material waves,
and your heart is full; it is bursting; it is a delicious whirlwind, an
overpowering intoxication."

_The old woman_--"You need not experience joys to feel their bitterness!
You need only see them from afar, and disgust takes possession of you.
You must needs be wearied with the monotony of the same actions, the
duration of the days, the ugliness of the world, and the stupidity of
the sun!"

_Antony_--"Oh! yes; all that it shines upon is displeasing to me."

_The young woman_--"Hermit! hermit! you shall find diamonds among the
pebbles, fountains beneath the sand, a delight in the dangers which you
despise; and there are even places on the earth so beautiful that you
are filled with a longing to embrace them."

_The old woman_--"Every evening when you lie down to sleep on the earth,
you hope that it may soon cover you."

_The young woman_--"Nevertheless, you believe in the resurrection of the
flesh, which is the transport of life into eternity."

The old woman, while speaking, has been growing more emaciated, and,
above her skull, which has no hair upon it, a bat has been making
circles in the air.

The young woman has become plumper. Her robe changes colour; her
nostrils swell; her eyes roll softly.

The first says, opening her arms:

"Come! I am consolation, rest, oblivion, eternal peace!"

And the second offering her breast:

"I am the soother, the joy, the life, the happiness inexhaustible!"

Antony turns on his heel to fly. Each of them places a hand upon his
shoulder.

The winding-sheet flies open, and reveals the skeleton of Death. The
robe bursts open, and presents to view the entire body of Lust, which
has a slender figure, with an enormous development behind, and great,
undulating masses of hair, disappearing towards the end.

Antony remains motionless between the pair, contemplating them.

_Death_ says to him--

"This moment, or a little later--what does it matter? You belong to me,
like the suns, the nations, the cities, the kings, the snow on the
mountains, and the grass in the fields. I fly higher than the
sparrow-hawk, I run more quickly than the gazelle; I keep pace even with
hope; I have conquered God!"

_Lust_--"Do not resist; I am omnipotent. The forests echo with my sighs;
the waves are stirred by my agitations. Virtue, courage, piety, are
dissolved in the perfume of my breath. I accompany man at every step he
takes; and on the threshold of the tomb he comes back