke.
Eunoia and Simon have disappeared.
* * * * *
An extremely cold fog, opaque and f[oe]tid, fills the atmosphere.
_Antony_, extending his arms like a blind man--
"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!"
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 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.
_Antony_, with a start--"What do ye seek? Speak! Go on!"
_Damis_--He is the little man--
"La, la! ... worthy hermit! what do you say? I know nothing about it.
Here is the Master!"
He sits down; the other remains standing. Silence.
_Antony_, resumes--"Ye come in this fashion? ..."
_Damis_--"Oh! a great distance--a very great distance!"
_Antony_--"And ye are going? ..."
_Damis_, pointing at his companion--"Wherever he wishes."
_Antony_--"Who, then, is he?"
_Damis_--"Look at him."
_Antony_--"He has the appearance of a saint. If I dared ..."
The fog by this time is quite gone. The atmosphere has become perfectly
clear. The moon shines out.
_Damis_--"What are you thinking of now that you say nothing more?"
_Antony_--"I am thinking of----Oh! nothing."
Damis draws close to Apollonius, makes many turns round him, with his
figure bent, and without moving his head.
"Master, this is a Galilean hermit who wishes to know the sources of
your wisdom."
_Apollonius_--"Let him approach."
Antony hesitates.
_Damis_--"Approach!"
_Apollonius_, in a voice of thunder--
"Approach! You would like to know who I am, what I have done, what I am
thinking of? Is that not so, child?"
_Antony_--" ... If at the same time those things contribute to my
salvation."
_Apollonius_--"Rejoice! I am about to tell them to you!"
_Damis_, in a low tone to Antony--
"Is it possible? He must have, at the first glance, recognised your
extraordinary inclinations for philosophy! I shall profit by it also
myself."
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_ to Antony:
"What a just man! eh?"
_Antony_--"Decidedly, I believe he is sincere."
_Apollonius_--"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 despair 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."
_Damis_, to Antony, striking him on the elbow--"Eh? Just as I told you!
What a man!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_--"Would you have done that--you?"
_Apollonius_--"The time of my ordeal ended, I undertook to instruct the
priests who had lost the tradition."
_Antony_--"What tradition?"
_Damis_--"Let him continue. Be silent!"
_Apollonius_--"I have conversed with the Samaneans of the Ganges, with
the astrologers of Chaldea, with the magi of Babylon, with the Gaulish
druids, with the priests of the negroes. I have climbed the fourteen
Olympi; I have sounded the Lakes of Sythia; I have measured the vastness
of the desert!"
_Damis_--"All this is undoubtedly true. I was there myself!"
_Apollonius_--"At first, I went as far as the Hyrcanian Sea. I have gone
all round it, and through the country of the Baraomatae, where Bucephalus
is buried. I have gone down to Nineveh. At the gates of the city a man
came up to me."
_Damis_--"I! I! my good Master! I loved you from the very beginning. You
were sweeter than a girl, and more beautiful than a god!"
_Appollonius_, without listening to him--"He wished to accompany me, in
order to act as an interpreter for me."
_Damis_--"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."
_Apollonius_--"After Ctesiphon, we entered into the land of Babylon."
_Damis_--"And the satrap uttered an exclamation on seeing a man so
pale."
_Antony_, to himself--"Which signifies----?"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Antony_, musing--"Are there such things on the earth?"
_Damis_--"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."
Making a sketch with his stick on the ground:
"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!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_--"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."
_Apollonius_--"At last, we left Babylon; and, by the light of the moon,
we suddenly saw a wild mare."
_Damis_--"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."
_Antony_, aside--"Where can they have come from?"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_--"And which was found again in a forest."
_Antony_--"They talk a great deal, like drunken people."
_Apollonius_--"Phraortes made us sit down at his table."
_Damis_--"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 ..."
_Apollonius_--"When I was ready to depart, the 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."
_Damis_--"As for me, they told me nothing, so that I do not know what I
was."
_Antony_--"They have the unsubstantial air of shadows."
_Apollonius_--"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
Aromatae, through the country of the Gangaridae, the promontory of
Comaria, the land of the Sachalitae, of the Aramitae, and the Homeritae;
then across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island of
Topazes, we penetrated into Ethiopia, through the kingdom of the
Pygmaei."
_Antony_, aside--"How large the earth is!"
_Damis_--"And when we got home again, all those whom we had known in
former days were dead."
Antony hangs his head. Silence.
_Apollonius_ goes on:
"Then they began talking about me in the world. The plague ravaged
Ephesus; I made them stone an old mendicant."
_Damis_--"And the plague was gone!"
_Antony_--"What! He banishes diseases?"
_Apollonius_--"At Cnidus, I cured the lover of Venus."
_Damis_--"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."
_Antony_--"What! He drives out demons?"
_Apollonius_--"At Tarentum, they brought to the stake a young girl who
was dead."
_Damis_--"The Master touched her lips; and she arose, calling on her
mother."
_Antony_--"Can it be? He brings the dead back to life?"
_Apollonius_--"I foretold that Vespasian would be Emperor."
