Hilarion

“ Hilarion. "What makes thee sorrowful?"
Anthony (after having long sought within himself for a reply) :
"I think of all the souls that have been lost through these false gods!"
Hilarion. "Dost thou not think that they ... sometimes ... bear much resemblance to the True?"
Anthony. "That is but a device of the Devil to seduce the faithful more easily. He attacks the strong through the mind, the weak through the flesh."
Hilarion. "But luxury, in its greatest fury, has all the disinterestedness of penitence. ”

“ GIRLS. SOLDIERS. For a fight's a kind of thing Oh, I love the jolly rattle of an ordeal by battle; That I love to look upon, There's an end of tittle-tattle when your enemy is dead. So let us sing It's an arrant molly-coddle "Long live the king Fears a crack upon his noddle, And his son Hilarion!" And he's only fit to swaddle in a downy feather-bed! During this, Hilarion, Florian, and Cyril are brought out by the "Daughters of the Plough". They are still bound and wear the robes. Enter Gama.
GAMA. Hilarion! Cyril! Florian! dressed as women! Is this indeed Hilarion? ”

“ He will—he must, ... if he has gone where I would have him go."
"A poet, is he not!" queried Hilarion softly, bending down to look more attentively at the beautiful Antinous-like face colorless and cold as sculptured alabaster.
"An uncrowned monarch of a world of song!" responded Heliobas, with a tender inflection in his rich voice. "A genius such as the earth sees but once in a century! But he has been smitten with the disease of unbelief and deprived of hope,—and where there is no hope there is no lasting accomplishment." ”

“ ALL. (He'll/I'll/You'll) remain as hostage here. Should Hilarion disappear, (We/They) will hang (him/me/you) , never fear, Most politely, most politely, most politely! Gama, Arac, Guron and Scynthius are marched off in custody, Hildebrand following.
RECITATIVE – HILARION
Come, Cyril, Florian, our course is plain, To-morrow morn fair Ida we'll engage; But we will use no force her love to gain, Nature, nature has armed us for the war we wage! TRIO – HILARION, CYRIL, and FLORIAN
HILARION. Expressive glances Shall be our lances, And pops of Sillery Our light artillery. ”

“ Anthony. "All have passed away!"
Some One (replies) :
"I remain!"
(And Hilarion stands before him—but transfigured wholly,—beautiful as an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so lofty that in order to behold his face—
Anthony
is compelled to throw back his head, to look up as though gazing as a star) :
"Who art thou?"
Hilarion. "My kingdom is vast as the universe; and my desire knows no limits. I go on forever,—freeing minds, weighing [Pg 219] worlds,—without hatred, without fear, without pity, without love, and without God. Men call me Science!" ”

“ And the man said to Hilarion: "My name is Joseph. I am a carpenter from the city of Nazareth, and my wife is called Mary, and she is in travail. Suffer thou us to rest, and my wife to lie on the straw of the stable."
And Hilarion said: "You are welcome. Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini;" and Hilarion laid down more fern and hay, and gave provender to the mule. And the woman's hour came, and she was delivered of a male child. And Hilarion took it and laid it in the manger. ”

“ CHAPTER II. THERE is a dear and precious period in the life of man, which, brief as sweet, is best appreciated in recollection; when but to exist is to enjoy; when the rapid pulse throbs, wildly, with the vague delight which fills the careless heart, and when it may be truly said, “that nothing is, but what is not.”
While this rainbow hour lasted, the thorny wreath, which faith had plaited round Hilarion’s brow, was worn as cheerily, as if the rose of pleasure had glowed upon his temple. The vows he had made were ever present to his mind. The ceremonies of his religion occupied his imagination ”

“ Well, it's a common one! And is the booby comely? Hilarion: Pretty well. I've heard it said that if I dressed myself In Prince Hilarion's clothes (supposing this Consisted with my maiden modesty) , I might be taken for Hilarion's self. But what is this to you or me, who think Of all mankind with undisguised contempt? Princess: Contempt? Why, damsel, when I think of man, Contempt is not the word. Cyril: (Getting tipsy) I'm sure of that, Or if it is, it surely should not be! Hilarion: (Aside to Cyril) Be quiet, idiot, or they'll find us out. Cyril: The Prince Hilarion's a goodly lad! ”

