Letting us out, with a friendly smile M. d'Asterac spoke as follows:

"Well knowing what to think of the devil and the Other, I willingly
consent to speak of them with persons who believe in them. The devil
and the Other are, as it were, characters; one may speak of them
just as of Achilles and Thersites. Be assured, gentlemen, if the
devil is like what he is said to be, he does not live in so subtle
an element as fire. It is wholly wrong to place so villainous a
beast in the sun. But as I had the honour to say, Master
Tournebroche, to the Capuchin so dear to your mother, I reckon that
the Christians slander Satan and his demons. That in some unknown
world there may exist beings still worse than man is possible, but
hardly conceivable. Certainly, if such exist, they inhabit regions
deprived of light, and if they are burning, it would be in ice,
which, as a fact, causes the same smarting pain, and not in
illustrious flames among the fiery daughters of the stars. They
suffer because they are wicked, and wickedness is an evil; but they
can only suffer from chilblains. With regard to your Satan,
gentlemen, who is a horror for your theologians, I do not consider
him to be despicable, if I judge him by all you say of him, and,
should he peradventure exist, I would think him to be, not a nasty
beast, but a little Sylph, or at least a Gnome, and a metallurgist a
trifle mocking but very intelligent."

My tutor stopped his ears with his fingers and took to flight so as
not to hear anything more.

"What impiety, Tournebroche, my boy," he exclaimed, when we reached
the staircase. "What blasphemies! Have you felt all the odium in the