1. What is God?
         "God is the Supreme Intelligence-First Cause of all things."

         17. Is it given to mankind to know the first principle of things?
         "No. There are things that cannot be understood by man in this world."

         21. Has matter existed from all eternity, like God, or has it been created at some definite period of time?
         "God only knows. There is, nevertheless, one point which your reason should suffice to show you, viz., that God, the prototype of love and beneficence, can never have been inactive. However far off in the past you may imagine the beginning of His action, can you suppose Him to have been for a single moment inactive?"

         22. Matter is generally defined as being "that which has extension," "that which can make an impression upon our senses," "that which possesses impenetrability." Are these definitions correct?
         "From your point of view they are correct, because you can only define in accordance with what you know. But matter exists in states which are unknown to you. It may be, for instance, so ethereal and subtle as to make no impression upon your senses; and yet it is still matter, although it would not be such for you."

         - What definition can you give of matter?
         "Matter is the element which enchains spirit, the instrument which serves it, and upon which, at the same time, it exerts its action." From this point of view it may be said that matter is the agent, the intermediary, through which, and upon which, spirit acts.

         23. What is spirit?
         "The intelligent principle of the universe."

         - What is the essential nature of spirit?
         "It is not possible to explain the nature of spirit in your language. For you it is not a thing, because it is not palpable; but for us it is a thing."

         27. There are, then, two general elements of the universe matter and spirit?"
         "Yes; and above them both is God, the Creator, Parent of all things. These three elements are the principle of all that exists-the universal trinity. But to the material element must be added the universal fluid which plays the part of intermediary between spirit and matter, the nature of the latter being too gross for spirit to be able to act directly upon it. Although, from another point of view, this fluid may be classed as forming part of the material element, it is, nevertheless, distinguished from that element by certain special properties of its own. If it could be classed simply and absolutely as matter, there would be no reason why spirit also should not be classed as matter. It is intermediary between spirit and matter. It is fluid, just as matter is matter, and is susceptible of being made, through its innumerable combinations with matter, under the directing action of spirit, to produce the infinite variety of things of which you know as yet but a very small portion. This universal, primitive, or elementary fluid, being the agent employed by spirit in acting upon matter is the principle without which matter would remain for ever in a state of division, and would never acquire the properties given to it by the state of ponder ability."

         -Is this fluid what we designate by the name of electricity?
         "We have said that it is susceptible of innumerable combinations. What you call the electric fluid, the magnetic fluid, etc., are modifications of the universal fluid, which, properly speaking, is only matter of a more perfect and more subtle kind, and that may be considered as having an independent existence of its own."