Temptation Of St. Anthony — Chapter Four
III
(_When she has disappeared in the distance, Anthony observes a child seated upon the threshold of his cabin.
_) "It is one of the Queen's servants, no doubt," (_he thinks_).
(_This child is small like a dwarf, and nevertheless squat of build, like one of the Cabiri; deformed withal, and wretched of aspect.
His prodigiously large head is covered with white hair; and he shivers under a shabby tunic, all the while clutching a roll of papyrus.
The light of the moon passing through a cloud falls upon him.
_) ANTHONY
(_watches him from a distance, and is afraid of him.
_) "Who art thou?"
THE CHILD (_replies_).
"Thy ancient disciple, Hilarion."
ANTHONY.
"Thou liest!
Hilarion hath been dwelling in Palestine for many long years."
HILARION.
"I have returned!
It is really I!"
ANTHONY (_draws near and examines him closely_).
"Yet his face was radiant as the dawn, candid, joyous.
This face is the face of one gloomy and old."
HILARION.
"Long and arduous labor hath wearied me!"
ANTHONY.
"The voice is also different.
It hath an icy tone."
HILARION.
"Because I have nourished me with bitter things!"
ANTHONY.
"And those white hairs?"
HILARION.
"I have endured many woes!"
ANTHONY (_aside_).
"Could it be possible?"
HILARION.
"I was not so far from thee as thou doest imagine.
The hermit Paul visited thee this year, during the month of Schebar.
It is just twenty days since the Nomads brought thee bread.
Thou didst tell a sailor, the day before yesterday, to send thee three bodkins."
ANTHONY.
"He knows all!"
HILARION.
"Know further more that I have never left thee.
But there are long periods during which thou hast no knowledge of my presence."
ANTHONY.
"How can that be?
Yet it is true that my head is so much troubled--this night especially."
HILARION.
"All the Capital Sins came hither.
But their wretched snares can avail nothing against such a Saint as thou."
ANTHONY.
"Oh!
no!
--no!
I fall at every moment!
Why am I not of those whose souls are ever intrepid, whose minds are always firm,--for example, the great Athanasius?"
HILARION.
"He was illegally ordained by seven bishops."
ANTHONY.
"What matter if his virtue...."
HILARION.
"Go to!
--a most vainglorious and cruel man, forever involved in intrigues, and exiled at last as a monopolist."
[1] ANTHONY.
"Calumny!"
HILARION.
"Thou wilt not deny that he sought to corrupt Eustates, the treasurer of largesses?"
ANTHONY.
"It is affirmed, I acknowledge."
HILARION.
"Through vengeance he burned down the house of Arsenius."
ANTHONY.
"Alas!"
HILARION.
"At the council of Nicæa he said in speaking of Jesus: 'The man of the Lord.'
" ANTHONY.
"Ah!
that is a blasphemy!"
HILARION.
"So limited in understanding, moreover, that he confesses he comprehends nothing of the nature of the "Word!"
ANTHONY (_smiling with gratification_).
"In sooth his intelligence is not ...
very lofty."
HILARION.
"Hypocrite!
burying thyself in solitude only in order the more fully to abandon thyself to the indulgence of thy envious desires!
What if thou dost deprive thyself of meats, of wine, of warmth, of bath, of slaves, or honours?
--dost thou not permit thy imagination to offer thee banquets, perfumes, women, and the applause of multitudes?
Thy chastity is but a more subtle form of corruption, and thy contempt of this world is but the impotence of thy hatred against it!
Either this it is that makes such as thyself so lugubrious, or else 'tis doubt.
The possession of truth giveth joy.
Was Jesus sad?
Did he not travel in the company of friends, repose beneath the shade of olive trees, enter the house of the publican, drink many cups of wine, pardon the sinning woman, and assuage all sorrows?
Thou!
--thou hast no pity save for thine own misery!
It is like a remorse that gnaws thee, a savage madness that impels thee to repel the caress of a dog or to frown upon the smile of a child."
ANTHONY (_bursting into tears_).
"Enough!
enough!
thou dost wound my heart deeply."
HILARION.
"Shake the vermin from thy rags!
Rise up from thy filth!
Thy God is not a Moloch who demands human flesh in sacrifice!"
ANTHONY.
"Yet suffering is blessed.
The cherubim stoop to receive the blood of confessors."
HILARION.
"Admire, then, the Montanists!
--they surpass all others."
ANTHONY.
"But it is the truth of the doctrine which makes the martyrdom."
HILARION.
"How can martyrdom prove the excellence of the doctrine, inasmuch as it bears equal witness for error?"
HILARION.
"Silence!
--thou viper!"
ANTHONY.
"Perhaps martyrdom is not so difficult as thou dost imagine!
The exhortations of friends, the pleasure of insulting the people, the oath one has taken, a certain dizzy excitement, a thousand circumstances all aid the resolution of the martyrs...."
(_Anthony turns his back upon Hilarion, and moves away from him.
Hilarion follows him.
_) " ...
Moreover this manner of dying often brings about great disorders.
Dionysius, Cyprian and Gregory fled from it.
Peter of Alexandria has condemned it; and the council of Elvira...."
ANTHONY (_stops his ears_).
"I will listen to thee no longer!"
HILARION (_raising his voice_).
"Lo!
thou fallest again into the habitual sin, which is sloth!
Ignorance is the foam of pride.
One says, forsoth:--'My conviction is formed!
wherefore argue further?'
--and one despises the doctors, the philosophers, tradition itself, and even the text of the law whereof one is ignorant!
Dost thou imagine that thou dost hold all wisdom in the hollow of thy hand?"
