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the ftri6tePt afceticifm. The evil one perfecuted him in his folitude, and 
fought to drive him back into the corruptions of worldly life. He firit 
tried to fill his mind with regretful reminifcences of his former Wealth, 
pofition in fociety, and enjoyments; when this failed, he diiiurbed his mind 
with voluptuous images and defires, which the faint refitted with equal 
fuccefs. The perfecutor now changed his taftics, and prefentiug himfelf 
to Anthony in the form of a black and ugly youth, c0nfeH'ed to him, 
with apparent candour, that he was the fpirit of uncleannefs, and acknow- 
leged that he had been vanquifhed by the extraordinary merits of 
Anthony's fanetity. The faint, however, faw that this was only a 
Itratagem to ftir up in him the fpirit of pride and felf-confidence, and he 
met it by fubjetitiiig himfelf to greater mortifications than ever, which of 
courfe made him {till more liable to thefe delufions. Now he fought 
greater folitude by taking up his refidence in a ruined Egyptian fepulchre, 
but the farther he withdrew from the world, the more he became the 
objeot of diabolical perfecution. Satan broke in upon his privacy with a 
hoit of attendants, and during the night beat him to fuch a degree, that 
one morning the attendant who brought him food found him lying 
fenfelefs in his cell, and had him carried to the town, where his friends 
were on the point of burying him, believing him to be dead, when he 
fuddenly revived, and infiited on being taken back to his folitary dwelling. 
The legend tells us that the demons appeared to him in the forms of the 
moit ferocious animals, fuch as lions, bulls, wolves, afps, ferpents, fcorpions, 
panthers, and bears, each attacking him in the manner peculiar to its 
fpecies, and with its peculiar voice, thus making together a horrible din. 
Anthony left his tomb to retire farther into the defert, where he made a 
ruined caftle his refidence 5 and here he was again {rightfully perfecuted 
by the demons, and the noife they made was fo great and horrible that it 
was often heard at a vaft diftance. According to the narrative, Anthony 
reproached the demons in very abuiive language, called them hard names, 
and even fpat in their faces; but his moit effeetive weapon was always 
the crofs. Thus the faint became bolder, and fought a {till more lonely 
abode, and nnally eliablifhed himfelf on the top of a high mountain in 
the upper Thebaid. The demons {till continued to perfecute him, under 
a great