fe, which in their
turn engendered Man and the Church; and this makes eight AEons."

He reckons on his fingers:

"The Word and Truth produced ten other AEons, that is to say, five
couples. Man and the Church produced twelve others, amongst whom were
the Paraclete and Faith, Hope and Charity, Perfection and Wisdom,
Sophia.

"The entire of those thirty AEons constitutes the Pleroma, or
Universality of God. Thus, like the echoes of a voice that is dying
away, like the exhalations of a perfume that is evaporating, like the
fires of a sun that is setting, the Powers that have emanated from the
Highest Powers are always growing feeble.

"But Sophia, desirous of knowing the Father, rushed out of the Pleroma;
and the Word then made another pair, Christ and the Holy Ghost, who
bound together all the AEons, and all together they formed Jesus, the
flower of the Pleroma. Meanwhile, the effort of Sophia to escape had
left in the void an image of her, an evil substance, Acharamoth. The
Saviour took pity on her, and delivered her from her passions; and from
the smile of Acharamoth on being set free Light was born; her tears made
the waters, and her sadness engendered gloomy Matter. From Acharamoth
sprang the Demiurge, the fabricator of the worlds, the heavens, and the
Devil. He dwells much lower down than the Pleroma, without even
beholding it, so that he imagines he is the true God, and repeats
through the mouths of his prophets: 'Besides me there is no God.' Then
he made man, and cast into his soul the immaterial seed, which was the
Church, the reflection of the other Church placed in the Pleroma.

"Acharamoth, one day, having reached the highest region, shall unite
with the Saviour; the fire hidden in the world shall annihilate all
matter, shall then consume itself, and men, having become pure spirits,
shall espouse the angels!"

_Origen_--"Then the Demon shall be conquered, and the reign of God shall
begin!"

Antony represses an exclamation, and immediately Basilides, catching him
by the elbow:

"The Supreme Being, with his infinite emanations, is called Abraxas, and
the Saviour with all his virtues, Kaulakau, otherwise rank-upon-rank,
rectitude-upon-rectitude. The power of Kaulakau is obtained by the aid
of certain words inscribed on this calcedony to facilitate memory."

And he shows on his neck a little stone on which fantastic lines are
engraved.

"Then you shall be transported into the invisible; and, unfettered