The Temptation of St. Antony Part 17

"The truth is, I know all the G.o.ds, 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 pa.s.sed 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 c.o.c.k has crowed; the horse has neighed; the ship is ready."

_Antony_--"The c.o.c.k 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 s.n.a.t.c.h off before your eyes the armour of the G.o.ds; 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, ill.u.s.trious 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 G.o.ds 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, pa.s.ses 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 s.p.a.ce, 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.

CHAPTER V.

ALL G.o.dS, ALL RELIGIONS.

Antony, walking slowly--"That was really h.e.l.l!

"Nebuchadnezzar did not dazzle me so much. The Queen of Sheba did not bewitch me so thoroughly. The way in which he spoke about the G.o.ds filled me with a longing to know them.

"I recollect having seen hundreds of them at a time, in the Island of Elephantinum, in the reign of Dioclesian. The Emperor had given up to the nomads a large territory, on condition that they should protect the frontiers; and the treaty was concluded in the name of the invisible Powers. For the G.o.ds of every people were ignorant about other people.

The Barbarians had brought forward theirs. They occupied the hillocks of sand which line the river. One could see them holding their idols between their arms, like great paralytic children, or else, sailing amid cataracts on trunks of palm-trees, they pointed out from a distance the amulets on their necks and the tattooings on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; and that is not more criminal than the religion of the Greeks, the Asiatics, and the Romans.

"When I dwelt in the Temple of Heliopolis, I used often to contemplate all the objects on the walls: vultures carrying sceptres, crocodiles playing on lyres, men's faces joined to serpents' bodies, women with cows' heads prostrated before the ithyphallic deities; and their supernatural forms carried me away into other worlds. I wished to know what those calm eyes were gazing at. In order that matter should have so much power, it should contain a spirit. The souls of the G.o.ds are attached to their images. Those who possess external beauty may fascinate us; but the others, who are abject or terrible ... how to believe in them? ..."

And he sees moving past, close to the ground, leaves, stones, sh.e.l.ls, branches of trees, vague representations of animals, then a species of dropsical dwarfs. These are G.o.ds. He bursts out laughing.

Behind him, he hears another outburst of laughter; and Hilarion presents himself, dressed like a hermit, much bigger than before--in fact, colossal.

Antony is not surprised at seeing him again.

"What a brute one must be to adore a thing like that!"

_Hilarion_--"Oh! yes; very much of a brute!"