n 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 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 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.

CHAPTER V.

ALL GODS, ALL RELIGIONS.

Antony, 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.

"I recollect having seen hundreds of them at a time, in the I