“ Hilarion, as he wandered back, alone, to his grotto, recalled his last conversation with Luxima; and gave himself up to a train of reflection, new as the feelings by which it was inspired. Hitherto he had considered pleasure and sin as inseparably connected, since, to suffer and to resist, was the natural destiny of man: but the Indian Priestess, so pure, though mistaken in her piety; so innocent, and yet so pleasurable in her life; so wholly devoted to Heaven, yet so enjoying upon earth, convinced him that his doctrine was too exclusive ”

“ The man whose sacrilegious eyes Invade our strict seclusion, dies. Arrest the coarse intruding spies! (They are arrested by the "Daughters of the Plough") Girls: Have mercy, O lady — disregard your oaths. Princess: I know not mercy, men in women's clothes! (Cyril & Florian are bound) SONG — Hilarion Hilarion: Whom thou has chain'd must wear his chain, Thou canst not set him free, He wrestles with his bonds in vain Who lives by loving thee! If heart of stone for heart of fire, Be all thou hast to give, If dead to my heart's desire, Why should I wish to live? ”

“ Then, with Zananas alone, Hilarion went on board ship to sail for Sicily. And when, almost in the middle of Adria, [117a] he was going to sell the Gospels which he had written out with his own hand when young, to pay his fare withal, then the captain’s son was possessed with a devil, and cried out, “Hilarion, servant of God, why can we not be safe from thee even at sea? Give me a little respite till I come to the shore, lest, if I be cast out here, I fall headlong into the abyss.” ”

“ We have arranged that Prince Hilarion
And his two followers shall fight us here;
And if we fall, we’ve promised him your hand.
Prin. (sighing) . So be it, Arac; brothers though you be,
With all your faults you’re brave, as brutes are brave.
So be it—fight them here, but (aside and bashfully) oh, my brother,
Kill whom you will, but spare Hilarion!
He saved my life!
Melissa. (aside to Arac) . Oh, save me Florian,
He is her brother! (indicating Psyche.) [Pg 260]
Psyche. (aside to Arac) . Oh, spare Cyril, sir,
You’ve no idea what jolly songs he sings! ”

“ Antonius sees heretics who emasculate themselves, heretics who bum themselves. Apollonius of Tyre reveals himself to him as a miracle-worker in no respect inferior to Christ. And Hilarion continues to grow. Following in the train of the heretics come the gods of the different religions in a monstrous procession, from the most abhorrent and grotesque stone idols and wooden fetiches of ancient times, to the bloodthirsty gods of Eastern lands, and the gods of beauty of Greece. They all move swiftly past, and uttering a loud wail of lamentation, disappear with a wild leap in the great vacuum. ”

“ Then follows a series of miracles, similar to those attributed to St. Antony, and, indeed, to all these great Hermit Fathers. But it is unnecessary to relate more wonders which the reader cannot be expected to believe. These miracles, however, according to St. Jerome, were the foundations of Hilarion’s fame and public career. For he says, “When they were noised abroad, people flowed to him eagerly from Syria to Egypt, so that many believed in Christ, and professed themselves to be monks—for no one had known of a monk in Syria before the holy Hilarion. ”

“ The little ringlets of his black hair in which blueish tints shift symmetrically surround a protuberance upon the summit of his skull. His arms, which are very long, hang down against his sides. His two hands rest flat upon his thighs, with the palms open. The soles of his feet are like the faces of two blazing suns; and he remains completely motionless—before Anthony and Hilarion—with all the gods around him, rising in tiers above the rocks, as if upon the benches of some vast circus. ”

“ He is a magician and knows the future.” The fact was that the city of Gaza on Julian’s accession to the throne, after the departure of Hilarion from Palestine and the destruction of his monastery, had presented a petition to the Emperor requesting that both Hilarion and Hesychius might be put to death, and a proclamation had been published everywhere that search should be made for them. ”

“ Prin. Infamous creature—get you hence away! [Pg 246]
Hilar. Dog! Here is something more to sing about! (Strikes him.)
Cyril. (sobered) . Hilarion—are you mad?
Prin. (astonished) .Hilarion? Help!
Why these are men! Lost! Lost! betrayed! undone!
(running on to bridge) .
Girls, get you hence—man-monsters, if you dare
Approach one step—I—ah! (loses balance and falls.)
Psyche.Oh! save her, sir!
Blanche. It’s useless, sir, you’ll only catch your death.
(Hilarion springs in.)
Sacha. He catches her—
Melissa.And now he lets her go—
Again she’s in his grasp—
Psyche.And now she’s not! ”

