REESE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Deceived . c7^^-. .
Accession No. /^ */ O 3 . C/.ns No
PORT-KOYAL EDUCATION
SAINT-CYRAN; ARNAULD ; LANCELOT; NICOLE; DE SACI ;
GUYOT ; COUSTEL ; FONTAINE ; JACQUELINE PASCAL
EXTRACTS, WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
FELIX CADET
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
TRANSLATED, WITH AN INDEX, BT
ADNAH D. JONES
NEW YORK
CHAS. SCRIBNER'S
1898
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. Origin of the Petites Ecoles of Port-Royal Ideas
of Saint-Cyran on Education His collaborators, Lemaitre,
de Saci, Fontaine The real masters : Lancelot, Nicole,
Guyot, and Coustel Analysis of their works Wallon de
Beaupuis, Arnauld . . , . 1
Of the education of girls at Port-Royal according to the
constitution of the monastery and the rule of Jacqueline
Pascal . . . ... 46
Reasons which led to the closing of the schools and the
destruction of Port-Royal General criticism . . 58
EXTRACTS.
SAINT-CYRAN. Origin of the Petites Ecoles . 69
LANCELOT. Charity of M. de Saint-Cyran towards children . 71
LANCELOT. Saint-Cyran's literary theory . 82
DE BEAUPUIS. Regulations for the school of Le Chesnai . . 86
DE SACI. Letter on Education . . 92
FONTAINE. Conversation between Pascal and M. de Saci on
Epictetus and Montaigne . . 95
LANCELOT. A new method of learning to read . . .110
Of the Verb . . . . Ill
ARNAULD. Questions of grammar . . . .117
ARNAULD. Regulation of studies . . . 123
NICOLE. Design of the New Logic . . . 128
Reply to the principal objections . . .132
Of bad reasoning in civil life . . . 139
Rules of the method in the sciences . . .152
iv Table of Contents.
GUYOT. On teaching reading and writing. Exercises in transla-
tion, elocution, and composition . . .154
NICOLE. General views on the education of a Prince . .167
Special advice concerning studies .' . .171
Of the means of preserving peace with men . .181
ARNAULD. Eulogy on Descartes' philosophy . . .193
COUSTEL. Rules for education . . ... 201
Of civility and politeness in children . . .211
ARNAULD. On the persecutions of Port-Royal . . .218
MERE AGNES. Constitutions of the monastery of Port-Royal . 221
JACQUELINE PASCAL. Regulations for the children of Port-Royal 226
BESOGNE. Sister Anne Eugenie, mistress of the boarders . . 245
NICOLE. A recreation at Port-Royal . ... 247
APPENDIX. A study of the writers of Port-Royal by Father
Bouhours . . . ... 249
INDEX . 256
PORT-ROYAL EDUCATION.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Petites Ecoles of Port-Eoyal had but a short and troubled
existence. Their foundation goes back to the year 1637, 1 but
their real organization only dates from 1646. Several times
broken up in consequence of theological disputes excited by
Arnauld, or because of the war of the Fronde, they were finally
closed by the king's command in March, 166 1. 2
They hold, nevertheless, an honourable place in the history
of pedagogy. If they lasted but a short time they shed a
brilliant light, and exercised, as much by the character and
talents of the masters as by the reform in methods of teaching
and the books which they produced, a considerable influence,
which on certain points is still active.
The first idea of their foundation belongs to the illustrious
Duvergier de Hauranne, abbe of Saint-Cyran. 3 He was so pro-
foundly moved by the importance of the education of the young,
that he did not scruple to apply to this work the saying in the
1 In 1637 we see the beginning of this celebrated community of recluses,
which was formed outside the monastery of Port- Royal, and which brought
up in the knowledge of letters and the practice of Christian piety a few
children of good birth, whose parents wished to spare them the irregularities
which were too general among young men attending college. (Preface to the
Necrologe de Port-Royal.)
2 The nuns were allowed to receive boarders again from 1669 to 1679. (See
note to p. 47.)
3 Born at Bayonne in 1581, he was appointed to the Abbey of Saint-
Cyran, in La Brenne, "a desert country where everything was lacking," said
Lancelot (Mem. sur M. de Saint-Cyran y t. i. p. 288), on the frontiers of
Touraine, Berry, and Poitou.
Port-Royal Education.
gospel referring to salvation : "But one thing is needful" In his
eyes the well-being of families, of the State and of the Church
had its source and origin in this; all irregularities had no other
origin or cause than bad education. Thus ,he thought no
expressions sufficiently strong to condemn the negligence of
parents in respect to this, nor any commendations sufficiently
high to praise the devotion of persons who dedicated themselves
to the education of young children. "There is no occupation,"
he said, " more worthy of a Christian in the Church, there is no
greater charity after the sacrifice of one's life. . . . The guidance
of the most tender soul is a greater thing than the government of
a world." He was indignant, as if it were an absurdity and a
folly, at men seeking after the positions of seneschal and master
of the stables, and looking upon the education of reasonable
creatures as the lowest employment. 1
"I confess," he said to Fontaine, "that I should consider it
a religious duty if I could be of use to children." "I should have
been delighted to pass my whole life in it," he wrote to Lancelot.
At the period when Vincent de Paul began to devote himself
to the work of the Foundling Hospital, Saint-Cyran had for
a moment "the desire of sending far and wide to collect young
orphans in order to rear them in his abbey." In fine, when his
ideas were more settled, his scheme was simpler, and it would
require all the decision of Father Kapin to arouse in him the
least ambition of taking the education of the young out of the
hands of the Jesuits. The letter that he wrote from the prison of
Vincennes speaks of a sort of "nursery for the Church," in which
he would have brought up "six children chosen throughout the
1 It has required much time to change men's ideas on this point. Two
hundred years after Saint-Cyran, Channing notes with pleasure the progress
made : ' ' Men are beginning to understand the dignity of the schoolmaster.
The idea is dawning on us that no employment is comparable to that of
the education of the young in importance and value. That the talent
of training the young in energy, truth, and virtue is the first of all the arts
and sciences, and that consequently the encouragement of good masters is
the most sacred duty that society has to fulfil towards itself." (CEuvres
Sociales, trans. Laboulaye, p. 177.) Our schoolmasters ha ye no longer to
strive against the indifference and contempt of society ; they have to guard
themselves against the feeling of pride that their new position in public
opinion might cause in them. It is only in this way that they will preserve
the sympathy of everyone.
Introduction.
city of Paris." In a conversation, related by Lancelot, referring
to another school which he was to entrust to M. Singlin, Saint-
Cyran said "that he was far from making grand plans, that he
did not wish to do anything brilliant, and that he should be
contented to bring up there a dozen children at most in Christian
virtue." (Lancelot, Memoir -es, t. i. p. 291.)
His arrest and detention at Yincennes from 1638 to the death
of Richelieu, whom he survived but a few months, did not
permit him to carry out this modest plan. He had to restrict
himself to personal efforts on several occasions, 1 but especially
to excite, by his example and exhortations, devotion as dis-
interested as his own, but better guided, and therefore more
efficacious. He sometimes said that he would have gone to the
world's end to find a competent master. (Lancelot, t. i. p. 129.)
Sain t-Cy ran, then, was really the inspirer and mover of the
pedagogic work of Port-Royal, 2 and there is a real interest in
carefully seeking out his principal ideas on education.
I purposely set aside all his theological principles on the
original fall of man, on the natural corruption of human nature,
on the eternal damnation of infants dying unbaptized, and all
the consequences which he logically deduces from them as to
the end of education, and the direction to be given to it.
Modern pedagogy is a secular science which must not wear
the garb of any religious system. It cannot accept discussion
on this ground, which has only a purely historical interest.
Its starting-point is different, as is also its end. The child is,
. l We see him in prison educating the young child of a poor widow.
Lancelot (t. i. p. 133) shows him to us engaged in educating the two sons of
the lieutenant of whom he had much to complain on account of his ill-
treatment.
2 We read, nevertheless, in the supplement to the Nicrologe de Port-
Royal, p. 398: "The establishment of the Petites Scales de Port-Royal
was due to the solicitation of this illustrious magistrate (Jerome Bignon).
M. de Saint-Cyran had often conversed with him about his views on the
Christian education of children, and M. Bignon, after having long pressed
him to put them in execution, demanded, as a tribute due to their mutual
friendship, that the pious abbe should undertake to bring up his sons,
Jerome and Thierri Bignon, in a Christian manner. It was on their behalf
that the Petites coles were started outside Port- Royal de Paris by MM.
Lancelot and De Saci, while their sister, Marie Bignon, was educated within
the convent. "
4 Port- Royal Education.
in its view, a personality necessarily imperfect, in which good
and evil are mingled, and not a child of perdition, as Guyot
said, who must be snatched from the devil. It takes seriously,
but not tragically, this severe and delicate work of education
that Saint-Cyran calls " a tempest of the mind." (Letter to M.
de Eebours.) It does not consider that the chief object of
education is to preserve baptismal innocence in children by
withdrawing them from the world and even from their families,
to work solely for their salvation, and, by preference, within
the walls of a cloister. It proposes to develop in them the
knowledge of truth and the practice of virtue, to prepare them
to fulfil the various duties that await them in life, profoundly
convinced that the surest way of fulfilling our destiny, whatever
r it may be, is first to act our part as men.
Saint-Cyran demands in the first place that the family should
completely cede its rights to him. If he undertakes the charge
y of a child, he wishes "to be entirely its master " ; whether it
be the son of the Duchesse de Guise, or the child of a poor
' cabinetmaker, this condition is a sine qua non. 1
Then he attaches a very great importance to the choice of
his scholars, to discerning whether they are apt for study, or
fit only for manual labour. "It is very remarkable," observes
Lancelot with some reason (t. ii. p. 194), "that he is in no-
wise guided by their natural abilities in making this distinction,
but by the seeds of virtue which he sees that God has sown
in their hearts." A young child, eight or nine years old, who
appeared a prodigy of intellect, had been put into Lancelot's
hands. Saint-Cyran in prison wished to see him, and on the
statement of his master that nothing had been observed in him
that proceeded from corruption, but only a strange eagerness
for knowledge, joined to great inquisitiveness and an ardent
1 Mme. de Maintenon dreads the influence of the family no less. She
writes to Mme. de la Maine, March 5th, 1714 : " The first impressions given
to children in most houses are almost always vicious ; we see them come
to us untruthful, thieves, and deceitful .... They must be shown that
we know very well that they have seen these things done in their families,
but that they must not do them any more." The girls of Saint-Cyran
could only see their relations once every three months for half an hour at
most.
Introduction. 5
desire to obtain advantages, "he decided off-hand that it was
not at all necessary to put him to study, and this was absolutely
carried out." He added that "sometimes out of a hundred
children not one ought to be put to study." His fear was
lest he should burden the Church with a number of people
whom she had not called, and the State with a multitude of
/ idle persons who thought that they were above everybody because
they knew a little Latin, and who considered themselves dis-
honoured by following the profession in which their birth would
have placed them. Those only in whom great docility and sub-
./mission, with some mark of piety and an assured virtue, had been
perceived ought to receive intellectual culture. 1
"We shall not be surprised that he paid little attention to\
physical education. Christian spirituality has been too much in
fault in regarding the body as the origin of the passions, and
of irregularities of conduct, and as an enemy to be fought and
mastered; it was the Kenaissance, that is to say, the return to
classical antiquity, which enlarged the domain of pedagogy and
restored their due share to hygiene, games, and physical exercises.
Rabelais and Montaigne in the sixteenth century, Locke in the
seventeenth, Rousseau in the eighteenth, Hufeland in the nine-
teenth, brought about the success of this salutary reaction, and
convinced educators that it was necessary to attend to the child's
health before thinking of his intellectual and moral culture.
These pre-occupations of modern pedagogy seem scarcely to have
attracted the attention of Saint-Cyran, who was too much
engrossed by his religious ideas. Only one passage, and that of
small importance, has a bearing on the method of feeding. 2
But he seems to me to have very well understood the necessity
1 Our ideas are broader and more generous, and we open the book of
knowledge to all. There is nothing better or more necessary for the proper
working of our political institutions ; but it would be wise also not to cast
all minds in the same mould, and, in order to make enlightened citizens,
not to inspire them with a distaste for manual labour. Our curricula, well
filled, too uniform, and not sufficiently adapted to the needs of the various
localities, are, perhaps, not irreproachable in this respect.
2 He recommends, in a conversation with Lemaitre, the watching over the
inclinations of children which tend towards "idleness, untruthfulness, and
eating, on account of their constitution which demands it" and the accustoming
them " to eat all kinds of vegetables, cod-tish, and herrings."
6 Port-Royal Education.
of not overpressing the child by too early intellectual labour.
" I should think I had done a great deal," he says very sensibly,
" although I had not advanced them much in Latin up to the age
of twelve years, by causing them to spend their early years in the
close of a house or monastery in the country, and by giving them
all the pastimes suitable to their age." The monastery excepted,
this reminds us of the negative education extolled by Kousseau.
Saint-Cyran sacrificed intellectual to moral education too much.
"He remarked," said Lancelot (t. ii. p. 195), "that, generally
speaking, knowledge did more harm than good to the young.
And once he made me attentively consider this saying of St.
Gregory Nazianzen, who said that the sciences had entered the
Church, like the flies in Egypt, to cause a plague." His sombre
and exclusive theory ill qualified him to appreciate literary
beauties. Is it not strange to hear him say seriously during a
visit to Port-Koyal to the children who were studying. Yirgil,
" You see that author ? He has procured his own damnation,
yes, he has procured his own damnation, in making these beautiful
verses, because he made them through vanity and for glory ; but
you must sanctify yourselves in learning them, because you
must learn them to please God, and render yourselves fit to serve
the Church." What a strange idea ! To study like " a college
scapegrace," Eousseau would say, the fourth book of the ^Eneid,
even the Eclogues of Alexis and Gallus (Saci and Guyot trans-
lated these works for their pupils), with the aim of pleasing God
and serving the Church. What a narrow and strained conception
of the utility of poetry. Is it not sufficient to justify such a study
that it purifies the taste, ennobles the feelings, and excites
admiration by the contemplation of the beautiful 1 What
fanaticism to condemn with so much assurance those who have
rendered us this eminent service by their masterpieces.
Let us first recommend to our masters for the teaching of
morality the precept that the Mother Agnes recalls to the memory
of a sister on the subject of religious instruction, "There are
some truths that should rather be felt than learnt." (Lettres, t. ii.
p. 444.) What practical results can we expect to obtain if we
teach duty like a theorem in geometry 1 It is not a question
of setting out learned abstractions, logical deductions, or
Introduction.
\
methojdical classifications. The heart and conscience must be
educated, moral feeling must be awakened and strengthened, the
love of what is good must be inculcated, good habits must be
formed. Saint-Cyran will be of use to us, especially in what
concerns moral education.
A real knowledge and a sincere love of children inspired these
pedagogic directions which I sum up from Lancelot : Before all
things, to gain their confidence by a calculated gentleness, by a
really paternal love, and a seemly familiarity ; to bear their faults
and weaknesses patiently ; to show still more charity and com-
passion towards those who are seen to be more unformed and
backward ; not to dishearten them by a too severe look and a too
imperious manner ; to know how to condescend discreetly to their
humour for a time, in order to strengthen these young plants,
sometimes even to ask instead of commanding; to descend to
their level in order to raise them to our own ; to watch continually
in order to preserve these tender souls from evil, sometimes to
punish ourselves for their faults, for which we should always
fear we may be partly responsible, either through hastiness or
negligence ; to pray to God before correcting them, in order not
to give way to a movement of ill-temper ; to warn them at first
only by signs, then by words, reprimands, and threats ; to deprive
them of some pleasures, and to resort to corporal punishment only
in the last extremity ; plus prier que crier, to ask rather than
scold, he said, by a happy play of words; or, to sum up all in
the formula that v pleased him, to speak little, bear with much,
and pray more. But for him the principal points in the good
education of children were the good example to be set them,
together with perfect order in the school.
Lemaitre, the great orator, the first of the solitaries of Port-
Royal, was also one of the earliest to second Saint-Cyran in the
execution of his projects, The young Andilly and Saint- Ange
were entrusted to his care. A touching passage in the Memoirs
of Dufosse shows him at work :
"I remember that, scholar though I was, he often made me
go to his room, where he gave me very solid instruction in
studies as well as in piety. He read to me, and made me read
8 Port-Royal Education.
various passages from the poets and orators, and pointed out all
their beauties, both their strong sense and their diction. He
taught me 'also to read verse and prose as they should be read,
which he did admirably himself, having a pleasing voice, and
all the other qualities of a great orator. He also gave me several
rules for good translation, in order to enable me to advance in
it." 1 It is well known that he took charge of the education of
Eacine.
His younger brother, M. de Saci, who, after Saint-Cyran and
M. Singlin, was the director of Port-Eoyal, took part incidentally
in the teaching. With Lancelot, Saint-Cyran had especially
entrusted him with the education of the two sons of M. Bignon.
His letter, which we publish under the title of Patience and
Silence, is an admirable page of pedagogy. His influence on
classical studies was more considerable ; to him we owe a trans-
lation of the Fables of Phsedrus, 2 and of three comedies of
Terence. 3 It is to be noticed with what "ingenious charity" the
man of letters, enamoured with noble antiquity, endeavours to
conciliate the cultivation of good taste with respect for morality,
and the quite new importance that he attaches to the study of
the French language. "... Many persons of quality complain
nowadays with great reason," says he in the preface, " that when
their children are taught Latin it seems that they unlearn French,
and that in aspiring to make them citizens of ancient Home they
are made strangers in their own country . . . After having learnt
Latin and Greek for ten or twelve years we are often obliged to
learn French at thirty."
ly> His intellect, full of fire and light, with a certain charm and
sprightliness, and his especial talent for poetry, were celebrated
at Port-Eoyal. Fontaine has preserved his first piece. It is a
letter of thanks, half prose, half verse, to his mother for a
1 Mtinoires pour servir A I'hist. de Port- Boy al, 1739, p. 156.
2 The Fables of Phsedrus, the freedman of Augustus, translated into
French with the Latin opposite, to serve for a good understanding of the
Latin tongue, and for translating well into French. (1647.)
3 The Comedies of Terence (Andria, Adelphi, Phormio), translated into
French and rendered with propriety, by changing very little, to serve for a
good understanding of the Latin tongue, and for translating well into French,
by the Sr. de Saint- Aubin. (Paris, 1647.)
Introduction.
present of four purses that she made to him and his three
brothers. Forced wit and an affected style give themselves free
scope. "We see in it," he says, "in a small space, the most
illustrious prisoner in the world (gold) ; and our hands have
enchained him who disposes of the liberty of all men :
" That superb metal, to which so many mortals
Dedicate so many vows, raise so many altars ;
Son of the Sun of the Heavens and Sun of the earth," etc.
The four purses, of different colours, are compared at first to
a beautiful flower-bed, then to the whiteness which when the sun
is hidden adorns
"That great blue veil that covers all the sky" ;
then to the lily and the rose, which
' ' Both redouble their natural beauties " ;
then to the sun's rays on the " soft ivory " of the snow ; at last
" to the thousand deep red roses " of the- dawn.
"I shall always admire these purses as marvels, and I shall
love them as my little sisters, since they are in some sort your
daughters, and I am truly your very humble and very obedient
son, De Saci."
This poetical talent, such as it was, was utilized in 1654 to
reply to the facetious jests of the Jesuits in their almanack
entitled, The Rout and Confusion of the Jansenists. De Saci, with
the applause of Arnauld 1 (Saint-Cyran would have energetically
condemned such a freak), composed, in trifling verses of eight
feet, the Enluminures de Valmanacli des Jesuites. I will only quote*
one specimen, which has at least the historical value of verifying
how superior the Jansenists were to the Jesuits pen in hand :
" There are none, even your booksellers,
Who do not value your adversaries,
"Whose fine books have always,
Notwithstanding your noise, so great a vogue.
But yours, so magnificent,
Are the seniors in the shops,
And always stay at home
As if they were in prison.
* Arnauld undertook, at a great expense of erudition and logic, to justify
this pamphlet, in his Application des regies dcs Pbres a V almanack.
io Port- Royal Education.
Every other book is asked for,
Seen, prized, and bargained for ;
But they are recluses,
Whom no man has ever seen.
All the leaves collected
Are ream on ream piled up
And, the attics being full of them,
They are the guardians of the shops.
There the mice run over the pages
Of your admirable works,
And the troop of noble rats
Make them their food and their good dishes."
(6th illustration, p. 24.)
Naturally, Lancelot applied to de Saci to versify the Garden of
Greek Roots (1657). The prologue well preserves the imprint of
its author :
" Thou, who cherishest the learned Greece,
Where of old wisdom flourished ;
Whence theological authors
Have borrowed their sacred terms
To be of our great mysteries
The august depositaries,
Enter this GARDEN, not of flowers
Which have only useless colours,
But of nourishing ROOTS
Which make learned minds."
,- In truth, de Saci, wholly given up to piety, looked with some
; contempt on all secular studies, and thought that reading the
I classical authors was 3angerous for those who could not " pick up
I some pearls from the dunghill, whence arose even a hlack smoke
which might obscure the wavering faith." Religion is his sole
thought : " The chief end of education ought to be to save the
children and ourselves with them." We see him in his admirable
conversation with Pascal, firm and intrenched in his faith, despise
the fine - drawn reasoning of Epictetus and Montaigne, and
enthusiasm for science, "those dangerous viands served up on
handsome dishes" to people "who are sleeping, and who think
they eat while sleeping."
Fontaine describes him admirably in this passage : "No one
ever saw M. de Saci take an interest in those inquisitive sciences
(the system of the world by Descartes, animal - machines).
Introduction. \ i
Smiling good-naturedly when anyone spoke to him of these
things, he showed more pity for those who paid attention to them
than desire to attend to them himself. He said to me one day,
speaking to me privately on the subject, that he wondered at the
action of God with regard to these new opinions; that M.
Descartes was with respect to Aristotle like a robber who came to
kill another robber and carry off his booty; that Aristotle, little by
little, had at last become the master of the ministers of the
Church. ' I saw at the Sorbonne,' he said to me, 'and I could not
see it without a shudder, a doctor who quoted a passage from the
Scriptures, and another who boldly refuted him by a passage from
Aristotle. . . . Aristotle having usurped such authority in the
Church, was it not just that he should be dispossessed and over-
thrown by another tyrant, to whom, perhaps, the same thing
would happen one day?" (Memoires, t. iii. p. 75.)
What a narrow-minded opinion, and what a prejudice ! Sainte-
Beuve answers him roundly : " Jansenius made a disturbance in
the bosom of the Church; Descartes made a revolution every-
where." (t. iii. p. 120.)
We recall his smart paradox on the inutility of travelling :
" Travelling was seeing the devil dressed in every fashion
German, Italian, Spanish, and English."
De Saci's chief work was his translation of the Bible, of which
the publication, begun in 1672, was not finished till 1707, twenty-
three years after his death. Beading and meditating on the
sacred books, and making their reading and meditation easier for
the faithful, was the chief business of his life. "With my
Bible," said he, " I could go to the end of the world." It is
curious and interesting to mark the hesitation and the scruples
of the translator. He had translated at first in a style that his
friends thought too elevated, and then too bald. He set to
work a third time, trying to keep a middle course. Sainte-Beuve
amends the cutting sentence of Joubert, "De Saci has shaved,
powdered, and curled the Bible, but at least he has not rouged it,"
by this sprightly remark, "It would suffice to say that he
has combed it." (t. ii. p. 362.) The celebrated translator passed
judgment on himself a few months before his death :
"I have endeavoured to remove from the Holy Scripture
12 Port- Royal Education.
obscurity and inelegance ; and God has willed until now that His
Word should be enveloped in obscurities. Have I not, then,
reason to fear that giving, as I have tried to do, a clear version,
and one perhaps sufficiently correct with regard to purity of
language, is resisting the designs of the Holy Spirit ? I know very
well that I have not aimed at the graces and niceties that are
admired in society, and that might be sought at the French
Academy. God is my witness how much horror I have always
had of these ornaments. . . . But I cannot hide from myself
that I have endeavoured to render the language of Scripture
clear, pure, and conformable to the rules of grammar. . . . Shall
I not, then, have reason to tremble if the Holy Ghost, having until
now set aside the rules of grammar, and having visibly despised
, them, I now take the liberty of reducing it to these rules . . . T'
\(Fontaine, Memoir es, t. iv. pV^322.)
Evidently de Saci had not such soundness of taste as he had
tenderness of conscience and ardour in devotion ; but with these
few reservations, how much admiration this pure and regular life,
so enamoured of perfection, so lull of self-sacrifice and charity,
deserves ! One touching trait will suffice to depict this noble
soul. When he came out of prison in 1668 what will it be
thought that he demanded of the friendship of Le Tellier, who
was afterwards chancellor ? "He begged him to use his influence
with the king to obtain permission from his majesty that from
time to time persons of whose fidelity there could be no doubt
should go to the Bastille to see what was going on there, in order
that poor prisoners who spend years there without anyone even
remembering why they have been imprisoned, should not be left
in perpetual oblivion." (Leclerc. Vies interessantes, t. iv. p. 56.)
