Full text of "Pascal"
LIBRARY }
I UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
! SAN DIEGO !
PASCAL
Tide know in part, an& we propbeeg in part.
PASCAL
BY
EMILE BOUTROUX
Member of the French Institute ; Professor of Modern
Philosophy at the University of Paris.
TRANSLATED BY
ELLEN MARGARET CREAK
With Portraits, Illustrations and Notes
MANCHESTER
SHERRATT AND HUGHES
1902
(All rights reserved)
CONTENTS.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
NOTE BY THE AUTHOR
PAGE
Chapter I. Childhood and Youth. Early Scientific Work 1
Chapter II. First Conversion. Work in Physics - - 15
Chapter III. Life in Society. Mathematical Work - - 45
Chapter IV. Final Conversion 66
Chapter V. Pascal at Port Royal 84
Chapter VI. The Provincial Letters - - 102
Chapter VII. Closing Years. La Roulette - 139
Chapter VIII. The Pensees - 158
Chapter IX. Pascal and his Influence on Succeeding
Thought 195
NOTES - i
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE Ixviii
INDEX Ixxii
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of Blaise Pascal, from a painting
by Philippe Champagne, with Pascal's
Coat of Anns below - - Frontispiece
Portrait of Cornelius Jarisenins To face page 16
Portrait of Mother Angelique - ., ,. 48
View of the Abbey of Port Royal 80
Portrait of Antoine Arnauld - ,, ,, 112
View of the Interior of the Chapel of
Port Royal ,. 144
Signature of Blaise Pascal "^
Signature of Jacqueline Pascal /
Death mask of Blaise Pascal - ,, 208
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
This translation of the most recent study of Pascal
by one of his own countrymen is offered in the hope
of making him more widely known among English
readers. For Pascal belongs to mankind, by virtue of
that common human nature which was to him so
profoundly interesting. A lover of perfection and a
lover of humanity, he spent himself in the passionate
effort to attain the one and to point out the way of it
to the other.
Biographical and explanatory notes have been added
for the help of those readers to whom the surroundings
of Pascal's life may be wholly unfamiliar.
At the request of the author, a few minor alterations
have been made in the text.
Thanks are gratefully tendered to the Rev. D. H.
Milman, M.A., for permission to reproduce engravings
belonging to the Sion College Library; to M. Gazier,
of the University of Paris, for permission to use his
photograph of Pascal's death mask, the mask itself
being in his possession ; to the Rev. T. Gasquoine, B.A.,
for help in the revision of several of the chapters.
The translation is published with the entire approval
of the author, who has been good enough to revise the
proof sheets.
Manchester, October, 1902.
NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.
Pascal, when abcmt to write, used to kneel down and
pray the infinite Being so to subdue every part of him
unto Himself, that when he was thus brought low the
divine force might enter into him. By self abasement
he prepared himself for the receiving of inspirations.
In like manner it would seem that he who would get
at the heart of so rare and exalted a genius should begin
by becoming receptive to his influence, and that while
making use, so far as we can, of the natural means
at our disposal scholarship, analysis, and criticism,
we should seek, in humbly sitting at the feet of Pascal
himself, that inspiring grace which alone can direct our
efforts and make them of any avail.
PASCAL
CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. EARLY SCIENTIFIC WOKK.
BLAISB PASCAL was born at Clermont-Ferrand on
June 19, 1623. He came of an old Auvergne family,
one of whose ancestors, Etienne Pascal, holding the
office of maitre des requetes (magistrate of appeal
in the King's Council) had been ennobled by Louis XI.
Its ancient lineage notwithstanding, this noblesse de
robe (judicial nobility) kept more in touch with the
bourgeoisie than with the military nobility. It was
early distinguished by its calm resistance to despotism.
During the Fronde the magistracy, though not in open
revolt, was avowedly opposed to the absolute power of
the monarchy. The father of Blaise was Etienne
Pascal, whose father and grandfather before him had
held office under the treasury. Etienne Pascal was
elected counsellor for the King in the electoral district
of Bas-Auvergne at Clermont. Before long he became
vice-president of the cour des aides at Montferrand, a
court which was transferred to Clermont in 1630. He
married Antoinette Begon, a highly religious and
intellectual woman, by whom he had four children.
Only three of these survived : Gilberte, afterwards
Mine. Perier, born in 1620; Blaise, three years
younger; Jacquette or Jacqueline, born in 1625.
Although Blaise lost his mother by death when he
was three years old, yet womanly influence was not
B
2 PASCAL.
without its share in his education. For he grew up
side by side with his sisters, to whom he was tenderly
attached, and was also under the charge of a
confidential maid, whom Mme. Perier calls ma fidele,
and who was probably something more than a mere
servant.
The father, Etienne Pascal, an able mathematician,
versed in physics, and in touch with the cleverest men
of the day, set his heart on giving a thorough educa-
tion to his children, more especially his son. Wishing
to devote himself wholly to this task and being in easy
circumstances, in 1631 he relinquished his government
appointment, left Clermont, where the distractions of
society would have interfered with his project, and
settled in Paris. There he was acquainted with the
family of the eminent lawyer, Antoine Arnauld, of
anti-Jesuit fame, who died in 1619, and of whose
twenty children ten were still living, among them
Arnauld d'Andilly, the eldest, and Antoine Arnauld,
the theologian, the youngest, born in 1612.
The father, Etienne Pascal, formed a carefully
thought out plan for the education of his son. His
leading maxim was that the child must always be kept
ahead of his work. He had decided not to let him
begin Latin and Greek until he was twelve, mathe-
matics not before fifteen or sixteen. While he was
between eight and twelve his father only taught him
some broad facts as to the nature of languages,
explaining how their formation had come about
naturally, and they had been afterwards reduced to
grammar by the analysis and classification of their
elements. In this way he made clear to him the
PASCAL. 3
origin and signification of the rules laid down by
scholars. At the same time he used to draw the boy's
attention to remarkable natural phenomena, such as
the effects of gunpowder and other surprising things.
Whether spontaneously or under the influence of
this training, there awoke betimes in Pascal the
craving to understand. Not only did he demand a
reason for everything, but he was by no means easy
to satisfy, and showed an admirable clearness of brain
in discerning the true from the false. He did not
confine himself to asking questions, but used to
investigate on his own account. Having noticed one
day that when an earthenware dish was struck with a
knife there was a loud noise which ceased
immediately on the dish being touched with the finger,
he wanted to know why this was so, and set to work
to make experiments in sound. He learnt so much in
this way that he soon wrote a regular treatise on the
subject. Here his reasoning was thoroughly logical,
and in fact this child of twelve had carried out the
experimental method in its exactitude : the noting of a
curious fact, the comparison of different cases,
conjectures as to the cause, experiments.
In this teaching, perfectly concrete, there was no
religious element whatever. Not that Etienne Pascal
was a freethinker. Religion commanded his heartfelt
reverence and loyalty. But he maintained that
what is apprehended by faith cannot also be
apprehended by reason, still less be under subjec-
tion to it. On the other hand, he considered faith
to be quite out of place in the realm of physical
research. In regard to the conduct of life, he saw no
4 PASCAL.
incompatibility between the worldly and the religious
habit of thought, and deemed it possible and legitimate
at the same time to walk in the ways of worldly success
and live by the gospel precepts.
His educational plans, however, were suddenly
frustrated. One of the points of his programme to
which he held most tenaciously was that mathematics
should not be mentioned to the boy until he was fifteen
or sixteen. Now mathematical subjects were precisely
those on which Blaise was most eager for information
and about which he used to ply his father with
questions. The latter refused to satisfy him,
promising the child that he would teach him this
subject as a reward when he had mastered Latin and
Greek. One day, however, when Blaise was but twelve
years old, his father surprised him working out the
thirty-second proposition of the first book of Euclid,
which demonstrates that the three angles of any
triangle are together equal to two right angles.
How had the child come to set himself such a
problem? The most likely explanation would seem to
be that of Mme. Perier. According to her account
Etienne Pascal, importuned by his son's questions, told
him one day that mathematics supplied the means of
making accurate figures and finding out the propor-
tions they bore to each other. Pascal began to ponder
this during his play hours, and he would draw
charcoal figures on the tiled floor, taking pains to
make them exact. He called a circle a round, a
straight line a bar. He formed axioms and definitions
for himself and made use of them in a series of
demonstrations. All this he explained to his father,
PASCAL. 5
when the latter, thunderstruck by his discovery, asked
him how he had arrived at the problem on which he
was engaged. He answered that he had first of all
found out one thing and then another, and so on until
he had worked up to his definitions and axioms.
Etienne Pascal went with tears of joy to tell his friend,
M. Le Pailleur, what had happened, and gave Euclid's
Elements to the boy, so that he might read it during
his play hours.
In other respects he continued to carry out his
original plan. Now that his son had completed his
twelfth year he set him to learn Latin, mathematics
and philosophy, and to begin regular scientific study.
He taught him Latin by a method of his own, which
showed the relation of Latin grammar to general
grammatical principles as deduced from the study of
languages and the laws of mind. History and
geography were made the subjects of daily conversa-
tion during and after meals, and the children played
games invented by their father for the sake of helping
them in these studies. It was at the table also that
the boy received his first lessons in philosophy.
The chief place in this scheme of education was
given to the sciences, and to these Blaise devoted
himself with ardour, above all to mathematics, which
appealed to his sense of truth.
Etienne Pascal's house was the meeting place of one
of the scientific circles of the day whose members met
regularly for the purpose of discussion. Young
Pascal was early allowed to be present at these
gatherings, where he bore his part extremely well,
frequently even making useful suggestions. Before
6 PASCAL.
long his father also took him to the famous meetings
held weekly at the house of Father Mersenne ; these
meetings formed the nucleus of the future Academy
of Sciences. Here were to be met Roberval, Carcavi,
and Le Pailleur, the mathematicians ; Mydorge,
devoted to the making of lenses and burning mirrors ;
Hardy, steeped in the knowledge of mathematics and
oriental languages ; Desargues, of Lyons, who sought
to turn mathematics and mechanics to account for the
lightening of the toil of the artisan. The tone of this
company was mainly scientific. Its special leaning
was towards mathematics, which Mersenne even
dreamed of applying to the things of morality. But
its members also took the keenest interest in any
facts, experiments, or useful inventions founded upon
science. There was no hostility to the ancients, but
they were looked upon as only forerunners ; and among
the moderns, Galileo the mathematician ranked higher
than Bacon the philosopher.
In matters philosophical and religious, these men of
science had, along with a firm and sincere faith,
a certain mistrust of the reason in dealing with
metaphysics. Mersenne even went so far as to view
not altogether without satisfaction the triumph of
scepticism over the pride of the dogmatists on the
ground of the uncertain character of their disciplines.
On the other hand, it was agreed that the Roman
Inquisition had no business to meddle with scientific-
matters, in which the senses and the reason ought to
be the only arbiters.
Several questions of great importance were brought
up for discussion at this time. Thus in 1636 we find
PASCAL. 7
Etienne Pascal and Roberval writing to Fermat to
announce to him that we do not really know the cause
of the falling of bodies. The commonly received
opinion would make weight a quality inherent in the
falling body itself ; others maintain that the falling
is due to attraction exercised by some other body ;
while there is yet a third theory, not altogether without
plausibility, which would make the attraction a mutual
one between two bodies tending to unite. How is the
question to be settled? Only by examining the
experimental results of each hypothesis. For example,
if weight be a quality inherent in the body itself, then
that body will always have the same weight whether
it be near or far from the centre of the earth. This
result, as also those which follow from the other
hypotheses, must be put to the test of experiment.
We cannot in these matters admit any other principles
than those whose certainty has been assured to us by
means of experiment aided by sound judgment.
In 1637 the Essais philosophiques of Descartes were
published. This was an event in the history of science.
It had been impatiently awaited by scholars, and must
have attracted the notice of young Pascal. Roberval
and Etienne Pascal seem to have given scant attention
to the Discours de la Methode, which formed the
introduction to the work. They judged that there
were in La Dioptrique (Dioptrics) and Les Meteores
(Meteors) some particular opinions clearly enough
deduced. But for them deduction was not demonstra-
tion. The author, they said, would find himself quite
at a loss if challenged to prove his assertions. The
conceptions of the mind were only of value if conse-
8 PASCAL.
quences verifiable by experiment could be drawn from
them. An hypothesis that served merely to gratify
the metaphysical fancy was of no account whatever.
The third philosophical treatise contained in the
Essais philosophiques of Descartes gave rise to a lively
dispute between Descartes on the one side and Roberval
and the president, Etienne Pascal, on the other.
Fermat having sent anonymously to Descartes his DC
maximis et minimis, which he looked upon as
supplying a grave lacuna in the philosopher's
geometry, the latter, in his turn, severely criticized the
work. Roberval and Etienne Pascal took upon them-
selves to be Fermat's champions, and a lively enough
controversy ensued, in which Descartes adopted now a
bantering and now a supercilious tone. His opponents
sought rather to find him out in error than to under-
stand him. This circle as a whole was in direct
antagonism against him, in spite of the fact that Father
Mersenne professed so frank an admiration for his
genius.
In such an atmosphere the faculties of young Pascal
developed rapidly. He became especially skilled in
mathematics and physics. He acquired the sense of
strict demonstration and of the suitability of the
method to the subject of the demonstration. He
understood the process of proving, whether in mathe-
matics or physics, and learned that certainty is
obtained only when our ideas are found to accord not
with our cherished prejudices but with facts.
With respect to literature, Pascal gained a very fair
knowledge of Latin, which he read and wrote with
ease; of Greek he would seem to have known enough
PASCAL. 9
to be able to compare a translation with the text ; and
it is likely that he could also read Italian. The
cultivation of ancient and modern literature not being
included in his father's scheme, what knowledge he
had of it was due to his own later reading. Moreover,
it was his habit to think deeply on what he read rather
than to read widely, and he never attained scholarship
in any direction. In theology, too, the instruction he
received must have been of the scantiest. When the
time should come for him to approach this science in
later years he would have everything to learn, and was
never to pass beyond its earlier stages. The same with
philosophy. While under his father's tuition he only
gained the most general notions of it ; what little real
knowledge he possessed was the fruit of his own later
reading.
The intercourse of savants was not the only
kind Pascal was accustomed to in his childhood
and early youth. He was also to a certain extent
familiar with that of the world. His elder sister,
Gilberte, who took the management of her father's
house when only fifteen, was much sought after in
society, being an attractive and beautiful girl, of fine
physique, intelligent, and sensible. Jacqueline was
distinguished by a rare sweetness of mind and
disposition. Richelieu was charmed with her when
she played in a comedy before him. She wrote verses
in which she vied with Benserade in elegance and with
" the great Corneille " in force and vigour.
Many were the tokens received by the Pascal family
of the esteem in which they were held. These they
accepted with quiet dignity. It was their wont to care
10 PASCAL.
more for merit than for repute. When Etienne
Pascal, in becoming intendant de la generalite at
Rouen, undertook a task involving some danger and
difficulty on account of the recent troubles in
Normandy, he showed himself equally upright and
zealous, and won universal respect. He did not grow
rich in the exercise of his office. At the same time
he was not unmindful of his own affairs, and sought
to improve his financial position and settle his children
in life.
In 1641 he married his daughter Gilberte to Florin
Perier, whose mother was his cousin-german. M.
Perier, was a counsellor in the cour des aides at
Clermont. He had a very fine mind, plenty of taste,
and a partiality for science. All these things
commended him to Etienne Pascal. The latter
expected to have no difficulty in also arranging a
marriage for Jacqueline, who was a most dutiful
daughter and, without being eager for marriage, had
no disinclination whatever for it. She was not con-
scious of any call to the life of the convent, having, on
the contrary, a great shrinking from it, and even a
certain amount of contempt for a life whose occupa-
tions she thought ill suited to satisfy a reasonable mind.
In the persuasion that it is possible to carry out the
gospel precepts and at the same time conform to the
world's standard, the Pascal family shunned no
interests and engagements that were sanctioned and
approved by society.
Such was the intellectual and moral environment in
which Pascal grew up.
In a mind so active production followed closely, if it
PASCAL. 11
did not even forestall, whatever instruction was given.
Taking up with ardour the things that appealed to
him, he devoted himself specially to investigation in
mathematics and mechanics, and very soon did some
remarkably original work in this double domain.
He was not yet sixteen when he conceived the idea
of an Essai pour les coniques (Essay on conic sections).
This he wrote in 1639 and 1640, but, caring nothing
for notoriety, did not publish it. A portion of it was
sent by Mersenne to Descartes. The only notice he
took of it was to say that before he had read half the
essay by M. Pascal's son he had come to the conclusion
that the writer had been learning from M. Desargues,
adding that he had directly afterwards been confirmed
in this opinion by the confession of young Pascal
himself. This was ungenerous. For Pascal had said,
in regard to a fundamental proposition : " I wish to
acknowledge that what little I have found out on this
subject I owe to the writings of M. Desargues, and
that I have tried as far as possible to follow his
method of dealing with it." Leibnitz, on the contrary,
into whose hands the entire manuscript fell in 1676,
praised it enthusiastically, and, Pascal being then
dead, expressed to the family his heartfelt interest in
everything that concerned him, urging them at the
same time to publish the treatise as it stood. This
advice, however, was not followed, and we possess only
the portion that was sent to Descartes.
The substance of Pascal's work was as follows: he
sought to discover some one principle which should
form the basis of the whole theory of conic sections.
This he found in the famous theorem of the mystic
12 PASCAL.
hexagramme: the three intersections of the opposite
sides of any hexagon inscribed in a conic section are
in one right line. Considering the different conic
sections, according to a method which seems to have
been already employed by Desargues, as one and the
same curve which becomes, by the variations of certain
lines, parabola, ellipse, or hyperbola, he deduced its
properties into five hundred corollaries, all drawn
from the same fundamental proposition which applies
at once to all conic sections. His theory not only
embraced the whole of the results already obtained by
Apollonius, but added yet more new properties to
those already known.
Being now aware of the power of a well chosen
general principle, Pascal's next project was to make
use of his scientific knowledge in the invention of a
practical instrument which should be as infallible as
the theory on which it was planned. He first conceived
the idea of this invention by way of helping his father
in the endless calculations arising out of his work
under the treasury. He thought it ought to be possible
to reduce arithmetical operations to measured move-
ment, and therefore to construct a machine which
should execute them. Once having found the main
idea, he busied himself with all the details of its
execution, for he was not one of those who are content
to display their genius by the indication of a general
scheme, leaving to lesser minds the task of working it
out He wanted to carry on his work up to the point
when it should be ready for immediate and easy use.
So he tried all possible combinations, made as many as
fifty models, and personally superintended the labours
PASCAL. 13
of the workmen. He showed an incredible persistency
in overcoming difficulties, theoretical and practical,
whether arising from want of manual skill or from
the weakness that began to show itself in his own
health, ill adapted as it was to the strain of such close
application.
At length he succeeded, after two rears of toil (1640-
1642). In the letter he sent with the machine when
introducing it to the notice of Monseigneur the
Chancellor Seguier, and also in his Avis (Advertise-
ment), published for those who should wish to make
use of it, he writes in a philosophic strain of the work
to which he has just been devoting himself. He
remarks that to mathematics belongs the privilege of
teaching nothing they do not demonstrate. Thus
geometry and mechanics, being mathematical sciences,
furnished him with sure principles. But when it came
to the making of a practical instrument such r s he had
in view the abstractions of the mathematician could
not suffice. These supply nothing more than a theory
of things in general. Now, such a theory can not
provide against the inconveniences liable to arise from
the substance of which the instrument is made or from
the working conditions of its several parts. Physics
and experiments must come to the aid of mathematics
in the solving of these problems.
The invention was certainly an original one, the
only other calculating machine already in existence
being the one known as "Napier's bones." By this
multiplication was reduced to addition, but the carry-
ing on had to be done by the operator 1 . Pascal
discovered the means of making the machine do this
14 PASCAL.
part of the work as well, and was thus the first real
inventor of the calculating machine.
Pascal was now eighteen, and a brilliant and happy
future seemed to be opening out before the clever
young scholar, courted as he was in society and
reaping the advantages of a wise and practical
training. It was as yet hardly possible to apprehend
the promise of future suffering that lay in the already
striking disproportion between his genius and his
physical strength, and in that craving after excellence
which perchance the world's best gifts would fail to
satisfy.
PASCAL. 15
CHAPTER II.
FIRST CONVERSION. WORK IN PHYSICS.
IN January, 1646, Etienne Pascal, then about fifty
years of age, went out on some charitable errand,
fell on the ice, and dislocated his thigh. He placed
himself under the care of M. de la Bouteillerie and
M. des Landes, two noblemen, brothers, living near
Rouen, who had a great reputation for skill in such
cases. Having been stirred by the preaching of that
devoted servant of God, M. Guillebert, vicar of
Rouville, they had placed themselves under his
spiritual direction and had no longer any thought but
for God, their own salvation and loving service to
their fellows. In order to assure themselves of the
lasting nature of the cure they had effected, they spent
some time with the family of M. Pascal. Their
example and conversation were a means of spiritual
edification to the members of the household, who began
to feel that their own knowledge of religious matters
was somewhat scant, and, above all, to doubt whether
they were right in deeming it possible to unite worldly
success with obedience to the Gospel precepts.
With their minds thus awakened, Etienne Pascal
and his children read several devotional books recom-
mended to them by these godly men : the Discours sur
la reformation de I'homme interieur (Discourse on the
renewal of the inner man), by Jansenius ; the treatise
De la frequente communion (Of frequent communion),
by Arnauld; the Lettrss spirituelles (Letters of
16 PASCAL.
spiritual counsel), Le cceur nouveau (The new heart)
and other minor works of Saint Cyran.
These writings contained, for the ordinary pro-
fessing Christian, a kind of revelation. They taught
that, according to the pure doctrine of Christ and the
church, original sin has not only deprived man of
supernatural gifts and enfeebled his nature, but also
corrupted him through and through. It belonged
essentially to man in his primitive state to love God
and live by His grace. In this privileged being,
nature is already supernatural. But by preferring
himself before God and rejecting the divine grace,
he has verily brought about his own ruin. He
has become, in the very root of his will-power,
the slave of that self of which he was enamoured.
So that the return of man to God cannot be
effected by merely superimposing a higher kind
of life on to the life of the unregenerate man ; life
cannot unite itself with death. He must literally be
converted. He must renounce all idea of compromise
between God and the world. God cannot dwell within
us except he take possession of our whole being. Above
all must we beware of that vain love of science which
is so much the more ensnaring in that it wears a
semblance of innocence, while in reality it is basely
leading men away from the contemplation of eternal
truths to rest in the satisfaction of the finite intelli-
gence.
It is likely that Pascal would have been but little
influenced by these writings, had they appealed only
to the feelings, to the unreasoning impulses of the
heart, or had they consisted merely of texts and com-
PORTRAIT OF CORNELIUS JANSENIUS.
The epitaph of Jansenius at Ypres is as follows :
" Here lies Cornelius Jansenius. This is all that
needs to be said. His virtue, his knowledge and his
reputation will say the rest. He had long been
admired in Louvain ; he was beginning to be so
here. Raised to the office of Bishop, he was set
where the eyes of all Flanders were upon him.
Yet he did but pass before them like a lightning
flash, as it were, and was dead. So fleeting are
all the things of this world, so brief even the
most lasting of them. Howbeit after his
death he will live on in his Augmtinus, in which
he showed himself to be as faithful an interpreter
as ever lived of the profound doctrine of Saint
Augustine. He had brought to the performance
of this great and sacred task a divinely
enlightened mind, unremitting study, and the
devotion of a lifetime. He ended at once his work
and his life. The Church will reap its fruits
upon earth, and as for him, he is already
receiving his reward in heaven. He died of
the plague on the sixth day of May, in the year
mdcxxxviii., and the liii. of his age."
PASCAL. 17
ments thereon. But here was a definite teaching, a
coherent system, a call to marshal all the powers of
the soul in view of one aim and one only. And this
aim was nothing less than to become a partaker of
the divine perfection itself. In all these points the
teaching of Jansenius and his followers was par-
ticularly adapted to such a nature as Pascal's. He
was one of those whom duty attracts; and the more
exacting the call of duty the more it fascinates them.
It was easier to him to give himself unreservedly than
half-heartedly. Moreover, once his reason was con-
vinced that the attempt at a compromise between God
and the world was an attempt to unite two irreconcil-
able things, he saw that he had no choice in the
matter. Having the two ways open to him, how could
he but follow the divine?
So Pascal was converted. Henceforth, casting out
from his heart every earthly interest, he determined
that his life should be spent altogether for God, that
he would seek after none but him and have no other
task but to please him. Especially did he resolve to
make an end of all those scientific researches to which
he had hitherto applied himself, so that he might for
the future fix all his thoughts upon that which Jesus
Christ has declared to be the one thing needful. The
object of his serious study was to be no longer science,
but religion; nor did he fail to taste the sweets of
that Christian solitude in which, with ears closed
against the noises of the world, the soul of man
communes with him who is the Lord of men and
angels.
Tenderly attached to his family, Pascal could not
C
18 PASCAL.
fail to make known to them the new light that had
come to him, and exhort them to enter with him upon
the appointed way of salvation. First of all, he strove
for the conversion of his sister Jacqueline, then barely
twenty years of age, fond of life and a favourite in
society. The future smiled upon her. Her hand was
sought by a counsellor in the parlement of Rouen.
It was no easy task to convince her that whatever
she gave to the world was so much taken away from
what she owed to God, and that it was her duty to
relinquish every worldly prospect and make religion
her only care. Yet his example and his words together
availed ; and before long Jacqueline's eyes were opened,
and she saw and confessed with shame how much more
of her heart had been given to the world than to her
God. She embraced the Christian life in all its purity,
vowing to the service of God all her thoughts and all
her life. In grateful recognition of what her brother
had done for her, she regarded herself henceforth as
his spiritual daughter.
Next, through the united influence of brother and
sister, the father also was induced to give up all
worldly advantages in order to live an entirely re-
ligious life. This change he made with a joyful heart
and remained in the same mind to the day of his death.
Finally, at the close of this same year 1646, M. and
Mme. Perier came to Rouen and finding the family
exclusively devoted to the service of God resolved to
do likewise; for the divine grace was shed upon them
also; they too were moved by the spirit of God and
in their turn became converted. Mme. Perier was
but twenty-six when she thus renounced the pomps and
PASCAL. 19
vanities of the world in favour of a life ruled by the
strictest piety.
All this change had been brought about in the first
instance, under providence, by the excellent pastor
M. Guillebert, and the family now placed themselves
under his spiritual guidance.
The zeal which this new spiritual awakening had
excited in Pascal did not confine itself to the well-
being of his own family, but sought a wider field.
There lived at this time at Rouen a venerable monk,
Jacques Forton, or brother Saint-Ange, to whom the
curious were attracted by his teaching of a new
philosophy. He maintained that a vigorous mind can
fathom all spiritual mysteries by means of reason
alone; that in fact faith only comes in to supplement
a lack of reasoning power. And from the principles
of his philosophy he drew this conclusion among
others : that the body of Jesus Christ was not formed
from the blood of the Virgin, but from some other
substance, specially created for the purpose.
Apart from the heretical tendencies of brother Saint-
Ange, the very principle from which he drew them was
judged worthy of condemnation by Pascal. This
principle was contrary to all the teaching he had
received. It could be no other than an abomination
in the eyes of one who had learnt from Jansenius that
to attribute to man's natural faculties the power to
take part in the work of his own salvation was to
make the sacrifice of the cross of none effect.
Having been told that brother Saint-Ange had been
talking of his ideas to some young men, Pascal and
two of his friends went to see him and pointed out
20 PASCAL.
the wrong he was doing. But in vain ; brother Saint-
Ange persisted. Whereupon Pascal and his friends,
dwelling with anguish of mind on the danger of
allowing such teaching to be given to the young,
resolved first to admonish the brother and if that
failed to denounce him to his superior. He took no
notice of their admonition, and was accordingly
denounced by them to M. Camus, formerly Bishop de
Belley, the friend and disciple of Saint Franfois de
Sales, and at that time suffragan of Monseigneur de
Harlay, archbishop of Rouen. The brother, on being
examined by M. Camus, managed to hoodwink him
by a confession of faith drawn up and signed by
himself. Upon learning this piece of deception, Pascal
and his friends at once went to Gaillon to interview
the Archbishop of Rouen, who ordered that brother
Saint-Ange should be made to retract. He did so,
and, as it would seem, sincerely, says Mme. Perier,
for he bore no grudge in the future towards the
instigators of the affair.
This incident serves to show Pascal's impetuous dis-
position. Disease, however, was making more and
more inroad upon a constitution already undermined
by the prodigious amount of application he had given
to the sciences. His state of health became so un-
satisfactory that the doctors forbade study of any
kind. He was unable to walk without crutches, the
lower part of his body being almost paralysed and his
feet and legs as cold as marble.
It was in all probability at this period of his life that
he wrote the Priere pour demander a Dieu le bon usage
des maladies (Prayer for the sanctification of bodily
PASCAL. 21
affliction) a prayer whose utterances are based upon a
theory altogether scientific in its clearness.
Granted that disease is an evil and sometimes an
incurable evil the problem is to render it bearable
and even, if such a thing may be, so to use it as to
turn it into good. The Christian doctrine furnishes
the solution of this problem.
To begin with, it explains the existence of disease.
It teaches that man has sinned and is, in his present
unregenerate condition, under the dominion of his
sin. Having detached himself from God and turned
to the things that perish, he is henceforth attached to
these objects. Now God is at once justice and mercy.
In his justice he imposes suffering upon man as an
expiation ; in his mercy he offers it to him as a means
of detaching himself from earthly things and setting
his face towards his true goal.
But how shall suffering be enabled to have this two-
fold result? Will it suffice that I bow beneath it with
resignation after the manner of the heathen? If in
my manner of accepting it there is nothing more than
what comes from myself, then my suffering is no
higher than myself and cannot save me. Shall I then
ask of God that he will free me from the sickness and
the pain? This would be to claim, while yet under
trial, the reward of the saints and the elect. My
sufferings must needs continue, and they must become
the channel through which grace may enter in and
change my heart.
Now since the coming of Jesus Christ, who suffered
all the pains that we deserved, suffering has become
a link of resemblance, a link of union, between man
22 PASCAL.
and God. Moreover, it is the only link between them
in the life that now is. By means of suffering then,
does God draw near to the human soul. It is enough
if in his love the agony of the sinner is made one
with the agony of the Redeemer. Jesus Christ, by
taking my sufferings upon himself, imparts to them
that purifying and renewing virtue which only divine
power can bestow.
Thus does the Christian doctrine by its very
explanation of the evil also provide its remedy. It
not only renders bodily suffering bearable but also
shows it to be the surest means of our conversion and
sanctification.
If in this prayer the conception is of the clearest,
the feeling is no less deep and strong. Pascal re-
proaches himself for having loved the world in his
days of health ; and alas, in spite of an awakened
conscience its delights are still alluring. that God
would enter into his heart by force, as a thief into
the strong man's house, and seize the treasures of
affection that are his by right but have been laid up
there by the love of the world. God is the true end
of man. Happy the man who can love an object so
delightful, the only one on which the human heart can
rest without dishonour. Happy they whose will is set
in this direction, so that without let or hindrance they
love perfectly and freely him whom it is their destined
end to love.
It is beside the mark to inquire whether this prayer
is Jansenistic or no. It is assuredly a work of exact
conception and scholarly demonstration ; yet it is
at the same time the outburst of a very ardent and
PASCAL. 23
simple heart moved directly by the vision of truth and
by filial confidence in the mercy of the divine Father.
Thought itself, while losing nothing of its clearness,
here throbs with life and passion ; and the most
spontaneous outpourings of love are made to follow
the leadings of an inflexible logic.
In the autumn of 1647, his health having slightly
improved, Pascal undertook a journey to Paris with
a view to consulting the doctors. He was accompanied
thither by his sister Jacqueline. In Paris they heard
some talk of the sermons of M. Singlin. His preaching
was just then making a great stir, and the most
illustrious persons were flocking to hear him.
M. Singlin was confessor to the recluses and nuns
of Port Royal. In accordance with the spirit of that
community he had no thought of shining or posing
as an orator. On the other hand, he was free from
the triviality still often to be found among the
preachers of the day. His speech was simple and
earnest, aiming only to touch the heart. And in this
he succeeded marvellously ; for so true and searching
were the pictures he drew of human nature, in its
wretchedness, its sorrows and its needs, that each one
of his hearers recognised himself and imagined him-
self to be specially addressed by the preacher.
When Pascal and his sister Jacqueline went to hear
him, they noticed that he was not in sympathy with
those who hold that a Christian can take part in
worldly life, but rather looked upon earthly attach-
ments as a subject for remorse and fear to him who
would live according to the will of God. These utter-
ances fell in with their already conceived idea of the
24 PASCAL.
Christian life, and they made a point of attending the
sermons assiduously.
Before long, Mile. Pascal, having learnt that M.
Singlin held the position of confessor at Port Royal,
began to think of becoming a nun in this monastery.
Her brother encouraged the idea, and through the
offices of M. Guillebert, who was living in Paris at
the time, she was introduced to Port Royal. Welcomed
there by the stern, intrepid abbess, Mother Angelique
Arnauld, she became a frequent visitor at Port Royal
des Champs (Pori>Royal-in-the-Fields). Here she placed
herself under the spiritual direction of M. Singlin,
and received the counsels of the gentle Mother Agnes,
the sister of Mother Angelique.
M. Singlin was not slow to remark in Jacqueline
the signs of a genuine call. He considered, hov.-ever,
that her father ought first to be consulted. Blaise
undertook the task of laying the matter before Etienne
Pascal who had returned to Paris in the month of
May, 1648. The latter could not bring himself to
part from his daughter, and withheld his consent. Still,
he rejoiced over her whole-hearted devotion and gave
her perfect freedom to carry out her chosen way of
life under his roof. So she continued to live in
accordance with the timely counsels of Mother Agnes,
with whom she corresponded.
Pascal was in sympathy with her, as may be seen by
the letters addressed sometimes by himself alone, some-
times by himself and Jacqueline, to Mme. Perier.
He read the publications of Port Royal and those of
its adversaries, and was on the side of Port Royal.
But it was in his own way, and according to his own
PASCAL. 26
views of what wa's right. Thus, when talking one day
with M. Rebours, confessor at Port Royal, he told him
with his usual frankness and simplicity that he con-
sidered it possible to demonstrate, by the principles of
common sense alone, many things that were a stumb-
ling block to advanced thinkers ; and he gave it as
his opinion that sound reasoning encouraged a belief
in these particular tenets, though it was nevertheless
the duty of a Christian to believe them without the aid
of reasoning. Now M. Rebours was thereupon somewhat
disquieted and, calling to mind Pascal's exhaustive
studies in geometry, he said it was to be feared such
talk savoured of vanity and over-confidence in the
power of human reasoning. At this reply, Pascal
searched his own heart, but finding there nothing of
what M. Rebours apprehended, he contented himself
with admitting with a good grace that the feeling
attributed to him would have been a sin had it existed,
and apologising for having caused a misapprehension.
Still he withdrew nothing of what he had said, even
though his excuses were liable to be interpreted as a
sign of hardness of heart
Furthermore he was convinced that nothing pertain-
ing to humanity can be in itself an end for the activity
of the Christian soul. It was in blindness of heart that
the Jews and the pagans took the sign for the reality,
and rested on the love of the creature as on the ap-
pointed good of the human soul. Those to whom God has
made known the truth know that the creature is but the
image of the Creator, and they also make use of this
image in order to rejoice in Him whom it represents.
To rest satisfied with the possession of the creature is to
26 PASCAL.
be content with a limited perfection only befitting the
children of the world. But to the children of God it
has been said: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
father which is in heaven is perfect. Never can these
be at rest in a state of partial perfection. No sooner
do they relax their efforts to rise than they begin to
decline. In God alone do they find stability and
repose.
Such being the views held by Pascal after the true
nature of the Christian life had been revealed to him,
it would seem superfluous to ask if, at the same time,
he was continuing to apply himself to the sciences.
Would not the renunciation of the world mean for
him first of all the renunciation of that one vanity
which above all others had led his soul astray. Mme.
Perier understood it thus ; for she places Pascal's
experiments on the subject of vacuum before his con-
version, and says this event marked the close of his
scientific researches, at least of those to which he
seriously applied himself. But such was not really the
case; and it was during the very period we have just
been considering that he conceived and carried out
those fine experiments in physics to which so much
of his fame is due.
In October, 1646, Etienne Pascal and his son
received a visit at Rouen from M. Petit, a cartesian
and a clever experimentalist, who described to them
the recent experiment made in Italy on the subject of
nature's abhorrence of vacuum. Pascal and M. Petit
repeated the experiment. What could it be said to
prove? Habituated as he was to distinguish between
the fact and the explanation, and to beware of
PASCAL. 27
hypotheses, Pascal considered it impossible to pro-
nounce judgment until he had thought of some fresh
experiments that would serve to eliminate mistaken
interpretations and bring to light the true one. More-
over he did not know of the explanation advanced by
Torricelli. He did not even know that Torricelli was
the author of the experiment.
The question as it presented itself before him was
as follows : What does the Italian experiment prove
with respect to the proposition of the abhorrence of
vacuum] The question differentiates itself thus:
Firstly, does nature, in this phenomenon, show a
tendency to refuse a vacuum? secondly, does she
succeed in this, or does she allow a real vacuum to
be formed? By way of putting nature in a position
to pronounce on these questions, Pascal invented fresh
experiments, made with all kinds of liquids, water,
oil, wine, etc., and with tubes of all lengths and
dimensions. He worked them in the presence of many
witnesses in order to court objections.
These doings made a great stir in Europe. A brief
account of them was written by Pascal and appeared
on October 4, 1647, under the title of Nouvelles
experiences touchant le vide (New experiments in the
nature of vacuum). His conclusions were as follows :
Firstly, nature abhors a vacuum, though it cannot be
asserted that she in no case admits it ; secondly, the
abhorrence is no greater for a large than for a small
vacuum; thirdly, the force of this abhorrence is
limited. This is the extent of the results he draws
from the Italian experiment in October, 1647 ; and
important results they are from the philosophical point
28 PASCAL,
of view, affirming as they do, in the name of facts, the
existence of vacuum, once declared by Aristotle, in
the name of reason, to be impossible, and regarded
with suspicion by the orthodox because it had been so
often made use of by unbelievers in explaining motion
without reference to God.
There was no lack of opponents to Pascal's conclu-
sions. The most zealous of them was Father Noel, of
the Company of Jesus. This father was of the peri-
patetic following, but willingly borrowed from
Descartes any arguments that seemed to him apt to
support his opinions. This was not lost upon Pascal ;
and his criticisms now and again touch upon the
cartesian methods without mentioning them directly.
The reverend father's attack was not free from
irony. Pascal replied with spirit. Where the sciences
are concerned, he said, we believe only at the bidding
of the senses and the reason, reserving for the
mysteries of faith, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit,
that submission which asks no physical or rational
proof. But you, if you please, figure to yourself,
according to your own fancy, a matter in which you
suppose certain qualities, a subtle ether, able to rise
and fall ; and if we ask you to show it to us, you say
it is not visible. Your hypotheses satisfy you ; that
is to stand to us in the place of demonstrations.
Moreover you give definitions of the terms you
employ ; but in these definitions the term, to be defined
does all the work. This is how light is defined, in
the sentence preceding your closing salutations. An
illuminating movement of rays composed of h/cid,
that is luminous, bodies. Here we have a style of
PASCAL. 29
definition to which, bearing in mind the conditions of
a genuine definition, I should find it somewhat difficult
to accustom myself. Such, reverend father, are the
sentiments of one who yet remains your most obedient
servant.
Father Noel replied, forwarding his letter by the
hands of Father Talon, with a message to the effect
that, being aware of Pascal's illness, he would exempt
him from answering it.
Pascal, who was in truth in great suffering, did not
write for some time, in fact not until he learnt that
some of the fathers, having no doubt received a mis-
taken version of Father Noel's intention, were inter-
preting his silence as a confession of defeat. Had any
other than this worthy father been concerned, it might
indeed have been suspected that his permission to
Pascal was a covert request to him to refrain from
answering. Pascal did write, addressing himself
this time to M. le Pailleur and giving him his
opinion upon Father Noel's reply. This letter is a
most direct attack on cartesianism. We have no right,
he says, to exalt definitions into realities under pretext
of making things clear and distinct. The seeming
vacuum at the top of a tube is not turned into a sub-
stance by the mere fact of being called so. I should
be only too glad if the worthy father would let me
into the secret of this ascendancy of his over nature,
by virtue of which the elements change their pro-
perties in sympathy with his changes of thought, the
universe thus accommodating itself to his fluctuating
purposes.
Father Noel's wit, however, rose to the occasion.
30 PASCAL.
He published a pamphlet entitled Le plein du vide
(The filling of the vacuum), dedicating it to the Prince
de Conti, a pupil of the Jesuits who afterwards became
a Jansenist. This purports to be a justification, before
his Highness, of Nature whom certain presumptuous
individuals have dared to accuse of vacuum. Herein
are to be set forth the falseness of the accusations laid
to her charge and the impostures of the witnesses
brought against her.
Upon this Etienne Pascal interposed and adminis-
tered to the father such brotherly correction as the
gospel precept allows. It is not enough, he said, that
you think to foist upon us such unheard of things as
the fiery sphere of Aristotle, the subtle matter of
Descartes, solar spirits, volatility and suchlike, but for-
sooth when arguments fail you must take to abusing
us. Allow me to remind you that it is a generally
received maxim in civilised society that no superiority
of age, no position, no office, no legal power, can
justify the use of invective against any person what-
ever.
Such was the intercourse between the Pascal family
and the Rev. Father Noel of the Society of Jesus.
Meanwhile, since the month of November, 1647,
Pascal had been looking upon Torricelli's experiment
in quite a new aspect. He was considering now not
whether the space above the mercury is really vacuum,
but what cause holds the column of mercury sus-
pended. Galileo had proved that air possesses weight.
Torricelli had made the suggestion that atmospheric
pressure might be the cause of the phenomenon he
had discovered. This suggestion of Torricelli being
PASCAL. 31
now known to Pascal, the latter asserts that it is
simply an idea, and must remain only a possible
explanation, an hypothesis, until every other explana-
tion shall have been proved by experiment to be
impossible. What is wanted then is the contriving of
an experiment which shall prove that the pressure of
the air is the only admissible cause of the suspension
of the mercury in the tube.
That this was the actual cause Pascal had good
reason beforehand to admit. Galileo had explained the
phenomenon on the hypothesis of the partial abhor-
rence of nature for a vacuum. But how attribute to
nature this quality of abhorrence which is a feeling
and pre-supposes a soul, when nature is neither alive
nor gifted with feeling 1 Again, the investigations of
Pascal into the general conditions of equilibrium
among fluids led him to adopt on this subject a
universal principle which justified the explanation
given by Torricelli.
The following commended itself to him as the best
experiment for settling the question : To repeat several
times on the same day the experiment of the vacuum,
with the same quicksilver in the same tube, sometimes
at the foot and sometimes at the summit of a high
mountain. Now if the height of the quicksilver
should prove to be less at the top of the mountain than
at its base it would of necessity follow that the sole
cause of the suspension of the quicksilver is the weight
and piessure of the air and not nature's abhorrence of
a vacuum. For it is quite certain that there is a
much greater pressure of air at the foot of the
mountain than at its summit ; while, on the other hand,
32 PASCAL.
it will scarcely be maintained that nature abhors a
vacuum more at the foot of a mountain than at its
summit.
It may be that in planning this experiment Pascal had
in his mind the Puy-de-D6me, at the foot of which his
early years were passed. It occurred to him that he
might entrust its performance to his brother-in-law,
M. Perier, a counsellor in the cour des aides of
Auvergne, who was living at Clermont, and to whom
he accordingly wrote on the subject on November 16,
1647, giving him all needful instructions, theoretical
and practical.
Circumstances prevented M. Perier from performing
the experiment until September 19, 1648, when it
proved a complete success. For M. Perier established
the fact that in proportion as he ascended the mountain
the height of the column was lowered, and this always
in the same ratio. He wrote a detailed account of it
to Pascal, who then repeated the experiment at the base
and the top of the tower of Saint Jacques de la
Boucherie, then again in a house which had ninety
stairs : always the same result.
This fact once thoroughly established, Pascal drew
from it its logical consequences. The principle that
nature abhors a vacuum, universally held by the
consent of nations and by the bulk of philosophers,
must be rejected, not in part, but absolutely. No
matter though human reason may adjudge it true,
since experiment finds it wanting. The pressure of
the air is the sole cause of the phenomenon ; here is the
true explanation as proved by facts, and the dreams of
philosophy may be left out of account. Thus in the
PASCAL. 33
eves of Pascal this discovery had a logical and moral
significance as well as a scientific one.
With all the joy and pride he felt in having
achieved the final settlement of this question, he had
no thought of supplanting Galileo and Torricelli.
While giving each of them his due, he was conscious
that by making use of the work of these great men he
had been able to extend our knowledge of nature still
further than they. He rejoiced in this progress of
which he was the instrument, and was ready to rejoice
yet more whenever he should learn that some one else
had reached a still further point.
This success gave offence to the Jesuits, and in the
theses propounded in their college at Montferrand they
accused Pascal, without mentioning him by name, of
having claimed for himself the invention of a certain
experiment of which Torricelli was really the author.
Pascal, distressed by such an accusation, wrote to M.
de Ribeyre, president of the cour des aides at
Clermont-Ferrand, to whom the theses were dedicated,
giving a detailed account of his experiment. M. de
Ribeyre was of opinion that he made too much of the
matter. The worthy father had no doubt been induced
to utter such a statement simply from an itching desire
to produce some experiments of his own by which he
thought to lessen the value of Pascal's, but which in
reality were themselves valueless. Besides, had he not
averred that he meant no harm; and as for what any
one should say against Pascal, it was beneath notice.
" I know too well your good faith and honesty,"
said M. de Ribeyre, in conclusion, " to believe that
D
34 PASCAL.
you could ever be convicted of acting contrary to
that uprightness which you not only profess but
show forth in your actions and your manner of
life,"
But Pascal's memory was to be put to a severer test
in the future.
Between the date of the Rouen experiments and that
of the letter to M. Perier, Pascal had had two inter-
views with Descartes in Paris, on September 23 and 24,
1647. He was very ill at the time, and barely able to
carry on a conversation. Descartes showed great
concern for his health, advising him to stay in bed
every day until he was weary of it, and to take any
amount of broth. He did not fail, however, to get
upon scientific questions with the young scholar to
whom he had come to pay his respects. The subject of
vacuum was raised ; and when Descartes was asked, in
regard to a certain experiment, his opinion as to what
the syringe contained, the philosopher answered, with
grave decision, that it was some of his subtle matter.
To this Pascal made what answer he could, and M.
Roberval, who was present, understanding that Pascal
was only able to speak with difficulty, took up the
argument with M. Descartes with some little heat.
They went away together and, when alone in the
carriage, fell to abusing each other in good earnest.
So much on this subject, and no more, is contained
in a letter written by Jacqueline to Mme. Perier on
the day after the second interview.
But later, on June 11, 1649, Descartes, when
begging Carcavi to let him know of the success of
Pascal's experiment, writes thus :
PASCAL. 35
" I ought really to look to him rather than you
for this information, because I was the one to
advise him two years ago to work such an experi-
ment, and to assure him that although I had never
tried it myself I had no doubt of its success."
And on the 17th, once more writing to Carcavi, he
says again :
" It was I who begged M. Pascal, two years ago,
to undertake it, assuring him that it would be
successful as it was entirely in accordance with
my Principles. Otherwise, he would scarcely have
been likely to think of it, being himself of a con-
trary opinion."
Now it is on the authority of these statements by
Descartes that Baillet, in his Vie de M. Descartes, after
him Montucla in his Histoire des mathematiques, and,
following them, some learned critics of the present day,
attribute to the author of the Principles the invention
which Pascal claims as his. They assert that as early
as 1631 Descartes, in one of his letters, spoke of the
pressure of the air as the cause of the suspension of
the quicksilver; that he suggested this explanation
afresh in 1638; and, further, that while we know
Pascal to have been of an excitable and impulsive
temperament, the balanced character of Descartes for-
bids any hesitation in accepting a statement definitely
made by him.
