object? What experience could have
enlightened Him, what reflection enabled Him to judge? Before the
beginning of things, it would not have operated, and now it would be
useless."

_Antony_--"Nevertheless, He created the world, at one period of time, by
His mere word!"

_The Devil_--"But the beings who inhabit the earth came there
successively. In the same way, in the sky, new stars arise--different
effects from various causes."

_Antony_--"The variety of causes is the will of God!"

_The Devil_--"But to admit in God several acts of will is to admit
several causes, and thus to destroy His unity!

"His will is not separable from His essence. He cannot have a second
will, inasmuch as He cannot have a second essence--and, since He exists
eternally, He acts eternally.

"Look at the sun! From its borders escape great flames emitting sparks
which scatter themselves to become new worlds; and, further than the
last, beyond those depths where only night is visible, other suns whirl
round, and behind these others again, and others still, to infinity ..."

_Antony_--"Enough! enough! I am terrified! I am about to fall into the
abyss."

_The Devil_ stops, and gently balancing himself--

"There is no such thing as nothingness! There is no vacuum! Everywhere
there are bodies moving over the unchangeable realms of space--and, as
if it had any bounds it would not be space but a body, it consequently
has no limits!"

_Antony_, open-mouthed--"No limits!"

_The Devil_--"Ascend into the sky forever and ever, and you will never
reach the top! Descend beneath the earth for millions upon millions of
centuries, and you will never get to the bottom--inasmuch as there is no
bottom, no top, no end, above or below; and space is, in fact, comprised
in God, who is not a part of space, of a magnitude that can be measured,
but immensity!"

_Antony_, slowly--"Matter, in that case, would be part of God?"

_The Devil_--"Why not? Can you tell where He comes to an end?"

_Antony_--"On the contrary, I prostrate myself, I efface myself before
His power!"

_The Devil_--"And you pretend to move Him! You speak to Him, you even
adorn Him with virtues--goodness, justice, clemency,--in place of
recognising the fact that He possesses all perfections!

"To conceive anything beyond is to conceive God outside of God. Being
outside of Being. But then He is the only Being, the only Substance.

"If substance could be divided, it would lose its nature