i86 



ORIGIN OP MONACHISM. 



Folly does no injury to the reputation ; for, notwith- 

 ftanding this, the report of the heroic life of this 

 ruftic reached the court of the emperor Conftantine .; 

 who accordingly wrote to Antonius as to a prophet, in- 

 treating a vifit from him. His fame refounded through- 

 out the world. The authority he had over the minds 

 of men fpread itfelf far and wide ; and Antonius,, how- 

 ever weak and wretched in his younger years, muft 

 certainly have had ftrong nerves and force and good 

 lungs as he advanced in life, for talking fo many per- 

 fons out of the defire of the accommodations of life. 



His laft journey to Alexandria in all likelihood 

 haftened his death. He hobbled thither to curfe the 

 heretics, and none ever curfe heretics without fome 

 gall ; which is always dangerous, and at fuch an ad- 

 vanced age ufuaily kills. What brought M. de Vol- 

 taire to his grave, in Paris, contributed not a little, as 

 I humbly conceive, to the death of the great Antonius,. 

 in Alexandria. The Alexandrians were, like the Pa- 

 riiians, a volatile, curious, airy and inflammable people. 

 A ftrange beaft or a great man, fet all Alexandria in 

 motion. Antonius being at Alexandria for the laft 

 time, the crouds of chriftians and heathens that flocked 

 around him, was too much for the poor old creature to 

 bear. All the Alexandrians muft have a light of the 

 great man, who had caft out fuch a quantity of devils ; 

 and feveral of them went up and fhook his gown, in 

 hopes of feeing at leaft a brace of devils tumble out 

 of it. 



Thus ended the long and glorious carreer of the^ 

 great Antonius, in the hundred and fifth year of his 

 age. He died on his holy mountain, in the arms of 



two 



