hey separate, swift as shadows, all the time making a
great uproar, or intermingling yells of rage, exclamations of love,
canticles, and upbraidings.

_Antony_, in a low tone--"What do they want?"

_Hilarion_--"The Lord said, 'I may still have to speak to you about many
things.' They possess those things."

And he pushes him towards a throne of gold, five paces off, where,
surrounded by ninety-five disciples, all anointed with oil, pale and
emaciated, sits the prophet Manes--beautiful as an archangel, motionless
as a statue--wearing an Indian robe, with carbuncles in his plaited
hair, a book of coloured pictures in his left hand, and a globe under
his right. The pictures represent the creatures who are slumbering in
chaos. Antony bends forward to see him. Then Manes makes his globe
revolve, and, attuning his words to the music of a lyre, from which
bursts forth crystalline sounds, he says:

"The celestial earth is at the upper extremity, the mortal earth at the
lower. It is supported by two angels, the Splenditenens and the
Omophorus, with six faces.

"At the summit of Heaven, the Impassible Divinity occupies the highest
seat; underneath, face to face, are the Son of God and the Prince of
Darkness.

"The darkness having made its way into His kingdom, God extracted from
His essence a virtue which produced the first man; and He surrounded him
with five elements. But the demons of darkness deprived him of one part,
and that part is the soul.

"There is but one soul, spread through the universe, like the water of a
stream divided into many channels. This it is that sighs in the wind,
grinds in the marble which is sawn, howls in the voice of the sea; and
it sheds milky tears when the leaves are torn off the fig-tree.

"The souls that leave this world emigrate towards the stars, which are
animated beings."

Antony begins to laugh:

"Ah! ah! what an absurd hallucination!"

_A man_, beardless, and of austere aspect--"Why?"

Antony is about to reply. But Hilarion tells him in an undertone, that
this man is the mighty Origen; and Manes resumes:

"At first, they stay in the moon, where they are purified. After that,
they ascend to the sun."

_Antony_, slowly--"I know nothing to prevent us from believing it."

_Manes_--"The end of every creature is the liberation of the celestial
ray shut up in matter. It makes its escape more easily through perfumes,
spices, the aroma of old wine, the light substances that resem