(_Then a great dizziness comes upon the gods. They stagger, fall into convulsions, and vomit forth their existences. Their crowns burst apart; their banners fly away. They tear off their attributes, their sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they quaffed immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, vanish in smoke;--and when all have disappeared_ ...)
"Thou hast even now beheld the belief of many hundreds of millions of men."
(_Anthony is prostrate upon the ground, covering his face with his hands. Hilarion, with his back turned to the cross, stands near him and watches him._
_Then a singular being appears--having the head of a man upon the body of a fish. He approaches through the air, upright, beating the sand from time to time with his tail; and the patriarchal aspect of his face by contrast with his puny little arms, causes Anthony to laugh._)
"Respect me! I am the contemporary of beginnings.
"I dwelt in that formless world where hermaphroditic creatures slumbered, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the deeps of dark waters--when fingers, fins, and wings were blended, and eyes without heads were floating like mollusks, among human-headed bulls, and dog-footed serpents.
[Illustration: ... and eyes without heads were floating like mollusks]
"Above the whole of these beings, OMOROCA, bent like a hoop, extended her woman-body. But Belus cleft her in two halves; with one he made the earth; with the other, heaven;--and the two equal worlds do mutually contemplate each other.
"I, the first consciousness of CHAOS, arose from the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms:--also I taught men to fish and to sow: I gave them knowledge of writing, and of the history of the gods.
[Illustration: I, the first consciousness of Chaos, arose from the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms ...]
"Since then I have dwelt in the deep pools left by the Deluge. But the desert grows vaster about them; the winds cast sand into them; the sun devours them;--and I die upon my couch of slime, gazing at the stars through the water. Thither I return!"
HILARION. "That is an ancient God of the Chaldæans!"
ANTHONY (_ironically_). "What, then, were those of Babylon?"