The Temptation of St. Antony

  "Master, this is a Galilean hermit who wishes to know the sources of your wisdom."

  Apollonius—"Let him approach."[Pg 86]

  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 de[Pg 87]spair 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 Baraomatæ, 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!"[Pg 88]

  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."[Pg 89]

  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[Pg 90] 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 Aromatæ, through the country of the Gangaridæ, the promontory of Comaria, the land of the Sachalitæ, of the Aramitæ, and the Homeritæ; then across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island of Topazes, we[Pg 91] penetrated into Ethiopia, through the kingdom of the Pygmæi."

  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!"[Pg 92]

  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[Pg 93] 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.[Pg 94]

  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 Cæsar!' 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!"[Pg 95]

  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[Pg 96] 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!"[Pg 97]

  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[Pg 98] 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.[Pg 99]

  * * *

  CHAPTER V.

  All Gods, All Religions.

  NTONY, walking slowly—"That was really Hell!

  "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 gods filled me with a longing to know them.