Anthelmintic

“ Anthony asked—
“Sweet child, what else seest thou?”
Paul gazed vacantly from the zenith to the nadir, and from west to east, when suddenly his eyes fell on the Abbot of Antinoe. His face grew pale with a holy terror, and his eyeballs reflected invisible flames.
“I see,” he murmured, “three demons, who, full of joy, prepare to seize that man. One of them is like unto a tower, one to a woman, and one to a mage. All three bear their name, marked with red-hot iron; the first on the forehead, the second on the belly, the third on the breast, and those names are—Pride, Lust, and Doubt. ”

“ ANTIGONE. When my power fails I have but to desist.
ISMENE. Where we must fail, not to attempt is wise.
ANTIGONE. Such talk will make thee hateful unto me,
And by the dead man righteously abhorred.
Then leave me with my folly to endure
This dreadful penalty. Come what come may,
Nothing will rob me of a noble death.
ISMENE. Art thou resolved? Go, then, and be assured
That though misguided thou art well beloved.
* * * * *
SISTERLY LOVE DEFIES THE LAW. Antigone is caught by the guard paying funeral rites to the corpse of
Polynices, and is brought before Creon. ”

“ Is there no wise man in your Babylon who can pronounce the names of the Great Ones?”
“There’s a poor learned gentleman upstairs,” said Anthea, “we might try him. He has a lot of stone images in his room, and iron-looking ones too—we peeped in once when he was out. Old Nurse says he doesn’t eat enough to keep a canary alive. He spends it all on stones and things.”
“Try him,” said the Psammead, “only be careful. If he knows a greater name than this and uses it against you, your charm will be of no use. Bind him first with the chains of honour and upright dealing. ”

“ Antigone.
When ears are deaf, ’tis wisdom to be dumb.
Herald.
Fierce is a people with young victory flushed.
Antigone.
Fierce let them be; he shall not go unburied.
Herald.
What? wilt thou honour whom the city hates?
Antigone.
And did the gods not honour whom I honour?
Herald.
Once: ere he led the spear against his country.
Antigone.
Evil entreatment he repaid with evil.
Herald.
Should thousands suffer for the fault of one?
Antigone.
Strife is the last of gods to end her tale;
My brother I will bury. Make no more talk.
Herald.
Be wilful, if thou wilt. I counsel wisdom.
Chorus. ”

“ Nature dries up the spring of life! A curse upon the envy of the gods! But men can envy too, and envy changes them into demons. Others shall not enjoy when I can do so no longer! Others shall no more laugh when I must writhe in agony all night long! Antonina shall not rejoice in her youth with the false man who was once mine and yet could think of another, or of virtue, or of heaven! Anicius has told me this very day that he can bear this life without fame and honour no more--that heaven and earth call him away. ”

“ Perhaps Antigone is a trifle too coldly perfect, too faultlessly wise — a tacit reflection upon every- day human nature, that likes its ease, and counts the cost of its renunciations. We look for a trace of weakness, a warm burst of living tenderness. But duty is shy like love, and chary of expression. " I do not love a friend who loves in words," is the cry of her steadfast soul. ”

“ Anthony did not reply. He turned to the monks of Antinoë those eyes whose looks no man could sustain. He gazed for a long time at Paul, called the Fool; then he made a sign to him to approach. And, as all were astonished that the saint should address himself to a man who was not in his senses, Anthony said —
"God has granted to him more grace than to any of you. Lift thy eyes, my son Paul, and tell me what thou seest in heaven." ”

“ And when Antigonus required that Eumenes should first address himself to him as his superior, he replied, "While I am able to wield a sword, I shall think no man greater than myself." At last, when according to Eumenes's demand, Antigonus sent his own nephew Ptolemy to the fort, Eumenes went out to him, and they mutually embraced with great tenderness and friendship, as having formerly been very intimate. ”

“ Anthea asked.
“Great and deep learning,” said the Priest, without a moment’s hesitation. “A learning greater and deeper than that of any man of my land and my time. But learning too great is useless. If I go back to my own land and my own age, who will believe my tales of what I have seen in the future? Let me stay here, be the great knower of all that has been, in that our time, so living to me, so old to you, about which your learned men speculate unceasingly, and often, he tells me, vainly.”
“If I were you,” said the Psammead, “I should ask the Amulet about that. ”

