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as worlds with other lesser animals, and remember that lesser animals in turn serve as worlds to still lesser
breeds: then you will not find it contradictory to think that we and also horses and elephants are
whole worlds for the fleas and the lice that inhabit us. They do not perceive us because of our bigness, as
we do not perceive larger worlds because of our smallness. Perhaps there is now a population of lice that
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takes your body for a world, and when one of them has trav-eled there from forehead to nape, his
fellows say of him that he has dared venture to the confines of the known earth. This little populace
considers your hair the forests of their country, and when I have struck you, they will see your wounds as
lakes and seas. When you use your comb, they believe this agitation is the flux and reflux of the ocean,
and it is their misfortune to inhabit such a changeable world, because of your inclination to comb your hair
constantly like a female, and now that I snip off that tassel, they will take your cry of anger for a
hurricane. There! And he snipped off an ornament, almost ripping the abbe s embroidered jacket.
The abbe foamed with rage. He had moved to the center of the square, looking behind him to make sure
there was room for the movements he was now essaying, then retreating so that the fountain would
protect his back.
Saint-Savin seemed to dance around him, without attack-ing. Raise your head, Monsieur 1 Abbe.
Look at the moon, and reflect that if your God was able to make the soul im-mortal, He could easily
have made the world infinite. But if the world is infinite, it will be so in time as well as in space, and
therefore it will be eternal, and when there is an eternal world, which has no need of creation, then it will
be unnec-essary to conceive the idea of God. Oh, what a fine joke, Mon-sieur 1 Abbe. If God is infinite,
you cannot curtail His power: He could neverab opere cessare, and therefore the world will be infinite;
but if the world is infinite, then there will no longer be God, just as there will soon be no more tassels on
your jacket! And suiting the deed to the word, he snipped off a few more appendages of which the
abbe was so proud, then he shortened his guard, lifting the tip slightly; and as the abbe tried to close the
distance, Saint-Savin sharply struck the flat of his opponent s blade. The abbe almost dropped his
sword, clutching with his left hand his aching wrist.
He cried: I must finally cut you open, you villain, you blasphemer! Holy womb! By all the damned saints
of Paradise, by the blood of the Crucified!
The lady s window was opened, someone looked out and shouted. By now all present had forgotten the
purpose of their enterprise and were moving around the two duellers, who shouted as they skirted the
fountain, while Saint-Savin con-founded his enemy with a series of circular parries and feints on the tip of
his weapon.
Do not call on the mysteries of the Incarnation for help, Monsieur 1 Abbe, he quipped. Your holy
Roman church has taught you that this ball of mud of ours is the center of the Universe, which turns
around it, acting as its minstrel and strumming the music of the spheres. Be careful, you are al-lowing
yourself to be driven too close to the fountain, you are getting your hem wet, like an old man suffering
from stones.... But what if, in the great Void, infinite worlds are moving, as a great philosopher said
before your similars burned him in Rome, and very many of them are inhabited by creatures like us, and
what if all had been created by your God, where does the Redemption then fit?
What will God do with you, sinner! the abbe cried, par-rying a cut with some effort.
Was Christ perhaps made flesh only once? Was Original Sin committed only once, and on this globe?
What injustice! Both for the other worlds, deprived of the Incarnation, and for us, because in that case
the people of all the other worlds would be perfect, like our progenitors before the Fall, and they would
enjoy a natural happiness without the weight of the Cross. Or else infinite Adams have infinitely
committed the first error, tempted by infinite Eves with infinite apples, and Christ has been obliged to
become incarnate, preach, and suffer Calvary infinite times, and perhaps He is still doing so, and if the
worlds are infinite, His task will be infinite, too. Infinite
His task, then infinite the forms of His suffering: if beyond the Galaxy there were a land where men have
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six arms, as in our own Terra Incognita, the Son of God would be nailed not to a cross but to a wooden
construction shaped like a star which seems to me worthy of an author of comedies.
Enough! I will put an end to your comedy! the abbe screamed, beside himself, and he flung himself at
Saint-Savin, wielding his final blows.
Saint-Savin parried them effectively, then there was a static instant. While the abbe had his sword raised
after a prime parry, Saint-Savin moved towards him as if to attack, and pre-tended to fall forward. The
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