--it would not
be itself; God would no longer exist. He is, therefore, indivisible as
well as infinite, and if He had a body, He would be made up of parts. He
would no longer be one; He would no longer be infinite. Therefore, He is
not a person!"

_Antony_--"What? My prayers, my sobs, the sufferings of my flesh, the
transports of my zeal, all these things would be no better than a lie
... in space ... uselessly--like a bird's cry, like a whirlwind of dead
leaves!"

He weeps.

"Oh! no! There is above everything some One, a Great Spirit, a Lord, a
Father, whom my heart adores, and who must love me!"

_The Devil_--"You desire that God should not be God; for, if He
experienced love, anger, or pity, He would pass from His perfection to a
greater or less perfection. He cannot descend to a sentiment, or be
contained under a form."

_Antony_--"One day, however, I shall see Him!"

_The Devil_--"With the Blessed, is it not? When the finite shall enjoy
the Infinite, enclosing the Absolute in a limited space!"

_Antony_--"No matter! There must be a Paradise for the good, as well as
a Hell for the wicked!"

_The Devil_--"Does the exigency of your reason constitute the law of
things? Without doubt, evil is a matter of indifference to God, seeing
that the earth is covered with it!

"Is it from impotence that He endures it, or from cruelty that He
preserves it?

"Do you think that He can be continually putting the world in order like
an imperfect work, and that He watches over all the movements of all
beings, from the flight of the butterfly to the thought of man?

"If He created the universe His providence is superfluous. If Providence
exists, creation is defective.

"But good and evil only concern you--like day and night, pleasure and
pain, death and birth, which have relationship merely to a corner of
space, to a special medium, to a particular interest. Inasmuch as what
is infinite alone is permanent, the Infinite exists; and that is all!"

The Devil has gradually extended his huge wings, and now they cover
space.

Antony can no longer see. He is on the point of fainting:

"A horrible chill freezes me to the bottom of my soul. This exceeds the
utmost pitch of pain. It is, as it were, a death more profound than
death. I wheel through the immensity of darkness. It enters into me. My
consciousness is shivered to atoms under this expansion of nothingness."

_The Devil_--"But things happen only through the medium of