[9] See the second part of "Faust," and Kundry in "Parsifal."
[V.]
Anthony (walking to and fro, slowly).
"That one, indeed, seems in himself equal to all the powers of Hell!
"Nebuchadnezzar did not so much dazzle me with his splendours;—the Queen of Sheba herself charmed me less deeply.
"His manner of speaking of the gods compels one to feel a desire to know them.
"I remember having beheld hundreds of them at one time, in the island of Elephantius, in the time of Diocletian. The emperor had ceded to the Nomads a great tract of country, upon the condition that they should guard the frontiers; and the treaty was concluded in the name of the 'Powers Invisible.' For the gods of each people were unknown unto the other people.
"The Barbarians had brought theirs with them. They occupied the sand-hills bordering the river. We saw them supporting their idols in their arms, like great paralytic children;—others, paddling through the cataracts upon trunks of palm tree, displayed from afar off the amulets hung about their necks, the tattooings upon their breasts; and these things were not more sinful than the religion of the Greeks, the Asiatics, and the Romans!