But the real masters of Port-Eoyal were those who were
entrusted with the teaching at the time of the organization of
the Petites Ecoles in 1646. Lancelot and Nicole, Guyot and
Coustel, under the management of M. Wallon de Beaupuis, but
in reality under the powerful influence of Arnauld, the heir to
the authority of Saint-Cyran and the author or inspirer of most
of the classical books of Port-Eoyal.
The most distinguished master was Claude Lancelot. Of all
fthe recluses of Port-Eoyal he devoted himself the most entirely
Introduction. 1 3
to education, and composed the greatest number of classical works.
He was born at Paris about 1615. Having early resolved to
devote himself to God's service, he entered in 1627 the com-
munity of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet, where he remained ten
years studying the fathers of the Church, and regretting that
he did not find men like St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, and
St. Augustine. "If there were only one," said he, "I would
start at once and go and seek him, even to the world's end,
to throw myself at his feet and receive from him so pure and
beneficial a guidance." (Memoires, t. i. p. 5.)
It was then that he heard the abbe* of Saint-Cyran spoken
of as a man of the early centuries, and he put himself under
his spiritual direction with unbounded submission and admiration.
" I confess," he said, " that it was one of my devotions to pause
sometimes and contemplate M. de Saint-Cyran as one of the
most living images of Christ that I had ever seen. (Mem.
t. ii. p. 204.)
He entered Port-Royal January 20, 1638, a few months before
the arrest of Saint-Cyran, to share the life of penitence of the
early solitaries, then not very numerous. They were soon obliged
to disperse, but in order not to abandon the task that had been
entrusted to him, Lancelot was sent to La Ferte-Milon with
M. Yitard, then twelve or thirteen years old, in order to take
charge of his education. On his return to Paris in October,
1639, he started for the abbey of Saint-Cyran, whence he
returned in October, 1640, to take charge of the two children
of M. Bignon, the Advocate-General, and afterwards of a little
boy whom Saint-Cyran sent to him, the care of whom he shared
with de Saci because he was occupied in the mornings in the
sacristy of Port-Royal.
He published in 1644 the New Method of Learning the Latin
Tongue with Ease. The preface and the address to the reader
state precisely the reform introduced into the teaching. The
rules are given in French. The "minutiae of grammar" are
rejected. " I have been careful to avoid some observations that
seemed to me not very useful, remembering the excellent saying
of Quintilian, that it is part of the science of a really skilful
grammarian to know that there are some tlii.pgs thai: are n t
^^x
*0* THE "J'V
UNIVERSITY 1
~~s
14 Port-Royal Edttcation,
worth knowing. But I hope," he adds, "that the substantial
and judicious remarks of these authors, 1 in order to thoroughly
understand the ground of the Latin language, . . . will show
with how much reason the same Quintilian said that those are
I very much deceived who laugh at grammar as a low and despic-
| able art, since, being to eloquence what the foundation is to the
* edifice, if it is not firmly established in the mind all that is added
to it afterwards will fall to the ground." He praises this maxim
of Ramus : "Few rules and much practice," an excellent recom-
mendation that Fenelon supports with his authority. 2
\ Thus Lancelot claims to do in six months what Despautere
would take three years to do. In a letter to Bussy, Corbinelli
advises him to teach his daughter Latin by the method of Port-
Royal : "There is only enough for a fortnight." (30 July, 1677.)
Nothing shows that this was a joke on the pretension to improvise
knowledge. It is only a rather strong illusion of an admirer.
Lancelot had charge of the teaching of Greek and mathematics
at the school in the Rue Saint-Dominique de 1'Enfer in 1646.
He gave, in 1655, the New Method of Learning the Greek Language
with Ease. M. Egger, a very competent judge, notes the marked
advance of this work on the books of Clenard, Vergara, and
Yossius : " The barbarous quatrains that Lancelot mixes with the
rules in prose in his methods have quite gone out of fashion now.
But, then, it was something to employ the French language
instead of Latin ; it was something to have set out the declensions
and conjugations at greater length ; to have facilitated the effort of
memory necessary for pupils in learning the vocabulary of a dead
language by the choice of the most useful words." (De Vhellen-
isme en France, vol. ii. p. 60.) It was not the fault of Port-
Royal that the study of Greek was not again held in honour
1 He says that he had read the works of Sanctius, a celebrated professor of
Salamanca, of Scioppius and Vossius, learned Dutchmen (1577-1649); he
does not appeal at all to the authority of the Portuguese Jesuit Alvares,
whose grammar Father Rapin accuses him of copying, but without showing
any proof of it. (Mem. Introduc., p. 125.)
2 "The great point is to bring a person as soon as possible to the practical
application of the rules by frequent use ; then he will take pleasure in
noticing the details of the rules that he followed at first without remarking
them." (Lettre d I'Acad&nie Franqaise, 2.)
Introduction.
among us. We know with what success Lancelot imparted the
knowledge of this language and the taste for its literature to
Racine.
In 1657 appeared the Jardin des ratines grecques. It would
not be very useful to pause on this work, which would not interest
our readers. The learned Diibner, otherwise a great partisan of
the pedagogic reforms of Port-Royal, does not hesitate to call itv
" Ostrogothic." M. Egger declares that this book, by its errors!
and want of criticism, "has been one of the greatest obstacles toi
progress in grammatical methods among us." (De Vhellenisme en*
France, vol. i. p. 112.) After being long used in class, it was
suppressed by a ministerial decree of December 4, 1863. Two
passages in the preface deserve to be noticed. One relates to
Comenius and his method, Janua linguarum reserata (the gate of
languages opened), 1631. "A work estimable in itself," said
Lancelot, "but not sufficiently proportioned to the title it bears,
and the intention of its author." After having tried it, he thinks
it long and difficult, without interest for the children, and, in fine,
of very little use, because of its want of method. There is a
good page of pedagogy to be gathered here.
"Besides requiring an extraordinary memory to, learn it, and
that few children are capable of it, I can assert, after several
experiments that I have made, that scarcely any are able to retain
it, because it is long and difficult and, the words being never
repeated, they have forgotten the beginning before reaching the
end. Thus they feel a constant dislike for it, because they always
find themselves, as it were, in a new country, where they recognize
nothing : the book is filled with all sorts of unusual and difficult
words, and the first chapters are of no assistance for those that
follow; nor these for the last, because there is no word in one
which is found in the others." And he adds, with his consum-
mate experience in teaching: "What might be called the Entrance
to languages ought to be a short and easy method to lead us
as quickly as possible to the reading the best written books,
in order to learn not only the words that we lack, but also what is
most remarkable in the turn and most pure in the phrase, which
is, without doubt, the most difficult and most important part in
every language/'
1 6 Port- Royal Education.
The other judgment is not so well founded in reason. For the
etymologies, he quotes especially the Origines franfaises of M.
Menage, "who alone is worth a multitude of authors, because,
besides drawing from the ancients, he has carefully collected what
the most able men of our own times have that is curious upon this
matter." If there is a book that deserves the discredit and
oblivion into which it has fallen, it is assuredly this one. The
philological caprices of Menage have passed into legends. It was
easy for Father Bouhours to amuse himself at his expense, to the
great delight of Mine, de Sevigne. 1
" M. Menage especially excels in etymologies, he says with lively
raillery. His mind seems to be made expressly for this science;
sometimes he even seems to be inspired, so lucky is he in dis-
covering where words come from. For example, did he not need
a sort of inspiration to discover the real origin of jargon and
baragouin? Jargon, according to him, comes from barbaricus.
Here is its genealogy in direct line : barbarus, barbaricus, baricus,
varicus, uaricus, guaricus, guargus, gargo, gargonis, JARGON.
Baragouin is a near relation of jargon : barbarus, barbaracus,
barbaracuinus, baracuinus, baraguinus, BARAGOUIN. Nothing is
clearer nor more precise. And I have no doubt that M. Menage
is very pleased with himself at this new discovery; for formerly
he did not think that jargon and baragouin were of the same
country, nor came from the same stem. He insists, in his
Origines de la langue fran$aise, that jargon is Spanish and
baragouin Bas-breton, ... so true is it that words like men come
from where one wills. However this may be, we are indebted
to M. Menage for a great deal of similar knowledge ; it is he
who, with that faculty of divination that M. de Balzac attributes
to him, has discovered that laquais came from verna, vernula,
vernulacus, vernulacaius, lacaius, laquay, LAQUAIS ; that boire a
tire-larlgot came from fistula : fistula, fistularis, fistularius, fistu-
laricus, laricus, laricotus, LARIGOT. . . All that is very fine and
curious."
1 " I read the angry books of Father Bouhours, the Jesuit, and of Manage,
who tear each other's eyes out and amuse us. They say what they think of
each other, and often insult one another. There are, besides, some very good
remarks on the French language. You cannot think how amusing this
quarrel is." (16 September, 1676.)
Introduction. 1 7
In 1660 Lancelot, under the supervision of Arnauld, 1 edited one
of the most important works of Port-Koyal, the Grammaire
gnu' rale et raisonnee, containing the grounds of the art of
speaking, explained in a clear and natural manner, the reason for
what is common to all languages, and the principal differences that
are met with in them, with several new remarks on the French
language.
This compendious but incomplete work was a bold conception
for the time, the influence of Descartes and his unflinching
confidence in the power of the reason are felt in it. It incited
the researches of the philosophical grammarians of the eighteenth
century, du Marsais, Duclos, Condillac, and de Tracy. This was
the best that could be done until the discovery of Sanscrit, with
a wider knowledge of languages and their filiation and history
permitted Grimm, Humboldt, Bopp, Burnouf, Diez, Michel
Breal, and Littre to substitute the sure method of history,
phonetics, and comparison for the brilliant but barren speculations
of philosophical abstraction.
If we no longer share the enthusiastic admiration of the worthy
Kollin for this work, and no longer see the sublime genius of the
great man, we still remain struck with this vigorous spirit of
analysis and this luminous method.
At the same date the indefatigable master, under the name of
M. de Trigny, completed his grammatical teaching by giving the
Nouvelle Methode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la
langue italienne, and the Nouvelle Methode pour apprendre facile-
ment et en peu de temps la langue espagnole. He had recourse to
the learning of Chapelain for these two works. The second was
dedicated to the Most Serene Infanta of Spain, Donna Maria
Teresa, " whom all France already looks upon as her queen." A
passage in the Preface to the Italian Method should be pointed
1 " The General Grammar is the result of conversations that M. Lancelot,
who was entrusted with the teaching of languages in the schools of Port-
Royal, had with this great man, in the moments that the doctor was able to
give up to the desire that he had to learn with him. M. Lancelot wrote out
the answers that M. Arnauld gave to his questions ; and thus was composed
the first work that went deeply into the art of speaking, and developed the
first foundations of the Logic." (Fie de messire Ant. Arnauld, Paris et
Lausanne, 1783, t. i. p. 218.)
1 8 Port-Royal Education.
out to those engaged in teaching, for the proper management of
the grammatical studies both of teachers as well as of students :
I" Whosoever wishes to learn a language with facility should
as soon as possible join use and practice with precept. " For the
Italian, for instance, the declension of the article, and the
auxiliary and regular verbs some three or four pages are all that
it is necessary to know in order to begin construing an author.
"After that the rules for the irregular verbs may be learnt,
or at least read attentively ; the rest of the grammar may almost
be left to the teacher to be applied in practice.''
With respect to the grammar of the French language, which is
obviously lacking in the collection, and which was demanded
abroad, 1 particularly by Daniel Elzevier, the famous bookseller of
Amsterdam, Lancelot replied to Dr. Saint-Amour, who had to
make the proposal, "that he had several times resolved upon
undertaking this work, but that he had always found so many
difficulties, and so little likelihood of being able to surmount them,
that he had been obliged to give it up." Saint- Amour returned
to the charge two or three times, but always without success,
Lancelot never ceasing to object how much " he had been
repelled every time he had wished to undertake it."
) After all, the Port-Koyalists rendered a greater service to the
French language than drawing up its grammar: they gave it
an important place in classical studies by their methods drawn up
in French, and no longer in Latin ; and by their translations they
invigorated it from the sources of antiquity, and cleared it of
pedantry and scholasticism. They won theology for it as
Descartes did philosophy and Corneille the high style of poetry.
The grave and learned works that issued from Port-Koyal, more
attentive to matter than form, to truth and virtue than to
beauties of style, drew admiration even from its enemies. Father
1 Among ancient works that the study of our language produced we
may cite :
PALSGKAVE, 1' Esclaircissement de la langue fran(;oys& (1530); Louis
MtfGRET, le TretU de la grammere fran^oeze (1550); RAMUS, Gramere
fransoeze (1562).
VAUGELAS in 1647 published only detached remarks on the French
language, and not a methodical treatise. In 1714 FENELON expressed a
wish that the French Academy would add a grammar to its dictionary.
Introduction. \ 9
Annat had not more brilliantly combated Pascal than the
learned Father Petau had attacked Arnauld, and Father Rapin
does not stint his praises of the book on Frequent Communion
(1G43), "Nothing had been seen better written in our language."
(Menwires, t. i. p. 22.) He does not do less justice to Pascal
"Men had," he says, "so little experience of a manner of writing
resembling that of the Letters to a Provincial, that they could
form no conjectures sufficiently clear to point to anybody with
certainty, because they had never seen anything of this character
in our language." (Memoires, t. ii. p. 380. j 1 Mme. de Maintenon,
whose profound antipathy for " those gentlemen of Port-Royal " is
well known, asserts that the works "contain a venom so much
the more dangerous as their style is more pleasing to the natural
taste, and elevates the mind. For myself, I have never liked any
of their books, although they are very fine." (Instruction a la
classe bleue, 1705.)
The influence of these models for the perfecting of the language
was deep and lasting. " By employing themselves for twenty years
after the Provincials in dexterously finding fault with the style
of Pascal the Jesuits learnt to write well. By ironically pointing
out the rather uniform gravity, 2 the long periods, and at times
unusual expressions of the other writers of Port-Royal, they tried
their hand at a style which was more easy and flowing without
being less correct. 3 (Yillemain, Preface du Dictionnaire de
V Academie.)
This service was more valuable than the composition of a
French Grammar.
To return to Lancelot. When in 1661 the Petites Ecoles were
1 There is no one, even to the venomous Father Brisacier, who does not
admit the literary merit of the Heures de Port-Royal ; he calls them ' ' a sink
of errors, a grenade of impiety, a common sewer of all the works of Calvin
collected in good French under the specious title of Office de la Vierge"
Quoted by ARNAULD, la Morale pratique desjesuites, t. viii. p. 162.
2 A curious note of Bossuet on his reading, dated 1669, contains this
information: "Some books of MM. de Port-Royal, good to read because
gravity and grandeur are found in them, their prefaces by choice ; but their
style has little variety. Without variety there is no pleasure." (FLOQUET,
Etudes sur la vie de Bossuet, t. i. p. 378.)
3 Father Bouhours, the author of the Entretiens d'Ariste et d* Eugene
(1671), must especially be named. The second dialogue is entirely devoted
to a serious study of the language of Port-Royal.
2O Port-Royal Education.
finally closed by the king's command, he had been for some time
in charge of the education of the Due de Chevreuse, as we see
by the address of a letter of Chapelain : "A M. Lancelot,
precept eur du Marquis de Luynes, a Port-Royal"
In 1663 he published four treatises on poetry Latin, French,
^Italian, and Spanish. He was probably working on that Recueil
de poesies chretiennes et diverses, dedicated to Mgr. le prince
de Conti, which appeared in 1671 in three volumes under
the name of ... (the reader may guess a hundred times),
under the name of La Fontaine; his friendship for Eacine
and Boileau brought him into contact for a short time with
Port-Eoyal. In offering this collection to the prince, he acknow-
ledges that he has done little more than lend his name.
" Those who by their labour have brought it to this state
Might offer it to thee in more brilliant terms ;
But, fearing to emerge from that profound peace
Which they enjoy in secret, far from noise and the world,
They engage me to bring it to the light for them."
Lancelot had for two years been entrusted with the education
of the princes de Conti. Fontaine has preserved the interesting
report that he sent to M. de Saci on the employment of the
day by his pupils, and the distribution of their studies. He
preferred to resign his position in 1672, rather than consent
to take his pupils to the theatre. His inflexible strictness cannot
escape the reproach of inconsistency justly thrown on him by
Sainte-Beuve : "Of what use is it, Lancelot, to teach children
so well Greek, Spanish, Italian, and the niceties of Latin
and to forbid them afterwards to go to the theatre and hear
Chimene, to permit neither the Jerusalem, the Aminta, Theagene,
the Anthology, nor all Catullus? This prohibition and inter-
diction extended, in fact, beyond childhood, and in part existed
for grown-up men. Was it possible? Was it reasonable? Of
what use was it to teach so much and so well, if it were not
to put men in a position to use this knowledge later? Why
should I not enjoy the honey and the flowers of this Greek
whose Roots I have devoured? The child who will write
Berenice said this to himself one day, and he leaped over the
Introduction. 2 1
obstacle. He flew over the hedge like the bee." (Port-Royal,
t. iii. p. 531.)
This was the end of the pedagogic career of Lancelot, who
henceforth devoted himself to the religious life in the abbey
of Saint-Cyran under the direction of M. de Barcos. On the
death of this abbe, in 1678, great troubles arose in the abbey,
and Lancelot was exiled, on the pretext of Jansenism, to
Quimperle in the remotest part of Britanny, 1 where he died
on April 15, 1695, leaving behind him a venerated memory.
The history of French pedagogy cannot leave in oblivion the
name of this educator who devoted himself unreservedly to
children, and who so well understood that pedagogy should be
in the heart still more than in the head, and that the master
should feel " the love of a father " for his pupils. " A preceptor
who was not in that frame of mind would never do anything
.... If, on the contrary, he were so, this love would make him
find more ways of being useful to his scholars than all the advice
that might be given him." (Letter to M. de Saci on the education
of the princes de Conti.)
shed more lustre than Lancelot by his talents as a writer
moralist, so much praised by Mme. de Sevigne and Voltaire.
In reality he was much less the man of Port-Royal. He scarcely
knew Saint-Cyran, and did not altogether admire him when he
compared him to a field, " capable of producing much, but prolific
in briars and thorns," and he even went so far as to speak of his
gibberish. He acknowledges that he kept himself a little aloof.
" I was for five or six years in a place where they usually opposed
to de Saci, M. Singlin, M. N. and M. 1ST. on one side and myself
on the other." (Essais, t. vii. p. 180). On the death of de Saci
he did not approve of the marks of veneration and tenderness
lavished by the nuns on their beloved confessor ; and he wrote
to Mile. Aubry, begging her not to mention it, that for thirty
1 Nothing more is heard of him except one curious circumstance related
by Arnauld to M. du Vaucel and Mme. de Fontpertuis, March 16
and 17, 1689. James II., King of England, who had been dethroned,
arrived at Kimperlay (sic}. ' * A great supper was awaiting him in the
abbey where brother Claude Lancelot is .... M. d'Avaux seated him
at table by his side . . . Who would have thought that a monk exiled to
Britanny would have had the honour of supping with a king ? "
22 Port- Royal Education.
years he had suffered from this unreasonable assiduity of the
devotees.
M. de Beaubrun, in the interesting portrait that he has drawn
of Nicole, goes so far as to say : " He was a jansenist, perhaps,
only through fear of displeasing M. Arnauld, since after 1689
he wrote to Father Quesnel that for more than thirty years he
had had the thoughts that he had expressed in his treatise on
la Grace general^ that is to say that he was writing in favour of
Jansenism, while he had in his mind a system diametrically
opposed to it." (Vie manuscrite, a passage quoted by Sainte-
Beuve, t. iv. p. 516.)
^Nicole, besides, was less exclusively attached to the Petiles
Ecoles. He divided his time between the care of his pupils, his
theological studies, and his preparation for the licentiate's degree,
which he did not renounce until 1649. A manuscript biographical
notice from Holland thus describes the more restricted part that
he took : " M. Nicole only directed the studies of the young people
at Port-Royal. The young gentlemen were themselves much in-
clined to study ; they only needed to have the best passages of the
Greek or Latin authors pointed out to them. M. Nicole was there
to inspire them with the taste for them. M. Nicole was to them
rather an adviser than a master, as this name is understood now."
(Quoted by Sainte-Beuve, t. iv. p. 599.)
His talent as a teacher was very remarkable. Father Rapin
(Mem. t. ii. p. 254) relates that Singlin heard him discourse on an
eclipse of the sun, got him to talk on various subjects, and
brought him under the notice of Arnauld, who hastened to
associate him with himself, and being unable to do without
him, soon carried him off to the schools. He was well qualified
for teaching belles-lettres and philosophy.
"M. Nicole," says Besogne (t. v. p. 225), "studied under his
father all the authors of profane antiquity, both Greek and
Latin. 1 At the age of fourteen he had finished the usual course
of the humanities, he had so much aptitude and penetration of
mind joined to a most excellent memory. It was sufficient for
1 Nicole, Essais de morale, t. viii. p. 193, admits that he had not read
Demosthenes
Introduction. 23
Jrim to read a book once in order to retain its substance, and at an
advanced age he told his friends that he had forgotten nothing
that he had read in his youth. He knew his Virgil and Horace
perfectly. A short time before his death he gravely recited a
number of verses of the ^Eneid. The author who pleased him
most, and whom he willingly re-read for his good latinity, was
Terence. He was accustomed to say that the best passages of
these authors were like fine models that it was necessary to have
in the mind in order to write fine works; that a man who was
not provided with these fine models, and who undertook to
compose, might indeed write fine things, but it was as if he
printed in Gothic characters; while he who had made these
fine passages his own was in a position to print in fine Roman
characters, which it was a pleasure to read."
This extensive and varied knowledge, this wide and curious
reading, which give a peculiar character to Nicole among the
solitaries of Port-Royal, lacks, however, the keen feeling for
beauty. A passage in one of his letters is truly singular for
a professor of the humanities ; he does not conceal his contempt
for the impassioned admirers of the ancients : " For myself," he
adds, " / take pleasure in discovering the falsehoods and great
delusions in these same books. I find a quantity of them. 7 '
This is a very unfortunate turn of mind, and would be calcu-
lated to vitiate and sterilize all literary teaching. " The pleasure
of criticism," says La Bruyere, "takes from us the faculty of
being deeply touched by very fine things."
Nicole has an unfortunate kind of prejudice against the whole
of ancient literature.
Recalling to mind that Saint-Cyran never read the books ofi
heretics " without having performed the exorcisms of the church, I
because he said that they were written by the spirit of the devil,
and that there was in these books an impression of error," he
adds, " But do not all the books of the pagans come from the
same source?" (t. xii. p. 176.) 1 Happily he corrected this
1 It is unpleasant to see Port-Royal, which stigmatized the ineptitude
of Father Garasse, in agreement with him on this point, in better terms,
however : " It is true that the greatest captains in the world, who in old
times filled the earth with the signs of their triumphs, are now like hodmen
24 Port-Royal Education.
sally himself, and felt the moral value of ancient literature.
(See p. 180.)
What shall we say of several of his criticisms on French
literature 1 ? Did he not arouse the anger and ingratitude of
Eacine by calling the dramatic poets public poison ersl The great
Corneille, whose theatre breathes in the highest degree heroism
and the sentiment of duty, finds no favour in his prejudiced eyes,
and he pronounces, even in the case of the Cid and Horace, the
words corruption, barbarism, criminal aims.
" One cannot better prove the danger there is in all comedies
than by showing that those even of this author are contrary to
the spirit of the Gospel, and that they corrupt the mind and heart
by the pagan and profane sentiments that they inspire." (Les
Visionnaires, Avertissement, p. 22.) Bossuet, unfortunately, has
not been more just towards Corneille.
The genius of Pascal also has partly escaped Nicole. He
proclaims him, indeed, "one of the great minds of this age"
(Essais, t. iii. p. 3); he quotes the Pensees as one of the most
useful works to put into the hands of princes (see p. 179); but
he goes so far as to call him " a gatherer of shells," and nearly
made the abbe de Saint-Pierre, to whom he said this enormity,
doubt the discernment of the moralist. (Ouvrages de morale et de
politique, t. xii. p. 86.)
With what strange freedom, in a letter to the Marquis de
Sevigne, he reproaches Mme. de la Fayette with wishing to
impose admiration of these Pensees without " telling us more
particularly what we ought to admire in them," and to reduce
us "to pretend to think admirable what we do not understand ! "
We cannot but praise the wisdom and prudence of the editors,
while regretting it, that in publishing the Pensees they thought
of excising some passages in which the royal majesty was treated
with small respect, some assertions which furnished matter for
new discussions, and some attacks on the " worthy Fathers."
and stable - boys in hell ; it is true that the devil has taken the greatest
philosophers of Greece, the wisest councillors of the Areopagus, the most
famous orators of Rome, the haughtiest princes of heathendom, the most
learned physicians of the universe ; it is true that they are all in the pay
of Lucifer." (P. GARASSE, Doctrine curieuse, p. 867.)
