United States or Cyprus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"I would willingly give you a hundred thousand francs for the lot." Remonencq, asked to do a trifling service, hung eight pictures of the proper size in the same frames, taking them from among the less valuable pictures in Schmucke's bedroom. No sooner was Elie Magus in possession of the four great pictures than he went, taking La Cibot with him, under pretence of settling accounts.
"Do not light the lamp," said the magus with quiet authority, arresting a movement in that direction. "I told you before that things happen only in the dark." How such a topsy-turvy scene ever came to be tolerated in the colonel's office, of all places, was afterward a puzzle in the memory of many, including the colonel.
But Simon Magus is not the only magician spoken of in the New Testament. When the apostle Paul came to Paphos in the isle of Cyprus, he found the Roman governor divided in his preference between Paul and Elymas, the sorcerer, who before the governor withstood Paul to his face.
Only, to complete the punishment of the ambitious religionists who had insulted and deceived the nation, the day of the massacre was appointed to be kept annually as a solemn festival, under the name of the Magophonia; and a law was passed that on that day no Magus should leave his house.
"Oh yes, no doubt," returned she. "People promise you heaps of money, and when they come by their own, and there is talk of paying they swindle you like " "Like Elie Magus," she was going to say, but she stopped herself just in time. "I am going," said Fraisier; "it is not to your interest that I should be found here; but I shall see you again downstairs."
La Cibot immediately began to talk of Remonencq and Elie Magus, and said that the shrewd couple valued the pictures at six hundred thousand francs. "Would they take them themselves at that price?" inquired the lawyer. "You see, madame, that men of business are shy of pictures. A picture may mean a piece of canvas worth a couple of francs or a painting worth two hundred thousand.
"If I engage my silence, O Hadji, it is because I believe you are a good man." The dignity of the Emir's answer did not entirely hide the effect of the Prince's manner. "Know thou then," the latter continued, with a steady, penetrating gaze "know thou then, there is a Brahman of my acquaintance who is a Magus.
No great sales, therefore, took place but Elie Magus was there; every mart knew him; he traveled all over Europe. The ice-cold, money-worshiping soul in him kindled at the sight of a perfect work of art, precisely as a libertine, weary of fair women, is roused from apathy by the sight of a beautiful girl, and sets out afresh upon the quest of flawless loveliness.
If we knew more of the realities about Simon Magus on the one hand, and Paul of Tarsus on the other, we might have clearer light on the whole problem; at present must be content with saying this much: that Gnosticism, with its deep mystical truths, emerges into the light of well-founded history about neck and neck with orthodox Christianity; was considered a branch of the same movement, equally Christian; but was at least tinged with esoteric truth, and deeply Hellenized, and perhaps Persianized; whereas the orthodox branch was the legitimate heir of exoteric Judaism.
Everybody is so fond of you that the whole house is in a flutter. So what is there to fear?" "It seems to me that there are several of you," said Pons. "Several? that is good! What next! Are you dreaming! You will go off your head before you have done, upon my word! Here, look!" and La Cibot flung open the door, signed to Magus to go, and beckoned to Remonencq.
Word Of The Day