It was not dead; but nevertheless it had fallen fast asleep for the time being.

He did not disbelieve it; he would have been shocked to hear such a thing asserted of him: but he happened to be busy believing something else--geometry, conic sections, cosmogonies, psychologies, and what not.

And so it befell that he had not just then time to believe in Christianity.

He recollected at times its existence; but even then he neither affirmed nor denied it.

When he had solved the great questions--those which Hypatia set forth as the roots of all knowledge--how the world was made, and what was the origin of evil, and what his own personality was, and--that being settled--whether he had one, with a few other preliminary matters, then it would be time to return, with his enlarged light, to the study of Christianity; and if, of course, Christianity should be found to be at variance with that enlarged light, as Hypatia seemed to think ....
Why, then--What then ?....