Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/158

 140 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. cism. The pagan Greeks were only dilettantes in ascetic practices, never virtuosos. Clement of Alex- andria and Origen may themselves have been influ- ences in the growth of Neo-platonism. At least their teachings were affected by prevalent spiritual condi- tions which had likewise much to do with the evolu- tion of Plotinus's system. Again, Gnosticism was in its moods akin to much in both the Alexandrian fathers and the Alexandrian Neo-platonists. It was ascetic and distinctly dualistic. And finally through- out orthodox Christianity there was very living dual- ism in the strife of devils against Christ's kingdom. Many of the men, Christian and Pagan, referred to in these pages, were not of Hellenic birth, but Copts : Origen, Plotinus, Anthony, were all Copts. But it is not safe to ascribe the insane asceticism of the Egyptian monks to the fact that many of them, like Anthony, were of this race, and so less reasonable than Greeks. Origen was the greatest intellect of the Eastern Church, and Plotinus was a supreme meta- physician. The first Christian hermits and monks in Egypt and elsewhere were influenced by the supersti- tions and ascetic practices of the countries in which they lived, quite as much as by influences coming through literary or scholastic channels. There was in Egypt a mass of lore upon the conflict of Set and his evil host with Horus and his host of powers seeking vengeance for Osiris slain ; and the genius of Egypt had always occupied itself with imagining scenes of the future life. These notions may have affected the imagination of the Christian hermit and monk, prepar- ing him to evolve his marvellous combats with many