ORIGIN OF MCNACHISM. 



tient reader will now rather follow me into the caves and 

 the cells, which, three hundred and five years after 

 the birth of Chrift, the holy Antonius brought more 

 into order, and animated with a greater enthuliafm. 

 Perhaps he will now perufe with greater participatibn 

 ibme features of the life and character of a man, who 

 acted fo powerfully on a number of mankind, and from 

 whofe manners and mode of life, thoufands of his fol- 

 lowers will maintain, that they are neither melancholy 

 nor mad. 



Antonius the great was by birth an aegyptian peafant. 

 It is affirmed by fome that he could read and write ; 

 and by others it is denied. In his firft youth he would 

 have no intercourfe whatever with other boys. He 

 lurked by himfelf in corners, indulging his fullen hu- 

 mour. No fooner had he loft his parents, but this 

 atrabilious youth made over the eftate that fell to him, 

 conlifting of no lefs than a hundred and fifty acres of 

 land} as a donative to the boors of his village ; he fold 

 the furniture of the manfion, and gave the money to 

 the poor. Soon after, forfaking houfe and home, he 

 retired at firft to a folitary place in the neighbourhood, 

 then, travelled from one hermit to another, for making 

 himfelf acquainted with that exalted virtue of which in 

 the fequel he gave his contemporaries the example, and 

 by them the doctrine to the world. 



The devil had kindled in the heart of this great faint, 

 very early in life, the fire of wanton luft. Antonius 

 fought againft it by day with the weapons of bread and 

 water, and with a hard couch by night. For making 

 his victory over fin and the world more complete, he 

 went and hid himfelf in a fepulchre, at a confiderable 



diftance 