This dispute was a miserable affair enough, and,
whichever way it was settled, was sure to leave a
painful impression. Yet it seems likely that posterity
36 PASCAL.
has waxed more wroth over the matter than did the
parties concerned.
For the scientific relations existing between Descartes
and the Pascal family were continued just as before,
in spite of the incident we are considering. In 1650
M. Perier and Descartes, through the medium of M.
Chanut, French ambassador at Stockholm, exchanged
observations on the suspension of the column of
mercury. And, on the death of Descartes, M. Chanut
made known the event to the Pascal family in terms
which implied great mutual esteem, making special and
very appreciative mention of Blaise.
Moral reasons apart, there are facts which point to
Pascal as the inventor of the experiment. All its
elements were already in his possession. He was
prepared with the idea of atmospheric pressure as a
probable cause of the phenomenon, witness the letter
written by Jacqueline; in his view it followed
naturally upon his general theory of the equilibrium of
liquids ; he was busied, as was his custom, in finding
convincing experiments on this subject; he was
familiar with the idea of observing the evidences of
weight at different altitudes as a means of discovering
whether phenomena of this kind were due to an
inherent quality or to some exterior cause. For in
1636 Etienne Pascal and Roberval had suggested to
Fermat this very means of finding out whether weight
is a quality of the falling body, or the result of
attraction exercised by some other body. He had
only then to reflect upon ideas already present in his
mind in order to continue his experiment.
The matter was thus understood by his contem-
PASCAL. 37
poraries. For when Pascal had formed his plan he
took his friends into his confidence. Mersenne
mentioned it to his correspondents in Holland, Italy,
Poland, and Sweden. It was everywhere spoken of
as the projected experiment of young Pascal; and
widely as this announcement was spread nowhere did
it meet with any contradiction.
What, however, are we to think of the assertions of
Descartes? We learn from them that during the
conversation which took place between himself and
Pascal they spoke of an experiment on the question of
vacuum, to be made at various altitudes; and that
Descartes advised Pascal to undertake it, assuring him
that, according to his Principles, it must succeed. This
was scarcely the argument to appeal to Pascal. But
did Descartes do more than give advice? Was the
experiment his suggestion? One would think so from
his assertion that but for his advice Pascal " would
scarcely have been likely to think of it, being himself
of a contrary opinion." We know, however, for a
certainty that this sentence does not contain the exact
truth ; that Pascal by no means held a contrary
opinion; that he was really more inclined than
Descartes himself to look upon the theory of a column
of air as the only possible solution; and that what
difference of opinion existed between him and
Descartes was only concerned with the steps by which
they reached the same conclusion. Without dream-
ing for a moment of casting doubt on the good
faith of these two great men, concerning whom
all who knew them testify to< blamelessness of life
no less than to soundness of knowledge, we may
38 PASCAL.
assume that Descartes, under the impression that
Pascal was opposed to his Principles, believed that he
could not have been the first to entertain the idea of
an experiment which Descartes regarded as confirming
them. He had talked more than Pascal, who was ill
and slightly out of humour ; he was not altogether
conversant with Pascal's ideas, and did not precisely
recall what the latter had said to him.
To Pascal then belongs of right the famous
experiment that bears his name; an experiment in
itself noteworthy, and rendered more so by its
connection in Pascal's mind with a general theory of
the equilibrium of fluids, whether liquid or gaseous.
He propounded this theory in the Traite de Vequilibre
des liqueurs and in the Traite de la pesanteur de la
masse de I'air, written in 1651. His skill in
generalising, which had already done him good service
in mathematics, here achieved one of its finest results.
Pascal established a complete analogy between liquid
and atmospheric pressure.
Scholars were misled by a false principle, claiming
to be Aristotelian, which denied to the elements the
property of weight. In vain had Stevin of Brugea,
in 1548, made known the transmission of pressure in
water; his discovery had been suffered to remain
unheeded. Pascal revived this idea. And by that
happy combination of reasoning and experiment of
which he possessed the secret, he succeeded in
formulating, in terms to some extent definitive, the
principle of hydrostatics:
" If a vessel full of water and closed at all other
PASCAL. 39
points have two openings, the one a hundredth
part of the other in area, and each provided with
a tight-fitting piston, one man pushing the small
piston will balance the force of a hundred men
pushing the piston a hundred times larger in
area, and will overcome the force of ninety men
pushing the larger piston."
In accordance with this principle, Pascal demon-
strated the pressure of the air by analogy, using water
in place of air in the vacuum experiment ; thereby
proving that to the weight of the air must now be
attributed all the effects hitherto considered to be due
to nature's abhorrence of vacuum ; such as the difficulty
of opening sealed bellows, the rising of water in the
syringe, etc.
In the persistency with which Pascal follows up in
detail the consequences of a general law which he has
formulated, he shows himself the true physicist; at
the same time, his reflections on the manner of the
growth and development of science proclaim the
philosopher. His letters to Father Noel and M. Le
Pailleur are rich in reflections of this kind; and in
a little work entitled Preface sur le Traite du vide,
which was probably written in the course of 1647,
he gives the outline of a philosophy of physics.
There are, he says, two kinds of objects of knowledge :
Firstly, those which depend on memory ; these are either
matters of fact or matters of institution, human or
divine ; secondly, those which come under the senses
or the reason ; these are truths to be discovered, and
40 PASCAL.
form the object of the mathematical and physical
sciences.
These two domains are entirely separate from one
another. In the first authority reigns alone. In fact
the knowledge of past events can only come through
her. In theology especially she is supreme, able of
herself alike to exalt into verities some things which
the mind cannot grasp, and to declare uncertain those
which seem the surest.
But in the domain of physics and mathematics
authority has no power. This is easily granted in the
case of mathematics. In physics, the problem is to
find out the laws of nature ; that is to say, the un-
varying testimony of phenomena. Now authority is
useless for the knowledge of facts which are passing
under our eyes, nor can she prove that such facts are
to be explained by this or that natural cause. Neither
will mathematics serve us in this case. For the only
definitions we could form and use as the basis of our
reasoning on these matters would be mere fictions of
our own mind, and nature would be by no means
bound to conform to them. Experiment and
reasoning; the former as both point of departure and
verification of the latter : such is the only method.
From this difference of method arises an important
difference of character between theology and physics.
Theology is stationary; the science of physics is sub-
ject to continual progress. The presumption of those
false philosophers who claim for Aristotle the inviol-
able respect that is due to God alone must be brought
low. The twofold principle on which the study of the
physical sciences is based ensures their progress. On
PASCAL. 41
the one hand experiments are continually multiplying,
each one of them bringing some fresh knowledge,
either positive or negative. On the other hand, human
reason is not as the instinct of the brutes, before
whom there lies no goal of desire, and to whom the
instinct that maintains them at the level of their
limited development is all-sufficient. But because
before man there lies the goal of the infinite his mind
must ever be moving towards perfection. He starts
in ignorance; he gains experience which forces him to
reason ; and in turn the results of his reasoning go
on increasing indefinitely. Hence, thanks to memory,
thanks to the several means by which man is able to
preserve the knowledge he has gained, not only does
the individual make his own daily progress in various
branches of knowledge, but there goes on a continual
collective progress. " So that the whole of humanity,
through all the ages, is as a man that lives and
lesurns for ever."
What then is our true relation to antiquity? Words
are misleading. For those whom we call the ancients
of the world were in very truth its children, to whom
all things were new. It is we ourselves that are
really the ancients, and if respect be due to them
it is we who may claim it. Yet after all there is
but one thing which can claim respect; that is truth,
which knows not youth nor age but eternally abides.
Did some of the ancients achieve greatness, it was
because in their efforts to do so they only made use of
the inventions of their predecessors as a means of
superseding them. By what right are we forbidden
to act thus in our turn in regard to them?
42 PASCAL.
This utterance of Pascal is not simply an echo of
the protest of the Renaissance against the superstitious
cult of antiquity. On the whole his tendency is to
revive rather than to check the study of the ancients.
His theory of progress allows him to do justice to them
without endangering the cause of free investigation.
He sees in the knowledge they have passed on to us
the steps by which our own has been gained. Our
standpoint is, as it were, on the shoulders of our
predecessors, whence the wider view is more easily, if
somewhat less proudly, obtained. Their knowledge
advanced side by side with the facts they possessed.
For example, since all their experiments went to show
that nature does not allow a vacuum, they were
justified in asserting that such was the case. To have
come to any other conclusion would have been to
substitute an intellectual opinion for facts in so far
as they were known to them.
On the other hand, the progress of which Pascal
speaks is strictly confined to the realm of science, and
has nothing to do with the moral life. Nor does he
assign even to intellectual progress that character of a
natural and necessary law attributed to it by Turgot
and Condorcet. It has nothing in common with an
evolution which should modify the nature of our
faculties. This progress is a progress in knowledge
only, every step in which is due to the inventions and
labours of men, and is not the result of an inevitable
law.
Thus we see Pascal during 1646 and the following
years devoting himself to researches in physics and
philosophy. The tone of his writings and correspond-
PASCAL. 43
ence leave no room for doubt as to his inclinations at
this particular time. He was still attached to natural
science. Now it was at the beginning of this same
year 1646 that he had become a convert to that austere
form of Christianity which in no wise allows the soul
to divide its allegiance between the world and God, and
which reserves its severest condemnation for the lust
of the intellect; that is to say, scientific curiosity.
Nor is there anything in what we know of his religious
life during this period which suggests backsliding or
change of any kind. What then was his actual
condition of mind?
He had studied the sciences, and loved them
passionately. Yet for all this they did not wholly
possess him. For they deal with abstractions, leaving
the human side of life untouched, and could never
absorb such a nature as Pascal's with its profound
craving for life and feeling. On the other hand, he
had been made aware of what God demands from
those who profess to serve him. Indeed so strongly
was this borne in upon him that he embraced the
doctrine of self-renunciation in all sincerity, recognis-
ing its reasonableness and its conformity with the
teachings of Jesus Christ. But this faith was
communicated to him from without, and was rather
the intellectual acceptance of a belief than the
upspringing of faith in a heart that has been moved
by grace.
To speak truth then, he has as yet cast in his lot
neither with science nor with religion, but is contem-
plating the truth of each from the position of an out-
sider. Thus it is that he is able to turn now to the one
44 PASCAL.
and now to the other of them. Does his mind dwell on
things divine? Then naught else has any existence for
him. But let a scientific question be put before him,
and at once his fancy turns to this new object. He who
aforetime allowed God and the world to share his life
now oscillates between them. Is it possible such a
state of things should be a lasting one? Is it not just
the condition in which a man is most apt to be at the
mercy of the accident of the hour?
PASCAL. 45
CHAPTER III.
LIFE IN SOCIETY. MATHEMATICAL WORK.
PASCAL'S health had long been impaired and, in spite
of his admirable patience and the persistent
application of remedies, showed no sign of improve-
ment. The doctors were of opinion that excessive
work was the chief obstacle to his recovery. They
accordingly advised him to give his brain a complete
rest and to take every opportunity of relaxation. Now
Etienne Pascal, seeing that his daughter Jacqueline
had remained with him instead of entering the
monastery of Port Royal, was doing his best to revive
her old love of society. He now resolved to take his
son and daughter into Auvergne, where he had
numerous connections, hoping thus to change the
current of their thoughts. Thither the family went in
May, 1649. Jacqueline's condition of mind remained
entirely unaffected by this change. But Blaise, torn
from the joys of scientific research, went into society
for the sake of occupation ; and it was not long before
he began to relish the new life. He took to play
and like diversions by way of passing the time, and
gave himself up to the amusements of society. His
morals, however, were above reproach.
On the return of the family to Paris, probably in
November, 1649, Pascal began to associate with several
persons of a distinctively worldly type. First there was
his neighbour the Due de Roannez, a youth of about
twenty, to whom he was drawn in the first instance
46 PASCAL.
by the similarity of their scientific tastes and pursuits.
Between a dissolute grandfather and a careless mother
the duke was left at the mercy of any fate which might
befall his youth and exalted rank. Being of a
confiding and faithful disposition, he formed so strong
an attachment to Pascal that he could scarcely bear
him to be out of his sight. Then there was the
Chevalier de Mere, a native of Poitou, with his
persistent cult of the honnete Jiomme. He was a purist
and a precieux. He affected simplicity, naturalness,
and good sense. He looked upon the things of the
mind and heart as belonging to a world of their own,
apart from and far higher than the natural world.
There was Miton, the freethinker, so quick to discover
the vanity of all the doings of mankind, and withal so
serenely unmoved at his own pessimistic observations.
Pascal used also to visit Des Barreaux, a pleasure
loving Epicurean and atheist who, when his health
failed, took refuge in religion ; likewise Mme.
d'Aiguillon, cardinal Richelieu's niece, who had sent
for Jacqueline Pascal when a child to take part in a
comedy ; and the Marquise de Sable, who held a
brilliant salon of precieuses.
He was only in course of cementing these friend-
ships, but had already become pretty much at home in
society, when, on September 24, 1651, he lost his father.
This event was not only a source of cruel and profound
suffering to Pascal, whose family affections were very
tender, but it also recalled his mind to meditate afresh
upon spiritual things. He looked to religion for some
grounds of consolation and, having found them,
hastened to impart them to his family. They are
PASCAL. 47
propounded in a letter written to M. and Mme. Perier
on October 7, 1651.
His thought is unfolded on the lines of the strictest
logical progression. In fact, he held that the heart
must accept what the intellect recognises as true.
What we seek is consolation and, if such a thing may
be, the turning of evil into good. But whence can
real and solid consolation come, save from the truth?
It behoves us then first of all to satisfy our intellect as
to what death really is. Then we shall be ready to
make use of this knowledge as a guide to our judgments
and conduct concerning it.
The pagan conception of death is that it is a physical
thing. Were that so, it would of necessity be an evil,
for then it would be in very deed what it seems :
corruption and annihilation. And there would be no
more place for hope. But from the truth, as taught
us by the Holy Spirit, we learn that death is an
expiation and a means of setting us free from the lust
of the flesh. Such is its signification in Jesus Christ ;
such also in ourselves if we die with him.
There remains the instinctive horror of death, so
difficult to subdue. Yet over this also we shall rise
triumphant when once we understand its source.
According to Christian doctrine, our present love of
life is the perversion of a divinely implanted desire for
eternal life. God having withdrawn his presence from
the soul of man by reason of his sin, the infinite void
he left has been filled by our own self and the things
of this present life. And henceforth our love, not
knowing where to cling, has fastened upon these
objects. The dread of death, from which we suffer,
48 PASCAL.
arises from this misdirected love, and is at bottom the
primal dread of the death of the soul, which has been
turned aside from its proper object and mistakenly
applied to the death of the body. There can be no
question then of abolishing the fear of death ; that
would be impossible. What we have rather to do is
to bring it back to its original form. The more we
learn to dread spiritual death the less shall we fear
the death of the body.
Does this mean that we can learn to look upon the
death of one dear to us without some natural
suffering ? This we are not able to do, nor indeed are
we called to it. For the work of grace, which alone
enables us to break loose from what has become our
natural habitude, must necessarily feel the brunt of the
opposing efforts of our fleshly nature ; and thj sore
bruising of the one is the measure of the progress of
the other. Let us then mourn our father ; this is right.
But let us also be comforted ; for this, too, is right.
And let us see to it that the consolations of grace
prevail over the feelings of nature.
Pascal's deductions are the result of very close
reasoning. Maybe the Christian is in this instance
logical rather than stirred by emotion ; yet the man, on
the other hand, speaks with singularly profound and
delicate feeling of the ways in which the living may
show their reverence for the dead.
" I was taught by a saintly man, says Pascal,
that one of the surest and most useful ways of
showing kindness to the dead is to do those things
which they would bid us do were they still upon
earth, alike by putting in practice the holy
PORTRAIT OF MOTHER ANGELIQUE.
From a Painting by Philippe Champagne.
Mother Angelique wears the costume adopted by the
Port Royal nuns as Daughters of the Holy Sacrament.
They retained the habit of Saint Bernard, merely changing
their black scapulary for a white one with a scarlet cross
in front. These colours were intended to signify the
bread and wine which are the elements under which Jesus
Christ is hidden in the mystery of the Holy Sacrament.
The Testament held by Mother Angelique is open at
the words : Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you.
The inscription below the portrait is as follows :
La, Mere Marie Angelique Arnauld derniere
Abbesse titulaire de Port Royal Ordre de Cisteaux qui
n'estant agee que de dix sept ans fut la premiere de
cet Ordre en france qui renouvella dans son Abbaye
I'estroite observance et I'ancien esprit de S. Bernard.
Son humilite luy ayant toujours donne un extreme
desir de quitter sa Charge, elle Vexecuta en 1630,
ayant obtenu permission du Roy de la rendre elective
et trienniale. Elle est nwrte le 6 d'amist 1661, agee
de 70 ans. Tons ceux qui Vont connu ont admire
entre ses autres vertus cette charite si ardente et si
desinterressee qui Va rendue Mere de tant de fill ex
sans y considerer que les richesses de la grace et ne
lui a jamais permis d'en refuser aucune pour le
manquem*- des biens temporels.
(Mother Marie Angelique Arnauld, last titular Abbess
of Port Royal of the Cistercian Order, who when no more
than seventeen years of age was the first of her Order in
France to revive in her Abbey the strait observance and
the ancient spirit of Saint Bernard. Her humility having
always caused her to desire release from her charge, she
carried out her wish in 1630, after having obtained leave
from the king to make the office elective and triennial.
She died on the sixth day of August, 1661, at the age of
seventy years. All those who knew her admired among
her other virtues that charity, so fervent and so disin-
terested, which made her to be the mother of so many
spiritual daiighters, in whom she recognised no riches but
the riches of divine grace, and which never allowed her
to refuse any for their lack of worldly goods).
,
1 1.1
PASCAL. 49
counsels they gave us and by placing ourselves for
their sake in such a position as they would now
desire for us. So shall we cause them, in a
manner, to live anew in us, since it is their
counsels that are yet living and acting within
ourselves."
Not yet, it would seem, does Pascal feel himself to
be finally won over to religion. He avows that had he
lost his father six years earlier, at the time of his
accident, he would have been lost, and that even as
it was, he needed him for ten years longer. And, as
a matter of fact, it was not solely in the consideration
of death from the Christian point of view that he
sought alleviation for his grief, but also in the charms
and occupations of society. He enlarged the circle of
his acquaintance, and consorted with wits and free-
thinkers. Little by little he lost the habit of looking
at all things in the light of their relation to the divine,
and of submitting to this test his every thought.
This was how he came to make what was, from his
point of view, a very natural request of his sister
Jacqueline, in whose companionship he found much
consolation. He begged that she would postpone for
at least a year her entrance into the convent, so that
she could remain with him. Jacqueline, dreading to
add to his suffering, forbore to answer. But she
confided to Mme. Perier her intention of taking the
veil as soon as the division of the family property
had been completed.
Pascal, meanwhile, by arranging mutual transfers,
succeeded in converting Jacqueline's share into an
annuity, which would be forfeited by law on the day
I
50 PASCAL.
that she became a nun. The settlements were signed
on December 31, 1651, and Jacqueline determined to
enter Port Royal on the fourth of January following, she
being then twenty-six years and three months old. On
the evening of January 3, she approached her brother
on the subject of her leaving; but he avoided her and
betook himself sadly enough to his own room. She
slept peacefully, and went away the next morning,
saying farewell to no one lest she should break down.
Two months later, on March 7, 1652, Sister Jacqe-
line de Sainte-Euphemie wrote to inform her brother
that she was soon going to take the veil and begged he
would be present at the ceremony. She asked his
consent with a mingling of loyal affection and in-
flexible determination, entreating him to do in the
spirit of charity what he must needs do even though
it were against his will. The next day Pascal arrived,
indignant and suffering from violent headache ;
but he was quickly mollified, and after beseeching
Jacqueline to wait two years, then six months, being
gradually wrought upon by her loving persistence,
and further yielding to the arguments brought to bear
on him a few days afterwards by M. d'Andilly, brother
of Mother Ang61ique, he ended by saying he was quite
willing it should take place at Trinity, as she desired.
The investiture accomplished, Jacqueline, after her
year's noviciate, was prepared to take the vows. She
now made known to her brother and sister her wish
to present to Port Royal as dowry the share of the
family property that fell to her. This proposal was
most unwelcome to them both, and each of them
independently wrote her a letter in the same strain,
PASCAL. 51
reminding her of the agreement entered into among
them at the time of the division, and accusing
Jacqueline of wishing to disinherit them in favour of
strangers.
Mile. Pascal felt her pride rebel at the thought of
having to allow herself to be admitted gratuitously.
At Port Royal, however, the one concern was spiritual
welfare. The kind and tender-hearted mother Agnes
made light of it, telling Jacqueline in her sprightly
manner that it would be a disgrace should a Port Royal
novice distress herself about so trifling a matter as that
of being received without dowry. With the prudent M.
Singlin, the one thought was the avoidance of any distur-
bance which should annoy or alienate the Pascal family.
Mother Angelique, true to the spirit of Saint Cyran,
would have no pressure brought to bear upon Jacque-
line's relatives ; but quietly pointed out to her that
an impulse of true charity was not to be looked for
from a worldling. Now, said she, the person most
nearly interested in this matter is too much one with
the world, nay, even with its frivolities and amuse-
ments, to make it possible that he should be ready to
gratify your wish to present this gift, when it would
be at the expense of his own individual gratification.
Such a thing could not come about save by a miracle ;
and by that I mean a miracle of nature and affection,
for the conditions forbid any expectation of a miracle
of grace.
Pascal, however, on going to see Jacqueline and
realising her distress, made up his mind to please
her and himself to sign a deed of gift to Port Royal.
But the Mothers did not yield without difficulty. He
52 PASCAL.
must give as prompted by the Spirit of God ; otherwise
they would prefer that he gave nothing.
"While M. de Saint Cyran lived," declared
Mother Angelique, " we learnt from him to receive
for the house of God nothing that does not come
from God. Whatever is done from any motive
other than that of the highest love is not the fruit
of the spirit of God, and therefore it does not
behove us to receive it."
Thereupon Pascal, determined to acquit himself
honourably, protested that he was giving in the
required spirit, and there the affair ended. Had he
been acting from interested motives? We may suppose
he had greatly longed to keep Jacqueline with him, and
had taken it ill that she should alienate part of the
family patrimony for a purpose with which he had no
sympathy.
The vows were taken on June 5, 1653. Pascal,
writing to M. Perier on the day after the ceremony,
preferred to say nothing about his own feelings on the
occasion.
Whilst his interest in spiritual things was on the
wane, his interest in worldly things was increasing.
He became more and more absorbed in the pursuit of
pleasure, never, however, going the length of any
irregularity of life. Besides, his fortune was insuffi-
cient to allow of his living as did others of his station.
But above all, his character was his safeguard against
any unlawful attachment. He gave himself up to his
love for science, and eagerly seized every opportunity
of advancing it. Even when engaged in play, he
PASCAL. 53
busied himself with mathematical observations on the
subject of chance and probabilities.
He became keenly alive to the lofty character of
the intellectual life. The authority of a sovereign
and knowledge, he writes to Queen Christina, when
sending her his calculating machine, stand to each
other as do body and mind ; and in so far as the latter
belongs to a higher plane than the former, so far does
knowledge transcend in dignity the power to command
others. The authority of kings over their subjects is
but an image and a figure of the authority of mind
over mind.
Soon, however, by force of circumstances, Pascal's
thoughts were led to dwell upon considerations of
graver import.
While travelling in Poitou with the Due de Roannez
and Mere, about the month of June, 1652, he seems
to have allowed himself to pass among his friends for
a mere mathematician, devoid of taste and feeling.
Mere relates of him what may very well be true, that
his eccentric way of dragging geometrical arguments
into the general conversation made him ridiculous in
the eyes of his fashionable friends ; that suddenly be-
coming aware of this he relapsed into silence and,
what was very remarkable, in quite a short time fell
into his companions' way of talking and almost always
said something worth hearing. Ever after this journey,
adds Mere, the great mathematician troubled himself
no more about mathematics, having then and there as
it were abjured them.
Here speaks the coxcomb. For all this Mere un-
doubtedly had some interesting ideas upon the several
54 PASCAL.
orders of knowledge and the methods that may suitably
be applied to them. In a letter he afterwards wrote to
Pascal he informs him with his usual self-sufficiency
that the mathematical demonstrations, in which he has
so much confidence, and the art of reasoning by rule, of
which second-rate scholars have made such a point, can
only be legitimately applied to fictions and are al-
together incapable of imparting to us a knowledge of
real things ; that, given a seeing eye and a quick under-
standing, we shall at once notice in any object a vast
number of things that the geometrician will never see
there ; that there are thus two methods : that of demon-
stration, and that of natural perception, the latter being
far superio" to the former; and that there are two
worlds : the material, which can be seen and reckoned
with, and another, invisible and truly infinite, where
dwell the correspondences, the patterns, the divine
originals of all those things which we seek to know.
Theories such as these could not fail to strike Pascal.
Was there then some faculty in human nature higher
than the senses and the reasoning power? Was it true
that in developing our social qualities by means of
intercourse with our fellows we acquire a special
keenness and alertness of mind that enables us to get at
the heart of things, while demonstration can deduce
from the same things nothing but their abstract forms
and external relations?
In this disposition of mind Pascal gave himself up
more than ever to social life, not even disdaining its
lighter side. There have been discovered in a chateau
at Fontenay-le-Comte, a town not far from Poitiers,
some lines written on the back of two pictures, in his
PASCAL. 55
handwriting, and perhaps composed by him, in which
he expresses his thanks to a lady whom he has evidently
been visiting with his friends. One verse runs as
follows:
"De ces beaux lieux, jeune et charmante h6tesse,
Votre crayon m'a trace le dessin ;
J'aurais voulu suivre de votre main
La grace et la delicatesse.
Mais pourquoi n'ai-je pu, peignant ces dienx dans
1'air,
Pour rendre plus brillante une aimable deesse,
Lui donner vos traits et votre air ?"
During a sojourn in Auvergne, which seems to have
followed the journey to Poitou, at the close of 1652 and
the beginning of 1653, Pascal, according to Flechier,
was in the habit, together with two other admirers, of
paying his addresses to a learned lady who went by the
name of the Sappho of the district, and had not her
equal in the town for keen and sparkling wit. She was
to be approached with no ordinary compliments, and
in her presence Pascal learned to use the niceties of
language in dealing with matters of taste and sensi-
bility.
Philosophy was at that time held in high repute.
Not philosophy of a technical and speculative
character, but that which concerns itself mainly with
questions affecting the conduct of life. This phase of
thought emanated largely from Montaigne, that
marvellous writer who had culled f-om the works of
the ancients their finest thoughts on life and morality
and rendered them with an incomparable charm. He
affected to despise philosophy and human reason, and
56 PASCAL.
to advocate an irresponsible following of nature and
custom ; yet how eloquently withal did he expound the
noble doctrines of courage and loftiness of mind taught
by the stoic philosophers ! Thus his writings
encouraged at the same time the development of a race
of shallow and sceptical freethinkers and the spread
of the stoic ideas of duty, energy, and the power of the
will.
Pascal was initiated into both these philosophies.
He read principally Epictetus and Montaigne, probably
studying the Manual of the former in the widely
circulated translation of Guillaume de Vair, an
eminent magistrate and church patron, and a follower
of the stoics. Among Montaigne's writings Pascal gave
most attention to the Apologie de Raymond de Seb&nde,
that disconcerting investigation in which, under
pretext of justifying the use of arguments from nature
for the proving of spiritual truths, the author succeeds
in showing us at one and the same time nature
indifferent and reason impotent in this matter, and
ends by leaving religion hovering, as it were, in the
void, with nothing to oppose it, it is true, but equally
with nothing to sustain it or connect it with realities.
He also read Charron, the disciple of Montaigne, who
says that, seeing we have no means of getting at the
truth which dwells, inaccessible to man, in the mind of
God, it is for us to renounce the quest of it and seek
instead the path of wisdom in a life conformed to our
imperfect nature.
To these writings Pascal now devoted himself with
growing interest. Epictetus and Montaigne were from
PASCAL. 57
this time forth his constant companions, and the objects
of his fervent admiration.
Now, too, he began to be aware of something in
Descartes other than he had seen in him before. He
discerned, above and beyond the inventiveness of that
fine genius, a recognition of the perfecting of thought
and of the human soul as the ultimate aim of all our
sciences. And he came to have a rare esteem for the
metaphysician, whom he used once to flout as a thinker
bold in speculation and entirely given over to
abstractions.
Thus was opening out more and more before Pascal
the essentially human world of whose profundity
Mere had boasted. This world found its means of
expression in social intercourse; its springs were
sounded by philosophy. A man need think no
scorn to spend himself for them both; to live and to
think as a man. There was a certain beauty and
excellence in conforming one's actions to nature. And
this same nature was of herself great and powerful
enough to lead man on to a perfection strangely
transcending the perfection of the body and even of
the mind when limited to scientific knowledge.
It was at the time when he was adopting these views
of human life, about 1652-1653, that he wrote the
curious Discours sur les passions de Vamour (Discourse
on the passions of love), the manuscript of which was
found by Victor Cousin in the foundations of the abbey
of Saint-Germain-des-Pres.
\Yas this little work a mere jeu (f esprit or the out-
come of one of the salon-wagers in vogue at the time ;
or was it a deliberate attempt on the part of Pascal to
58 PASCAL.
show that he could succeed in other fields than that of
mathematics ?
It is possible it may have been written to order ; but
one can hardly fail to see something more than a mere
display of ready wit in expressions such as these :
" How fortunate is a life that begins with love
and ends with ambition ! Had I to choose between
these two I would take the first. . . . Great souls
are not such as love the most often ; the love I
speak of is a passionate love. The opening of the
floodgates is needed either to rouse them or to
satisfy them."
Moreover, in making the following observation, the
writer would seem to confess that he is drawing upon
his own experience for a good deal of what he says :
" One oftentimes writes on matters which can
only be proved by the test of universal inner
experience. Herein lies the force of the proofs of
what I am saying."
This discours may have been, in accordance with the
sense of the word at that time prevalent, a dissertation.
But after all do not Corneille's heroes reason about
their feelings? And according to Descartes and Male-
branche it is the perceptions of the understanding that
form the starting point of the inclinations of the will.
May we go a step further and ask whether this dis-
course does not betray the existence of a definite
attachment on the part of Pascal although he drops no
hint as to the personality of its object? Certain it is
that in several passages he gives the impression of
taking the reader into his confidence.
PASCAL. 59
" The pleasure of a love that dares not avow
itself may have its pains but it has its sweetness
too. What ecstasy when all life is centred in the
effort to please one being who is held supremely
worthy ! "
" Sometimes the loved one is of far higher rank
than the lover. He feels the flame of passion burn
high,' but dare not utter a word of it to her who is
its cause."
It seems more than likely that Pascal did love some-
one and even that his love was given to one of higher
rank than himself. But it is gratuitous to suppose
with M. Fangere that the lady in question was the
sister of the Due de Roannez. There is nothing what-
ever in the discours to suggest this; indeed, if it
contains any personal allusion at all it is to someone
much older than Mile. Roannez, who was then barely
twenty years of age.
The Discours sur les passions de V amour is the first
work in which Pascal deals with questions of philo-
sophy and life. We have seen him reflecting on the
method and scope of science as the object of the human
mind. Now it is the soul itself he unfolds to view and
undertakes to explore after the manner of Descartes
and Montaigne. He builds up a genuine philosophical
theory, based partly upon the teaching of these skilful
investigators of human nature, but very largely upon
the results of his own introspection and observation.
To what end are we placed in this world? To the
end that we may love.
The truth is, though on the one hand the essence of
our being is thought, yet on the other hand pure
60 PASCAL.
thought wearies us. This is because it is still; while
we are so formed that we must have movement.
Accordingly our nature fulfils itself most completely
in passion, which is nothing else than thought touched
with movement.
The passions best adapted to fill the heart of man
are love and ambition. But love is the master passion ;
for it unites the greatest reasonableness with the
highest pitch of intensity. That is a mistaken idea
that would oppose reason to love ; they are one and the
same thing. Love is a precipitation of thought,
ignoring some things, it is true, and strongly developed
in one direction, but still always a thought. Were
love blind we should be machines, and most disagree-
able ones. At the same time, love opens up a power
which is in a way infinite. The loftiness of the
passions depends upon the extent of the mind's develop-
ment. Now two orders of mind are possible to
man. These may be called the geometrical and the
intuitive. The first systematically deduces manifold
consequences from one single principle; the second
takes in a thousand details at a glance. What pleasure
love must afford to him who possesses at the same
time both the geometrical and the intuitive mind,
logic and judgment, force and flexibility. Being a
passion, love is of necessity fluctuating, nay, it is even
one of the miserable conditions of our imperfect
nature that we have to be at times not conscious of
loving at all. Yet we are not therefore faithless to
the loved one ; we are gathering strength to love better.
Rhythm is the artifice employed by nature as her
method of advance.
PASCAL. 61
Experience confirms what reasoning demonstrates.
We are evidently born with the impress of love on
our hearts. This developes in proportion to the
growth of the mind and becomes our guide to the
choice of the beautiful which of our own accord we
recognise and love.
This being so who can doubt that we are placed in
this world for no other purpose than to love?
And now what is to be the object of our love? This
question is only to be solved by the finding of an
object which shall neither bring shame to the human
heart nor fall below it in dignity.
It would seem that man for his own satisfaction
need only love himself. But he cannot endure his own
companionship. So he goes out from himself and
straightway begins the search for something where-
with to fill the great void thus created in his heart.
This something that he seeks is beauty. But since he
is himself the most beautiful creature God has made,
it is in a being resembling himself yet different from
himself that he is likely to find the satisfaction of his
desire for something to love. This condition is
realised in the distinction of sex. And as love is really
an attachment founded on thought and reason so it
must be the same all the world over.
Such being the essence of love and such its appropri-
ate object, it has a logic all its own, differing from the
logic of pure thought. Here are some examples of
these reasons of the heart which baffle the reason.
"A fancied pleasure is; as good as a real one; it
has equal power to fill the mind. In fact, while it
lasts we are persuaded of its reality."
62 PASCAL.
" The further the mind is developed the more is
it able of itself to discern the beauty of many
things. But being in love is an effectual hind-
rance to this ; for then only one kind of beauty is
seen to the exclusion of all others."
" He who loves is as it were made a new man.
The whole being becomes great, uplifted to the
high planes of passion."
Such were the discoveries made by Pascal in that
distinctively human world whose existence Mere claims
to have revealed to him. The discourse on the passions
of love, though only an essay of a few pages, yet serves
to show how strikingly Pascal had at once overstepped
his would-be master. Where Mere had looked no
deeper than such outwardly pleasing attributes of
humanity as went by the name of wit and honnetete,
Pascal, going right to the depths of human nature,
found there the never ceasing play of passion by
which a being, formed for steadfast thought but
unable to sustain it, endeavours to find satisfaction.
Man's love needs some object great enough to satisfy
him. Nature appears to offer him such. But is it
quite certain that even in her most perfect product she
gives what can suffice to fill the emptiness of the human
heart? This question would seem to be suggested in
certain passages, but is not really faced by Pascal as
yet. He remains, as it were, spellbound, drinking in
the wonder of his new discoveries.
It was with the same feeling of esteem for human
faculties that he cultivated the sciences at this time.
Mere boasts of having disabused him of the notion of
PASCAL. 63
the excellence of mathematics. Now mathematics
were occupying him more than ever. As a matter of
fact they, even more than physics, display the power of
thought. Not that we can attach more than a certain
value to their results; they are useful and important
by reason of the vigour they impart to the intellect.
Pascal by no means concedes to Mere that the intuitive
mind can dispense with the mathematical. He finds
intellectual perfection in the union of these two
qualities.
The years 1653 and 1654 witnessed his principal
mathematical discoveries.
He wrote at this time the Traite du triangle arith-
metique and the Traite des ordres numeriques, both
published in 1655; besides several smaller works which
he dedicated to the Tres celebre Academic Parisienne
des Sciences : that is to say, to the circle of scholars
who used to gather under the roof of Father Mersenne.
Moreover he carried on an important correspondence
on the theory of probabilities with Fermat, then living
at Toulouse.
It was in connection with divers problems relating to
games of chance that Pascal, while reflecting on com-
binations, invented his arithmetical triangle. By a
simple method of reckoning he made rows of figures
which he placed in the form of a triangle, and which,
by means of such an arrangement, contained the results
of complicated formulae and furnished the key to a
great number of problems arising out of permutations
and combinations.
In an ingenious essay on Pascal's mathematical
work M. Delegue explained in 1869 that this treatise
64 PASCAL.
contains all the elements of a complete and most
graceful demonstration of Newton's binomial theory.
Nor is this all; the Traite de la somnuition des
puissances numeriques, which forms a sequel to the
treatise on the arithmetical triangle, contained, as M.
Delegue again points out, prior to the Arithmetica
infinitorum of Wallis, which only appeared in 1655, the
whole substance of the differential and integral
calculus. Passing beyond the geometrical point of
view, Pascal considers magnitudes algebraically. His
propositions apply to all progressive magnitudes,
whether dimensions or powers.
Pascal also employed his arithmetical triangle for
the solving of questions relating to the theory of
probabilities or the rule of partis. The general
problem was as follows: two players, granted of equal
skill, throw up the game before the end. In this case
the ruling as to the amount adjudged to each should
be so exactly proportioned to what they would be
justified in expecting from chance, that it would be a
matter of perfect indifference to each of them whether
they should severally take their allotted shares or
proceed with the fortunes of the game. This just
distribution is called le pa.rti. When Pascal and
Fermat compared notes on their discoveries Pascal was
astonished at the identity of the results obtained from
their independent consideration of the matter. He was
persuaded that the best way to ensure himself against
failure was to check his results by those of Fermat.
Thus did these two great men simultaneously create
the theory of probabilities.
Pascal is now far removed from that unstable
PASCAL. 65
condition of mind which had followed his conversion
to the ideas of Jansenius. He has recovered his mental
equilibrium, and his being is once more in harmony
with itself. But this does not mean a return to the
system of compromise between the world and God, in
which his father had trained him. Man as man,
such as he unfolds himself to the attentive observer, his
thought, his feelings, his life, have now in Pascal's eyes
a hitherto unsuspected dignity, richness and beauty.
Man becomes for him now a principle and an end in
himself. To accomplish such actions as may bring to
realisation the perfected form of human nature; thus
to rise infinitely above our material surroundings; to
create in us by the ennobling of our passions and the
deepening of our knowledge an image of that pure
thought and absolute knowledge which hopelessly
transcend our power : such is his ambition, such the
task through which he looks to attain those intense
and lofty joys for which he is athirst. The world
possesses him. In 1653 he has thoughts of obtaining a
government post and marrying.
66 PASCAL.
CHAPTER IV.
FINAL CONVERSION.
AT the very time when Pascal was finding satisfaction
in the love of science and the love of the world, in the
contemplation of that human nature whose grandeur
had been revealed to him alike by his experience in
society and by the teachings of philosophy ; at the time
when his universally admired genius and the in-
tellectual qualities which made him an honoured
guest in social circles were promising to bring
the fame and happiness he ardently yearned
for; about the close of the year 1653, when he
was just thirty years of age, he was visited by an
extraordinary spiritual illumination, in which he saw
himself and all else in a wholly new light. It was with
him as though all things that had hitherto charmed
him were now floating about like imperceptible atoms
in the infinite void of his heart. He asked himself
whether the pursuits he was following and the
pleasures in which he was taking delight, were really
worthy of him, worthy of the human soul. There came
over him a sense of the immense disproportion between
what he was and what he was destined to be.
In like manner the books to which he had attached
the most weight, which had given him the most exalted
idea of human reason and will, now impressed him
quite otherwise. He found that with all their know-
ledge and all their ability, the greatest philosophers
PASCAL. 67
did not succeed in furnishing one single genuine proof
touching those things which most nearly concern us.
And, moreover, while they are by no means agreed
among themselves, there is no sufficient reason for
believing any one of them rather than another. Here
too Pascal had a vivid sense of the disproportion
between the cravings of the soul and the satisfactions
the world has to offer.
In vain did he endeavour to imbue himself more
deeply with the arguments that go to prove the
greatness of things human. The more he considered
such things, the more they became mean in his eyes.
What were all our pleasures, our labours, our
knowledge, our fame 1 ? Was not the whole round of
them hopelessly limited and mixed up with what is
unreal and trivial? And for him who has once
conceived of a veritable perfection, is there any
practical distinction between the more and the less
imperfect? Besides, even supposing human nature
conditioned at its highest, is not death its inevitable
end? And can that be called great which must cease
to be? What irony there is in that doctrine of the
stoics, which would have us make of ourselves saints
and companions of God ! As though a changing,
uncertain and perishing being had power to draw near
to the divine Eternal! How much better was man
understood by Montaigne, who represents him as
irresolute and changeable, for ever vacillating and
wavering, with no fixed centre of belief or conduct,
but reduced to regulating his life by custom or else by
his own nature, which after all is only custom of a
longer growth.
68 PASCAL.
Is man so poor a thing as this, and can he yet be
well pleased with himself?
No sooner did these new thoughts arise in Pascal's
mind than a corresponding change took place in the
feelings of his heart. The pleasures he had been
enjoying became to him nothing but occasions of
agitation and restlessness of spirit. Peace and
contentment no longer possessed his soul. Even in the
enjoyment of such earthly pleasures as are accounted
the purest he was haunted by a continual qualm. The
sweetness of all he cared for was turned into bitterness,
its charm into fear and remorse. An unexplained
trouble was working within this soul which but now
had been expanding like a flower and opening with
confidence to every human joy.
Whence came this strange inward light which, by
suddenly darkening in Pascal's eyes the most brilliant
objects, changed into disgust the fondness with which
they had inspired him.
This revelation was not of man. How could the
same being at once set himself up and abase himself?
It came then from another world than ours ; even from
that God before whom religion teaches our being is
but vanity, misery and corruption. But what warrant
is there for a belief in the reality of this spiritual
world?
Pascal, in facing this question, is no longer in the
same condition of mind as at the time of his first
conversion. Then it was his intellect that was most
alive, while the soul itself was to a certain extent
indifferent. He was then ready to accept the principles
of religion on the same terms as those of science : that
PASCAL. 69
is, when either the one or the other commended
itself to him as justified by exact reasoning. But
now he had become aware of those remoter tendencies
and cravings which properly constitute human nature ;
and he had set his affections on the things which
respond directly to those tendencies. Even against his
will a comparison was established in his mind between
these realities, imperfect no doubt, but palpable, and
other objects of which all the sublimity is but a sorry
compensation for their vague and uncertain character.
Pascal was entirely occupied during this year 1654
with the rule of partis, on the subject of which he was
in correspondence with Fermat; and he now applied
to the question of the existence of God the same
considerations he was making use of in this branch of
mathematics.
Either God exists or he does not exist. Reason is
powerless to decide the question. All I can do is to
weigh the chances for and against. It is, as it were,
a game of pitch and toss. On which side shall I wager?
But why wager at all? What necessity is there to
run this strange chance? Can I not put away from me
this problem whose solution either way is sure to leave
me disturbed and ill content? I cannot. My every
action, every movement of my will, implies a certain
solution of this unique problem. It is not with the
existence of God as with questions of science, which do
not affect me personally. It is quite evident that I
must act differently according as God exists or not.
So I am bound to wager. There is no choice in the
matter. We have committed ourselves. Now to
examine the conditions of the wager.
70 PASCAL.
In this hazard, as in every other, there are two things
to be considered : the degree of probability and the
amount of risk. The question of the existence of God
being infinitely beyond the scope of reason, the
probability is the same for the affirmative as for
the negative. This term then is cancelled. There
remains the risk. On the one hand there is the finite
to be ventured, on the other hand the infinite to be
gained. Now, however great may be the finite, it
becomes as nothing before the infinite. Strictly
speaking then, it becomes a question of venturing the
infinitely little in order to gain the infinitely great.
Hence we are clearly bound to wager in favour of the
existence of God. The reasoning is conclusive. If I
am capable of discerning any truth, this is one.
Thus it was that Pascal came to be logically
convinced in his own mind of the reality of the
spiritual revelation that had visited him. It was of
course a purely negative and indirect proof. But why
any the less valid for that? Can the mathematician
offer a direct proof of the existence of infinity? Yet
he unhesitatingly bases his arguments upon it. He
knows it is not true that the series of numbers is finite ;
from the fallacy of this proposition he concludes with
certainty the truth of the reverse. In many an
instance we are sure without understanding ; exactly
in the same way I know that God is.
And had reason and will alone sufficed, Pascal would
already have been won back to religion ; for he saw
clearly he ought to believe and his will was naturally
inclined towards that which his understanding repre-
sented to him as true. It was just now, however, that
PASCAL. 71
he felt in all its force the difficulty he had in believing.
His reason inclined him to do so, yet still he could
not. He felt within himself an invincible resistance.
Knowing his malady, he refused its cure; under-
standing himself to be lost, he stretched out his hands
to the abyss.
He had not hitherto been aware of the strength of
the tie which bound him to the world : he knew it now.
He had thought only to lend himself out, as it were,
on the faith of those wits and philosophers who repre-
sented man to him as master of himself. Now he
perceived that in reality he had given himself wholly
and was no longer his own. The obstacle lay then
not in his reason as he had supposed but in his heart,
in his very self, in his inmost being. Now how was
this deepest depth to be reached? How act upon the
springs of action? How become that which one is
not and cease to be that which one is?
For the bringing about of such a result as this
what boots the God of the philosophers to whom his
reason might have sufficed to lead him? What is the
use of an idea, an abstraction, an algebraical sign,
when we are warring against living and intractable
forces? Or what could such avail in creating con-
ditions of being, willing and doing? What a world of
difference between this mere term of logic and the
living God of Abraham, Jacob and Jesus Christ,
creator, father, and judge, in whom the saints have
rejoiced and in whom the just have power to will and
to do. But how am I to approach him? How are the
stirrings of divine love to be first induced in a
rebellious heart? What sincere and saving faith is
72 PASCAL.
possible in a being who pretends to be sufficient unto
himself?
Pascal understood now whence came the spiritual
revelation that had brought unrest into his soul. It
was the call of the living God. God must needs seek
him ere he could come to desire God. Left to himself,
this desire would never have entered his mind. That
which God had begun He alone could accomplish.
Would he do so? All the power of man can go no
further than to say : Lord, seek thy servant ! Except
God himself vouchsafe his aid our best efforts to
approach him are in vain. And Pascal, in his anxious
searchings of heart, had so strong a sense of being
forsaken of God that he dared not hope for conver-
sion. The more he wished for it the further off it
seemed. He was conscious of no drawings towards it.
Yet, on the other hand, the world and its pleasures
had become distasteful to him. So that he was left
suspended as it were in empty space, midway between
the world and God, spurning the one with his foot,
and failing to be upheld by the other. The right path
was yet to seek, and he sought it with groanings of
spirit.
Long he suffered in secret. He went however, from
time to time, to visit his sister Jacqueline, always
tenderly beloved. She was distressed to see the brother
who had been the means of withdrawing her from the
world becoming more and more absorbed in it him-
self ; and she would speak to him with a gentle in-
sistence of the necessity of a change in his manner of
life. Now Pascal, on going to see her towards the
end of September, 1654, made up his mind to take her
PASCAL. 73
into his confidence. He acknowledged to her that in
the midst of his manifold occupations, and surrounded
by everything likely to foster his love of the world, he
felt such an aversion for all those things on which his
heart had been set, and suffered such torments of
conscience that he earnestly longed to be rid of
them all. And so strongly was he impelled to
this that he would certainly long since have put his
design into execution had God been gracious to him
as in times past, and drawn near to him as heretofore.
But God was abandoning him to his own weakness.
