to the inclemency of the seasons.

Among these heroes of the monastic life, the name and genius of Simeon
Stylites have been immortalized by the singular invention of an
aerial penance. At the age of thirteen, the young Syrian deserted the
profession of a shepherd, and threw himself into an austere monastery.
After a long and painful novitiate, in which Simeon was repeatedly saved
from pious suicide, he established his residence on a mountain, about
thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a
_mandra_, or circle of stones, to which he had attached himself by a
ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which was successively raised
from the height of nine, to that of sixty, feet from the ground. In this
last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty
summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed
him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and
successively to assume the different postures of devotion. He sometimes
prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of
a cross, but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre
skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after
numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions, at length desisted
from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might
shorten, but it could not disturb, this _celestial_ life; and the
patient Hermit expired, without descending from his column. A prince,
who should capriciously inflict such tortures, would be deemed a
tyrant; but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long
and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This
voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibility both
of the mind and body; nor can it be presumed that the fanatics, who
torment themselves, are susceptible of any lively affection for the rest
of mankind. A cruel, unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks
of every age and country: their stern indifference, which is seldom
mollified by personal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred; and
their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the holy office of the
Inquisition.

The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a
philosopher, were respected, and almost adored, by the prince and
people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the
divine pillar of Simeon: the tribes of Sa