When I looked round me and within me, I conceived that something exists
for all eternity; since there are beings who exist to-day, I concluded
that there is a being who is necessary and necessarily eternal. Thus,
the first step I took to emerge from my ignorance crossed the boundaries
of all the centuries.
But when I tried to walk in this infinite quarry open before me, I could
neither find a single path, nor discern plainly a single object; and
from the leap I made to contemplate eternity, I fell back again into the
abyss of my ignorance.
I saw what was called "matter," from the star Sirius and the stars of
the Milky Way, as distant from Sirius as Sirius is from us, right to the
last atom that can be perceived with the microscope, and I am ignorant
as to what matter is.
The light which let me see all these beings is unknown to me; I can,
with the help of a prism, dissect this light, and divide it into seven
pencils of rays; but I cannot divide these pencils; I am ignorant of
what they are composed. Light is of the nature of matter, since it has
movement and makes an impression on objects; but it does not tend toward
a centre like all bodies: on the contrary, it escapes invincibly from
the centre, whereas all matter bears towards its centre. Light seems
penetrable, and matter is impenetrable. Is this light matter? is it not
matter? with what innumerable properties can it be endowed? I am
ignorant thereof.
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