Jacqueline received this confession with equal sur-
prise and joy, and began to cherish hopes she did not
dare to define. She spoke to Mme. Perier of what had
occurred, and also mentioned it to certain members of
Port Royal who shared her solicitude over the
prodigal. Port Royal had weighty reasons of its own
for taking an interest in this affair. The community
had embraced the ideas of Jansenius, and these were
being subjected to violent attack. In January, 1653,
the Jesuits had published the Almanack de la deroute
et de la confusion des Jansenistes (Tract for the Rout
and Confusion of the Jansenists) ; and on May 31, of
the same year, Pope Innocent X. had condemned the
five propositions taken from Jansenius. What a testi-
mony would be borne to the truth should a philosopher
of such wide repute become converted ! Encouraged
and counselled by the devout Christians at Port Royal,
Jacqueline did all that in her lay to second her brother
in his efforts. He visited her more and more fre-
quently; and ere long it dawned upon her that the
need for any kind of persuasion was past and she had
74 PASCAL.
only to follow his lead. The work of grace was going
on within him.
By self-examination Pascal had taken account both
of his own inward condition and of the course he must
follow in order to attain his end.
His reason inclined him to believe; nevertheless he
could not. The obstacle lay in his heart, which refused
to obey his reason. It was this heart then that must
needs be changed. Where is the seat of true faith if
not in the heart? The ideas of the understanding are
not faith, having of themselves neither force nor
enlightenment. The understanding applies itself in-
differently to any object that presents itself or happens
to take our fancy ; while faith, on the contrary, is the
profound and effectual impression made by spiritual
enlightenment upon the very springs of intellect and
will.
Now of what does this rebellious heart properly
consist, this nature of mine that separates me from
God? My nature is at bottom nothing but habit.
The pyrrhonists, who do not hesitate to look things
openly in the face, recognise this fact. But this being
so, my nature is capable of modification. The power of
habit, the cause which gave it birth, can also change
its manner of being. And thus the means by which
to make faith work its way through the reason to the
heart is to act as though you believed; to use holy
water, to hear mass, to repeat prayers ; in a word force
yourself to use the means of grace mechanically. It is
in the very nature of such acts to provoke in my heai't
the faith of which they are the outward sign. In pro-
portion as my passions diminish will the vain sophisms
PASCAL. 75
they engender in my mind be dissipated, and my
spiritual vision grow clearer. Yet surely this kind of
faith is nothing but foolishness? What then? Is our
wisdom after all of such surpassing value? And is
aught lost by rejecting the knowledge falsely so called
of the philosophers ? The childlike heart can see deeper
than they. We do not forego the true wisdom in des-
pising the wisdom of the world. On the contrary our
intellect takes a higher stand and shows itself stronger
and more balanced when it scorns to take its principles
from human passions and asks them from God instead.
But may not all the efforts I can make prove to be
vain? Have I not been taught, nay, have I not found
out by my own experience that I can do nothing for
my own salvation if God do not bring it to pass?
Of a surety it is so; nor can I think to force by any
doings of my own, finite and fallen creature that I
am, the intervention of the infinite and most holy
God. Yet it ill becomes me to reason as to the pur-
poses of God, whose ways are past my finding out.
One thing only I know; that is, that it rests with me
to take the first step and that this first step consists
in leaving my pleasures and betaking myself to
prayer.
Such was the course which Pascal marked out for
himself and followed with growing zeal. After this
manner he waged war against the impulses of his
rebellious nature, particularly his self-confidence, his
desire to live in the esteem and remembrance of his
fellows ; in short, his pride, that form of lust which is
at the same time the most insidious and the most
dangerous of all, inasmuch as it is fed by the victories
76 PASCAL.
we gain over all the rest and lives afresh in our
moment of triumph over its subjugation. A struggle
this abounding in suffering, but a suffering which was
active and brought forth fruit. It was no longer the
anguish of one who felt himself forsaken and helpless,
but the effect of the resistance of his own unregenerate
nature. Now the fact of this resistance implied that
his nature was being attacked by grace; and if nature
were worsted then was grace the stronger. Hencefor-
ward Pascal measured his progress by his sufferings.
And from this time forth they became so mingled with
consolations as to be almost turned into joys.
Thus Pascal's hope had proved no vain one. For
the effort he had been making to create in himself a
new habit by the doing of certain things and to subdue
to some extent by outward compulsion his inwardly
disobedient heart, turned out to be a reflection of the
work which grace was carrying on in his spiritual
being. He had thought to take the first step himself,
whereas it was really God who was seeking him, and
drawing him more and more perceptibly to himself.
And he discovered that the worst result of sin is to
blind us to our own condition. Unlike the prisoner
who knows himself to be in prison, we only become
aware of our bonds at the moment when they are
broken. The fact of our pardon reveals to us our sins.
Spiritual enlightenment and spiritual joy throw into
relief the emptiness of earthly knowledge and
pleasures. The more we lack, the less are we conscious
of what is lacking. We hug our servitude and do all
in our power to continue it. Yet no sooner are we set
free than we are at a loss to understand our former
PASCAL. 77
indifference. Far be it from man then to stop short
complacently at any point of advance which it
may perchance have been vouchsafed him to attain.
How mean a stage of progress would this seem in his
own eyes could he but view it from that supreme goal
to which he is meant to aspire.
Hitherto Pascal had made use first of reason and
then of habit to enable him to attain faith ; and he had
certainly felt that a change was taking place within
him ; for, not content with despising the world, he was
beginning to care for spiritual things. He did not,
however, actually make up his mind to forsake the
world. For this he alleged many a pretext ; among
others the state of his health, which was in truth very
poor, and which he said would preclude the austerities
of a life of religious retirement. Again, while fully
conscious of his need of a spiritual director, when it
came to the point of choosing one he raised difficulties.
A lurking spirit of independence protested within him.
He was not yet altogether subdued unto God; and it
seemed as though some spiritual upheaval of another
nature than those he. had hitherto experienced would
be needed for the full accomplishment of his conversion.
While he was still in this state of indecision it
chanced that during a visit he was paying to his
sister at Port>Royal-in-the-Fields the bell rang for the
sermon. It was probably, as M. Delegue has assumed,
the day of the Presentation of Our Lady, November 21.
Jacqueline left her brother, and he went into the church
to hear the sermon. The preacher was already in the
pulpit, and it was M. Singlin. The sermon, as was
customary on the day of Presentation, which celebrates
78 PASCAL.
the consecration of the Virgin to our Lord, turned
upon the beginnings of the Christian life and upon the
importance of not entering lightly, after the manner of
worldlings, from mere custom or fashion, or from
motives of worldly prudence, into business or marriage
relations. The preacher urged the necessity of laying
the matter before God when any such step was in
prospect, and of making sure that it would offer no
hindrance to the work of personal salvation. As he
listened to these utterances Pascal was struck with their
applicability to his own case. It seemed to him that
by a special leading of providence all this had been
said expressly for him; and he was all the more
strongly moved by reason of the much fervour and
weight of the preacher's style.
Henceforth the question was clearly defined. Could
he keep at all in touch with the world and at the same
time carry out the idea of the Christian life? Would
any partial renunciation suffice? Was it not literally
all his powers, all his thoughts, his whole being, that
God demanded from him? Was such a sacrifice
possible? To give oneself up utterly and deliberately?
Was not such a thing altogether inconceivable and
contradictory? And he cried afresh: "0 Lord, seek
thy servant !" So great was the fervour of his longing
that he came perforce to believe that God was nigh;
such striving of soul could not come but from Himself.
Now two days after he had listened to M. Singlin's
sermon, on Monday, November 23, 1654, there came
over him a kind of ecstasy in which he saw and felt the
divine presence. From about half-past ten in the
evening till about half-past twelve he was as though
PASCAL. 79
illuminated by a spiritual flame. What this revelation
communicated to him was first of all a sure knowledge.
He saw with new clearness of vision that the God who
enlightens and saves, the God who seeks after the
human soul, is not the symbol of the philosophers and
the learned ; he is the living God, real, communicable,
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. This God
is too great and too holy for us to be able to unite
ourselves to him. Are we then condemned to long for
him through all eternity? The key of our destiny lies
within reach, yet we know not how to take hold of it.
All our helplessness arises from one thing: we do not
accept the succour that is offered us. The one being
through whom we can draw near to God, yea, though
separated from him by a whole infinity, is Jesus Christ.
He is the way, and the only way. This is the
supreme revelation, the one which gives meaning
and effect to all others. God of Jesus Christ, my
Lord and my God !
In face of this truth, away with doubt ! Ask no
more proof. Assurance, full assurance ! The assur-
ance that comes from feeling and affection; the
assurance that is immediate and against which there
is no appeal ; which comes from vision and not from
argument. Joy ; peace. The soul at length in posses-
sion of that object which answers to all her needs and
which she has been feeling after through one after
another of her earthly attachments ! the greatness
of the human soul ! It is no longer a monster. God
entering into it once more restores it to harmony.
Joy, joy, joy. weep for joy !
Now for the first time, my Lord, by thee en-
80 PASCAL.
lightened, do I measure the gulf which separated me
from thee. I severed myself from Jesus Christ, I
forsook him, denied him, crucified him. What assur-
ance can I have that God will from this time forth
abide with me? my God, wilt thou go far from me?
Let me not be cast away from thy presence for ever !
So in alternations of spiritual transport and terror
Pascal felt his resistance grow feebler and feebler,
while love to God crushed out and replaced in his
heart the love of the creature, until the work of
regeneration was accomplished in the very depths of
his being. Every access of suffering was the signal
of a new victory; every stage in the work of restoring
grace in dealing with some unsuspected evil provoked
fresh suffering. Joy however prevailed more and
more and pain itself grew joyous, until at length, the
last resistance being overcome, the soul having yielded
itself utterly and finally, without a thought of looking
back, Pascal, in one of those indivisible moments that
belong no more to time but to eternity, saw in a flash,
as it were, in a vital unity which his own mind could
never have conceived of, his own nothingness, the pre-
sence within him of a God of love and mercy, and that
infinite flood of passion which alone is capable of filling
the emptiness of the human soul and of which erewhile
he had dreamed. sweet and utter renunciation ! A
whole eternity of bliss for a day of earthly discipline !
He understood now what was the third means,
higher than either reason or habit, by which faith
could be attained. This highest means, of which he
had been confusedly feeling the need, was inspiration.
Reason and habit, bringing the natural powers into
VIEW OF THE ABBEY OF PORT ROYAL.
PASCAL. 81
play, are apt to lead man to credit himself with the
faith which in reality he receives as a gift. Whereas
man only believes in the highest sense when he attributes
his faith entirely to that source from which alone it
can come as the free gift of the divine mercy and
goodness. Inspiration is that action proper to God
himself which man can never again confound with hia
own. Not that he is to wait for it in a passive and
careless attitude as for the favour of a capricious
master. But all he has to do is by means of self-
humiliation to lay himself open to the inspirations
that alone are able to work out the finished and
saving result.
Having thus taken the three upward steps which
mark the ascent to God, Pascal by no means imagined
that he had henceforth nothing to do but to enjoy Him,
and, exempted from further labour, to taste of his
reward. The operations of grace are carried on only
in the man who himself strives and puts forth all his
strength. It is these very efforts and not a slothful
quiescence that are alike the fruit of divine grace and
its manifestation. Thus he gave a practical conclu-
sion to the mystery that had just been accomplished
within him: entire submission to Jesus Christ and to
my spiritual director. Non obliviscar sermones tuos.
Amen.
For the sake of preserving a memorial of the
thoughts with which God had inspired him during this
night of spiritual crisis, he hastened to commit them
to paper. The hurried and illegible writing sufficiently
attests the inability of his hand to keep pace with the
agitation of his heart. Besides, brief indications were
G
82 PASCAL.
all he needed ; for now some of the words he had been
accustomed to repeat with his lips only, taking hold
of nothing but their mundane sense, came to have for
him a deep, experimental signification. Thus the name
Jesus Christ merely written several times without note
or comment represented to him the plan of salvation
itself. Jesus Christ is the veritable God of mankind.
Some time afterwards Pascal copied out these notes on
parchment, writing them with great care and in a fair
hand. He always carried them about with him as a
perpetual reminder, tacking them afresh into his vest
whenever he changed it. He knew by experience that
conversion, however sincere, is not necessarily final,
and that it is far more difficult, to persevere than to
take the first step. It is in perseverance that the
higher life is clearly made manifest; for even
unaided man is not incapable of rising above himself
in spasmodic efforts. He was quite resolved then to
guard with a jealous care the grace God had
vouchsafed to him during those all too short moments ;
and in order to ensure himself against his own
negligence he desired to have always in mind and in
sight the witness of the divine mercy.
Furthermore, he believed that the work of entire
reformation from this time imposed upon him had only
begun. The source was cleansed, but the unregenerate
man remained, hardened and impenetrable as ever.
What had to be done now was to send the waters of
regeneration flowing through every part of his being,
and to see to it that the idea of the Christian life,
already understood and embraced, was abundantly
realised in his acts, desires and manner of life. To
PASCAL.. 83
this Pascal applied himself without delay. He now
begged for that spiritual direction which his lurking
pride had hitherto made him regard as unnecessary.
And for this purpose he asked for the one man to whom
providence was so clearly pointing him, M. Singlin.
The latter, being detained in the country by ill-health,
at first placed Pascal under the guidance of his sister.
In a short time, however, he released her from this
responsible post, and himself undertook the direction
of the penitent. Judging that Pascal's life in Paris
was too distracting for him, and especially so the
intimacy of his bosom friend, the Due de Roannez, he
urged him to withdraw to some secluded spot. Pascal
set out on January 7, 1655, with the Due de Luynes,
with the intention of staying in one of the houses
belonging to the latter. Afterwards, not finding so
much privacy there as he desired, he asked for a cell
at Port-Royal-in-the-Fields, where, in January, 1655,
at the age of thirty-two, he took his place among the
recluses.
84 PASCAL.
CHAPTER V.
PASCAL AT PORT ROYAL.
THE abbey of Port Royal, founded for women and
situated near Chevreuse, a mile or two distant from
Versailles, was one of the oldest houses belonging to
the Cistercian Order. It had been founded at the
beginning of the thirteenth century on the domain of
Porrois, whence the name Port-Real, in a bare and
swampy hollow. It was under the rule of Saint
Benedict. As with other religious houses, so with this
monastery; laxity crept in and by degrees the spirit
of the age did away with all regularity of discipline.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Port
Royal numbered twelve nuns wearing masks and
gloves ; and the abbess was a little girl of eleven. This
child was called Angelique Arnauld. In 1608, when
sixteen years old, she heard a sermon from a
free-thinking monk who chanced to pass that way,
and who preached on the blessedness of con-
ventual life and the sanctity of the rule of Saint
Benedict. This monk was the means under God of
touching her heart; and she resolved to reform her
abbey. She imposed upon herself, and induced her
spiritual daughters to adopt the practice of community
of goods, fasting, abstinence from meat, silence, night
vigil, mortification, in fact all the austerities of the
Benedictine rule. Of all her reforms she laid the
greatest stress upon the absolute closing of the monas-
PASCAL. 85
terv against the world. She surrounded her abbey
with substantial walls which were not to be passed
even by the nearest relatives. Was renunciation to
this extent a possibility? Was it in accordance with the
will of God? On September 23, 1609, M. and Mme.
Arnauld came knocking at the gate 011 a visit to their
daughter. Mother Angelique opened the wicket, and
begged her father to go into the little room for receiv-
ing visitors, where from behind the grating she would
have the honour of explaining to him her resolution.
Presently, when through that grating she looked upon
her father's changed features and heard his tender
reproaches, she fell down in a swoon, though her will
remained staunch as ever. She had put away from
her once for all her father's endearments. She had
consummated that absolute separation from the world
which was to be the distinguishing mark of Port
Royal.
Under the firm hand of Mother Angelique and in
contact with her sovereign faith, the monastery re-
vived and flourished rapidly. These women, seeking
nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, spread
abroad wherever they went the treasures of Christian
charity. Their very presence was a benediction. No
religious house was in better odour. When Saint
Francis de Sales, the gentle and contemplative Bishop
of Geneva, went to visit Mother Angelique, he found
everything as he would have it in this veritable Port
Royal, a trifle austere it is true, but so earnest in its
piety, which he spoke of from this time as his chores
delicts (heart's delight). And at the request of the
abbess he gave her right willingly those marvellous
86 PASCAL.
spiritual counsels of his in which strength is made so
gentle and holiness so attractive.
In 1626, the community being short of space re-
moved to Paris. Six years later it had for its director
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, Abbot of Saint Cyran,
to whom Mother Angelique gave her fullest confidence,
finding afresh in him the virtues of the saintly Bishop
of Geneva. The Abbot of Saint Cyran was associated
with Jansenius the learned professor of the University
of Louvain, afterwards bishop of Ypres, who was
working in opposition to the Jesuits for the restora-
tion of the pure Augustinian doctrine of grace.
Saint Cyran shared his friend's ideas, and had under-
taken to labour for the reinstatement of Christianity
on the practical side while Jansenius was restoring it
on the doctrinal side. His principle was that the
sinner cannot be justified except he truly love God.
His aim was to describe and induce the practice of
the manner of life that results from this principle.
As director of Port Royal, he had dreams of a wider
future for the community than that to which Mother
Angelique would have confined it. The church was in
an unhealthy condition. To change of doctrine had
succeeded corruption of morals ; and the one thing
needed for its cure was some centre of doctrine and
holy living that should make its influence felt around.
Port Royal was God's chosen instrument for the re-
generation of his church. Saint Cyran applied him-
self to make of it a living model of true Christian
morality as opposed to the morality of convenience
substituted by the Jesuits. They taught that every
means is justifiable which has for its end the glory of
PASCAL. 87
God ; while Saint Cyran maintained that only through
God can man draw near to God. Only when God is
the beginning can he truly be the end. Of the seven
years of his directorship Saint Cyran spent four in
confinement at Vincennes on account of his hostility
to the Jesuits. This did but serve to increase his
prestige ; and his instructions and example left an
indelible impression on Port Royal.
To Saint Cyran succeeded in 1643 M. Singlin, who
filled his place to the best of his ability. Scrupulous
as a director of the conscience, humble in the cure of
souls, he demanded above all else an ear attentive to
the call of God and an exclusive following of His
guidance. Before long M. Singlin handed over to
M. de Saci a directorship he himself lacked courage to
fulfil. M. de Saci, a spiritually-minded man, not
lacking in discretion and of a calm and inward piety,
was distinguished by the pure and reverent awe with
which he regarded the infinite greatness of God, and
by his lively consciousness that the impress of eternity
is upon the thoughts that come to us from Him.
Under the directorship of Saint Cyran, Port Royal
had ceased to be simply a monastery for women. At
the time when the nuns were living in Paris, he
established in the original monastery, which now
became Port-Royal-in-the-Fields, a certain number
of distinguished men into whose hearts God had
put the desire to withdraw to a solitary place for
the purpose of doing penance and meditating on the
way of salvation. There were Le Maitre, the advocate ;
Le Maitre de Saci his brother, the future director of
Port Royal; Lancelot; then Fontaine; Arnauld
88 PASCAL.
d'Andilly, and many others. Several of the ecclesiastics
and lay members of Port Royal were scholars and
moralists of great distinction. Such was Antoine
Arnauld, " the great Arnauld," consummate theologian
and sound philosopher, whose approbation was to be
craved by a Leibnitz ; such was the refined and
amiable Nicole, the future author of the Essais de Morale.
These religious ascetics were, as regards things
human, the apostles of reason. They appreciated the
philosophy of Descartes, being in sympathy with its
reserve in matters of religion and its purely rational
method in matters of science. So also in style they
aimed above all at clearness, simplicity, the subordina-
tion of the form to the subject. They had more gravity
and force than picturesqueness and variety.
The same spirit directed the instruction given by
Port Royal in its Petites jZcoles (primary schools)
which rivalled the Jesuit houses of education. Here
the chief aim was to guard the innocence and purity
of the children, and instil into them a spiritual and
steadfast piety. At the same time they moulded the
mind and the reason, accepting neither routine nor
even custom as in themselves authoritative, but looking
into the reason of things and tracing them to their
source. Thus they put the pupils into a position of
being able to think and judge wisely for themselves.
Such was Port Royal when Pascal retired thither;
a sort of lay convent adjacent to an actual monastery;
a place of retreat where above all else an attempt was
made to live up to the highest principles of Christian
morality.
Pascal found there the solitude and the spiritual
PASCAL. 89
atmosphere for which he was yearning. Was it the
charm of aloofness that drew him to this tranquil
vale, shut in, as it were, a little spot of greenness and
of silence only a mile or so away from the capital 1 ?
Nature in those days appealed but little to thinking
men. They were too keenly interested in all the dis-
coveries they had been led to by the study of their
own selves, to have much attention to spare for the
life of nature. Or, on the other hand, did Pascal see
in the waste solitude of Port Royal that terrible valley
which struck fear into Mme. de Sevigne and in which
she said one might well be moved to flee from the
wrath to come? Not so neither. The influences that
were working upon him came from within. All he
asked of his surroundings was that they should leave
undisturbed his seasons of communion with God.
His first care in taking up his abode at Port Royal
was to give up everything which savoured of outward
show. He made profession of poverty and humility,
and followed the routine of the house in all its rigour,
getting up at five in the morning to attend prayers
and fasting during his night vigil in defiance of all the
doctors' orders. This regime proved very salutary.
Hia health improved, and an intense joy pervaded his
soul. Behold him housed and treated as a prince
according to the judgment of Saint Bernard. The
wooden spoon and earthen vessel he was allowed to
use were to him as the gold and precious stones of
Christianity. Thus did he prove by experience that
health depends more upon Jesus Christ than upon
Hippocrates, and that self-renunciation is even in this
present life a source of happiness.
90 PASCAL.
Port Royal had hailed his advent with especial
gratitude to the Lord. What a testimony of
divine favour to have inspired with humility so pro-
found a thinker, so famous a philosopher; and
likewise what a proof of God's goodwill to their
house ! As for Pascal, he strove to acquire the virtues
there practised, but did not consider himself as really
belonging to it. He often absented himself from Port
Royal to sojourn in Paris, either under his own roof
or at the Boi-David inn, under the assumed name of
M. de Mons. For though he made friends individually
with the members of Port Royal, yet he did not regard
himself as one of the community, but considered that
he still retained his independence. On the other hand,
he threw himself with zeal into their occupations,
studying the scriptures and the fathers with them,
and interesting himself in the Petites Scales, for which
he propounded a new method of teaching. He
attended the meetings in connection with the trans-
lation of the New Testament, held at the Chateau of
the Due de Luynes at Vaumurier.
His fervent piety, together with his intercourse with
the Port Royalists, gave a new impulse to his genius.
He began by introspection and self-questioning as to
the manner of the work of grace within him. In a
pamphlet : Sur la conversion du pecheur (On the con-
version of the sinner), he traces in some sort the theory
of the return to God of a soul absorbed by the world,
pointing out how the man who has once clearly con-
ceived of God as his end must necessarily come to
wish that God may be also his way and the spring of
all his actions.
PASCAL. 91
The Port Royalists, however, were anxious to learn
the attitude of this great mind towards philosophy, to
which they knew him to be specially addicted. The
devout and timid M. de Saci, to whom had been en-
trusted by M. Singlin the task of teaching Pascal to
despise the sciences, and who always liked to know
from his penitents exactly where they stood, questioned
him one day on this subject. The conversation, doubtless
premeditated, was more or less of a formal discourse.
It has been preserved for us by Fontaine, M. de Saci's
secretary; though to speak strictly what we possess
under the title of Entretien de Pascal avec M. de Saci
is not the actual text of Fontaine in its original form.
None the less does it give us the impression of dealing
with Pascal's thought, nay, even in great part with
his very words.
It was not without some misgivings that M. de Saci
undertook the interview. He held that philosophers
were thorough usurpers arrogating to themselves an
authority which belonged to God alone. And he re-
fused to admit the need of any other enlightenment to
him who already possessed the scriptures and Saint
Augustine. Pascal, though extremely deferential,
made no attempt to gratify his interlocutor, but
answered out of the candour of his soul and the clear-
ness of his mind, looking the truth in the face even
though it seemed disconcerting. He had confidence
in the power of his own genius, when divinely en-
lightened, to reconcile apparently contradictory pro-
positions.
He told M. de Saci that the two authors he had
been mostly in the habit of reading were Epictetus and
92 PASCAL.
Montaigne ; and he paid a high tribute of praise to
these two thinkers. He found in them, on tracing
back their thoughts to the source from which they
sprang, the representatives par excellence of the two
essential forms of philosophy.
Epictetus and Montaigne are, he said, both of them
right in one direction and wrong in another. Epic-
tetus recognised the duty of man. He saw that man
ought to look upon God as his chief object and submit
to him right willingly in all things. But he fell into
the error of thinking that man was of his own self
capable of fulfilling this duty. As for Montaigne,
having set himself to find out what rule of life reason
would dictate apart from the light of faith, he found
that reason left thus to herself could end in nothing
but pyrrhonism. But his error lay in being satisfied
that man should keep to what he can do and let
be what he ought to do ; he was wrong in that he
approved the adoption of custom and convenience as
the sole rule of life, and would have us fall asleep on
the pillow of sloth. Thus the one recognised the duty
of man but erred in inferring from that duty his
ability to perform it ; whereas the other recognised
man's impotence, but erred in making that the measure
of his duty.
How is the truth to be disentangled from these
several doctrines? Will it suffice if we take the good
points of Epictetus and Montaigne and let each of
them complement the other? That cannot be done.
Each of these philosophies, from the point of view of
human nature, must be accepted wholly or not at all.
Man is a unity, and this unity would be broken if we
PASCAL. 93
made to co-exist in him the duty of the stoic and the
impotence of the pyrrhonist. Neither Epictetus nor
Montaigne could have concluded otherwise than
they have done. And thus the two doctrines produce
a contradiction at the same time inevitable, since each
of them is necessary, and insoluble since man of whom
they treat is essentially one and indivisible. Here we
have reason herself grappling with a problem she
cannot escape from. It is a case which admits neither
of affirmation nor denial ; scepticism is no less
excluded than dogmatism.
The solution which reason is not competent to find is
supplied to us by faith. Both the one and the other of
these schools have failed to recognise that man's pre-
sent condition differs from the state into which he
was created by God. The stoic, remarking some traces
of his pristine greatness, makes out that his nature is
whole and able of itself to approach God. The
pyrrhonist, seeing nothing but its present corruption,
treats human nature as of necessity morally disabled.
Now misery appertains to human nature, and great-
ness appertains to divine grace, whose part it is to
restore nature ; and the co-existence of misery and
greatness ceases to be contradictory the moment these
two qualities are granted to reside in two several sub-
jects. And further, this co-existence becomes possible
by reason of the ineffable union of weakness and power
in the unique person of the God-man. It is the image
and the rgsult'of the nature, at the same time one and
dual, of Jesus Christ.
As Pascal went on unfolding his ideas, M. de Saci
knew not whether to be more surprised or shocked.
94 PASCAL.
Of course such studies became harmless provided one
knew how to twist things after this fashion. Yet to
how many minds it would be an impossibility to sort
out the pearls from this mass of rubbish ; how many
there were who would know no better than to cast in
their lot with the philosophers and become with them
the prey of demons and the food of worms !
With no less firmness than discretion Pascal main-
tained the usefulness of such studies. We must have
regard to the state of mind not only of the Christian
but also of the unbeliever. The obstacle to conversion
in the case of the philosopher is either pride, the fruit
of stoicism, or sloth, the outcome of pyrrhonism. Now,
although it is quite true that the study of these two
philosophies, if taken separately, does favour either
the one or the other condition of mind, yet when taken
in conjunction they oppose each other. So that if they
cannot create virtue they can at least disturb vice ;
and, without themselves exercising any saving power,
may be the instrument under grace of awakening in
the soul that uneasiness which is the initial step in
the way of salvation.
Thus did Pascal defend himself. He recalled the
inward conflict he had passed through when first
touched by divine grace. And from this time his
dream was to lead back to God those who were in the
bondage he himself had known. From this time he
conceived the method to be followed : to excite in
man, by leading him to self-reflection, a contempt for
his own wisdom falsely so called and a craving after
God. His ideas and his plan of action grew more
PASCAL. 95
clearly defined in his own mind while he was explain-
ing them to M. de Saci.
His natural inclination led him to spread his con-
victions. Just as his family had before been made
sharers in his first conversion, so now he was the means
of leading to God his bosom friend the Due de Roannez
and M. Domat, afterwards king's advocate at the
Clermont presidial. The remembrance of the Chevalier
de Mere, of Miton, and others, friends of his years of
pleasure seeking, inspired him with a desire to pre-
pare a great work in which he would not confine
himself to the confutation of atheists, but would
labour with all his might at the task of their con-
version.
With this idea he resumed from a fresh point of
view that examination of the scientific method to which
he had already given his attention, and for which
also an opportunity was now afforded him by the
efforts of Port Royal with respect to the Petites
ficoles. It was probably in view of a preface to an
Essai d'elements de Geometric that Pascal wrote the
two fragments which have come down to us under the
common title of De Vesprit geometrique. The second
of these fragments, known under the title of De I'art
de persuader, is perhaps merely a recast of the first.
These two essays are an attempt to set forth a definite
scheme of human life, and by reflection upon natural
law to prepare the mind for the study of spiritual law.
Mathematics are the means par excellence of mental
training, and are far more valuable for the clearness
of mind they develop in ourselves than for the actual
96 PASCAL.
knowledge they contain. They teach us what it is to
demonstrate. Let us see what their demonstrations
consist in.
What they profess to do is to produce certainty in
us. Certainty is not precisely the same thing as con-
viction. The only way to convince would be to define
and prove everything. But that is impossible. This
is why geometry substitutes for the art of convincing
a method which at least gives certainty: the use of
natural revelation and of indirect demonstration.
Natural revelation is that clearness which appertains
to certain things, by virtue of which they are at once
understood of all men ; it is nature herself sustaining
the order of our thoughts in default of reasoning. In-
direct demonstration consists in examining not that
which is to be demonstrated but the contrary pro-
position, and in finding out if this is manifestly
false. From this falsity the truth of the contra-
dictory proposition will follow. This mode of demon-
stration is, so far as principles are concerned,
adapted to man's nature. For, ever since the
fall, his mind has been warped and of itself
knows nothing but error. Infinity, for example,
is incomprehensible to him ; yet it really exists.
Reason can demonstrate this by proving that there
are no two numbers of which the square of one is
double the square of the other; while one geometrical
square can be the double of another; from this it
follows that space is not composed of a finite number
of indivisibles but is divisible to infinity. Legitimate,
nay, necessary as it is in the most perfect of the
sciences, why should recourse to natural revelation or
PASCAL. 97
to indirect demonstration be elsewhere taxed at the
outset with want of certainty?
The method of the geometrician, when analysed in
detail, is found to comprise certain rules relating
either to the propositions themselves or the order
in which they should be arranged. Rules of the first
kind prescribe : Firstly, the definition of all the terms
to be used, save such as are too clear to need or allow
of a definition ; secondly, the announcing of self-evident
axioms; thirdly, the mental substitution in every
demonstration of the definition in place of that which
is defined. As to the rules of the second kind, the un-
finished fragment does nothing more than mention
them. Pascal however considered the question of
order as of paramount importance in all research.
His ideas of order in mathematical demonstration
were probably almost identical with those of the author
of the Discours de la Methode, who had given his
utmost attention to this problem.
This rigorous method ought to suffice for our per-
suasion in all that concerns the physical world; for
everything in it consists of motion, number and space.
But as a matter of fact it does not suffice, save in such
matters as have nothing to do with our tastes ; for
no sooner are the desires of the heart brought into play
than we shut our eyes even to evidence, for the sake of
adopting what gives us pleasure. Thus there are two
avenues by which opinions are received into the mind :
the understanding and the will ; and the only sure way
of gaining the adherence of men is to study to please
them no less than to convince them.
H
98 PASCAL.
Can there be such a thing as an art of pleasing?
Assuredly so. There are rules for pleasing just as
there are rules for demonstrating, and they are no
less certain. He who should know and practise them to
perfection would as surely succeed in securing the
favour of kings and <all manner of personages, as in
demonstrating the elements of geometry. But these
rules are very subtle, because the sources of
pleasure are not fixed and unchanging. Pascal did
not feel himself capable of dealing with them ; more-
over, for all its power, he looked down upon this art,
seeing in it a consequence of our corruption which
makes us that we will have none of the truth except it
natter us. In the domain of natural things, the
order is that consent enters through the mind into the
heart and not from the heart into the mind.
But does it follow from this that the art of pleasing
can never be legitimately employed?
Now if men are accustomed, in their ordinary life,
to subordinate their understanding to their will, their
conduct is blameworthy, but not altogether without
warrant. For as regards things divine as distinct
from things natural, God alone can put them into the
soul and in whatever manner seems good to him.
Now he has willed that these things shall enter into
the mind through the heart, and not into the heart
through the mind, that by this means the vain glory
of our reason may be brought low, and the corruption
of our heart be healed. Man has erred then in judg-
ing of things natural after the rule which applies only
to things divine. This being so, the art of pleasing,
though reprehensible in ordinary life, becomes the
PASCAL. 99
necessary method for him who labours for the con-
veision of the unbeliever. There are certain sure ways
of getting at the human heart. There is an order in
which thoughts can be made to work themselves into
it and penetrate it. This method it is which must above
all be known and practised by any who would effectu-
ally teach religious truth. And so Pascal recognised at
the same time the singular difficulty of his self-
appointed task, and the precise conditions of its
fulfilment.
Nor was this all ; his outlook on the sciences enabled
him to see the general principles by which his reflec-
tions should be guided. Geometry obliges us to recog-
nise the existence of a two-fold infinity: the infinitely
great and the infinitely little. Such is the result of
the analysis of motion, number and space. Now this
notion of a middle point between two infinities helps
us to find out our own place in the universe visible and
invisible. Do we seek to know our place in the
material world, we see ourselves as intermediate be-
tween an infinitely little and an infinitely great, a
whole as compared with a mere nothing, a mere
nothing as compared with a whole. Do we seek now
to know man's place among all things visible and
invisible, his place in the material world becomes a
symbol which will help us to grasp the idea. His
mind, his thought, that which constitutes his real self,
is it not, as it were, suspended between the natural
world lying infinitely beneath him, and the world of
gra-ce or divine love which is infinitely above him.
Thus it is that in meditating on questions of geometry,
man learns to estimate himself at his true value, and
100 PASCAL.
to indulge in reflections which are worth more than
the whole of geometry itself.
These reflections it was that first formed the
design in Pascal's mind of the great work he was to
prepare later for the confutation of atheists. From
this time his principle was fixed. It was no longer the
separation pure and simple between reason and faith
that his father had taught him. Nor was it the
abolishing of reason in the interests of faith. Science
and religion have their distinct domains, and at the
same time there is a certain connection between them.
Science gives to the mind a clearness, a justness, a
power of reasoning which are of use in every direction.
The study of science aids man to self-knowledge and
widens the horizon of his thoughts, leading him to
look up above the world and above himself. The
natural man, with his reason and his knowledge, is
not the measure of the truth, and cannot embrace the
order of divine things; but the consideration of his
own individual nature disposes him to seek after
spiritual truths. Man is a problem whose solution is
to be found in God alone.
If Port Royal cannot be said to have been Jansenist
in precisely that dogmatic sense which attaches to the
word, neither are the Port Royal principles, pure and
simple, to be found in the ideas of its new guest. Not
only did Pascal express these ideas in the early days
of his retirement to the abbey, but they bear the
mark of his individual thought. Neither M. Singlin
and M. de Saci, who set reason at naught, and took
their stand upon practice, nor Arnauld, who taught
the radical separation of theology and philosophy,
PASCAL. 101
after the cartesian manner, and saw nothing but
Pyrrhonism in the attempt to set up faith as our
universal principle of judgment, are to be recognised
here. Pascal does not depend directly upon faith, as
did Jansenius; he does not separate the Christian life
from the exercise of natural reason, as did Port Royal.
He had surveyed the world and philosophy, and had
brought thence an impression of the greatness of
human nature. Even in religion he found some basis
for this feeling, mingled though it might be with
error. So with Pascal, philosophy, science, reason
and nature were to hold their place and play their
part in establishing the verities of faith.
102 PASCAL.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS.
WHATEVER may have been Pascal's projects at the
beginning of 1655, he had not at that time the leisure
to carry them out. After having retired to Port Royal
for the purpose of living there in silence and medita-
tion, he suddenly found himself involved in one of
the most momentous and vehement conflicts that have
ever agitated the minds of men.
The occasion was an event of no great importance
in itself. On January 31, 1655, M. Picote, a priest
in the parish of St. Sulpice, suspended from the com-
munion his penitent, M. de Liancourt, on the ground
that he had under his roof a heretic and friend of Port
Royal, the Abbot de Bourzeis, a member of the French
Academy ; and that he was having his granddaughter
brought up in the schools belonging to the abbey.
Arnauld took occasion from this event to publish a
pamphlet entitled : Lettre a une personne de condition
(Letter to a person of quality) which was violently
attacked by the Jesuits, notably by Pere Ann at.
Arnauld replied on July 10, 1655, with a Second f
lettre a un due et pair de France (Second letter to a
duke and peer of France), thus designating the Due
de Luynes. In vain did Arnauld in this letter sub-
scribe to the Papal bull of May 31, 1653, which con-
demned the five propositions attributed to Jansenius.
The Jesuits raised two points in it: Firstly, Arnauld
here justified the book of Jansenius and called in
PASCAL. 103
question the fact of its containing the propositions ;
secondly, he reproduced on his own account the first
proposition (according to which needful grace is not
always granted to just men) by saying that the gospels
and the fathers show us in the person of Saint
Peter a just man to whom grace was wanting. This
second letter was tendered to the Faculty of theology,
and Arnauld's enemies, confident of the support of the
government, and determined to make use of this
opportunity for silencing the invincible doctor, supple-
mented the Faculty with forty or so mendicant monks,
all of them Molinists, although the rules at that time
only allowed eight supernumerary judges. Thanks
to this manoeuvre, a Molinist was made president, and
in his turn nominated Molinist commissioners.
On December 1, 1655, these latter presented their
report, in which they incriminated the two points
signalised, calling the first the question of fact, and
the second the question of right. Laborious were the
deliberations. In vain did Arnauld dispatch pamphlet
after pamphlet, protesting his adhesion to the doctrine
of Saint Thomas touching the grace which is sufficient
as distinguished from that which is effectual, con-
demning the five propositions in whatsoever book they
should be found, and asking pardon from the pope
and the bishops for having written his letter. He was
not even allowed to come and plead his arguments in
person. The government, for its part, ordered the
chancellor, Seguier, to be present at the deliberations
in order to bear upon the decision of the judges.
On January 14, 1656, Arnauld was condemned on
the question of fact by a hundred and twenty-four
104 PASCAL.
votes against seventy-one, fifteen remaining neutral.
Never, says Racine, was there a less judicial judgment
delivered.
There remained the question of right. The Thomists
were inclined to discharge Arnauld as not guilty, pro-
vided that he recognised in the soul of the just man
the presence of sufficient as distinct from effectual
grace. But the Molinists persisted in trying to stifle the
debates. They hit upon the device of setting a water-
clock on the table, so as to limit to half an hour the
time allotted to each doctor for the unfolding of his
views. Domine mi, said the president, impono tibi
silentium. And everyone cried : C oncludatur I
Meanwhile, despairing of the acquittal of Arnauld
at the Sorbonne, Port Royal began to think of bringing
the matter before another tribunal, but lately created
by theologians and philosophers : public opinion. You
cannot, they said to Arnauld, allow yourself to be
condemned like a child, without making known to the
public what is the point at issue. The learned doctor,
who had already in several of his works addressed the
world as distinct from the church, now wrote a paper
with this end in view. But it was received by his
friends without any applause, upon which, turning to
Pascal, " You who are young," said he, " surely you
might do something." Pascal did not believe himself
capable of anything more than sketching out a rough
draft. Nevertheless he set to work, and in a few days
had completed the task. He read to his friends what
he had written ; and they were all enraptured with it.
On January 23, 1656, appeared the first Provinciate.
Was this quarrel into which Pascal entered nothing
PASCAL. 105
but a theological dispute? Was it his talent alone,
his verve and eloquence, that gave to the Provincial
Letters their value and interest? Are they only works
of art in which a particular subject of local and
passing import is clothed in an ideal and immortal
form?
By no means so. These writings are living utter-
ances, like the speeches of Demosthenes. In them
Pascal wages war upon actual and formidable realities,
upon a powerful Order enjoying the protection of the
court; he risks being put into the Bastille. While
carrying on a theoretical controversy, he is employing
all the weapons at his disposal for the overthrow of an
enemy who, in the opinion of Port Royal and himself,
is the destroyer of the church of God.
The question of grace is no invention of doctors of
theology. When Jesus Christ had once revealed to man
that he alone was the way, the truth, and the life, Saint
Paul, defining the principles of the doctrine, taught
that grace, by which God calls man to himself, is free,
that is, granted solely as a gift and not as a reward ;
that God has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will
he hardens, according to the inscrutable decrees of
his providence; that he himself works in us to will
and to do ; and that all this is because the motive of
the divine action is both the glory of God and the
sovereign efficacy of the sacrifice of a God. These
doctrines Saint Paul opposed to the wisdom, falsely so
called, of the pagans, who, more especially the stoics,
attributed to man himself the power of attaining
virtue. It was the restitution to God of the divine
prerogative which man had arrogated to himself.
106 PASCAL.
The pagan doctrine of free will, however, not con-
tent with the tolerance accorded to it by the fathers,
soon threatened to dominate Christianity through the
Monk Pelagius. The grace of God, said he, is given
to man according to his merits, and is not indispens-
able to salvation.
Against Pelagius arose Saint Augustine, teaching
that man possesses nothing but what he has received ;
and that, being separated from God by inherited sin,
he can no more return to him naturally than an empty
vessel can refill itself. The grace of God through
Christ : such is the necessary and sufficient condition
of our salvation. In vain did the semi-Pelagians
endeavour to reconcile the pagan with the Christian
principle by admitting that if the action profitable to
salvation can begin without grace, it cannot end or
complete its purpose without it; Saint Augustine
would have none of this compromise; and semi-Pela-
gianism stood condemned.
The schoolmen, who found in Aristotle the expression
of natural revelation as the counterpart of super-
natural revelation, could not fail to come under the
influence of the philosopher. Saint Thomas assigns
a greater part to reason and free will than does Saint
Augustine. Grace is with him the completion of
nature. Nevertheless, such acts asi are truly religious
and profitable to salvation have in God their principal
source, as also their end. Even the right impulse by
which a man is made ready to receive the gift of grace
is an act of free will prompted by God, and proceeds
chiefly from God. Duns Scotus, on the contrary, in-
clined towards Pelagianism. According to him,
PASCAL. 107
original sin has deprived man of his supernatural
gifts, but has left to him his natural gifts. His free
will remains and enables him to prepare himself for
the initial act of grace and to deserve it. It was in
this same sense that the Thomists came to assert that
man of himself possessed power; that effectual grace
was only necessary for leading this power on to action ;
and that effectual grace even could not produce the
action unless free will consented thereto.
Whilst the schoolmen, although inclining to one side
or the other, were seeking to reconcile the Christian
point of view with the pagan point of view, the
Reformation, absorbed in purifying Christianity from
all that was not of its essence, repudiated any idea of
reconciliation. Luther denied out and out the merit
of works, and held that the merits of Jesus Christ are
made our justification by the sole fact that we believe
ourselves to be so justified. This was grace in direct
opposition to nature.
The work of the council of Trent consisted in main-
taining with the same force two principles, believed to
be equally necessary and equally true. On the one
hand, grace is omnipotent, and its spontaneous call is
needed to enable man to enter on the way of salvation.
On the other hand, man is free and his free consent is
needed to enable grace to accomplish its work within
him.
What would logic have to say to such a doctrine
as this, which apparently combined contradictory
elements? Many accounted that logic, in spite of
its resistance, was bound to give way, on the ground
that two truths of equal certainty could not really be
108 PASCAL.
incompatible. Others sought to do away with one or
other of the two terms.
Thus it was that Baius, reverting to the strictest
doctrines of Saint Augustine, asserted the radical
impotence of fallen humanity. Original sin consists
in concupiscence, of which baptism takes away the
guilt, but not the malignity. The impulses of this
concupiscence, even though involuntary, are sins.
The Jesuit Molina, on the contrary, following the
lead of Duns Scotus, endeavoured to screen free will
from the tyranny of grace. According to him, effectual
grace does not differ essentially from prevenient or
sufficient grace, being effectual not of and by itself,
but only by the adding thereto of the free consent of
the human will. It lies with ourselves whether grace
shall become effectual or remain simply sufficient.
Thus does free will co-operate expressly with grace.
God proposes, man disposes, as taught the stoics of old.
In this doctrine, which spread very quickly,
Jansenius saw a deadly blow to Catholicism. It was
in his view a covert revival of the early Pelagianism ;
and Pelagianism, through the medium of Origen, had
come down in a direct line from pagan philosophy.
Seneca had said : " We owe it to the immortal gods
to live; to philosophy to live rightly." This same
pride of man, uplifting himself against God, yea, e\nn
above him, was in the eyes of Jansenius the very
kernel of the Molinist theology. On the other hand,
Jansenius could neither concede to the protestants that
God himself makes man to sin, nor to Baius that he
can be said to have sinned when the will to do so was
PASCAL. 109
not present. He resolved then to avoid both pitfalls
by a strict following of Saint Augustine. Having spent
twenty years in studying his writings, which he read
through as many as thirty times, he made a systematic
exposition of his teaching in a huge work called
Augustinus, which he furthermore submitted respect-
fully to the judgment of the Holy See. He makes the
Augustinian doctrine commensurate with the religious
history of mankind, and with this idea expounds the
state of man before the fall, the consequences of the
fall, satisfaction through the grace of Jesus Christ,
and predestination.
According to his view, man before the fall was such
as the Molinists represent him to be now, that is to
say, the arbiter of his own holiness and blessedness.
The effect of the fall was not simply to deprive man of
the supernatural gifts of grace, so as to leave him bare,
as it were, in a state of pure nature as yet intact or
only partially spoiled. The state of pure nature is
nothing but an invention of theologians imbued with
the spirit of Pelagianism. Man is essentially a reason-
able creature. Now the very notion of a reasonable
creature implies a claim to be happy, that is, to
love God; and it implies also the possession of means
to attain that end, that is, divine grace, without which
it is impossible to love God. A reasonable nature
implies then, in its very essence, supernatural endow-
ments. Hence it follows that the fall corrupted the
human soul through and through. Man willed to
separate himself from God, and in fact did so separate
himself. The place of divine love in his heart was
taken by the love of self, concupiscence, which embraces
110 PASCAL.
all the vices, even as the love of God embraces all the
virtues.
Hence the forgiveness of sins is not enough to effect
the loosening of their bonds, as the schoolmen would
have it, followers of the philosophy of Aristotle. Sin
is not a stain to be washed away ; it is a corruption of
the soul ; and the deliverance of man can only be
wrought when, for the fleshly delights to which he is
enslaved, God shall substitute, as an all-conquering
delight, the work of grace, by which He moves him to
love that good he once spurned.
In arranging the teaching of Saint Augustine so as
to support this view, Jansenius ran too violently
counter to the teaching of the Jesuits to allow of their
remaining passive. They did not make it their busi-
ness to prove that Jansenius had incorrectly repro-
duced the teaching of Saint Augustine. The fiery
African, the hot-headed doctor, as one of them called
him, inspired them with distrust. But they searched
the Augustinus for some statements which they might
brand as heretical. Their efforts to get their adver-
saries into trouble did not come to anything for several
years, and then it was partly due to the support
granted them by the Queen Regent, who was domin-
ated by Pere Annat, a Jesuit, and confessor to the
king. The work, which was posthumous, had
appeared in 1640; and it was in 1653 that a bull was
published condemning the five propositions extracted
from the Augustinus by Nicolas Cornet, president of
the Faculty of theology. These propositions dealt
with man's relation to divine grace and predestina-
tion. Apart from their context, and taken in their
PASCAL. Ill
immediate sense, they appeared like the all but com-
plete negation of free will and the affirmation that
Jesus Christ had not died for all men. They were
moreover most skilfully chosen, inasmuch as Bossuet
declared them to be the very kernel of the book.