“ Hilarion. "A man named Simeon ... who should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord." [3]
The Buddha. "I was led unto the schools; and it was found that I knew more than the teachers."
Hilarion. "... In the midst of the doctors ... and all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom!" [4]
(Anthony makes a sign to Hilarion to be silent.)
The Buddha. "Continually did I meditate [Pg 162] in the gardens. The shadows of the trees turned with the turning of the sun; but the shadow of that which sheltered me turned not. ”

“ It is at least certain that the earliest historic figures which emerge from the haze of barbarous antiquity in both the Britains and in Ireland, are those of hermits, who, in celibacy and poverty, gather round them disciples, found a convent, convert and baptize the heathen, and often, like Antony and Hilarion, escape from the bustle and toil of the world into their beloved desert. ”

“ Hilarion and his two friends scale the wall and get into the grounds, and finding some academic robes they disguise themselves as girls. They first meet the Princess and explain to her that they wish to enter the university, to which she gives her consent upon their subscription to the rules. They sign with enthusiasm, especially [205] when they discover that there is one which requires them to give the fulness of their love to the hundred maidens of the university. ”

“ Then advance before them, one by one, idols of all nations and all ages, in wood, in metal, in granite, in feathers, and in skins sewn together. The oldest of them, anterior to the Deluge, are lost to view beneath the seaweed which hangs from them like hair. Some, too long for their lower portions, crack in their joints and break their loins while walking. Others allow sand to flow out through holes in their bellies.
Antony and Hilarion are prodigiously amused. They hold their sides from sheer laughter. ”

“ The souls of the Gods are attached to their images ...
"Those possessing the beauty of forms might seduce. But the others ... those of loathsome or terrible aspect ... how can men believe in them?..."
(And he beholds passing over the surface of the ground,—leaves, stones, shells, [Pg 154] branches of trees,—then a variety of hydropical dwarfs: these are gods. He bursts into a laugh. He hears another laugh behind him;—and Hilarion appears, in the garb of a hermit, far taller than before, colossal.)
Anthony (who feels no surprise at seeing him) . ”

“ Around the cell of some eremite like Anthony, who fixed his retreat on Mount Colzim, a number of humble imitators gathered, emulous of his austerities and of his piety. A similar sentiment impels them to observe stated hours of prayer. Necessity for supporting the body indicates some pursuit of idle industry, the plaiting of mats or making of baskets. So strong is the instinctive tendency of man to association, that even communities of madmen may organize. Hilarion is said to have been the first who established a monastic community. He went into the desert when he was only fifteen years old. ”

“ Anthony. "Ah! my heart swells! A joy never known before thrills me to the depths of my soul! How beautiful, how beautiful it is!"
Hilarion. "They leaned from the heights of cloud to direct the way of swords; one used to meet them upon the high roads; men had them in their houses—and this familiarity divinized life.
"Life's aim was only to be free and beautiful. Nobility of attitude was facilitated by the looseness of garments. The voice of the [Pg 195] orator, trained by the sea, rolled its sonorous waves against the porticoes of marble. ”

“ Here he stayed two years, always thinking of flight, and in the meantime sent Hesychius, who was to return in the spring, to Palestine to salute the brethren and visit the ashes of his monastery. When the latter returned he found Hilarion longing to sail again to Egypt, that is to the locality called [25] Bucolia; but he persuaded him that, since there were no Christians there, but only a fierce and barbarous people, he should rather go to a spot in Cyprus itself which was higher up and more retired. ”

“ I am prepared to hear thy words."
(He has drawn a calamus from his girdle, and seating himself cross-legged upon the ground, with the papyrus roll still in his hand, he lifts his face toward Saint Anthony, who sits near him, with head bowed down.
After a moment of silence Hilarion continues:—)
"Is not the word of God confirmed for us by miracles? Nevertheless the magicians of Pharaoh performed miracles; other imposters can perform them; one may be thereby deceived. What then is a miracle? An event which seems to us outside of nature. But do we indeed know all of Nature's powers ”