Introduction. 25
We can understand, strictly, that Arnauld should write to
M, Perrier, who defended the work of Pascal : " A man cannot
be too precise when he has to do with such ill-natured enemies
as yours. It is much more to the point to avoid carping criticisms
by some slight change, which only softens an expression, than
to be reduced to the necessity of making apologies. . . ."
(20 Nov., 1660.)
But that anyone should have the idea of correcting Pascal's
style, of remodelling his phrases, of changing such and such a
familiar and original expression, such and such a lively and
dramatic turn, shows an aberration of mind, an absence of
criticism, and a want of taste that we cannot describe; and wo
have some trouble to understand that this was, in great part,
the work of him whom Bayle calls the finest pen of Port-Eoyal,
and whom the papal nuncio named the golden pen. 1
This imperfection of his literary sense, taste, and imagination
is equally betrayed in the only book relating to the teaching of
belles-lettres on which Nicole worked, Epigrammatum delectus
(A Selection of Epigrams, 1659). A preface and a dissertation,
both in Latin, indicate the aim and plan of the work to culti-
vate the mind, and to protect the morals. The worthy Nicole
" shuddered with horror at the sight of the obscenities of Martial
and Catullus, whose works eternal oblivion or the flames ought
to have destroyed." But as " remedies are drawn from the viper
and flowers are found among poisons," he sets to work to make
a selection of the most elegant pieces. He would perhaps have
acted as wisely in not including the construing of these authors
in a programme of classical studies. This kind of work is of a
very limited and secondary character.
The dissertation on true and false beauty, on the nature and
the different kinds of epigrams, notwithstanding the praises of
Chapelain 2 , ill-satisfies the reader. Father Vavasseur, " the best
humanist of his time," in the opinion of the abbe d'Olivet, the
1 See in Havet's edition, especially pp. 13 and 267, two specimens of this
literary profanation.
2 9 September, 1659, letter to d'Andilly : " I have seen nothing better
written in the didactic style, nothing more judicious, more chaste, more
clearly set forth in the nature of the epigram, in fine, more instructive. "
26 Port-Royal Education.
historian of the French Academy, has roughly handled him, and
not without reason. "Was it not sufficient for the theory of this
kind of poetry which only admits of a few verses to demand
naturalness and simplicity, a witty and pointed turn, grace and
delicacy? Instead of that, Nicole discourses gravely on the
nature and source of the beautiful ; he lays down this principle,
sufficiently vague, however, that it is especially in conformity
with the nature of things and with our nature; he reduces its
conditions to three the agreeableness of the tone, the propriety
of the words, and the truth and naturalness of the thoughts ;
he thinks that he has thoroughly examined his subject, although
he admits himself that all this has little to do with the epigram,
in proclaiming the weakness of human nature as the reason of
metaphors. It is this that appears so chaste to Chapelain.
Nicole then explains how, in consequence of these premisses,
he has been obliged to reject from his collection false, mytho-
logical, equivocal, hyperbolical, doubtful, vulgar, spiteful, verbose,
or common epigrams. After which, but a little late, he takes in
hand the definition and form of the epigram, and admits two
kinds the sublime, grand, and magnificent kind, and another
a little lower in style but more useful in application.
The best thing in this ill-balanced dissertation is the ideas
rather carelessly thrown out at the end, where Nicole, without
circumlocution, praises, especially in the epigram, the ingenious
point that penetrates the mind deeply, or its simplicity and play-
fulness, and the art of treating the subject without excess or
defect, without obscurity or complication, by cleverly leading up
to the effect ; and he quotes Martial, who is a master of this art.
Martial and Port-Royal ! Does not the approximation of these
two names excite the most legitimate astonishment 1 All Nicole's
dissertation, however, falls to pieces at this simple remark of
Voltaire : " The epigram should not be placed in a higher rank
than the song ... I should advise no one to apply himself to a
style that may bring much disappointment and little glory."
((Euvres, t. xxxix. p. 212.)
Nicole took a large share in the composition of the Logic,
or the Art of Thinking, but the firmer hand and more liberal
mind of Arnauld are perceived in this work. Arnauld, alone
Introduction. 27
at Port-Royal, is sincerely Cartesian ; he declared himself a
partisan of the new philosophy on the appearance of the
Discours de la Methods in 1637. In his lectures at the college
of Le Mans 1 he dictated the new principles to his pupils. When
he sent to Father Mersenne his objections to the Meditations of
Descartes, which appeared in 1641, he wrote these explicit words :
" You have known for a long time in what esteem I hold the
person of M. Descartes and the value I set upon his mind and
teaching."
In June, 1648, he writes to Descartes himself that he has
"read with admiration and approved almost entirely of all that
he has written touching the first philosophy " (Le. Metaphysics).
He held these opinions all his life.
It was in vain that Leibnitz, in that interesting correspondence
from 1686 to 1690, which has been published in our time, showed
him how much was lacking in the philosophy of Descartes, that
he was not satisfied with the definition of the body by extension
nor with that of the soul by thinking, nor 2 of the conditions
of the perfection of God and of the immortality of the soul,
nor of the automatism of animals. Arnauld remains convinced
of the soundness of the doctrine of Descartes, and does not cease
taking up its defence. In 1692 he repels the attacks of Huet,
Bishop of Avranches, as in 1680 he had done those of Lemoine,
Dean of the Chapter at Vitre. He appeals to the principles of
Descartes against the Calvinists in the Perpetuite de la foi, so far
as to make Jurieu say that the theologians of Port-Royal were
more attached to Cartesianism than to Christianity. (Politique du
clerge de France, p. 107.)
Elsewhere he sadly wonders that the Inquisition has not put
the works of Gassendi, who had employed his whole mind to
ruin spiritual philosophy in favour of the doctrines of Epicurus,
in the Index, and that it had, in fact, placed the Meditations of
Descartes in it.
1 At Paris, in the rue de Reims, then in 1682 rue d'Enfer ; in 1761 it was
united with the College Louis le Grand.
2 Bossuet supports him : " Every time that M. de Leibnitz," he replies to
him, " undertakes to prove that the essence of the body is not in its actual
extent any more than that of the soul in actual thought, I declare myself
on his side. (CEuvres, t. x. p. 97.)
Port- Royal Education.
Nicole is much less firm in his attachment to Cartesianism.
With his turn of mind, readily sceptical in everything that
does not relate to faith, he takes pleasure in disparaging philo-
sophy. "If I had to live over again I think that I would so
act as not to be put in the number of the Cartesians any
more than in that of others. ... In truth, the Cartesians are
worth little more than the rest, and are often prouder and more
self-sufficient; and Descartes himself was not a man who might
be called a pious person." (t. viii. p. 153-156.)
We shall be less astonished at seeing a professor of philosophy
treat with so little respect him whom history calls the father
of modern philosophy when we read the judgment that he
pronounced on the real founder of ancient philosophy,
" Socrates .... is a man full of small ideas and petty
reasoning, who looks only on the present life, a man who finds
pleasure in discoursing on truths for the most part useless,
and which only tend to enlighten the mind with respect to a
few human objects/' (t. xi. p. 119.)
It would be difficult to have a more narrow and unjust
prejudice and to decry thus gratuitously one of the most real
glories of humanity ; the immortal thinker who recalled men
to the study of themselves, who preached to them temperance
and justice and the dignity of labour, who courageously opposed
the sophists, the ethics of pleasure and passion, the politics of
force, and who crowned this disinterested and useful life by
a heroic death.
Although, then, Nicole passes for the author of the two
discourses prefixed to the Logic^ the merit of the firm and
courageous attitude of the authors towards Aristotle and
scholasticism must especially be attributed to the influence of
Arnauld.
1 Arnauld only speaks of the first of these discourses in this note to
Mme. de Sable : "All that I can do to reconcile myself with you is to send
you something that will amuse you for half an hour, and in which I think
you will see expressed a part of your ideas respecting the folly of mankind.
It is a discourse that we have been thinking of prefixing to our Logic. You
will oblige us by sending us your opinion of it when you have seen it, for it
is only persons like yourself that we would have for judges of it." (19 April,
1660.) It is in the second, which answers the objections, that the hand of
Arnauld is visible.
8 13 Y 1
Introduction. 29
In the struggle of the Cartesian philosophy to free modern
thought from the heavy yoke of Aristotle and scholasticism,
we know with what prudence 1 Descartes had in 1637 undertaken
the destruction of the ancient philosophy by proclaiming the
right of free examination, provisional doubt, and the criterion
of evidence.
" My intention is not to teach here the method that each man
must follow to properly guide his reason, but only to show how
I have tried to guide my own.'' (Discours de la Methods, i.)
" . . . . Setting forth this writing only as a history, or, if you
like it better, as a fable. . . . My design has never extended
further than trying to form anew my own proper thoughts, and
to build on a foundation which is entirely my own." (ii.)
He writes to Father Mersenne in 1641: "I will tell you,
between ourselves, that these six meditations contain all the
foundations of my physics ; but do not say so, if you please,
for those who favour Aristotle will perhaps make more difficulty
in approving of them; and I hope that those who read them
will insensibly get accustomed to my principles, and will recognize
their truth before perceiving that they destroy Aristotle's.''
We shall understand this prudence if we remember that
Giordano Bruno, who, among other misdeeds, had opposed the
philosophy of Aristotle at Paris, was burnt at Eome in 1600;
that Vanini, in 1619, at Toulouse was condemned for his philo-
sophical opinions to have his tongue cut out and afterwards to
be hanged and burnt ; that Galileo, who had been severely
admonished in 1616 by the congregation of the Index, had to
go to Eome in 1633 to solemnly abjure his theory of the move-
ment of the earth v
The Logic of Port-Eoyal, published in 1662, lays down clearly
and boldly the right of human reason before the jurisdiction
of authority : " It is a very great restraint for a man to think
himself obliged to approve of Aristotle in everything, and to take
him as the guide to the truth of philosophical opinions. . . . The
1 Bossuet thinks it excessive : " M. Descartes has always feared to be
remarked by the Church, and we see him take precautions against that, some
of which run to excess." (Lettre a M. Postel, docteur de Sorbonne, 21 mai,
1701.)
30 Port- Royal Education.
world cannot remain long under this constraint, and insensibly
regains possession of natural and reasonable liberty, which consists
in approving what it judges to be true and rejecting what it
judges to be false."
To appreciate at its real worth the boldness of these resolute
declarations, we must remember that in 1670, the general of the
Jesuits wrote to all the houses of the society to oppose Descartes'
philosophy, and that shortly afterwards the University presented
a petition to the Parliament to forbid its teaching. The Arret
Burlesque, composed by Boileau in 1675, did ample justice to it.
" The Court having examined the petition .... setting forth
that for several years an unknown person, named Reason, had
attempted to enter by force the schools of the said University
.... where Aristotle had always been recognized as judge, with-
out appeal, and not accountable for his opinions , . . ; having
examined the treatises, entitled Physics of Rohault, Logic of Port-
Royal . . .
"The Court .... has maintained and kept, maintains and
keeps, the said Aristotle in full and peaceable possession of the
said schools. . . . And, in order that in the future he be not
molested, has banished in perpetuity Eeason from the schools of
the said University; forbids him to enter them and disturb or
molest the said Aristotle in the possession and use of the same, on
pain of being declared a jansenist and friend of innovations. ..."
The greatest merit of the Port-Royal Logic is to have intro-
duced Cartesiansm into teaching. It proclaims aloud that it has
borrowed some reflections "from the books of a celebrated
philosopher of this age, who has as much clearness of mind as
there is confusion in the others." It sets forth, like Descartes, in
the name of the famous axiom, " I think, therefore I exist," the
evidence of conscience as the criterion of truth, and the four rules
of his Method as the best guarantee against error, and for
discovering the truth in human sciences.
It was indeed the spirit of Descartes that suggested to the
authors their small confidence in the rules of logic, and the infalli-
bility of the syllogism, their title of "Art of thinking " instead of
" Art of reasoning," their carefulness in forming the judgment by
replacing the abstract and conventional examples by instructive
Introduction. 3 1
examples taken from the different branches of knowledge, to give
to logic at once more interest and especially more practical utility,
and to bring it out of the school and make it useful for the study
of the sciences as well as for the conduct of life.
These solid merits have made this work a classic. Excepting
certain defects of plan and proportion, easily explicable by the
haste in which the work was composed, by the collaboration of two
authors, and by the successive additions that they made to it, there
is really but one fault, but it is a grave one, to be found with
the Logic, namely, that it is so full of the spirit of Descartes that
it escapes the influence, not yet very marked it is true, of Bacon. 1
A theologian and geometrician, Arnauld has explained the method
of deduction, and completely neglected the method of induction,
observation, and experiment which are suitable to the physical and
natural sciences. It was in vain that the illustrious Chancellor of
England, in the Novum Organum, in 1620, with the enthusiasm
of an apostle, had invited men to lay aside the sterile dogmatism
and the compilations of pretended scholars, and to interpret the
great book of nature by a patient observation of facts; 2 "not to
cling, so to say, to empty abstractions and pursue unrealities like
the common logic, but to anatomize nature, to discover the real
properties of bodies, and their well-determined actions and laws in
matter" (Nov. Org. ii. 52.); to give up the syllogism as "an
instrument too weak and coarse to penetrate into the depths of
nature." (Nov. Org. i. 13.)
A very remarkable chapter, in which we recognize the delicate
hand of Nicole, his talent for analysis and his gentle raillery,
namely, that on fallacies in life, permits us to study the moralist
under his true aspect.
We know what an impassioned cult Mine, de Sevigne did not
cease to profess for the moral philosophy of Nicole, notwithstanding
1 Nevertheless we find the Advocate-General Bignon, one of the great
friends of Port-Royal, speaking at length of Bacon to a traveller who came
from England. (Vie par 1'abbe Ferau, vol. ii. p. 92.) Descartes, in his Letters
(t. ii. pp. 324, 330, 494), approves of Bacon's method, and thinks it proper
for those who wish to work at the advancement of the sciences. He always
calls him Verulamius, from the barony of Verulam that he possessed.
2 " What it is necessary, so to say, to attach to the understanding is not
wings, but on the contrary lead, a weight which may restrain its flight," he
says in his figurative language. (Nov. Org. i. 104.)
32 Port- Royal Education.
the bitter criticisms of her son, 1 who openly declared the Trait e de
la connaissance de soi meme "distilled, sophisticated gibberish in
several passages, and, above all, wearisome almost from one end to
the other." She proclaimed it "admirable, delightful"; she is
"charmed" with it; it is a pleasure which "carries her away."
She felt a lively pleasure in seeing "the human heart so well
anatomized, and its depths searched with a lantern." "It is
a treasure to have such a good mirror of the weaknesses of our
heart." (vol. i. 71.) This patient, ingenious, sometimes playful
and gently satirical analysis of weaknesses, eccentricities, pre-
judices, and illusions gave satisfaction to her fine and delicate
mind, as the purity and severity of the morality did to the
nobility of her sentiments and the respectability of her life.
The Essais de morale comprise six volumes, to which may be
added two other volumes of Letters, which are not the least
interesting part of the works of Nicole. No comprehensive plan
binds these various Essais together, because they were composed
from day to day as opportunity offered. The first are well
developed and very methodical treatises, in which the author feels
himself at his best, because he finds something "to prove and
to settle." Then they are only very short articles, and at last
simple detached thoughts.
Nicole rarely raises his voice to the pitch of the keen eloquence
of Pascal ; he lacks authority and real passion in order to move
us profoundly ; he leaves us cold, and makes us smile rather than
tremble when, for instance, he represents the whole world under
the power of the demon, as " a place of execution . . . full of all
instruments of men's cruelty, and filled on the one side with
executioners, and on the other with an infinite number of criminals
abandoned to their rage. . . . We pass our days in the midst of
this spiritual carnage, and we may say that we swim in the blood of
1 Ch. de Sevigne thus terminates a letter to his mother : " And I tell you
that the first volume of the Essais de morale would appear to you just as it
does to me, if La Marans and the abbe Tetu had not accustomed you to fine
and elaborate things. This is not the first time that gibberish appears to
you clear and easy ; of all that has been said of man and the heart of man,
I have seen nothing less agreeable ; those portraits in which everyone
recognizes himself are not there. Pascal, the Port-Royal Logic, Plutarch and
Montaigne speak very differently ; this man speaks because he wishes to
speak, and often he has not much to say." (2 February, 1676.)
In t reduction. 3 3
sinners, that we are all covered with it, and that this world which
bears us is a river of blood." (De la crainte de Dieu.) He does
not succeed better in his picture of the conscience of the sinner at
the moment that he appears before his judge ; he compares it to
"a vast but dark chamber, that a man works all his life to fill
with adders and serpents. . . . When he is thinking least of it,
the windows of this chamber opening all of a sudden and letting
in the broad daylight, all the serpents awake suddenly, and spring-
ing upon the wretch, they tear him to pieces with their bites,"
&c (Du jugement.) To represent the primitive corruption of
Tuoii, "let us imagine," says he, "a universal plague, or, rather,
an accumulation of plagues, pests, and malignant carbuncles with
which the body of a man may be covered, &c. ; this is an image
of the state in which we are born." (De la connaissance de soi-
meme.) There is always the same weakness and impotence with
the same exaggeration.
Sometimes Nicole gives a smart and clever touch, that sets off
the expression and renders the truth pleasing. Here are two
passages of a letter which deserve to be extracted :
"The young children of our villages have a very amusing
custom when they go in procession after Easter. He who carries
the bell separates himself with a few companions a quarter of a
league from the main body of the procession, and if he meet
another bell they come to action ; they knock their bells against
each other, and do not finish the contest until one of the bells
is broken. After which there is nothing more to be said, for no
one can doubt on which side victory is. It is much to be wished
that it were the same in the conflict of caprices, and that the one
that is broken should be so plainly and incontestably broken that
there could be no doubt about it," &c. (Essais, t. vii. p. 31.)
And a few pages further on : "I should even dare to tell you
(provided that you do not take my comparison too literally, and
that you do not take it into your head to conclude that I accuse
you of drunkenness) that I should wish that one should do with
regard to imputations that -which they say that the Breton girls
do with regard to the fault which prevails in that country, which
is that of getting intoxicated ; for, as they suppose that there is
no man who is exempt from it, they will not marry one, it is said,
D
34 Port-Royal Education.
without having seen him drunk, in order to know by that whethe
he is merry or quarrelsome in his cups." (Essais, t. vii. p. 35.)
We have said that the jansenists use long and cumbrou
, sentences. This quotation is a sufficiently demonstrative proof o
/ it. The matter is here spoilt, as if designedly, by the form. Bu
/ at Port-Koyal it was thought derogatory to Christian humility t<
' pay attention to style, and Nicole declares to Mme. de la Fayett<
; that he does not think it a great evil to be a bad author, (t. viii
p. 261.)
The neglect that he suffered because he would not take up th
quarrels of Port-Koyal to the end inspired this gentle and wi^
raillery :
"It is the same with friends as with clothes. Some are onb
good for summer, others for winter, others for spring and autumn
But as we only put off our summer clothes after the season 1
past, and keep them for another year, it is necessary in the sam<
way to keep our friends, although they may not be good at al
times, and to reserve them for those when they may be useful
Some are only good for the month of July, that is to say, whei
there is no cold to fear, and their number is sufficiently great. 1
(Essais, t. vii. p. 167.)
But most often Nicole, without bestowing much care on th<
form (he declares that he is incapable of a double attention)
follows his thought, and conducts his fine and delicate analysii
at a uniform and rather monotonous pace. He has been unde:
no illusion with regard to this, and his declaration is mos
explicit : "As there are painters who, having little imagination
give all their characters the same features, there are also peopL
who always write in the same manner, and whose style is alway:
recognizable. No one ever had this defect more than I. " Nicole wai
not the man to make Bossuet change his opinion on the judgmen
already delivered by him in 1669 : "The style of MM. de Port
Koyal has little variety; without variety there is no pleasure. 3
We know the passionate outburst of J. le Maistre : " Nicole, th<
coldest, the greyest, the most leaden, the most insupportable o:
the bores of that great and tedious house."
We are here a long way from the enthusiasm of Mme. d(
S^vigne' : " What language ! what skill in the arrangement o:
Introduction. 3 5
the words ! One thinks one has only read French in this book."
(12 January, 1676.)
It is precisely in the arrangement of the words and the turn of
the phrase that Nicole seems to us absolutely wanting in skill.
The expression is well chosen, exact, sometimes profound, often
fine and delicate. But it most often loses a portion of its good
qualities and charms, because it disappears as if drowned in
a drawling and cumbrous sentence, overloaded with incidental or
subordinate propositions, which the habitual employment of the
present participle makes still heavier. Here is a sufficiently
striking example. Nicole has been moved by the gloomy theories
of La Rochefoucauld, and he writes : " So many secret affectations
glide into friendships, that I scarcely dare to say that I love
anyone, for fear that all I feel for him may not be reduced to
loving myself, there being nothing more usual than only to love
in others the favourable sentiments that they have for us, when
we imagine we love what God has put in them." (t. vii. p. 40.)
On reading such phrases, and they abound in Nicole, we might
say, " What a creditable scruple ! What tact in putting us on
our guard without discouraging us by a bitter and trenchant
condemnation of friendship ! " But we should never say, " What
skill in the arrangement of the words ! What a writer ! " La
Kochefoucauld draws this praise from us at the very time that we
repudiate these distressing calumnies against the human heart.
Notwithstanding her admiration, Mme. de S^vigne* had too
much good sense and soundness of judgment not to take exception
several times to the essence of the ideas, and not to point out
contradictions in them. Even in that famous Traite de Vart
de vivre en paix avec les hommes, of which she said she would
like "to make broth and swallow it, 7 ' she agrees with her daughter
that if peace and union with our neighbour are so precious,
and require so many sacrifices, "there is no way after that of
being indifferent to what he thinks of us," and that she is "less
capable than anyone of understanding this perfection which is
a little above human nature." Her judgment is more severe on
the Traite de la soumission a la volonte de Dieu: "See how he
represents it to us as sovereign, doing all, disposing of all,
regulating all. I agree to it, that is what I believe ; and if, on
36 Port-Royal Education.
turning over the leaf, they mean the reverse, to keep on good
terms with both sides, they will have on that, with respect to me,
the fate of those political opportunists, and will not make me
change." (25 May, 1680.)
Would anyone believe that she is speaking of her beloved
Nicole in that curious letter of July 16, 16771 "There is the
prettiest gibberish that I have ever seen in the twenty-sixth article
of the last volume of the Essais de morale, in the treatise de tenter
Dieu. That is very amusing; and when, besides, we are sub-
missive, that morality is not unsettled by it, and that it is only to
confute false reasoning, there is no great harm ; for if they would
keep silence, we would say nothing; but to wish to establish
their maxims by every means, to translate St. Augustine for
us, lest we should ignore him, to publish all that is most severe
in him, and then to sum up, like Father Bauny, for fear of losing
the right of scolding ; that is provoking, it is true. . . . May I
die if I do not like the Jesuits a thousand times better ; they are
at least consistent, uniform in doctrine and morals. Our brethren
speak well and conclude ill ; they are not sincere ; here I am
in Escobar. You see very well, my daughter, that I am playing
and amusing myself."
On looking closely into the Essais of Nicole it would not
be difficult to point out many exaggerations and inexact ideas,
false wit, "refinements of spiritual ity," a certain want of vigour
and authority, of impulse and enthusiasm for what is good. 1
Is it well to preach such enervating doctrines to prepare us
to cultivate our faculties in order that we may better fulfil our
destiny and courageously perform the duties of life ? " Man's
real science is to understand the nothingness of the world, and
his true happiness to despise it." (t. vii. p. 3.) "The world is
but a great hospital full of patients." (t. vii. p. 209.) "The
conversation of the world is almost constantly the school of the
devil." (t. x. p. 198.) "The devil is the greatest author and the
1 Joubert, who calls Nicole "a Pascal without style," and praises, not the
form, but "the matter, which is exquisite," admits, however, that in his
Essais "the morality of the gospel is perhaps a little too much refined
by subtle reasoning." (Vol. ii. p. 165.) Thus Nicole undertook to show an
officer "a hundred deadly sins of which he had never heard, and which he
did not know at all." (Essais, t. vii. p. 151.)
Introduction. 37
greatest writer in the world, as well as the greatest speaker, since
he has a share in most of the writings and speeches of men."
(t. xii. p. 176.) "If Christ brought any science into the world it
was that of despising all the sciences which are the subject and
foundation of the vanity and curiosity of men." 1 (t. xi. p. 89.)
