In the midst of the platform rises a column of white stone. Priests in linen robes pass and repass around it, so as to describe by their evolutions a moving circle; and with faces uplifted, they gaze upon the stars. ...)
Hilarion. (pointing out several of these stars to Anthony):
"There are thirty principal stars. Fifteen look upon the upper side of the earth; fifteen below. At regular intervals one shoots from the upper regions to those below; while another abandons the inferior deeps to rise to sublime altitudes ...
"Of the seven planets, two are beneficent; two evil; three ambiguous:—all things in the world depend upon the influence of these eternal fires. According to their position or movement presages may be drawn;—and here thou dost tread the most venerable place upon earth. Here Pythagoras and Zoroaster have met;—here for twelve thousand years these men have observed the skies that they might better learn to know the gods."
Anthony. "The stars are not gods."
Hilarion. "Aye, they say the stars are gods; for all things about us pass away;—the heavens only remain immutable as eternity."
Anthony. "Yet there is a master!"
Hilarion (pointing to the column):
"He! Belus!—the first ray, the Sun, the Male! The Other, whom he fecundates, is beneath him!"
(Anthony beholds a garden, illuminated by lamps: He finds himself in the midst of the crowd, in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and left are little pathways leading to huts constructed within a wood of pomegranate trees, and enclosed by treillages of bamboo.