The Jansenists, being most sincerely attached to the
church and opposed to protestantism, might perhaps
have yielded, had the difference been purely a theo-
logical one; but their condemnation of the Jesuits
was as much on the score of ethics as of theology, and
they considered the two branches of teaching as
inseparable.
The ethics of the Jesuits consisted chiefly of
casuistry. In one sense, this was no new thing. If
already in ancient times, following in the footsteps
of Aristotle, the strict school of the stoics had con-
ceived of duty as variable with regard to practice,
while absolute in theory, the Christian church, con-
cerning itself with the practical, and aiming at the
individual salvation of souls, could not fail to admit
analogous ideas. The system of confession and
spiritual direction largely contributed to this. For
much attention was given to adapting the eternal
precepts of God to the will and the changing needs of
individuals ; to considering, in all their variety and
complexity, the cases which come before us in real life ;
and to drawing from such study the teachings which
it supplies in regard to duty and the imputing of
sin : this was casuistry. From the Middle Ages down-
ward there are plenty of examples of it to be found.
Its development was fostered by the doctrines of Duns
Scotus and Occam, giving prominence, as they did,
112 PASCAL.
to the will and to individuality. But what was to
begin with only a matter of practice and custom
became in the hands of the Jesuits a system. Escobar
set himself the task of making possible to all men
absolution in this life and salvation in the life to come.
To this end, in the case of every forbidden action, he
applies himself to distinguish so nicely the precise case
in which it is forbidden from the cases in which it
is permitted, that the prohibition is found at last to
have scarcely any application at all. Where Aristotle
had placed the living judgment of the right-thinking
man, the Jesuits set up written rules, subtle and com-
plicated, which served to obscure the law and tended
to usurp its place.
The danger of such a system could not fail to strike
religious minds. Ever since 1565 the university of
Paris had been demanding the expulsion of the
Jesuits. And indeed the first presentment of Christian
morality had been a very different thing from what
it became in the hands of Escobar. Jesus Christ had
said : He that loveth me not keepeth not my say-
ings; and Saint Paul had pronounced anathema
against them that love not the Lord Jesus. Here was
no question of cases and circumstances. Saint
Augustine had made love to God the fundamental and
absolute duty. And it was upon this love that the
church had lived. It was contrary to the spirit of
Christianity to seek salvation in mere obedience to
written rules, leaving out of account the purity of the
heart.
The Jansenists were on this point likewise in agree-
ment with Saint Augustine; and in the writings of
PORTRAIT OF ANTOINE ARNAULD,
From a Painting by Philippe Champagne.
PASCAL. 113
this father they found the affirmation of the relation
which exists between the duty of love to God and the
doctrine of divine grace. " The love of God," said
Saint Augustine, " is spread abroad in our hearts
not by the free will which emanates from ourselves
but by the Holy Spirit which is vouchsafed to us."
Such was the dispute in which Pascal found
himself unexpectedly involved. He could not do
otherwise than embrace with enthusiasm the
cause of Arnauld and Port Royal. By his educa-
tion, by his religious faith, by his conversion, wholly
spiritual as it had been in its nature he was, to begin
with, the natural partisan of the Jansenists as against
the Jesuits. He had lately written a short paper on the
Comparaison des Chretiens des premiers temps avec
ceiir d'aujourd'hui (Comparison between the early
Christians and those of the present day), in which he
deplored the fact that the spirit of the world was
invading the church itself, and that even within its
pale religion was mixed up with fashionable vice. On
the theological side he was totally unprepared for such
a controversy. He had never been a student of theology,
and had paid more attention to the spirit than the
letter of scripture. In an affair so full of pitfalls for
the unwary, competence is not to be attained on the
spur of the moment ; nor indeed is it likely that even if
he had had the necessary time for study he would ever
have become a strong theologian. What he desired
was to understand ; and, for him, understanding meant
the bringing of words to the test of fact and experience,
whether outward or inward. He would never have
been able to fight single-handed against the most skilful
114 PASCAL.
of adversaries. But his friends were at hand to fur-
nish him with texts and explain to him the learned
definitions and distinctions of the doctors. He worked
from the notes with which they supplied him, after
himself verifying the references and taking note of
the context. Nicole revised the greater number of the
Letters and even arranged the plan of several of them.
On the other hand, Pascal brought to this dispute
certain qualifications and tendencies calculated to
furnish him with weapons of a peculiar force.
Already the Jansenists had followed the example of
the protestants in appealing to the public, though with-
out abandoning their point of view as theologians and
scholars. But Pascal had no special label ; he was
simply a man, one who had sounded the depths of
human nature and knew its profound and elemental
tendencies, its needs, its cravings, its passions, its joys,
its loves ; and man was the centre to which he referred
everything. Religion itself he looked at as it affected
man. So it was to be no theologian writing for
theologians, but a man addressing mankind ; and a
question of the schoolmen was thus to be transformed
into an appeal to the good sense, the conscience, the
rightmindedness, which are to be found in every
human soul.
And the form, the tone and the diction were all to
be of a like straightforward character. Pascal hated
pedantry, conventionality of expression, the use of
technical terms, rhetoric and verbal processes; in
his every utterance he aimed at the heart, and spared
no effort to move it. He was gifted with a verve, an
imagination, an incisiveness, of whose effects he had
PASCAL. 115
already made trial. His ideal was an art of speaking
and writing so entirely human that its effect upon the
will should be no less sure than that of demonstration
upon the intellect. He would treat then the most
abstruse questions with an air quite other than that of
the professional. He would employ the language of
polite society. Throwing his compositions into the
form of letters, he would make use of dialogue, create
characters, put them on the stage as it were, endow
them with individuality, flavour their discourse with
wit, grace, passion, irony, anger, indignation, bitter-
ness; in a word, he would give life and reality to the
ideas he was to expound, to the end that passing be-
yond the intellect they might penetrate to the heart,
the centre of life and action.
The question in its first stage seemed wholly in-
dividual and personal. Arnauld having been con-
demned on the question of fact, it now remained to
prevent his being condemned on the question of right.
The condemnation had been palpably due to the
defection of certain Dominicans of Paris who had gone
over to the Molinists. These recusants Pascal attempted
to recall.
How could these men, who professed to be Domini-
cans, thus unite themselves with the followers of
Molina. The union had come about for the sake of
one word. The Molinists taught that the just have
always the power-at-hand (pouvoir prochain) to pray
to God. By this phrase, of their own invention, they
mean that the just have all that is necessary for
action. Now the Dominican neo-Thomists, who are
supposed equally to admit a power-at-hand, define it
116 PASCAL.
thus : A power which remains ineffectual unless united
with effectual grace, which latter is not vouchsafed
to all and determines the will. Evidently the agree-
ment is only a verbal one. In reality, the neo-Thomists
think with the Jansenists and are bound in fairness
to take their side.
This was what Pascal desired to show them. He
imagines a man of position, Louis de Montalte, who
writes to one of his friends living in the country to in-
form him of the disputes going on at the Sorbonne.
Montalte is, after the manner of Socrates, highly
ignorant and highly desirous of receiving instruction
from those who give themselves out as qualified to
impart it. He is anxious to know the nature of the
charge brought against M. Arnauld and the Jansenists ;
and upon consulting a Thomist, a Jansenist, a Molinist,
a neo-Thomist, he learns that the grievance is the non-
employment of the expression pmver-at-hand.
But what idea is to be attached to this phrase?
Molinists and neo-Thomists with one accord put aside
this question ; for it would divide them. If M. Arnauld
will only say power-at-hand, he will be a Thomist, not
to say a Catholic ; if not, he is a Jansenist and a
heretic. But he does not speak of this power as being
either at-hand or not-at-hand. Then he is a heretic.
He declines to allow this phrase, at-hand, because he
cannot get it explained. Then Jesuits and neo-
Thomists cry out with one voice : You must say that
all the just have power-at-hand, taking no account
whatever of the meaning of the word. This you will
Bay, or you will be a heretic. For we are in the
PASCAL. 117
majority and if necessary can call in the grey friars
to swell our numbers.
The Letter appeared anonymously on January 23,
1656, and its authorship was not suspected. It some-
what disturbed M. Singlin, who did not find in it the
true ring of Saint Cyran. But it had an enormous
success with the public and caused much excitement
among theologians and in political circles. The
doctors mentioned in the letter waxed extremely wroth.
The Chancellor nearly choked with rage, and had, so
the story goes, to be bled seven times.
The very day after the appearance of the first
Provinciale, the doctors (to the number of sixty) who
were friendly to Arnauld withdrew from the assembly
as a protest against the irregularity of the proceedings.
Pascal immediately set to work to compose another
letter after the plan of the first.
There is, he said, a second point upon which
Jesuits and Jansenists differ; to wit, the doctrine of
grace. The Jesuits would make grace a gift to all
alike, and so far subordinated to free will that it lies
within the choice of the latter to render grace either
effectual or non-effectual. This they call sufficient
grace. The Jansenists, on the contrary, consider only
effectual grace to be actually sufficient, and they say
that one can never act without effectual grace. What
say the neo-Thomists ? They admit sufficient grace
granted to all, adding however that for action there
must needs be effectual grace, which God does not
grant to all. Now what is this kind of grace but
sufficient grace which yet does not suffice? The
Dominicans are once more going over to the Jesuits on
118 PASCAL.
the score of one word when all the time, so far as
doctrine goes, they are on the side of the Jansenists.
Is it not unworthy of the order of Saint Thomas thus
to desert the cause of grace?
It is all very well for you to say these things,
replied the worthy father; you are unfettered, you
are only an individual, while I am a monk and a
member of a community. Our superiors have bespoken
our suffrages. And indeed our order has done all in
its power to uphold the teaching of Saint Thomas
touching effectual grace ; but the Jesuits being now the
leaders of the popular faith, we should be in danger of
being cried down as Calvinists and treated as the
Jansenists are, were we not willing to temper our
assertion of effectual grace with the avowal, at least in
seeming, of a sufficient grace.
Come, come, reverend father, responded Montalte,
your order has had an honour conferred upon it to
which it pays but scant heed. It is abandoning that
grace which has been entrusted to it and which has
never been so abandoned since the world began. It
is high time its championship should pass into other
hands ; it is time that God should raise up for the
Doctor of Grace some intrepid disciples who, ignoring
all the entanglements of the age, shall serve God for
His own sake.
Just when Pascal was completing this second letter,
on January 29, 1656, he learnt that M. Arnauld had
been censured by a hundred and thirty votes against
nine. Arnauld however did not flinch, but prayed
the Lord to succour him that he might contend for the
PASCAL. 119
truth even unto death. Cut off from the body of the
Faculty, he went into hiding to escape the Bastille.
Meantime Pascal, finding his Letters read and appre-
ciated everywhere and sanctioned in high quarters, by
Chapelain and Mme. de Longueville among others,
boldly withstood the condemnation. Arnauld's proposi-
tion : The Fathers show us, in the person of Saint
Peter, a just man to whom grace, without which we can
do nothing, was wanting, is obviously justified by the
language of Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostom.
Why then do the Molinists attack it? In order to
have a pretext for cutting off M. Arnauld from the
Church. Of explanation they furnish none, finding it
easier to produce monks than arguments. Wily
men are these, able men, men of resource. They con-
cluded that a censure, even though unfairly obtained,
would have its effect upon the ignorant multitude.
In fact the proposition in question is only heretical
when it comes from M. Arnauld. That which is
catholic in the fathers is heretical in M. Arnauld.
Behold a heresy of a new order ; it is not the opinion
which constitutes it, but the person. Theological
disputations pure and simple ! What do they concern
us who are not doctors of the church?
Thus far Pascal's attitude had been merely defensive.
He wanted to win back the neo-Thomists. But now he
was about to assume the offensive; and the better to
track the evil to its source he would turn his weapons
against the Jesuits. In the fourth Letter the capital
point is already reached : the aim of the Jesuits is the
commutation of sin.
What is needed, asks Montalte of a Jesuit father,
120 PASCAL.
before an action can be imputed to us as a sin? God
must have given us before we committed it: Firstly,
the knowledge of the evil contained in it; secondly, a
warning urging us to avoid it. But those whom we call
sinners are precisely those in whom these two conditions
are not realised ; for were they so realised sin
would be impossible. There is to be no more sin then
in daily life, and they may well cry out when they see
Father Bauny pass : Ecce qui tollit peccata mimdi.
For our part, replied the Jesuit, we maintain
that the conditions are perpetually realised, and that
in a present grace always vouchsafed by God to all
mankind. But this is a question of fact. Facts are not
under our control; it is we who have to bow to them.
Now experience shows that those who are steeped in
vice and ungodliness are wanting precisely in that
knowledge and that inward warning without which
you declare there is no sin. The just at least have
always both the one and the other. Pray are you
ignorant that there is such a thing as unconscious sin ;
that a man may be led to commit wrong actions believ-
ing them to be good, and that he is none the less guilty
for all that? Otherwise how do you account for the
secret sins of the just? or how can it be true that the
holiest of men ought always to dwell in fear and
trembling, as saith the scripture? Cease then to
assert with your modern writers that one is not in a
position to sin when one does not know what is right ;
but say rather with Saint Augustine : Necesse est ut
peccet, a quo -ignoratur justitia. A sin of ignorance
is not a sin. The only ignorance that can absolve us
is ignorance of fact, not ignorance of right.
PASCAL. 121
So proceeds the interview with the Jesuit father
who is most obliging, most affectionate, most bland,
most adroit. He would so gladly have continued the
conversation had not Mme. la Marechale de . . . and
Mme. la Marquise de . . . been announced to see him.
Montalte professes unstinted admiration for the
beautiful outcome of his doctrines; but already some
seriousness is mingled with his pleasantry, for now
the subject is no longer one of pure theology, it has
become one of morals. If the Jesuits are right, the
passing action is everything, the inner and permanent
being is nothing; and actions themselves are the more
excusable the more corrupt and ignorant the heart
from which they proceed. With Pascal, being is the
principal thing and our actions derive their moral
significance from that deeper part of our nature which
is at times beyond the reach of our consciousness.
Meanwhile he cannot confine himself to this indirect
refutation of the practice of the Jesuits, but has
already made himself acquainted with their ethical
writings, has been shocked by them and has come to
the conclusion that their slackness of morals is the
real source of their doctrines as touching grace. Did
they uphold the great duties of the Christian life,
renunciation of self and love to God, they would not then
be able to escape the necessity of looking to God alone
for the strength wherewith to accomplish them. But
for the practice of a wholly pagan morality, nature
will suffice. Man has no need of grace for the doing
of simple material acts without a thought for the
transforming of his soul.
At this point then Pascal meditates a change of
122 PASCAL.
method. Instead of wasting time in the discussion of
theological theses, he will now devote himself to
practical issues, and will show how the Jesuits deal with
our most sacred duties ; how they understand the direc-
tion of souls ; what are the ends they pursue ; what
the means they employ to attain them. It is to
the public that Pascal is addressing himself, a public
that is chiefly moved, and rightly so, by precepts
bearing upon practical life.
Pascal was gradually becoming enamoured of a
work in which he had seen nothing at first but an
occasion for serving his friends. Now he was ready
to do and say everything for the sake of breaking a
power which he judged to be fatal to the church. For
the sake of greater freedom of speech he remained
anonymous. He paid secret visits, under the assumed
name of M. de Mons, to the Roi David inn, in the
Rue des Poirees, behind the Sorbonne and opposite the
college of the Jesuits. One day he was nearly caught ;
but his brother-in-law, M. Perier, succeeded in bowing
out the worthy father without his catching sight of
the copies of the latest Provinciate spread out upon the
bed to dry ; and they both hugely enjoyed the joke.
He applied himself to his task with all his might,
reading twice right through Escobar's Petite iheologie
morale, attentively examining all the texts furnished
to him by his friends, labouring to perfect the style of
his Letters, and bestowing upon them an incredible
amount of care and mental striving. He spent twenty
entire days upon one only. Some of them were begun
afresh seven or eight times ; the eighteenth, it is said,
thirteen times. So well was he aware of the fact that
PASCAL. 123
the truth itself, apart from forcible expression, will not
avail to move the indifference and frivolity of man-
kind. He would fain make use of all the art of which
he was capable, and he knew that art is only perfect
when it succeeds in being concealed. Art only
achieves itself in naturalness, a thing so difficult to
our perverted nature.
It is a veritable comedy that Pascal invents.
Montalte, desirous of being instructed in the moral
system of the Jesuits, consults a worthy casuist of the
Society, with whom he purposely renews a former
acquaintanceship and from whom he receives a most
cordial welcome. " This worthy father," he narrates,
" began by bestowing upon me a very affectionate
greeting, for he is still fond of me ; and then we
imperceptibly drifted into the subject in hand."
Montalte finds it incredible that the Jesuits should be
astute enough to deprive every sin of its malignity,
and he ventures to express his doubts. With an
obligingness and a readiness that never desert him,
the good father replies to each question with the
appropriate and decisive text, affording clear proof
that the Society has not been calumniated. Montalte
is amazed ; by insensible steps he induces the unwary
apologist to quote more and more shameless assertions,
until at length the cloak of raillery is laid aside and
the deadly struggle begins.
From the fifth letter onward Pascal aims straight at
the heart of the foe. Whereas the God whom Christians
adore only recognises as his servants men who are
humble and of pure intent, set free from earthly
ambitions, the Jesuits have made it their accepted
124 PASCAL.
maxim that it is good for the cause of religion that
their repute should extend far and wide, and that they
should rule all consciences. They have made their
dominion the measure of the dominion of God. Now
for the sake of attracting men and getting them under
their control, they have persuaded them that God
requires nothing from them beyond the virtues natural
to men, thus degrading our duty to the level of our
limitations, our feebleness, our sloth, making the rule
bend in deference to that which should conform to it,
and corrupting the law that it may be meet for our
corruption. Thus they play fast and loose with the
precepts, making them at will either severe or lax,
pagan or Christian, according to the persons whom it
is desired to win. Such is the spirit of the Society,
such the principle of its newly-formed methods. In
their hands religion becomes policy, and the moral
code is reduced to casuistry.
The basis of their system is the schoolmen's doctrine
of probabilism, which has been adopted by the Jesuits
and has received their special mark. Probabilism
with them consists in placing the verities of faith and
conscience in the same category with concrete facts
such as we know only from the witness of men. Has
such and such an event taken place in Rome? On a
point of this kind I must needs refer to a witness of
some credibility. Is it permissible to lie, to steal, to
kill? This with the Jesuits is a question of like
nature, and must be solved by consulting doctors of
repute notably, the casuists of their society. Any
opinion is probable and may be received with a sure
conscience, which carries the authority of one learned
PASCAL. 125
man ; the witness of a single well-known doctor being
enough to render an opinion probable. In case of
contradictory opinions among the doctors each of these
opinions is probable. Even the least probable is yet
probable. Thus I have no use for my own conscience ;
and the conscience of Basile Ponce or Father Bauny
will suffice.
It was against this probabilism that Pascal directed
his first attack. How do you manage, he said, in
cases when the opinion of the fathers runs counter to
that of certain of your casuists? The fathers,
answered the Jesuit, were all right for the morals of
their own times ; but they are too far removed from us
to be our guides, and we who rule consciences read
them but little and quote only from the modern
casuists, Villalobos, Conink, Llamas, Achokier, Deal-
kozer, Dellacruz, etc., etc., of whom the earliest does
not date so far back as eighty years.
Thus did Pascal convict the Jesuits of contempt of
the fathers and innovation in matters of morality. The
very day on which this fifth Provinciate appeared,
March 20, 1656, the recluses of Port Royal, being per-
secuted in consequence of Arnauld's condemnation, were
obliged to disperse; and still graver measures were
anticipated, such as the removal of the confessors and
the dispersion of the nuns.
Whilst Port Royal was in this unhappy and un-
settled condition it was all at once visited of God by a
startling prodigy. On March 24, 1656, at Port-Royal-
in-the-City, Marguerite Perier, Pascal's niece, was cured
of a running ulcer through touching one of the thorns
of our Lord's crown. A profound impression was
126 PASCAL.
produced in and around the monastery. While the
faith of the Jansenists was strengthened by this attes-
tation of divine favour, the Jesuists began to publish
libels by way of giving vent to their dissatisfaction.
The recluses were allowed to return to Port-Royal-in-
the-Fields and nothing more was said about depriving
the nuns of their confessors. As for Pascal, he had
spoken of this very subject to a free-thinker only a few
days before, telling him that he believed miracles to
be necessary and that he did not doubt that God
sometimes worked them even now. Assuming that
God had taken note of the word thus spoken in His
name, Pascal was seized with great joy and fresh
ardour, for now he could oppose to the onslaught of
his persecutors the sacred and awful voice of God
himself. Seventeen days after the miracle appeared
the sixth Provinciale, and the attack, ever more and
more rigorous, was to be carried on with redoubled
energy in four more Letters, from April 25 to August
2, 1656.
How, inquires Montalte of his interlocutor, do
your casuists reconcile the contradictions to be met
with between their opinions and the decisions of the
popes, the councils and the scriptures?
The question in no wise embarrassed the worthy
father, the difficulty having been duly considered and
solved in an understanding manner by the Jesuists.
To be sure they would have been glad enough to estab-
lish no other maxims than those which are to be
found in the Gospels. But men are in these days so
corrupt that we cannot win them over to us ; nd must
needs go to them instead. The one important point is
PASCAL. 127
never to discourage any one, never to drive the world
to despair.
This was why the casuists in the first instance came
to think of their system of interpretation or definition.
Thus Pope Gregory XIV. having declared that assassins
were not fit persons to enjoy the privilege of church
sanctuary, the question was how in spite of this to
allow it to them. All that was necessary was to define
an assassin as one who had been bribed to slay another
treacherously. In this way the greater number of
those who kill cease to be assassins.
A second means is the noting of favourable circum-
stances. Thus, the popes having excommunicated
those monks who put off their monkish dress, the
casuist notes that the bulls do not mention the cases
in which they put it off to go out as pick-pockets, or
to visit places of debauchery incognito, or for any
other purpose of a like nature. If then they doff
their habit for any such end they incur no excommuni-
cation.
A third means is the double probability, for and
against. When the pro and the con are both probable,
they are both safe. Now when a pope for example
has pronounced on any subject in favour of the
affirmative, it does not follow that the negative may
not also have its probability. Every opinion advanced
by a doctor of authority becomes in time probable,
and may be followed with perfect safety provided that
the church has refrained from contradicting it.
By the suitable employment of these methods, the
Jesuit fathers prevent an infinity of sins, whether
common to all men or belonging especially to certain
128 PASCAL.
conditions of life. Beneficed clergy, priests, monks,
valets, noblemen, judges, business men: all these may
learn how to evade the commandments which more
especially concern them. The beneficed clergy may
henceforth practice simony, the priests say mass after
committing a mortal sin and the monks disobey their
superiors.
Some special modes of procedure are invaluable in
certain cases. Such are the system of directing the
intention, and the doctrines of equivocation and mental
restrictions.
When the Jesuists cannot prevent an action they fall
back upon purifying the intention, thus allowing the
purity of the end to counteract the wickedness of the
means. The precept is : have some legitimate object in
view. Thus, there is no sin in a duel provided that one's
intention is so directed that the duel is accepted, not
for the sake of killing, but for the sake of defending
one's honour or fortune; a son may desire the death of
his father if only the ultimate object of his desire be
not to have him die but to inherit his goods.
The doctrines of equivocation and of mental restric-
tions are most useful for the sanction of lying. The
first prescribes the use of ambiguous terms, so arranged
as to convey to others a different meaning from that
which they bear to oneself. The second prescribes the
passing through one's mind of some circumstance
which shall do away with the untruth without in the
least being evident in the words uttered aloud. For
example : I swear that I did not do it (before I was
born).
It is wonderful how many sins are cancelled by these
PASCAL. 129
inventions. Not quite all, however. Thus it was
asked whether the Jesuits might kill the Jansenists?
They could not do so without sin, because the Jansenists
no more obscured the splendour of the Society than did
an owl that of the sun.
The fruit of this praiseworthy zeal is religion made
easy. Henceforth there is a way for men to be saved
without trouble in the midst of the amenities and
comforts of life. The worthy fathers know of certain
honours to be rendered to the Mother of God, easy of
performance and enough to ensure an entrance into
paradise. And what matter how we get into paradise,
if only we do get in ! Henceforth there is scarcely any
mortal sin which may not be converted into a venial
sin. Take for example ambition. If you aspire to
great things so as to be able the more easily to offend
against God, that is assuredly a mortal sin; but in
all other cases it is no more than a venial sin. And
venial sins are compatible with a religious life. The
good fathers have so cleverly smoothed over the difficul-
ties of confession that crimes are expiated nowadays
with more speed than they could formerly be
committed. Contrition is no longer necessary; it is
enough if there be attrition, which is thus defined :
The sense of shame for sin committed, or else fear of
the pains of hell; without any impulse of love to God.
Love to God, the first of all duties; it is from this
that every effort of these pretended Christians tends
to emancipate us. They teach that to do works and to
refrain from hating God is enough. You carry out
certain practices mechanically, without yielding the
heart ; an Are Maria repeated now and again, a string
130 PASCAL.
of beads on the arm, a rosary in the pocket, and you
may count on the magical effect of these acts of
devotion. The licence that has been taken in tampering
with the rules of Christian conduct is carried
beyond all bounds ; even to the violation of the great
commandment which contains all the law and the
prophets. They attack godliness in its essence, they
rob it of the spirit which is its life. They declare the
love of God to be not needful for salvation. They go
the length of asserting that this exemption from the
duty of love to God is the boon which Jesus Christ has
brought into the world. This is the full measure of
impiety: the price of the blood of Jesus Christ is to
obtain for us forsooth a dispensation from loving him ]
And so those who have never in all their lives loved God
are to be made worthy to enjoy him throughout
eternity ! Behold the mystery of iniquity accomplished.
Such is the cry of horror drawn from Pascal by this
last feature of the Jesuits' teaching on matters of
morality. The fiction that had formed the setting
of the Provinciates falls to pieces at the same time,
Montalte will visit the worthy father no more. The
time is gone by for comedy, tragic though it were
under its cloak of irony. The Letters are to be no
longer the pleadings of an advocate, how ardent soever
he might be. It is now Pascal himself, alone, face to
face with the Company of Jesus.
A fresh struggle had in truth ensued on the quarrel
concerning Arnauld ; for now the clergy, somewhat
perturbed by the account given in the Provinciates of
the Jesuit teaching, made it their business to lay these
statements before the General Assembly of the clergy
PASCAL. 131
of France. The Jesuits for their part after several
months of silence began to retort, now that Pascal
had gone so far as to asperse their casuistry. They
published one reply after another, defending them-
selves by attacking in their turn the man whom they
called the mouthpiece of Port Royal, reproaching him
with intentionally holding up sacred things to ridicule ;
with making his appeal to the impure instincts of his
readers; with want of exactitude in quotation; with
making the Jesuists responsible for doctrines com-
monly received and anterior to these fathers ; and with
attributing to the Society as a whole the paradoxes
of certain more or less obscure individuals.
Pascel felt himself nerved afresh with indignation
and vigour. What I have done hitherto, he answered,
adopting a saying of Tertullian, is but a preliminary
trial of skill before the real fight. Now he is to begin
a straight-forward defence, laying bare the depth of
perversity of his adversaries.
How dare you say I have turned sacred things into
ridicule? It is one thing to laugh at religion, and an-
other thing to laugh at those who profane it. Besides,
are we forbidden to use ridicule as a weapon against
error 1 Just as truth is worthy not only of love but also
of respect, so does error contain, together with the
impiety that makes it hateful, an element of impertin-
ence that makes it ridiculous. God himself has said to
sinners : In interitu vestro ridebo. Truly, that is a
curious kind of zeal which is angry with those who
point out public sins rather than with those who
commit them. But if you want to see examples of
impertinent buffoonery you have only to open your
132 PASCAL.
own writings and read the Devotion aisee (Religion
made easy) the filoge de la Pudeur (In praise of
chastity) of your Father Lemoyne, in which gallantry
vies with impudence.
You accuse me of imposture ; yet I have merely
reported word for word the opinions of your best
authors, Yasquez, Escobar, Lessius. How comes it
that when one of your fathers brings forward with
approval the opinions of Yasquez because he finds them
probable and convenient for the rich, he is neither a
calumniator nor a forger ; whilst I, on the other hand,
if I bring forward the same opinions, am a forger and
an imposter? The reason of this is simple: you are
strong and I am weak ; you are a powerful body and
I stand alone; you are backed up by violence, while as
for me I have behind me nothing but the truth. A
strange warfare this ; violence endeavouring to trample
down truth ! The two cannot touch each other, they
are on different planes. No amount of argument can
put an end to violence ; but neither is violence of any
avail against the truth. And while to the one, God
has set limits which it cannot pass, the other is eternal
even as God is eternal.
One of the impostures with which you reproach me,
Pascal goes on, is what I said of your maxims
regarding homicide. Here you manage things in a
truly wonderful manner. You distinguish between
speculation and practice, declaring for instance that in
the case of a blow received the opinion according
to which homicide is legitimate is probable in
speculation, but that in view of the interests of the
state it is not to be recommended. Next you say that
PASCAL. 133
provided the inconveniences to the state are avoided
the homicide in question is legitimate even in
practice. And thus your distinction between specula-
tion and practice is nothing but a ruse by which you
reach the point of excusing homicide..
You will perhaps offer the objection that you
merely attribute this opinion to certain theologians.
But according to your own teaching on probable
opinions that is enough to make it a safe rule of
conduct. Here is another instance of your policy. To
excuse sin you bring forward texts ; to refute those who
convict you of excusing sin you bring forward other
texts. Double-minded men that you are, it is against
you that the divine curse is pronounced : Vce duplici
corde et ingredienti duabus viis.
A few days after the publication of this thirteenth
Letter, on October 16, 1656, Pope Alexander VII. con-
demned the five propositions taken, so the bull said,
from the book of Jansenius, and that in the same sense
in which Jansenius understood them.
Pascal, avoiding for the time being this thorny
question, continued with redoubled energy his refuta-
tion of the ethical maxims of the Society. He returned
to the subject of homicide, and wrote that fourteenth
Letter, one of the fiercest of them all, under which the
sang-froid of Father Nouet completely broke down.
Pascal here exposed the Jesuits as being regardless of
all canonical teaching, regardless of the authority of
the fathers, the saints, and the scriptures, and as
supporting their diabolical maxims by impious
arguments. Whilst laws divine and human make for
the entire prohibition of homicide, the Jesuits contrive
134 PASCAL.
to sanction it. They make it legitimate to kill in
return for a blow, a slander, or an insulting speech.
The fact that any one wants to steal six ducats from
you is enough to give you the right to kill him ; nay,
an apple suffices if only it is discreditable to you to
lose it.
For what pray would they have us take them? For
children, or for enemies of the gospel? The honour
which is of Jesus Christ involves suffering, that which
is of the devil will have none of it. Jesus Christ said :
Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you !
And the devil : Woe unto them whom the world
esteemeth not! On which side are the Jesuits? They
have managed to secure the condemnation of their
adversaries in Rome; but they themselves are con-
demned of Jesus Christ in heaven.
Yet how comes it to pass that they lead even devout
souls astray? In order to account for this we shall
have to go still more deeply into the secret wickedness
of their ways. They have converted calumny into a
system of tactics. Resting assured that as monks they
would be considered incapable of such a crime and
that their word would always be believed, they
proceeded to divest calumny of its sinfulness by
teaching that calumny is not a mortal sin when its
object is to shield one's honour. Again, they had no
difficulty in persuading themselves that every attack
levelled against their Society was an attack against
God. Hence they set to work to prepare forged
pamphlets which should bring odium upon their
enemies, proceeding generally by vague insinuations,
hinting at abominable crimes such as they would not
PASCAL. 135
dare retail. Now to every one of these unproved accusa-
tions there is but one reply : Mentiris impudentissime.
After this fashion have they slandered pious
ecclesiastics and saintly nuns, accusing them of being
in league with Geneva, when they are the very people
who abhor the doctrines of Calvin. They accuse them
of forming a cabal to erect deism on the ruins of
Christianity. cruel and cowardly persecutors that
you are ! You have had your answer from heaven
itself in the miracle of the Sacred Thorn !
Meanwhile the Jesuits, more and more exasperated
against the writer of the Provinciates, accused him
personally of heresy as a member of Port Royal.
I do not belong to Port Royal, answered Pascal,
who in fact was not permanently settled there and
had always exercised his full right of independent
thought. I stand alone, and have no other tie on
earth than the holy Catholic Church, Apostolic and
Roman. From the world I have nothing either to
hope or to fear. I escape out of your clutches ;
and all your assaults on Port Royal will not avail to
shield you from my attack. As for the impious
propositions which you accuse me of supporting, I
detest them with all my heart. For myself, I assert
my own express and individual belief that Jesus Christ
died even for the lost and not for the predestined alone.
For the rest, it is false to say that the church is
split by a new heresy, as you would make people
believe. Those whom you call Jansenists reject, as
heretical and Lutheran, the five incriminated proposi-
tions. All they deny is that these propositions are to
be found word for word in Jansenius. Now this is a
136 PASCAL.
question of fact, and no man either can or ought to
lord it over the consciences of others when it conies to
a question of fact; for such questions depend only on
perception and reason. Even popes have been known
to go astray on points of fact. Did the decree you
obtained against Galileo prevent the earth from
turning round, and yourselves from turning with it 1 ?
It cannot be an article of faith that a book is bound
to contain the error which the church finds in it.
It was upon the question of fact that Pascal, taking
up the Arnauld affair again, now concentrated the
discussion. He affirmed, on the word of his friends,
that the propositions did not appear literally in the
Augustinus. Strictly speaking they are approximately
there. But it is evident that Pascal would equally
have refused to declare under the pressure of
authority that they were not there. His protest is
against the question itself. The scholar and the
philosopher rose up within him against the confusion
of the two lines of attack.
Moreover he did not shrink from the discussion of
the deeper issue, and after personal reflection upon it
he saw no incompatibility between the power to resist
grace, as admitted by the neo-Thomists, and the in-
fallibility of the effects of grace, as taught by Saint
Augustine. His study of mathematical infinitude had
opened his eyes to the possibility of a logic of a higher
kind than the logic of the understanding properly so
called, in the light of which, things that contradict
each other cannot co-exist. In Jesus Christ the finite
and the infinite are met together; and in the same
way free will and grace, considered as to their essence,
PASCAL. 137
are not two incompatible things which can only be
reconciled by imposing limits upon each other. They
can exist together without any such limitation; there
is fundamentally a close union between them; their
separation is only a mental process of our own.
Divine grace itself invites us freely to share with it
the work of our salvation.
If those who are called Jansenists thus admit the
co-operation of free will, why are the Jesuits so deter-
mined to make them confess that the propositions they
condemn are to be found in Jansenius? This again is
part and parcel of their tactics. The Jesuits want to
abolish the effectual grace of Saint Augustine and of
Christian doctrine, which convicts them of ungodliness
and paganism. But they do not dare openly to attack
Saint Augustine himself. They begin with the thin
end of the wedge, and having remarked that the grace
of Saint Augustine forms the basis of the book of
Jansenius they manufacture, by the use of extracts
from this book, certain propositions which on the face
of them seem to be heretical; and, without proving
that they bear the meaning attached to them by
Jansenius, they ask you to sign the condemnation of
the book. This condemnation once recognised, they
will have no difficulty in showing that the grace upheld
by Jansenius is the veritable grace of Saint Augustine,
and with the fall of its defender, it also will fall.
In the meanwhile, the Assembly of the clergy of
France, having received the bull of Alexander VII. on
March 17, 1657, shortly before the publication of
Pascal's eighteenth Provinciate, prepared a formulary
condemning Jansenius, which was to be signed by the
138 PASCAL.
ecclesiastics. The anxiety this aroused at Port Royal
was shared by Pascal who took up his pen to write a
nineteenth Provinciale. "Be consoled, father," he said
to Father Annat ; " those whom you hate are afflicted."
But whether reassured by the energetic opposition
displayed against this measure even by many of the
bishops or fearing that the more and more con-
founding of the enemies of Port Royal would only
exasperate their violence, he gave up the struggle ; and
the Provinciates came to an end in the middle of a
sentence.
The success which had attended them from their first
appearance only went on increasing. The Latin
translation published by Nicole in 1658 found even
greater favour than the originals, and made them
popular throughout Europe. The public conscience
was with Pascal. But Rome condemned the work as
heretical; the bishops and the Sorbonne, under
pressure from the government, likewise condemned it ;
and a decree of the Council of State of September 23,
1660, ordered that the book entitled LudoviciMontaltii
Litterce Provinciales was to be torn up and burnt at
the hands of the public executioner.
Pascal was not disturbed by these condemnations.
" If my Letters are condemned in Rome," he writes in
his notes, " what I condemn in my Letters is condemned
in heaven." And he adds : Ad tuum, Domine Jesu,
tribunal appello. A year before his death, being
asked whether he repented having written the
Provinciales, " My answer is," he said, " that so far
from repenting of it, if I were going to write them now
I should make them still stronger."
PASCAL. 139
CHAPTER VII.
CLOSING YEARS. La Roulette.
THE miracle of the Sacred Thorn, occurring as it did
during the struggle with the Society of Jesus, had
had a great effect upon Pascal. He had seen in it the
mark of a divine purpose concerning him. It had
served to increase his already great zeal for the
conversion of sinners and unbelievers. And since he
had learnt the extent to which a worldly spirit can
prevail even within the pale of the church he set him-
self more than ever to encourage the spread of the pure
spirit of the gospel.
The miracle itself, of which he had been a witness,
caused him to be the instrument of a remarkable con-
version. Among other persons who at that time visited
Port Royal to pay their devotions to the Sacred Thorn
came Mile, de Roannez, sister of the Due de Roannez.
The brother had been known to Pascal since 1650, and
had been converted through his means shortly after
his own final conversion. Mile, de Roannez was twenty-
three years of age, and a woman of the world. Being
touched by divine grace she now thought of becoming
a nun, and spoke of her intention to some of the
members of Port Royal, possibly first of all to Pascal,
with whom she could not fail to be acquainted, and
afterwards through him to M. Singlin. She also
refused a marriage which her brother was proposing
for her. Then from Poitou whither the latter had taken
her with the idea of giving her an opportunity for self-
HO PASCAL.
examination, she entered into correspondence with
Pascal, sending him sacred relics from Poitou and
receiving from him in return some special prayers to
be recited at tierce. The question under discussion
between them was the following : Ought Mile. Roannez
to remain in the world or withdraw from it?
Pascal begs that she will ponder this saying of a
saintly woman : That the question to be considered is
not, am I called upon to withdraw from the world,
but simply, am I called upon to remain in it; just
as one would never stay to consider whether or no one
were called upon to leave a plague-stricken house, but
only, if one ought to stay there. These are the terms
in which we should state the question, always supposing
that the path of greater safety is the one to be followed.
Mile. Roannez however was torn by internal conflict
and hesitated to break away from her past. Your
suffering, replied Pascal, should not keep you back;
it is a sign of the divine call; for you know well that
when we have once voluntarily yielded ourselves to the
guidance of another we feel the restraint no longer,
but when taking the first steps in defiance of natural
inclination we do suffer greatly; the suffering is the
consciousness of the struggle that is going on within
us between our fallen nature and divine grace. And
Pascal accumulates texts and arguments such as are
likely to convince the girl's somewhat wavering mind,
placing them before her with an eloquence so illumin-
ating, passionate, forceful, nay, well-nigh violent that
it not only commands the adhesion of the intellect but
startles the will into action. He follows step by step
the girl's spiritual development after the manner of a
PASCAL. 141
most careful and experienced director of souls. He
does more than this ; he puts himself into his letters ;
he revives the sufferings and emotions of his own
conversion; he imparts to his correspondent his own
anguish of mind on the present condition of the church
and its prospects for the future; he establishes a bond
of fellowship between the timid and shrinking soul of
the girl and his own soul, filled with the divine, ardent,
powerful, commanding.
Pascal's letters were a source of spiritual strength to
Mile, de Roannez. She longed for them and used to
complain when Pascal wrote to her brother without
enclosing any separate message for her. Pascal sought
to encourage her. I am much pleased with you, he
wrote, and I admire your continuance in zeal, for it
is a far rarer thing to persist in the religious life
than to enter upon it.
Yet Mile. Roannez became conscious afresh of an
inward sorrow and bitterness of spirit. Of what nature
was this suffering? Was it of God or of man? Was
it the sorrow that killeth or the sorrow th&t maketh
alive?
It was in this condition of mind that she returned
to Paris. There she again saw Pascal and her hesita-
tion vanished once for all. She spoke of her resolve
to her mother, who tried to keep her back. Then she
fled to Port Royal.
So long as Pascal lived she braved all the efforts
made to get her back to the world. In vain did the
Jesuits succeed in removing her from the abbey; she
lived a life of religious seclusion under her mother's
roof. When Pascal was dead she rebelled against the
142 PASCAL.
chiding rule of Arnauld, obtained release from her
vows and at thirty-four married the Due de la Feuil-
lade. She was afterwards sorely tried through her
children, of whom the first died unbaptized and the
second was born deformed. After undergoing terrible
operations she died at fifty years of age, in 1683.
She had been repentant since 1671, and had bequeathed
a legacy to Port Royal. She had kept some of Pascal's
letters and now found in them a source of consolation
and a means of sanctifying her afflictions ; so that in
the end of her life she felt herself to be once more
in that Port Royal where she had known happiness in
days gone by.
The correspondence with Mile, de Roannez had once
more revealed to Pascal his vocation as a director of
souls. From this time he turned all his meditations
to account in the great design he had formed of
writing a book against atheists, which should serve
not only to confound them but to turn their hearts
and set them in the way of conversion. Having lived
in the world he was aware of the great vogue which
free thought had there. He knew that Mersenne
counted in Paris fifty thousand atheists, more
dangerous foes than any Turks. He was often sought
by persons troubled with religious difficulties, or by
advanced thinkers who came to argue with him against
the dogmas of the faith.
The miracle of the Sacred Thorn suggested to him
many reflections which seem to have been the point of
departure of his new work. But its real origin lay in
his whole past and in his individual genius. He could
never have been content with a solitary piety or with
PASCAL. 143
enjoying the grace of God all to himself. He would
fain be the channel through which it spread, lending
out his mind as it were to turn to account for the
good of others his own newly acquired spiritual
enlightenment.
Being persuaded that the chief benefit of the sciences
is to put us in possession of methods by which, so far as
such a thing is possible, we can demonstrate spiritual
truths, he claimed to show after this manner that the
Christian religion is as fully accredited as other matters
which are commonly accepted as the most indubitable
facts. Yet he reflected that those whom he was
impugning in the Provinciales were equally with
himself professing to bring back unbelievers into the
,church. Now their principles were such as could only
serve to exchange one sort of irreligion for another.
So that not only were there foes without to be
combatted, but also foes within. It was a question of
converting men not to a vain similitude of the religion
of Christ, but to true Christianity, the Christianity that
should regenerate and save them. Thus his work on
religion was to be at the same time the condemnation
of the false doctrines of the Jesuits and the refutation
of the halting arguments of the freethinkers.
In preparation for the writing of this book he read
and re-read the scriptures and the fathers, principally
Saint Augustine; he also made use of a thirteenth
century work, directed more especially against the Jews.
This was the Pugio fidei of the Catalonian Dominican,
Raimond Martin. It had lately been reprinted in
Paris, in 1651. But above all he meditated, and he
gave particular heed to the order of his ideas,
144 PASCAL.
believing that on this the power of language largely
depended.
Having determined upon the main lines of his
scheme, he propounded it one day at Port Royal,
spending two or three hours in explaining it to his
friends there. They were delighted with his discourse,
and agreed that they had never heard anything finer,
anything more powerful, touching, or convincing.
There is no doubt that had Pascal written his book at
this time, about 1658, he would soon have completed it;
but he had accustomed himself to work up with infinite
pains everything he wrote. He was scarcely ever
satisfied with his first thoughts and would re-write
eight and ten times passages which to everyone else
seemed admirable in their first form. Still he went on
pondering.
Gifted with an excellent memory, he used to write
but little. About 1658 however, his continual head-
aches having made him subject to loss of memory, he
began the habit of jotting down on scraps of paper the
ideas that came into his mind. His extreme difficulty
in satisfying himself gave place to a fear lest the work
should remain unfinished even if some measure of
health were preserved to him. His infirmities how-
ever which grew intolerable caused the pen to drop
from his hands before the actual composition had been
taken in hand.
While his state of ill-health became more and more
of a hindrance to his work he turned it to account for
the furtherance of his spiritual growth. His principle
was that it does not suffice merely to obey the
commandments of God, but that duty requires of us
VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF
PORT-ROYAL-IN-THE-FlELDS.
Above the original engraving is inscribed :
Eglise de VAbbaye de Port-Royal-des-Champs dediee
a la Sainte Vierge Van 1230, sous Gregoire IX.
The tomb of M. d'Andilly is just within the door to
the left ; that of M. Singlin, in the background, in the
left-hand corner of the transept.
VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF
PORT-ROYAL-IN-THE-FlELDS.
Above the original engraving is inscribed :
Eglise de VAbbaye de Port-Royal-des-Ghamps dediee
a la Sainte Vierge Van 1230, sous Gregoire IX.
The tomb of M. d'Andilly is just within the door to
the left ; that of M. Singlin, in the background, in the
left-hand corner of the transept.
PASCAL. 145
so to reform our hearts that whatever we do for His
glory shall be really and entirely a voluntary act.
Now he was only too conscious that he was not a
Christian by nature. He had a fiery temper, apt to be
ungovernable, a craving for preeminence, a tendency
to ambition, pride and rebellion. He was impetuous
in his affections, and easily moved to anger and
irony. He was possessed by such a passion for science
that when once under its spell he forgot all else.
Believing that suffering, which enfeebles the body and
consequently the lust of the flesh, is the natural
condition of the Christian, he sought to increase its
effects yet more by self-mortification. Systematically
and of set purpose he waged an inward war against
the three lusts of the flesh, the intellect and the will.
He used to wear an iron belt barbed on the inside
next to the bare flesh, and on any impulse of vanity
would beat himself with a cord, so as to increase the
strength of the prickings. He put from him everything
that gratified his taste; he made himself poor that he
might be like Jesus Christ. He loved the poor
tenderly, and would borrow rather than refuse them
alms ; having invented a system of carrosses-omnibus
which proved a great success, he asked for a thousand
francs of the profits to be advanced to him that he
might send them to the poor of Blois who had been
reduced to great want by the winter of 1662. This
project was unfortunately not carried out.
His strictness on the question of purity was carried
to an incredible degree. His injunctions on this
matter evinced a delicacy which roused the admiration
of the most pious ecclesiastics.
K
146 PASCAL.
His vivacity and impatience had given place to a
wonderful gentleness, more especially towards those
who admonished or injured him.
He weaned himself from the things he held most
dear ; he now regarded mathematics as futile, and only
estimated the sciences in the light of their bearing
upon religion. He took care to let even the ties of
kindred sit lightly upon him; and equally he would
have no one form a binding attachment to himself.
" Who am I," he would say, " that I should be the
object in life of another, for I must die." During
this same period, he wrote to Mme. Perier that to
arrange a marriage for her daughter upon whom the
miracle had been wrought would be, as the Port
Royalists put it, to commit a kind of deicide in the
persons of the married pair.
He was scrupulous in his performance of religious
observances. He took a more and more lively
pleasure in the reading of Holy Scripture, which he
came to know by heart. He was especially fond of Psalm
cxviii., where it is said : Quando fades de perse-
quentibus judicium? He knew that all God requires
of us is summed up in love ; and, by applying himself
with all his might to the renunciation of pleasure and
to self-abasement, he prepared himself for the receiving
of divine inspiration.
And divine love came down and entered into him ;
he was conscious of the indwelling presence of Jesus
Christ; he communed with him.
" Be comforted," said the Saviour ; " thou wouldst
not be seeking Me hadst thou not already found Me.
In My agony I thought of thee ; 'twas for thee I shed
PASCAL. 147
those drops of blood. Thy conversion rests with me;
fear not at all, and pray with confidence as for My
sake."
