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._
[Illustration: ... and he beholds an arid plain, mamillated
with knolls]
_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_:--)
[Illustration: She drags a black sponge from her bosom, covers
it with kisses ...]
"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."
[Illustration: 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_).
[Illustration: Helena - 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!
"Behold her, Anthony, she whom they call Sigeh, Ennoia, Barbelo,
Prounikos! The Spirits governing the world were jealous of her; and
they imprisoned her within the body of a woman.
"She was that Helen of Troy, whose memory was cursed by the poet
Stesichorus. She was Lucretia, the patrician woman violated by a king.
She was Delilah, by whom Samson's locks were shorn.... She has loved
adultery, idolatry, lying and foolishness. She has prostituted herself
to all nations. She has sung at the angles of all cross-roads. She has
kissed the faces of all men.
"At Tyre, she, the Syrian, was the mistress of robbers. She caroused
with them during the nights; and she concealed assassins amidst the
vermin of her tepid bed."
ANTHONY. "Ah! what is this to me?..."
SIMON (_with a furious look_:--)
"I tell thee that I have redeemed her, and re-established her in her
former splendor; insomuch that Caius Cæsar Caligula became enamoured of
her, desiring to sleep with the Moon!"
ANTHONY. "What then?..."
SIMON. "Why this, that she herself is the Moon! Has not Pope Clement
written how she was imprisoned in a tower? Three hundred persons
surrounded the tower to watch it; and the moon was seen at each of the
loop-holes at the same time, although there is not more than one moon
in the world, nor more than one Ennoia!"
ANTHONY. "Yes ... it seems to me that I remember...."
(_He falls into a reverie._)
SIMON. "Innocent as the Christ who died for men, so did she devote
herself for women. For the impotence of Jehovah is proven by the
transgression of Adama, and we must shake off the yoke of the old law,
which is antipathetic to the order of things.[9]
"I have preached the revival in Ephraim and in Issachar by the torrent
of Bizor, beyond the Lake of Houleh, in the valley of Maggedo, further
than the mountains, at Bostra and at Damascus. Let all come to me who
are covered with wine, who are covered with filth, who are covered with
blood! and I shall take away their uncleanliness with the Holy Spirit,
called Minerva by the Greeks. She is Minerva! she is the Holy Spirit! I
am Jupiter, Apollo, the Christ, the Paraclete, the great might of God,
incarnated in the person of Simon!"
ANTHONY. "Ah! it is thou!... so it is thou! But I know thy crimes!
"Thou wast born at Gittoi near Samaria, Dositheas, thy first master,
drove thee from him. Thou didst execrate Saint Paul because he
converted one of thy wives; and, vanquished by Saint Peter, in thy rage
and terror thou didst cast into the waves the bag which contained thy
artifices!"
SIMON. "Dost thou desire them?"
(_Anthony looks at him, and an interior voice whispers hi his
heart:--"Why not?"_)
SIMON (_continues_).
"He who knows the forces of Nature and the essence of Spirits must be
able to perform miracles. It has been the dream of all sages; it is the
desire which even now gnaws thee!--confess it!"
"In the sight of the multitude of the Romans, I flew in the air so
high that none could behold me move. Nero ordered that I should be
decapitated; but it was the head of a sheep which fell upon the ground
in lieu of mine. At last they buried me alive; but I rose again upon
the third day. The proof is that thou dost behold me before thee!"
(_He presents his hands to Anthony to smell. They have the stench of
corpse-flesh. Anthony recoils with loathing._)
"I can make serpents of bronze writhe; I can make marble statues
laugh; I can make dogs speak. I will show thee vast quantities of gold;
I will reestablish kings; thou shalt see nations prostrate themselves
in adoration before me! I can walk upon the clouds and upon the waves,
I can pass through mountains, I can make myself appear as a youth, as
an old man, as a tiger, or as an ant; I can assume thy features; I can
give thee mine; I can make the thunder follow after me. Dost hear it?"
(_The thunder rumbles; flashes of lightning succeed._)
"It is the voice of the Most High; for 'the Lord thy God is a fire;'
and all creations are accomplished by sparks from the fire-centre of
all things.
Thou shalt even now receive the baptism of it--that second baptism
announced by Jesus, which fell upon the apostles on a day of tempest
when the windows were open!"
(_And stirring up the flame with his hand, slowly, as though preparing
to sprinkle Anthony with it, he continues_:--)
"Mother of mercies, thou who discoverest all secrets, in order that we
may find rest in the eighth mansion...."
