(Weeping):
"Oh, no!—there is Some One above all things,—a great Soul, a Lord, a Father whom my heart adores and who must love me!"
The Devil. "Thou dost desire that God were not God;—for did he feel love, or anger, or pity,—he would abandon his perfection for a greater or a lesser perfection. He can stoop to no sentiment, nor be contained in any form."
Anthony. "One day, nevertheless, I shall see him!"
The Devil. "With the blessed, is it not?—when the finite shall enjoy the infinite in some restricted place, containing the Absolute!"
Anthony. "Matters not!—there must be a paradise for the good, as there is a hell for the wicked."
The Devil. "Can the desire of thy mind create the law of the universe? Without doubt evil is indifferent to God,—forasmuch as the Earth is covered with it!
"Is it through impotence that he endures it, or through cruelty that he maintains it?
"Dost thou fancy that he is eternally readjusting the world, like an imperfect machine?—that he is forever watching the movements of all beings, from the flight of a butterfly to the thought of a man?
"If he have created the universe, his providence is superfluous. If Providence exists, then creation is defective.