What shall we say of the reflections suggested to him by
his asthma ^ " The world values only the talents of action, and
to be good for nothing is to be a subject for its abhorrence. This,
however, is a very false judgment, which has its source only in the
vanity natural to man, and if we were well rid of it we should
find more happiness in the deprivation of the talents that I
call the talents of impotence than in all the great qualities."
(t. vii. p. 162.)
There can be nothing better than for the moralist to put us on
our guard against the dangers of ambition. But is it not forcing
the note and missing the aim to lay down this principle : " No
person is permitted to endeavour to raise and better either himself
or his family'"? (t. xi. p. 321.) What father of a family, seeking
very legitimately to prepare a better position for his children, would
take seriously the reasons appealed to by Nicole, that it is render-
ing our salvation more difficult, and forsaking the example of
Christ, whose whole life was only a continual abasement and
humiliation 1
Mme. de Sevigne thinks that description of society very
amusing in which, thanks to cupidity, very obliging people build
and furnish our houses, weave our stuffs, carry our letters, run
to the world's end to fetch provisions and materials, or cheerfully
render us the lowest and most laborious services. The idea
is neither correct nor sound. It has a paradoxical turn, which
1 How much better Bossuet keeps within bounds and reconciles every-
thing : "I am not one of those who make much of human knowledge,
yet, nevertheless, I confess that I cannot contemplate without admiration the
wonderful discoveries that science has made in order to investigate nature,
nor the many fine inventions that art has found to adapt it to our use.
Man has almost changed the face of the world. . . . He has mounted to the
skies ; to walk more safely, he has taught the stars to guide him in his
travels ; to measure out his life more evenly, he has forced the sun to
render an account, so to say, of all his steps." (Sermons, 4 e semaine de
careme. ) Such language honoured the pulpit ; Nicole only made a oanting
discourse.
38 Port- Royal Education.
would make it accepted with more propriety in a humorous
writer. In a serious moral lesson it is needful to adopt another
tone, and to speak in better terms of that admirable harmony
of economical interests that Bastiat has so eloquently described,
and which so happily inspired the fine sonnet of M. Sully-
Prudhomme. The poet, awaking from a dream, in. which he
believes himself for an instant abandoned by the labourer, the"'
weaver, and the mason, and seeing with pleasure everybody at
work, far from stigmatizing them with the name of grasping,
finds only a cry of thankfulness in his heart :
" And since that day I have loved them all ! "
Is not that grave discussion of seventeen pages on this strange
question, May a person entirely devoted to God have his portrait
taken for his friends and neighbours mere sentimentalism 1 Christ
did, it is true, send to Abgarus, King of Edessa, the impression of
His countenance on a cloth, but that was to induce him to be con-
verted. " It would be criminal in us to wish to be considered and
loved as the Son of God wished to be considered and loved."
(t. viii. p. 196.) And the scene of the staircase? A female
devotee was showing Nicole out ... to honour the steps of
Jesus Christ ! Notwithstanding his edification at the reply,
he endeavoured, but in vain, to show her that useless steps could
no more honour those of Christ than words without deeds and
without necessity could honour His words, " She did not well
understand my reply, and continued to honour Jesus Christ
by showing me out." (t. vii. p. 185.)
Even in serious matters Nicole, by his turn of mind, gives
a euphuistic character to the moral lesson, and thus impairs its
gravity.
Ancient philosophy and Christianity have both recommended
as one of the most useful exercises the examination of the
conscience, the regulation of the employment of time, incessant
watchfulness over our bad propensities, in order to remedy
the evil at once. Let us listen to Nicole : " To facilitate this
practice, let her. imagine that a person who resembles her, that is,
who has the same maladies as she has, asks her advice, and that
she prescribes all that conies into her mind; let her write
Introduction. 39
down her thoughts on this subject, and let her play the directress
with respect to this person, who will not be different from herself.
There is nothing but what is reasonable in that, for we are, in fact,
double. It is a sort of game that I propose, but which will
not fail to relieve the mind." (t. vii. p. 47.)
After having written much to dissuade from marriage, doesi
he not ruin his whole argument by this subtle distinction, that hej
has spoken "as a mere advocate" and not "as a judge," on
by this comparison with a person who, being questioned about?
two roads, contents himself with showing the one he knows
best?
As he pleases himself immoderately in his letter to Mile.
Aubry, the directress of the school that he founded at Troyes
in 1678, in developing that affected allegory of the pustules
(envy, jealousy, malignity), and as he is proud of his analysis,
how the Hotel of Kambouillet would have applauded ! " You
did not yet know that one of your duties was to cleverly pierce
these pustules of the soul ; I tell you so now." (t. viii. p. 58.)
To resume, it would be difficult to conclude, with Mme. de
Sevigne, that all that "is of the same stuff as Pascal." And
if we cede this point, it would be on condition of immediately
adding this witty repartie of M. V. Fournel : " Yes, but the
tailor is different."
His contemporaries boast of his "golden pen." Nicole lacks
many things for posterity to ratify this eulogy. Like all the
writers of Port-Royal, by an exaggerated scruple of piety, he
treats the question of style too disdainfully as a vanity. He is <
little concerned about negligence of style, the matter alone
deserves his attention. Truth appears to him worthy of respect,
however she may be clothed. The only question is to know if we
are not wanting in respect and compromising her influence
by refusing her the garb that is most becoming to present herself
to the world and to succeed. Nicole says elsewhere to Mme. de La
Fayette that he does not write for the public, but only to employ
himself and occupy his mind ; l that his writings were not made
1 Nicole even says, humorously enough, of an apology that he had com-
posed, that his only aim was *' to procure sleep ... It seems to me that it
is a very legitimate purpose to wish to sleep." When his system of General
40 Port- Royal Education.
to be printed. When the opportunity made him hastily take up
the design of publishing them, "being very much occupied with
other things, I satisfied myself by reading them over quickly,
paying special attention to the matter. So that not being capable
of a divided attention, I am astonished how many inexact expres-
sions have escaped me. 1 All that I can do, then, is to beg
intelligent persons to say nothing about them, and to let this
edition be exhausted under favour of the indulgence of the
public. I shall be more exact another time if I have leisure ; and
if not I shall put up with the reputation of writing badly, which
is not a great evil." But, then, why print? Posterity only
collects and preserves well-finished works. Voltaire is a little
premature in this prophecy: "The Essais de morale, which
are useful to mankind, will not perish." (Siede de Louis XIV. ,
Ecrivains.) D'Aguesseau, like Rollin, had already recommended
to his son only " the first four volumes of the Essais de morale,
which are more carefully finished than the rest, and in which it is
easier to perceive a plan and regular order." (4th Instruction.) In
our time M. Silvestre de Saci has reduced to one volume his
Choix de petits traites de morale (1857, 16mo), and doubtless
the few readers of an author formerly so much appreciated might
easily be counted. He suffers the natural law of retaliation. He
has not thought sufficiently of us, and we forget him. What a
disillusion would not Mme. de Sevigne suffer on vainly seeking
the name of her favourite author in the fine study of M. Prevost-
Paradol on les Moralistes fran$ais. The eminent critic has not
given him the most humble place between Montaigne, La Boetie,
Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, arid Vauvenargues.
There is among the Essais de morale a tract which more
especially interests us, De ^education d'un prince. It does
honour to the educators of Port-Eoyal. We extract a few
thoughtful pages, in which the reader will find useful subjects
for meditation. What a fine and broad definition ! " The aim
Grace was attacked, he answered the objections by repeating his saying : " It
is a sort of narcotic that I have always used." (Quoted by Sainte-Beuve,
t. iv. p. 492.)
1 We read in the same letter : " I should not dare to say to what the
corrections that I might make, if I had leisure, would amount, there are so
many things to observe when negligence of style is to be avoided."
Introduction. 41
of instruction is to carry the mind to the point that it is capable
of attaining." This is a manly sentence that redeems many dis-
couraging phrases on the vanity of curiosity and on the contempt
for the sciences. Nicole is not less happy, both in thought and
expression, when he points out to the masters that their part is
"to expose to the inward light of the mind" the object of their
lessons, and that without this light " instruction is as useless as
wishing to show pictures during the night. The mind of children
is almost entirely full of darkness, and only catches glimpses of
small rays of light. Thus everything consists in husbanding
these rays, in augmenting them, and in exposing to them what
one wishes them to understand. . . . We must look where there
is light, and present to it what we wish to make them understand."
A perusal of this little tract cannot be too much recommended.
A great deal of practical advice on the different branches of teach-
ing will be found in it. It is one of the most authoritative and
suggestive books of Nicole.
After Lancelot and Nicole, the most eminent name is that of
Coutel, or Coustel (1621-1704). Lemaitre, in a memoir inserted
in the Supplement au Necrologe, enters in May, 1650, the arrival
at Port-Eoyal des Champs of " M. Coutel, Picard, S9avant en grec
et en latin." Since the establishment of the Petites Ecoles in the
rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer (1646) he had been placed in charge
of a division of six pupils. It was only in 1687 that he drew up
the Rules for the Education of Children, a work dedicated to
Cardinal Furstemberg, whose nephews he had educated. It is
the most complete and methodical work of Port-Royal on pedagogy
that remains to us. The matter is worth much more than the
form. Coustel was far from being a good writer, but he was an
earnest and devoted teacher, modest and sensible, who knew
children well and loved them. The prolixity, negligence, and
commonplace of his style condemned him. to a prompt oblivion.
As to Guyot, it is strange that the historians of Port-Koyal
have not given him a short notice. Besogne declares that
"nothing is known of him." Guyot was, however, one of the
masters on the first foundation, and is the author of numerous
publications. We owe him A New Translation of the Captives of
Plautus, 1666 ; Moral and Political Letters of Cicero to his
Port-Royal Education.
friend Atticus, 1666 ; A New Translation of a New Collection
of the Best Letters of Cicero to his Friends, 1666 ; Letters of
Cicero to his Common Friends, and to Atticus, his Particular
Friend, 1668; 1 A Political Letter of Cicero to his Brother
Quintus, and Scipio's Dream, 1670; A New Translation of the
Bucolics of Yirgil, 1678; Moral and Epigrammatic Flowers from
Ancient and Modern Writers, 1669. And at the beginning of
several of these works he has developed, in very extended and
important prefaces, several of the pedagogic reforms in the
realization of which he had collaborated in the Petites Ecoles.
The reason of the silence of Port-Royal on this master, who
played such an active part, has been given by Barbier, in a
notice on Th. Guyot (Magasin encyclopedique, August, 1813); he
did not remain faithful to Port-Royal. One of his works,
published in 1666, is dedicated to Messeigneurs de Mont baron,
students with the R.R. P.P. Jesuites at the College of Clermont,
" that celebrated school," says he, " that piety has dedicated to
science and virtue." He disowned his old friends in their mis-
fortune, and paid court to their relentless persecutors. Nevertheless,
some extracts from one of his prefaces, on teaching reading, on the
study of the French language, and on the advantages of oral in-
struction, will be read with interest.
It is proper to devote a few lines at least to the austere and
venerable Wallon de Beaupuis, director of the Petites Ecoles de
Port-Royal. Born at Beauvais in 1621, he commenced his studies
in the college of that town, partly under the celebrated Godefroi
Hermant; then, after a fourth year of rhetoric with the Jesuits at
1 The translator causes a smile when, under pretence of politeness, he
introduces into the letters of Cicero and his friends our French forms :
"Monsieur wtre frere, madame votre m&re, mademoiselle votre fille t madame
votre femme," transforms Balbus into M. Lebegue, and Pomponius into -M.
de Pomponne ! But what is more serious is that in an excellent preface,
which sums up all education in " precision of mind and rectitude of will,"
he several times compares the child to a bird in a cage ! "By restraining
and confining him within the limits of a strict discipline, as in a cage, to
teach him to be wise and virtuous ..." (p. 114). "As far as possible,
all the openings of the cage, which give to this spirit the greatest desire
to go out, must be closed. Some open bars .... to live and be in
health ; this is what we do with nightingales to make them sing, and to
parrots to teach them to talk" (p. 127). "More than one cage is necessary
for him to live and to render him capable of instruction " (p. 137).
Introduction. 43
Paris, he studied philosophy with Arnauld at the College of Le
Mans, and then theology at the College of Clugny. The book on
Frequente Communion won him over to Port-Royal, where he was
admitted in 1644. He was entrusted with the charge of the school
in the rue Saint-Dominique; then, in 1653, with that of Le Chesnai,
of which he has left us the regulations. He was engaged, besides,
in collecting extracts from the Fathers to aid Arnauld and Nicole
in the composition of their works. After the breaking-up of the
Petites Ecoles he was ordained priest, notwithstanding his re-
sistance, and was for some time preceptor to the two young
Periers, Pascal's nephews ; then, in 1676, he had the direction
of the seminary at Beauvais. Disgraced at the end of three
years, and deprived of all employment, he passed the remainder
of his life in the most austere retreat, without any other recrea-
tion than an annual journey to Port-Royal. He died in February,
1709, at the age of 87, bearing witness to himself that "by the
grace of God he had sought always and above everything the
supreme good." His work at Port-Royal was more religious than
pedagogic.
Dr. Antoine Arnauld 1 deserves a place of honour among the
pedagogues of Port-Royal, although the great business of his life
had been to fulfil the last vow of his dying mother, that of Saint-
1 An tome Arnauld was born at Paris, February 6, 1612. He was the
twentieth child of the celebrated advocate Arnauld, who, in 1594, had
defended the University against the Jesuits with so much vehemence. This
was the most illustrious conquest of Saint-Cyran during his imprisonment.
Entirely devoted to Port - Royal, to which he made a donation of his
property, priest and doctor in 1641, he devoted his life to the defence of
religion and morality. His very numerous works, almost exclusively
polemical, form no less than forty-two folio volumes. The greater number
have suffered the fate reserved for this kind of books. "The fire and
division becoming extinct," says La Bruyere, "they are like last year's
almanacks." His treatise, De la frequence Communion (1643), deserves
special mention. "This book caused something like a revolution in the
manner of understanding and practising piety, and also in the manner of
writing theology. ... It was, to say truth, the first manifestation of that
Port-Royal of Saint-Cyran, which until then had remained rather in the
shade, in a sort of mystery conformable to the character of the great
director." (SAINTE-BEUVE, t. ii. p. 166.) Almost always compelled to hide
and to fly, he died in exile at Brussels, 8 August, 1694. His burial
place was kept secret, lest the Jesuits should have him disinterred, as they
did Jausenius.
44 Port-Royal Education.
Cyran, and his own oath as doctor, namely, the defence of the
truth. It was in the midst of his constantly-recurring struggles
against the Jesuits Sirmond, Petau, Nouet, Brisacier, Annat, and
Maimbourg, against the faculty of theology, against the assembly
of the clergy, against the archbishops of Paris, Perefixe, and
Harlai, against the archbishop of Embrun, against the doctors
Morel and Lemoine, against Eichard Simon, against Jurieu,
against the bishops of Lavaur and Yabres, against Malebranche,
against the calvinists, and against Nicole himself, that the inde-
fatigable athlete, as if in play and to fill up his scanty moments
of leisure, composed his most justly estimated works. The
Grammaire generate et raisonnee is, to tell the truth, all his own.
His letter to some members of the Academy on the difficulties
of French syntax bears witness to the power and acuteriess of his
criticism, and would alone suffice to justify the estimate of Bossuet
a sound and powerful arguer.
We know the occasion on which he composed the Logic, or the
Art of Thinking. " One day," says Besogne, "when M. Arnauld
was conversing with several persons, among whom was the young
due de Chevreuse, the son of the due de Luines, he told this
young nobleman that if he would give himself the trouble he
would engage to teach him in four or five days all that was worth
knowing in Logic. The proposition surprised the company a little.
They conversed about it for some time. At last M. Arnauld, who
had made the offer, resolved to make the trial. He set to work
to compose a short abridgment of Logic, which he hoped to
finish the same day. But, while reflecting, so many new thoughts
occurred to his mind that he employed four or five days, during
which he formed the body of the work. The paper was put into
the hands of the young duke, who reduced it to four tables, and
by learning one each day he knew the whole at the end of four
days, so that the prediction of four or five days came true to the
letter." (t. v. p. 524.)
He composed his Elements of geometry in the same way, at a
moment's notice, so to say, during a slight illness, in a few days
of liberty in a country house at Le Chesnai, "without any book."
And if we may believe a note of the editor, Pascal had judged
this work so favourably that he had burnt an essay on this science
Introduction. 45
when he saw the manner in which Arnauld had remedied the
confusion imputed to Euclid.
Is it not very touching to see him engrossed with a question
of pure pedagogy in the midst of the worry of persecution, and
at a time when he was obliged to hide? "You will laugh," he
writes, January 31, 1656, to the Mother Angelique, "at what
gives me occasion to write to you. There is a little boy about
twelve years old who does not know how to read. I wish to
try if he can learn by M. Pascal's method. I therefore beg you
to finish what you have begun to set down in writing." (t. i.
p. 101.) It is not impossible that the Mother Angelique laughed
when she received this letter; 1 we, however, are not tempted
to do so ; we admire the good heart that reveals itself with such
amiable simplicity.
M. Sainte-Beuve has devoted the last chapter of his third
volume to the most eminent students of Port-Koyal (Jerome and
Thierry Bignon, Eacine, Le Nain de Tillemont, &c.). I am happy
to fill up a grave lacuna by adding the name of Boisguilbert to
his list.
In the Advertisement to the reader, in one of his translations,
the precursor of the economists, whom history has finally avenged
of the scorn of Voltaire, thus expresses himself : " Although it
seems that in our days all the sciences have been carried to the
highest point that they can ever attain, we may say that that
of making Greek and Latin writers speak our language has gone
further, nothing being able to be added to the works of those
gentlemen of the Academy, of Monsieur d'Andilly, who seems
to have surpassed himself in his Josephus, and of those famous
anonymous writers so celebrated throughout France; so I shall
candidly confess that if I am sufficiently happy that this small
work is not found very imperfect, I owe it to some education that
1 I judge so by this detail that the abbe Racine relates : Some of the
sisters asked the Mother Angelique whether their novices and boarders
would not be restored to them. "My daughters," she replied, "do not
trouble yourselves about that. I am not anxious about whether your
novices and boarders will be restored to you, but I am that the spirit of
retirement, simplicity, and poverty shall be preserved among us. Provided
that these things continue, laugh at all the rest." (Abrfye de Vhistoire
ecclesiastique, t. x. p. 541.)
46 Port-Royal Education.
I received among them in my youth." 1 (Roman History, by
Herodian, 1675.)
The thinker and patriot, whose enthusiastic eulogy 2 Michelet
so justly made, is not one of the least glories with which Port-
Eoyal may adorn herself.
OF THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS AT PORT-ROYAL.
"At Port-Koyal," writes M. Cousin, "the women are, perhaps,
more extraordinary, and assuredly quite as great as the men. Is
not the Mother Angelique the equal of Arnauld by her intrepidity
of soul and elevation of thought*? 3 Is Nicole much above the
Mother Agnes 1 She has more energy with as much gentleness.
And did not their niece, the Mother Angelique de Saint-Jean,
use, in the government of Port-Royal, a prudence, ability, and
courage that her brother, the minister, might 4 have envied her]
Who among the men has dared and struggled more, and has
suffered more, and more patiently than all these women? They
also have known and braved persecution, calumny, exile, and
prison. . . ." (Jacqueline Pascal, p, 491.)
But if these persons are morally equal, is it the same with
their pedagogic work ? We have not, so to say, any information
about the education of the girls at Port-Royal. 5 We know, in
1 The names of Boisguilbert and his brother are, in fact, mentioned in the
Ties inter essantes et edifiantes, p. 86.
2 "May we see on the bridge of Rouen, opposite Corneille, the statue
of a great citizen who, a hundred years before 1789, sent out from Rouen
the first sound of the Revolution with as much vigour and more gravity than
Mirabeau did later ! "
3 " M. d'Andilly said to me, 'Count all my brothers, iny children, and
myself as fools in comparison with Angelique.' Nothing that has come out
of those parts has ever been good which has not been amended and approved
by her ; she is steeped in all the languages and sciences ; in fine, she is a
prodigy." (Lettre de Mme. de Stvigne', 29 Nov., 1679.) Sainte-Beuve equally
pays homage to this great mind : "No character in our subject appears to
us more truly great and royal than she she and Saint-Cyran." (t. iv.
p. 160.)
4 M. de Pomponne, secretary of state, charg6 d'affaires etrangeres from
1671 to 1679.
8 Here are a few dates of the establishment of the schools, and a few
figures for the number of pupils. In 1609, the date of the reformation of
the monastery by the Mother Angelique, the Sister Louise Sainte-Praxede
de Lamoignon was appointed mistress of the boarders, as being the most
Introduction. 47
a general manner, that it was much praised and sought after.
Testimony in its favour is not wanting. "A great number of
girls brought up in this monastery," says Racine, "might be cited
who have since edified the world by their wisdom and virtue.
j We know with what feelings of admiration and thankfulness
I they (women of quality) have always spoken of the education
\ that they had received there." The abbe Fromageau, who was
sent by the archbishop of Paris, May 9, 1679, to make an
inquiry by the king's order, dwelt at length, Besogne relates
(t. ii. p. 507), " on the excellent education that was given to the
children of whom he mentioned, as an example, the young
demoiselle Bignon." A few days after, the archbishop "ex-
hausted himself in eulogies of the virtue of the nuns, and of
the excellent education they gave to the children. 1 And when
the president de Guedreville, whose daughter was a boarder at
Port-Royal, came to inquire what grave reason caused the dis-
missal of the boarders, the prelate assured him of the irreproach-
able management of the house, and of the excellence of the
education that was received there." 2
But there is an absolute want of proofs. Where are the
programmes of studies? What methods did the mistresses
employ? What books did they put into the hands of their
pupils? What traces have they left of their teaching and of
capable of any of the twelve professed nuns of Port-Royal. The monastery
was transferred in 1626 to the faubourg Saint- Jacques (now the MaterniU).
The house of Port-Royal des Champs was re-opened in 1648. In 1661, at
the time of the closing of the schools, there were 21 boarders in Paris, and
20 at the Champs. Besogne gives the list of them. (t. i. p. 412.) At the
" peace of the church" in 1669, the boarders were again admitted into the two
houses, henceforth completely separated. But on the death of the duchesse
de Longueville (1679), the king ordered them to be definitely sent back to
their parents. Besogne counts then 42 pupils. Nicole had founded a girls'
school at Troyes in the preceding year. The teaching sisters, or black sisters,
who were in charge of it were ordered not to teach any more in 1742, and
in 1749 were dispersed. This last information is furnished us by M. Th.
Boutiot. (Histoire de ^instruction publique et populaire d Troyes pendant les
quatre demiers siedes, 1864.)
1 " There was nothing to find fault with in the education that she gave to
the children, he told the abbess ; on the contrary, nowhere was it so good."
(Hist. gen. de P.-R. y t. vii. p. 318.)
2 Clemencet makes him say: "They train the boarders perfectly well,
not only in piety and morals, but also by forming their minaa ; there is no
place where they would be better for all things than there.
48 Port-Royal Education.
I their system of education *\ Eacine indeed tells us : " They were
jnot satisfied with training them up in piety ; they also took great
[pains to form their minds and reason, and laboured to render
them equally capable of becoming some day either perfect nuns
or excellent mothers." (Abrege de Vhistoire de Port-Royal.) The
programme certainly is excellent ; it is very unfortunate that the
proofs in support of it are absolutely wanting.
The respectable du Fosse" (Memoir es pour servir a TJiistoire de
Port-Royal, p. 378) extols the merits of Mother Angelique
Arnauld, who for twenty-seven years was at the head of the
community. He praises her ability " in making shrines, like the
most clever architects, or wax figures better finished than those
that are seen at Benoit's ; in writing letters that touch the heart
and elevate the mind " ; he praises her sound piety, her profound
^ humility, her ardour for penance, and her contempt of the world.
|Ent-tliere is not a word relating to education. And, in fact, the
Mother Angelique in her Entretiens et Conferences has never
treated a question having a bearing on education. Once only
a sister consulted her about the absence of mind that children
caused her. The answer was so short that the poor sister did not
understand it, and dared not press the matter.
On the other hand, there are many passages not very en-
couraging as to the intellectual development of the pupils.
Page 377 : " The demon delivered a discourse on philosophy
which lasted two hours, the most lofty and elegant that this
philosopher had ever heard. He was quite delighted with it;
but the moment it was finished he forgot it so entirely that he
could not even remember a single word . . . ; this discourse,
which appeared so admirable and was so useless, shows that all
human sciences are but vanity, and that they are often more
hurtful than useful, because they puff up the mind.'*
Page 399 : " Eejoice, ye poor and unlearned, without books,
without reading or elevated conversation, in preparing your
vegetables, in boiling your pot, if you are satisfied with your
condition, if you are contented to be the least in the house of
God, if you have no desire for another condition; the Son of
God came for you. Have no care, He Himself will convert your
heart : fear not the lack of instruction."
