But to Philammon had come an insatiable craving to know the mysteries of learning, to see the great roaring world of men.  He felt he could stay no longer, and on his return he poured out his speech to Abbot Pambo.

“Let me go!  I am not discontented with you, but with myself.  I knew that obedience is noble, but danger is nobler still.  If you have seen the world, why should not I?  Cyril and his clergy have not fled from it.”

Abbot Pambo sought counsel with the good brother Aufugus, and then bade Philammon follow him.

“And thou wouldst see the world, poor fool?  Thou wouldst see the world?” said the old man when the abbot had left them alone together.

“I would convert the world!”

“Thou must know it first.  Here I sit, the poor unknown old monk, until I die.  And shall I tell thee what that world is like?  I was Arsenius, tutor of the emperor.  There at Byzantium I saw the world which thou wouldst see, and what I saw thou wilt see.  Bishops kissing the feet of parricides.  Saints tearing saints in pieces for a word.  Falsehood and selfishness, spite and lust, confusion seven times confounded.  And thou wouldst go into the world from which I fled?”

“If the harvest be at hand, the Lord needs labourers.  Send me, and let that day find me where I long to be, in the forefront of the battle of the Lord.”

“The Lord’s voice be obeyed.  Thou shalt go.  Here are letters to Cyril, the patriarch.  Thou goest of our free will as well as thine own.  The abbot and I have watched thee long, knowing that the Lord had need of such as thee elsewhere.  We did but prove thee, to see, by thy readiness to obey, whether thou were fit to rule.  Go, and God be with thee.  Covet no man’s gold or silver.  Neither eat flesh nor drink wine, but live as thou hast lived—­a Nazarite of the Lord.  The papyrus boat lies at the ferry; thou shalt descend in it.  When thou hast gone five days’ journey downward, ask for the mouth of the canal of Alexandria.  Once in the city, any monk will guide thee to the archbishop.  Send us news of thy welfare by some holy mouth.  Come.”

Silently they paced together down the glen to the lonely beach of the great stream.  Pambo was there, and with slow and feeble arms he launched the canoe.  Philammon flung himself at the old men’s feet, and besought their blessing and their forgiveness.

“We have nothing to forgive.  Follow thou thine inward call.  If it be the flesh, it will avenge itself; if it be of the Spirit, who are we that we should fight against God?  Farewell!”

A few minutes more, and the youth and his canoe were lessening down the rapid stream in the golden summer twilight.

II.—­Hypatia, Queen of Paganism

On his first morning in Alexandria, Philammon heard praises of Hypatia from a fruit porter who showed him the way to the archbishop’s house.  Hypatia, according to his guide, was the queen of Alexandria, a very unique and wonderful person, the fountain of classic wisdom.