clever potter, capable of kneading clay beings in the manner of
pots, such as we men are now. What I say is not to slight him,
because such work is still much beyond human power.

"But it became necessary to brand the inferior character of the work
of the seven days. Jehovah worked, not in and with fire, which alone
gives birth to the masterpieces of life, but with mud, out of which
he could not produce other than the work of a clever ceramist. We
are nothing, my son, but animated earthenware. Jehovah is not to be
reproached for having illusions over the quality of his work. If he
did find it well done in the first moment, and in the ardour of
composition, he did not take long to recognise his error, the Bible
is full of expressions of his discontent, which often becomes ill-
humour, sometimes actual rage.

"Never has artisan treated the objects of his industry with more
disgust and aversion. He intended to destroy them, and, in fact, did
drown the larger part. This deluge, the memory of which has been
conserved by Jews, Greeks and Chinese alike, gave a last deception
to the unhappy demiurges, who, aware of the uselessness and
ridiculousness of such violence, became discouraged, and fell into
an apathy, the progress of which has not been stopped from Noah's
time to our present day, wherein it is extreme. But I see I have
advanced too far. The inconvenience of these extensive subjects is
the impossibility of remaining within their limits.

"Our mind thrown into them resembles yonder sons of the suns, who
cross the whole of the universe in one single jump.

"Let us return to the earthly paradise, wherein the demiurge had