Introduction. 49
Judging from the writings of the Mother Agnes, teaching
appears to be an unpleasant task imposed on the sisters: 1 "You
must not, if you please," we read in a letter of March 18, 1655,
to the sister Marie-Dorothe'e Perdreau, " desire to be exempt from
the service of the children, although it may be unpleasant to
you ; for, since we receive them in this house, the lot may fall
upon you as well as another." The Constitutions force them,
nevertheless, on this course, while recommending them to apply
themselves to their task with "great disinterestedness, dreading
this task on account of the many opportunities there are for
making mistakes, for diverting oneself too much, and losing the
spirit of meditation, which it is not easy to preserve in such a
great employment." Want of professional qualification, far from
being taken into consideration in the interest of the children, is
precisely a motive for the superiors for choosing the nuns who, v
for the work of their salvation, need to be humbled and to suffer.
"Do not put forward as an excuse," the Mother Agnes writes
again, " that you do not discharge this duty well, and that you
make many mistakes, for it is for that very reason that perhaps
it will be found fitting to leave you there still, that you may
better understand your incapacity . . . God permits the children
not to behave to you as they ought that these insubordinate
pupils may make you suffer and humble yourself. " (Faugere, t. ii.
p. 465 and 461.)
This is doubtless very edifying but not very pedagogic, and the]
children appear to be sacrificed too much to the moral advanced
ment of their mistresses. We cannot, however, but pay tribute]
to their devotedness and self-abnegation. They are also, as far as
it is possible to judge by the very rare passages that refer to them
in the voluminous writings of Port-Royal, imbued with an admir-
able sense of their responsibility. " She was so humble," says the
Necrologe of D. Kivet, speaking of the sister Marie de Sainte-
1 Dufosse admits it implicitly : ' ' Although the order which obliged the
nuns of Port-Royal to dismiss their boarders (1669) caused them much
distress on account of the young girls who were so unjustly deprived of a
pious education, it was, nevertheless, easy to console themselves on their
own account because of the relief that they received from it, and the in-
comparably greater peace that this release procured for them." (M6m. pou
scrvir d rhistoire de P.-R t p. 177.)
SO Port-Royal Education.
Aldegonde des Pommares, deputy mistress, "that she took upon
herself almost all the faults that the children committed, always
thinking that they would not have happened except for her want
of discretion or through having spoken to them roughly." (Page 5.)
Similar testimony is borne to the, sister Anne-Eug6nie by Besogne
in an interesting page that we have extracted.
The Constitutions of the monastery of Port-Eoyal and the
Regulations for the children, by Jacqueline Pascal, the only
documents that we possess, bring before us a very monastic
education.
First, the parents must renounce their authority over their
children and " offer them to God, unconcerned whether they are
to be nuns or in society, according as it shall please God to
ordain." Vocations will not be forced, but, as Jacqueline Pascal
recommends, " one may make use of the opportunity to say some-
thing about the happiness of a good nun .... to show that the
religious life is not a burden, but one of the best gifts of God."
Thus the greater number of the young women renounce the
worldly life. Everything contributes to this. Although the
Constitutions contain this article : " The girls may be kept until
the age of sixteen years although they do not wish to be nuns,"
the Mother Angelique gave notice to Mine, de Chaze that her
daughter, who was about fifteen, " did not wish to be a nun, and
that it was necessary to remove her." (Leclerc, Vies interessantes
et edifiantes des religieuses de Port-Royal, t. iii. p. 28.)
We may conjecture how marriage was spoken of there. Saint-
Cyran, in one of his Lettres chretiennes et spirituelles (they figure
in the list of reading books drawn up by Jacqueline Pascal),
writes: "If there were 100,000 souls that I loved like yours,
I should always wish, in imitation of Saint Paul, never to see
them involved (in matrimony), and would do my utmost to
prevent them entering it." (t. i. p. 170.) His successor, the
abbe Singlin, continues this teaching. We see him at work in
the Vies interessantes by Leclerc. The sister Elizabeth de Sainte-
Agnes de Feron entered Port-Royal at the age of seven years.
When her mother thought of marrying her " Singlin strongly
represented to her all that she had to fear in an engagement
of this kind. She had always had a great distaste and a terrible
Introduction. 5 1
dread of marriage." (t. ii. p. 388.) In conformity with these
ideas, the Mother Agnes Arnauld wrote, in 1634, to her nephew
Lemaitre to dissuade him from his project of marriage : " My
dear nephew, this will be the last time that I shall use this title.
. . . You will say that I blaspheme this venerable sacrament to
which you are so devoted, but do not trouble yourself about my
conscience, which knows how to separate the sacred from the
profane, the precious from the abject" 1
We know with what practical good sense Mine, de Maintenon
counteracted this false delicacy, and exclaimed one day : " This is
what brings ridicule on conventual education ! "
The boarders wore the white habit and the veil of the novices.
It is not given to those who at first show some dislike to it.
How was that long day filled which began at four or half-past
four o'clock for the elder and at five for the younger children ?
With regard to studies, we only see reading and writing
mentioned, and on festivals one hour's arithmetic.
The only reading books mentioned refer to piety : The Imitation
of Christ, Fr. Luis de Granada, la Philothe'e, St. John Climacus,
The Tradition of the Church, The Letters of M. de Saint-Cyran,
The Familiar Theology, The Christian Maxims, contained in the
Book of Hours ; The Letter of a Carthusian Father, lately trans-
lated; The Meditations of St. Theresa on the Pater-noster, &c.
The morning reading is taken from the service for the day or
from The Life of the Saints, and is to serve for the subject
of private conversation during the day. No other books are left
with the children than their Hours, Familiar Theology, The
1 This is the language of the pr&ieuse Armande :
" Cannot you conceive what, as soon as it is heard,
Such a word offers to the mind that is repulsive ?
By what a strange image one is smitten ?
To what an offensive object it leads the thought ?
Do you not shudder at it ? and can you, sister,
Persuade yourself to accept all the consequences of this word ? "
To which the charming Henriette answers so sensibly :
ft The consequences of this word, when I consider them,
Show me a husband, children, and a home,
And I see nothing in all that, if I can reason on it,
To offend the mind or make one shudder."
Les Femmes savantes, acte i. sc. 1.)
52 Port-Royal Education.
[Words of Our Lord, The Imitation of Christ, and a Latin and
(French Psalter.
I The regulation recommends to " exercise the memory of the
children very much " in order to open their mind, to occupy
them and prevent them thinking evil." But further on we see
that they have to learn by heart " The Familiar Theology, the
Service of the Mass, The Tract on Confirmation, then all the
hymns in French in the Hours, then all the Latin hymns in
the breviary ; and when they have come into the monastery
young, there are many who learn the whole Psalter. They have
not much difficulty, provided that they are exhorted and forced a
little." We might suspect it.
As to writing, " they write their copy or they transcribe some-
thing when they are very good and are permitted to do so."
We are very glad to learn from an enemy that the French
language was taught them formally. "There was always," says
Father Rapin, "a certain spirit of politeness in these illustrious
penitents, who could not belong to a party which had learnt
to write and speak well to its contemporaries without feeling
the effect of this spirit. . . . Everything there was polished,
even the little boarders whom they took the trouble to rear in
purity of language as much as in virtue, and it was in conversing
with them that Doctor Arnauld found so much pleasure in notic-
ing that great number of new expressions that he had the art to
utilize in his works, and of which he made a special study."
(Memoires, t. ii. p. 276.)
Let us add needlework, housekeeping, singing by notes, and we
shall have gathered all we are able to learn of the programme of
studies. There is no trace of the teaching of history or the
natural sciences.
With regard to outside news, " they receive the announcement
of the taking the veil by some sisters or some note requesting
their prayers for some person or some pious undertaking."
We may at least remark in this teaching, which appears to us so
inadequate, some good scholastic usages. "At the end of a lesson,
three or four children are set to repeat what was told them the day
before. They are not questioned in turn, in order to keep them
ou the alert ; sometimes one, sometimes another is Addressed, . ,
Introduction. 53
As to the younger children, they must not be left idle, but their
time must be divided, making them read for a quarter of an hour,
play for another quarter, and then work for another short time.
These changes amuse them, and prevent them forming the bad
habit to which children are very prone, of holding their book and
playing with it or with their work, sitting sideways and constantly
turning their heads."
By as much as Jacqueline Pascal is distressingly laconic, when
it is a question of the intellectual development of the pupils, by
so much does she please herself in setting out in detail the
monastic side of their education.
We are rather shocked by the system of repression to which the
girls are subjected. On every page of the Regulations one word
constantly reappears, cold and pitiless, namely, silence : l perfect
silence while rising and dressing, strict silence till the Preciosa of
prime, very strict silence while at work after breakfast at half-
past seven, silence during the household work, increased silence
during the writing lesson, silence during the two hours' duration
of the service and masses in the monastery, even when they do not
attend it, silence in the refectory, complete silence during work
till vespers, silence after the evening angelus, even in summer,
when they are walking in the garden, great silence while un-
dressing and going to bed at eight o'clock.
Will the poor little mutes at least regain a little liberty, and
give themselves up to the joy of their age " in play- time, when it
seems they have a right to say many thing to amuse and recreate
themselves M 1 Not by any means, except the very young ones,
who are left to play. As to the rest, the mistresses take care
to speak to and converse with them, in order to help them to say
reasonable things which will enlarge their minds.
i
Evidently these absolute precepts must have been very much modified in
practice. The wise caution that precedes the Regulations for children (see p.
226) proves this. " It would not always be easy nor even useful to put it in
practice with this severity, for it may be that all children are not capable of
such strict silence and so strained a life without being depressed and wearied,
which must be avoided above all things." The Mother Agnes writes, about
1660, to Mme de Foix, coadjutrix, of Saintes : " Our boarders are not con-
strained to keep silence, but they are carefully watched, in order that they
may not converse about trifles."
54 Port-Royal Education.
Besides, they are forbidden to speak of their confessions, of
the singing of the sisters, of the penances of the refectory, of
their dreams, and of the parlour. They are not allowed to
speak in an undertone, on pain of repeating aloud what they
have said.
| Play-time, however, is almost always taken up with work.
"Except the very little ones, who always play, all work without
losing their time, and they have made it such a habit that nothing
wearies them so much as the recreations on festivals. " J What an
admission !
Two extracts (see pp. 245 and 247) permit us to penetrate into
Port-Eoyal at this period of the day. One shows us the Sister
Eugenie taxing her ingenuity to amuse the children who cannot
play without her. The other, more curious, sketches a lively
scene in which the children, taking part in the disputes of the day,
amuse themselves by bringing Escobar to trial !
Keligious exercises occupy a place very disproportionate to the
age of the children, if the aim were not to train them all for
the religious life. 2 Prayer is not only the beginning and end
of every lesson, it recurs every hour; when the bell rings for
a service in the choir work is interrupted to repeat a prayer.
The scholars hear mass every day "on their knees; it has been
found that this posture is not so uneasy when one has become used
to it early." They go to terce and vespers on Sundays and
Thursdays, to the high festivals, to the feast-days of saints,
1 There is a question of recreations in the examination of the Sister Jeanne
de Sainte-Domitille. " The little girls, the priest tells her, laughing, have
answered : ' Alas ! recreation, we did not waste our time over that, we did
nothing but weep for our sins.' 'This last answer/ replied the sister, smiling,
* conies as little from the children as the preceding. In the matter of recrea-
tion they passed two hours a day in it very gaily, and have always been very
pleased to go into that house, which has plainly appeared by the sorrow they
showed in leaving us.' " (Histoire des persecutions des religieuses, p. 171.)
2 Leclerc says of Mdlle. du Fargis, a boarder from the age of seven years :
"The Mother Angelique took special care in training her in virtue, and in
inspiring her with contempt of the world and of herself. She soon had the
consolation of seeing that her pains and instructions produced excellent
results in this young pupil. In fact, when she was of an age to choose
her state of life, she formed the resolution to be a nun. " Her father cast
himself at her knees. The constancy of the young novice appeared even too-
heroic to the Mother Angelique, who said to her, * You must humble your-
self ; you are too strong.' "
Introduction. 5 5
doctors, and others, if they ask and deserve this favour. At
eleven o'clock scrutiny of conscience. The elder girls may repeat
their sexts. After recreation they sing the Veni Creator in pre-
paration for religious instruction ; then they are allowed the favour
of telling aloud one of their faults, "they are accustomed to do
so readily." 1 At four o'clock the elder girls may obtain the favour
of going to vespers. At last the evening recreation ends with
complines, which they may recite in summer while walking in the
garden.
We cannot approve of this excess of religious practices any
more than of that spirit of mortification which presents work
solely as a penance, which exempts from the collation at the age of
fourteen, and exhorts the children " to take sufficient nourishment
as not to become feeble." 2 At that age the body needs to grow
and be strengthened. How much more sensible and humane is
Mme. de Maintenon when, in describing a reasonable person, she
shows him " eating with a good appetite, not like a glutton with
his head in his plate, but gracefully and cleanly, and, since it has
pleased God that we should find pleasure in eating, he takes
it unaffectedly, and without any scruple."
The Mother Angelique solemnly protests before God, in a fine
letter written to the queen on her death-bed in 1661, that they
were not at all occupied in the monastery with the theological
controversies raised by Saint- Cyran and Arnauld. Father Eapin
replies by a dilemma which is not wanting in force. "If these
questions are essential to faith, why deprive this house of know-
ledge necessary to salvation? If they are not so, but are im-
1 Mme de Maintenon absolutely forbids this practice to the Ladies of Saiut-
Cyr : " Cultivate carefully in your young ladies the sentiments of honour
.... and do not exact from them practices that might weaken that glory
and make them bold ; for example, making them acknowledge publicly
humiliating faults, thinking that this would be recalling the custom of
public confession, which the Church has thought it right to suppress."
(Entretien, 1703.) Mine, de Maintenon is aiming here at the jansenists, who
had begun to revive this ancient custom.
2 Besogne, praising the love of the Mother Angelique for mortification,
relates that the most devout of the young girls prided themselves on emula-
tion, and that it very nearly cost three of them very dear who " took it into
their heads, in order to mortify themselves in imitation of the nuns, to
gather weeds in the garden, pound them up, and swallow the juice." (t i
p. 42.)
56 Port-Royal Education.
material, why make so much clamour about them everywhere?
Why resist the Pope and trouble the Church for affairs of so
little importance, that they may be ignored without any bad
consequences'? Is it likely that the heads of this party are so
zealous in teaching their maxims to the whole kingdom, and
that Port-Royal alone, where they reside, is left in ignorance
of the mysteries that are taught there V 9 (Memoires, vol. iii.
p. 163.)
Two anecdotes related by Mme. de Main tenon at'Saint-Cyr
would tend to confirm the reasoning of the Jesuit father : "When
the king forbade boarders to be placed at Port-Eoyal Mme. la
comtesse de *** withdrew her daughter, who was only twelve
year old ; she brought her to court, where she began to disparage
all that M. de Perefixe had done in his visit to Port-Royal. She
was inexhaustible, and I could not understand how a child could
speak with such boldness. During this very visit of the arch-
bishop he made a speech to try and gain them over. After a rather
long speech he asked a little boarder of nine or ten years old,
who had been listening attentively, if she was beginning to be
convinced of the truth of what he said. She answered him with
an astonishing boldness, ' I admire the depth of the judgments of
God to have given us a prelate as ignorant as you are.' And all
the nuns applauded this answer. This is the submission and
humility that their directors inspire in them." (Lettres historiques
et edifiantes, vol. ii. p. 227.) No doubt the testimony of an
impassioned enemy, and one very much inclined to raillery, must
be a little distrusted. But putting together these facts and the
recreation scene where the boarders amused themselves by
bringing Escobar to trial, we conclude that they were not so
entirely strangers to the religious disputes of the time. The
contrary would be altogether unlikely.
But what an odious imputation, justly stigmatized by Arnauld
(la Morale pratique des jesuites, t. viii. p. 209), theological hatred
has cast on these nuns, "as pure as angels," said archbishop
Perefixe, by reproaching them with being " as proud as demons ! "
One of the thousand pamphlets to which the quarrel between the
Jesuits and jansenists gave rise, le Pays de Janstnie, accuses them
of giving their pupils lessons in immodesty, in consequence of the
Introduction. 57
doctrine of Jansenius and Saint-Cyran on grace. 1 " Do not think,
my daughters," he impudently makes them say, "that the grace
of God is always with us. Alas, no ! There are wretched times
when we are indeed compelled to sin. What should we do if
God withdraws Himself? That often happens, however. Are
we not indeed unfortunate? Chastity is commanded to us, and
sometimes we are deprived of the strength necessary to preserve
it. Kemember that, my daughters, your salvation is at stake
if you ignore it, and you may have need of it at some time.
There are husbands who would not be so cruel to their wives
if they had studied theology, for they would know that grace
is often denied us, and that in that case they should rather
pity our weaknesses than be angry for the faults into which
we fall by the absence of the succour that God refuses to us,
either to punish our infidelities or to teach us by a necessary
lapse that we can do nothing without Him. It is thus," continues
the pamphleteer, " that they bring up the young to that patience
that results in the greatest ignominy of the sex, when solicitations
are warm and opportunities present. For although they do
not intend to give lessons in immodesty to their young scholars,
the doctrine nevertheless leads to it." You admit it, then,
venomous logician, all this argument carried to excess is nothing
but an insult and a calumny. Attack opinions, but do not
outrage persons. Such a proceeding, always culpable, is especially
so here towards pious women whose morality no one ever thought
of throwing suspicion on. It is an unqualified infamy.
Setting aside the exaggerated anxiety, the suspicious watchful-
ness, the constant nervousness that the nuns of Port-Royal, under
the inspiration of Saint-Cyran, bring to the accomplishment of
their task, we must acknowledge the accuracy of their principles
with respect to moral education.
To unite a strength which restrains children without repelling
them to a gentleness that wins them without enervating them ;
vigilance and patience ; no partiality for the more agreeable and
pretty children; no familiarity; great evenness of temper, for
1 Relation du pays de Jansenie, by the Capuchin Zacharie, under the
name of Louis Fontaine (1658).
5 8 Port- Royal Education.
too much laxity soon leads to too much severity, and it is much
more painful for children to suffer these variations than to be
always kept to their duty ; seldom to admonish for slight faults,
even to pretend not to perceive them; to reprimand without
bad temper or offensive terms; "they must be convinced that
they are only reprimanded for their good"; to be sparing of
words in reprimanding; 1 to chastise even without speaking, in
order to prevent the children telling untruths or seeking excuses ;
to work upon their character with discretion in private con-
versations; to win their entire confidence, and to be on guard
against their cunning ; to infuse this idea into them, namely, that
their progress in what is good will be measured, not by
extraordinary actions, but by the accomplishment of their every-
day duties, "by the fidelity they shall bring into the smallest
regulations of the schoolroom, by the support they shall give
their sisters, by the charity with which they shall serve them
in their needs, and by the care they shall take to mortify their
faults." Here, in few words, and without pretension, is an
excellent line of conduct.
On the whole the girls' schools of Port-Eoyal affect the history
of pedagogy less than the boys' schools. These mark an epoch of
/ notable reforms and real progress. If we often disagree with
their venerable masters, if we have neither the same starting-
point nor the same goal, if pedagogy has cast off their theological
ideas, what advantage may we not still draw from a close inter-
course with them. What legitimate lessons they may continue
to give us on the proper aim of studies, on the art of managing
children and training their minds and hearts. Their works,
one of the glories of French pedagogy, still deserve to be read and
pondered. Their example especially ought to continue living.
A more absolute and disinterested devotedness to the great work
of education has never been seen, nor a more watchful conscience,
a more sincere and active love of childhood, nor a keener desire
to render study easy and attractive.
How did these humble schools raise the implacable hatred
(M;
1 " Nothing weakens a reprimand more than a great many words."
[me. de Maintenon, letter to a mistress, 1692.)
Introduction. 59
of the Jesuits, a hatred that was not extinguished, even after the
dispersion of the scholars and the exile or imprisonment of
the masters, until the day that the very buildings were razed
and destroyed and the tombs profaned I 1 What do I sayl This
hatred is not yet extinct, it is again revived under our eyes, and
at the present time dreams of annihilating the works, and even
the very names, of our pious solitaries and their friends. 2
If the Jesuits feared for a moment to see the education of
youth slip out of their hands, and their colleges lose their
prosperity, 3 as Kacine and several writers of Port-Royal assert,
they must have been promptly reassured ; for the Pctites Ecoles
could only be a brilliant and short-lived institution, the individual I \
work of a few eminent masters, which was ill-adapted for'
imitation, and which, by its narrow limits, confined to a very
small number of select pupils, could not respond to the needs
of public instruction, and consequently had no future prospects.
The cause of the quarrel must evidently be sought less in .
the scholastic success of the masters of Port-Royal than in their I
growing favour with the public as spiritual directors and as(
writers. Father Canaye explains it candidly in that curious
conversation with the Marquis d* Hocquincourt, related by Saint-
Evremond who was present : "It was not their diversity of
1 A letter of Feb. 2, 1712, gives frightful details ; the writer had them
from an eye-witness. The labourers who disinterred the bodies, and broke
them when they could not lift them entire, "drank, laughed, sang, and
derided those persons whom they found thus in the flesh. But the most
horrible thing was that there were ten dogs in the church devouring the
flesh which still remained on those limbs which were separated from the
bodies, and no one thought of driving them away." (LECLERC, Vies inte'ressantes,
t. iv. p. 59.)
2 The Catalogue mensuel de I'&uvre pontificale des vieuxpapiers (the office
is at Langres, Haute-Marne), in its number for April and May 1885, points
out to the pious fury of devout souls 33 works to be destroyed. The names
of Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, Saci, Saint-Cyran, Duguet, &c., figure in it. A
note, written in a jovial style, explains that the jansenists who did so much
evil in former times snore peacefully on the shelves of libraries, and that now
is a very favourable moment for laying hands on them and thrusting them
all at once into the sack. Comment seems to me needless.
3 The testimony of Bacon in favour of their talent as educators is often
quoted. It is proper to set in the balance the very superior authority, in
my opinion, of Leibnitz: " I am far from thinking like Bacon," he writes,
11 who, when it is a question of a better education, is content to refer to the
schools of the Jesuits." ((Euvres, t. vi. p. 65 )
60 Port-Royal Education.
opinions upon grace nor the five propositions which had set
them at loggerheads. The ambition of governing men's con-
sciences did it all. The jansenists found us in possession of
the government, and they wished to take it from us. . . ."
(CEuvres de Saint-Evremond, t. ii. p. 156.)
Victors along all the line, both as writers and directors of
conscience, the jansenists had necessarily to succumb before the
double opposition of the Church and the State.
Captivated by perfection and holiness, conceiving a very high
idea of religion and morality, pushing the requirements of the
Christian life, the responsibility of the priesthood, and the terrible
grandeur of God to the extreme, they had bewailed the disorders
of the clergy, of the Court of Eome, 1 and the monastic orders,
and, like Vincent de Paul, Frangois de Sales, de Be'rulle, de
Ranee, and Bourdoise, had felt deeply the need of a complete
reform. With the generous but somewhat chimerical idea of
restoring Christianity to its primitive purity, they expressed
themselves in sharp and energetic terms on the corruption of
morals and discipline in the Church. Saint-Cyran sorrowfully
said that for five or six hundred years God had been destroying
His Church. 2 He repeated the melancholy saying of Fra^ois
de Sales : " There is scarcely one competent confessor in ten
thousand ! " Jansenius, his companion in studies, wrote to him
on April 5, 1621 : "After the heretics, no people in the world
1 The satirical Gui Patin is not the only person who complains of the
abuse of nepotism at the Court of Rome, under the pontificate of
Innocent X. (1644-1655): "The Signora Olympia, sister-in-law of the
pope, who governs him body and soul, also governs the papacy. It is
said that she sells everything, seizes and receives everything . . . which
has drawn a joke from Pasquin, 'Olympia, olim pia, nunc harpia.'"
(Lettres, t. i. p. 363.) The Venetian ambassador, Contarini, writes
officially: "Donna Olympia sells, taxes, lets, gets presents made to her
for all Government transactions, for pardons and justice ; she is surrounded
by a band of agents and extortioners." (Quoted by de Chantelauze, Le
cardinal de Retz et I'a/aire du chapeau, t. i. p. 296.) Pamphlets were
affixed to the church doors: "Olympia primus, pontifex maximus." A
medal represented her with the tiara on her head and St. Peter's keys in
her hand ; Innocent X. in woman's dress holding a distaff and spindle.
a Vincent de Paul in his deposition remembered only the second half
of the phrase ; but the Mother Angelique had noted down the first in
writing. (See the letter of Lemaitre in the Memoires pour servir d I'histoire
de Port-Royal, t. ii. p. 207.)
