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BUT of the difference that there is between demons we have learnt a
great deal by means of those two philosophers who formerly by acts of magic
had oftentimes great experience both of their laziness and of their courage
and savage wickedness. For these looking down on the blessed Antony as a
boor and rustic, and wanting, if they could not injure him any further, at
least to drive him from his cell by illusions of magic and the devices of
demons, despatched against him most foul spirits. for they were impelled to
this attack upon him by the sting of jealousy because enormous crowds came
daily to him as the servant of God. And when these most savage demons did
not even venture to approach him as he was now signing his breast and
forehead with the sign of the cross, and, now devoting himself to prayer
and supplication, they returned without any result to those who had
directed them; and these again sent against him others more desperate in
wickedness, and when these too had spent their strength in vain, and
returned without having accomplished anything, and others still more
powerful were nevertheless told off against the victorious soldier of
Christ, and could prevail nothing against him, all these great plots of
theirs devised with all the arts of magic were only useful in proving the
great value that there is in the profession of Christians, so that those
fierce and powerful shadows, which they thought would veil the sun and moon
if they were directed towards them, could not only not injure him, but not
even draw him forth from his monastery for a single instant.
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