e of Alexandria without
having felt a doubt, and stood free to throw his fiery energy and clear
practical intellect into the cause of the Church without scruple, even,
where necessary, without pity. How could such a man sympathise with the
poor boy of twenty, suddenly dragged forth from the quiet cavern-shadow
of the Laura into the full blaze and roar of the world's noonday? He,
too, was cloister-bred. But the busy and fanatic atmosphere of Nitria,
where every nerve of soul and body was kept on a life-long artificial
strain, without rest, without simplicity, without human affection, was
utterly antipodal to the government of the remote and needy, though
no less industrious commonwealths of Coenobites, who dotted the lonely
mountain-glens, far up into the heart of the Nubian desert. In such a
one Philammon had received, from a venerable man, a mother's sympathy as
well as a father's care; and now he yearned for the encouragement of a
gentle voice, for the greeting of a kindly eye, and was lonely and sick
at heart.... And still Hypatia's voice haunted his ears, like a strain
of music, and would not die away. That lofty enthusiasm, so sweet and
modest in its grandeur--that tone of pity--in one so lovely it could
not be called contempt--for the many; that delicious phantom of being an
elect spirit, unlike the crowd.... 'And am I altogether like the crowd?'
said Philammon to himself, as he staggered along under the weight of a
groaning fever-patient. 'Can there be found no fitter work for me than
this, which any porter from the quay might do as well? Am I not somewhat
wasted on such toil as this? Have I not an intellect, a taste, a reason?
I could appreciate what she said.--Why should not my faculties be
educated? Why am I only to be shut out from knowledge? There is a
Christian Gnosis as well as a heathen one. What was permissible to
Clement'--he had nearly said to Origen, but checked himself on the
edge of heresy--'is surely lawful for me! Is not my very craving for
knowledge a sign that I am capable of it? Surely my sphere is the study
rather than the street!'

And then his fellow-labourers--he could not deny it to himself--began to
grow less venerable in his eyes. Let him try as he might to forget the
old priest's grumblings and detractions, the fact was before him. The
men were coarse, fierce, noisy.... so different from her! Their talk
seemed mere gossip--scandalous too, and hard-judging, most of it; about
that man's p