"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!