“ The King of Antioch was always in a hurry, always running somewhere or other, consequently he was seldom on his throne, and his loyal subjects had to look out very sharply, for he was always sure to be where they least expected him. You may think that they could have got over this little difficulty by always looking for the King where they least expected him, but if you try this simple experiment for yourself with your governess or tutor, or even your nurse, I think you will find that it is not so easy as it looks. ”

“ Still living, she seeks to reconcile her sons, and at last kills herself on their dead bodies. Polyneices is not only his country’s enemy but a homesick man whose eyes grow wet when he sees the familiar altars and Dirce and the old gymnasium, and who begs his mother just before he dies to bury him in Thebes. Antigone is brave enough to support her mother, comfort her father, and promise to bury her brother, but so tenderly young that an old servant helps her up a cedarn stairway to the palace roof that she may see the Argive army in the plain. ”

“ Then in turn wise Antilochus answered him: "Bear with me, now, for far younger am I than thou, king Menelaus, and thou art the elder and the better man. Thou knowest of what sort are the transgressions of a man that he is young, for hasty is he of purpose and but slender is his wit. Wherefore let thy heart be patient; the mare that I have won will I give thee of my self. ”

“ Antigone is discovered, refuses to make any kind of submission, and is condemned. Ismênê tries to share her suffering; her lover Hæmon, son of Creon, intercedes for her: both in vain. Hæmon forces his way into the tomb where she has been immured alive, finds her dead, and slays himself.
Apart from the beauty of detail, especially in the language, one of the marks of daring genius in this play is Antigone's vagueness about the motive or principle of her action: it is because her guilty brother's cause was just; because death is enough to wipe away all offences ”

“ For indeed they were the oldest of Philip's and Alexander's soldiers, tried men, that had long made war their exercise, that had never been beaten or foiled; most of them seventy, none less than sixty years old. And so when they charged Antigonus's men, they cried out, "You fight against your fathers, you rascals," and furiously falling on, routed the whole phalanx at once, nobody being able to stand them, and the greatest part dying by their hands. ”

“ Antigone, for aiding in the pious Theft, was adjudged to be buried alive. Artemisia did make herself her loved one's Shrine, by drinking his Ashes. Such is the Love of Women; many Waters cannot quench it, neither can the Floods drown it. ”

“ Anthea persisted, “and we remember that all right.”
“Oh, that isn’t what’s happened, my good child,” said the Psammead, rather crossly, “that’s prophetic vision. And you remember dreams, don’t you? So why not visions? You never do seem to understand the simplest thing.”
It went to sand again at once.
Anthea crept down in her nightgown to give one last kiss to old Nurse, and one last look at the beautiful testimonial hanging, by its tapes, its glue now firmly set, in glazed glory on the wall of the kitchen. ”

“ For thou hast shamed me and my horses, putting thine own in front, which are, of a truth, much worse than they. Judge, therefore, between us, ye chiefs of the Greeks. And thou, Antilochus, stand before thy chariot and thy horses, as the custom is, holding in one hand thy whip, and laying the other hand on thine horses, and swear by Poseidon that thou didst not hinder my chariot by fraud."
To him Antilochus made reply: "Bear with me, Menelaus, for I am younger than thou, and thou knowest how young men go astray, for their judgment is hasty and their wit small. ”

“ His history was written in Greek by St. Athanasius, and was translated into Latin by the ecclesiastical historian Evagrius. Anthony was evidently a fanatical visionary, subject to mental illusions, which were fostered by his education. To escape from the temptations of the world, he sold all his property, which was considerable, gave it to the poor, and then retired into the desert of the Thebaid, to live a life of the strictest asceticism. The evil one persecuted him in his solitude, and sought to drive him back into the corruptions of worldly life. ”

