There can be no emblem of God, answered the spirits; for if we do not know what God is, how can we make an emblem of him? Nor is there any number in God, for God is the perfection Himself; but numbers are imperfect; and as for the begetting of numbers, it is done by multiplication and addition; but substraction is as a kind of death to numbers. If there be no mystery in numbers, replied the Empress, then it is in vain to refer the creation of the world to certain numbers, as Cabbalists do. The only mystery of numbers, answered they, concerning the creation of the world, is, that as numbers do multiply, so does the world. The Empress asked, how far numbers did multiply? The spirits answered, to infinite. Why, said she, infinite cannot be reckoned, nor numbered. No more, answered they, can the parts of the Universe; for God’s creation, being an infinite action, as proceeding from an infinite Power, could not rest upon a finite number of creatures, were it never so great. But leaving the mystery of numbers, proceeded the Empress, let me now desire you to inform me, whether the suns and planets were generated by the heavens, or aethereal matter?