Where is his abode?
Where is his habitation?
Where is the place where he is to be found?
What is his course of life?
And what is it that constitutes the happiness which you assert that he enjoys?
For it seems necessary that a being who is to be happy must use and enjoy what belongs to him.

And with regard to place, even those natures which are inanimate have each their proper stations assigned to them: so that the earth is the lowest; then water is next above the earth; the air is above the water; and fire has the highest situation of all allotted to it.

Some creatures inhabit the earth, some the water, and some, of an amphibious nature, live in both.

There are some, also, which are thought to be born in fire, and which often appear fluttering in burning furnaces.
In the first place, therefore, I ask you, Where is the habitation of your Deity?
Secondly, What motive is it that stirs him from his place, supposing he ever moves?
And, lastly, since it is peculiar to animated beings to have an inclination to something that is agreeable to their several natures, what is it that the Deity affects, and to what purpose does he exert the motion of his mind and reason?
In short, how is he happy?
how eternal?
Whichever of these points you touch upon, I am afraid you will come lamely off.

For there is never a proper end to reasoning which proceeds on a false foundation; for you asserted likewise that the form of the Deity is perceptible by the mind, but not by sense; that it is neither solid, nor invariable in number; that it is to be discerned by similitude and transition, and that a constant supply of images is perpetually flowing on from innumerable atoms, on which our minds are intent; so that we from that conclude that divine nature to be happy and everlasting.
XXXVIII.