ANTHONY (_cries out_:--)
"Oh! that I had only some holy water!..."
(_The flame goes out, producing much smoke._
_Ennoia and Simon have disappeared._
_An exceedingly cold, opaque and f[oe]tid mist fills the atmosphere._)
ANTHONY (_groping with his hands like a blind man_:--)
"Where am I?... I fear lest I fall into the abyss! And the cross,
surely, is too far from me. Ah! what a night! what a terrible night!"
(_The mist is parted by a gust of wind; and Anthony sees two men
covered with long white tunics._
_The first is of lofty stature, with a gentle face, and a grave mien.
His blond hair, parted like that of Christ, falls upon his shoulders.
He has cast aside a wand that he had been holding in his hand; his
companion takes it up, making a reverence after the fashion of the
Orientals._
_The latter is small of stature, thick set, flat-nosed; his neck and
shoulders expresses good natured simplicity._
_Both are barefooted, bareheaded, and dusty, like persons who have made
a long journey._)
ANTHONY (_starting up_:--)
"What do ye seek? Speak!... Begone from here!"
DAMIS (_who is a little man_).
"Nay! nay! be not angered, good hermit. As for that I seek, I know not
myself what it is! Here is the Master!"
(_He sits down. The other stranger remains standing. Silence._)
ANTHONY (_asks_).
"Then ye come?..."
DAMIS. "Oh! from afar off--very far off!"
ANTHONY. "And ye go?..."
DAMIS (_pointing to the other_)
"Whithersoever he shall desire!"
ANTHONY. "But who may he be?"
DAMIS. "Look well upon him!"
ANTHONY (_aside_).
"He looks like a saint! If I could only dare...."
(_The mist is all gone. The night is very clear. The moon shines._)
DAMIS. "Of what art thou dreaming, that thou dost not speak?"
ANTHONY. "I was thinking.... Oh! nothing!"
DAMIS (_approaches Apollonius, and walks all round him several times,
bending himself as he walks, never raising his head_:--)
"Master, here is a Galilean hermit who desires to know the beginnings
of wisdom."
APOLLONIUS. "Let him approach!" (_Anthony hesitates._)
DAMIS. "Approach!"
APOLLONIUS (_in a voice of thunder_:--)
"Approach! Thou wouldst know who I am, what I have done, and what I
think,--is it not so, child?"
ANTHONY. "Always supposing that these things can contribute to the
salvation of my soul."
APOLLONIUS. "Rejoice! I am about to inform thee of them!"
DAMIS (_in an undertone, to Anthony_:--)
"Is it possible? He must surely have at the first glance discerned in
thee extraordinary aptitude for philosophy. I shall also strive to
profit by his instruction."
APOLLONIUS. "First of all, I shall tell thee of the long course which
I have followed in order to obtain the doctrine; and if thou canst
discover in all my life one evil action, thou shalt bid me pause, for
he who hath erred in his actions may well give scandal by his words."
DAMIS (_to Anthony_).
"How just a man? Is he not?"
ANTHONY. "Indeed I believe him to be sincere."
APOLLONIUS. "Upon the night of my birth, my mother imagined that
she was gathering flowers by the shore of a great lake. A flash of
lightning appeared; and she brought me into the world to the music of
the voices of swans singing to her in her dream.
"Until I had reached the age of fifteen I was plunged thrice a day into
the fountain, Asbadeus, whose waters make perjurers hydropical; and my
body was rubbed with the leaves of the onyza, that I might be chaste.
"A Palmyrian princess came one evening to seek me, offering me
treasures that she knew to be in the tombs. A hierodule of the temple
of Diana, slew herself in despair with the sacrificial knife; and the
governor of Cilicia, finding all his promises of no avail, cried out in
the presence of my family that he would cause my death; but it was he
that died only three days after, assassinated by the Romans."
DAMIS (_nudging Anthony with his elbow_).
"Eh? did I not tell thee? What a man!"
APOLLONIUS. "For the space of four successive years I maintained the
unbroken silence of the Pythagoreans. The most sudden and unexpected
pain never extorted a sigh from me; and when I used to enter the
theatre, all drew away from me, as from a phantom."
DAMIS. "Wouldst thou have done so much?--thou?"
APOLLONIUS. "After the period of my trial had been accomplished, I
undertook to instruct the priests regarding the tradition they had
lost."
ANTHONY. "What tradition?"