More than this, none have presumed to say.

But what a being, to be the master of all those bright worlds!" "Ghita, thou know'st my way of thinking on these matters, and thou also know'st that I would not wound thy gentle spirit by a single word that could grieve thee." "Nay, Raoul, it is _not_ thy way of _thinking_, but thy fashion of _talking_, that makes the difference between us.

No one who _thinks_ can ever doubt the existence of a being superior to all of earth and of the universe; and who is Creator and Master of all." "Of a _principle_, if thou wilt, Ghita; but of a _being_, I ask for the proof.

That a mighty principle exists, to set all these planets in motion--to create all these stars, and to plant all these suns in space, I never doubted; it would be to question a fact which stands day and night before my eyes; but to suppose a _being_ capable of producing all these things is to believe in beings I never saw." "And why not as well suppose that it is a being that does all this, Raoul, as suppose it what you call a principle ?" "Because I see principles beyond my understanding at work all around me: in yonder heavy frigate, groaning under her load of artillery, which floats on this thin water; in the trees of the land that lies so near us; in the animals, which are born and die; the fishes, the birds, and the human beings.

But I see no being--know no being, that is able to do all this." "That is because thou know'st not God! He is the creator of the principles of which thou speak'st, and is greater than thy principles themselves." "It is easy to say this, Ghita--but hard to prove.