Footnotes: 1. St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein], fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned; for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23, Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.) Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t. 3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119, Sec.64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666. 2. Matt. xix. 21. 3. An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini. Fleury, l. 8, p. 418. 4. Ibid. vi. 34. 5. [Greek: Parthenon], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed. Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek: hathegoumenen allos parthenon], n. 54. p. 837. 6. Orig. lib. 5, p. 264. 7. His first monastery was situated near the confines of Upper and Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p. 461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river, and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St. Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts, the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others, frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public, and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by, he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days, doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red