The religious conception of the world that you now have, the conception that you call Christian, from the name that was given me on the occasion of one of my earthly visits, is one of the feeblest that humanity has ever imagined. Practical intelligence has, in a certain sense, made progress since the Greek philosophers before Socrates, but speculative intelligence has almost consistently gone backward. To make a system that should have some distant relation to the truth, the cinematic philosophy of Epicurus would have to be poured into the fables of pagan mythology. Take, if you like, if Latin thought is more familiar to you, the poem of Lucretius, and Ovid's "Metamorphoses"; attempt an interpretation which should derive part from universal determinism, and part from divine caprice.... It is difficult? Why? Are not men apt in appearance to initiative, though ruled, as you know, and very narrowly, by fatal physical laws? You are free, when you think yourselves free. It is the same with the gods, but the liberty of the gods is exercised on a very much more extensive material, a material which, without being infinite (infinity does not exist), is immense. Their power, superior though it is, is of the same order as human power. Greece touched the knot of the question, and, if she did not untie it, it is that it is not to be untied: the creator of the world, the regulator of the world, is Destiny. Fatality rules over the gods, as the gods rule over men, and under her hand, my friend, we are all equal, exactly as you are under death, genii, kings, and beggars alike. To dissimulate the trouble into which these words threw me, I turned towards the young women. There were but two of them. SHE The little one has gone off to look for more flowers. Some of them fade so quickly. One would say that the warmth of the earth is enough to dry them up. THE OTHER How many times love has been killed by kisses. I Do not say so, my friend; that was not love, but caprice. THE OTHER Caprice and love hide under the same dress. I wanted to lay my hand on hers. She took it away, and I had but a finger, but I pressed it unresisted. THE LITTLE ONE Here are other flowers. THE OTHER They will fade too. HE No, they will not fade. THE LITTLE ONE There, you see. I I have needed this diversion, my friend, to accustom myself to your discourse. HE Yes, you are a man, and such you will remain. It is necessary that you should remain a man. I Shall I not become superior to other men, when I have heard, when I have understood? HE Yes, if you understand. I The Christian phase, then, has been an error of humanity? HE