“Perhaps it contains the same thing?”
“Perhaps it does. And perhaps this is the final page...well, what of that: the sum total remains as is necessary.”
“You spoke on one occasion about miracles?”
“Yes, that is my lever. You remember what I told you about my explosive? I promise rabbits to make lions of them.... You see, a rabbit cannot stand brains. Give a rabbit brains and he will hang himself. Melancholy will drive him to suicide. Brains implies logic and what can logic promise to a rabbit? Nothing but a sorry fate on a restaurant menu. What one must promise a rabbit is either immortality for a cheap price, as does Cardinal X. or—heaven on earth. You will see what energy, what daring, etc., my rabbit will develop when I paint before him on the wall heavenly powers and gardens of Eden!”
“On the wall?”
“Yes,—on a stone wall. He will storm it with all the power of his species! And who knows...who knows...perhaps this mass may really break through this stone wall?”
Magnus lapsed into thought. I drew away from the now extinguished fire and looked upon the explosive head of my repulsive friend.... Something naïve, like two little wrinkles, almost like those of a child, lay upon his stony brow. I burst into laughter and shouted:
“Thomas Magnus! Thomas Ergo! Do you believe?”
Without raising his head, as if he had not heard my laughter, he lifted his eyes and replied pensively:
“We must try.”