MANES. "The proper aim of every creature is the deliverance of the ray of celestial light imprisoned within matter. It finds easier escape through the medium of perfumes, spices, the aroma of warmed wine, the light things which resemble thoughts. But the acts of life retain it within its prison. The murderer shall be born again in the form of a celephus; he that kills an animal shall become that animal; if thou plantest a vine, thou shalt be thyself bound within its boughs. Food absorbs the celestial light.... Therefore abstain! fast!"
HILARION. "Thou seest, they are temperate!"
MANES. "There is much of it in meats, less of it in herbs. Moreover the Pure Ones, by means of their great merits, despoil vegetation of this luminous essence; and, thus liberated, it reascends to its source. But through generation, animals keep it imprisoned within the flesh! Therefore, avoid women!"
MANES. "Or rather contrive that they shall not create..............[3]
HILARION. "What signifies the hierarchy of turpitudes? The Church has, forsooth, made marriage a sacrament!"
SATURNINUS (_in Syrian costume_). "He teaches a most dismal system of the universe!... The Father, desiring to punish the angels who had revolted, ordered them to create the world. Christ came, in order that the God of the Jews, who was one of those angels...."
CERDO. "Did he not seek to kill Moses, to deceive his own prophets, to seduce nations?--did he not sow falsehood and idolatry broadcast?"
MARCION. "Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!"
SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. "Matter is eternal!"
BARDESANES (_in the costume of the Babylonian magi_). "It was formed by the Seven Planetary Spirits."
THE HERMIANS. "Souls were made by the angels."
THE PRISCILLIANISTS. "It was the Devil who made the world."
ANTHONY (_rushing back from the circle_). "Horror!"
HILARION (_supporting him_). "Thou despairest too hastily!--thou dost misapprehend their doctrine! Here is one who received his teaching directly from Theodas, the friend of St. Paul. Hearken to him."
_appears in a tunic of cloth of silver; his skull is pointed at its summit; his voice has a wheezing sound._)
"The world is the work of a God in delirium!"
ANTHONY (_bending his head down_). "The work of a God in delirium!..."