Introduction . 6 1
have more corrupted theology than those brawlers of the school
that you know. If it had to be corrected in the ancient style,
which is that of truth, the theology of this time would have
no appearance of theology for the greater number of persons."
Arnauld, in his fine book, De la frequents communion, in 1643,
protested with unparalleled energy against the moral and religious
condition of his contemporaries : " Also it is a horrible thing that
never have so many confessions and communions been seen, and
never more disorder and corruption . . . that there was never
more impurity in marriages . . . more profligacy among the
young . . . more excess and debauchery among the common
people. Who does not know that for twenty years fornication
has passed among men of the world as a slight fault; adultery,
one of the greatest of all crimes, for a piece of good fortune ;
cheating and treachery for court virtues; impiety and free-
thinking for strength of mind . , . fraud and lying for the
knowledge of sale and trading; the rage for constant gaming
as a genteel occupation for women . . . the disguised simony
and the profanation of church property as a legitimate accommo-
dation which facilitates the interchange of benefices? ... I
say nothing of more abominable crimes that our fathers were
ignorant of, and which have broken out to such an extent in this
unfortunate age, that one cannot think of them without being
seized with horror." (3 e par tie, ch. xvi.)
And the young and ardent doctor (he was then thirty-one) did
not fear to trace back to the proper person the responsibility for
all these disorders : " This is what we might with truth call
the greatest misfortune that could happen to the Church, if we
did not add that there is a still greater, namely, that persons
are found who make profession of piety, who flatter the sinners in
the desires of their soul . . . who seem to work for nothing else
than to foster crimes by a false mildness, instead of arresting them
by a just severity. . . They are persons who imagine that they
have changed the face of a whole town, and have made it become
quite Christian without any other change than that those who
only communicated once a year now communicate once a month,
and sometimes oftener. . . They admit that morals are not less
corrupt than before . , , yet, nevertheless, they will maintain that
62 Port-Royal Education.
men are in a better condition than they were, because they tell a
priest every week what they told only every month, and add
every week two sacrileges to their other crimes. . ." The mild
and prudent Nicole declares that he fears some extraordinary effect
of God's anger " at a time when the whole Church is filled with
vicious and ignorant ecclesiastics and dissolute monasteries.* 1
(VisionnaireS) p. 179.) This was to bring on their hands many
powerful enemies. It was easy to raise the hue and cry after the
dangerous innovators, the new reformers, the disguised heretics,
who wished, like Luther and Calvin, to ruin the Church under
the pretext of reforming it.
The State, that is to say Louis XIV., maintained, besides,
ineradicable prejudices against them. " The gentlemen of Port-
Eoyal always these gentlemen," repeated in chorus the king
and Mme. de Maintenon. The sincerity of their convictions and
of their apostolate is a sure guarantee to us, at least at the period
with which we are occupied, that they remained strangers
to political cabals, notwithstanding the accusations without proof
and the perfidious insinuations of their adversaries. 1 It required,
in truth, all the blindness of hatred to transform Saint-Cyran,
Arnauld, Singlin, de Saci, Nicole, and Lancelot into conspirators
and rioters. " Mine, de Longueville," Father Rapin relates, " said
of Arnauld that he would never have been able to achieve
his salvation if intrigue had been necessary to save him."
(MemoireSy p. 240.) And this is well seen when, hidden and
disguised in the duchess' house, he betrayed his incognito so
artlessly. 2
The testimony of Cardinal de Retz is very favourable to them.
"They are," Besogne makes him say, "the poorest people in the
world in the matter of intrigue and affairs of State ; they will
1 The zealous annotator of the Mtmoires of Father Rapin is forced to
admit it: "The Mdmoires are not very explicit on the part that the
jansenists took in the armaments of the Fronde, and Port-Royal wished to
deny it; the pamphlets are never silent about it." (t. i. p. 252.) A high
authority truly !
2 Speaking of a new work, the doctor, who was visiting him, happened to
say, " De Saci does not write so well." " What do you mean ?" replied the
patient, "my nephew writes better than I." In an analogous circumstance,
the physician spoke of the arrest of Arnauld, "Oh ! it is rather hard to
believe that," replied the incorrigible doctor, " I am M. Arnauld,"
Introduction. 63
not meddle with them. And far from receiving any assistance
from them, they have disgusted several persons of my party and
refused absolution to those who belonged to it." 1 (Hist. t. v.
p. 546.)
But it must be acknowledged that appearances were against
them. "With a facility more Christian than judicious," according
to the just comment of Racine, they welcomed a number of discon-
tented or disgraced courtiers and a number of great ladies wearied
of their intrigues. Their attachment to their archbishop, the
Cardinal de Retz, whose consummate perversity 2 they did not
know so well as we do, and who used them to further the ends of
his ambition, compromised them completely in the opinion of
Louis XIV. and his ministers. Their connection with the
duchesse de Longueville, the due de Luynes, the marquis
de Sevigne', Mme. de Guenegaut, the prince and princess de
Conti, &c., caused the Fronde to be called the jansenists' war.
Anne of Austria, indoctrinated by the marquis de Senecey, by
Henri de Bourbon and the Jesuits, declared " that the king would
remember them when he was of age," and he did remember them,
in fact. His governor, Villeroi, represented them to him as
people who "wanted neither pope nor king." (Memoires, du P.
Eapin, t. i. p. 271.) Hence, we can understand the saying attri-
buted to d'Harcourt, " A jansenist is very often only a man whom
it is wished to ruin at court."
M. Cousin and M. Kenan have said that in this struggle it
was the Jesuits who defended the good cause, that of human
1 We see the abbe Singlin and the bishop of Alet exact from their
penitents, the prince de Conti and the duchesse de Longueville, restitution
of considerable sums to the poor, to repair the damages caused in the
provinces by the civil wars. (BESOQNE, Hist. t. iii. pp. 39 and 83.)
2 His secretary, Guy Joly, reports this cynical conversation : * * My poor
fellow, you lose your time in preaching to me. I know very well that I am
only a knave. But, in spite of you and all the world, I wish to be so,
because 1 find more pleasure in it. I am aware that there are three or four of
you who know me and despise me in your hearts ; but I console myself with
the satisfaction that I experience in imposing on all the rest by your means.
People are so much deceived, and my reputation is so well established, that if
you wished to undeceive them you would not be believed, which is sufficient
for me to be contented and live after my own fashion." (Al&noires.) The
admiration that Mme. de Sevigne did not cease to profess for Cardinal
de Ketz is well known,
64 Port-Royal Education.
liberty. Mme. de S^vigne, so attached to her friends and her
brethren of Port-Koyal, separates from them, in fact, on this point
of doctrine. She has just been reading the Bible of Eoyaumont,
and, after having seen the reproaches of ingratitude and the
horrible punishments with which God afflicted His people, she
writes: "As to myself, I go much farther than the Jesuits. . . .
I am persuaded that we have entire liberty. . , . The Jesuits
do not say enough about it, and the others give occasion for
murmuring against the justice of God when they take away our
liberty, or abridge it so much that it is no longer liberty." (A
Mme. de Grignan, August 28, 1676.) D'Alembert twits them
equally, and with spirit, on the contradiction between their in-
exorable dogma and their ethics : " What would be thought of
a monarch who should say to one of his subjects, 'You have
shackles on your feet, and you have no power to take them off;
nevertheless, I warn you that if you do not immediately walk,
for a long time and quite straight, along the edge of this precipice
on which you are, you shall be condemned to everlasting
torments'? Such is the God of the jansenists." (Destruction
des Jesuit es, p. 64.)
And, in spite of all, the men of Port-Eoyal, vanquished,
proscribed, and annihilated, make in history quite another figure
than their triumphant vanquishers. By a happy inconsistency
with their discouraging system of predestination, they do not the
less represent, in a certain measure, liberty of conscience, the
spirit of inquiry, independence of thought, and the love of justice
and truth. "Their adversaries pleaded the opposite cause, namely,
undisputed sway over mind and heart." (Yillemain.)
By a new and still more happy inconsistency they worked with
a more ardent zeal than anyone for the reform of manners. Their
moral grandeur burst forth before the eyes of their most prejudiced
contemporaries, and, far from diminishing with time, it shines
with a purer light, in the history of French civilization, in
proportion as the miserable incidents of the struggle in which
they succumbed are effaced. The true reason of their success,
.in the opinion of their most prejudiced adversaries, was the
I strictness of their spiritual discipline. "The jansenists," says
I Father Kapin, "advanced their affairs by disguising their real
In troduction. 6 5
sentiments; this was by a morality that had nothing but what
was beautiful and edifying." (Hist, du jansenisme, p. 496.) One
of the least equivocal marks of heresy was purity of morals.
Port-Royal 1 drew from this valuable testimony her consolation
and strength in the midst of the severest trials.
I cannot speak better of the moral bearing of the work under-
taken by the solitaries of Port-Royal than Henri Martin has done
in that admirable and well-thought-out page of his Histoire de
France: "Thorough sincerity in the action of man upon man,
and a thorough disdain of all precautions and of all polity in
things pertaining to God, characterize what may be called the
method of Saint -Cyran. He desires to regenerate souls indi-
vidually, not to obtain by surprise the superficial adhesion of
a great number, still less to demand a verbal adhesion that
the heart does not ratify. He was not the man to compel
heretical populations to become Catholics in appearance. What
matters appearance to him'? What matter outward forms to
him 1 It is better to gain one soul to the internal Christ
than an empire to the external Church. Here Saint -Cyran
touches Descartes, although turning his back on him. . . .
Descartes regenerated the mind ; Saint - Cyran endeavours to
regenerate the heart. ... It is for this that Jansenism deserves,
even at the present time, our serious study, too much inclined
as we are now to place our hopes in social and collective reforms,
which will remain unrealizable so long as they are not based on
the reformation of the human soul. . . . We must be very self-
1 The Mother Agnes writes to Mme. de Foix, April 16, 1663: " There
was a Jesuit who preached, this Lent, in Burgundy, that solitude, retire-
ment, the desire for penance, love and zeal for the penitential canons, and
to see the ancient penance and all the other maxims of Christian perfection
re-established in the Church was the true mark of heresy. After that, must
we not consider ourselves very happy, according to the Gospel ? " Arnauld
said, on his side, "The whole court knows that, a bishop reproving an abbe
of good family because his conduct was not sufficiently regular, ' What do
you wish us to do ? ' replied the abbe. ' If we were more regular we should
be taken for jansenists, and that would mean exclusion from all dignities."
(Phantdme du jansdnisme, p. 28.) A few pages further on he quotes the
words of Cardinal Bona : "What! to be poor, diligent in prayer, and to
exhort the faithful to be diligent in it, to live in an exemplary manner,
and to preach Christ in an apostolic manner, is that what is called Jansenism ?
Please God we were all jansenists in this manner ! " (p. 33.)
66 Port-Royal Education.
reliant in order to be as wrong as the jansenists. However far
removed we may be from their doctrines, we must acknowledge
that they have enhanced the moral grandeur of man; they are
the Stoics of Christianity." (t. xii. pp. 84, 85.)
If they were vanquished in their generous efforts, their adver-
saries paid dear for their victory ; they received a mortal wound
from the arrow of the Provincials, or rather, to speak more
correctly, it was the ancient faith that succumbed in this re-
lentless conflict. Contemplating the field of battle, Boileau,
who had friends in both camps, said like a satirist, " Oh !
what madmen men are !" (Letter to M. Brossette.) Bayle
decided in his usual manner, "It is properly a matter of
Pyrrhonism." (Letter to Math. Marais.) "All that is nonsense !"
exclaimed the courtiers and men of the world, according to Mme.
de Choisy (letter to the comtesse de Maure, 1655); and Christians
complained, with Mme. de Sevign, of all these over-refined dis-
cussions on grace : " Thicken religion a little, it is all evaporating
through being over-refined." Kidicule had invaded the sanctuary
with that cloud of pamphlets that they were throwing at one
another's heads, to set the laughers on its side. The titles are
sufficiently significant : A Damper for the Jansenists, The Lantern
of St. Augustine, Snuffers for the Lantern, A Curry-comb for the
jansenist Pegasus, Ointment for the Burn, The Country of Jansenia,
Illustrations of the Jesuits' Almanack, Essay of the New Tale of
Mother Goose, or Illustrations of the Game of the Constitution,
The Jesuit Harlequin, The Pasquinade of St. Medard, An
Apology for Cartouche, or the Villain without Reproach, by
the grace of Father Quesnel, The Precept and Pastoral Ordinance
of Momus. And what songs, quatrains, satirical prints, comedies,
and public masquerades ! 1
1 Gerberon describes the procession organized by the Jesuits of Macon :
"They made all their scholars march in order, two by two, through the
streets of the town, dressed in white. After them came a triumphal car,
on which was a handsome young man dressed up as a girl, with everything
that the vainest women use as ornaments ; and in order to denote what he
represented, he carried a banner, on which were read these words, in hand
some characters, GKACE STJFFISANTE. Behind this car was seen anothe
young man tied and bound, who wore a paper mitre and other pontific
ornaments to match, and who was covered from head to foot with a lar{
black veil to denote the defeat and disgrace of Jansenius." (Hist. gtn. <
janstnisme, t. i. p. 483.)
Introduction. 67
French humour indulged in it to its heart's content, and found
the subject inexhaustible. What became of religious beliefs in
the midst of this universal bantering 1 Father Kapin has said
a word which is really the best and most sensible in all his
writings : "It is not by these means that the Gospel is preached
and defended." (Mem. t. ii. p. 195.) While the pastors were fight-
ing with their crooks, as they are shown in a print, the wolves
carried off the sheep. Is this, after all, to be so much regretted ?
I think not ; for behind incredulity and indifference walked
liberty of conscience, tolerance, justice, and humanity. Maurepas,
who, under Cardinal Fleury, took an active part in this trifling,
was not, perhaps, wrong in saying, " We have no other means of
avoiding the civil war that the Jesuits wish to bring on us." (Mem.
t. ii. p. 73.) In fact, really religious minds have no reason to
complain that all this polemical theology has ceased to separate
them from God ; and those who are more sensitive to the
love of their neighbour rejoice to see so copious a source of
terrible hatred exhausted and religious persecutions for ever
ended. May Port-Koyal, to which we owe so many grand
lessons, still secure to us, by the sight of its ruins, this glorious
conquest of the modern spirit horror of intolerance, and respect
for liberty.
FELIX CADET.
PORT-ROYAL EDUCATION.
EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITERS OF PORT-ROYAL.
ORIGIN OF THE PETITES ECOLES.
I WISH you could read in my heart the affection that I have for
children, and how there is nothing that is not modified by the
reflections that the prudence of faith and grace obliges us to
make. And when I formed the design of building a house which j
should be, as it were, a seminary for the Church, to preserve in j
it the innocence of the children, without which I perceive every :
day that it is difficult for them to become good ecclesiastics,
I only intended to build it for s_tx_childcfin, whom I would have
chosen throughout the city of Paris, as it might please God that
I should meet with them, and I would have given them a master
especially to teach them Latin, and with him a good priest, whom
I had already in view, to direct and govern their consciences.
And I intended to give them for Latin (if he whom I had should
happen to fail me) a man of twenty or twenty-five years of age,
knowing that an older man is usually rather unfit to teach
languages to children. This design having been destroyed by
my imprisonment, 1 I have thought no more of it, and have given
all the money that I had, except two thousand francs for this
house, to the poor. It is true that finding here the son of a poor
widow, who seemed to have good abilities, I have gradually taught
him in my room; but a domestic disturbance 2 having driven him
1 On Friday, 14 May, 1638, Saint-Cyran was taken to the Castle of
Vincennes, where he remained a prisoner until the death of Richelieu.
2 M. de Saint-Cyran, although very badly treated by the lieutenant of the
governor of Vincennes, had given some attention to his two sons ; and " as his
zeal for the education of children was very great," says Lancelot, " he added
69
7O Port-Royal Education.
away, I have been obliged to continue my charity to him by send-
ing him to Port-Koyal, because otherwise he would have been
ruined among the soldiers, and those who had taken him from me
by their authority would have succeeded in their design of injur-
ing him. In fact, the circumstances were such that I could not
abandon him without displeasing God and violating the character
that He has given me, which is a personal law, and ought rather
to be obeyed than public laws. 1 But I have since willingly con-
sented that the good work that I began with the children of
M. Bignon 2 should be continued at Port-Eoyal, as much because
it is difficult for me to interrupt what I am doing for God's
service as because M. Bignon gave me two thousand francs to
employ as I should think fit, and which I had determined to
employ on the above - mentioned building, in order that the
children might share in the charity of their father. For I am
much concerned lest those who have chosen me as the instrument
of some good work should not be the first to reap the benefit of it.
Nevertheless, I understood this in such a manner that if the
children turned out intractable and unwilling to submit to the
discipline under which I wished them to live in this house, it
should be in my power to dismiss them without those from whom
I had received them, not even excepting M. Bignon, bearing me
any ill-will for it. ...
a third to them, who was the son of a poor woman, a niece of the precentor
of the Sainte-Chapelle. This last s<ftm outstripped the other two, which
made the lieutenant's wife so jealous, tnat she forbade M. de Saint-Cyran to
see any children, under the pretext that lie might instil bad principles into
them." (M&m. t. i. p. 133.)
1 The clearness of these declarations explains the ascendancy of Saint-Cyran.
He said one day to Lemaitre : ' ' You are not yet accustomed to this language,
and people do not talk so in the world, but here are six feet of ground (his
room) where neither chancellor nor any one else is feared. There is no power
that can prevent us speaking the truth here as it ought to be spoken."
2 "The establishment of the Petites iZcoles de Port-Royal was due to the
solicitations of this celebrated magistrate (Jerome Bignon). M. de Saint-
Cyran had often given him his ideas on the Christian education of children,
and M. Bignon, after pressing him for a long time to put his ideas in practice,
demanded as a tribute due to their mutual friendship that the pious abbe
should undertake the charge of the Christian education of his sons, Jerome
and Thierri Bignon. It was on their behalf that the Petites ticoles were set
up outside Port-Royal by MM. Lancelot and de Saci, while their sister,
Marie Bignon, was educated within the monastery." (Supplement au Necro-
loge, p. 398.)
Saint-Cyran : The Petites (Lcoles. 71
The duty of instructing children is in itself so irksome, that
I have seldom seen a wise man who has not complained andj
grown tired of it, however short a time he has worked at it ; and
the most devout men in the order of Saint-Benedict have found
this penance the hardest of all. You may read an example of
it in the life of St. Arsenius j 1 and for my own part I have always
considered this occupation so troublesome, 2 that I have never
employed any man in it to whom God had not imparted this gift ;\
or if I have been deceived in my choice, I have removed him
as soon as I perceived that he did not possess it. I should think
I had done a great deal, although I had not advanced them much
in Latin up to the age of twelve years, by causing them to pass
these early years in the close of a house or monastery in the
country, by giving them all the pastimes suitable to their age, 3
and showing them the example of a good life in those who were
with me. . . .
Extract from a letter of M. de Saint-Cyran written from the
Bois de Yincennes. (Supplement au Necrologe, p. 46.)
OF THE CHAEITY OF M. DE SAINT-CYRAN TOWARDS
CHILDREN.
... He thought that the whole course of life depended on
this early age, and that, provided the young were well brought up,
it might be hoped that public posts would be filled with the most :
worthy officers and the Church with the most virtuous men, and j
that the Republic 4 and private families would draw from it in-
1 Arsenius (350-445), governor of the children of Theodosius the Great,
whose court he quitted to pass the remainder of his life in a desert of Egypt.
2 He calls it "a tempest of the mind," on account of its religious
responsibility.
3 This wise care not to overpress the children suggested to Rousseau
his theory of negative education up to this age of twelve years: "You are
alarmed," he said, "to see the child waste his early years in doing nothing ?
What ! Is it nothing to be happy ? Is it nothing to jump, play, and run all
day long? He will never be so busy in all his life." Saint-Cyran, who
allows the child all the pastimes suitable to his age, is very careful to
surround him with good examples.
4 Tljat is, the State. This sense appears very clearly from the distinction
that Etienne Pasquier, in the sixteenth century, draws of " three kinds of
republics: the royal, the manorial, and the popular." (Lettres, liv. xix.
lettre 7.)
Port-Royal Education.
calculable advantages. So that it might be said of this good work,
which is now so much neglected and abandoned, POTTO ununi est
necessarium, that it is, in a sense, the one thing needful, since,
if it were entirely successful, most other disorders would be
remedied; on the other hand, if this foundation be wanting, it
was a necessary consequence that the effects of it would be
felt during the remainder of life.
M. de Saint-Cyran also used to say that whatever virtues
parents might otherwise possess, this single point was fitted to
condemn them if they did not do their duty in obtaining a 'good
.education for their children, 1 which is at the present time more
Irare and difficult to find than is thought. He could not suffi-
ciently wonder at the blindness of most parents, who do not see
that, even if there were no question of eternity in it, their own
interest should lead them to fulfil this obligation, since it only too
often happens that those whom they think they have brought into
the world to be the support and honour of their family become
\ the disgrace and ruin of it for want of a good education. He
could not understand how, when it is a question of settling their
children in places, in employments, and in the world, they in-
convenience themselves as if they were staking everything on
it, although they often only procure for them the means of ruining
themselves; instead of which, when it is necessary to educate
them well, for the satisfaction of their own consciences and the
secure establishment of their children's well-being, they are unable
to find the means for it, and complain of the smallest expense.
And truly in this they show that they cannot be true Christians,
since not only is acting in this way like building their house on the
quicksands, but is even throwing themselves with those who
compose it, and who ought to support it, into the flood which beats
against it. He deplored the misfortune of our age, in which the
devil had found a much easier means than did formerly that
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who was only his shadow, of ruining the
children of the Church ; this plague being so much the more
1 Saint-Cyran, in a letter addressed to a person of quality, says : " As they
hasten to baptism they should hasten to education, and all that is done for
children without that brings the malediction of God on the father and
mother, who are the visible guardian angels." (Lettres chretiennes et spiritu-
elks de Saint-Cyran, 1685, t. ii. p. 326.)
Lancelot : The Charity of Saint-Cyran. 73
appalling, as he often makes use of the negligence or avarice or
other passions of their parents in order to ruin them, instead of
which the Israelites felt at least their ill-fortune, and did all in
their power to save their children from the rage of the tyrant.
He admired the Son of God, who, in the highest functions of
His ministry, would not that little children should be forbidden to
approach Him; who embraced and blessed them; who has charged
us so strictly not to despise or neglect them, and who has spoken
of them in such favourable and astonishing terms as to astound
those who offend the least of them. Thus M. de Saint-Cyran
always showed a kindness for children that went even so far as a
sort of respect, to honour in them the innocence of the Holy
Ghost who dwells in them. He blessed them and made the sign
of the cross on their foreheads, and when they were able to
understand it, he always spoke some kind word, which was like the I
seed of some truth that he threw out in passing, and in the sight
of God, that it might germinate in due season. Once when he
came to see us he went into the children's class-room, and as
he always had a cheerful look and a heart inclined to do good, he
said, caressing them : "Well, what are you doing? for you must
not lose time, and what you do not fill up the devil takes for him-
self. ..." They showed him their Yirgil that they were studying,
and he said, "Do you see all those beautiful verses 1 Yirgil,
in making them, procured his own damnation, because he made
them through vanity and for glory. But you must save yourselves!
in learning them, because you ought to do it for the sake ofj
obedience and to fit yourselves for serving God."
A boy of whom he had taken charge during his imprisonment,
and to whom he afterwards continued his kindness, having fallen
into evil courses, gave him so much pain that he told me that all
his troubles in prison were nothing compared to this affliction.
After his release he wished him to visit him every day, and
received him, and left whatever occupation he was engaged in,
even his great work, in order to speak a kind word to him, or to
try and lead him back to God. He did not succeed, however, and
this would be a story 1 worth writing at length, to show how
" For nothing," said Lancelot, who had been entrusted with the educa-
tion of this boy, and shared the work with M. de Saci, "shows more
74 Port-Royal Education.
unfathomable are the judgments of God, and that the prayers of
the saints do not suffice to avert the perdition of those whom God
has abandoned. This boy, having begun by stealing an old skull-
cap from M. Singlin, 1 and selling it for two liards in order to have
something to gamble with, and afterwards taking all he could
pilfer, advanced by such rapid strides towards his ruin, that he
even took the silver spoons, fell into all kinds of debauchery, and
became at length a thorough rogue, as his mother herself once told
me. . . .