“ Such was the sanctity of these holy men that even wild beasts felt their power. When a hermit was about to die, a lion came and dug a grave with its claws. The saint knew by this that God had called him, and he went and kissed all his brethren on the cheek. Then he lay down joyfully, and slept in the Lord.
Now that Anthony, who was more than a hundred years old, had retired to Mount Colzin with his well-beloved disciples, Macarius and Amathas, there was no monk in the Thebaid more renowned for good works than Paphnutius, the Abbot of Antinoë. ”

“ It is I who have taken upon myself to lead many astray, and I fight against every man, and I am against righteousness, and I am, even as the Prophet called me, the ‘spirit of fornication’ (Hosea 4:12) , for through me have gone astray all those who have stumbled. It is I who have injured thee on several occasions, and thou hast been held in contempt by me in everything.”
And the blessed Anthony gave thanks unto the Lord, and gained great encouragement, and said, “What power thinkest thou that thou hast in thee, O Enemy, to resist the might of the Cross? ”

“ Angerbode, giant prophetess, mother of Fenris, Hela and the Midgard Serpent
Anglesey, a Northern British island, refuge of Druids fleeing from Romans
Antæus, giant wrestler of Libya, killed by Hercules, who, finding him stronger when thrown to the earth, lifted him into the air and strangled him
Antea, wife of jealous Proetus
Antenor, descendants of, in Italy
Anteros, deity avenging unrequited love, brother of Eros (Cupid)
Anthor, a Greek
Antigone, daughter of Ædipus, Greek ideal of filial and sisterly fidelity
Antilochus, son of Nestor
Antiope, Amazonian queen. ”

“ Antig'onus, a Sicilian lord, commanded by king Leontês to take his infant daughter to a desert shore and leave her to perish. Antigonus was driven by a storm to the coast of Bohemia, where he left the babe; but on his way back to the ship, he was torn to pieces by a bear.—Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (1604) .
Antig'onus (King) , an old man with a young man's amorous passions. He is one of the four kings who succeeded to the divided empire of Alexander the Great.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Humorous Lieutenant (1647) . ”

“ None knows their origin.” 287The Athenian reverence for Law made natural an even more magnificent reiteration of this idea in the “Œdipus Tyrannus:”—
“Be mine the lot to win pure reverence in every word and work for which the Laws are set on high, in Heaven’s ether born as children of Olympus, him alone; no mortal nature among men gave birth to them nor ever shall oblivion lull them to slumber. Great is God within them and he grows not old.”
Beneath a neighbouring hill Antigone was walled up in one of the rock-cut caverns that abound in Greece. ”

“ Let no one among you be idle; for idleness is the mother of want. I do not enjoin these things as being a person of any consequence, although I am in bonds [for Christ] ; but as a brother, I put you in mind of them. The Lord be with you!
Chapter X.—Salutations.
May I enjoy your prayers! Pray ye that may attain to Jesus. I commend unto you the Church which is at Antioch. The Churches of Philippi, [37] whence also I write to you, salute you. Philo, your deacon, to whom also I give thanks as one who has zealously ministered to me in all things, salutes you. ”

“ When the fleet approached the harbor of Corinth, the urn, covered with purple, and a royal diadem upon it, was visible upon the poop, and a troop of young men attended in arms to receive it at landing Xenophantus, the most famous musician of the day, played on the flute his most solemn measure, to which the rowers, as the ship came in, made loud response, their oars, like the funeral beating of the breast, keeping time with the cadences of the music. But Antigonus, in tears and mourning attire, excited among the spectators gathered on the shore the greatest sorrow and compassion. ”

“ Now he dwelt alone in a house which was by the side of the village, for as yet there were no monasteries for ascetics in Egypt, and among the monks there was no man who had any knowledge of the inner desert; and every one who wished to have a care for his soul used to seek out an habitation of this kind. Saint Anthony did not betake himself to the mountain at a great distance from the village, but only at a sufficient distance therefrom, so that he might be somewhat apart from the habitation of men. ”

“ I cannot forbear another reference to those recent authors who have so brilliantly illustrated and depicted the Antioch of the early Christians; [3] because, if we wish to understand Autolycus, we must feel the state of society which at once fascinated him, and disgusted Theophilus. The Fathers are dry to those only who lack imagination to reproduce their age, or who fail to study them geographically and chronologically. ”