Ah! I thought he would say some nonsense or other. Let us begin farther back. Barbarian, who told you that there is a God? DONDINDAC All nature tells me. LOGOMACHOS. That is not enough. What idea have you of God? DONDINDAC The idea of my Creator; my master, who will reward me if I do good, and punish me if I do evil. LOGOMACHOS. Trifles! trash! Let us come to some essentials. Is God _infinite secundum quid_, or according to essence? DONDINDAC I don't understand you. LOGOMACHOS. Brute beast! Is God in one place, or in every place? DONDINDAC. I know not ... just as you please. LOGOMACHOS. Ignoramus!... Can He cause that which has not been to have been, or that a stick shall not have two ends? Does He see the future as future, or as present? How does He draw being from nothing, and how reduce being to nothing? DONDINDAC. I have never examined these things. LOGOMACHOS. What a stupid fellow! Well, I must come nearer to your level.... Tell me, friend, do you think that matter can be eternal? DONDINDAC What matters it to me whether it exists from all eternity or not? I do not exist from all eternity. God must still be my Master. He has given me the nature of justice; it is my duty to follow it: I seek not to be a philosopher; I wish to be a man. LOGOMACHOS. One has a great deal of trouble with these block-heads. Let us proceed step by step. What is God? DONDINDAC My sovereign, my judge, my father. LOGOMACHOS. That is not what I ask. What is His nature? DONDINDAC. To be mighty and good. LOGOMACHOS. But is He corporeal or spiritual? DONDINDAC. How should I know that? LOGOMACHOS. What; do you not know what a spirit is? DONDINDAC. Not in the least. Of what service would that knowledge be to me? Should I be more just? Should I be a better husband, a better father, a better master, or a better citizen? LOGOMACHOS. You must absolutely be taught what a spirit is. It is--it is--it is--I will say what another time. DONDINDAC. I much fear that you will tell me rather what it is not than what it is. Permit me, in turn, to ask you one question. Some time ago, I saw one of your temples: why do you paint God with a long beard? LOGOMACHOS. That is a very difficult question, and requires preliminary instruction. DONDINDAC. Before I receive your instruction, I must relate to you a thing which one day happened to me. I had just built a closet at the end of my garden, when I heard a mole arguing thus with an ant: "Here is a fine fabric," said the mole; "it must have been a very powerful mole that performed this work." "You jest," returned the ant; "the architect of this edifice is an ant of mighty genius." From that time I resolved never to dispute. GOOD--THE SOVEREIGN GOOD, A CHIMERA. SECTION I.