M. de Saint-Cyran thought so highly of the charity of those
who employed themselves in bringing up children in a Christian
manner, that he said there was no occupation more worthy of
a Christian in the Church ; that after the love of which it is
said, majorem haec dilectionem nemo kobei* (St. John xv. 13),
which makes us willing to die for our friends, this was the
greatest ; that it was the shortest way of going back in his mind
and expiating the faults of his youth; that one of the greatest
consolations we could have in dying was that we had contributed
to the good education of some child; and that, in fine, this
employment was sufficient by itself to sanctify a soul, provided it
had been carried out with charity and patience. He said that we
ought to be, not only the guardian angels, but in some sort the
providence of children who were committed to our charge, because
our chief care should be always to attach them to what is good
with gentleness and charity, as we have need that God should
attach us to it and make us do it. He usually reduced what it is
necessary to do with children to three things : to speak little,
bear with much, and pray more.
plainly that a person does not do all the good he imagines in undertaking the
care of a child if he does not seriously devote himself to it and take
all necessary trouble. He acts then like a nurse, who should be satisfied
with giving the breast to her nursling at stated hours, and should expose it
the rest ot the time to whatever might happen. This poor child then, not
being sufficiently watched over, fell into disorderly ways. " (Mem. de Saint-
Cyran, t. i. p. 133.)
1 Singlin, confessor of the nuns at Port-Royal for twenty-six years, then
superior of the two houses des Champs and the Faubourg Saint-Jacques for
eight years, died 1664.
2 " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
liis friends."
Lancelot: The Charity of Saint- Cy ran. 75
He desired that we should bear with their faults and weak-i
nesses, in order to induce God to show mercy to ours, andj
perhaps afterwards to strengthen these young plants when they\
should learn what patience we have exercised towards them.
He added that we should have still more charity and pity for
those whom we saw to be more unformed and backward. . . .
He could not bear that anyone should employ too severe looks
and too imperious a manner, which had something of disdain,
or was likely to intimidate them and make them pusillanimous, 1
which is expressly forbidden us by the Prince of the Apostles.
On the contrary, he wished a suitable familiarity to be used\
with them, which should win them by a calculated gentleness and |
a truly paternal love, and which should lead us to be very
condescending to them, since if they had no confidence in us, and
did not perceive that we felt kindly towards them, it would
be impossible to do anything. 2 And this explains why he often
condescended in prison to play at ball on a table with children of
seven or eight years old.
He did not wish the teachers to have recourse hastily to the
use of the birch, unless for very serious faults, and then only
after having employed all other means of punishment. For he
desired them to bear with their faults in order to put themselves
to the test before God, and to do nothing rashly, and also to pray
for them before punishing them; then he wished them to be
warned by signs only, then by words, and after several reprimands
to employ threats, that they should be deprived for a time of
1 The recommendation is excellent, but how is it to be reconciled with the
precept to annihilate our own will ? The Mother Agnes wrote, 30 April,
1652, to Mdlle. Perdreau: " Read, in IS Amour de Dieu of the saintly bishop
of Geneva, what he says on the death of the will."
44 Leading them with watchfulness and gentleness," said Saint-Cyran, in
a letter to a person of quality, "and sometimes requesting instead of
commanding them, and complying a little with their humour for a time
in order to lead them to act without such compliance in the future. . . .
Only care must be taken to use this compliance with much circumspection
and impartiality, always bearing in mind that we must not stop there, and
that, if we are obliged to condescend to them, it is only in order to
raise them to our own level and to withdraw them little by little from their
inferior position, and not to satisfy our own inclinations by following theirs,
and to indulge ourselves with them in an indolent compliance so easy to our
nature." (Lcttres chrctiemies et spirituelles, 1685, t. ii. p. 326.)
76 Port-Royal Education.
something they liked, or of play, even of their luncheon or part of
their breakfast, and that the birch should be used only in the last
extremity and for grave faults, especially with those who were
seen to be capable of being won by gentleness and reason. He,
however, desired this punishment to be used with those who
were naturally thoughtless, or hasty-tempered, or who were given
to lying or laughing on the most serious occasions. 1 In fine, he
did not wish, any more than Saint Benedict, that faults committed
in church should be pardoned.
But he said that using chastisement without much previous
prayer was to act like a Jew, and not to know that all
depended on the blessing and grace of God, which we should
endeavour to draw down on them by our patience in bearing
with them. He added that sometimes even we should punish
and chastise ourselves instead of them, as much because we
should always fear that we may have been partly responsible
for their faults by our hastiness or negligence as because this
duty was a general obligation on all who were entrusted with the
conduct of others. 2 He said that it was necessary to oppose
a constant watchfulness to that of the devil, who is always
seeking an entrance into these tender souls. He recommended
also to sustain the prayers of the children of whom they had
charge by their own, thus aiding the attention which was not
to be expected from them.
/ He was careful to warn that, in order to guide children well, it
/was necessary plus prier que crier? to ask rather than scold, and to
1 M. Varin makes this sprightly remark : " Saint-Cyran only whipped
children for grave faults, but he put bursts of laughter in the number of
grave faults." (La vtrite sur Us Arnauld, t. ii. p. 185.) The critic should
not have omitted these important words : " On the most serious occasions."
2 A very wise precept, in which we are not to suppose a refinement of
spirituality. It is a very judicious and exact estimation of the responsibility
for the faults of the pupils that may often be traced back to the master.
May not their inattention, for example, be often explained by facts which
are not in the least personal to them ? The unprepared lesson is not
interesting, it is too long, it is not sufficiently within their capacity, &c.
3 A very effective conjunction of words. How many young teachers,
in the inconsiderate zeal of their first attempts, would derive profit from
meditating upon it ? It is not only hygiene that recommends it for the
wise conservation of energy, it is especially pedagogy, which teaches that
the authority of the master has no surer foundation than calmness and self-
control.
Lancelot: The Charity of Saint-Cyran. 77
l speak more of them to God than of God to them, for he did not
like long speeches on piety to be made to them, or that they
\ should be wearied with instruction. He wished that they should
only be spoken to at those opportunities and on those occasions
which God called into existence, and according to the impulse
that He gave us, and the disposition to receive it well that He
showed us in them, because the impulse to give depended on God
as well as the gifts, and that what we said to them in this
way had a quite different effect from what we might say of
ourselves.
In fine, he thought that the chief point in the good education
of children was the good example that should be given them, 1
and the perfect regularity of the house in which they were
pupils. A Father of the Church once said, speaking of the
education of a young girl, "Kemember, you who have brought
a virgin into the world, that you must teach her more by
example than precept .... She must hear nothing but what
has reference to the fear of God. Keep from her that criminal
liberty that children take; do not let the girls or the servants
who accompany her frequent the world lest they teach their
pupils more evil than they would otherwise have learnt." And
this is what M. de Saint-Cyran recommended for the boys as
well as the girls, desiring also that they should be careful to 1
limit intercourse with the outside world, from which they might
receive some hurtful influence; and he was accustomed to say
that communication with the world was infectious, and did no
\less harm to the soul than the plague did to the body. Neither
did he wish that money should be left with them. And one day
when he sent some sweetmeats to a little girl he gave this caution
to a person who had charge of some children : "Do not accustom
them to the delights of earth, which destroy the taste for those
of Heaven."
He could not tolerate that the sciences and study should be'
1 We feel that Saint-Cyran means here by good example especially the
practice of religion, but it is easy to give a wider and more general interpre-
tation to this advice. Pedagogy has no more important precept. The
teachers of Port-Royal, with Saint-Cyran at their head, had the right to
place in the first rank of maxims that which they practised so well themselves,
namely, example.
Port-Royal Education.
jmade the principal thing in the education of children as we
do now. He regarded this conduct as one of the greatest
mistakes which could be committed against the sanctity of
this employment, and observed that, besides dissatisfying those
who were backward and making others vain, it reacted on
the State and the Church, burdening the Spouse of Christ
with a number of persons whom she had not called, and the
State with a great number of idlers who considered themselves
above the rest because they knew a little Latin, and who thought
they would be dishonoured in following the calling in which their
birth would have placed them. Therefore he said that among
the children of whom one should be entirely master, although
there might be a great many of them, very few ought to be
put to study, 1 and only those in whom great docility and sub-
mission had been noticed, with some mark of piety and of assured
virtue.
M. de Saint-Cyran, having this conception of the education
of youth, and regarding it as one of the most necessary duties
of the State and the Church, often said, and he once wrote
to me, that he would have been delighted to pass all his life
in it. But he did not intend, in saying that, to make himself
a slave to the temper and injustice of parents who only burden
us with their children in order to relieve themselves at a time
when they have only the trouble of them, and take them away
as soon as they can to sacrifice them to their interest and vanity ;
for it may be said in this case that an occupation worthy of
the angels and a work of love is turned into meanness and
pedantry. And certainly it would be better, if some persons
are reduced by necessity to submit to such conditions, to learn
a trade or to cultivate the land. They would have at least
this consolation, that they were doing penance in the way
that God imposed it on the first man, and would be exempt
from a great number of bad consequences in which they are
often involved either for themselves or for those who are brought
1 Arnauld d'Andilly advises the queen-mother to diminish the number
of colleges, and only to have schools to teach reading and writing. (VAKIN,
Id Vtritt^ sur Us Arnauld, 1847, t. ii. p. 353.) This was also the idea
of Richelieu,
Lancelot: The Charity of Saint-Cyran. 79
up in a thoroughly pagan manner; and besides, the labour a man
undergoes in this employment, when it is not governed by the
mnxims of God, is much greater when he takes some care in
discharging it, than that of cultivating the land, and under-
mines the body more, and very much accelerates the end of
our life. 1
M. de Saint-Cyran never undertook the charge of children
unless he had some hopes of being entirely their master, and
was certain of the mind and intentions of the parents. Thus,
one day, the late duchesse de Guise having sent a person to
speak to him about the education of the present M. de Guise
(Henri II.), who was then destined for the Church, as he had
a great desire to see persons of high rank better educated than
others, because he knew its importance, he did not decline the
proposal, and even partly pledged his word, but only on condition
that this princess should not interfere in it at all, and should
entrust the care of her son entirely to him, which Mme. de Guise
not being sufficiently disposed to do, he withdrew his promise, and
would not hear it spoken of again.
After that we ought to be less astonished that M. de Saint-
Cyran was so eager to induce everybody to do charitable offices
to children, since he did not decline to do them himself; and
that he thought that the merit and rank of private persons did
not give them the right to despise them, since God judged them
worthy of His angels, according to this saying of Christ, "Their
angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven."
But it is perhaps one of the greatest artifices of the devil to
have rendered contemptible that method by which he foresaw
that very many souls might be rescued from him by preserving
the children in innocence. There are means of inducing persons
of every condition to undertake all sorts of pious works, but
simply to propose this to them would seem to be an error. No
one is afraid to expose them to the infectious diseases of prisons
in order to visit the prisoners, or to the vitiated air of the
1 Camper, of Berlin, has calculated that out of 100 persons, the age
of 70 years is reached by 42 theologians, 29 lawyers, 28 artists, 27 school-
masters and professors, and 24 doctors. (MICHEL LVY, Traitt d'hygttne,
t. ii. p. 872.)
So Port-Royal Education.
hospitals in order to assist the sick, to serve the poor, and to dress
wounds, which are sometimes loathsome ; and yet they would
think they were lowering themselves and taking too much trouble
if they undertook the education of a child. I know very well
that everybody is not fitted for it ; but if this gift is rare, that is
no reason for despising it; and if the lack of this gift excludes
many persons, it would seem to me very reasonable that men's
fancies should not exclude still more.
I have sometimes wondered why, when the profession of doctors
obliges them to see so many foul and disagreeable things, and
often exposes them to infected air, so many, nevertheless, are found
to adopt it presumably it is because men's attachment to life
makes this profession honourable and why, at the same time,
these same men have so little scruple in despising that profession
which can most contribute to the eternal salvation of their
children. . . . And I have in the same way been astonished
that the apostle St. Paul, having expressly stated that judicial
affairs should be the portion of the inferior persons in the Church
(1 Cor. vi. 4), we, nevertheless, see no one higher placed now than
those who take part in them, and that one of the greatest of the
successors of the apostles having assured us that the guidance of
the most tender soul is a greater thing than the government of a
world, 1 we see no employment so despised as this to which it
appertains to lay the foundations of a good character. 2 But it is
still more astonishing to see occupations and offices which are base
in themselves so highly esteemed in princes' houses, such as those
of seneschal and master of the stables, and that what has reference
to the care and education of reasonable creatures, who have been
redeemed by the blood of God, is considered the lowest employ-
ment in nature. Truly we must acknowledge that men's blindness
is very great.
1 CHANNING, De V education personnelle, p. 35: "The perfect education
of a child requires more reflection, and perhaps more wisdom, than the
government of a State, for this simple reason, that political interests and
needs are more tangible, material and sensible than the development of
thought and feeling, or than the subtle laws of the soul, which should all be
studied and understood before education is finished. ..."
2 "Lucian has said somewhere that the gods made schoolmasters of those
whom they hated ; and Melanchthon has written an oration de miseriii
paedagogorum." (Gui PATIN, Lettres, t. iii. p. 140.)
iseriis
Lancelot : The Charity of Saint-Cyran. 81
I know very well that most worldly people would laugh at me
if they saw this. But let them laugh, if Thou, my God, dost
not laugh at it. ... Let them say what they will, that the
world is ordered thus, that habits cannot be changed, and that
men will never be induced to hold in esteem an employment
which they have always despised. Let them not pretend, then,
to induce us to pity them very much for misfortunes which often
happen in their families for want of this esteem; or, rather, let
them not prevent us pitying them very much, since the love of
Christ constrains us to blame this unfortunate habit. . . .
As M. de Saint-Cyran was very enlightened, he was far removed
from these worldly maxims, and knowing the importance of the
care and education of the young, he looked upon them in a very
different manner. However painful and humiliating these offices
were in men's eyes, yet he did not fail to employ in them persons
of position without their thinking that they had a right to com-
plain, because they saw with how much zeal and charity he
practised what he advised others to do. For I have often seen
him give lessons to his nephews, who lived with him, not regard-
ing them as his nephews, as he once told me, but as children
whom he was endeavouring to bring up in a Christian manner.
One day, when he went into a shop to buy a pair of stockings,
he saw a little boy who seemed to him very promising. He was
sorry to learn that he was sent to college, where he ran the risk
of being spoilt, and told the shopkeeper to send him to him, and
that he would teach him with his nephew. He did so for some
time, but the child, not having turned out so well as he wished,
he was obliged to dismiss him.
When he was in prison he had three young children whom he
took the trouble to instruct; and when he placed M. d'Espinoy 1
and M. de Yilleneuve (son of M. d'Andilly) under my care,
he was good enough to tell me that he would be their under-
master, and that if God restored him to liberty he would take
them with him.
1 M. d'Espinoy, youngest son of M. de Saint-Ange, head steward to the
Queen, retired to Port-Royal des Champs on the death of his father in 1651,
and died in 1676, under the care of M. de Saci, who had a great affection for
him, says a note of Lancelot. (Altm. t. i. p. 338.)
82 Port-Royal Education.
Thus M. de Saint-Cyran reduced to practice his ideas of things
and his knowledge of virtue, and advised others in this spirit;
for when M. Singlin first submitted himself to him he was
delighted with the proposition that he made to him to devote
himself to children, and destined him for this employment, for
which he had told me that God had sent him to him. Long before
this he had given his nephew, M. de Barcos, to M. d'Andilly, in
order to take charge of his children, at a time when Cardinal
Kichelieu would have been glad to have him. He entrusted
M. de Saci with the instruction of a little boy who had been
taken from him when he was in prison, and for whose guidance
he wrote him two beautiful letters, in which it is wonderful to
see with how much care and precision he descends to the smallest
details; and after he had placed this boy with me he wished
M. de Saci to take charge of him in the mornings, because I was
occupied in the church. 1 When M. Arnauld placed himself
under his direction, he proposed to him to undertake the charge
of a young marquis who gave signs of wishing to retire from the
world. In fine, we know that he set everybody, on every oppor-
tunity, to this employment. . . . (Lancelot, Memoires touchant
la vie de M. de Saint-Cyran, t. ii. p. 330.)
SAINT-CYRAN'S LITERARY THEORY.
If M. de Saint-Cyran had a great desire to see truth defended,
he was not less particular about the manner in which he wished
its defence to be conducted. What he has written on the subject
in various letters 2 would almost dispense me from speaking of it
here if I did not consider this point very important, and had not
learnt from him several things on this subject which I should
scruple to omit.
The first maxim that M. de Saint-Cyran laid down on that
subject was that one should never write unless the impulse came
from God, and he said that it was sometimes more difficult
to know when a truth should be published or defended than to
1 Lancelot fulfilled the sacristan's duties.
2 Chiefly in letters addressed to M. Arnauld, bearing on the title-page : A
un eccUsiastique de ses amis. In vols. ii. and iii., ed. 1679.
Lancelot: Saint-Cyraris Literary Theory. 83
know the truth itself. Nevertheless, he thought that it was neces-
sary to do so when it was attacked by its enemies, or there were
some persons who desired instruction in it. He said that then
God would guide our pen and direct our steps ; * otherwise there
was nothing more dangerous than to advance by oneself, and
that nothing led more easily to deception and error than such
rashness, whatever natural ability and learning a man might
possess. He showed this by the books of Origen, 2 De Principiis,
in which he wished to treat of questions more curious than
useful. And he always said, Qui a semetipso loquitur gloriam
propriam quaerit. (He who speaketh of himself seeketh his
own glory), paying attention to what is said in the same place that
he only who submits to the will of God can know the truth, as he
who seeks only this glory is true and free from all unrighteousness.
Nor was it sufficient that the motive should be legitimate. M.
de Saint-Cyran still wished that it should not be carried out
in too solely human a manner, 3 as if it were only a question
of carrying things by force of words, or that God had need
of our eloquence, because truth has need of no one ; and after
having done all we can, and all we think ourselves obliged to
do, we must still say, Servi inutiles sumus (St. Luke xvii. 10),
1 " I have often seen him," says Lancelot, " after having soared like an eagle
while speaking to us, suddenly stop short, ' not because I have nothing to
say, on the contrary, because too many things present themselves to my
mind ; and I look to God to know what is best for me to say to you.' Thus
his speech as well as his reading, in a word, his whole life, became a continual
oblation to God, neither saying nor doing anything of himself, and always
looking to the Holy Spirit with deep humility, in order to act only in and by
Him." (Mtmoires, vol. i. p. 45.)
2 Origen, of Alexandria (185-254), a doctor of the Church, author of
Commentaries on Holy Scripture, an Apology for Christianity against Celsus,
a treatise against heresies, entitled Philosophumena. Several of his opinions
have been condemned.
3 The disciples of Saint-Cyran did not always follow this important
advice. Lancelot candidly acknowledges it: " Perhaps," said he, "the
manner in which we acted in defence of the truth was not pure enough, and
the means employed were too hasty or ill-concerted, or even too human . . .
Sometimes the things of God are injured by too much action rather than by
remaining in humble repose. . . We may also add that we did not con-
fine ourselves within the limits marked out by M. de Saint-Cyran, contenting
ourselves (as he wished) by showing that the doctrine that was followed was
not that of M. d'Ypres, but of St. Augustine ; it was thought safer to insist
on the distinction between law and fact, for which we had contended for ten
or twelve years.
84 Port-Royal Education.
( We are unprofitable servants). Therefore he wished that in such
conjunctures a man should rather consult the movements of his
heart than those of his mind, in order to listen to God and not be
led astray by his own imagination.
Just as in order to derive profit from the sacred books we
should read them in the same spirit in which they were written,
so, in order usefully to defend sacred truths, we should be
animated with the spirit of the saints.
Therefore M. de Saint-Cyran wished men to write as they
prayed, that is, with the same respect and submission to the
Divine Majesty. He recommended men always to keep their
hearts attentively fixed on God, that they might say nothing but
what He inspired, so that work becoming as it were a prayer,
it might draw down His blessing on their labours. For that
reason his maxims were that, in order to write the truth, it was
not so much necessary to look to the moments that human wisdom
might choose as to those suggested by the Spirit of God, which it
was necessary to wait for, and to follow the impulse that it might
please Him to give us; and that nothing was more dangerous than
to speak of God from memory, or by a mere human effort of our
spirit, and it was, in his judgment, far from being permissible
to mingle with such matters our own interests or passions.
Thus, as those who are skilful in eloquence remark very justly
that it consists almost entirely in vividly representing a picture of
the thing they wish to express, so M. de Saint-Cyran, in a much
more pointed manner, said that we could only speak usefully
of truth, which is God Himself, by following the idea of it that
He impressed on us, and accompanying it by the movements that
it pleased Him to inspire in us, when we were careful to look to
Him with great purity of heart. Hence it was that He did
not wish men to waste time over speech, 1 and to take more tin
1 " I do not know who that Monsieur de Vaugelas is who writes to you.
seems to me that lie has the humour of M. de Balzac, whom I esteem mon
than his letter, which I intend to read in three days because I am otherwis
occupied, and I wish that, following iny example, you would moderate th
passion you have for words, of which the fine tissue is less estimable thai
you think." (SAINT-CYRAN, Lettre d Arnauld d'Andilly.} Saint-Cyran gav<
that day very wittily an excellent lesson in literature to the grand dpistolic 1
de France. But the Discourses of Balzac are worth more than his letter;
Lancelot: Saint-Cyraris Literary Theory. 85
in weighing their words than a miser in weighing his gold in his
scales, because nothing more retarded the movement of the Holy
Spirit, which we ought to follow. He said that this precision of
speech was rather fitted for academicians than for defenders of the
truth; that it was almost enough that there should be nothing
that offended in our style ; and that what carried away readers
most was the eloquence of the thoughts and the purity of
the movements that the Spirit of God impressed on us when
we were careful to keep ourselves in that sacred union which
we should have with Him. It is certain that there is a secret
in writings which it seems we do not sufficiently know. There is
a certain transmission on to the paper of the mind and heart of
him who writes, 1 which is the cause that we perceive, so to say,
his likeness in the picture of the thing that he represents," and
that we feel, in a certain way, that mood in which he was when
he wrote. The most incomprehensible thing is that this impres-
sion remains in the books for ages, so that the devil lives in
the books of the wicked as well as in their souls, and in the same
way the Holy Spirit lives in good books in proportion to the grace
that animated the soul of him who wrote them. And this shows
that a man cannot purify his heart too much in order to speak of
the things of God and of His sacred truths, and that we should
work longer and more seriously to mortify our passions than
to acquire knowledge, when we find ourselves called to speak
of things that may benefit others. 2
The slightest cloud that is found in our heart overflows on to
and Joubert has estimated him well : " One of our greatest writers, and the
first among the good, if we take into account the order of time, useful
to read and to meditate and excellent to admire ; he is equally fit to instruct
and to form, both by his defects and his good qualities. He often overshoots
the mark, but he leads to it. It lies in the reader's power to stop there,
although the author goes beyond it." (t. ii. p. 181.)
1 Pascal said with more clearness and force: "When we see a natural
style we are astonished and delighted, for we expected to see an author, and
we find a man." (Pensecs.}
- " When a man feels himself called upon to compose some work for God,"
writes Saint-Cyran to Lemaitre on a project of Lives of the Saints, " for
which, although he may not be very humble, he should always think
himself not very fit, he should withdraw into himself, humble himself,
lament, and pray. He must think of himself as the tool and the pen of
God. . . You have seen in St. Bernard that he compares God, with
86 Port-Royal Education.
the paper, like a breath that dims the surface of a mirror, and
the slightest corruption that we have will be like a gnawing
worm, which will pass into this writing and gnaw the heart of
those who shall read it till the end of the world. (Lancelot,
Memoires, t. ii. p. 127.)
REGULATIONS FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE SCHOOL
OF LE CHESNAI.i
On Rising.
The elder children rise every day at five o'clock winter and
summer, the younger at six.
As they sleep in the same room, each master has no trouble to
awaken his own pupils.
They rise quickly, it being very dangerous to accustom them to
idling at the first hour of the day.
They kneel immediately they are out of bed to worship God.
After which they finish dressing, comb each other in great
silence, it being very reasonable that their first words should be
prayers and thanksgiving to God for their preservation during the
night.
If, however, anyone had need to leave the room he should ask
permission in a low voice.
Of Morning Prayer.
At six o'clock they all kneel before the crucifix which is in
respect to men, to a writer or painter who guides the hand of a
little child, and only asks the child not to move his hand, but to let it
be guided. . . It is, then, the writer and not the child who writes, and
it would be ridiculous for the child to be vain of what he had done. . .
Holding these sentiments, we grow at once in virtue and knowledge. We
acquire wonderful strength, and throw an odour of piety over the work, which
first strikes the author and then those who read it." (FONTAINE, Mem. t. ii.
p. 51.)
1 A small village a quarter of a league from Versailles. The house
belonged to M. de Bernieres, one of the most active and generous friends
of Port-Royal ; he sold his office of maitre des requetes in order to devote
his time and fortune to the relief of the poor in the provinces of Normandy,
Picardy, and Champagne. His connection with Mme. de Longueville and
Port-Royal caused his exile to Issoudun, where he died in 1662. (See notice
of him, BESOGNE, Hist, de Port-Eoyal, t. iv. p. 143.)
