e and
Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a
solitary people, who dwelt among the palm-trees near the Dead Sea; who
subsisted without money, who were propagated without women; and who
derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of
voluntary associates.

Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example
of the monastic life. Antony, an illiterate youth of the lower parts of
Thebais, distributed his patrimony, deserted his family and native
home, and executed his _monastic_ penance with original and intrepid
fanaticism. After a long and painful novitiate, among the tombs, and in
a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey
to the eastward of the Nile; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed
the advantages of shade and water, and fixed his last residence on Mount
Colzim, near the Red Sea; where an ancient monastery still preserves
the name and memory of the saint. The curious devotion of the Christians
pursued him to the desert; and when he was obliged to appear at
Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with
discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose
doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined
a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The venerable
patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one hundred and five years)
beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his
lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase
on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of
the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain, and adjacent desert,
of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand anachorets; and the traveller
may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted
in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony. In the Upper Thebais,
the vacant island of Tabenne, was occupied by Pachomius and fourteen
hundred of his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine
monasteries of men, and one of women; and the festival of Easter
sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, who followed
his _angelic_ rule of discipline. The stately and populous city of
Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples,
the public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable
uses; and the bishop, who might preach in twelve churches, comput