above you more intellect than your own? Man ought to be better informed than he is about himself before he spends his strength in measuring God.

Balzac's insight is nowhere near clearly shown than in his use of number and abstract mathematics, and the relation between the curve and the straight line.

"You believe," Seraphita says, "in Number -- a base on which you have built the edifice of sciences which you call exact. Without number what would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would he compact to word the Number that contains the infinite numbers whose existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing exists by Number. . . . The least as well as the greatest creations are distinguishable from each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions forces -- all attributes created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact proved to your soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The mathematician himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, but cannot be proved. . . . The existence of Numbers depends upon the Unit. . . . God is a glorious Unit. . . .