APOLLONIUS. "Thou shalt know the demons that dwell in the caverns, the demons that mutter in the woods, the demons that move in the waves, the demons that push the clouds!"
DAMIS. "Tighten thy girdle, fasten thy sandals!"
APOLLONIUS. "I shall explain to thee the reason of divine forms--why Apollo stands, why Jupiter is seated, why Venus is black, at Corinth, square-shaped at Athens, conical at Paphos."
APOLLONIUS. "In thy presence I will tear down the panoplies of the Gods; we shall force open the sanctuaries, I will enable thee to violate the Pythoness!"
APOLLONIUS. "What is thy desire? What is thy dream? Thou needst only devote the moment of time necessary to think of it ..."
APOLLONIUS. "Dost thou wish me to make him appear, thy Jesus?"
APOLLONIUS. "It shall be He!--no other! He will cast off his crown, and we shall converse face to face!"
"Say thou dost indeed wish it! say thou dost desire it!"
(_Anthony kneeling before the cross, murmurs prayers. Damis walks around him, with wheedling gestures._)
"Nay, nay! good hermit. Be not horrified! These are only exaggerated forms of speech, borrowed from the Orientals. That need in no way ..."
"He believes, like a brute, in the reality of things. The terror which he entertains of the Gods prevents him from comprehending them; and he debases his own God to the level of a jealous king!
(_He moves to the edge of the cliff, walking backward, passes beyond the verge of the precipice, and remains suspended in air._)
"Above all forms, further than the ends of the earth, beyond the heavens themselves, lies the world of Idea, replete with the splendor of the Word! With one bound we shall traverse the impending spaces, and thou shalt behold in all his infinity, the Eternal, the Absolute, the Being! Come! give me thy hand! Let us rise."
(_Side by side, both rise up through the air, slowly. Anthony, clinging to the cross, watches them rise. They disappear._)
[1] Agape.--Love-feast of the primitive Christians.
[4] Masheim gives _Achamoth._ I prefer to remain faithful to the orthography given by Flaubert.
[5] The French text gives _mes pères_ not _nos pères._ Elxai, or Elkhai, who established his sect in the reign of Trajan, was a Jew.
[7] The banyan is a fig-tree--the _Ficus indicus._--Trans.