For as much as a year Satan continued these visits, but at last he came less often, and then for a long time he did not come at all. This always made me lonely and melancholy. I felt that he was losing interest in our tiny world and might at any time abandon his visits entirely. When one day he finally came to me I was overjoyed, but only for a little while. He had come to say good-by, he told me, and for the last time. He had investigations and undertakings in other corners of the universe, he said, that would keep him busy for a longer period than I could wait for his return. “And you are going away, and will not come back any more?” “Yes,” he said. “We have comraded long together, and it has been pleasant--pleasant for both; but I must go now, and we shall not see each other any more.” “In this life, Satan, but in another? We shall meet in another, surely?” [Illustration: “LIFE ITSELF IS ONLY A VISION, A DREAM”] Then, all tranquilly and soberly, he made the strange answer, “_There is no other._” A subtle influence blew upon my spirit from his, bringing with it a vague, dim, but blessed and hopeful feeling that the incredible words might be true--even must be true. “Have you never suspected this, Theodor?” “No. How could I? But if it can only be true--” “It is true.” A gust of thankfulness rose in my breast, but a doubt checked it before it could issue in words, and I said, “But--but--we have seen that future life--seen it in its actuality, and so--” “It was a vision--it had no existence.” I could hardly breathe for the great hope that was struggling in me. “A vision?--a vi--” “_Life itself is only a vision, a dream._” It was electrical. By God! I had had that very thought a thousand times in my musings! “_Nothing_ exists; all is a dream. God--man--the world--the sun, the moon, the wilderness of stars--a dream, all a dream; they have no existence. _Nothing exists save empty space--and you!_” “I!” “And you are not you--you have no body, no blood, no bones, you are but a _thought_. I myself have no existence; I am but a dream--your dream, creature of your imagination. In a moment you will have realized this, then you will banish me from your visions and I shall dissolve into the nothingness out of which you made me.... “I am perishing already--I am failing--I am passing away. In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever--for you will remain a _thought_, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!