His noisy words fill my head."

_Hilarion_--"The endeavours to comprehend God are better than your
mortifications for the purpose of moving him. We have no merit save our
thirst for truth. Religion alone does not explain everything; and the
solution of the problems which you have ignored might render it more
unassailable and more sublime. Therefore, it is essential for each man's
salvation that he should hold intercourse with his brethren--otherwise
the Church, the assembly of the faithful, would be only a word--and that
he should listen to every argument, and not disdain anything, or anyone.
Balaam the soothsayer, AEschylus the poet, and the sybil of Cumae,
announced the Saviour. Dionysius the Alexandrian received from Heaven a
command to read every book. Saint Clement enjoins us to study Greek
literature. Hermas was converted by the illusion of a woman that he
loved!"

_Antony_--"What an air of authority! It appears to me that you are
growing taller ..."

In fact, Hilarion's height has progressively increased; and, in order
not to see him, Antony closes his eyes.

_Hilarion_--"Make your mind easy, good hermit. Let us sit down here, on
this big stone, as of yore, when, at the break of day, I used to salute
you, addressing you as 'Bright morning star'; and you at once began to
give me instruction. It is not finished yet. The moon affords us
sufficient light. I am all attention."

He has drawn forth a calamus from his girdle, and, cross-legged on the
ground, with his roll of papyrus in his hand, he raises his head towards
Antony, who, seated beside him, keeps his forehead bent.

"Is not the word of God confirmed for us by the miracles? And yet the
sorcerers of Pharaoh worked miracles. Other impostors could do the same;
so here we may be deceived. What, then, is a miracle? An occurrence
which seems to us outside the limits of Nature. But do we know all
Nature's powers? And, from the mere fact that a thing ordinarily does
not astonish us, does it follow that we comprehend it?"

_Antony_--"It matters little; we must believe in the Scripture."

_Hilarion_--"Saint Paul, Origen, and some others did not interpret it
literally; but, if we explain it allegorically, it becomes the heritage
of a limited number of people, and the evidence of its truth vanishes.
What are we to do, then?"

_Antony_--"Leave it to the Church."

_Hilarion_--"Then the Scripture is useless?"

_Antony_--"Not at all. Although the Old Testament,