The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15


 headers a picture of the early church in Alexandria, and to depict the pam demonium of the dissolving Roman Elm ptre. against which Cyril the Patri- arch fought. Cyril has had few good words said for him by posterity; but the conditions that surrounded him and the forces against which he strug gled must be taken into consideration when Judging this man, who, after all, did really accomplish much. TT
 He was an enthusiast, and after the manner of religious enthusiasts he sought to establish theocracy. But he was a great man. The picture that Kingsley gives us in "Hypatia" of the social and political conditions existing in Alexandria in the fifth century is q mild and expurgated one-a real pie ture could not be drawn without of fense to decency. The historical value of "Hypatia" is great for all that, and the personages are real and well drawn.
 TT was in the early part of the fifth
 century that the young monk Phi A lammon, brought up from childhood in the desert monastery of the Laura, , some hundred miles up the Nile, felt his boyish heart glow with a great de- sire to fly from his lonely life into the great world and there among the throngs of his fellow men, to do deeds of righteousness-to reform the world and scourge the flesh and the devil So with the blessing of old Abbot Pam bo he left the eternal purple shadows of the cliffs on the seas of yellow sand that surged around the fallen temples of the lost Egyptian gods, and at last he stood by the moon gate of Alex andria, viewing with wondering eyes taht imperial commercial mart, that social and political pandemonium.
 Tn great city, then the most flour ishing seaport in the world dazzled him with it's magnificence. The noise of this vast population beat on his ears like the murmur of the ocean waves. His heart grew bold, his spirits high; i; here surely was the theatre where he might give full play to his noble sen timents and aspirations for the regen- eration of the world.
 A manikin of a fellow-a porter lounging by the gate for the chance to run odd errands-conducted him to the house of the Patriarch Cyril, to whom old Pambo had given the youth letters of Introduction. But the little fellow did not scruple first to take Philammon some two miles out of his way that he might help Ito carry a basket he had to deliver and when the young monk, discovering the trick, expressed a desire to box the fellows ears. the porter began to explain his act by tumble of philosophic chat ter.
 For" said he, "you must know that I am a student of the great Hypatia. I keep the cloaks when the gentry come to hear lectures in the museum"
 And who is Hypatia?" asked Philam- mon. "Is she a friend of the patri- arch?"
 The little porter opened his eyes wide "Of the human race in general, my young friend" he said at last. "The philosopher must rise above the indi- vidua1 and contemplate the universa. - AhemH
 As they walked on Philammon was Hstounded by the multitude of monks whom they encountered everywhere. Monks! Monks. The lad had never imagined so many monks. Spare, sin ewy, grim, hairy men were most of them. from the nearby quarries of Nitria. At one point they came upon a mob of them, literally a mob of thou sands, trying to break into a place where a Christian was being fogged by order of the prefect on the charge of the Jews that he had tried to incite a riot. ''Nitria to the rescue" they shouted, and beat at the iron gates; but the prefect's soldiers and the stout gates kept them at bay.
 And what does this Hypatia teach ?" asked Philammon when they were be- yond the tumult.
 "Oh, the philosophy of the immortal gods, whose worship she will presently restore, sweeping away you Christians, said the little porter. And they say she is going to marry the prefect Orestes if he will but give up his Christianity. Oh, she is the queen Of Alexandria; but Cyril hates her and he hates the Jews and he hates Orestes; and his Nitrian savages would tear them all to pieces if they could"
 The world suddenly did not seem SO simple a proposition to Philammon as it had amid the sands of the Laura. He already had an experience coming down the Nile which had given him hint that it was rather complicated. He had fallen in with splendid gal lev on which was a party of Goths. gigantic of figure. fierce and rude of sposition-Amalric the Anal de- scended from Odin on both sides old WuIf the saga man, and Smid the armorer, with their followers, who had been south seeking Asgard, the city of the gods of Norseland. The simple minded barbarians were bitterly dis appointed that they had not found it and they were SOluS pdCh to <hiSA- endria to squander the spells earned bv mighty fighting in Italy on the fair pela eia and her nymphs, who were with them now in the slow moving galley.
 The women were the first Philam- mon had ever seen. He was aston ished. overcome, almost made afraid by tn e sight of the fair companions of inc Goths Come hither, thou boy monlx |" Pelagia had cried, land tell me what and who thou art From the Iaura2 And dost thou remember any th,nr before the Laura? Certainly thod wert not born there" "I am a Creek" pbila mmon had replied and remem- her fafntly-a great house in Athens ~and d great battle there-and com ing in a ship to Egypt
 "Heavensr, the girl had cried. How stran1ei Girls, which of you was 1t said he looked like me?'
 philammonf could not get the meet ing out of his mind. He was thinking of inc fair women when he was guided ot Iast to the house of the Patriarch Cyril. The patriarch assigned him to work with the parabolani, band of monLs who went through the slums of the city by day and by night re- lievinr the necessities of the poor.
 The indolent and effeminate Prefect Orestes: the proud and chaste lecturer on philosophy, Hypatia, and the stern and audacious Cyril were the three per- sons most talked of in Alexandria then. The first represented the power of Rome-such as 1t was in It's decay; the second what was left of the best of haathen learning. and the last the