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S. Francis of Assisi nine centuries later was reluctant to destroy insects, however annoying; but his feeling was a different one; it was predominantly that of unwillingness to inflict pain and death on creatures of God that are so marvellously made and that proclaim in so many ways His goodness. The eyes of Macarius would see in the world a desert of exile and a field of battle against sensuality and worldliness—a place where small sufferings should be despised and great ones magnanimously accepted. The eyes of Francis would see in all creatures, great and small, a vast family bound in chains of love to one another and to the throne of one Heavenly Father.
S. ANTHONY
84.
1. Anthony was born in Egypt about the year a.d. 250. The facts of his life were handed down to posterity by the illustrious writer and defender of orthodoxy, S. Athanasius.
85.
4. "all to-rent his body," etc.: tore in pieces his body so that he supposed he was certain to die.
87.
13. "empesh": prevent. French empêcher, 1.3.1. impedicare. "Did I see him before me," says Newman (in his Church of the Fathers, Anthony in Conflict), "I might be tempted, with my cut and dried opinions, and my matter of fact ways, and my selfishness and pusillanimity, to consider him somewhat of an enthusiast; but what I desire to point out is . . . the subdued and Christian form which was taken by his enthusiasm, if it must be so called. It was not vulgar, bustling, imbecile, unstable, undutiful; it was calm and composed, manly, intrepid, magnanimous, full of affectionate loyalty to the Church and to the Truth." "Superstition," he again says, "is abject and crouching; it is full of thoughts of guilt; it distrusts God, and dreads the powers of evil. Anthony at least had nothing of this, being full of holy confidence, divine peace, cheerfulness and valorousness." In what has been preserved of his discourses and counsels as well as in many anecdotes related of him, we are impressed by his good sense, urbanity, and gentleness.
In his conflicts with evil spirits, there is little that a student of Holy Scripture will look upon as new or strange. As to the objective reality of such experiences it is rash to dogmatize, either in general or in particular cases. All who believe in the existence of a spiritual world and are not mere materialists