And Jesus revealed to him the mystery of His two-
fold nature. How he had been really and truly man,
and had partaken of the weakness and misery of man ;
even more so than we ourselves. He suffered, he saw
himself forsaken, he agonised. But whilst our
sufferings are simply endured and then pass away and
are done with, his which are born of love produce
strength and life. And Pascal answered from the
bottom of his heart : " Lord, I give Thee all ! " He
has recorded this spiritual converse in a fragment
called : Le Mystere de Jesus. And now he scarce
touches earth more ; virtue is no longer enough for
him; he would attain sanctity.
Yet how conies it that at this same epoch we find
him engaged in organising, with wonderful energy, a
competition on a problem in mathematics, and writing
on this subject letters and memoranda that recall the
most brilliant period of his scientific career?
His niece Marguerite Perier relates how one night,
when suffering from severe toothache, he took it into
his head to try to assuage the pain by fixing his
mind on something which should make him forget it ;
and, turning his thoughts to the roulette problem which
Father Mersenne had once propounded and no one
had as yet been able to solve, he discovered its demon-
stration and was cured. He would have made no use
of this solution had not M. de Roannez pointed out to
him that in view of his present scheme for attacking
the atheists, it would be as well to show them that he
148 PASCAL.
knew more than they did on every subject that
admits of demonstration. With this idea M. de
Roannez advised him to offer a prize of sixty pistoles
to anyone who should solve the problem, and Pascal
threw open the competition in June, 1658, fixing the
limit of time at eighteen months. This length of time
having elapsed and the examiners having adjudged
that no one had solved the problem, Pascal published
the demonstration and used the sixty pistoles for his
printing expenses.
Such is Mile. Perier's account. The amount of
labour Pascal underwent on this occasion was really
considerable. He thought over his demonstrations for
several months before propounding the problem ; and
he wrote, under the pseudonym of Amos Dettonville
(an anagram of Louis de Montalte), a great number of
essays and letters both in Latin and French.
It we may take his word for it, it was not at all for
the love of mathematics that he thus returned to them.
He writes to Fermat in 1660 that mathematics are
only good for the testing of one's powers, not for their
employment. Yet in the same letter he calls Fermat
the foremost of living men ; and in offering his prize
avers that his sole object is to do public homage to
the man who shall find the solution, or rather to make
known the merits of such a scholar. He speaks of
fame as in times gone by; and as in times gone by
he rebukes those who vaunt themselves unduly. May
it not be that, led away even unwittingly by that
science which seemed to be innate in him, he once more
returned unconsciously to his old allegiance?
But whatever of that, the results were fortunate.
PASCAL. 149
Not only did Pascal consider the roulette problem
from a far wider point of view than had been done
before, but the methods he employed were such as gave
him the right to be reckoned (as M. Delegue has
pointed out in an essay on his mathematical work
published in Dunkirk in 1869) among the creators of
the infinitesimal calculus.
He is in possession of all the metaphysical bases of
this calculus. He lays down the principle that in
continuous quantities there are different orders of
infinity, differing from each other in such a way that
some of them are pure negations with respect to others ;
as for instance the point in relation to the line;
again, he sees that every finite quantity may be
considered as divided into an indefinite number of
elements which bear the same relation to each other as
the finite quantities from which they are derived.
From these principles he deduces the possibility of
freeing geometrical arguments from the limits imposed
upon them by the incommensurability of continuous
quantities reckoned in numbers formed of finite and
indivisible unities; the possibility of bringing back to
the straight line the elements of the most diverse
quantities ; the possibility of considering two quantities,
infinitely near in the order of succession, as equal to
each other ; the possibility of simplifying the expres-
sion of the increase of a given quantity, when that
expression is susceptible of including heterogeneous
quantities.
Even if, in addition to these general principles, he
did not formulate the rules proper to the infinitesimal
calculus, it is certain that he applied the most
150 PASCAL.
important of them; and it can be proved that he
possessed the art of finding tangents by the system of
indivisibles.
His labours had an influence on the discovery of
Leibnitz; for, in reading Dettonville's Letters, says
that philosopher, Subito lucem hausi. " The Traite
de la Roulette" writes d'Alembert, " will always be
valuable as a singular monument to the power of the
human mind and as serving to link together Archi-
medes and Newton."
One subject in which Pascal had never ceased to take
an interest was that of politics, regarded in the light
of its general principles. He had always been a most
loyal servant of the king, asserting that in a republic
it was a great mistake to attempt to institute
monarchy, but that in a state where royal power was
already established it was a kind of sacrilege to
contend against its representative, royal power being
not merely an image of divine power but an actual
participation of it. The subject of the education
of princes was a favourite one with him, and he
made no secret of the fact that he would willingly have
given his life to so important a task.
At one time, about 1660, he had occasion to give some
advice to a youth of high rank, probably the eldest
son of the Due de Luynes, then about fourteen years
of age. He gave him three most remarkable addresses,
of which Nicole wrote a digest, some nine or ten
years after having heard them. Strange as it may
seem, even in this analysis is to be found the imprint
of Pascal's genius ; so indelible, as Nicole observes, was
the impression* left upon the mind^by everything he said.
PASCAL. 151
It is by mere chance, said Pascal to the young
prince, that you possess the wealth of which you
find yourself master. You have no right whatever
to it in yourself or of your own nature. The
arrangement by which these possessions have come
down to you from your ancestors is a matter of
institution, and of human institution. Your soul
and your body in themselves belong neither to the
station in life of a common waterman nor of a
duke. Perfect equality with all men : that is your
natural condition. The people, it is true, are not
in this secret ; they believe that titles of nobility
constitute real greatness. Do not discover to
them their error which makes for the tranquility
of the state; but whilst acting outwardly as
becomes your rank, think upon your real condition
and keep yourself from presumption.
There are two kinds of greatness ; the kind that
comes by nature, to which belong knowledge,
virtue, health, strength ; and an arbitrary kind of
greatness, created by the will of man for the sake
of keeping the peace; such are rank, dignities,
titles of nobility. God has willed that we should
render something to both the one and the other.
To the first we owe honour, to the second outward
respect. We must address kings upon our knees ;
it is folly and littleness to refuse them this
homage. I am not called upon to esteem you
because you are a duke, but I am called upon to
salute you. On the contrary I shall pass the
geometrician without salute, but I shall esteem
him above myself.
152 PASCAL.
God is the king over men's affections, while you
are only king over men's bodies. Act then as such
a king, not attempting to rule men by force, but
satisfying their desires, relieving their necessities,
making it your pleasure to do good as the world
accounts good. True, this does not carry you far,
and if you rest here you Avill be lost ; honourable
member of society as you may have proved
yourself, you will still be lost. You must do
more; you must despise the flesh and its kingdom
and aspire to that kingdom of love of which all
the members desire nothing but that which
appertains to love.
Whilst Pascal, withdrawn from the strife of men,
was thus devoting himself to his own spiritual develop-
ment and that of others, he was rudely thrown back
into the fierce conflict between authority and
conscience.
Since 1657 the question of the formulary seemed to
have sunk into oblivion. Port Royal once more
breathed freely, and one by one the recluses went back
to their retreat. But in 1661 the court, wishing to
put an end to the Retz faction and regarding Port
Royal as the centre of opposition, demanded the
dismissal of all the pensionnaires as well as of the
novices and the probationers. The vicars-general of the
cardinal then drew up an official order for the signing
of the formulary. This order seems to have been
made under the auspices of Port Royal ; it is even said
that Pascal had a hand in drawing it up. But the
nuns found that if the order was obscure and vague,
PASCAL. 153
on the other hand the formulary which followed was
only too clear; and they were seized with misgivings
at the thought of signing it. For these saintly women
shrank from so much as the shadow of wrongdoing.
They were asked to condemn the doctrine of Jansenius
as not being that of Saint Augustine. They feared lest
this distinction should prove an erroneous one, and
they themselves be found to have really condemned
Saint Augustine while thinking to condemn Jansenius.
Of all the nuns, Sister Jacqueline de Sainte-
Euphemie was the one who showed the strongest
repugnance. " Nought but the truth can make us
free," she wrote, in June, 1661, to Sister Angelique de
Saint Jean, sub-prioress of the monastery in Paris.
" But how if they excommunicate us from the church? "
" Do we not all know that none can be turned out of
the church against his will, and that the spirit of Jesus
Christ being the bond which unites his members to
himself and to each other, we may indeed be deprived
of the outward signs but never of the effect of this
union so long as we keep our hold on divine love."
According to Sister Euphemie the order amounted to
nothing less than giving one's consent to a lie without
denying the truth. " I am well aware," she wrote, " that
it is not for women to defend the truth; yet since the
bishops are showing the courage of women, it behoves
women to show the courage of bishops. If it is
not our place to defend the truth, it is our place to
die for the truth."
Arnauld meanwhile met all objections, and his
authority decided Port-Royal-in-the-Fields to follow the
example of Port-Royal-in-the-City and sign the
154 PASCAL.
document. Jacqueline signed, and then died of grief
for it three months later at the age of thirty-six.
Jacqueline was the one person whom Pascal loved above
all others. When he received the fatal news he only
said : " God grant us all to die a death like hers."
At this juncture the enemies of Port Royal did not
lay down their arms, but exacted a fresh signature
with the addition of a more categorical profession of
faith. And now it would seem that Jacqueline's very
spirit passed into the soul of her brother who from
this time forward was immovable in his determination.
The doctors and confessors of Port Royal were losing
ground; but Pascal laid down definitely the subtle
distinction between fact and right; and in a pamphlet
upon the signature he declared plainly that to sign the
formulary without restriction was to sign the
condemnation alike of Jansenius, of Saint Augustine
and of effectual grace. And without circumlocution
he rejected all compromise whatsoever as abominable
in the sight of God and despicable in the sight of men.
Just that had happened, so he thought, to which he
had looked forward in the seventeenth Provinciate. It
was effectual grace which had been really aimed at
and which was to-day being attacked through
Jansenius. Now the submission we owe to the Holy See
by no means absolves us from that which we owe to
Christian love of truth. Furthermore, Pascal considered
that the pope had no more authority independently
of the church than had the church apart from the
pope. Unity and numbers were, to his thinking,
inseparable. Numbers which fail to be reduced to unity
are confusion; while the unity which does not take
PASCAL. 155
account of the separate units is tyranny. The fathers
speak of the pope sometimes as a whole, sometimes as
a part ; and we must put these two assertions together,
under pain of taking away from the words of the
fathers. The authority to which we owe obedience is
the combined authority of pope and church.
Pascal was under some apprehension lest, from a
wish to preserve the community of Port Royal, his
friends should be disposed to make concessions. " Our
place," he said, " is to obey God, let what will be the
results of our obedience; for Port Royal to be afraid
is not the way to mend matters."
After a lengthy discussion all the members of Port
Royal agreed to follow the example of Arnauld and
Nicole, who proposed to sign on condition of one
modification. Upon this Pascal fainted and fell down
speechless and unconscious.
Meanwhile the desired alteration was refused and
it was insisted upon that the nuns should sign the
document as it stood. This they refused to do. So
far from believing that by this refusal they separated
themselves from the pope and the church, Pascal held
that by it they remained united to the indivisible
Catholic Church, eternal and invisible, which alone is
the true church of God.
Meanwhile, ever since the month of June, 1661,
Pascal's state of health had been growing worse. He
was all the more assiduous in forgetting himself for
others and in giving all his thoughts to God. He had
received into his home a poor family, a child of which
fell ill of the smallpox. Fearing the contagion for his
sister's children who used to come every day to see
156 PASCAL.
him, he left his own house and went to stay with
Mme. Perier rather than turn out the sick child.
His friends at Port Royal, notably Arnauld and
Nicole, went to see him more and more frequently
and talked with him on religious matters. He confessed
himself several times to M. de Sainte-Marthe, likewise
to M. Beurier, vicar of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, his own
parish. The latter, knowing him to be the writer of
the Provinciates, asked him whether he did not feel
some self-reproach on their account. He replied calmly
that his conscience in no wise reproached him on this
score, that he had acted solely for the glory of God
and the defence of the truth and had never been
actuated by any personal animosty against the Jesuits.
Feeling himself to be near his end he earnestly
besought that he might be allowed to communicate,
and upon this grace being refused him on account of
his wsak condition, he desired at least to communicate
with Jesus Christ through His members, the poor, and
expressed a wish to have near him a poor man who was
ill and to whom the same services should be rendered
as to himself. As this could not be carried out at a
moment's notice, he begged to be taken to the hospital
for incurables, that so he might die in the company of
the poor. Meanwhile he suffered more and more, and
wished, not without some conscientious scruples, to
have a consultation. The doctors tried to reassure
him; but he did not believe them, and desired that a
priest should be sent for to pass the night beside him.
Towards midnight he had a convulsion which ceased
as if by miracle to enable him to receive the blessed
sacrament while fully conscious. " Here," said the
PASCAL. 157
priest to him, " here is what you have so much
desired." Then as the priest questioned him, accord-
ing to the usage of the church, concerning the principal
mysteries of the faith : " Yes," he answered, " I believe
that with all my heart." And having received the
communion, he said : " May God never forsake me."
These were his last words. He died on August 19,
1662, at the age of thirty-nine years and two months.
Those who had been about him revered him as one
blessed of God and a saint.
158 PASCAL.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PENSEBS.
Among the papers left by Pascal there were found to
be numerous notes relating to his projected work on
religion. After examining these fragments, most of
which expressed complete thoughts, while a few
appeared to have received their final form, Pascal's
friends and relatives thought good to prepare them for
publication. It was not so much a question with them
of displaying the peculiar genius or increasing the
fame of one who took for his maxim: The assertion
of self is odious; but rather of carrying out the
intentions of the humble servant of God and the
church. For this reason they proposed, while still
preserving the captivating beauties of the text, to clear
up an obscurity here and there, to mark the sequence
and connection of the parts and also to soften certain
expressions which if wrongly interpreted might have
led to some misapprehension of the writer's meaning.
By way of preface to this publication, Mme. Perier
wrote shortly after her brother's death a Life of Blaise
Pascal. But it was not until August, 1668, when Pope
Clement IX. was believed to have put an end to the
Jansenist quarrels and made the Peace of the Church,
that they set to work to arrange the fragments. The
Due de Roannez had the greatest share in this labour.
He was seconded by Arnauld, Nicole and others of the
Port Royal fraternity. It was somewhat difficult to
reconcile M. and Mme. Perier to the changes that were
thought advisable ; but Arnauld explained to M. Perier
PASCAL. 159
that one could not be too careful in dealing with enemies
so malignant as those of M. Pascal, and that it was not
worth while to run the risk of having to abandon the
publication altogether for the sake of retaining a few
expressions of no great importance. Thus did these
friends of Pascal, to whom he had confided his
thoughts, endeavour in a spirit at once discerning and
reverential and keeping constantly in mind all he had
himself told them of his plan and of his ideas,
to give a faithful outline of his projected work.
The printing was completed in 1669 ; the publication
did not take place until 1670. The work, entitled
Pensees de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques
autres sujets, qui o-nt ete trouvees apres sa mort parmi
ses papiers (Thoughts on religion and on certain other
subjects, by M. Pascal; being writings found among
his papers after his death), was prefaced not by the
Life of Pascal, which it was feared might give too
great a prominence to the personality of the writer,
but by an introduction written by his nephew, j^ltienne
Perier and explanatory of M. Pascal's design. The
volume appeared under the sanction of several bishops
and doctors.
This first edition was intentionally incomplete and
manipulated. The editions supplied by Condorcet in
1776 and Bossut in 1779, although more complete, yet
retained many deviations from the original text.
Victor Cousin in 1842 drew attention to these
divergences, and the efforts for the exact reproduction
of the manuscript date from this time. The publica-
tions of Faugere (1844), Molinier (1877), Michaut
(1896, 1899), and Brunschvicg (1897), have by
160 PASCAL.
degrees solved this difficult problem. In M. Michaut's
edition we are face to face with the direct, expression
of Pascal's living thought and the working of his
imagination. For here are his veritable notes and
fragments, scrappy, often unfinished, full of erasures,
additions and alternative readings, sometimes consist-
ing of nothing more than the beginning of a sentence,
or merely a suggestive word or two jotted down to re-
fresh the memory. We come upon him communing with
himself in the inner chambers of his heart ; we view,
detailed before the public, many a nascent thought, as
yet scarce formed, and quite untried, which maybe he
would have rejected or modified on more mature
reflection. The fact of gaining possession of these
manuscripts, most valuable of course in itself, is a
source of keen joy to those critics who, having
given up their faith in matters of abstract
belief, find all their pleasure in studying personality ;
and, although they disdain the ideas of a Pascal, yet
deem it highly interesting and amusing to dissect his
mind and heart. Yet one would think those whom we
call great men may as well be merely ranked as
abnormal, if the productions of their genius are to have
no real value. Is it not incumbent upon us, in view of
the admiration we flatter ourselves we bestow upon
them, to look first of all in their writings for that
expression of eternal truth which it was their intention
to place there and to transmit to us?
It is hopeless to think of tracing the plan of the
Pensees or even of the work in preparation for which
they were set down on paper. But we may well
interrogate these fragments as to the design Pascal
PASCAL. 161
had formed and the travail of soul he desired to
produce in his reader. In regard to this, we have a
certain amount of guidance in the notes, taken by
Etienne Perier, Filleau de la Chaise and Mme. Perier,
and handed down to us, of the discourse in which
Pascal unfolded his ideas to them, about 1658.
Pascal did not propose to demonstrate the verities of
religion after the purely abstract manner of
geometrical proof. His idea was to say nothing that
should not commend itself to the individual for one of
two reasons either because he was inwardly conscious
of the truth of all that was pointed out to him ; or
because he saw plainly that he could follow no better
way than the one set before him.
He had first of all in view a class of people very
hard to convince, who went by the name of free-
thinkers; men who, by virtue of a certain amount of
scientific knowledge but ill understood and a smatter-
ing of philosophy, went about making a parade of
their unbelief. He saw typical examples of free
thought in two men whom he had known intimately,
and of whose mental powers he had once thought
highly Mere, who claimed, in face of the teachings
of religion, still to abide by his honnetete; Miton,
who though by no means blind to the corruption
of human nature yet believed it possible to remain
indifferent and uncurious.
In order to get at the root of the evil, the ideas of
Montaigne had to be attacked. Him Pascal knew
thoroughly. He had read and re-read that strange
Apologie de Raymond de Sebonde in which, under
pretext of justifying the employment of human reason
L
162 PASCAL.
in dealing with atheism, Montaigne amply demon-
strated that our reason ceases to be reasonable the
moment it quits the domain of those things which
appeal to the senses and touches religious and
philosophical questions ; and that natural impulse is a
better guide for the ruling of conduct than is this soi-
disant privilege of our race. How was it possible to
win over to religion men who had adopted such
principles as these?
As for any direct way of making the truth of
religion as certain to them as that of mathematics,
it was not to be thought of. For of the two forces
within us which would have had to be convinced
reason and nature, the first, by their own confession,
contradicted itself on these questions, and the second
was sufficient to itself. Of course, it was still con-
ceivable that faith should be superimposed on nature,
as, upon a given straight line, a parallel line. But in
the absence of any connecting link between it and
nature, this faith became nothing more than an
individual opinion.
So the inverse method must be adopted ; and, taking
our stand upon the study of human nature, in which
the advocates of free thought think to entrench them-
selves, we must show them that this human nature is
not such as they suppose it to be ; that a purely natural
state, devoid of any element higher than nature, is a
thing impossible to man; that only in Jesus Christ
does he find the satisfaction of his yearnings and the
completion of his being. In like manner, the idea
the sceptics had formed of the reason must be recon-
structed ; to the end that faith, in place of being
PASCAL. 163
superadded to our intellect as something heterogeneous,
may become its indispensable complement and fulfil-
ment. But how were men rooted in self-sufficiency to
be brought to recognise that they were not sufficient
unto themselves? How prove to the indifferent and
the haughty that they were called upon to come forth
from their aloofness and court humiliation?
The first step was to study the means of persuading
men ; to find out the most suitable method to be adopted
and the order in which the arguments should be
disposed.
There is a great difference between knowing God as
does the pagan who sees in him merely a geometrical
fact; as the Jew, who sees in him only a providence
working in the lives and affairs of men ; and as the
Christian, to whom God makes himself felt as his one
and only good. It is this third kind of knowledge that
we have to create.
Now from the very first there arises a contradiction
which seems to foredoom all our efforts to barrenness.
The end sought is the transforming of the will and the
affections. Now such a work as this is possible to
divine grace alone, and this grace is altogether
supernatural and a free gift. Corrupt creatures as we
are, we can do nothing to provoke the action of grace
whether in ourselves or others. We can only deal with
changes in outward conduct, which have no effect upon
the heart save by the interposition of God. What
place can there be for any action of ours together with
the divine action?
The contradiction would be insoluble, had God and
man to be represented as existing side by side,
164 PASCAL.
separately, as it were, in the midst of space. For then
human action, limiting the divine action, would be its
negation, and yet the divine action, being of infinite
extent, would leave no place at all for human action.
But God is a pei-son and man is a person, and between
persons there are other relations than physical ones.
Through love they become one without ceasing to be
distinct ; they interpenetrate without absorbing each
other. Such are the three persons of the divine
Trinity. And thus providence is able to confer on such
of its creatures as are persons the dignity of causality,
and can even make use of us in the work of the
conversion of our fellows. Our pleadings, our
arguments, our voluntary efforts, may be the manifes-
tation, foreseen and willed by God, of the inward
work of grace. We know well that only God is able
to convert us ; but his work leaves room for and
demands our own.
This makes our course of action clear. Of ourselves
we can do nothing. If therefore the writer aims at
his own glorification and flatters himself that he will
triumph through his eloquence, then his speech is not
of God and is without power for good. In order to be
efficacious the utterance should be that of the divine
voice speaking through human lips. He who would
proclaim the truth must needs abase himself and make
himself of no account before it.
Once imbued with this spirit we can and ought to
use, so far as in us lies, all the means that nature and
art put at our disposal.
We know there are two elements in the art of
persuasion, corresponding to the two avenues into the
PASCAL. 165
human soul; the art of convincing, which appeals to
the understanding, and the art of pleasing, which
appeals to the will. Geometricians are our models in
the art of convincing. The art of pleasing has also its
rules which are suited to the inconstant nature of our
feelings. Now the conversion of man is hindered by
his sloth, his passions, his pride ; in a word, by his
self-love. We need not think to subdue this feeling by
an idea. A passion yields only to another passion. It
is a question of awaking within the soul the scorn of
self and the love of God. It is the growth of divine
love that will lessen the power of self-love. The art of
pleasing serves mainly to remove obstacles out of the
way and to incline the heart towards the love of God.
In addressing others with a view to touching their
hearts a certain order has to be followed. The heart
has its own order, which was followed by Jesus Christ,
by Saint Paul, by Saint Augustine. It consists chiefly
in digression upon every point that has to do with the
end in view, by which means this end is kept constantly
before the mind. This is an order which is not
unilinear, but convergent. The various parts are not
connected with that which has gone before, but with
that which is to come after them and bring them into
unity.
Furthermore, when it comes to a matter such as that
of religion, which concerns the whole man, the art of
convincing and the art of pleasing are indispensable
to each other and should be closely united. A difficult
task this, because the qualities they suppose, the
mathematical mind and the intuitive mind, do in a
measure contradict each other. The one works from
166 PASCAL.
broad and abstract principles down to their results ;
the other, starting with matters of common knowledge,
seeks to discover the innumerable, subtle and elusive
principles that lie behind them. The adjusting to
each other of abstract and concrete, axioms and reali-
ties: such is the required method.
The rules for composition and style which Pascal
formed for himself, and which have left their mark
upon the fragments handed down to us, were based
upon these principles. Pascal may have written : The
true eloquence makes light of eloquence ; that is to say,
the natural eloquence of feeling makes light of rhetoric.
But he held that the eloquence of feeling has rules of
its own just as the heart has reasons of its own.
There are in the matter of eloquence, as in all
human doings, three divisions : natural eloquence ;
acquired or artificial eloquence; native eloquence. That
which is natural, as it now stands, is a confused
mixture of good and evil. Art, taken by itself, is the
sum of the rules drawn up by man with a view to his
own gratification, and its tendency is to disguise
nature. That which is native to man is not conformity
to a nature that has become his, but a return to
his true, pristine nature, wholly unspoiled. Only
by systematic and laborious effort can man, passing
beyond nature and art, get to what is really native to
him. Such was the task Pascal had in mind.
His object as a writer was to move men's souls.
Success in this kind can come from God alone. This is
why, before writing, he kneels down and, submitting
himself wholly to his Creator, prays that his brother
may be led to submit himself in like manner. Inclina
PASCAL. 167
cor meum ; such, is his own prayer, and such the
prayer he would fain have his reader utter with him.
For the best of arguments will fail except the heart be
inclined to receive them.
For each one of these departments of eloquence
Pascal has his rules.
Let us see what principle underlies them. He
considers that man is more easily persuaded by argu-
ments he has discovered for himself than by any that
have occurred to the minds of others. The writer then
should put himself in the place of his readers and
make trial in his own heart of the turn he is to give
to his argument. The secret of eloquence is to lead the
individual man to reflect upon what is going on within
him and to acknowledge that the truth which is told
him finds an echo in his own breast. Furthermore,
the writer must appeal to every side of his reader's
nature, so as to lay hold of the entire man, to surround
him as it were, to leave him no possible loophole of
escape. So interest, pleasure, reason, heart, mind and
body, instinct and intellect: Pascal would bring all
these into play by way of arousing in man the desire of
being converted.
The putting of these arguments before the reader in
the most telling order demands the constant feeling of
one's way and endless testing of results. For it
resolves itself into a question of bringing into unity
the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart,
which seem to be incompatible. It is always the case
with real and living things that their principles, so
far from being patent at first, only unfold themselves
by degrees. In setting about any piece of writing the
168 PASCAL.
chief difficulty is always that of knowing what to put
first.
The arrangement of words is particularly important
in the expression of moral ideas ; for the same idea
conveys altogether different meanings according to the
words in which it is presented. The primary rule is
that the form must always be subordinate to the
matter. The aim is not to produce charming pictures
but faithful portraits. Let us beware of imitating those
bad artists who paint sham windows for the sake of
symmetry. But, on the other hand, words have a power
of their own. Style should be natural ; to wit, simple,
clear, unaffected and straightforward. That word should
be found which is at the same time familiar, apt and
forceful. Preference should always be given to
concrete rather than abstract expressions. Things
should be spoken of in their bearing upon the imagina-
tion, the will and the heart. Lastly, the order in Vhich
words are placed is one condition of their power. In
a game of paume the players use the same ball, but the
best player places it best.
This form of perfection Pascal may be said to have
attained. He undoubtedly deserves the name of
writer. The innumerable erasures, corrections and
revisions with which his manuscripts are loaded
sufficiently show what pains he took with his style.
This style is distinguished by its richness. It possesses,
and that not by turn but at one and the same time, all
the qualities that carry the reader along in spite of
himself. Mathematical precision, passion, imagina-
tion, art and naturalness are here welded together
into an indissoluble unity.
PASCAL. 169
His mode of exposition is that of the closest reason-
ing, presented under a very concrete form : " The
assertion of self is an odious thing. You, Miton, may
think to gloze it over, but you cannot do away with it
for all that ; so your self still remains odious."
Pascal gathers up, after the manner of geometri-
cians, a crowd of ideas into one very brief formula:
All the law is contained in Jesus Christ and Adam.
Everywhere antithesis; but always in the form of
argument, never of rhetorical figure. In fact, the
whole of wisdom lies in seeing the contradiction every-
where present in nature and in seeking its human
explanation ; two kinds of reason which contradict each
other : that must be the starting point.
Pascal's diction, one of the models for that of the
seventeenth century, still retains the freshness of the
sixteenth. It commands a plentiful vocabulary, admit-
ting words familiar, colloquial, homely, as well as those
which are noble and learned. It gives preference to
everyday modes of speech; it detests high-flown expres-
sions ; it calls things by their right names ; it brings
them home to the reader ; it visualises ideas and thus
fixes them upon the mind for ever.
His syntax is highly individual and supple : " The
prophecies quoted in the gospels , you think they were
placed there to induce you to believe. Not so ; it is to
keep you from believing."
He makes use of hyperbole, the expression which
goes further than the thought. This is not with him a
mere vagary of style, but the deliberate method of a
man who would compel the will. At close quarters
with the foe one's view is necessarily concentrated,
170 PASCAL.
and therefore exclusive. Thus he writes : " The only
religion which runs counter alike to nature, to common
sense and to pleasure is after all the only one which
has always held its own."
In common with other characteristics of his style,
its harmony enhances the effect of seriousness. To charm
the ear would be worth but little ; the ear is only taken
as a judge when feeling is lacking. But surely it is
the feelings and the will which respond to the power of
harmony in such a sentence as the following : Malgre la
vue de toutes nos miser es, qui nous touchent, qui nous
tiennent a la gorge, nous avons un instinct que nous
ne pouvons reprimer qui nous Sieve. (Notwith-
standing the fact of all our miseries which dwell with
us and hold us in their grip, we have within us an
unquenchable instinct uplifting us above them.)
Pascal's rule of putting himself in his reader's place,
while it guided him as to his manner of writing,
determined yet more the choice of his thoughts.
He wishes to move the unbeliever. He places himself
first of all at the point of view of the unregenerate
man such as we may see him any day. Man, as thus
understood, knows one thing only, believes in one thing
only, and that thing is himself; he thinks man is
complete and self-sufficing. Let us then put before him
the presentment of his own being, to the end that
he may judge whether it really is possible for him
to find satisfaction in himself.
In order to ensure the reader's recognition of
himself in this picture, Pascal thinks to borrow
its features from that master of freethinkers
Montaigne, transferring to the pages of his
PASCAL. 171
own introduction to Christianity many an observa-
tion, many a reflection, taken from the essays of
the philosopher-wit. He does not reproduce them
exactly in their original form. He picks and chooses,
he alters a word here and there ; and the same thoughts
take on quite another aspect, becoming under Pascal's
pen bitter, disturbing, disconcerting, whereas in
Montaigne they had only had the effect of easy,
pleasant raillery. It is no longer Montaigne but
Pascal's own insight that is guiding him.
As in his researches in physics, so here he begins
with facts and then proceeds to investigate their causes.
The main point is to observe the individual man just
as he stands at present, in all the actual complexity of
his nature. What is man, for him who would see him
thus, not in any idealised condition, but as he really is ?
Man is a being essentially changeable and complex ;
changeable, since his natural habitude is passion, which
implies instability; complex, since he is made up of
parts which are at the same time heterogeneous and
inseparable and which cannot be reduced to the fixed
principles of geometry.
What are the causes that produce these effects'?
Kestlessness may in truth be conceived of as the
progress of a being towards its goal. Such, according
to the pagan philosophers, is the natural gravitation
of created beings towards God. But restlessness may
also be the effect of inward disturbance, of the
impossibility of remaining in an intolerable condition.
In like manner, complexity may be either the
harmonious blending of elements which complement
each other, or the forced union of alien principles.
172 PASCAL.
Of these two possible explanations it is, in the case of
man, the second that is the true one. Man is a being
full of contrarieties.
Consider his will ; he wills to have happiness, and it
is out of his power to acquire it. His inclinations,
which are the condition of his pleasures, are contra-
dictory. He likes rest and he likes excitement. And
whilst he is endeavouring to satisfy one craving, that
very one is secretly turning into its opposite. What
we really and truly wish for is not something better,
something grander, something rarer, but simply
something else. There dwells within us a deceitful
faculty whose office it is to depreciate those things
which are once within our grasp, so as to display in
flattering colours those we do not possess; it is
imagination. Under its alluring spell we never live
but are always expecting to live ; and never succeed
in being happy though always just about to be so.
Our intellectual faculties are equally contradictory
of each other. From the point of view of the senses,
things are finite ; to the eye of reason they are infinite.
Again, there is a contradiction between the reason,
which judges by principles, and the heart, which judges
by feeling. And, moreover, reason is not even
consistent with herself. She sets herself up as judge,
and yet in herself has no principles to go upon. The
principles necessary to her arguments she draws
indiscriminately alike from what is most exalted in our
hearts and what is most sordid in our senses. It is
just a chance whether she chooses to support the for or
the against.
Is it of any use trying to find under all these
PASCAL. 173
contrarieties some one permanent basis which we can
really call our nature? Habit has this power over us,
that it can constrain, transform, and create nature.
Who is to prove that what we call our nature is any-
thing more than habit of still older growth? Our
nature is for ever eluding us. We are and we
are not.
We can however penetrate yet further than this
into the depths of our being. Behind our actions,
our faculties and our nature there lies the self,
possessing self-consciousness and self-knowledge, and
perhaps having also the power to bring order and
unity into our actions and our nature. But this self
is the victim of a strange malady whose existence it
does not even acknowledge to itself the craving for
diversion. What is the ultimate aim of all our doings?
What does a man look for from riches, honours, amuse-
ments, knowledge, power? He looks to be diverted, to
be taken out of himself. The fact is, our heart, as
revealed to us by the study of the passions of love, is
an abyss at once infinite and empty, an aching void
in which all the finite things the world can offer only
float about like atoms in the midst of space. We are
for ever turning from one to another of these, and
still we suffer, because we get no nearer to the end
for which we strive. This explains why we seek to
escape from ourselves. We have a confused feeling
that within us lies the source of all our ills, while at
the same time we can in no wise change our condition.
Now the question is: Can we really escape from
ourselves? This too is impossible; for that self of
mine which would fain get free from itself, will still
174 PASCAL.
always be myself with yearnings as infinite as my want
of power to fulfil them.
Men have sought however to create, by using their
intelligence, some remedies for the vices to which they
are prone; and with this end in view have instituted
human law and a code of morals.
There is no doubt that, judging superficially, it seems
as though our justice were essentially just, and as
though we had some means of knowing what is just in
itself. But how can we hold to this opinion after
using our own powers of reflection and comparison,
after reading Montaigne? What diversity in that
which should be one and universal! A fine justice
this, which a river or mountain can limit ! What is
the real ground of the justice administered by men?
It is time, imagination, physical force; and nothing
else. For consider: What is ownership but a usurpa-
tion whose remembrance is past and forgotten? What
ensures the authority of physicians and judges? Why,
in the one case it is their cloth, and in the other
their scarlet robes and ermine in which they envelope
themselves like so many pussy-cats. In what does the
right of our kings consist, if not in their body-guards,
their halberdiers, their men-at-arms with bloated faces,
whose hands and whose strength are wholly at their
service ?
Such is our justice. Shallow thinkers hence conclude
that there is no such thing as justice. The people,
on the other hand, persist in believing in it.
And it is the people who are right; but in a way they
do not dream of. They believe our laws to be just,
and they are unjust; they judge it to be un-
PASCAL. 175
worthy of a man to submit to force if that force be
not at the same time a just force, and they do
well. Justice is in this world hopelessly obscured
and powerless. Since we cannot so order it that
what is just shall also be strong, we have
ascribed to that which is strong the quality of
justice, and the cause of justice has been saved
by giving it force for its medium. By this means we
ensure peace, which is the first of blessings. But what
a strange condition is that of a being who must needs
be duped before his wishes can become desires, and for
whom the false has to be made to wear the mask of the
true, while all the time he is trampling under foot the
truth itself.
Our ideas of morality are like our ideas of justice.
Nothing is clearer, at first sight, than the principles
of the science of living, such as the notions of well-
being, of happiness, of the end of human life; and
what transport awaits him who, after having confined
himself to abstract science, shall pass on to the study of
morality and the art of right living. Yet, question
men as to what things seem to them good, and they
will talk to you of the stars and the heavens, of the
earth and the elements, of cabbages, leeks, calves,
serpents, adultery, incest ; of all things in heaven and
earth down to suicide. As to those who are moralists
by profession, they are divided into two great sects:
the Stoics and the Epicureans. The first urge us to
make ourselves equal with God ; the second account us
fit for nothing but to live the life of beasts.
Here again there is confusion and contradiction
everywhere. Shallow thinkers come to the conclusion
176 PASCAL.
that there is no law of right living. But they are
mistaken, and the people, who persist in admitting the
distinction between good and evil, are wiser than they.
There is a source of right living, and it is this : The
regulation of the thoughts by the highest kind of
reason. That is to say, our reason, having need of
guidance, must be led by the inspiration of the heart.
But does it follow that it depends upon ourselves to
know and act upon that which is good 1 By no means ;
for our heart, being naturally evil and blind, is not
fitted to be our guide in the conduct of life, except it
be first transformed and regenerated. And this change
is out of our power to effect. We cannot make the
dictates of the heart bow to the decisions of the
intellect ; only our outward acts depend upon ourselves.
And thus the law of right living calls us to what does
not depend upon ourselves.
If then all our efforts to reduce man's being to
harmony only end in making it still more incoherent,
what an unnatural creature he must be, what a chaos,
what an enigma !
There is a class of men who give themselves out as
more learned and profound than others, and who would
have us believe that by the mere force of their reason-
ing they can solve the problem of human nature and
discover the means of leading it to perfection. These
are the philosophers. Let us see what their doctrines,
will do for us.
They profess to make reason their sole standpoint.
Now reason has assuredly a right to our respect. Its.
commands are more imperative than those of a
master; for while disobedience to the one brings un-
SIGNATURE OF BLAISE PASCAL.
SIGNATURE OF JACQUELINE PASCAL.
This signature is taken from a verbal process dated
April 30, 1647 (MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, Supple-
ment Francais, No. 176), when Pascal was twenty-three
years of age.
This signature, Sceur Jacqueline de Sainte Euphemie,
Religieuse Indigne, is taken from the only autograph
letter of Jacqueline Pascal. The letter is dated the
10th February, 1660. It was written from Port-Royal-
in-the-Fields and addressed to " My dear nieces, Marie
Jacqueline and Marguerite Euphemie, at Port Royal,
in Paris."
PASCAL. m
pleasant consequences, to disobey the other is to be a
fool. But, on the other hand, our reason is the play-
thing of our senses and our imagination, those wanton
and deceitful forces that can bend it at their will.
Such is our reason ; at once a sovereign and a slave.
On the strength of this contrariety in the nature of
reason the philosophic wits would give it no place
at all. But they are mistaken. For the power and
authority of the reason are no less certain than
its weak side. Reason is on sure ground as
regards its most general principles, such as those of
identity and dissimilarity. But thought demands
something more than these principles. It needs also
primary truths, fundamental propositions ; and these
it is that are lacking here. Reason argues well, but
upon principles that she cannot test.
One might be tempted to make answer that we know
truth not by means of reason alone, but also through
heart and feeling, and that through these last organs
we learn primary principles. There are certain
physical facts : we know them through the senses.
Again, there are certain metaphysical facts : we
perceive them by our intuitive faculties, as by a sense
which is above the senses. By these faculties we
recognise that there are three dimensions in space,
and that numbers are infinite. True: but one
cannot argue from mathematics to philosophy. It is a
matter of indifference to us whether space has three
dimensions or four, while on the contrary our interest
is involved in the problem of our destiny. Accordingly
we do not seek after philosophic truth with that
singleness of heart which would be needed for its.
II
178 PASCAL.
discernment. Our inclination is to turn away from
it; and we have no power to induce in ourselves this
singleness of heart.
The philosophers however claim to have solved cer-
tain problems, first of all, that of certitude. They are
divided, on this point, into two schools: dogmatists
and pyrrhonists. These two schools are inconsistent
with each other ; yet it would be a mistake to let them
cancel each other, and thus arrive at absolute doubt.
Their doctrines are not both false ; they are true. We
have a conception of truth which effectually arms us
against all pyrrhonism ; and our inability to offer
proof is a sufficient barrier against all dogmatism.
From the point of view of nature, dogmatism holds its
ground ; from the point of view of reason, the truth is
with pyrrhonism. We believe in the truth, and we
cannot discover it; we feel that we were made for
certitude, and we are incapable of it.
The philosophers think to establish certain moral
verities, such as the existence of God, the spiritual life
and the immortality of the soul ; and certain it is that
the demonstrations of those who uphold these verities
are of more value than those of their adversaries. But
what will it profit them if that which they demonstrate
is nothing but an empty abstraction, lifeless and
barren? They offer us hypotheses, satisfactory so far
as they go, mathematical facts, propositions. But will
a proposition meet the needs of the heart? This kind
of proof is not only useless, it is dangerous, for it leads
us to think we can of our own selves lift ourselves up
to God.
As to the facts taught by the sciences, they are with-
PASCAL. 179
out doubt incontestable; but they deal only with the
material world and are of no use whatever to our
spiritual life. The only effectual use of the sciences is
to train the mind in the power of observing and
reasoning.
Such is the futility of man's supreme effort to bring
his nature into harmony with itself. So far from
solving its contradictions, philosophy shows them to be
essential and irremediable. We see within ourselves
an incomprehensible mixture of greatness and misery,
of dignity and unworthiness, of the greatness which
aspires to oneness with God, of the misery which can
neither know him nor set its face toward him. The
soul of man is noble, in that it would fain outreach
itself ; it is ignoble, inasmuch as it does in fact seek
nothing but itself in everything. It is the finite and
the infinite, at one and the same time inseparable and
incompatible.
Would it not seem then that the wise man's part is
to cease reflecting upon himself, take what comes,
and fall asleep on the easy pillow of ignorance and
indifference? This resolve would be of all others the
most criminal and fatal. Man could not cease to care
about himself without ceasing to have the attributes of
man. Such despair, such cowardice, might be conceiv-
able were man wholly powerless. But his greatness is
as real and as indestructible as his littleness. Let him
not dream then of appeasing this ever-recurring
restlessness which enters into all his joys and poisons
them; it is a reminder to him that he was made for
better things. Let him rather examine himself
candidly; and, seeing the impossibility of either
180 PASCAL.
setting aside or solving the problem of his nature, after
having vainly sought its solution in himself and his
own limited powers, let him decide to seek it in
something higher than himself.
There exist all over the world certain traditional
systems of belief which profess to deal especially with
the solution of the great problem. These are the
various religions of mankind. Truth to tell, they are
in general so destitute of proofs, and teach a morality
of so low a kind, that the most part of them I cannot
even stay to consider. But in passing under review
this strange medley of morals and beliefs, I come across
a certain people in a remote corner of the world who
stand out apart from the rest and whose records
precede by several centuries the earliest we possess.
The writings of this people tell of strange doings. They
relate that man is the creation of a perfect God, who
made him in His own image, in a state of innocence
and with all sorts of perfection ; but that he rebelled
against his creator ; that in consequence of this he fell
from his first estate, and passed on his corrupt nature
to all his descendants; but that- God in his mercy
promised to send to men a Deliverer, who should make
satisfaction for them and fill up the measure of their
frailty. And from other of their writings we learn
that this Deliverer has in fact come and has wrought
our salvation by uniting in himself the low estate of
man and the holiness of God, insomuch that from the
first of these there springs forth a fountain of merit
and of grace.
True or false, this teaching fits in with singular
exactness to the problem of man's present condition.
PASCAL. 181
By the opposition between grace and nature, it
accounts for both the greatness and the misery of man ;
and to such as are seeking the remedy for this state
of spiritual conflict it offers the all-powerful grace of
the Creator himself.
This of course is not enough in itself to establish the
truth of the Christian faith. This religion is put
before us as an hypothesis which satisfies the mind.
But a convenient hypothesis is not necessarily a reality.
The subtle matter of Descartes may account for certain
phenomena, but it is none the less a fiction. Special
research has been needed to convert Torricelli's hypo-
thesis into an established fact. Nor can we risk
our life upon an hypothesis ; we want to know
whether this religion, which we grant to be a plausible
explanation of our condition, is, besides, strictly true.
This being so we have to take account not only of its
relation to ourselves, but also of the proofs of veracity
it is able to offer.
It tells us of a union between the human and divine
in one and the same being. This passes our intellectual
credence, and can only be a matter of faith ; so that we
cannot believe in it save by the intervention of super-
natural grace. But it is conceivable that our efforts to
believe may be the manifestation, fore-ordained of God,
of the very work of grace upon us. So then we are
to act as though we had of ourselves the power to turn
to God; we are to seek him with all our might,
becoming conscious in our inmost heart of the feeling
which is to accompany our efforts.
Faith is the soul's assent to the truths contained in
holy scripture. It has its motives both in ourselves
182 PASCAL.
and in the revealed truths; and these motives mingle
and interpenetrate in such a way that they act and
react upon each other; and our spiritual life becomes
a help to the understanding of the scriptures and our
understanding of the scriptures aids the development
of our spiritual life.
If, distinguishing for the sake of argument between
things which are in reality inseparable, we consider in
the first place the progress of our spiritual life, we
notice that in order to pass on from knowledge to faith
we have three means at our disposal: reason, habit,
and inspiration.
Although reason does not prove those things which can
only be matters of faith, yet she does remove difficul-
ties, she does smooth the way for the exercise of faith.
First of all she proves that, so far as she is concerned,
there are just as good arguments for as against, and
therefore the whole matter may be decided on the plane
of faith without doing any violence to reason. Nor is
this all. When hard pressed, and challenged to carry
her arguments to their final issue, she brings forward
one unanswerable argument for deciding in favour of
religion. There is a branch of mathematics called the
rule of partis. On applying the principles of this
computation to the question of the existence of God, we
find it strictly demonstrated that we must solve it in
the affirmative.
Suppose human reason to be in a state of
uncertainty on the question of the existence of God.
It is, as it were, a game of pitch and toss. I say that
reason must lay the odds for the existence of God.
And, believe me, we are bound to take these odds
PASCAL. 183
one way or the other. We have no choice in the
matter. We are living; and every one of our actions
implies a decision touching our destiny. It is evident
that we should act in a different manner according as
God exists or does not exist. On which side shall we
wager? We must wager that God exists.
In every wager, there are two things to be con-
sidered : the number of the chances, and the importance
of the gain or loss. Our reason for choosing this or
that side is expressed by the product of these two
factors. Now to suppose God is to suppose an infinite
good. Let us make the chances for the existence of
God as small as you please, say, for example, equal
to 1. The contention that God exists shall be repre-
sented by 1 x co. Now opposite the blessedness which
God can bestow upon us let us put the good things of
this world, and let us grant them as great as you
please. They can only form a finite quantity, which we
will call a. Again, let us make as numerous as you
please the chances that God is not, and that the world
exists by itself. This number is finite, since there is
one chance that God exists. The contention that God
does not exist will thus be represented by the expression
n x a. Now this product is necessarily smaller than
the first, into which the infinite enters as a factor.
Therefore I must wager that God exists.
This argument is conclusive. But it remains only
an argument, and while compelling the understanding
leaves the heart untouched. And it is the heart's
allegiance to which the religion of Christ lays claim.
How is the affirmation of the existence of God to be
passed on from the intellect to the heart?
184 PASCAL.
The great obstacle to this lies in the passions, in the
love of pleasure; and of these you must rid yourself.
Once give me faith, you answer, and I shall soon give
up my pleasures. But I say to you : Once give up
your pleasures and you will soon have faith. It lies
with you to take the first step. You can at least put
forth an effort and test the truth of my words.
In the attempt to make the head rule the heart, we
have one powerful ally ; to wit, habit. This it is which
makes our likes and dislikes and can also unmake
them. It brings an influence from without to bear
upon our inward inclinations. You then who would
fain believe but cannot, you in whom reason points on
to faith while you are conscious that the heart holds
back ; act as though you did believe ; use holy water :
have masses said. That will of itself weaken your
passions, it will lead you to believe, it will make
you become a fool. That is what I am afraid
of. And wherefore? What have you to lose?
Your boasted wisdom is nothing but a lie. Only by
a return to that childlike freshness and simplicity
which man in his folly sets at naught, can you worthily
prepare yourself to receive the impress of the truth.
Such is the part played by habit. But it, too, is
insufficient. One thing only produces perfect faith ;
that is, inspiration. If argument and habit have any
value it is because they announce or rather go along-
side the work of grace, making it known and under-
stood by the consciousness. By means of self-humilia-
tion to lay oneself open to those inspirations which
alone can work out the true and saving result ; that is
the supreme effort of man in his search after faith.
PASCAL. 185
In proportion as his spiritual state grows purer, so
does the truth unfold itself before his eyes.
