220. The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the
immortality of the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.

    221. Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is
not perfectly evident that the soul is material.

    222. Atheists.- What reason have they for saying that we cannot
rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise
again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been
should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to
return to it? Habit makes the one appear easy to us; want of habit
makes the other impossible. A popular way of thinking!

    Why cannot a virgin bear a child? Does a hen not lay eggs
without a cock? What distinguishes these outwardly from others? And
who has told us that the hen may not form the germ as well as the
cock?

    223. What have they to say against the resurrection, and against
the child-bearing of the Virgin? Which is the more difficult, to
produce a man or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had
never seen any species of animals, could they have conjectured whether
they were produced without connection with each other?

    224. How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist,
etc.! If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty
is there?

    225. Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

    226. Infidels, who profess to follow reason, ought to be
exceedingly strong in reason. What say they then? "Do we not see," say
they, "that the brutes live and die like men, and Turks like
Christians? They have their ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors,
their saints, their monks, like us," etc. (Is this contrary to
Scripture? Does it not say all this?)

    If you care but little to know the truth, here is enough of it
to leave you in repose. But if you desire with all your heart to
know it, it is not enough; look at it in detail. This would be
sufficient for a question in philosophy; but not here, where it
concerns your all. And yet, after a trifling reflection of this
kind, we go to amuse ourselves, etc. Let us inquire of this same
religion whether it does not give a reason for this obscurity; perhaps
it will teach it to us.

     227. Order by dialogues.- What ought I to do? I see only darkness
everywhere. Shall I believe I am nothing? Shall I believe I am God?

    "All things change and succeed each other." You are mistaken;
there is...

    228. Objection of atheists: "But we have no light."

    229. This is what I see and what troubles me. I look on all sides,
and I see only darkness everywhere. Nature presents to me nothing
which is not matter of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which
revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw
everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith.
But, seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a
state to be pitied; wherefore I have a hundred times wished that if
a God maintains Nature, she should testify to Him unequivocally, and
that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she should suppress them
altogether; that she should say everything or nothing, that I might
see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state,
ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my
condition nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the
true good, in order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me
for eternity.

    I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness
and who make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I
would make such a different use.

    230. It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is
incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be
joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world
should be created, and that it should not be created, etc.; that
original sin should be, and that it should not be.

    231. Do you believe it to be impossible that God is infinite,
without parts? Yes. I wish therefore to show you an infinite and
indivisible thing. It is a point moving everywhere with an infinite
velocity; for it is one in all places and is all totality in every
place.

    Let this effect of nature, which previously seemed to you
impossible, make you know that there may be others of which you are
still ignorant. Do not draw this conclusion from your experiment, that
there remains nothing for you to know; but rather that there remains
an infinity for you to know.

    232. Infinite movement, the point which fills everything, the
moment of rest; infinite without quantity, indivisible and infinite.

    233. Infinite- nothing.- Our soul is cast into a body, where it
finds number, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature
necessity, and can believe nothing else.

    Unity joined to infinity adds nothing to it, no more than one foot