imaginary
regions of space? We have forgotten our own infancy, and shall we know
the infancy of the world? And who will attest what no one has seen? who
will certify what no man comprehends?

"Besides, what addition or diminution will it make to our existence, to
answer yes or no to all these chimeras? Hitherto neither our fathers nor
ourselves have had the least knowledge or notion of them, and we do not
perceive that we have had on this account either more or less of the
sun, more or less of subsistence, more or less of good or of evil.

"If the knowledge of these things is so necessary, why have we lived as
well without it as those who have taken so much trouble concerning it?
If this knowledge is superfluous, why should we burden ourselves with it
to-day?"

Then addressing himself to the doctors and theologians:

"What!" said he, "is it necessary that we, poor and ignorant men, whose
every moment is scarcely sufficient for the cares of life, and the
labors of which you take the profit,--is it necessary for us to learn
the numberless histories that you have recounted, to read the quantity
of books that you have cited, and to study the various languages in
which they are composed! A thousand years of life would not suffice--"

"It is not necessary," replied the doctors, "that you should acquire all
this science; we have it for you--"

"But even you," replied the simple men, "with all your science, you are
not agreed; of what advantage, then, is your science? Besides, how can
you answer for us? If the faith of one man is applicable to many, what
need have even you to believe? your fathers may have believed for you;
and this would be reasonable, since they have seen for you.

"Farther, what is believing, if believing influences no action? And what
action is influenced by believing, for instance, that the world is or is
not eternal?"

"The latter would be offensive to God," said the doctors.

"How prove you that?" replied the simple men.

"In our books," answered the doctors.

"We do not understand them," returned the simple men.

"We understand them for you," said the doctors.

"That is the difficulty," replied the simple men. "By what right do you
constitute yourselves mediators between God and us?"

"By his orders," said the doctors.

"Where is the proof of these orders?" said the simple men.

"In our books," said the doctors.

"We understand them not," said the simple men; "and how came this just