The book which contains the truth is the Bible. In
reading this book I am at once struck with its marks
of authenticity. I notice particularly that it has been
handed down to us by the Jews, while yet it depicts
them as faithless, and threatens them with terrible
chastisements. Now what likelihood is there that they
would have preserved such a book had it not been
authentic? The more I dwell upon the story the Bible
has to tell the more remarkable I find it. It has a
unity, a sequence, a reasonableness which are extra-
ordinary. And what it places before us is, side by side
with a ceremonial religion, another religion which is
wholly spiritual, founded upon the love of God and
coming triumphantly through every sort of vicissitude.
Having thought out the matter thus far, my next
wish is to find that the religion of Christ, which forms
the final stage of this story, can be demonstrated
as true. Now I find proofs of truth in the numerous
miracles, incontestably genuine, that are related in the
Bible; in those obviously figurative passages in which
the book abounds, and which exactly apply to Jesus
Christ ', and lastly, in those very distinct prophecies
of which the history of Jesus Christ was the literal
fulfilment.
Such is the first impression made upon me by the
reading of the scriptures. But I cannot hide from
myself the fact that a closer examination gives rise to
enormous difficulties. If there are genuine miracles,
there are also pretended ones ; there are some which,
taken by themselves, tend to alienate the human spirit
186 PASCAL.
from God and from Christ. If there are some figures
of speech that are clear and convincing, there are
others that seem somewhat strained and can only be
accepted as proofs by those already persuaded. Again,
many of the prophecies are unintelligible, or would
at least seem to have found no sort of fulfilment.
This book abounds in inconsistencies. It makes God
both absent and present; it is of the flesh and also
of the spirit ; it is at the same time clear and obscure,
ordered and confused, sublime and trivial. Who shall
smooth away these contradictions? Who shall bring
order into this chaos?
The Bible is, on these points, its own interpreter.
Isaiah teaches us that God of set purpose blinds some
and makes others to see, and that his dealings are so
planned as to produce this two-fold result. God speaks
of himself as a God who hideth himself. To the elect
alone is it given to discern him behind the veil with
which he is covered. This is a sufficient solution from
the logical point of view ; but it plunges us as it were
into a yawning gulf of thought. How can God take
delight in deceiving and ruining his creatures?
Had man within him nothing higher than his reason,
he would find these difficulties unsurmountable. But
there is an illumination of the heart which is not as
that of the reason. With the heart man perceives that
there would be no merit in allowing himself to be ruled
by rational evidence; whereas, in yielding himself to
that against which both reason and nature rebel, he is
making an effort and a sacrifice and thereby fitting
himself for a perfection transcending that of the senses
and the reason. And thus is accomplished within the
PASCAL. 187
soul the mystery of the act of faith. The need of
believing, which had its first awakening in the will,
here meets its desired object; and that object, uniting
itself to the will, realises there the faith it was follow-
ing after. He who creates this higher life in man is
Jesus Christ. He it is whom man has ever been
seeking through all his restless cravings after earthly
good. He it is who from henceforth shall be the spring
of his thoughts and affections. Jesus Christ is the
corner stone of religion.
Jesus Christ is the most complete expression of the
contradiction which is to be found in every man.
Being God, he is great; yea, greatness itself. Yet at
the same time he is veritably man, and the humblest
and least among men. He is a workman, poor,
defenceless and obscure. On him is laid the burden
of the transgressions of all the sons of Adam, and the
endurance of the most cruel and ignominious torture.
In him are literally met together the very height of
greatness and the very depth of abasement.
His work is to turn what was once a hindrance into
a help, to make strength to arise out of weakness, and
evil to bring forth good. Jesus gives himself for us,
and his sacrifice has a peculiar virtue. A sacrifice on
the part of man, who has a debt to pay, can be nothing
but expiatory. That of the lamb without spot is
meritorious, with a merit of all-powerful efficacy.
Everything which proceeds from man himself leaves
his inner nature unchanged. In his present condition
his will is enthralled by his fallen nature, and has no
independent power. But the merits of Jesus, infinite
as the love which gave them birth, cut at the very root
188 PASCAL.
of sin. So that in him, evil as suffering may be
said to triumph over evil as sinfulness; and while all
suffering is not redemptive, but has only a depressing
influence when merely endured, the sufferings of Jesus,
undergone voluntarily and in accordance with the
Father's holy will, are invested with a divine virtue.
And as he was made whole, even so through him
may we also be made whole. Jesus is the way, the
truth, and the life. He is the way, inasmuch as he is
a kind of counterpart of ourselves, in whom the two
extremes of our nature are united and carried to an
infinite degree. He is the truth, inasmuch as he offers
to us such revelation upon divine and human things
as could come to us from no other source. The cross
whereby God chastens and also pardons, and whereby
humiliation is changed into glory, teaches us that God
is at the same time just and merciful, resisting the
proud and giving grace unto the humble. The cross
saves us alike from the stoic pride which would make
itself equal with God and from the despair which
overwhelms the atheist as he gazes into infinite nothing-
ness. And He is the life. Not that his action takes
the place of our own; the work of our regeneration
cannot be carried on without us. Yet because of our
assurance of the divine mercy we are the more ready
to act, having some cause for hoping that our efforts
may not be altogether in vain.
It is certain that we can of ourselves do nothing
which will avail for our salvation. But Jesus Christ
is rightly called the second Adam ; and even as we have
all sinned in the first Adam, in whom we all virtually
existed and from whose desires all the desires of our
PASCAL. 189
fallen nature have sprung, even so we can all, if we
will, live in the second Adam and be clothed upon with
his merits. In order to bring this about we must needs
be partakers in all that befalls him, suffering together
with him, mingling our prayers with his prayers, our
love with his love ; we must become members of Jesus
Christ. To be a member is to have neither life nor
being, nor movement save by the suggestion and on
behalf of the body to which we belong. Love then is
the means by which we are enabled to live in Jesus
Christ and to be born again with him. He is in very
deed the God of humanity.
United to Jesus Christ, we have a new outlook upon
things, an outlook our natural faculties could never
have given us. For by these we endeavour to trace
effects to their cause, and continually seek that which,
as we pursue it, evermore eludes us ; so that we go from
contradiction to contradiction. But in Jesus Christ
we are starting from the vital source of things, and
that which when looked at from the outside was
irreconcilable contradiction, is shown to be highest
logic and perfect harmony.
To begin with, the Bible, the miracles, the prophecies,
the figures of spiritual things, which seemed to our
astonished eyes calculated to blind some and enlighten
others, now take on a new meaning. Those whom God
blinds have actually willed, in the pride and
unregeneracy of their hearts, to believe in nothing but
their own reason and to deny everything that passes
their comprehension. God leaves them to their
blindness. Those whom he enlightens are they who
seek him in all sincerity and submit themselves unto
190 PASCAL.
the truth. To yield oneself to God, the source of every
good deed, is already to possess him. Speaking after
the manner of men, then, we may say it depends upon
ourselves whether we are of those who are made to see
or of those who are blinded. It is as though we could
of ourselves obtain the favour of God. To the eye of
faith God's act does not in any way lessen man's act;
it brings it to fruition.
Under divine enlightenment, we find fresh subjects
of belief in the very difficulties the Bible presented to
our reason. Certain prophecies have apparently never
been fulfilled ; but it was we who interpreted them
wrongly, reading into them a material meaning instead
of the spiritual one they were intended to convey. The
Jews looked for a Messiah, mighty as the world
accounts might, because they were carnally minded.
The Christian knows that the order of material
greatness is as nothing before the order of divine love ;
and he understands the kingship of the Messiah in the
sense of this moral greatness. Just so with the figura-
tive language of the Bible and with the miracles. The
figures are meant to be interpreted in spirit and in
truth, yet leave no room whatever for arbitrary
explanation. Those miracles which serve as proofs of
divine truth should be distinguished from others; for
there are false miracles, of no meaning or value.
Sometimes the miracles interpret the doctrine,
sometimes the doctrine interprets the miracles. Here
likewise is the love of God our necessary and infallible
guide, setting bounds to our reason which, if left to
itself, wanders far astray when it meddles with
spiritual things.
PASCAL. 191
Henceforth not only is the meaning of the Bible
made clear to man, but he begins to understand afresh
his own nature; and whereas his unaided reason had
been able to see there nothing but contradictions and
feebleness, he is now aware alike of the order that lies
at the root of his nature and of the cause and cure of
the disorder that nevertheless reigns within it.
Man has three faculties: heart or will, reason, the
senses. If these faculties are at present warring
with each other it is because their primal relation has
been disturbed.
The heart, following its actual bent, inclines towards
self as its supreme end. This tendency is the effect of
sin, by which self has been preferred before God. But
when regenerated by grace, the heart tears itself from
its idol and turns to the living God; then, having
submitted itself, it is in a position to rule and direct
our every faculty.
The senses, which we constitute our judges in things
divine, and by whose guidance we undertake to solve
the problem of our destiny, really have to do solely
with the material world created by God. They take
cognisance of physical facts, just as the heart, apart
from the senses, takes cognisance of moral verities and
first principles; both sure witnesses in their own
domain ; in fact, the only ones to whom competence and
authority belong.
Between these two intuitive forces stands our reason,
like a servant between two masters. The philosophers
were mistaken when they invested it with principles
of its own and the power to be self-sufficing. All the
192 PASCAL.
principles these misleading teachers imagine that they
find in the reason belong in reality either to the senses
or to the heart, both being under sin. Reason has no
leading principles of its own. Its legitimate
function is to come to the aid of the senses in matters
of physical knowledge, and to join in the action of
grace upon the will in matters of divine knowledge.
Between natural science and religion there is no place
at all for philosophy; this science, falsely so called, is
but the last effort of human pride to make itself equal
with God and to render the cross of none effect.
And thus there are within us three orders of being :
that of the body, that of the mind, and that of the love
of God ; and the infinite distance which separates the
first from the second is no more than a symbol of the
infinitely greater distance which separates the second
from the third. When the relations of these three
to each other are known and observed, then may peace
and harmony be once more restored to the soul
of man.
As faith in Jesus Christ gives us a clearer vision of
the nature of religion and of our own being, so likewise
does it regulate our conduct. The one object worthy
of man's desire is the possession of the divine favour.
Now there is no formula of incantation by which God
can be made to bestow it upon us. It is the mortal
error of the pagans and such Christians as think after
the manner of pagans that they make God subject to
the actions of men. Yet on the other hand it will not
do to believe, with certain Christians imbued with the
opposite error, that God saves us without our having
any participation in the work; that our acts are a
PASCAL. 193
matter of indifference; that Jesus Christ purely and
simply takes our place before his father's tribunal.
The truth is that the work of grace, while altogether
divine in its origin, must needs be accompanied by
human effort. This consists in taking part in the work
of salvation which is accomplished by divine mercy;
in living in Jesus Christ, as we have aforetime lived in
Adam. To live in Jesus Christ is to be permitted to
enter into his glory by being made partakers of his
sufferings. He has not exempted us from suffering;
for he, being our example, has himself suffered;
but he has given us the means of making our sufferings
fruitful.
The Christian life is thus a life of self-mortification.
The suffering we inflict upon ourselves in communion
of spirit with Jesus Christ is our part in the work of
our salvation, and our way of labouring to weaken
within us the three-fold lust of the flesh, the mind and
the will. Through its means we set our heart free from
the unworthy and perishable objects which put it to
shame, in order that the love of God may fill it in their
stead. And in truth the love of God does fill it,
according as it grows in purity. For was it not under
this very influence that it struggled and mortified
itself? Suffering more and more meekly accepted is
the sign of spiritual regeneration.
Love to God, the supreme duty of man, which
alone gives meaning to all the others, and which yet
lies infinitely out of reach of the powers of our fallen
nature, is realised by the motions of God within us,
and calls us even in this present life to be partakers
of the divine life. Yet never could we of our own
N
194 PASCAL.
selves have yielded to it and set ourselves free from
struggle and trial. Even as nature is but an image of
grace, so grace itself does but shadow forth the glory
which is to come. The life of the Christian is the soul's
progress, ever more and more free and joyous, towards
a goal that lies upon the other side of death.
PASCAL. 195
CHAPTER IX.
PASCAL AND His INFLUENCE ON SUCCEEDING THOUGHT.
PASCAL'S countenance, so far as we can judge from his
death mask and one or two portraits, was singularly
expressive of intellectual power, of reflection, of quick
perception, of subtle irony, of decision, sincerity and
spirituality. You notice at once the delicately formed
curve of the lips and the pronounced arch of the nose;
but still more do the eyes arrest you with their
searching glance at once calm and commanding, and
you know not whether to be attracted by the fine
genius that looks out from them or awed by their
expression of aloofness.
But however remarkable this physiognomy, it does
but feebly express an inner life of extraordinary
richness and intensity. Pascal united in himself
singularly diverse qualities; a gift for the sciences
depending on observation and on reasoning, to-
gether with a most penetrating sense of the things
of the heart and the soul; the craving to know
and the craving to love; a drawing towards the
inward life, and an ardent desire to influence other
men; childlikeness and ambition; simplicity and
ability ; power of abstract thought, and imagination ;
passion and will-power; the spontaneity of a generous
nature, and inclination for work, struggle and effort.
One of the dominant traits of his character was his
fancy to excel in everything. This straining after
perfection led him to allow no temporising, no con-
196 PASCAL.
cession, no middle course. In all things he sought the
absolute. The very qualities which seemed the most
difficult of reconcilement, he pushed to their logical
conclusion and undertook to establish a basis of unity
between them.
He passed through several mental phases, determined
by his native genius, by circumstances and by the force
of his will.
Brought up by his father in the spirit of compromise
between temporal and spiritual interests, and finding
out for himself later that the religion of Christ allows
man to have no other object than God alone, he at
once embraced this manner of thinking, finding in it
the completeness and exactness for which he craved.
His heart however was not yet rid of its earthly
attachments, and, his intellect having played a larger
part in his conversion than did his heart, he oscillated
between the love of God and the love of science. Next,
living in the whirl of society, he was captivated by it,
and took knowledge of the depth, the beauty and the
dignity of human nature. He found both by observa-
tion and experience that the essence of man's nature
is passion, and that the root of passion is the need to
possess some object which shall be great enough to fill
the emptiness of the human heart. Henceforth, he was
to seek in man's own nature the basis of everything
man is required to believe. Now with all hia newly-
developed appreciation of human nature, he could not
help seeing that it was rent by internal discord, that
its powers were hopelessly unequal to its destiny. His
mind became disturbed and unhappy ; until presently
faith awoke within him, faith in a God of love as the
PASCAL. 197
one only object of the soul; and herein he found a
remedy for his soul sickness, not merely theoretical,
but practical and efficacious. By this means he
recovered his peace and joy of heart. This time his
conversion was definitive, because it was no longer a
mere intellectual assent but a genuine renewal of heart
and will. From this time forth Pascal's resolve was
taken. He would consecrate to God the whole of his
powers ; he would set his face against that mingling of
the worldly with the Christian spirit, that sharing of
the soul's allegiance between God and self which is a
compact impossible of fulfilment; he would labour for
his own spiritual perfecting and for the conversion of
other men ; and even science he would value only in so
far as it could be used in the service of religion.
The form in which Pascal clothed his ideas in the
books he was moved to write was the natural outcome
of the object he had in view. His one effort was to
make known the inward work of grace which forces the
unregenerate man out of his condition of pride or
indifference and summons him to that love which
involves the giving up of self. This two-fold effect
of grace Pascal's diction is fitted to convey. On the
one hand, his writings abound in vivid descriptions,
violent contrasts, even exaggerated expressions such as
would be likely to stir the imagination and move the
apathy of the unregenerate man. On the other hand,
he has language at his command able to search and win
the heart, inspire it with confidence and open it out to
faith, love and joy. And from the first page of his
discourse to the last there was to be unfolded a chain
of inflexible reasoning, this being the human means
198 PASCAL.
whereby we uplift ourselves from what is natural to
what is divine, and pass on from vain knowledge to
faith.
In Pascal are united the scholar, the Christian and
the man. Each one of these is complete, each a part
of the others, and the three are but one. What he
rejects is philosophy; that unnatural coupling together
of that which is above nature and a capacity for
knowledge whose scope is limited to that which
pertains to nature. And one can only make a
philosopher of him by wresting his words and treating
his religious doctrines as being merely rationalistic
doctrines presented in a symbolic manner ; a view
contrary to his own belief, who in all sincerity made
Christianity the pivot of his thought and life. To him
Christianity meant this : that when once a man is alive
in Jesus Christ he harbours no thought that does not
tend towards God and, by the same token, proceed
from God.
Pascal lived only thirty-nine years. He wrote but
one work, the Petites Lettres (Provvnciales) and a
few fragments, the greater number of which are merely
rough notes. Nevertheless he has left so deep a mark
that most great thinkers since his time, in French-
speaking countries at least, have been either saturated
with his thought or avowedly antagonistic to him.
As a writer he produced one of the most exquisite
forms of French prose, a diction still rich in words of
older usage, forcible and colloquial ; in concrete expres-
sions and bold imagery ; yet at the same time subdued,
simple, precise and clear ; a syntax at once flexible and
strictly logical ; a very free construction which, while
PASCAL. 199
allowing the fine measured roll of the Latin period,
also breaks up or knits together the sentences, fills
them out or condenses them, with an ease and
an art that are wholly French. The seventeenth
century writers looked in vain to this style with all
its freshness of perfection as their model; for no one
of them, nay, not even the greatest, could boast of that
particular combination of qualities which came so
naturally to Pascal. Save in the case of La Fontaine,
reason was to be in the ascendancy, and the heart and
the imagination were to take a secondary place And
among the various forms into which French prose has
developed later than the seventeenth century, from
Voltaire and Rousseau down to Chateaubriand and
Victor Hugo, there are scarcely any of which the germs
are not to be found in the writings of Pascal.
But it is not only as a stylist that Pascal exercised
a lasting influence. His personality and his ideas
were also destined to outlive him and to have a life
and a future of their own.
He afforded a striking example of the possibility of
reconciling the highest degree of reasoning power with
the most childlike and humble faith. He was of the
number of those who contributed most to the bringing
into favour of that harmony between science and
religion which was one of the features of the
seventeenth century.
His influence upon his own age was of a more special
kind. To the dangers which beset the Christian church
from formidable enemies within her pale, he opposed,
together with his friends at Port Royal, but after a
more living and less official manner, the restitution
200 PASCAL.
of Christianity to the purity and strictness of its earlier
days. Now the Provinciates, in which he pleaded for
love to God as the rule of life, proved no mere social
success. Themselves condemned by Rome on the score
of dogma, they brought about the condemnation, by
the public conscience and the voice of the church, of the
relaxed code of morals of the Jesuits, and contributed
to the suppression of the order in 1764.
Again, the teaching of the Pensees touching the
natural corruption of man and his regeneration by
divine grace ; touching the misery of man without God
and the greatness of man with God ; touching the close
accord between man's part and God's part in the work
of salvation, runs more or less through all the
Christian teaching of the seventeenth century, and is a
part of every system of belief, belonging to that time,
which has its root in religion. This applies to the
teachings of Bossuet and Bourdaloue ; to the views of
Racine, Boileau and La Bruyere; to the systems of
Malebranche, Spinoza and Leibnitz. Nevertheless, it
would seem that the precise relation laid down by
Pascal between Christianity and human nature was
not fully understood and appreciated by an age
dominated, in spite of itself, by the dualist ic spirit of
cartesianism.
Reason, however, not content with the relative
independence accorded to it by the seventeenth century,
laid claim, under the philosophers of the eighteenth, to
absolute independence; and now Pascal was regarded
as a pernicious example, whose influence it was
important to destroy. Already had Leibnitz, while
expressing the greatest admiration for Pascal as a
PASCAL. 201
scholar, reproached him as a Christian for having had
his mind full of prejudices in favour of Rome; and
insinuated that his intellect had early become deranged
by reason of the excessive austerities he had practised.
Voltaire, with narrower vision, refused to see anything
in Pascal's religious ideas but the effect of the
repression exercised upon his genius by the spirit of
his time. A sublime madman, born a century too
soon : thus does he characterise him. And he lashes
him with his sarcasms, accusing him of having
blackened human nature, and of having been fool
enough to teach man that he was intended to be
something better than man. Condorcet's introduction
to his famous edition of the Pensees, published in 1776,
is conceived in the same spirit. He alternately pities
and chides Pascal for having allowed himself to be the
tool of superstition. Such is likewise the point of view
of Andre Chenier, when with biting eloquence he
condemns this Pascal who, as he says, spent so much
talent and genius in railing at the sound sense which
investigates, and in rebelling against doubt ; a proud
and arrogant man under all his show of humility,
indignant that any mortal should feel at liberty to
shake off a yoke which he himself elected to wear.
The better to explain how so great a genius had
come to make so lamentable a failure, these writers got
into the habit of regarding him as not quite sane.
Condorcet had mentioned an amulet belonging to
Pascal, thus designating the memento found in his
waistcoat after his death. Voltaire had revived the
legend of the abyss which Pascal was supposed to have
thought he saw beside his chair during the last year of
202 PASCAL.
his life. The Recueil cPUtrecht told of a strange
accident said to have befallen Pascal on the Pont de
Neuilly, and to have excited his imagination. Through
these tales and the comments upon them, it came to be
believed that Pascal had been subject to hallucinations
and, at least at intervals, out of his mind; and the
time came when a distinguished philosopher, who was
also a doctor of medicine, Lelut, gravely argued out
this theory, in a work entitled : L'Amtilette de Pascal,
pour servir a Vhistoire des liallucinations (The Amulet
of Pascal: A Contribution to the History of
Hallucinations), 1846.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, however,
came Rousseau, who set up feeling in opposition to
reason, and constructed a history of human society
which was no other than a philosophical presentation
of the religious history of the soul, passing successively
through the stages of unfallen nature, fallen nature,
and regenerated nature. Those who were led away by
the ideas of Rousseau read Pascal with another eye
than did Voltaire. They saw in him a mystic, proving
to man that he would be given over to pyrrhonism were
it not for his reason ; yet revealing to him, in the
secret transports of his heart, the source of a faith
and an assurance which cannot be moved. Thus it is
that Jacobi, who was destined to be one of the most
thoroughgoing representatives of the philosophy of
feeling, was a devoted student of Pascal as of
Rousseau, and took for his motto the famous maxim :
" The heart has its own reasons, of which the reason
knows nothing." As was the case with Jacobi, most of
those who have turned to the immediate inspirations of
PASCAL. 203
feeling as a refuge from the uncertainties of reason,
have been either the disciples or the admirers of Pascal.
With Chateaubriand, Pascal becomes once more, as
in the seventeenth century, the great thinker, who was
at the same time a great believer ; and it is to his very
faith, according to the author of the Genie du
Christianisme, that he owes his literary genius. Pascal
the sophist, the creation of Voltaire's imagination,
would have been infinitely beneath Pascal the Christian,
who, just as he was, offers us a living and sovereign
proof of the excellence of Christianity.
And yet this same Chateaubriand, after having
expressed himself thus, goes on at once to insinuate
that Pascal's reason, which would otherwise have led
him to the extreme of negation, was kept in check and
reduced to silence by his faith. And later he was to
pronounce expressly for a sceptical Pascal, who turned
Christian sore against his will, and in whom the
unbeliever died hard. This is properly the Pascal of
the romancers. He personifies, in wondrously tragic
fashion, the conflict between heart and intellect.
" This is the Pascal that I love," says Chateaubriand ;
" I love him when, falling upon his knees and covering
his face with his hands, he cries out : ' I believe,' almost
at the very moment when he has let fall other
utterances that belie his words."
In 1823, Villemain, in his Discours et Melanges
(Essays and Miscellanies), asserted that this powerful
intellect had fallen back upon superstitious practices
as a relief from the torments of doubt. Seven years
later, in 1830, Victor Cousin brought to his study of
the manuscript of the Pensees a preconceived idea of
204 PASCAL.
Pascal's scepticism, and, as a consequence, found it
there. Hence he presents to his contemporaries, in 1842,
a Pascal as much the victim of doubt as of disease,
with whom faith was a half-conquered unbelief. This
idea of Pascal is rife among us to-day, as witness the
fine lines of Mme. Ackermann, or those of Sully
Prudhomme :
"La foi n'est, dans Pascal, qu'une agonie etrange;"
(For Pascal, faith was nothing but a strange agony)
or of Jules Lemaitre : " Upon the grave in which you
buried your reason, your fame, your genius, you set
up a cross;
Mais sous I'entassement des ruines vivantes
L'abiine se rouvrait, et, pleine d'epouvantes,
La cr&ix du Bedeinpteur tremblait comme un roseau."
(But though buried they were not dead ; with the
stirrings of their life they broke open the tomb, and
the cross of the Redeemer shuddered and trembled
like a reed.)
At the very time when Victor Cousin, following in
the wake of other critics, was discovering a sceptical
Pascal, the profoundly spiritual thinker, Alexandre
Vinet, for whom religion consisted in experiencing the
workings of God within the soul, placed the principle
of Pascal's doctrine in a pessimistic view of man's
nature, and found his method to consist in looking to
God rather than to man, and in receiving enlighten-
ment through the heart. He found in him religion
such as he conceived it to be that is to say, as a matter
of spiritual and individual experience. And when
PASCAL, 205
Faugere's edition appeared, published direct from the
manuscript, he greeted it in these terms : " Pascal is
restored to us, not Pascal the sceptic, but the Pascal
we used to know, the Pascal of assured convictions,
full of joy and fervour."
While with respect to the relation between reason
and faith each one read more or less into Pascal's
writings the view that fell in with his own ideas on the
subject, the Pascal of the Provinciates remained, at the
same time the incomparable writer and the adversary
par excellence of the Jesuit code of morality. In vain
was the order, suppressed in 1764, re-established in
1814. In vain did Saint Alphonse de Liguori, the
founder of the Institute of the Redemptorists, restore
probabilism granted a sufficient explanation in
cases of adultery, perjury, and homicide; the public
conscience never reversed the judgment of Pascal.
And the maxim which makes the end justify the means;
the cunning duplicity which allows lying under the
semblance of truth; the casuistry which reduces to
rules that which does not admit of being so treated, and
kills the spirit with the letter ; the complacence which
calls evil good, or at least declares it to be legitimate
under pretext that it is distasteful to men to break
loose from it ; the formalism which exempts men from
the duty of love to God and inward piety; religion as
the instrument of authority; the use of cunning and
policy as means whereby to labour for the establishing
of the kingdom of God; all these have remained
objects of aversion to devout and sensitive souls. True,
the Provinciates have been subjected to a flood of
criticism on points of detail. The correctness of such
206 PASCAL.
and such a quotation, the interpretation of some theo-
logical formula, the attributing to the whole Order of
the assertions of certain of its members all these have
been called in question. And no doubt had Pascal been
more of a theologian these matters would have been
open to discussion. But that which he condemned still
stands condemned, not only in heaven but even upon
earth.
Nowadays the spirit of analysis prevails; and we
are less inclined to look to Pascal for weapons or
arguments in favour of one doctrine or another, than
to study him with an open mind, so as to gain some
just idea of what he really and truly was. This kind
of unbiassed investigation began with Sainte Beuve
and Ernest Havet, the latter of whom published his
first edition of the Pensees in 1852. Sainte Beuve,
however, with all the learning and literary acumen he
brought to bear upon the subject, with all his interest
in it, and his openness of mind, is still haunted by the
romantic idea of a Pascal whose moment of clearest
faith was also the moment of his darkest doubt.
Ernest Havet, for his part, whose exegesis is most
thorough, exact and scholarly, forms his judgment of
Pascal from the point of view of an outsider, looking
at him from his own rationalistic standpoint. Since
the recent labours of Edouard Droz, Ravaisson, Sully
Prudhomme, Rauh, Michaut, Brunschvicg, Victor
Giraud, amongst others, it may be said that Pascal,
such as he was to his own consciousness and such as
his friends knew him, has definitely replaced the
personality, to a certain extent the invention of his
biographers, who figured so long under his name.
PASCAL. 207
Henceforth the writer of the Provinciales and the
writer of the Pensees, the eminent scholar and the
eminent Christian, the man of social parts and the
friend of Port Royal, the dialectician and the believer,
no longer clash with one another. Considered from
the strictly historical point of view, Pascal appears as
a man of rich genius, with a craving for breadth and
perfection, whose powers in the plenitude of their
strength were devoted to the defence of the faith and
to the love of God.
Nor does this veritable Pascal seem to be any less
fitted for influence than he who was the creation of
men's fancy.
After having long been satisfied with such systems of
apology as rest mainly upon pure reason and upon
authority, the catholic church witnessed within its own
pale some remarkable efforts to seek the primary
motives of belief no longer in the objects of faith but
in man, in human nature. In accordance with this
method, the primary condition of all religious proof
would be the awakening within the human soul of the
desire to lay hold upon God, a desire which does in
very deed lie deep within us, but is overlaid by the life
of the flesh. It would become a question then of
setting free in human nature the desire for spiritual
life. Now it is in a measure due to the influence of
Pascal's writings, read and pondered in all. singleness
of heart, that this branch of Christian apologetics has
been developed.
Nor is this all ; to more than one Christian, dwelling
in an atmosphere of worldly ambition, the writer of the
Mysttre de Jesus comes as a reminder that the whole of
208 PASCAL.
religion is embraced in the love of God, and that he
who does not take God for his beginning cannot have
him for his end. And he becomes a source of spiritual
strength to those generous souls who share with
him the desire that Christianity may be in themselves
and others a living thing, and not a formula or the
catchword of a party.
All Christians, all men, in fact, who can enter into
the saying of the apostle : " God is love," to whatever
church belonging, find in Pascal a brother, in heart
communion with whom they grow in goodness and
piety.
Pascal's writings exercise a strong influence besides
upon those who do not share his particular form of
religious belief. His delineations of human nature
are too real and living, the struggles that went on
within his own breast find too sure an echo in the
experiences of every earnest soul, to allow of the objects
of his faith being limited to their literal and material
sense. Nature and grace, the love of the flesh and the
love of God ; these stand for matter and spirit, blind
impulse and voluntary effort, egoism and self-sacrifice,
passion and true liberty. How turn a deaf ear to
teaching so fine and invigorating, which tells us that
an earnest desire on our part to get rid of this self
of ours, faulty and self-seeking, is at once, by an
inward and effectual grace, changed into the actual
and living power which is needed for the transforming
of this self and for inspiring it with goodness and love?
How can this so profound sense of the misery and the
greatness of man fail to arrest our attention? Man is
but a sorry creature in that when left to the bent of
DEATH MASK OF BLAISE PASCAL.
PASCAL. 209
his nature and to the law of inertia, when ceasing to
will, to struggle, to suffer, he sinks lower and lower,
and declines from the dignity proper to man. But he
is great, in that he is capable of uplifting himself con-
tinually above the level of the brutes and even above
himself, and inasmuch as the God whose it is to exalt
him, is nigh him, is within him, as the very essence of
his being. Only let him put far from him the
comfortable doctrine which would allow worthy ends to
be attained by dishonourable means; as though vices,
skilfully handled, could of themselves produce virtue.
By good alone can we follow good and fight against
evil; love alone can conquer hate and make ready the
reign of love.
Not in any purely outward revelation then, but in
his own nature, should man seek the springs of his
knowledge, his rule of life, his religious belief. But
the self that first of all confronts him, and that is full
of restlessness and inconsistency, must be to him only
as a mask that needs to be broken before he can see
his real self. And by an unyielding struggle against
his self-seeking instincts he is to create and develop
within himself, until it becomes a second nature, the
power to love and follow that which is worthy.
The doctrine of good being produced from good
is too much in harmony with the aspirations of the
human soul to meet with any opposition, at least from
men's consciences if not from their intellects. But
there is one point in Pascal's life and teaching which
does in some quarters provoke astonishment or blame ;
that is, his devotion to asceticism. This devotion is
not separable from his personality and his beliefs; it
o
210 PASCAL.
is an integral part of them. Pascal looks upon self-
mortification as being our share in the struggle against
our fallen nature. It is the distinctively human work
which must needs accompany and make manifest the
divine work in the task of our salvation.
To reject asceticism at every point would be to
maintain that all parts of our nature have an equal
right to existence and development, a theory never
admitted by any system of morality. Socrates made
temperance the first condition of knowledge and virtue.
Now the more exalted the aim that a man sets before
himself the greater is the opposition of his natural
love of ease, and the more he is bound to fight against
and subdue himself.
Is it certain however that we ought to endeavour
not merely to moderate, but to annihilate, the lower
instincts of our nature? Assuredly for him who would
attain sanctity it is the path of greater safety. Yet
there are some dangers that duty even calls us to face ;
and, so far from escaping out of our nature, ought we
mot rather to bend it to the accomplishment of that
which is good ? Besides, is nature so utterly rebellious ?
Pascal himself declared that there is grandeur in our
nature as well as baseness. The truth is, the one cannot
be separated from the other; and the same instinct
that degrades us when we passively yield to it becomes
our stay and support when we use it with intelligence
and freedom. Visible things are not only veils which
serve to hide God, they are likewise signs which reveal
him; and this God, from whom are all things, is to
be sought not only in himself, as Pascal would have it,
but also through the medium of his works and the
PASCAL. 211
symbolism of nature. A task more humble, and
incapable of satisfying an impetuous soul which could
not rest content with anything short of the highest;
yet the only one it would seem for which as yet
humanity is able. Nothingness and infinitude are for
us but two imaginary limits. " To quit the mean between
these two," Pascal himself avowed, " is to leave the
allotted place of humanity : the greatness of the human
soul consists in being able to preserve this mean."
NOTES.
Page 1, line 4.
Maitre des requetes : The office of maitre des
requites was developed by Richelieu into that of
intendant de la generality. (See p. 10.) The " King's
Council," or " Council of State," was entirely re-
constituted by him; and, whereas in the sixteenth
century it had been composed almost entirely of
ambassadors, princes, members of the military nobility,
and ecclesiastics, with scarcely any magistrates, under
Richelieu the judicial element predominated and the
military and ecclesiastical were almost absent. It was
the age of great juris-consults, and important changes
took place in law and administration. The tendency
of the changes made by Richelieu was towards
centralisation. Part of his scheme consisted in lessen-
ing the power of the parlements and increasing the
power of the intendants, who, as direct representatives
of the central government, administered the financial
affairs of the generalites (districts) under their charge.
The parlements, the highest courts of France, resented
this re-distribution of authority. Many young men of
high birth had been accustomed to find in them an
opportunity of entering a public career, and the
" counsellors " (see p.p. 10, 18} formed a special and
privileged class of French nobles.
ii. PASCAL.
Page 1, line 17.
Cour des aides : The Cour des aides was one of the
great fiscal courts of France. It dealt with cases relating
to the payment of taxes, tolls, &c. It was instituted in
1355 and made into a sovereign court in 1426. It adjudged
which of the civil and ecclesiastical titles should involve
exemption from taxation. It had power to decide in cases
of contracts between farmers, &c. It was also a court of
appeal from inferior courts on financial decisions.
Page 2, line 16.
Antoine Arnauld (1560 1619), the father of so
many remarkable children, was born in Paris; but
his family originally came from Provence. He
was a distinguished member of the bar, and renounced
several public offices of importance in order to devote
himself to this his chosen career. His eloquence and
uprightness were proverbial.
The University of Paris, which did its utmost to
prevent the establishment of the Society of Jesus in
France, and, having failed in this, stoutly refused to
admit any of its members into its own body, upon
diverse occasions besought the parlement of Paris to
order the expulsion of the Jesuits. It was on one of
these occasions, on July 12, 1594, that the famous
advocate delivered one of his greatest speeches. He
pleaded the cause of the university with such force and
brilliance that the Jesuits never forgave him. Again
in 1601 he addressed an appeal to the king against
NOTES. iii.
their recall, they having been banished on account of
the attempted assassination of the king by their
disciple, Jean Chatel.
This was the original grievance of the Jesuits against
the Arnauld family, and the prime cause of their
perpetual hostility to Port Royal, since the monastery
numbered among its members not only Mme. Arnauld
herself, but also six of her daughters and five grand-
daughters who were nuns there, besides several of her
sons and grandsons who were among the recluses.
Page 5, line 7.
Le Pailleur is said to have been one of the best of
good fellows, and highly talented in more than one
direction, being at the same time a musician, a man
of letters and a learned mathematician. He was a
poor man, and being passionately devoted to study
used to sell his books when he had learnt all he could
from them and then buy others with the proceeds. His
lively and sociable disposition and his gift of song
were his passport to the higher circles of society, where
he was much sought after. Even the scientific gather-
ings at the house of Etienne Pascal had their lighter
moments, when Le Pailleur enlivened the company
with his jokes and songs.
Page 6, line 2.
Father Mersenne (1588 1648): Marin Mersenne,
Minime, was the intimate and life-long friend of
iv. PASCAL.
Descartes, for whom he acted as a kind of representa-
tive or agent in Paris. The two went to the same
Jesuit college at La Flechy, but Mersenne being
seven years older than Descartes they could not have
had much to do with each other there. But the
friendship afterwards formed, and carried on by a
correspondence which only ceased at the death of one
of them, may possibly have had its foundation in their
college days. Mersenne went from Flechy to the
Sorbonne. On leaving there he entered the order of the
Minims (hermit brothers of the holy Francesco de Paolo),
taking the habit on July 19, 1611, and the vowa a year
later. He was ordained priest in Paris six months
after Descartes settled there. The renewal of their
acquaintanceship was at once useful to Descartes, inas-
much as it drew him away from the enticements of the
gaming table. In 1614 Mersenne was sent by his
superior to teach philosophy to the young monks of
his order at Nevers, but returned later to Paris.
Mahaffy says of him that he was no great thinker, but
a sympathetic and stirring friend. His favourite
subject was music and everything relating to sound.
But he was most useful in setting other people to think
and in keeping the scientific men of his day in touch
with each other. M. Bertrand says that he almost
took the place in his own person of what is now known
as the scientific press. Though not exactly a pioneer
in science himself, he was yet apt at suggesting
subjects for investigation, and had an insatiable
capacity for putting questions. (See note, p. 147. } He
published a volume of Questions Inouies (Questions on
out-of-the-way subjects). The following is among
V.
them : " Can the laws of geometrical progression be
applied to progress in morality?" (See p. 6, I. 13.)
To this he answers : " It is very difficult to
imitate the ways of nature and carry forward
the goodness and merit of our acts by augmenting
them in geometrical proportion ; yet there are
some who do believe that the Mother of God
thus increased her merit either from the time of
her birth, or from her arriving at years of discretion,
or from her conception, until her death. And this
would be quite easy of computation if we knew the
amount of the first grace she received and the propor-
tion of this first grace to the second ; for example, if it
always increased in double proportion, and say the
first grace was of one degree, then the sixty-fourth
would have as many degrees as there are units in the
following number : 2212840593106477958
7878645385854553322044332411
8854673876372791135947470336
00000000000000, for this is the sixty-fourth
geometrical progression, each term of which is in
double proportion to the preceding one. However this
may be, we cannot make any moral progress without
a perpetual augmentation of the special grace of God
given to us, while we must also make efforts on our own
account to grow in virtue, following the counsel of the
Apocalypse : ' He that is righteous, let him be
righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy
still.' If the teachers of science or virtue can provide
a method by which their disciples can profit after this
manner of progression, and if monks can hit upon
some way of advancing towards perfection by this
vi. PASCAL.
continuous progress, then they may well abide by it
and make use of it as the best method of all."
Other questions are: Whether the art of flying is
possible, and whether men can fly as high, as far, and
as quickly as birds? Can one walk upon water without
the aid of miracle or magic? How many grains of
sand would the earth contain, supposing it to be
entirely composed of it; and is man larger in respect of
the earth than is a worm in respect of man 1 ? What
are the movements of the ocean, and what their causes ;
and what about the squaring of the circle? Can we
know whether the earth revolves daily on its axis and
annually round the sun, and whether the stars are
inhabited or no? Do all men act so entirely from
self-interest that they can never be quite free from it?
Is it true that bread and iron are lighter when cold
than when hot? Can we know for a certainty at
what hour, on what day, in what month, and in what
year the world began, and when it will come to an end ?
Can we number the hairs of every man's head, and
conceive of an infinite number ? Is it possible for every
language to be so written that all foreigners can
pronounce it correctly ; and ought one rather to write
words as one is accustomed to pronounce them or retain
the old manner of spelling which has many superfluous
letters? Can mathematics be made use of in theology
and physics ? Do we at the present day know anything
more of any art or any science than did the ancients?
Is it true that sympathetic unguents and such-like have
power to cure people at a distance? Is one lighter
before breakfast or after breakfast? Is it possible to
learn to compose music in the space of an hour or less
NOTES. vii.
than an hour? Why does the magnet attract iron
and why does it turn towards the pole? Why is the
ebb and flow of the sea so regular? Why is sea water
salt? Can there be such a thing as perpetual motion?
Why does ice float on water? And how can the will
follow the light of the understanding when it cannot
see?
Page 6, line 4.
Giles Personne Boberval (1602 1675) was at first a
professor of philosophy and later, in 1631, became
royal professor of mathematics. This post he retained
to the day of his death, in spite of the fact that it
was thrown open for competition every three years.
A man of great attainments, he was not satisfactory
as a friend, and seems to have been of an unpleasant
disposition. Descartes, himself so ready to make
friends, says that Roberval's friendship was " a very
perishable commodity." He did him the justice to
believe, however, that his ungracious manners arose
from his disposition and not from personal ill-will
towards himself. He took what friendliness he gave
him for what it was worth, without looking for more.
Bertrand says of Roberval that " he was very much
puffed up with his own abilities and no less unjust in
depreciating the well-accredited work of other people
than eager in boasting of his own. The absurdities
and vanity of Roberval were often the laughing stock
of the scientific world."
viii. PASCAL,
Page 6, line 4.
Carcavi was born at Lyons, and died in 1684. He
was the friend of Fermat, Pascal and Descartes, and
was held in high honour and esteem. Colbert made
him curator of the Royal library, and further showed
his absolute trust in him by giving him the task of
putting in order the immense amount of papers
belonging to Cardinal Mazarin. Carcavi demonstrated
the impossibility of squaring the circle.
Page 6, line 5.
Claude Mydorge (1585 1647) was the son of
wealthy parents, his father being a judge. He himself
had ample means, and although educated for the law
took no laborious office, so that he might be free to
devote all his time to mathematics. He succeeded
Vieta as the greatest reputed mathematician in France.
When Descartes, on leaving college, settled in Paris
and began to make friends, Mydorge was one of the
first of them. There was an especial attraction
between the two, and their friendship was life-long.
To Mydorge alone Descartes gives the name of
" discreet and faithful friend," adding that he found
his conversation most helpful and his services real and
practical. The enlarging of Descartes' circle of
friends in Paris was greatly owing to Mydorge, who
spoke his praises far and wide. Through the years
1627 and 1628 these two friends were at leisure to
work together and enjoy each other's society. The
NOTES. ix.
cutting of lenses by Mydorge was of the very greatest
service to Descartes, both for the better understanding
and explaining, as in the Dioptriquc, of the nature of
light, vision and refraction, and for the confirming of
certain discoveries already made by him in connection
with optical problems. Besides this he employed
Mydorge to cut glasses parabolic, hyperbolic, oval and
elliptical, which were to aid him in illustrating the
nature of these curves. Under the teaching of
his friend, Descartes, whose hand, says Baillet,
was as unerring and delicate as his mind was
subtle, became himself a skilful cutter of lenses,
and undertook to train several workmen in the art,
thereby ensuring that perfection in the instrument
which was so important to the success of his experi-
ments. Baillet says of Mydorge that " he cared for
nothing else in life but the pursuit of mathematics;
and the only reproach that could be brought against
this most upright and virtuous man was that he
insisted on spending his money upon the making of
lenses and burning glasses, on experiments and other
mathematical concerns. His family complained that
he had spent nearly a hundred thousand crowns in this
way; and it must doubtless have annoyed them. To
his mind nothing in the world was of any importance
as compared with this branch of study. He left scarcely
any written work, for nearly all his time had been
spent in making experiments."
The following remarks of Kropotkin are interesting
in this connection : " In olden times men of science,
and especially those who have done most to forward
the growth of natural philosophy, did not despise
x. PASCAL.
manual work and handicraft. Galileo made his
telescopes with his own hands. Newton learned in his
boyhood the art of managing tools ; he exercised his
young mind in contriving most ingenious machines,
and when he began his researches in optics he was
able himself to grind the lenses for his instruments
and himself to make the well-known telescope which
for its time was a fine piece of workmanship. Leibnitz
was fond of inventing machines. Windmills and
carriages to be moved without horses preoccupied his
mind as much as mathematical and philosophical
speculations. Linnaeus became a botanist while help-
ing his father, a practical gardener, in his daily
work. In short, with our great geniuses handicraft
was no obstacle to abstract researches; it rather
favoured them."
Page 6, line 7.
Claude Hardy (15? 1678) was the son of Sebastian
Hardy, excise officer at Mans, and was himself an
advocate in the parlement of Mans. He was introduced
to Descartes by Mydorge. Besides having a great know-
ledge of mathematics, he knew, according to Baillet,
thirty-six oriental languages, some of which he learned
in a single day ! He produced a Latin translation of
Euclid. He was a man of singular uprightness of
character; and his friendship was much prized by
Descartes who took every opportunity of doing him a
service, making a point when in Holland of sending
him books that were not to be found in Paris. Hardy
NOTES. xi.
and Mydorge were chosen by Descartes to defend him
in his controversy with Etienne Pascal and Roberval
on the subject of Fermat's De maximis et minimis.
(See page <?.)
Page 6, line 8.
Gerard Desargues (1593 1662) was one of the
friends whom Descartes most entirely loved and
admired. He introduced the latter to Cardinal
Richelieu. With the idea that a knowledge of geometry
would be useful in carpentering and other trades,
Desargues gave free courses of lectures on the subject
to the artisans of Paris, thus forestalling the
polytechnic of a later day. This and other like
projects of Desargues for using mechanical inventions
in the interests of artisans were particularly
pleasing to Descartes, because he had been revolving
something the same idea in his own mind. Desargues
was a practical engineer as well as a geometrician, and
the fortifications of Rochelle were partly his invention.
Bertrand says of him : " He wrote works that are no
longer read, that perhaps never were read. After
distributing the separate sheets of them among his
friends, he used to placard the walls of Paris and
Lyons with them, placing side by side with his
theorems, which are still valuable, useless challenges to
imaginary opponents to whom they were incompre-
hensible." His work was too original and too much
above the heads of ordinary people to find favour with
the multitude. Although appreciated by the greatest
xii. PASCAL.
men of science, he was yet subject to a good deal of
persecution in Paris. Finding that even his efforts
to be useful to the artisans there gave offence, he
retired to Lyons, his native place, and there continued
to give his familiar talks upon mathematical subjects.
Page 7, line 28.
Rene Descartes (1596 1650) was born at La Have,
on the borders of Poitou and Touraine. The name
was originally Des Quartes. The family was ennobled
so far back that there is no record of it. In accord-
ance with the common habit of Latinising names, his
companions soon turned his into Cartesius, and
although he disliked it himself, considering it an
affectation and a disguise, his followers adopted it
and always called themselves Cartesians.
He was sent to the Jesuit college newly established
at La Flechy, in a house given for the purpose by
Henry IV. who had great schemes for its complete
equipment in many branches of knowledge. Here the
subjects especially studied by Descartes were moral
philosophy and logic. From his study of the first he
obtained four rules which were to form the basis of his
own new philosophy. (1) To accept nothing as true
which is not shown by evidence to be so. (2) To divide
questions as much as possible with a view to solving
them. (3) To carry on thought in order, beginning
with the simplest objects and the easiest to be under-
stood, and rising by degrees to a knowledge of the most
complex. (4) To divide everything to be examined into
NOTES. xiii.
its component parts, as far as possible. The
four maxims which formed his rule of life
were: (1) To obey the laws and customs of one's own
country, remaining constant to the religion in which
it pleased God that one should be born. (2) To be
firm and resolute in action ; and to carry out even
doubtful opinions, when once adopted, as rigorously
as if they were certain. (3) To work upon and
conquer oneself rather than one's fortune; to change
one's desires rather than the order of the world ; and
to be persuaded that nothing is entirely in one's
own power except thoughts. (4) To make choice, if
possible, of the best of the occupations open to man
in this world; and to devote oneself, without casting
blame on others, to cultivating the reason and advanc-
ing in the knowledge of truth as far as possible.
