all the � he believed in a god like all the ignorant people but before mr came i had a very clever a mr � he was a he said and a great friend of a person named and he told me all about the he even showed me the enlarged drawing of an as seen through the � a curious thing with a sort of cord running through it � something like the picture of a man s ribs in my book � and he explained to me that it was a combination of such things that made and it puzzled me very much because i thought there must be a beginning even to these and i could not imagine how such a little object as a first could think out a plan by itself and create worlds with people bigger than itself on them but he was a very funny man � mr i mean � he used to say that nothing was everything and everything was nothing he said this so often and laughed so much over it that i was afraid he was going quite mad so i used to avoid the subject altogether now you have come i am sure you can make it clear to me so that i shall understand properly because it is very interesting don t you think to know exactly where the is and what it s doing slowly and with an uncomfortable sense of professor rallied his scattered forces you ask to know what no one knows � he said harshly � that there is a first cause of things is evident � but where it is and where it came from is an mystery it is in all probability now absorbed in its own extended forces � all we know is that it works or has worked and that we see its results in the universe around us s face darkened with disappointment you call it a first cause � he said � and are you really quite sure the first cause is an no one can be sure of anything in such matters � answered the professor his brows � we can only form a guess from what we are enabled to discover in natural science a strange smile half half flashed in the boy s eyes oh then you only guess at the as other people guess at a god he said � no one is sure about anything well i think it is very silly to settle upon an as the cause of anything it seems to me much more natural and likely that it should be a person a person with brain and thought and feeling and memory you see an under the has no head or any place where it could grow a brain � it is just a thing like two knotted together and in the works of nature there is nothing of that description which thinks out a universe for itself � if there were it would rule us all but here the professor rose up in all his strength and swung a heavy ram of explicit fact against the child s argument and as a matter of positive truth and certainty do rule us � he interrupted with some excitement � the of disease which breed death � the which work storm and earthquake the which penetrate the il e brain and produce thought � the moving in a state of transition which cause change both in the development of worlds and the progress of man � good heavens � i could go on quoting hundreds of instances which prove beyond a doubt that we are entirely governed by the movement and of � but you are too young to understand � you could never grasp the advanced scientific doctrines of the day � it is ridiculous to discuss them with a boy like you i don t think it is ridiculous � said placidly � because you see i am rather an unhappy sort of boy i think a good deal if i were happy i might not think mr says there are lots of boys who never think at all and that they get on much better than i do but when one can t help thinking what is one to do oh dear and he heaved a profound sigh � i did hope you would be able to clear up all my difficulties for me the professor rubbed his great hands together cracked his and awkwardly but was otherwise silent you know went on � it doesn t make you care very much about living if you there s no good in it and that you are only the smallest possible of the results of an which didn t care and didn t know what it was about when it started making things i should be ever so happier if i thought it was a person who knew what he was doing pf e are supposed to know what we are doing even in very small trifles and if we don know we are considered quite silly and useless so it does seem rather funny to me that we should decide that all the beautiful work of the universe is done by a thing that hasn t any notion what it is about it would be much easier to understand i think if the scientific people could agree that the first cause was a person who knew still the professor was silent a person who knew continued the boy thoughtfully � would have ideas and if he were a good person they would all be grand and beautiful ideas and if he were an eternal person he would be new and still more wonderful things so we should not be surprised at knowing he had made millions and millions of stars and and if he were good himself he would never quite destroy anything that had good 