ANTHONY.
"I hear him still!
His loud words fill my brain."
HILARION.
"The efforts of others to comprehend God are mightier than all thy mortifications to move Him.
We obtain merit only by our thirst for truth.
Religion alone cannot explain all things; and the solution of problems ignored by thee can render faith still more invulnerable and noble.
Therefore, for our salvation we must communicate with our brethren--otherwise the Church, the assembly of the faithful, would be a meaningless word--and we must listen to all reasoning, despising nothing, nor any person.
The magician Balaam, the poet Aeschylus, and the Sybil of Cumæ--all foretold the Saviour.
Dionysius, the Alexandrian, received from heaven the command to read all books.
Saint Clement orders us to cultivate Greek letters.
Hennas was converted by the illusion of a woman he had loved...."
ANTHONY.
"What an aspect of authority!
It seems to me thou art growing taller...."
(_And, in very truth, the stature of Hilarion is gradually increasing;
and Anthony shuts his eyes, that he may not see him.
_) HILARION.
"Reassure thyself, good Hermit.
Let us seat ourselves there, upon that great stone, as we used to do in other years, when, at the first dawn of day, I was wont to salute thee with the appellation, 'Clear star of morning'--and thou wouldst therewith commence to instruct me.
Yet my instruction is not yet completed.
The moon gives us light enough.
I am prepared to hear thy words."
(_He has drawn a calamus from his girdle, and seating himself cross-legged upon the ground, with the papyrus roll still in his hand, he lifts his face toward Saint Anthony, who sits near him, with head bowed down.
_ _After a moment of silence Hilarion continues_:--) "Is not the word of God confirmed for us by miracles?
Nevertheless the magicians of Pharaoh performed miracles; other imposters can perform them; one may be thereby deceived.
What then is a miracle?
An event which seems to us outside of nature.
But do we indeed know all of Nature's powers; and because a common occurrence causes us no astonishment, does it therefore follow that we understand it."
ANTHONY.
"It matters little!
We must believe the Scriptures!"
HILARION.
"Saint Paul, Origen, and many others did not understand the Scriptures in a literal sense: yet if Holy Writ be explained by allegories it becomes the portion of a small number, and the evidence of the truth disappears.
What must we do?"
ANTHONY.
"We must rely upon the Church!"
HILARION.
"Then the Scriptures are useless?"
ANTHONY.
"No!
no!
although I acknowledge that in the Old Testament there are some ...
some obscurities.
But the New shines with purest light."
HILARION.
"Nevertheless, the Angel of the annunciation, in Matthew, appears to Joseph; while, in Luke, he appears to Mary.
The anointing of Jesus by a woman takes place, according to the first Gospel, at the commencement of his public life; and, according to the other three, a few days before his death.
The drink offered to him on the cross, is, in Matthew, vinegar mixed with gall; in Mark, it is wine and myrrh.
According to Luke and Matthew, the apostles should take with them neither money nor scrip for their journey--not even sandals nor staff;
in Mark, on the contrary, Jesus bids them take nothing with them, except sandals and a staff.
I am thereby bewildered!"
ANTHONY (_in amazement_).
"Aye, indeed!...
in fact...."
HILARION.
"At the contact of the woman who had an issue of blood, Jesus turned and said, 'Who hath touched my garments?'
He did not know, then, who had touched him?
That contradicts the omniscience of Jesus!
If the tomb was watched by guards, the women need have felt no anxiety about finding help to roll away the stone from the tomb.
Therefore there were no guards, or the holy women were not there.
At Emmaus, he eats with his disciples and makes them feel his wounds.
It is a human body, a material and ponderable object; and nevertheless it passes through walls!
Is that possible?"
ANTHONY.
"It would require much time to answer thee properly!"
HILARION.
"Why did he receive the Holy Spirit, being himself Son of the Holy Spirit?
What need had he of baptism if he was the Word?
How could the Devil have tempted him, inasmuch as he was God?
Have these thoughts never occurred to thee?"
ANTHONY.
"Yes!...
often!
Sometimes torpid, sometimes furious--they remain forever in my conscience.
I crush them; they rise again, they stifle me; and sometimes I think that I am accursed."
HILARION.
"Then it is needless for thee to serve God?"
ANTHONY.
"I shall always need to adore Him."
(_After a long silence Hilarion continues_:) "But aside from dogma, all researches are allowed us.
Dost thou desire to know the hierarchy of the Angels, the virtue of the Numbers, the reason of germs and of metamorphoses?"
ANTHONY.
"Yes!
yes!
my thought struggles wildly to escape from its prison.
It seems to me that by exerting all my force I might succeed.
Sometimes, for an instant, brief as a lightning flash, I even feel myself as thought uplifted,--then I fall back again!"
HILARION.
"The secret thou wouldst obtain is guarded by sages.
They dwell in a distant land; they are seated beneath giant trees; they are robed in white; they are calm as Gods!
A warm air gives them sufficient nourishment.
All about them, leopards tread upon grassy turf.
The murmuring of fountains and the neighing of unicorns mingle with their voices.
Thou shalt hear them; and the face of the Unknown shall be unveiled!"
ANTHONY (_sighing_).
"The way is long; and I am old."
HILARION.
"Oh!
oh!
wise men are not rare!
there are some even very nigh thee!
--here!
Let us enter!"
[1] Gibbon, a sincere admirer of Athanasius, gives a curious history of these charges, and expresses his disbelief in their truth.
The story regarding the design to intercept the corn-fleet of Alexandria is referred to in the use of the word "monopolist."
IV
