I was strangely surprised at this question; and, after all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist or a solver of difficulties; and at first I could not tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above.
Dieu est au-dessus du diable, et c'est pourquoi nous prions Dieu de le mettre sous nos pieds, de nous rendre capables de résister à ses tentations et d'éteindre ses aiguillons de feu.»--«Mais, reprit-il, si Dieu beaucoup plus fort, beaucoup plus puissance que le diable, pourquoi Dieu pas tuer le diable pour faire lui non plus méchant?» Je fus étrangement surpris à cette question.