_Antony_--"What! He divines the future?"
_Damis_--"There was at Corinth----"
_Apollonius_--"While I was supping with him at the waters of Baia----"
_Antony_--"Excuse me, strangers; it is late!"
_Damis_--"----A young man named Menippus."
_Antony_--"No! no! go away!"
_Apollonius_--"----A dog entered, carrying in its mouth a hand that had
been cut off."
_Damis_--"----One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman."
_Antony_--"You do not hear me. Take yourselves off!"
_Damis_--"----He prowled vacantly around the couches."
_Antony_--"Enough!"
_Apollonius_--"----They wanted to drive him away."
_Damis_--"----Menippus, then, surrendered himself to her; and they
became lovers."
_Apollonius_--"----And, beating the mosaic floor with his tail, he
deposited this hand on the knees of Flavius."
_Damis_--"----But, in the morning, at the school-lectures, Menippus was
pale."
_Antony_, with a bound--"Still at it! Well, let them go on, since there
is not ..."
_Damis_--"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."
_Antony_--"I am doing wrong, surely, in listening to this!"
_Damis_--"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 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."
_Apollonius_--"If you wish to know the art----"
_Antony_--"I wish to know nothing."
_Apollonius_--"On the evening of our arrival at the gates of Rome----"
_Antony_--"Oh! yes, tell me about the City of the Popes."
_Apollonius_--"----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."
_Damis_--"In this instance you were quite wrong!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Antony_, to himself--"Something unaccountable fills me with fear."
Silence.
_Damis_ resumes, in a shrill voice--"All Asia, moreover, could tell
you ..."
_Antony_, starting up--"I am sick. Leave me!"
_Damis_--"Listen now. At Ephesus, he witnessed the death of Domitian,
who was at Rome."
_Antony_ making an effort to laugh--"Is this possible?"
_Damis_--"Yes, at the theatre, in broad daylight, on the fourteenth of
the Kalends of October, he suddenly exclaimed: 'They are murdering
Caesar!' 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."
_Antony_--"Without the aid of the Devil ... No doubt ..."
_Apollonius_--"He wished to put me to death, this Domitian. Damis fled
by my direction, and I remained alone in my prison."
_Damis_--"It was a terrible bit of daring, I must confess!"
_Apollonius_--"About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me to the
tribunal. I had my speech quite ready, which I kept under my cloak."
_Damis_--"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.'"
_Antony_, aside--"Just like Him!"
_Damis_, very loudly--"Absolutely!"
_Antony_--"Oh, no! you are lying, are you not? You are lying!"
_Apollonius_--"He came down from Heaven--I ascend there, thanks to my
virtue, which has raised me even to the height of the Most High!"
_Damis_--"Tyana, his native city, has erected a temple with priests in
his honour!"
_Apollonius_ draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says:
"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!"
_Damis_, laughing stupidly--"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the Bona
Dea!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_--"Come! it is morning! The cock has crowed; the horse has
neighed; the ship is ready."
_Antony_--"The cock has not crowed. I hear the cricket in the sands, and
I see the moon, which remains in its place."
_Apollonius_--"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 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."
_Damis_--"Master, it is time! The wind is about to rise; the swallows
are awakening; the myrtle-leaf is shed."
_Apollonius_--"Yes, let us go!"
_Antony_--"No--not I! I remain!"
_Apollonius_--"Do you wish me to show you the plant Balis, which
resuscitates the dead?"
_Damis_--"Ask him rather for the bloodstone, which attracts silver, iron
and bronze!"
_Antony_--"Oh! how sick I feel! how sick I feel!"
_Damis_--"You shall understand the voices of all creatures, the
roarings, the cooings!"
_Apollonius_--"I will make you mount the unicorns, the dragons, and the
dolphins!"
_Antony_, weeps--"Oh! oh! oh!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Damis_--"Fasten your girdle! tie your sandals!"
_Apollonius_--"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."
_Antony_, clasping his hands--"I wish they would go away! I wish they
would go away!"
_Apollonius_--"I will snatch off before your eyes the armour of the
Gods; we shall force the sanctuaries; I will make you violate the
pythoness!"
_Antony_--"Help, Lord!"
He flings himself against the cross.
_Apollonius_--"What is your desire? your dream? There's barely time to
think of it ..."
_Antony_--"Jesus, Jesus, come to my aid!"
_Apollonius_--"Do you wish me to make Jesus appear?"
_Antony_--"What? How?"
_Apollonius_--"It shall be He--and no other! He shall cast off His
crown, and we shall speak together face to face!"
_Damis_, in a low tone--"Say what you wish for most! Say what you wish
for most!"
Antony, at the foot of the cross, murmurs prayers. Damis continues to
run around him with wheedling gestures.
"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--"
_Apollonius_--"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!"
He steps back to the verge of the cliffs, passes over it and remains
there, hanging in mid-air:
"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 Space, and you shall grasp in its infinity the Eternal, the
Absolute Being! Come! give me your hand. Let us go!"
The pair, side by side, rise softly into the air.
Antony, embracing the cross, watches them ascending.
They disappear.