"To conceive aught beyond him is to conceive God above God, the Being above the Being. For He is the only being, the only substance.
"If the Substance could be divided, it would not be the Substance, it would lose its nature: God could not exist. He is therefore indivisible as infinite;--and if he had a body, he would be composed of parts, he would not be One--he would not be infinite. Therefore he is not a Person!"
ANTHONY. "What? my prayers, my sobs, my groans, the sufferings of my flesh, the transports of my love,--have all these things gone out to a lie,--to emptiness, unavailingly--like the cry of a bird, like a whirl of dead leaves?"
"Oh, no!--there is Some One above all things,--a great Soul, a Lord, a Father whom my heart adores and who must love me!"
THE DEVIL. "Thou dost desire that God were not God;--for did he feel love, or anger, or pity,--he would abandon his perfection for a greater or a lesser perfection. He can stoop to no sentiment, nor be contained in any form."
ANTHONY. "One day, nevertheless, I shall see him!"
THE DEVIL. "With the blessed, is it not?--when the finite shall enjoy the infinite in some restricted place, containing the Absolute!"
ANTHONY. "Matters not!--there must be a paradise for the good, as there is a hell for the wicked."
THE DEVIL. "Can the desire of thy mind create the law of the universe? Without doubt evil is indifferent to God,--forasmuch as the Earth is covered with it!
"Is it through impotence that he endures it, or through cruelty that he maintains it?
"Dost thou fancy that he is eternally readjusting the world, like an imperfect machine?--that he is forever watching the movements of all beings, from the flight of a butterfly to the thought of a man?
"If he have created the universe, his providence is superfluous. If Providence exists, then creation is defective.
"But evil and good concern only thee--even like night and day, pleasure and pain, death and birth, which are relative only to one corner of space, to a special centre, to a particular interest. Since the Infinite is permanent, the Infinite is;--and that is all."
(_The Devil's wings have been gradually expanding: now they cover all space._)
ANTHONY (_now perceives nothing: a great faintness comes upon him_):