The contradictory teachings of his various masters
in philosophy, mathematics, and other subjects led him
to turn away from them all, to mark out his own
course and arrive at his own conclusions. At his own
request he was allowed to give special attention to
mathematics and to lie in bed late in the morning in
order to meditate, a habit which he continued through-
out life. He never rose before noon, by which time
most of his original thinking for the day had been
done.
On leaving college he began a life of considerable
gaiety in Paris. But the friendships he formed, not-
ably with Mydorge and Mersenne, gradually drew him
away from a life of mere amusement. When Mersenne
left Paris, Descartes felt the separation keenly. He
devoted himself more exclusively to study, shutting
p
xiv. PASCAL.
himself up in a quiet and secluded house, not even
letting his family know of his whereabouts. In this
hermi1>like seclusion he lived for three years, never
going out except to procure necessaries, such as paper,
etc., and seeing no one except now and then Mydorge
or some other mathematician. At last he was hunted
down by his friends. But by this time he had lost his
taste for pleasure as ordinarily understood, save that
music appealed to him to a certain extent on the
intellectual side, and could enjoy only intellectual
pursuits.
Finding that his rank and the condition of the times
demanded his active services, and also partly with
the idea of seeing life, he joined Prince Maurice in the
Netherlands as a volunteer. At Breda he made
the acquaintance of Isaac Beeckman, Principal of the
college of Dort. Some person unknown having posted
up in the streets of Breda a mathematical problem, the
solution of which was invited from any passer-by,
Descartes, seeing the crowds around this strange ad-
vertisement, and not knowing the language of the
country, asked the nearest bystander to give him the
problem in either Latin or French. This man
happened to be Beeckman. He agreed to the request
of Descartes on condition that the latter should pro-
mise to bring him his solution. Descartes applied the
touchstone of his " method," and took the solution to
Beeckman on the following day. Thus their friend-
ship began.
In 1619, Descartes went to Frankfort and spent
some time serving as a volunteer in Germany and
elsewhere. During these years he was endeavouring to
NOTES. xv.
make up his mind as to the best course of life for him
to follow. He was observing men and manners and at
the same time pursuing his own meditations on mathe-
matics and philosophy. While the troops were in
winter quarters he used to live in solitude and spend
his whole time in meditation. He came to the con-
clusion that though the structure of human science,
built up from the speculations of men and embodied
in books, must not be thrown down ruthlessly, yet each
individual was justified in taking down his inherited
portion of it and rebuilding it himself from the
foundations. So he set himself to work out his own
theories from the beginning, ignoring all previous
work. The search for truth possessed him. He re-
turned to Paris in 1622, and great was his joy at the
reunion with his friend Mersenne, now re-established
there.
Even now Descartes had no profession and had
decided upon no definite course of life. He felt that
he could not do better than go on as heretofore, cul-
tivating his reason, finding out truth for himself, and
allowing the utmost liberty of thought, except in
matters of religion. He made a great many friends
in Paris ; indeed, before long their numbers increased
so much as to be overwhelming. He tried to withdraw
from the crowd and associate only with the chosen
few; but this was rendered impossible by the impor-
tunities of his many admirers. His house became a
sort of academy where all manner of followers and
would-be followers congregated, all anxious to do him
honour and receive favourable notice from him.
Through this importunity Paris became intolerable to
xvi. PASCAL.
Descartes, and his reputation a burden greater than
he could bear. Once more he went into seclusion in
another part of the city, only letting a few intimate
friends know where he was. But in a few weeks he
was rediscovered, returned to his old life, and pre-
sently went off in disgust to the siege of Rochelle. On
his return, in 1628, he was determined to escape from
the excessive heat of Paris and the excessive attentions
of friends, two conditions of life which hindered his
work, and to seek a cooler country and perfect soli-
tude. Accordingly he left almost immediately and
settled in Holland, leaving Mersenne as his representa-
tive in Paris. He was to receive his letters and keep
in constant correspondence with him.
Descartes had now spent about sixteen years in
travel and in meditation. He was a somewhat curious
mixture of the man of the world and the student. He
had ample means, and made use of them to see life
under many conditions. Yet " it was not the great
world as such that attracted him, but reflections upon
it." His insatiable desire for truth was his one
passion, the desire for self-instruction the one aim of
his life. He ever " wished to be a spectator rather
than an actor in the dramas of the world." At this
stage he gave up all thoughts of adopting a profession
and devoted his entire life to one problem : " The
fundamental reformation of the sciences by means of
a new method based on the analogy of mathematics.''
He had no desire to reform the world. He held that
it was a mistake to disturb ideas long established in
church and state, that " theory should retire in favour
of the absolute value of political and ecclesiastical in-
NOTES. rvii.
terests." This is illustrated by the fact that, when
about to complete and revise his " Cosmos," at which
he had been working for three years, on discovering
that one link in his chain of reasoning the motion
of the earth, had just been the cause of Galileo's con-
demnation, he withheld the book rather than offend
the church.
His great works were written in Holland. The
Essais philosophiques were intended as tests of his
new method. The introductory essay (Discoun de la.
Mithode) was a preliminary statement of his general
position. The original title of the whole book was
" Sketch of a Universal Science, by means of which
our Nature can be raised to the Highest Degree of
Perfection ; in addition, Dioptrics, Meteors and Geo-
metry, in which the Author has chosen the Best Cases
for testing that Science, and so explained them that
every Reader can understand the subject without any
Instruction in Learned Matters." Descartes said he
wrote his book in French, " the language of my
country, rather than in Latin, the language of my
instructors," in the hope that thoughtful and intelli-
gent readers, with judgment unperverted by the study
of artificial learning, would read and consider what
he had to say. The occasion of the essay on " meteors,"
included in the volume, was the interest excited by
the " parhelia," or mock suns, seen on March 20, 1629.
This appearance led Descartes to the study of as-
tronomy and especially of comets. This essay also
discusses the nature of salt; the causes of winds; the
nature of tempests, thunderbolts, and all other forms
of aerial fire; the configuration of snow; the rainbow;
xviii. PASCAL.
colours in clouds; the halos sometimes seen round the
sun and moon.
The Meditations contained Descartes' arguments for
believing in the existence of God. The book was for-
bidden at Rome and brought him into trouble with the
theologians of the Netherlands.
Through the influence of M. Chanut and at the in-
vitation of Christina, Queen of Sweden, he settled at
Stockholm in October, 1649. The queen wished him
to found a scientific academy there, and he went so
far as to draw up its statutes. But the conditions of
life in Stockholm did not suit him. The climate was
too cold, and his early morning studies with the queen
were too great a change from his accustomed way of
life. In addition to this he nursed Chanut through an
illness. On the day on which he submitted to the
queen the statutes of the proposed academy he fell ill
of fever. He never saw her again, and died on Feb-
ruary 11, 1650. He was buried in the churchyard of
foreigners. Chanut felt this simplicity befitting,
though Queen Christina wished to lay him at the feet
of the kings of Sweden and erect a mausoleum. His
ashes were taken to Paris in 1667 and placed in the
church of Sainte Genevieve. In the year of his death
a medal was stamped in his honour in Holland. The
device was the sun lighting the earth.
It seems probable that Descartes was married while
in Holland. He had a daughter, to whom he was
devotedly attached, who died at the age of fourteen.
Nothing is known of the mother, except from his own
letters.
NOTES. xix.
Page 8, line 7.
President : i.e., of the Cour des aides. (See page 1.)
Page 9, line 26.
Richelieu was charmed: Cardinal Richelieu, having
set his heart on seeing a children's play performed, sent
his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, to gather recruits.
She, having heard that the little Jacqueline Pascal and
some child friends of hers had once acted a play of
their own composing, went to see if she could induce
the Pascal family to allow Jacqueline to come. Gilberte
was at first reluctant, but yielded on its being suggested
to her that if the child had the good luck to please
the cardinal it might possibly be a good thing for her
father, at that time in disgrace and banished from
Paris on account of his supposed participation in a
small rising in the city. Jacqueline succeeded in so
thoroughly charming the cardinal that when the play
was over he took her on his knee. Thereupon she burst
into tears, and then recited some lines she had written
begging the cardinal to restore her innocent father
to favour. Richelieu at once consented, at the same
time complimenting the little girl and her brother
and sister, who were also present. The chronicler
adds that all the three children were at that time " of
a perfect beauty." Jacqueline of her own accord,
begged as an additional favour from the cardinal that
her father on his return should be allowed to come and
present his thanks in person. " Not only do I grant
xx. PASCAL.
this," was the reply, " but I desire it, and moreover he
is to bring his family with him." The visit took place,
and, looking again upon the three children, Richelieu,
after his favourite manner of princely prognostication,
foretold a great future for them.
Page 15, line 8.
M. Guillebert : M. Guillebert founded a charitable
organisation in his neighbourhood, for the relief of the
sick and the poor. Under his influence M. de la Bouteil-
lerie and M. des Landes each built a small hospital on the
outskirts of his estate. M. des Landes, who had ten
children, put the same number of beds in his hospital.
M. de la Bouteillerie, who had no children, provided
twenty beds. These brothers gave their services as
physician and surgeon respectively to all the sick poor
who came to them for aid.
Page 15, line 25.
Cornelius Jansenius (1585 1638) was born at Leer-
dam, in Holland. His father's name was John Otto.
The son took the name Jansenius (son of John) in
accordance with a custom common among the Catholics
in Holland, who often changed their names in order to
avoid attracting the attention of the Protestants.
Jansenius studied at Louvain, where he first met Saint
Cyran and at once became his friend. Later he went
NOTES. xxi.
to Paris to finish his studies, and afterwards to
Bayonne with Saint Cyran, who made him the head of
the college there. In 1617 he returned to Louvain ;
was made doctor of theology in 1619, and professor
of holy scripture in 1630. In 1635 he became Bishop
of Ypres, and died of the plague on May 6, 1638.
The Jesuits published an engraving in which Jan-
senius was seen in his episcopal robes with demon's
wings upon his back, while the pope was fulminating
against him and all his followers. In their college in
Paris they had a farce performed in which this same
Jansenius was carried off by devils. And in a public
procession which they arranged for the students of
their college at Ma9on, he was represented once more;
this time loaded with irons and dragged in triumph
by one of the students, who represented " sufficient
grace."
Page 20, line 8.
M. Camus: Peter Camus was Bishop of Belley for
twenty years. At the end of that time he retired, with
the king's consent, to Normandy, where he was presented
with the Abbey of d'Annay. But the Archbishop of
Rouen, de Harlay, knowing his apostolic zeal, prevailed
upon him to come out from his retirement and take the
oversight of the diocese as its vicar-general. He wrote
against some monkish abuses. He was well-known for
his kindness and charity to the poor. Later, he was
about to take up his abode in the Incurables when he
was appointed by the king to the bishopric of Arras. He
xxii. PASCAL.
was not only a friend but an enthusiastic admirer of
Saint Fra^ois de Sales. Knox Little says : " Their
dioceses were near together. Once a year the two bishops
met for a week's retreat in one another's houses. The
good bishop who, in relation to Saint Francis, played
thoroughly the part of a Bos well to his Johnson in his
L'esprit de S. Francois de Sales, has told in a sufficiently
naive way his reminiscences of his friend. From his
narrative we gain a vivid picture of that especial sweet-
ness and power so evident in the teachings of 'The
Devout Life.' "
Page 23, line 11.
Antoine Singlin (1607 1664) was born in Paris.
He was the son of a wine merchant and was brought
up for a commercial life. But he came under the in-
fluence of Saint Vincent de Paul, who turned his
thoughts to religion; afterwards under that of Saint
Cyran, who brought him into connection with Port
Royal. He was really forced into the office of con-
fessor and director there during the imprisonment of
Saint Cyran by the insistence of the latter, who saw
in his humility and reluctance to accept it the very
marks of his fitness for the position. Like Saint Paul,
he was accustomed to speak of himself as the vilest of
sinners, and was slow to believe that through him any
saving grace could come to other souls. Profoundly
humble, and overwhelmed with the greatness of the
task laid upon him, he yet performed it to perfection.
NOTES. xxiii.
He was not a man of scholarship, nor indeed of any
great intellectual attainments, but had a special
faculty for dealing with the individual soul; this was
what Saint Cyran perceived in him. He held the
office of confessor for twenty years ; and for eight
years that of superior of the two houses of Port
Royal, conferred on him by Cardinal Retz. Like
Mother Angelique and like Nicole, he felt a constant
drawing towards a life of solitude rather than a
position of public responsibility. At the time of Saint
Cyran's release from prison, and again at his death,
M. Singlin sought to be relieved of his charge, but he was
entreated, nay, almost compelled to keep it. He played
a large part in the life of Port Royal. He avoided
as far as possible all theological disputation and inter-
minable argument, and endeavoured to live a simple
religious life. His famous sermons (mentioned in the
text) were afterwards published under the title of
Instructions chretiennes and formed part of the store
of religious literature which emanated from Port
Royal. When suspended from office on account of the
persecutions, he used still to go to those who needed
his services, disguised as a physician, " which," he
said, " in truth I am." His ejection from Port Royal
and the substitution of a Jesuit as father confessor
in his place was a severe trial to Mother Angelique
when her mortal illness was upon her. For the
spiritual counsels of M. Singlin had been her constant
support, and it was a cause of distress to her that
she could not in her last moments receive his consola-
tions. He died, it was said, of excessive austerities
and also of grief at the outcome of the Jansenist con-
xxiv. PASCAL.
troversy, in which he inclined towards moderation.
His body was taken to Port-Royal-in-the-Fields.
Page 29, line 23.
Clear and distinct : The expression "clear and distinct"
was one of the familiar phrases of the Cartesians, and is
interesting as marking the first step towards the building
up of the theory of ideas afterwards continued by Leibnitz
and Wolf. Thomas Spencer Baynes, in his edition of the
"Port Royal Logic," written by Arnauld and Nicole, says :
" The authors (of the P. R. L.) discriminate, in ideas, the
qualities of clearness and obscurity, and come so near to
the distinction afterwards taken by Leibnitz which
completes the analysis of ideas in this relation the
distinction, to wit, of distinctness and indistinctness or
confusion that we can but marvel how they missed it.
The clearness and confusion of ideas was a
favourite subject with the Cartesians generally, but one,
nevertheless, which was never fully investigated by
themselves or explained by their master. Wolf says that
1 Descartes proceeded no further than to clear and distinct
ideas'; but even this somewhat overrates what he
accomplished ; for though he employs the terms, he
establishes no difference between clear and distinct ideas.
He lays it down, indeed, in his ' Discourse on Method,' as
a general rule, ' That the things which we see very clearly
and distinctly perceive axe true ' ; but he has nowhere
explained the conditions of an idea's clearness as dis-
criminated from those of its distinctness. The Port
NOTES. xxv.
Royalists approach this distinction, but are still un-
successful in their analysis. Leibnitz has clearly
established it, and added the further distinction of
adequate and inadequate. . . . These are not, however,
the only distinctions of importance here taken by Leibnitz.
His division of knowledge into symbolical and intuitive
shows at once the connection of ideas with words, and
explains how we may often employ the one without
realising the other."
Leibnitz puts it thus :
I. Obscure.
II. Clear (1- Confused
1. Inadequate
2. Distinct
2. Adequate \p erfect
1. Intuitive y
2. Symbolic
Page 30, line 10.
fitienne Pascal interposed : He began his letter by
pulling to pieces the title of the pamphlet, which was,
literally translated : " The full of the empty ; or, the
substance with which the apparent vacuum of the new
experiments is filled discovered by other experiments,
confirmed by the same, and demonstrated by arguments
from physics." Etienne Pascal says : " The title, Le
plein du vide, is subtle, artificial, fanciful, or rather
it is composed of a figure that is called antithesis if I
mistake not. Now, firstly, a true antithesis should
show not its obvious meaning alone but also its
subtlety and its point ; e.g., death is the beginning of
real life : to serve God is to reign : human wisdom is
xxvi. PASCAL.
folly, etc., etc. ; secondly, no antithesis can properly
consist of two adjectives without a noun or attribute.
As well say: the rich of the poor, the weak of the
strong, etc., etc." Etienne Pascal, waxing yet more
ironical, argues that Father Noel, feeling his position
weak, has had to appeal to all sorts of out-of-the-way
matters. " You have no idea of sequence," he says ;
" you jump from one thing to another with great
celerity and clutch at help from any quarter. 'Tis a
far cry from Aristotle to Descartes. You invoke the
aid of many authorities, and I have a shrewd suspicion
that if put on your oath you would be bound to confess
you knew nothing about any of them. Why did you
not say when mentioning the ' subtle matter ' that it
was an invention of Descartes? Did you wish to imply
that it was invented by you? Or did you wish your
readers to think it was no new invention at all? Be
this as it may, you have managed most artistically to
place in close juxtaposition the ' sphere of fire ' and
the ' subtle matter,' perchance from a desire to disown
both Aristotle and Descartes and yourself pose as the
author of the two theories. To this curious combina-
tion you have added another : ' solar spirits ' and
'volatility.' All this medley of theories you have in
the most miraculous manner contrived to mix up
and make believe you have had a hand in them your-
self."
Page 30, line 14.
Fiery Sphere : The ' sphere of fire ' was the sphere of
the outer heaven, which Aristotle conceived as being
NOTES. xxvii.
composed not of perishable matter but of divine fire or
ether. In his scheme the earth was stationary; the
planets, including the sun and moon, moved round it;
and beyond these was the sphere of divine fire in which
were the fixed stars.
Page 30, line 15.
Solar spirits : Father Noel says : " The other
elements are all present in the air. . . . That
there is also present the elemental fire (I mean that fire
which is so minute and so rare as to be invisible, and
thus quite different from flame and lighted charcoal
which is surrounded with sparks or little flames that
are extinguished in water, and is not the elemental
fire); that there is this fire in the air, I say, we may
know by the centre of the burning glass focussing the
rays that are in the air, and also by the handkerchief
which, held before a fire, gathers up the igneous spirits
which the air around the fire brings to it. And this
elemental fire is even so corporeal as to be visible ;
for, in a cold, dark place you may see the handkerchief
emit sparks if you have first well spread out and
warmed it, then wrapped it up while still warm and you
afterwards open it out and pass your hand somewhat
briskly over it. If our chimney fires fill the air around
with fiery spirits, the sun, which kindles by means of
reflection and refraction, may well spread solar spirits
through the whole of the air surrounding the world,
and thus cause the presence of fire there. And,
indeed, the air is full of this elemental fire, which
xxviii. PASCAL.
sometimes separates from it when the air is pressed
by hard and solid bodies moving quickly through it.
The heat we experience from the violent pressure of the
air comes from this separation.
The light that is in the air is a strong argument in
favour of the existence of solar and fiery spirits which
are lucid and whose movement as light-giving bodies
is what we call light. Let me explain myself. By a
lucid body (which I distinguish from light-giving
inasmuch as the light-giving body is that which we see,
and the lucid body is not to be seen) I understand
the body which affects the sight by its movement, that
is to say, which makes us see. And that which makes
us see is that which affects the part of the living brain
which terminates the optic nerves, these being all filled
with those little bodies that we call lucid spirits; this
part of the living brain is the power that we call sight.
The movement which has this effect on the brain we
call light-giving; and it only applies to those little
bodies which are capable of producing sight. A body
that we call transparent is always full of these lucid
spirits, or very mobile little bodies ; but these bodies
have not always a light-giving movement, that is to
say, a movement capable of producing sight; and it is
only a light-giving body, as, for example, flame, that
can cause this light-giving movement. As the steel
causes magnetic movement in the iron filing without
doing so in the case of a grain of sand, so the flame
or light-giving body causes light-giving movement in
lucid spirits and not in others. Hence I conclude that
since the air is transparent there are in it great
numbers of lucid and very mobile spirits; and that,
NOTES. xiix.
these being ignited, there is in the air fire, which I
call elemental; and, further, that it separates itself
from the air, and, when separated, I call it ether"
Page 30, line 15.
Volatility: This was a quality attributed to the
ether by way of accounting for the suspension of the
mercury in the tube. Father Noel contends that the
ether filling all space is composed of a ' subtle air '
(identical with the subtle matter of Descartes) and of
' solar spirits.' (See above.) To this ether he gives
a quality which he calls legerete mouvante (volatility).
Here he confuses the Peripatetic and the Cartesian
doctrines (see above, Etienne Pascal's letter); since
volatility was one of those occult qualities which were
accepted without being investigated by the ancient
philosophers, but which vanished before the scientific
exactitude of the school of Descartes.
Page 33, line 14.
Theses: These academic theses formed a recognised
method of bringing up such subjects for discussion.
Mahaffysays: "In these disputes the professor set forth a
thesis, sometimes with explanatory preface or comment ;
and appointed one of his pupils, whom he carefully
instructed, to defend it. It was attacked by some other
young man among the pupils of other professors, and the
disputes were carried on publicly amid the applause or
Q
xxx. PASCAL.
hissing, as the case might be, of a large and deeply
interested audience. These disputations on theses must
have corresponded closely to the debates in our college
societies or unions, except that we generally exclude
politics, and avoid the professed subjects of university
study; whereas in those days such theses were a strict
part of university training, and always in the subjects
taught by some professor."
Page 46, line 8.
Chevalier de Mire : Although Mere played so large a
part in the intellectual and fashionable world of his
day, and in spite of his keen wit and ready pen,
scarcely any particulars of his life are known. His
aim was to touch life at many points and acquit
himself honourably in all relations. He refused a
label, saying that he was a citizen of the world, as was
Socrates; that when at court he was no courtier, and
when visiting his native village he was no villager.
His self-appointed role was the delicate one of a master
of elegance and good manners. But he carried it too
far and became too set, too much of a type, bringing
himself into ridicule both as a man and as a writer by
reason of his insufferable conceit and pedantry. He
loved, as we see in the case of Pascal, to have some
one to patronise, to introduce to life as it were ; and he
never doubted his own powers of instruction in matters
of conduct and manners. He made the code of the
honnete homme in his Discours sur la Vraie Honnetete
(Discourse on the true nature of Honnetete). He it
NOTES. xxxi.
was who very largely introduced and expounded the
seventeenth century signification of this phrase, which
up to that time had signified 'honest man/ as we
should use the word in its larger sense. Now it came
to mean approximately what we mean by a Christian
and a gentleman. Pascal adopted the phrase on its
most exalted side. With Mere there was in the code of
the honnete homme something also of a lower kind.
He advocated the passing of life as pleasantly as might
be, with as little annoyance as possible to oneself and
other people. Mere's honnete homme must have no
calling nor profession. Perfect leisure is his
appropriate atmosphere. To be able to do everything
and to be obliged to do nothing, that is the best
condition for the exercise of his powers. He must not
have to struggle for place or money, but must always
be diffusing happiness everywhere ; he must take part
in all that makes life pleasant, to others as well as to
himself even to his enemies. People who smile upon
you one day and avoid you or fail to recognise
you the next day are the opposite of the
honnete homme who, whether he is in the heart
of the desert, or at court, or in any unexpected
circumstances, or in fact at any moment, is
always the same, because his manners are the
expression of his inner nature. Fortune, whether hie
own or other men's, affects him not at all; he is far
above such considerations. " I count nothing on earth
to be above honnetete," says Mere ; " it is the
quintessence of all the virtues."
xxxii. PASCAL.
Page 56, line 15,.
Raymond de Sebonde, the author of a work on
Natural Theology, was born at Barcelona in the four-
teenth century, and died in 1432 at Toulouse, where
he professed medicine and philosophy. Montaigne
translated the book in his youth and later defended it
in the essay here mentioned.
Page 57, line 27.
Discours sur Its passions de V amour : The word
passions is here used with its special, seventeenth
century meaning, and would be more properly
translated by " psychology " were this not too modern
an English word.
Page 84, line 12.
Masks and Gloves : These were a sign of vanity, and
should have had no place in a monastery. They belonged
to women of fashion who wore them to preserve their
complexion. The mask was of black velvet or satin, and
was used both day and night ; by day to protect the face
from sunburn and at night on account of the cosmetics
which had been applied. The mask worn by the lady of
rank proclaimed her gentle birth ; for it was a privilege
of the aristocracy forbidden to the women of the middle
class.
NOTES. xxxiii.
Page 84, line 15.
She heard a sermon: Mother Angelique says naively
in her memoirs: "At nightfall there came a Capucin
Ceans, asking if he might preach to us; and I was
very glad, for I was very fond of listening to preaching
and had but few opportunities of doing so. When I
came to the monastery it was thirty years since there
had been any preaching there save on the occasions of
profession. But after I came we used to send, at
the four festivals of the year, for some young preachers
belonging to the Bernadines, who preached so pitiably
that their sermons were only occasions of sin to us by
reason of the mirth they caused us." She adds that
she looked upon it as a great providence of God on her
behalf that she was sensible of the unsuitability of
placing herself, a girl of sixteen, under the spiritual
direction of so young a man, the more so as he after-
wards became an apostate and was expelled from his
monastery on account of his evil life.
Page 84, line 20.
She resolved to reform her abbey : This was the first
reform effected in any house of the Cistercian Order,
and aroused much opposition. Monks and abbots
entirely disapproved of the giving up of the good
cheer, idleness, and ease which had come to be the
recognised tradition of the Order. The nuns were
denounced as mad, infatuated, innovators, even
schismatics, and threatened with excommunication.
Mother Angelique, in persuading her nuns to follow
xxxiv. PASCAL.
the rule of Saint Bernard, went very gently to work,
lest she should turn them against it. She contented
herself with setting them an example, saying but little
to them, praying much for them and accompanying
with many tears the few exhortations she addressed to
them.
Mother Angelique was sent to superintend the
reform of many other monasteries, notably Mau-
buisson, the faithful members of which looked upon
her and her spiritual daughters as so many angels
sent down from heaven by God for the reform of his
church. At Maubuisson there were exciting episodes.
During Mother Angelique's sojourn there the expelled
abbess Mme. d'Estrees returned with some young
cavaliers, and a forcible attempt was made to turn out
Mother Angelique. One of the young men held a
pistol at her throat, and the confessor of the convent, who
was an enemy to reform, urged her to retire. Needless
to say, she stood to her post. But her opponents,
having force on their side, succeeded in ejecting her
and the nuns she had brought with her from Port
Royal. They walked away in sad procession, hand in
hand and closely veiled; till the people of the neigh-
bourhood took pity on them, housed and fed them.
In a few days a new order for the arrest of Mme.
d'Estrees was carried out; Mother Angelique and her
nuns were re-instated, and remained at Maubuisson
five years. At the end of this time she returned to her
beloved Port Royal, taking with her thirty of the
Maubuisson nuns, who besought her on their knees not
to leave them behind. Nevertheless they entered their
new home somewhat abashed, knowing that their
NOTES. xxxv.
coming must impoverish it, since they brought scarcely
any money for their support.
It was at Maubuisson that Mother Angelique first
met Saint Franfois de Sales, and at once gained his
lifelong friendship. Through her he made the
acquaintance of her family, and often when in Paris
visited her father and her eldest brother, M. d'Andilly.
He used also to see them at their country house, and on
his last visit there gave his blessing to Antoine, the
future doctor of the Sorbonne, who was then only six
years old.
Page 85, line 23.
Christian charity : For a long while the monastery had
its own physician and surgeon, who gave their whole time
to attending the sick poor, going round among all the
neighbouring villages for this purpose. And when the
monastery could no longer afford this, the sisters them-
selves undertook the work as far as they could. They
opened a kind of infirmary within the abbey ; and also
regularly dispensed food and clothing to the poor.
Page 86, line 3.
Removed to Paris : The house in the Faubourg St.
Jacques to which the Port Royal nuns removed was
bought for them by the mother of Mother Angelique,
Mme. Arnauld, who after a few years of widowhood had
resolved to take up monastic life under the spiritual
xxxvi. PASCAL.
direction of her daughter. It was at first intended that
only a certain number of the community should remove
to Paris so as to relieve the overcrowding which, together
with the unhealthiness of the district, had made Port-
Royal-in-the-Fields little better than a hospital. As the
sickness, however, continued to increase, it was decided to
abandon the country home altogether. But in time one
of the causes which had driven the nuns into their city
dwelling drove them out of it. Their numbers had
increased to over a hundred, and once more their house
was too strait for them. Some of the sisters, under the
charge of Mother Angelique, were accordingly drafted off
to Port-Royal-in-the-Fields, with the idea of maintaining
in the two houses one community under the rule of one
abbess. They found their former house very much
transformed. When they quitted it they left behind only
the domestic servants and a chaplain to administer the
sacrament to them. But the recluses who had since
taken up their abode there had lived by no means an idle
life. They had attended to and improved the administra-
tion of the abbey, had rebuilt some parts of it with
their own hands, cultivated its gardens, drained some of
its marshes, and made it in various ways more healthy
and habitable.
Page 87, line 15.
M. de Sad (1613 1684) was the younger brother of
Le Maitre and de Sericourt, and the nephew of
Mother Angelique and of ' the great ' Antoine Arnauld.
The name by which he was known is an adaptation of
NOTES. xxxvii.
his real name, Isaac Louis Le Maitre. He was born
on March 29, 1613. He fulfilled exactly and strictly
the duties of his position, and those alone. His work
was colourless, outwardly unimpassioned ; but his
design was definite, unbroken, clearly outlined in his
own mind. He was gifted with a certain amount of
literary taste and with a sense of humour which he did
his best to suppress after he entered the priesthood.
He scorned all embellishment, and was before all things
straightforward. He turned neither to right nor left,
entered into no controversy, but went steadily on in his
appointed path ; a man of stern purpose with all his
timidity. His life, says Sainte Beuve, was the straight
line of Port Royal. He had a vivid consciousness of
the close presence of God, and the greatest reverence
for the very words of scripture which he believed to be
the words of angels. His natural timidity and
humbleness and his high idea of the duties of the priest
made him very loth to accept the office of confessor ; but
at length, at the earnest persuasion of M. Singlin, he
yielded and undertook it with a grave and tremulous
joy. This was in December, 1649, when he was thirty-
seven years old.
The only charge to be brought against him is that,
in his reply to the Jesuits' " Tract for the Rout and
Confusion of the Jansenists," he employed ridicule of
a somewhat questionable character.
M. de Saci applied to the world the saying of Isaiah
reversed : Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself.
He put " devil " instead of God ; and said, with some-
what bold imagery, that the world was the Eucharist
with a difference : everywhere the devil present,
xxxviii. PASCAL.
hidden and ready to be worshipped. When the
question was asked whether or no it was advisable to
allow young people to travel, M. de Saci answered:
" What is travelling after all but going to see the devil
in all sorts of guises; a Vallemande, d I'italienne, a
I'espagnole and d Vanglaise, but still always the devil?"
Speaking of the Cartesians, who in their day repre-
sented the rationalists of a later time, the apostles of
reason as opposed to revelation, M. de Saci said they
groped after truth, but it was a remote chance whether
they ever found it or no. He said : " I look upon them
as I looked the other day upon the dial when passing
over the Pont Notre Dame. The dial was telling the
truth just then, and I said : ' Let us get past quickly ;
it will not do that much longer ; it is the truth that has
come across the dial and not the dial that has met with
the truth. It tells the truth by chance once a day.' "
From his secretary, Fontaine, we have many details
of his life and a picture, coloured somewhat perhaps
by the enthusiasm of a devoted disciple, of the beauty
of his character. In 1661 he had to retire from Port
Royal and remain in concealment in Paris. During
this time he was still always at the service of any who
needed him; and on the death of M. Singlin in 1664
he became yet more heavily weighted with responsi-
bility. After eluding his enemies for some time and
after being tracked for several days, at length, at six
o'clock on the morning of May 13, 1666, he was
arrested while walking through the city with Fontaine.
His first thought was characteristic of the man. It
was an impulse of regret that on that morning of all
others he should have come away without his pocket
NOTES. xxxix.
copy of Saint Paul's Epistles. Living daily with the
likelihood of imprisonment in the near future, it had
been his habit to carry it about with him ; indeed, he
had had it rebound on purpose, saying that whenever
he was taken they might do what they would with him
if only he might keep this for his daily companion.
This morning, in prospect of a long walk in the heat,
he had left it at home.
There was found upon M. de Saci at his arrest,
among other papers, the preface in manuscript of the
Mons translation of the New Testament (see Note, page
90), in the making of which he had the largest
share. The work, with the exception of the pre-
face, had been completed before his imprisonment.
While in the Bastille he also translated the Old
Testament. The early days of the imprisonment
were the worst, because then the two friends were
separated from each other. By the good offices
of Major Barail, one of the prison officials, many of
the hardships of the prison discipline were softened in
their case. So keen was the sorrow of Fontaine at the
separation from his beloved De Saci that he languished
and came near to dying. No prospect of release
availed to cheer him. " My liberty," he cried, " is to
be with M. de Saci, and did you but open to me at the
same time the door of the prison and the door of his
cell you would soon see to which of them I should fly."
At length they were allowed to be together ; and from
this time their condition scarcely deserved the name
of imprisonment, but became a life of undisturbed
work and meditation. At two o'clock on certain days
they were allowed to walk upon the terraces. Thence
xL PASCAL.
they could sometimes see their friends in the distance,
though they might make no sign to them. They
pointed out to each other the church of Saint Paul,
and thought of the apostle and his bonds ; or the great
cathedral of the Jesuits hard by, a reminder of their
ill-gotten domination; while in the other direction
the mass of the prison at Vincennes rose towards
heaven as a lasting memorial of Saint Cyran. Then,
when the two friends went inside once more, what
mattered the noises of the outer world? They enjoyed
to the full their solitude and their peace.
But there were privations. Chief among these, and,
far before any physical privations to M. de Saci, was
the being cut off from the sacraments, even from lay
communion. This to him was the supreme loss. He
tried to look upon it, however, as a kind of penance,
and was always accustomed to speak of these years
as the most quietly happy of his life. His grief at this
time was not for himself but for what seemed to him
the spiritual deadness and blindness of heart of his
enemies. One day a great joy came to the two friends
upon the terrace. They saw the blessed sacrament
being carried past in procession and recognised three
of their friends in the place of honour, chosen to bear
it along the streets. They exchanged a glance, and
then with bowed heads silently gave thanks for this
singular honour and joy.
In 1668 came the order for release. On the very day
before he was set free, M. de Saci completed his
translation of the Old Testament. He lived fifteen
years longer, spending his time as heretofore in the
direction of souls and in the publication of the Bible,
NOTES. xli.
brought out in parts with many elucidations of the
text. He died, in the middle of a severe winter, on
January 4, 1684, aged seventy-one, having said mass
and administered spiritual counsels only the day
before. He died in that calmness of mind and peace
of heart in which he had also lived.
He requested in his will that he might be buried at
Port-Royal-in-the-Fields. Thither his body was borne
from Paris in the night, across ice and snow. It was
received at five o'clock in the morning at the threshold
of the church by a hundred sorrowing nuns carrying
lighted torches. It was then placed in one of the
chapels and arrayed in its priestly robes. Here it
lay until the burial, in order that the many mourners
might gaze for the last time upon the face they had
loved.
" The figure of M. de Saci," says Sainte Beuve, " as
we have it from Fontaine and others, is like a
Rembrandt picture in a dark room, the tone sombre,
the outline austere."
Page 87, line 32.
Robert Arnauld d'Andilly (1589 1674), the eldest
brother of Mother Angelique and of the great Antoine
Arnauld, did not belong to the sterner side of the life
at Port Royal, which was represented by De Saci and
others. In his prolonged and serene old age and with
his venerable crown of white hair, he was as it were
the patriarch or paterfamilias of the recluses. His
connection with Port Royal began in 1620, when he
xlii. PASCAL.
first met Saint Cyran at Poitiers. Their active and
life-long friendship began at once. Saint Cyran, who
knew him very intimately, says : " It is true he has
not the virtue of an anchorite or a saint ; but no man
living is better at heart than he." His easy disposition
characterised the manner of his leaving the world for
the monastery. He did it quite at his leisure, spending
eighteen months in settling his affairs and bidding
farewell. Not over-penitent, so it would seem, yet just
penitent enough to take the step ! He was fifty-seven
when he retreated to Port Royal. There he at once
entered with zest into the occupations arranged for
him beforehand as superintendent of the gardens. As
he grew older he seemed to grow in life and vigour
rather than to decline. Fontaine speaks of his eager
glance, of the animation of his speech and manners,
and of his whole appearance, which seemed to belie his
years and made him seem more like fifteen than eighty.
His quick eyes, his steady walk, his deep, resonant
voice, his upright carriage, his silvery hair set off so
well by his bright complexion, the grace with which he
could mount and dismount his horse, the tenacity of
his memory, the alertness of his mind, the fearlessness
of his hand whether in using the pen or in felling
trees all these were like a kind of immortality, or,
as Saint Jerome puts it, an image of future resurrec-
tion. All through his life he united in himself two
things which are well-nigh incompatible ; to wit, world-
liness and saintliness. " Thus," says Fontaine,
perhaps with a touch of exaggerated enthusiasm over
his subject, " thus, whether working at his translations
or assisting at the blessed sacrament, or in the garden
NOTES. xliii.
tending his 'monster-fruits,' as he called them, he
justified the emblem his friends put beneath his
portrait : a swan sailing placidly over the water and
singing as its death song: Quam dulci senex quiete."
The more temperate and measured testimony of Du
Fosse confirms that of Fontaine. D'Andilly's work in
the grounds was both useful and ornamental. He
drained a pestiferous marsh, and thus made the place
more healthy. He grew flowers as well as fruit of
many kinds, paying particular attention to peaches.
Neither recluses nor nuns ever tasted these fruits.
They were sold, and the money given to the poor. But
d'Andilly also made presents of them to the queen,
to Mme. de Sable, Mile, de Montpensier and others.
In a letter to Mme. de Sable he gives directions for the
careful unpacking of the fruit and special injunctions
that it should be eaten ripe. He used to send each
year to the queen the first fruits and the choicest ; and
she fully appreciated the attentions and the charm of
the old man. Cardinal Mazarin said the queen was
unaccountable in the matter of the Jansenists ; taking
them as a whole, she quite agreed that they should be
exterminated ; but when it came to losing any one of
them in particular and when it was proposed to begin
with M. d'Andilly, she would not hear of it; they were
far too valuable members of society and far too loyal
servants of the king to be dispensed with.
The presence of M. d'Andilly at the abbey always
formed somewhat of a link between the monastery and
the court. He sometimes left his retreat for a short
season and went to see his friends ; they also visited
him in return. Mme. de Sevigne speaks of the efforts
xliv. PASCAL.
make by the king to entice M. d'Andilly from his
retreat. The king, she says, accused him of vanity in
having stated in the preface to one of his books
that he was eighty. The king added that he need
not think he would be allowed to remain in his
solitude, for he would send for him. D'Andilly reply-
ing that he would be faithful to God, the king answered
that he who is faithful to God is faithful also to his
king. " Then wonderful things happened," says Mine,
de Sevigne ; " the king prevailed upon the old man
to partake of dinner served from the royal table and
to be driven out in a carriage afterwards. The king
was sounding his praises all day long. M. d'Andilly,
in the midst of his enjoyment, kept saying to himself,
conscious that he needed the reminder : ' Self-humilia-
tion is the thing.' You may imagine how mightily I
enjoyed it all ! " In another letter, when enumerating
the friends who were round her at the moment, she
says : " I have M. d'Andilly on my left, that is, on the
side nearest my heart." And again : " Yesterday I
left Paris in good time and went to dine at Pomponne.
There I found our good friend M. d'Andilly awaiting
me. I should not have liked to miss saying farewell
to him. He grows in holiness in the most astonishing
manner. The nearer he gets to death the more of a
saint does he become. He gave me a very serious
lecture; and, carried away by his zeal and his
affection for me, he told me what madness it was in
me not to think about the state of my soul ; called me a
' pretty pagan ' ; told me I made an idol of you (her
daughter'), and that this form of idolatry was as wrong
as any other, though it might not seem so to me ;
NOTES. xlv.
in a word, that it was time for me to be converted. He
said all this so forcibly that I had not a word
in reply. After six hours of talk, very pleasant
although very serious, I came here, where I found the
month of May flaunting in triumph. The nightingale,
the cuckoo, the lark, have opened the spring in our
woods." She says of him on another occasion : " If
M. d'Andilly had a choice of souls to be saved through
his means he would prefer to save a soul that chanced
to inhabit a beautiful body."
Racine, too, gives a charming picture of the genial,
white-haired recluse, in reading which, says Sainte
Beuve, we can fancy we see M. d'Andilly getting up
from his flowers and running to meet us between his
espaliers.
Besides all this he was among the most academic and
literary of the recluses. He wrote many verses; but
his chief literary works were translations. Among
them were the writings of Saint Theresa and Josephus'
history of the Jews, the latter being his magnum opus,
performed with much care and written, he himself
said, ten times over. Also the lives of the Syrian
anchorites, which although only a translation is, says
Sainte Beuve, " a living and natural picture in which
the amiable translator lives in every page; it is full
of the scent of flowers and the humming of bees."
Philippe de Champagne found in it the subject of a
series of pictures.
D'Andilly lived uninterruptedly at Port-Royal-in-the-
Fields for ten years, until 1656, playing the part of
hospitable recluse, doing the honours of the place to
all and sundry guests. In 1656 the order for
R
xlvi. PASCAL.
dispersion came. After a month of exile he was
allowed to return by special favour of Cardinal
Mazarin who on receiving his thanks sent him a
friendly letter, begging to be remembered in the old
man's prayers. In the years of persecution that
followed, d'Andilly endeavoured to conciliate the two
parties; and his persistent efforts in this direction
caused some slight bitterness between himself and his
brother Antoine, the great doctor.
Once more, at a later ejection of the nuns, we see
the aged d'Andilly, who was present in the church,
going up to his sister, Mother Agnes, who, feeble
through age and illness could scarcely walk, and taking
leave of her and afterwards of his three daughters.
The latter threw themselves at his feet to receive his
double blessing as a Christian and a father ; then he
helped them into their carriage. Upon this act the
archbishop thought to found a charge of wishing to
excite sedition ; but the queen-mother maintained that
M. d'Andilly was incapable of such an intention.
Page 88, line 3.
Antoine Arnauld (16121694). "The great
Arnauld " was a man of vast erudition and inex-
haustible mental power. He was a controversialist to
the core, " a born fighter and delighted to smell the
battle afar off." It is said that as a mere child he
asked for a pen from Cardinal Perron and when told
to say what he wanted it for, answered, " To> write
against the Huguenots, as you do." He was placed
NOTES. xlvii.
under the spiritual direction of Saint Cyran, who,
together with his mother, induced him to take up
theology rather than law as his line of life. And later,
these two, the one from her deathbed and the other
from his prison at Vincennes, sent him encouraging
messages, urging him to wage war to the death in
defence of the truth. His first collision with the
Jesuits was on the score of his book, Frequente Com-
munion, which dealt with the question whether one
ought to take the communion when full of worldly
thoughts, or just before or after any worldly excite-
ment. Arnauld upheld the stricter view and main-
tained that one ought on these occasions to forego the
communion. After being turned out from the Sor-
bonne, he retreated to Port Royal and lived there in
retirement until the Peace of the Church. He was
then received with honour in the high places of both
church and state; but Father Annat and others pre-
vented his being allowed to return to the Sorbonne,
and he spent the rest of his years in seclusion, some
in Paris, some in the country, and some in Brussels,
where he died on August 8, 1694, having passed a
great part of his life in exile and poverty.
He was distinguished by his undaunted spirit, his
love of truth, his fine sense of justice. In science,
philosophy, religion and politics he excelled. He was
of short stature, with very large head and bright eyes.
He wielded a terrible pen in controversy, but in daily
life was a man of simple and gentle manners. His
writings, though they rendered inestimable service to
the cause of truth and morality, were controversial
rather than literary. He was not a writer in the same
xlviii. PASCAL.
sense as Pascal. His deficiences in this respect were
partially covered by the polished style of his coadjutor,
Nicole. (See following note.}
Page 88, line 7.
Pierre Nicole (1625 1695) was born at Chartres
on October 19, 1625. He was the son of an advocate
and came of a highly intellectual family. He was
throughout life an omnivorous reader of all kinds of
literature, sacred and profane, being in this respect
the greatest possible contrast to M. de Saci, for whom
the scriptures were all-sufficient. In 1642 he was
sent to Paris, where his ambition was to become
a doctor at the Sorbonne. This idea however
he gave up at the time of the condemnation
of Arnauld, deeming it wiser to be content with
his bachelor's degree. His first definite connection
with Port Royal was as a teacher in the schools. When
these were removed from the city to Port-Royal-in-the-
Fields he identified himself with them completely. He
was under the spiritual direction of M. Singlin who,
with all his austerity, was better able to appreciate
various types of mind than M. de Saci. The closest
possible union existed between Nicole and Arnauld and
also between Nicole and Pascal. The latter exercised
a very strong moral influence upon him. In 1654
Arnauld adopted him as his companion in work, and
through the stormy times that followed he was the
right hand of the great doctor. They worked together
during the periods of enforced concealment which
NOTES. xlix.
preceded and followed the condemnation, and Nicole's
easy and elegant Latin proved invaluable in carrying
on the great controversy. The " Port Royal Logic "
was their joint production. But although Nicole re-
mained for many years the inseparable companion and
co-worker of Arnauld, he regarded the Jansenist cause
quite otherwise than from the traditional Port Royal
point of view. He held that the heresy of the Jan-
senists was a purely imaginary one, created in the
brains of their enemies ; that in reality the Jansenists
were in accord with Rome and the whole affair was
much ado about nothing. Thus he weakened the cause
of Jansenism for the sake of saving it. The whole
atmosphere of controversy however was uncongenial
to Nicole, who was by nature a student and not a
reformer. He has been called the Melancthon of
Jansenism as Arnauld was its Luther. Where Pascal
and Arnauld would fulminate, Nicole would conciliate
and temporise. Being of delicate health and constitu-
tion, a lover of solitude, inclined towards melancholy,
and a hater of controversy, he often longed to be free,
and said of himself that he was like a man who, having
embarked in his boat in quiet waters, had been driven
out to sea by the tempest and compelled to travel round
the world. Yet the personality of Arnauld, with whom
he fought side by side, as two gladiators sometimes
used to fight chained to each other, and the urging of
his companions, kept him up to the work which, how-
ever distasteful to him, he was so well fitted to perform
by reason of his facile pen and his subtle power of
discrimination. In 1679 the long companionship was
broken. Arnauld, about to travel into Holland, begged
1. PASCAL.
Nicole to accompany him. The latter refused, and
separated himself from his old chief on the plea that
he needed rest. Then it was that Arnauld made his
famous reply : " Rest ! shall we not have all eternity
to rest in?" Nicole was extraordinarily lacking in
physical courage and abnormally shy. He dared not
cross a river without a life belt; he was terrified at
the thought of ascending a high tower, and would
never go out in a strong wind lest a tile should fall
on his head. It is said that in one house where he
was working at his Essais de Morale he had a trap
door made under the table, so that by a movement of
his foot he could make the table disappear with all
his working apparatus when anyone came to see him,
and its presence would be quite unsuspected. He
could not bear with a good grace contradiction in
dispute, and indeed was a far readier controversialist
with his pen than with his tongue. He said of him-
self : " A doctor may get the better of me in my study,
but by the time he is at the bottom of the stairs I have
confounded him." He was a most upright Christian
and always unshaken in his religious faith, not
troubling himself about minor points of doctrine.
Sainte Beuve says he was a believer who never, so to
speak, walked round his faith, but dwelt within it.
