"How stupid one must be to worship such things!"
(_Then idols of all nations and of all epochs--of wood, of metal, of granite, of feathers, of skins sewn together,--pass before them._
_The most ancient of all anterior to the Deluge are hidden under masses of seaweed hanging down over them like manes. Some that are too long for their bases, crack in all their joints, and break their own backs in walking. Others have rents torn in their bellies through which sand trickles out._
_Anthony and Hilarion are prodigiously amused. They hold their sides for laughter. Then appear sheep-headed idols. They totter upon their bandy-legs, half-open their eye-lids, and stutter like the dumb,_ "Ba! ba! ba!"
_The more that the idols commence to resemble the human forms, the more they irritate Anthony. He strikes them with his fist, kicks them, attacks them with fury. They become frightful,--with lofty plumes, eyes like balls, fingers terminated by claws, the jaws of sharks._
_And before these gods men are slaughtered upon altars of stone; others are brayed alive in huge mortars, crushed under chariots, nailed upon trees. There is one all of red-hot iron with the horns of a bull, who devours children._)
HILARION. "But the gods always demand tortures--and suffering. Even thine desired ..."
ANTHONY (_weeping_). "Ah! say no more!--do not speak to me!"
(_The space girdled by the rocks suddenly changes into a valley. A herd of cattle are feeding upon the short grass._
_The herdman who leads them, observes a cloud;--and in a sharp voice, shouts out words of command, as if to heaven._)
HILARION. "Because he needs rain, he seeks by certain chants to compel the King of heaven to open the fecund cloud."
"Verily, such pride is the extreme of foolishness!"
HILARION. "Why dost thou utter exorcisms?"
(_The valley changes into a sea of milk, motionless and infinite. In its midst floats a long cradle formed by the coils of a serpent, whose many curving heads shade, like a dais, the god slumbering upon its body._
_He is beardless, young, more beautiful than a girl, and covered with diaphanous veils. The pearls of his tiara gleam softly like moons; a chaplet of stars is entwined many times about his breast, and with one hand beneath his head, he slumbers with the look of one who dreams after wine._