n works, where
in every page you refer to the Pagans. Repeat to them that which you
said in speaking of the religion of the Manechees (a corruption of my
doctrine by you professed) which influenced your works and prevails
yet in your religion, and which at one time caused the Roman Catholic
Church to vacillate. Yes: I linked the principle of Good and Evil
together--Ahura-Mazda; God! But this is not to admit of two Gods, as
you, yourself said. To speak of health and sickness is not to admit two
healths. And what? Have they not copied my principle of evil in Satan,
prince of darkness? Tell them that if they do not know Latin to at
least study the religions, since they fail to recognize the true one!'

"Thus spoke Zarathustra, or Zoroaster. Then, Voltaire--Voltaire,
who had heard what you were saying about his death, accosted me,
and grasping me by the hand, effusively thanked me.

"'Why so?' I asked him.

"'Your sons, mon cher Docteur de l'Eglise,' he answered, 'have proved
and continue proving by facts, that which I maintained. And what was
it that you maintained? That besides being ignorant, they were liars.'

"To this I could not reply, for he was right. You should know that
he died when 84 years of age, possessed of all his faculties, and
with so lucid a mind that when nearing his end and being importuned
to make confession, he said: 'Let me die in peace'--and died. But the
worst of it all is, that Voltaire has been pleading with God to take
you to Heaven alive and clothed, and when asked why so, he answered
'So that we may have some fun.'

"On learning of all the indulgences that the Archbishop had allowed
on your books, to allure buyers, old Peter, thumping his bald head,
exclaimed:

"'Why did I not think of granting indulgencies with the fish I
sold, when a fisherman? We would have been rich, and Judas, instead
of selling the Master, would have sold sardines and tinapa! [6]
I would not have been obliged to cowardly apostatize, and would not
have suffered martyrdom. Verily, I say, that my friend down _Below_
leaves me behind in the matter of knowing how to make money; and yet
I am a Jew.'

"'Of course, don't you know that your friend _Below_ is a Gallego?' [7]
Said a little old man who had been _Up There_ but a few years. His
name was Tasio, and, addressing himself to me, he continued:

"'You are a great Doctor, and although you have contradicted yourself
many times, I hold you as a privileged character of