Fontanares
Have you ever seen a ship on the sea? (The Grand Inquisitor assents.)
By what means is it propelled?
The Grand Inquisitor
The wind fills the sails.
Fontanares
Did the devil reveal this method of navigation to the first sailor?
The Grand Inquisitor
Do you know who he was?
Fontanares He was, perhaps, the founder of some long forgotten power that ruled the sea—at any rate, the means that I employ are not less natural than his. I have seen a certain force in nature, a force controllable by man. For the wind is God's creature, and man is not its master, but the wind propels the ships of man, while my force is in the ship itself.
The Grand Inquisitor (aside) This man may prove a dangerous fellow. (Aloud) And you refuse to tell us what it is?
Fontanares I will tell the king, in presence of the court; for, after that, no one will be able to rob me of my glory and the fortune that it brings.
The Grand Inquisitor You call yourself an inventor, and yet you think of nothing but fortune! You are too ambitious to be a man of genius.
Fontanares Father, I am so profoundly disgusted by the jealousy of the vulgar, by the avarice of the great, by the behavior of sham philosophers, that— but for my love for Marie—I would give back that which chance has bestowed upon me.
The Grand Inquisitor
Chance?