He was humble and modest, always ready to learn
from anyone, and always ready to give Arnauld the
glory of their joint work. He had no power of in-
vention, but, given something to write about, and, in
his study with pen and paper, he was ready to unravel
anything, however abstruse or involved. In his out-
ward appearance there was nothing remarkable. He
NOTES. li.
was of medium height, with aquiline nose, large, wide-
open, blue eyes, and a timid and modest mien; often
absent-minded and seldom merry. This gentle and
inoffensive man had his share in the sufferings brought
on by the persecution of the Jansenists which involved
for him some years of exile from Paris. He finally
returned in 1683 and passed his last days there very
quietly. " His simple household goods," says Sainte
Beuve, " included a fine library and a few portraits
by Champagne of some of the Port Royal nuns; these
were his luxuries. Add to these an occasional meeting
with some few kindred spirits with whom to talk over
controversial matters; this was his own private
Academy. Here we have the whole man, with his taste
for a retired life, with his very decided taste also for
a certain amount of mild controversy such as, while
leaving the questions discussed as doubtful as ever,
yet serves to pass in review a number of different
opinions, and above all to afford exercise for the
reasoning powers. A quiet frugality, the plainest of
furnishing, and withal a picture or two by Champagne
in the background, such is the ideal retreat, bespeak-
ing rather piety than penitence, wherein this Christian
man of letters was to pass the evening of his life."
He died of paralysis in 1695. He had asked that he
might be buried without pomp, and also that his heart
might be taken to Port-Royal-in-the-Fields and laid
beside his old companion Arnauld, but the friend to
whom he expressed this last wish did not hear of his
death in time to carry it out.
The amount of his literary work was enormous. As
a controversialist, he wrote mainly under the influence
lii. PASCAL.
of Arnauld; as a moralist, under that of Pascal.
Among the more important of his works were his Latin
translation, under the assumed name of Wendreck, of
the Provinciates, with dissertations of his own upon
them ; his Lettres Imaginaires, written somewhat after
the style of the Provinciates; his share in the " Port
Koyal Logic " and in the Mons translation ; a work on
the Eucharist ; and, above all, his Essais de Morale.
When reading the latter volume, Mme. de Sevigne
breaks out into ecstatic admiration of both the style
and the matter of Nicole's writings. She says to her
daughter that the essay upon The way to preserve
peace with all men is " like searching the heart with
a lantern." The whole book she finds admirable; she
cannot lay it down ; and finally : " What do you think 1
I am beginning that essay over again. I really wish
I could boil it down into broth and swallow it." The
Marquis de Sevigne did not share her admiration for
Nicole's style. He said reading Nicole was like eating
too much blanc-mange; his language was too choice,
over-refined, not to be named in the same day with that
of Pascal. And in truth, when compared with Pascal's
fervid eloquence, the style of Nicole is somewhat cold
and unimpassioned, the style of the gentle scholar who
from the midst of his own scholastic retirement would
fain impart his high ideals to other men, but without
personally drawing near to them.
Page 88, line 17.
Petites tfcoles. These schools originated with Saint
Cyran, who was keenly interested in the training of
the young. Before his imprisonment he had under-
XOTES. liii.
taken the education of two or three boys who whilst
he was in prison were under the charge of M. Le
Maitre at Port-Royal-in-the-Fields. Others joined them
there, and in 1646 or 1647, their number having
greatly increased and the nuns being about to return
to the abbey, regularly constituted schools were estab-
lished for them in Paris. Four masters were
appointed : M.M. Lancelot, Nicole, Guyot, and Constel,
each of whom had a separate room and taught about
six pupils. Lancelot taught philosophy and the
humanities ; Nicole, Greek and mathematics. On
Sundays the pupils were taken to hear the preaching
of M. Singlin. For about four years the schools were
carried on under more or less peaceful conditions ;
but in 1650 the Jesuit persecution began. Some at
least of the pupils were taken back to Port-Royal-in-
the-Fields and schools were established at the Grange.
Here Lancelot and Nicole were the masters, and here
Racine studied, about 1655. During the ten years
between 1650 and the final suppression of the schools on
March 10, 1660, they were constantly threatened with
extinction by their foes the Jesuits.
Du Fosse, the greatest authority on these schools,
says the three main points insisted upon were the fear
of God, the avoidance of sin, and a downright horror
of lying. Racine pays a high tribute of praise to the
influence exerted. He says many of the children there
trained looked back to Port Royal in after years with
much the same holy affection as the Jews felt for
Jerusalem. Knowledge was considered to be of no
importance as compared with conduct. There was no
competition.
liv. PASCAL.
As regards the system of teaching, the aim was to
make the lessons if possible pleasanter to the children
than their play. They were taught to read first in
French instead of Latin, a great innovation. The
new method of teaching to read, introduced by Pascal
(See p. 90), consisted in first teaching the vowels only ;
then the consonants, not by their separate names, but
only as sounded with the vowels.
Page 89, line 11.
One might well be moved: Mme de Sevigne says:
" Port Royal is a regular Theba'id; it is a paradise; it
is a desert in which the whole of Christian piety is
concentrated; the place is holy ground for a distance
of a mile or two about it ; there are five or six recluses,
known no more to the world, who are living as the
penitents of Saint-Jean-Chimaque ; the nuns are angels
upon earth ; Mile, de Vertus is there ending her life in
inconceivable suffering borne with the greatest resigna-
tion ; all the service of the place, down to the carters,
the shepherds, the workmen, is unpretentious. I
declare it has been the greatest delight to me to see
that divine retreat of which I have heard so much ; it
is a terrible valley, in which one may well be moved to
flee from the wrath to come."
Page 90, line 12.
Members of Port Royal: Diverse as were the
individual characteristics and callings of these men,
NOTES. Iv.
there was among them a certain similarity of distinc-
tion, of thought, and of aim ; so that Port Royal came to
be identified with a particular school of thought and a
particular ideal of life, and its members came to be
habitually thought and spoken of collectively as Les
Messieurs de Port Royal, a time-honoured phrase which
conveys a certain meaning, but for which it is some-
what difficult to find an English equivalent. It might
perhaps be best rendered by " The Scholars of Port
Royal," as implying something of the moral and
intellectual dignity of their position.
Page 90, line 21.
Due de Luynes : It was about the time of the return
of the nuns to Port-Royal-in-the-Fields that the
Duchesse de Luynes persuaded her husband to quit the
court and seek with her a religious retreat. They built
for themselves the small chateau of Vaumurier, close to
the abbey; and also a fine dormitory for the nuns.
Other persons of social and religious standing built on
to the dwelling place of the community in Paris ; and
thus in both its homes its hands were strengthened by
the presence of capable and influential friends. The
Due de Luynes spent a considerable time at his
chateau, and there gathered round him a number of
ecclesiastics, who united to produce the translation of
the New Testament here mentioned. It goes by the
name of the Mons translation. (See Note, page 87.)
Ivi. PASCAL.
Page 102, line 11.
The Due de Liancourt: The Due and Duchesse de
Liancourt were renowned for their charity to the poor.
When on a visit to M. d'Andilly at Port-Royal-in-the-
Fields the idea occurred to them of making a retreat
for themselves at the monastery. They accordingly
built a suite of rooms in the outer court, opposite the
gate of the chapeL (See illustration facing page 144-)
The Due de Liancourt was the first gentleman of the
chambers.
Page 103, line 18.
Fact . . right : This is the origin of the famous
distinction between de facto and de jure. " It raised,"
says Racine, " quite a new question : Was the Holy See
infallible in matters of fact as well as of right? Father
Annat went the length of affirming this. M. de Marca,
Bishop of Toulouse, having already in his writings
maintained the contrary position, could not agree with
Father Annat. Also the first censors of M. Arnauld's
Letters had only accused him of being ' rash ' in his
assertion that the propositions were not to be found in
Jansenius. Consistency therefore forbad their em-
ploying ' heretical ' instead of ' rash.' This difficulty
was solved, to his own satisfaction, by M. de Marca.
He said the Pope had declared the doctrine of
Jansenius heretical ; the Jansenists then, as upholders
of the doctrine of Jansenius, must be heretical too.
This is pure sophism, since, the Pope not having
explained what he understood by the doctrine of
NOTES. Ivii.
Jansenius, the old question still remains : Does
Jansenius' book contain what are known as the five
propositions, or does it contain only the doctrine of
Saint Augustine? . . . Father Annat and M. de
Marca between them drew up the famous formulary."
Page 106, line 20.
Aristotle : Chaucer says of the poor Oxford student
that
". . . . him was lever have at his beddes hed
Twenty bookes clothed in blake or red
Of Aristotle and his philosophic,
Than robes rich or fide or sautrie."
Page 131, line 3.
Casuistry: When it had been proved by an
ecclesiastic of Rouen and others that Pascal's
quotations were substantially correct, the Jesuits' next
step was an attempt to justify casuistry. They
accordingly produced " The Book of Apology of the
Casuists," composed by Father Pirot, the friend of
Father Annat and professor of theology at the college
of Clermont. They failed to obtain leave to print and
publish it; but it was privately circulated. The clergy
of Paris procured its condemnation on the ground that
it dealt not with points of theology but of morality
and encouraged the most shameless wickedness.
Iviii. PASCAL.
Note to the illustration of the Chapel of Port Royal,
facing p. 144.
Above the high altar of the chapel is to be seen a
painting of the Last Supper. This was the work of
Philippe Champagne, who was himself one of the disciples
of Port Royal, and whose daughter took the veil there.
The painting is now in the Louvre. The figures on either
side of the altar piece are the Virgin Mary and St. John
the Baptist, also by Champagne. The altar was of
plain wood, with a wooden cross suspended above
it. Opposite the high altar, on either side the
grating, was a door leading into the choir. Through
these doors the sacraments were carried to be administered
to the sick ; hence they were called the doors of the
sacraments. Over each of them was a pictxire ; the one
of Christ as the good shepherd bringing back the lost
sheep on his shoulders and treading upon thorns; the
other of a nun crowned with thorns and standing in
prayer before a crucifix.
As is seen in the engraving, the chapel contained the
tombs of many of the famous recluses.
The following is the epitaph of M. d'Andilly, who was
buried in the choir of the chapel :
"Sub sole vanitas. Supra solem veritas. Here lies
Messire Robert Arnauld, Seigneur d'Andilli, in whom
were united innocence of character and prudence in
affairs ; simplicity and an excellent wit. He bore him-
self as a Christian in any and every fortune and
circumstance ; he was distinguished by the most scrupulous
uprightness and exactitude in the performance of public
NOTES. Hi.
duties, which he always placed before his private affairs ;
he was equal in all his dealings. Enamoured of the
idea of religious retreat, which he held to be good for the
soul, he renounced the world and the court that he might
withdraw to this monastery. Here he lived for thirty
years a life of prayer and devotion, beloved by every one
and with a heart full of Christian charity towards all men.
For his character seemed to be as much conformed to
grace as to nature, and wholly inclined to love and be
loved. At length, when full of days and in a ripe old
age, with no infirmities, but with the wisdom of added
years, and what is still better, imbued with the humble
and childlike spirit approved by Jesus Christ ; scorning
the things of earth and intent upon those of eternity ;
insensible to his extreme pain of body by reason of his
joy at the approach of death ; secure in his firm faith in
God by which in weakness he was made strong and in
the midst of death was yet alive he died, in the eighty-
fifth year of his age, on the 27th day of September,
1674." From the 'Necrologe' of Port Royal.
M. de Saci's epitaph was as follows :
" Here lies, awaiting the resurrection, Messire Louis Le
Maitre de Saci who, on account of the singular purity of
his character, to which he had added new lustre by the
practice of the holiest exercises of penitence, was ordained
priest for the service of this monastery. He taught with
faith and gentleness that way of God in which he himself
unfalteringly walked. A humble disciple of tradition, he
drew from this source his knowledge and his religious
Ix. PASCAL.
faith. Sensibly touched by the oracles of the fathers
and by their words, full of the sweet savour of life
eternal ; an ardent admirer of the wisdom which is of
God, and the teachers thereof, he gathered up their
precepts with a heart so eager and so well prepared that
they passed easily into his life and behaviour. Thence it
was that he drew those words of counsel which were no
less profitable to him who offered them than to those who
listened to them. An enemy to all dispute, he made use
of the sciences not for disputation but for the furtherance
of holy living ; and held of no account such of them as
did not serve to this end. So reverential was the manner
of his expounding of the scriptures that it spoke no less
the respectful submission of a worshipper than the
scrupulous exactitude of one who interprets. Secure in
his faith, when he was threatened with any adversity
God alone was the object of his fear, and not men.
And when plunged into adversity, he railed not against
men but honoured the dealings of God with him
by his patience, rendering him no less thanks when
he caused him to feel the severity of his rod than when
he was loading him with his consolations. In his joy at
being relieved from the charge of souls, under the burden
of which he groaned in spirit, he consecrated his new-found
repose to the truth. In meditation upon which, and as
it were within its embrace, he died on the 4th day of
January, 1684. Aged seventy-one years." From the
' Necrologe ' of Port Royal.
NOTES. hci.
M. de Singlin's epitaph was as follows :
" Here lies the heart of Messire Antoine de Singlin, a
confessor of this monastery which he edified by his
virtxie, his prayers and his preaching ; a heart wholly
filled with God, and fruitful in its travail for souls, whose
salvation was his one and only solicitude ; a heart full of
humble gratitude and aglow with the fire of charity, ready
as of itself to fulfil the commandments of God ; a heart
which possessed to perfection the art of persuading men ;
in fine, the heart of the true priest which made itself
beloved by reason of its love to all men. So it comes to
pass that this friend of the Bridegroom, bringing with
him the Brides over whom he has watched with a holy
jealousy, will present himself before the Bridegroom
when he comes at the sound of the last trumpet, and
when there shall be but one Bride even as there is but
one Bridegroom." From the ' N6crologe ' of Port
Royal.
Mother Angelique's epitaph was as follows :
" Here lies the heart of the Reverend Mother Marie
Angelique Arnauld, who always bore this monastery
upon it and contributed far more to the establishing
of it before God than those who were its founders. A
heart faithful to her heavenly Spouse and broad
enough to take in not only one monastery, but the
whole church, a life spent in whose service was to her
well spent. For never had she made her own interests
to consist in anything save what she saw to be also the
interests of this Bride of Jesus Christ. A heart that
Ixii. PASCAL.
knew no fear save fears for the Church, and was
likewise a stranger to any joys apart from her. She
founded our monastery of Port Royal; re-established
it; and, a yet greater deed, formed for Jesus Christ
her spiritually-begotten daughter, Mother Agnes. The
fervour of her charity, manifested abroad as well as at
home, made of her a unique Benefactress of diverse
Houses belonging to the several Orders. But, what-
ever God may have wrought by her ministry, all that
she did is of less account than what she was." From
the ' Necrologe' of Port Royal.
Page 145, line 23.
Omnibus Coaches : " Omnibuses, under the name of
carrosses a cinq sous (twopenny-halfpenny coaches), were
started in Paris in 1662. . . . The idea was Pascal's,
but, not being sufficiently wealthy to carry it out unaided,
he laid the matter before his friend the Due de Roannez,
who suggested that a company should be formed to start
the vehicles. Pascal consented to this being done, and
the Due de Roannez set to work at once to prevail upon
members of the aristocracy to take shares in the concern.
The Marquis de Sourches and the Marquis de Crenan he
induced to take an active part in the management, and,
best of all, he obtained from Louis XIV. a decree author-
ising the establishment of Carrosses a cinq sous. Seven
vehicles to carry eight passengers each, all inside, were
built, and on March 18, 1662, they began running. The
first one was timed to start at seven o'clock in the
NOTES. Ixiii.
morning, but an hour or two earlier a huge crowd had
assembled to witness the inauguration ceremony, which
was performed by two Commissaires of the chatelet,
attired in their official robes. Accompanying them were
four guards of the Grand Prevot, twenty men of the City
Archers, and a troop of Cavalry. The procession, on
arriving at the line of route, divided into two parts, one
Commissaire and half of the attendants proceeded to
the Luxembourg and others to the Porte St. Antoine.
At the latter place three of the twopenny-halfpenny
coaches were stationed, the other four being at the
Luxembourg. Each Commissaire then made a speech, in
which he pointed out the boon that carrosses a cinq sous
would be to the public, and laid great stress on the fact
that they would start punctually at certain times, whether
full or empty. ... At the conclusion of his address,
the Commissaire commanded the coachmen to advance,
and after giving them a few words of advice and caution,
presented each one with a long blue coat, with the City
arms embroidered on the front in brilliant colours. . . .
It need scarcely be said that there was no lack of
passengers. . . . Paris in short went mad over the
carrosses a cinq sous, and the excitement soon spread to
the suburbs, sending their inhabitants flocking to the city
to see the new vehicles. . . . The king himself had
a ride in one coach, and the aristocracy and wealthy
classes hastened to follow his example, struggling with
their poorer brethren to obtain a seat. . . . Four
other routes were opened in less than four months, but at
last the fashionable craze came to an end, and as soon as
the upper classes ceased to patronise the new coaches, the
Ixiv. PASCAL.
middle and lower classes found that it was cheaper to
walk than to ride. The result was that Pascal, who died
only five months after the coaches began running, lived
long enough to see the vehicles travelling to and fro half,
and sometimes quite, empty.
For many months after Pascal's death the coaches
lingered on, but every week found them less patronised,
and eventually they were discontinued. They had never
been of any real utility, and were regarded by the public
much in the same light as we regard a switchback railway.
After the failure of the carrosse a cinq sous, a century
and a half elapsed before vehicles of the omnibus class
were again tried in Paris.
M. Baudry (a retired military officer) was in 1827 the
proprietor of some hot-water baths in the suburbs of
Nantes, and for the convenience of his patrons ran a
vehicle at fixed hours to and from the town. This coach,
which was similar in build to the Parisian ones, he named
the Voiture des Bains de Richibourg, but quickly came to
the conclusion that the title was too long, and therefore
endeavoured to think of a more suitable one.
It happened that just at that time a local grocer named
Omnes caused considerable amusement in the town by
painting over his shop 'Omnes Omnibus.' No sooner
did Baudry see this, than he declared that he had found
the very word which he required, and straightway named
his vehicle ' L'Omnibus.' " From " Omnibuses and
Cabs, their origin and history" by H. C. Moore.
NOTES. Ixv.
Page H7, line 26.
Roulette : The roulette or cycloide is the name given to
the curve described in space by a point on the circum-
ference of a wheel during one revolution of the wheel
upon the ground.
This curve was wholly unknown to the ancients.
Pascal remarks upon the strangeness of this fact, con-
sidering that after the straight line and the circle there
is no line so common or so often within the observation
of every one.
M. Bertrand says, writing of the roulette curve :
" Each of the stars is a sun surrounded, so everything
leads us to believe, by planets invisible to our feeble eyes
and imperfect instruments. One of these planets
describes a circle round its sun, and suppose this sun
which by reason of its immeasurable distance appears to
us to be fixed is in reality moving in a straight line, then
the planetary orbit will progress like the wheel of an
immense car, and the planet which traverses it will,
granted the right relations of speed, describe in space a
cycloi'de."
Pascal says : " The late Pere Mersenne, Minime, was
the first to discover this curve, about the year 1615,
when he was considering the roulement des roues
(wheeling of wheels) ; this was why he called it
La Roulette. He wanted at once to learn its nature
and qualities. But this was beyond him. For while he
had a special talent for putting fine questions, in which
perhaps he had not his equal (See note, p. 6), he was
not quite so ready when it came to answering them.
Ixvi. PASCAL.
Nevertheless, although honour properly belongs to the
solver of a question, yet it is true that we do owe some-
thing to him in that he has afforded occasion for more
than one valuable discovery, which perchance would
never have been made had he not directed the attention
of the savants to the subject."
When once this curve had been brought under the
notice of scientific men the problems connected with it
were studied by several of them, notably Galileo and
Roberval. After these had been solved there still
remained others yet more abstruse. It was these further
problems which became clear to Pascal during his sleepless
hours and in connection with which he started his famous
competition.
Page 169, line 3.
You, Miton: In thus apostrophising the easy-going
egoist, Pascal is perhaps replying directly to
this saying of Miton : " In effect, the easiest
way of securing undisturbed happiness for our-
selves is to see to it that others share it with
us. For then all obstacles are removed and everyone
is ready to take us by the hand. It is this contriving of
happiness for ourselves that really constitutes honnetete.
So that the latter is, strictly speaking, self-love well
regulated." Pascal went so far as to say that the very
use of the pronouns ' I ' and ' me ' was offensive ; that
Christianity did away with them altogether, and the laws
of good breeding kept them in the background.
NOTES. Ixvii.
Page 193, line 18.
Threefold lust: the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Sainte
Beuve says : " Jansenius gives the three kinds of lust
or concupiscence as, firstly, sensual passion ; secondly,
the passion for knowledge or research; thirdly, the
passion for preeminence. He describes with much
penetration the nature of the second, the love of
knowledge for its own sake, libido oculorum, ' the lust
of the eyes,' the eyes being the organ by which we look
into things. All men of learning, all investigators he
includes as falling under this temptation, and the
wisest are the most prone to it, even as the wise Ulysses
was fain to listen to the song of the Sirens who ' knew
all things . . . and all that should hereafter be
upon the fruitful earth.' The third kind of lust is the
most intellectual of the three. This is the ambitious
love of excelling, of being first, of becoming as God."
Page 198, line 21.
Petites Lettres: The original title in full was
Lettres Sorites a un Provincial par un de ses amis
(Letters written to a Provincial by one of his friends).
This was soon shortened into Lettres Provinciales
(Provincial Letters); then into Provinciales; and later
the book was known under the almost endearing title
of Petites Lettres.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
1618. Etienne Pascal marries Antoinette Begon.
1620. January 3. Gilberte Pascal (Mme. Perier) born.
1623. June 19. Blaise Pascal born.
1625. October 4- Jacqueline Pascal (Sister Euphemie)
born.
1626. Death of Antoinette Begon, Pascal's mother, aged
twenty-eight years.
1631. Etienne Pascal resigns his post as Vice-President
of the Cour des Aides at Clermont, and settles
in Paris.
1635. Pascal studies geometry by himself.
1638. Death of Jansenius.
1639 1640. Pascal works at his treatise on Conic
Sections.
1640 1642. Pascal works at his arithmetical machine.
First serious breakdown in his health.
Posthumous publication of the Augustinus of
Jansenius.
1641. Gilberte Pascal marries her cousin, Florin Perier.
1643. Antoine Arnauld publishes the Frequente Com-
mu/nion and the Theologie Morale des Jesuites.
1645. Pascal writes a dedicatory letter to the Chancellor
Seguier, and an Advertisement addressed to those
who make use of his arithmetical machine.
1646. January. Etienne Pascal dislocates his thigh.
M. de la Bouteillerie and M. des Landes
" convert " Pascal. Pascal " converts " Jac-
queline. She refuses the hand of a councillor.
April. Birth of Marguerite Perier, Pascal's niece
and god-daughter.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Ixix.
October December. Pascal and M. Petit repeat
at Rouen the experiments of Torricelli.
Pascal " converts " M. and Mme. Perier, who are
visiting Rouen.
1 647. The affair with Brother Saint Ange.
Pascal is attacked by paralysis. He goes to Paris
to consult the doctors.
September 28. Interview between Descartes and
Pascal in Paris.
October 4- Pascal publishes his Nouvelles experiences
touchant le vide.
The end of the year. Controversy with the Jesuit
Pere Noel on the subject of Vacuum.
1647 1651. Pascal at work upon a Treatise on Vacuum.
1647? 1648 1 ? Pascal writes the Prie're pour dtmander a
Dieu le bon usage des maladies.
1648. Pascal comes for the first time into direct contact
with Port Royal.
September 19. Experiments made by M. Perier
on the Puy-de-D6me, at Pascal's request.
September October. Pascal's own experiments at
the Tour St. Jacques.
Pascal publishes the result of his experiments on
the equilibrium of liquids.
1649. May. Etienne Pascal, Blaise, and Jacqueline go
to Auvergne.
July. The Jansenist Propositions brought before
the Faculty of Theology by Nicolas Cornet, the
President.
November ? Pascal leaves Auvergne.
1651. Pascal becomes intimate with the Due de
Roannez.
Ixx. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
July and August. Correspondence with M. de
Ribeyre.
September 24- Death of Etienne Pascal.
October 17. Pascal's letter on the death of his
father.
Division of the family property.
1652. January 4- Jacqueline enters the convent in
spite of her brother's opposition.
May. Jacqueline takes the veil.
June. Pascal visits Poitou with the Due de
Roannez and Mere.
1652 1653. Pascal visits Auvergne.
Writes the Discours sur les passions de I 'amour.
1653. January. The Jesuits publish their Almanack
de la deroute et de la confusion des Janse'nistes.
Disagreement of Pascal and Mme. Perier with
Jacqueline on the subject of her dowry.
Pascal returns to Paris.
May 31. The five Propositions condemned by
the Pope.
Pascal makes a donation to Port Royal.
June. Jacqueline takes the vows.
Pascal writes various essays on the subject of
atmospheric pressure.
He pays frequent visits to Jacqueline.
1654. Pascal writes treatises on the Arithmetical
triangle and on Numerical orders.
Hay. The Bishops of France, with the exception
of four, condemn the five Propositions.
November. Pascal hears M. Singlin preach, and
determines to renounce the world.
Pascal's night of spiritual ecstasy.
1655. January. Pascal enters Port Royal.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Ixxi.
Absohition refused to M. de Liancourt, a Jansenist.
February and July. Arnauld publishes his
famous Letters.
December. Trial of Arnauld at the Sorbonne.
1655 1 ? Pascal's interview with M. de Saci.
1656. January 14- Arnauld condemned by the Sor-
bonne and expelled.
January 28. The first Provinciate appears.
March 24- Miracle of the Sacred Thorn.
The Jesuits reply to the Provinciates.
1657. March. The Bishops of France prepare the first
Formulary.
Pascal's correspondence with Mile, de Roannez.
September 28. The Provinciates condemned by
the Congregation de V Index.
1657 1662. Pascal works at his Apologie pour la
religion.
1658. Pascal arranges the competition for the solving of
the Roulette problem, and writes various papers
on the same subject.
1658 1659. Letters of Amos Dettonville.
Pascal makes known to his friends the plan of his
Apologie.
1661. Publication of the final Formulary which the
Ecclesiastics were requested to sign.
Novices withdrawn from Port Royal.
The Mandement of the Vicars-general.
Jacqueline's letter on the subject of the signature.
Death of Jacqueline.
1662. August 19. Death of Blaise Pascal.
INDEX.
Achokier, a casuist, 125
Ackermann, Mine., Lines of, on Pas-
cal, 204
Agnes, Mother, xlvi, Ixii ; counsels
Jacqueline Pascal, 24, 51
Aiiruillon, Mme. d', known to Pascal
46
Amulet of Pascal, 201
Amvlette de Pascal, of Lelut, 202
Andilly, Robert Arnauld d', 2, 50 ;
epitaph of, Iviii ; goes to P.R.,
87 ; note on xli
Angelique, Mother, 51. xxiii, xxxiii,
xxxv, xxxvi, xli ; Abbess of P.R.,
84, 86 ; epitaph, Ixi ; strictness of
rule, 85 ; welcomes Jacqueline, 24
Annat, Father, 138, lyii ; drew up
formulary, Ivii ; hostile to Arnauld,
102, xlvii, influence, 110
Apollonius, Pascal's theory embraced
results of, 12
Archimedes, 150
Aristotle, 112, xxvi ; reverence for,
40, 110, 111, Ivii ; sphere of fire of,
30, xxvi ; vacuum declared impos-
sible by, 28
Arithmeticti infinitorum ot Wallis, 64
Arnauld, Antoine (the elder), opposes
the Jesuits, 2 ; note on, ii ; visits
P.R., 85.
Arnauld, Antoine (the great), 2, 130,
142, 153, 155, xxxvi, xli, ii ;
appeals to Pascal, 104 ; arranges
Pensees, 158 ; condemned at Sor-
bonne, 104, 115, 125 ; goes to P.R.,
88 ; note on, xlvi ; opposes Jesuits,
102; principles of, 100 ; visits Pascal
on his deathbed, 156 ; writings of, 15
Arnauld, Mme. , 85, iii, xxxv
Atmospheric pressure, 31, 32, 38
Augustine, St., 91, 106, 108110,112,
113, 119, 120,136, 137, 143, 153, 154,
165, lyii
Augimtiniis, of Jansenius, 109, 110,
136
Auvergne, 32 ; Pascal's family came
from, 1 ; Pascal visits, 45, 55
Bacon, Francis, 6
Saillet, his Vie de M. Descartes, 35 ;
quoted, ix, x
Baius, follower of St. Augustine, 108
Bauny, Father, 120, 125
Baynes, Thomas Spencer, quoted, xxiv
Beeckman, principal of College of
Dort, xiv
Begon, Antoinette, wife of Etienne
Pascal, 1
Benedict. St. , Rule of, 84
Benserade, 9
Bernard, St., 89, xxxiv
Bertrand, quoted, iv, Ixv
Beurier, M., Pascal confesses himself
to, 156
Biiunnial tlteory, Newton's, 64
Boileau influenced by Pvnxees, 200
Bossuet, iii ; influenced by Pennies,
200
Bossut, edits the Pensees, 159
Bourdaloue, influenced by Pensees, 2CO
Bourzeis, Abbot de, friend of Port
Royal, 102
Bre'da, Descartes at, xiv
Brunschvicg, as critic of Pascal,, 206
Bull, Papal, 102, 110, 133, 137.
Calculating Machine, Pascal con-
structs his, 12 ; P. first inventor of,
14 ; P. sends his, to Queen
Christina, 53
Camus, M., Bishop de Belley,
examines Brother Saint Ange, 20 ;
note on, xxi.
Carcavi, 34, 35 ; mathematician, 6 ;
note on, viii
Cartesians, 26, xii, xxiv, xxxviii ;
doctrine of, 29, 200, xxix ; methods
of, 28
Casuistry, 111, 112, 119, 120, 124134,
205 ; note on, Ivii
Casuists, 123, 124, 125
Champagne, Philippe de, his paint-
ings, xiv, Ii, Iviii
Chanut, M., assists Descartes, xviii
assists M. Perier, 36
Chapelain, approves Provinciales, 119
Charron, his writings read by Pascal,
56
Chateaubriand, 199 ; his criticism of
Pascal, 203
Chatel, .Jeiii, attempted assassina-
tion by, iii
Chaucer, quoted, Ivii
Ch^nier, Andre, his criticism of Pas-
cal, 201
Christina, Queen of Sweden, frien
ship with Descartes xviii ; Pascal
writes to, 53
Clear and distinct, note on, xxiv
Clermont, 1, 2, 10, 32, Ivii
Clermont-Ferrand, 33 ; Pascal born
at, 1
Coenr, Le, Nouveau, of St. Cyran, 16
Colbert, yiii
Communion, De la Frequente, of
Arnauld, 15, xlvii
INDEX.
Ixxiii.
Condorcet, 42 ; his criticism of Pascal,
201 ; his edition of the Pen*&s, 159
Conink, a casuist, 125
Coniques, Essai pour les, Pascal writes,
11
Conti, Prince de, Le Plein du Vide
dedicated to, 30
Conversion du jxtclteur, of Pascal, 90
Corneille, 9, 58
Cosmo*, of Descartes, xvii
Council, King's, 1, i
Cour des aides, 1, 32, six ; note on, ii
Cousin, Victor, 57, 159 ; his criticism
of Pascal, 203, 204
Dealkozer, a casuist, 125
Delegue, M., 63, 64, 77
Dellacruz, a casuist, 125
Des Barreaux, a freethinker, 4(5
Des Landes, M., xx ; attends Etienne
Pascal, 15
Desargues, Gerard, mathematician,
6, 11, 12 ; note on, xi
Descartes, Rene, 7, 8, 11, 23, 57, 58,
59, 88, 181, x ; xi, xxix ; death of,
36 ; his friendship with Mersenne,
IT ; note on, xii ; Pascal's interview
with, 3438
Dettonville, Amos, pseudonym of
Pascal, 148, 150
Dioptriijuf, La, of Descartes, 7, ix
Direction of the intention, Doctrine
of, 128
Dogmatists, 178
Domat, M. , Pascal influences, 95
Dominicans, 115, 117
Droz, Edouard, his criticism of Pas-
cal, 206
Du Fosse, xliii
Duns Scotus, his teaching, 100, 108,
111
Efoleg, Petites, of Port Royal, S3, 95 ;
Pascal's connection with, 90 ; note
on, Hi
Epictetus, read by Pascal, 56, 91 94
Epicureans, 46, 175
Equivocation, Doctrine of, 123
Escobar, his writings, 112, 122, 132
Esprit de St. Franyois de Sales, L', of
M. Camus, xxi!
Estrees, Mme. d', xxxiv
Ether, 28, xxix
Euclid, Elements of, given to Pascal,
5 ; proposition of, worked by Pascal,
4 ; translated by Hardy, i
Faugere, 59 ; his edition of the Pensea,
159, 205
Fermat, 7, 36, 148, viii, xi ; corres-
ponds with Pascal, 63 ; works with
P. at rule of jmrtii, 64, 69
Fire, Sphere of, of Aristotle, 30, xxvi
Fontaine, goes to P.R.,87; quoted,
xlii ; secretary to M. de Saci,
91, xxxviii, xxxix
Formulary, condemning Jansenius,
137, 152, 154, Ivil
Forton, Jacques (Brother St Ange),
rebuked by Pascal, 19
Francois, St. de Sales, 20, xxii ;
meets M. Angelique, xxxv ; visits
P.R., 85
Fronde, The, 1
Galileo, 6, 33, 136, xvii, Ixvi ; his
theory of atmospheric pressure, 30
G6nnetrique,De I' esprit, Pascal writes
95
Giraud, Victor, 206
Grace, Kffectunl, 103, 104, 107, 108,
116, 117, 118, 137, 154
Grace, Sufficient, 103, 104, 108, 117,
118, xx
Guillebert, M., 15, 24; note on, xx ;
spiritual director of Pascal Family,
19
Hardy, linguist and mathematician,
6 ; note on, x
Harlay, Monseigneur de, xxi ; orders
Brother Saint- Ange to retract, 20
Havet, Ernest, critic of Pascal, 206
Hexagramme, Pascal's theorem of
the mystic, 11
Honnete homme, Mere's cult of, 46 ;
nature of the, xxxl
Honnetete, 161
HonneteU, Discours sur la Vraie, of
Mere, xxx
Hugo, Victor, 199
Hydrostatics, Pascal formulates the
principles of, 38
Intendant de la Genfralite, Office of,
10, i
InUrieur, Disrmtrs sur V homme, of
Jansenius, 15
Jacobi, a student of Pascal, 202
Jansenists, 111, 116, 135, xliii, li
Jansenius, Cornelius, 108, 137, 154 ;
accused of heresy, 102 ; friend of
8. Cyran, 86; his doctrine and
writings, 15, 17, 65, 101, 110, 153,
Ivi ; note on, xx
Jesuits, 86, 110, 116, 156; attack
Arnauld, 102 ; attempted expulsion
of, 112, ii ; Order of, suppressed,
200 ; hostile to Arnauld family, iii ;
hostile to Pascal, 33 ; their casuis-
try, 111, 112, 119, 120, 124134,
Ivii
Knox Little, quoted, xxii
Kropotkin, quoted, ix
Ixxiv.
IN DE X .
La Bouteillerie, xx ; attends Etienne
Pascal, 15
La Bruyere, in accord with Pascal, 200
La Chaise, Filleau de, 161
La Flechy, Jesuit College at, iv, xii
La Fontaine, 199
Lancelot, at Port Royal, 87, liii
Le Maitre, xxxvi ; goes to Port
Royal, 87
Le Pailleur, friend of Etienne Pascal,
5 ; mathematician, 6 ; note on, iii ;
Pascal writes to, 29
Leibnitz, 88, 200, x ; approves Pas-
cal's work, 11, 150 ; his theory of
ideas, xxiv
Lemaitre, Jules, Lines of, on Pascal,
204
Lempyne, Father, AVritings of, 132
Lessius, Writings of, 132
Lettres, of Arnauld, 102
Lettres Imaginaires, of Nicole, Iii
Lettres spirituelles, of St. Cyran, 15
Liancourt, M. de, suspended from
communion, 102 ; note on, Ivi
Liguori, St. Alphonse de, opposes
Pascal's influence, 205
Liqueurs, TraitAde I'tquilibredes, Pas-
cal writes, 38
Llamas, a casuist, 125
Logic, Port Royal, of Arnauld and
Nicole, xxiv, xlix, Iii
Longueville, Mme. de, approves the
Promnciales, 119
Lou vain, Jansenius professor at, 86,
xxi
Luynes, Due de, 83, 90, 102 ; note on,
Iv ; Pascal instructs the son of, 150
Lyons, Desargues in, xi, xii
Mahaffy, quoted, iv, xxix
Maitre des requites, office of, 1, i
Malebranche, 58 ; in accord with
teaching of the Pensees, 200
Martin, Raimond, his writings, 143
Maubuisson, Mother Angelique at,
xxxiv
Maximis et minimis, De, of Fermat,
8, xi
Mazarin, Cardinal, viii, xliii ; friendly
to d'Andilly, xlvi
Meditations, of Descartes, xviii
Mer<5, Chevalier de, 57, 62, 63, 95, 161 ;
known to Pascal, 46 ; note on, xxx ;
Pascal travels with, 53
Mersenne, Father, 11, 37, 147, xiii,
xv, xvi, Ixv ; his admiration for Des-
cartes, 8 ; meetings at house of, 6,
63 ; note on, iii
Mteores, Les, of Descartes, 7
M&hode, Discours de la, of Descartes,
7, 97, xvii, xxiv
Michaut, his edition of the Penstes,
206
Miton, a freethinker, 46, 95, 161, 169,
Ixvi
Molina, his teaching, 108, 115
Molinists, 103, 104, 109, 115, 116, 119
Mons, M. de, assumed name of Pascal,
90,122
Mons translation of N.T., 90, xxxix,
Iii, Iv
Montaigne, 59, 161, 170, 174; his
estimate of man, 67 ; his writings
studied by Pascal, 55, 9194
Montalte, Louis de, imaginary writer
of Promnciales, 116, 118, 119, 123,
126, 130, 148
Montferrand, Ccntr des Aides at, 1 ;
Jesuit College at, 33
Montucla, 35
Moore, H. C., quoted, Ixii
Morale, Essnis de, of Nicole, 88, 1, Iii
Mydorge, Claude, cutter of lenses, 6 ;
friend of Descartes, x, xiii, xiv ;
note on, viii
Mysfere de Jesus, Le, of Pascal, 147.
207
"Napier's bones," Calculating machine
known as, 13
Newton, Sir Isaac, 150, x,
Nicole, Pierre, 150, 155, xxiii ; ar-
ranges Pemtees, 158; goes to P.R.,
88 ; note on, xlviii ; Provintiale*
revised by, 114 ; visits Pascal on
his deathbed, 156
Noel, Father, corresponds with Pas-
cal, 28, 29, xxvii ; rebuked by
Etienne Pascal, 30, xxvi
Nouet, Father, 133
Occam, his doctrine of free will, 111
Omnibus, Carrosses-, invented by
Pascal, 145 ; note on, Ixii
Order, Cistercian, 84, xxxiii
Ordres Numdriques, Tralte des, Pascal
writes, 63
Origen, relation to Pelagianism, 108
Paris, ii, iv, viii, xi ; Etienne Pascal
settles in, 2 ; Pascal family returns
to, 45 ; Pascal meets Descartes in,
34 ; Pascal visits, 23, 90
Partiy, Rule of, 64, 69, 182
Pascal, Blaise, brilliant prospects, 14 ;
constructs calculating machine, 12 ;
controversy with Father Noel, 28
30 ; death of, 157 ; death of father,
46 ; death of mother, 1 ; devotion
to science, 5, 43, 148 ; early display
of genius, 4, 5, 8, 11 ; embraces
Jansenistic cause, 113 ; enters
society, 45 ; first conversion, 16,
17 ; forms design of work against
atheists, 100, 142 ; friendships,
45 46, 139 ; goes to P.R., 83 ;
hears M. Singlin preach, 23, 77;
INDEX.
lixv.
ill-health, 14, 20, 29, 34, 38, 45 ;
interviews with Descartes, 34 ; one
of the creators of the infinitesimal
calculus, 149 ; opposes Jacqueline,
49 ; oscillates between science and
religion, 43, 44 ; parents, 1 ; per-
sonal appearance, 195 ; qualities as
writer, 114, 144, 198 ; rebukes
Brother Saint- Ange, 19 ; researches
in physics, '26 ; roulette problem,
147 ; spiritual crisis, final con-
version, 66, 78, 81 ; visits Jacqueline
at P.R., 50, 51, 72 ; visits Paris, 23,
90 ; wager on the existence of God,
69, 183 ; writes Provinciate, 104
138
Pascal, Etienne. ancestor of Pascal, 1
Pascal, Etienne, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10,
24, 26, 30, 36, 45, xi ; accident, 15 ;
conversion, 18 ; death, 46 ; gather-
ings at house of, 5, iii ; note on his
letter to Father Noel, xxv ; settles
in Paris, 2 ; undertakes education
of children, 2
Pascal, Jacqueline (Sister J. de
Sainte-Euphemie), 1, 34, 73 ; aver-
sion to convent life, 10 ; charm, 9 ;
conversion, 18 ; desires to enter
convent, 24, 49 ; dowry, 50 ; hears
M. Singlin preach, 23 ; plays in
comedy, 9, six ; refuses to sign
formulary, 153 ; signs formulary,
and dies, 154 ; takes veil and vows,
50
Passions de I'amour, Dincours mi r les,
note xxxii ; Pascal writes, 57 ;
summary of, 59
Pelagianism, 108, 109
Pelagians, Semi-, 106
Pelagius, his theory of free will, 106
Pensees, 160, 200, 203, 207 ; editions
of, 159, 201 ; first published, 159
Perier, Etienne, nephew of Pascal, 161
Perier, Florin, 34, 36, 47, 122 ; con-
verted 18 ; marries Gilberte Pascal,
10 ; performs experiment, 32
Perier Marguerite, Pascal's niece, 147,
148 ; miraculously cured, 125
Perier, Mme. (nee Gilberte Pascal), 2,
4, 9, 20, 24, 26, 34, 47, 49, 146, 156,
161 ; born, 1 ; conversion, 18 ; mar-
riage, 10 ; writes life of Pascal, 153
Peripatetic, doctrine, 28, xxix
Persuader, De I'art de, Pascal writes,
95
Pesantcur de la masse de I'air, Traite
de, Pascal writes, 38
Petit, M., visits Pascal, 26
Petites Lettres, 198 ; note on, Ixvii
Philosophiyues, Essais, of Descartes,
7, 8, xvii
Picote, M. , suspends M. de Liancourt,
102
Pirot, Father, Ivii
Poitou, Mere a native of, 46 ; Mile.
de Roannez goes to, 139 ; Pascal
travels in, 53, 55
Port Royal, 24, 45, 51, 8486, 100, 125,
144, 152155, 199, 207, xxii, xxiii,
xxxviii, xli, xlviii, liv
Port-Royal-in-the-Fields, 24, 77, 83,
87, 126, 153, xxiv, xxxvi, xli, xlviii,
li ; note to illustration of Chapel
of, Iviii
Priere pour demander tl Dieu le bon
usage des -maladies, Pascal writes, 20
Principles, of Descartes, 35, 37
Probabilities, Theory of, created by
Pascal and Fermat, 64
Probabilism, Doctrine of, 124, 125,
205
Probability, Doctrine of double, 127
Propositions, The five, 102, 103, 135,
136
Provinciates (Provincial Letters), 105,
119137,154,156,200,205,207; first
of the, appears, 104, 117 ; revised by
Nicole, 114 ; translated by Nicole,
138, 111
Prudhomme, Sully, critic of Pascal,
206; quoted, 204
Pyrrhonists, 74, 178
Questions Inouies, of Mersenne, iv
Racine, 200, xlv, liii ; quoted, 104, Ivi
Rauh, his criticism of Pascal, 206
Ravaisson, student of Pascal, 206
Rebours, M., confessor at P. R., 25
Redemptorists, Institute of the, 205
Restriction, Doctrine of Mental, 123
Retz, Cardinal, xxiii
Ribeyre, M. de, Pascal corresponds
with, 33
Richelieu, Cardinal, xi ; his policy, i ;
Jacqueline Pascal acts before, 9, xix
Roannez, Due de, 83, 95 ; arranges
Pensees, 158 ; friend of Pascal, 45,
53, 147
Roannez, Mile, de, 59 ; corresponds
with Pascal, 139140 ; marriage
and death, 142
Roberval, mathematician, 6, 7, 8, 34,
36, xi, Ixvi ; note on, vii
Rouen, 15, 18, 19 ; experiments at,
26, 34
Roulette problem, competition for
solving of, 148 ; note on, Lrv ; Pas-
cal solves, 147
Rmdette, Traite de la, of Pascal, 150
Rousseau, 199, 202
Rouyille, Guillebert vicar of, 15
Sable, Marquise de, known to d'Ac-
dilly, xliii ; to Pascal, 46
Saci, Isaac Louis Le Maitre de, 91
xli, xlviii ; director of P.R., 87
Entretien de Pascal avee, 91 94
Ixxvi.
INDEX.
epitaph of, lix ; goes to P.R.,87;
his principles, 100 ; note on, xxxvi
Saint- Ange, Brother (see Forton)
St. Cyran, Jean du Vergier du
Hauranne, Abbot of, 51, 52, 117,
xxii, xxiii, xlii, xlvii, lii ; director
of P.R,, 86; friend of Jansenius,
86.
Saint Jean, Sister Angclique de, 153
Sainte-Beuve, his criticism of Pascal,
206 ; quoted, xli, xlv, li, Ixvii
Sainte-Euphemie, Sister Jacqueline
de (See Jacqueline Pascal)
Sainte-Marthe, M. de, Pascal con-
fesses himself to, 156
Sciences, Aeadtmie des, 6, 63
Sebo-nde, Apoloyie de Raymond de,56,
161 ; note on, xxxii
Seguier, The Chancellor, hostile to
Arnauld, 103, 117
Sericourt, M. de, xxxvi
SeVigne, Mme. de, her impression of
P.R. , 89 ; quoted, xli v xlv, lii, liv
Singlin, Antoine, 51, 78, 91, 117,
139, xxxvii, xxxviii, xlviii ;
director of P.R. , 87; epitaph of,
Ixi ; Jacqueline Pascal's spiritual
director, 24 ; Pascal's spiritual
director, 83 ; note on, xxii ;
preaching of, 23, 77 ; principles of,
100
Solar spirits, Father Noel's theory of,
30, xxvi, xxix ; note on, xxvii
Sommat ion des pu issances nu mMques,
TraiU de la, Pascal writes, 64
Sorbonne, Arnauld tried at, 104 ;
condemns Provinciates, 138 ; ex-
pels Arnauld, xlvii, xlviii ;. Mer-
senne at, iv
Spinoza, in accord with teaching of
Pensees, 200
Stevin, of Bruges, his theory of trans-
mission of pressure in water, 33
Stoics, 108, 175
' Subtle Matter,' of Descartes, 28, 30,
34, 131, xxvi, xxix
Theses, adverse to Pascal, propounded,
33 ; note on, xxix
Thomas. Saint, Doctrine of, 103, 100,
119
Thomists. 104, 107, 116
Neo, 116, 117, 119, 136
Thorn, Miracle of the Sacred, 125, 135,
142 ; effect on Pascal, 139
Torricelli, 33, 181 ; experiments of,
27, 30
Trent, Council of, 107
Triangle, Arithmetical, Pascal in-
vents, 63
Triangle arithmttlqus. Traitt du, Pas-
cal writes, 63
Turgot, Theory of, 42
Utrecht, Recueil d', 202
Vacuum, Experiments concerning,
27 ; Pascal and Descartes discuss,
34 ; theory of, 27, 23, 32, 39
Vasquez, Writings of, 132
Vide, Le Pleln du, Father Noel
writes, 30 ; note on, xxv
Vide, Noui-elles experiences touch ant Is,
of Pascal, 27
Vide, Preface sur le traife du, Pascal
writes, 39
Villalabos, a casuist, 125
Villemain,his criticism of Pascal, 203
Vincennes, Saint Cyran imprisoned
at, 87, xl, xlvii
Vincent de Paul, Saint, xxii
Vinet, Alexandre, his appreciation of
Pascal, 204
Volatility, 30 ; note on, xxix
Voltaire, 199 ; his criticism of Pascal,
201
Wendreck, assumed name of Nicole,
lii
Wager concerning existence of God,
69, 183
Ypres, Jansenius Bishop of, 86, xxi
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