"Yes, by heaven! we shall see. Do you not think that we see these miracles?"
"You said 'we'; do you think we personally shall see them?"
"Well, I did not exactly say that ... not I, for I am already old; perhaps you, who are still young; but certainly our descendants."
"And why, for heaven's sake, will our descendants see anything that we cannot see?"
"In the same way that we see things which our ancestors never did."
"What things do we see which they did not?"
"Why, steam, piston guns, air-balloons, electricity, printing, gunpowder! Do you suppose the world progresses only to stop half-way? Do you imagine that after having conquered successively the earth, water and fire, man, for instance, will not make himself master of the air? It would be ridiculous to hold that belief. If perchance you doubt it, young man, so much the worse for you."
"I confess one thing, monsieur, and that is, I neither doubt nor believe. My mind has never dwelt on such theories. I have been wrong, I see, since they can be interesting, and I should take to them if I had the pleasure of talking for long with you. So you believe, monsieur, that we shall gradually attain to a knowledge of all Nature's secrets?"
"I am convinced of it."
"But we should then be as powerful as the Almighty."