De Beaupuis : Regulations for Children. 87
the room, and repeat the usual prayers, namely, the Veni Creator,
the Lord's Prayer, the Ave-Maria, and the Creed.
Then follows Prime for the elder scholars, who all remain
standing during the repetition of this prayer.
After this is finished each goes to his table to study his lesson
and write his composition, and they remain there in great silence
until seven o'clock. At seven repetition of lessons, which lasts
until breakfast.
Of Breakfast.
They breakfast about eight o'clock.
During this time, which lasts a good half -hour, they are at
liberty to converse aloud with one another on what subject they
like, or to read some history, or look at maps, &c. They do not,
however, leave the room. In winter they are round the fire.
After breakfast, each goes back silently to his table, to work at
his second lesson until ten o'clock.
This second lesson consists, for the elder scholars, in repeating
their Greek lesson, which they translate into French, or reading
their Latin composition. The Greek lesson is usually three pages
of Plutarch, in folio, in the morning and as much in the after-
noon; for the juniors, translation of Livy, Justin, Severus
Sulpicius, &c.
The second lesson lasts until eleven o'clock, which is the
dinner hour.
Of Mass.
They do not go to mass every day, especially the juniors, until
they are sufficiently advanced for it ; for great care is taken that
they are well-behaved in church, and do not look about them.
Two are usually sent to make the responses, which they do in
turn.
As on this occasion they fulfil the office of the angels, they are
exhorted to behave with great respect, and to present themselves
at this bloodless sacrifice of Jesus Christ in remembrance of that
which He offered to His Father for our sins on Mount Calvary.
If the seniors commit any fault they are reprimanded, and
especially as, being more advanced in age, they should be wiser,
and edify the others by their example.
Port-Royal Education.
Of Grace before Meat.
At eleven o'clock they all assemble in one of the rooms, where
they make an examination of conscience, after having said the
Confiteor as far as Mea Culpa. After the examination is ended
they finish the remainder with the prayer.
One of the seniors repeats by heart a Latin sentence taken
from the Proverbs. They then go down to wash their hands and
go into the refectory.
Of the Dinner.
The children are seated beside and in front of their own
master, who distributes to them what has been served up, after
they have eaten their soup each in his own porringer. 1
They endeavour to accustom them not to affect an inconvenient
delicacy, and always to eat with propriety.
During dinner all sorts of histories are read, as the History of
the Jews by Josephus, Church History by M. Godeau, History of
France, Koman History and such like. Nothing has been so
useful, and it is surprising that the children who are busy eating
lose scarcely anything of what is read.
On feast-days and Sundays books of piety are read, such as
some of the fine translations that have been made, the Christian
Instructions, the Confessions of St. Augustine, and others like
them.
Of Recreation after Dinner.
One of the masters, who never loses sight of the children, is
always present; but his presence does not incommode them in
any way, because he gives them entire liberty to play at the
games which they like to choose; this is always done with
1 A song of M. de Coulanges teaches us that this custom was quite recent.
Advice to Fathers :
Formerly they ate their soup
Without ceremony from the dish,
And often wiped the spoon
On the boiled fowl ;
Formerly in the fricassee
They dipped their bread and their fingers,
Now each one eats
His soup in his plate.
De Beaitpnis : Regulations for Children. 89
modesty and good manners, and as the close in which they play
is very large, they can choose their walks.
In summer, during the heat of the day, they usually walk in
the shade of the woods.
In winter they exercise themselves in running, or retire to a
large room, and as there is a good billiard table in it, when they
have warmed themselves some stop at it, others like better to
play at backgammon, draughts, chess, or cards.
These cards were a certain pack which embraced the history of
the first six centuries j 1 that is to say, the time and place in which
the chief councils were held, in which the popes, emperors,
eminent saints, and profane authors lived, and in which
the most memorable events of the world happened. By
constantly playing this little game, the greater number had
these things so impressed on their mind, and the circumstances
of the different times and places in which these great men lived,
that no doctor could speak on them more pertinently. What M.
de Sainte-Beuve 2 often wondered at, after having put it to the
proof, was what gave these lads, of whom the greater number had
not yet reached the age of sixteen or seventeen, such a great and
wide knowledge of all things, of all the countries of the world,
and of periods of time, that they were able to converse agreeably
with all sorts of persons, to study all sorts of affairs, and even to
explain them.
No disputes or contentions were ever seen among them upon
any matter. They had been so accustomed to respect one another
that they never used the familiar " thou," and were never heard
to utter the least word that they might think would be disagree-
able to any of their companions.
Kecreation usually lasted a good hour and a half.
1 The pack was composed of 52 cards. When, for instance, those relating
to the popes had been dealt, he who had in his hand the longest pontificate
gained, and if he recited correctly the information given on his card he took
a counter.
2 Jacques de Sainte-Beuve (1613-1677), a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a
great friend of Port-Royal. He would not subscribe the censure pronounced
against Arnauld, was excluded from the Faculty, and lost his chair of
theology (1658). Nicole had been his pupil. Sainte-Beuve, however,
eagerly signed the formulary in 1661, and refused all intercourse with the
nuns of Port-Royal.
9O Port-Royal Education.
On holidays they left the close and went towards Marly,
Versailles, and Saint-Cyr (the building of Versailles was not
yet commenced 1 ).
During these walks the children conversed familiarly and gaily
with the masters upon all subjects, which formed their minds in a
remarkable manner.
After recreation they repeated alternately what they had read
in history or talked about geography.
As children have good memories, they noticed the smallest facts
of history, so that when the seniors began to talk first the juniors
always said something on the subject, and thus they were accus-
tomed to speak in good terms and to form an opinion on the facts
mentioned in the history which had been read. In fine, by
making them pass their early years in these kinds of exercises,
the teachers endeavoured to put them in a position to render
jservice to God and the public when they should be grown up.
Of the Return to the Glass-room in the Afternoon.
On entering they said a short prayer, to ask for the grace of
God to pass the rest of the day in a godly manner, and to
accustom them to do no action without beginning and ending
by prayer.
Each being at his table, they began to work ; some wrote their
copy, which was always some sentence taken from the Holy
Scripture, and the others copied their notes on Virgil.
Others prepared 2 their lessons or read some good book. That
lasted until afternoon refreshment, which was regularly brought
them at three o'clock ; it lasted a good half-hour, during which
they were at liberty to converse with one another as they did
f during breakfast. This refreshment was thought necessary for
the juniors on account of their greater natural activity. The
others might go without it if they wished.
1 It was not until after 1672 that Louis XIV. passed a large part of the
year at Versailles, and only fixed his residence there in 1682. The Court was
then at Paris, which it left for Saint-Germain in 1661.
2 An excellent practice, which involves individual initiative, permits
greater benefit to be derived from the lessons, and singularly facilitates
the taking of notes.
De Beaupuis : Regulations for Children. 91
. At half-past three all took their places at their tables to study
their lessons, which they repeated from four to six o'clock, when
they supped.
[ Kecreation was the same as after dinner.
' In summer opportunity was often taken of conversing during
this time with the seniors on some points of history or on other
useful subjects, while the juniors amused themselves with games.
This recreation lasted till eight o'clock. They then returned to
pass a good half -hour in the class-room in preparing what they had
to do for the next morning.
Evening Prayer.
Evening prayer was said at half-past eight, when they repeated
the Pater-noster, Credo, and Confiteor in Latin, the litanies of the
Virgin, Sub tuum praesidium, &c.
Then, after examination of conscience, each returned to his
room in silence.
Of going to Bed.
After saying his prayers, each undressed and got into bed
quickly and in silence.
Thus all were in bed at nine o'clock.
As all the exercises of the day were, in this manner, regulated
and diversified, the children had no time to become wearied ; and
the greatest punishment that could be given to those who some-
times showed a disagreeable humour was to threaten to send them
home, as I have already said.
Directions for Sundays and Holy-days.
They rose at five o'clock as usual.
After they were dressed Prime was said ; after which they
read privately some pious books, until they all assembled to go to
catechising, which lasted until the bell rang for mass.
They always had to learn by heart two or three articles of the
catechism of M. de Saint-Cyran, which is esteemed one of the best
that have been written.
The teachers always began by making the juniors repeat what
92 Port-Royal Education.
had been said the last time, in order to impress it well on theu
memory.
They always had to hear high mass at the parish church ; for i\
is necessary to accustom children of good family early to submit
to the order which has been established in the Church, and which
has been followed during a long succession of ages. 1 For, thinking
only of amusing ourselves, feasting and paying visits after having
been to hear low mass, as quickly as possible, is not sanctifying
the Sunday .... (Supplement au Necrologe, p. 54.)
A LETTER FROM M. LE MAITRE DE SACI
TO ONE OF HIS FRIENDS.
PATIENCE AND SILENCE.
It seems to me, Sir, that if I were allowed to choose an
employment, I should readily desire yours, so much do I esteem
it, and think you happy to have devoted yourself to it. I am
convinced that there is no occupation equal to yours, nor one
more worthy of a Christian, when it is undertaken from pure
love. It is sufficient to say that Jesus Christ has commended
it to us, and that, in order to oblige us still more to acquit
ourselves well in it, He exhorts us to become as children, and
assures us that we must do so in order to enter paradise.
Children whose nature is good and docile render their in-
1 This is one of the grievances of Father Rapin in an interest that he does
not conceal : " At Port-Royal they only recommended the worship at the
parish church and the spiritual direction of the cures, who were called
the true pastors because they wished to acknowledge their position in order
to obtain their favour. This notion became then so fashionable, that even in
the freest and most polite society they laughed at ladies who confessed to
the regular clergy as not belonging to the hierarchy .... Nothing so
much lowered the esteem in which the religious orders were held, and which
it was desired to annihilate in order to destroy the Jesuits, and nothing more
tended to raise the ecclesiastical spirit and everything that related to the
parishes which had been formerly so despised, that even the most important
parishes in Paris were abandoned to Picards, Normans, and Manceaux as
being posts unworthy of men of position .... It was, properly speaking,
the scheming of the janseiiists that set in fashion this spirit of parochialism
which afterwards dominated Paris, and by which the beneficed clergy
became so important, that they made themselves dreaded by the great,
respected by the lower classes, and held in honour by everybody." (Memoires,
t. i. p. 484.)
De Sad: Letter on Education. 93
-truction easier and more agreeable; but the others, who try
W patience more, also give reason to deserve more. 1 It is
iecessary to labour to root out in them the works of the old
nan, and that is done better by actions and example than by
exhortations, which are not of much use to children unless they
are few, short, and adapted to their age, and appear to spring |
from particular circumstances rather than from a general intention $
to exhort and reprove them. Children are not usually so capable
of being taught by reason as by the senses and habit which
insensibly impress on them the spirit of modesty and humility,
the love of heavenly things and contempt of earthly things,
especially when those who guide them are careful to unite the
spirit of prayer to their work, and to offer them every day to
God, remembering that he who plants and he who waters is
nothing, and that it is God alone who, possessing all power,
thus produces the result. As the chief end of education should
be to save them and ourselves with them, we must also have
more trust in Him who is the true Saviour and Master than
in all human means and industry, considering ourselves as
instruments, which can have no movement except what He
gives them, that He may thus shed His blessing on the scholars
through the masters. That is all the desire of my heart, for
the children as much as for yourself. If you see any good in
them, praise God for it, who has put it in them, but let it be
in secret, and be careful to speak little of it ; 2 if, on the contrary,
you find that there is much to do, do not despair, remembering
their age.
1 Fontaine, who has reproduced the principal passages of this letter, and
commented on them, adds some ideas worthy of note : "M. de Saci always
gave this advice, not to undertake the charge of other children than those
of respectable parents." Education at Port- Royal, as with Montaigne,
Rabelais, Locke, and Rousseau, preserves an aristocratic character. The
large heart of Pestalozzi will be devoted to those who have the greatest need
of education the poor and neglected.
1 It requires, in fact, much tact and discretion to praise without exciting
the bad feeling of vanity. De Saci, perhaps, uses too much reserve ; we,
on the contrary, misuse publicity. Why insert in our scholastic journals
that a child found a purse and did not keep it ? A simple act of honesty
is praised as an act of heroism. Let us reserve our public acknowledgments
for acts of courage and devotion.
94 Port-Royal Education.
} Every day we see those degenerate who were good in thei r
childhood ; and, on the contrary, those in whom we saw nothin g
good when they were children improve as they grow oldei".
They are like the young wheat, which often produces more oi r
less than was expected. We must not be too uneasy aboujt
'their faults, or too precise in marking them. 1 If there is any?-
conduct which it is necessary to feign not to notice, it is that,
of children whom we should be satisfied to reprove for serious
faults, closing our eyes to others, although they may not appear
small. It is sufficient not to encourage them by too much'
indulgence in excessive liberty; and, for the rest, we must,
work little by little, and with reference to one thing at a time,
to cure them, having towards them an untiring charity ; otherwise j
we give ourselves great trouble, and do them no good, we even
sour their tempers by too frequent and injudicious reproofs. We
must endeavour to instil into them some feelings of piety and
the fear of God .... We must make the most of the
confidence that they have in those who guide them, and en-
courage it, in order to use it for their salvation. When it is
necessary to reprove and warn them, it should be well considered,
in order not to discourage them. By overlooking some of their
faults we correct others which are of more consequence; and
we provide against the small irregularities that we wish to /
prevent in children more by prayer than by words. Then God J
shows us when it is time to speak to them, and most frequently
we find that there was nothing to be said. We can only under-
stand these tender souls by adapting ourselves to them, and
conforming ourselves to their inclinations; otherwise they do
not understand our words, and this imposes on us the need
of continual prayer and attention both for ourselves and them,
not telling them all they should do, but only as much as their
weakness, for which we should have great regard and con-
sideration, can bear. We should not exercise authority over
them untempered by charity, adapting ourselves in such a
manner to them, that it is they who draw the conclusion, and
1 This language is truer and more simple than that of Saint-Cyran, who
speaks too much of "trembling" and of " tempest of the mind."
De Sad: Letter on Education. 95
do by persuasion what is demanded of them. 1 When we see
that they cannot submit, we should retire and feign not to notice!
leaving them with a few imperfections for a time, rather than^
forcing their will, by which we gain nothing, and which might)
even irritate them.
Above all, they should never be left alone; and whether they
are studying, playing, or doing anything else, we should always
be witnesses, either by ourselves or by grave persons to whom we
entrust this duty, of all their actions.
In fine, there are no virtues that should be more practised
with children than patience and silence, avoiding, by patience,
hasty reproof, and taking care, by cultivating silence, to say no
more than they can bear.
Jesus Christ often withdrew Himself from His disciples to
tpray to His Father, in order not to be obliged constantly to
reprove them, as their imperfect condition often gave Him
reason to do. Thus you would do well to take for a motto
these two words, Patience and silence, and this verse of the
Psalmist, Adhaereat lingua faucibus meis, desiring that your
words should cleave to your mouth rather than that any should
drop which might wound the children. (LECLERC, Vies inter-
essantes, t. iv. p. 351.)
PASCAL AT PORT-ROYAL. 2
M. Pascal came, at that time, to live at Port-Royal des Champs.
I do not stop to tell who this man was, whom not only all France
but all Europe admired. His active mind, always at work, had
a breadth, elevation, firmness, penetration, and clearness beyond
anything that can be imagined. There was no adept in mathe-
matics who did not yield to him, as witness the story of the
1 This is, in fact, true education ; education from within and not from
without, by the association of the pupil with the master, and by his personal
influence on himself. Without this condition education is but a very super-
ficial work, without real efficacity.
2 " I can scarcely believe," observes Sainte-Beuve with reason, "that the
fine conversation between Pascal and M. de Saci on Epictetus and Montaigne
is not the compilation of M. Lemaitre himself." (Port-Royal, t. i. p. 395.)
96 Port-Royal Education.
famous roulette, 1 which was then the subject of conversation of
all the learned. He could animate copper and put mind into
brass. He brought it about that little wheels without reason, on
each of which were the first ten figures, should give a reason to
the most reasonable persons ; and, in a manner, he made dumb
machines speak, to solve, in working, the difficulties in numbers
which puzzle the learned \ and this cost him so much application
and effort of mind, that to arrange that machine to the point at
which everyone admired it, and which I have seen with my own
eyes, his own head was almost deranged during three years. This
wonderful man, being at last touched by God, submitted this
eminent mind to the yoke of Jesus Christ, and this grand an(l
noble heart humbly submitted to penance. He came to Pari s
to throw himself into the arms of M. Singlin, resolved to d(V
whatever he ordered him.
M. Singlin thought, on seeing this great genius, that he should
do well to send him to Port-Royal des Champs, where M. Arnauldj
would measure his strength with him in what regarded the other 1
sciences, 2 and M. de Saci would teach him to despise them. He
came, then, to live at Port-Royal. M. de Saci could not excuse;
himself from seeing him, especially as he was requested to do so
by M. Singlin ; but the sacred light that he found in the
Scriptures and the Fathers made him hope that he should not
be dazzled with the brilliancy of M. Pascal, which, nevertheless,
charmed and carried away everybody. He was strongly impressed
with the force of all he said. He admitted with pleasure the
strength of his reasonings, but he learnt nothing new from them.
All that Pascal told him that was grand he had seen before in
St. Augustine ; and, doing justice to everybody, he said : " M.
Pascal is very estimable in that, not having read the Fathers
of the Church, he has of himself, by the penetration of his mind,
discovered the same truths that they did. He thinks them
1 The roulette or cycloid is the name given to the curve described by a
point in a circumference rolling on a straight line. This problem very much
occupied the learned in the seventeenth century. Descartes, Roberval,
Father Mersenne, Torricelli, Fermat, Huyghens, &c., made it the object of
their studies.
2 Bossuet calls Arnauld "a man eminent in every kind of knowledge."
((Etivres, t. ix. p. 451.)
Fontaine : Epictettis and Montaigne. 97
surprising, because he has not seen them anywhere ; but, for
our part, we are accustomed to see them everywhere in our
books. . . ."
It was a habit of M. de Saci, in conversing with people, to
adapt his conversation to those with whom he was speaking. If,
for instance, he saw M. Champagne, 1 he spoke to him of painting.
If he saw M. Hamon, 2 he conversed with him about medicine.
If he saw the surgeon of the place, he questioned him about
surgery. Those who cultivated trees, the vine, or grain, told
him what he should observe. He used everything as an occasion
to speak of God and to lead others to Him. He thought, then,
that he ought to take M. Pascal on his strong point, and to speak
to him of the reading of philosophy, in which he was most
occupied. He led him to this subject in the first conversations
they had together. M. Pascal told him that the two books he
usually read had been Epictetus and Montagne, and highly
praised these two intellects. M. de Saci, who had always thought
he ought to read these authors very little, begged him to make
him acquainted with them.
"Epictetus," 3 said M. Pascal, "is one of the men of the world
who has best known the duties of man. He wishes him before
all things to look upon God as his chief object, to be persuaded
that He does everything with justice, to submit to Him heartily,
to follow Him willingly in everything, because He does everything
1 Philippe de Champagne (1602-1674), "this jansenist Poussin," says
Theophile Gautier, who points out in the gallery of the Louvre "that
singular and characteristic painting in which we see Sister Sainte-Suzanne
(the daughter of Ph. de Champagne and a nun of Port-Royal) sitting with
her feet stretched out on a stool, her hands joined, while the Al other
Catherine Agnes Arnauld, on her knees, implores of heaven the healing
of the sick woman, who was, in fact, restored to health, as the inscription
on the picture states. When we have seen this picture," he adds, "we
know Port- Royal as well as if we had read the voluminous work of Sainte-
Beuve." (Guide de T amateur au musee du Louvre, p. 158.) Two chefs-d'oeuvre
of this painter are exhibited in the salon d'honneur, namely, Christ lying in
His shroud, and a portrait of Richelieu.
2 See note, p. 243.
8 Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher of the first century after Christ.
Abstain, be resigned, were the two principles of his morality. See the study
of M. Martha on Stoic virtue, personified in that slave who honours humanity
as much as the wise emperor Marcus Aurelius. (Les moralistes sous V empire
romain, p. 155.)
98 Port-Royal Education.
with great wisdom; that thus this disposition will stop all his
complaints and murmurings, and prepare his heart to support the
most painful occurrences. Never say, he said, I have lost that,
but rather I have returned it ; my wife is dead, but I have given
her back ; and thus of goods and everything else. But he who
takes 'it from me is a wicked man, you say. Why do you trouble
yourself through whom He who lent it to you comes to demand
it again f 1 While He allows you the use of it, take care of it
as of a good that belongs to another, as a man who is travelling
looks upon himself in an inn. You ought not to wish, said he,
that things which happen should happen as you desire, but
you ought to wish them to happen as they do. Eemember,
said he, that you are here like an actor, and that you play
your part in a comedy, such as it pleases the Master to give
you. Eemain on the stage as long as He wishes, and appear
rich or poor as He commands. Your business is to play the
part that He gives you well, but the choice of the part is another's
business. Always keep before your eyes death and the ills which
seem the most insupportable, and you will never think of any-
thing low, nor desire anything inordinately.
"He shows in a thousand ways what man should do. He
wishes him to be humble, to hide his good resolutions, above
all in their initial stages, and to accomplish them in secret.
Nothing ruins them more than showing them. He never tires
of repeating that all the study and desire of man should be to
recognize the will of God and to follow it. 2
"You see here, Sir, the intelligence of this great man who
understood so well the duty of man, and I dare to say that he
would deserve to be worshipped if he had known equally well
his impotence, since it would be necessary to be God to teach
both these things to men. Thus, as he was dust and ashes, after
having so well comprehended what ought to be done, this is how
he loses himself in the presumption of what can be done. He
1 This is really showing too much resignation. Would not this sort of
fatalism put at their ease assassins and robbers, transformed into agents
of Providence ?
2 " To will what God wills is the only science
That gives us repose." MALHERBE.
Fontaine : Epictetus and Montaigne. 99
said that God has given to every man the means of fulfilling all
his obligations ; that these means are always in our power ; that
we must only seek happiness through the things which are always
in our power, since God has given them to us for this end ; that
we must consider what is free in us; that goods, life, and esteem
are not in our power and do not lead to God, but that the mind
cannot be forced to believe what it knows to be false, nor the will
to love what it knows must make it unhappy; that these two
powers are entirely free, and that by them alone we can make
ourselves perfect; that man, by these powers, can thoroughly
know God, love Him, obey Him, please Him, cure himself of
all his vices, acquire all virtues and thus make himself holy and
a companion of God. These principles, which spring from a
diabolical pride, lead him to other errors; for example, that the
soul is a part of the divine substance, that pain and death are not
evils, that we may kill ourselves when we are so persecuted that
we may believe God summons us, &c.
" As to Montagne, Sir, of whom you wish me to speak to you,
being born in a Christian state, he professed the Catholic religion,
and in that there is nothing peculiar. But as he wished to find
a morality founded on reason without the light of faith, he took
his principles on this supposition; and thus considering man
deprived of all revelation, he discourses in this manner. He
puts everything in universal doubt, and so general that this doubt
doubts of itself, and that man doubting even whether he does
doubt, his uncertainty rolls on itself in a perpetual circle without
ceasing, opposing itself equally to those who say that everything
is uncertain and to those who assert that all is not so, because
it will assert nothing. It is in this doubt which doubts of itself,
and in this ignorance which is ignorant of itself, that the essence
of his opinion lies, which he has not been able to express by any
positive term. For if he says that he doubts he betrays himself
by asserting at least that he does doubt ; which, being expressly
contrary to his intention, he has only been able to explain himself
by interrogation, so that not wishing to say / do not knoiv, he says
what do I know ? And this he takes for his motto, under a pair
of scales, which, weighing contradictories, are in perfect equili-
brium, that is to say, he is a pure Pyrrhonist. All his discourses
IOO Port- Royal Education.
and Essays move on this principle, and this is the only thing that
he pretends to thoroughly establish, although he does not always
let his intention be seen. He insensibly destroys by it all that
passes among men as most certain, not in order to establish the
contrary with a certainty of which by itself he is the enemy, but
simply to show that appearances being equal on both sides, a man
does not know on what to found his belief.
" In this spirit he laughs at all assertions. For example, he
combats those who have wished to provide in France a great
remedy for lawsuits by the number and so-called precision of the
laws, as if the root of the doubt whence lawsuits spring could be
cut and there were dams that could stop the torrent of uncertainty
and fix conjectures. In this, however, when he says that it would
be just as well to submit the case to the first passer-by as to judges
armed with this number of laws, he does not mean that the order
of the State should be changed, he has not so much ambition ; nor
that his opinion is the best, he does not think any opinion good ;
it is solely to prove the vanity of the most generally received
opinions showing that the exclusion of all law would rather
diminish the number of disputes than that multitude of laws,
which only serves to augment it, because obscurities increase in
proportion as it is hoped to remove them, that these obscurities
increase by the commentaries, and that the surest means of under-
standing the sense of a discourse is not to examine it, but to take it
as it appears at first, for if it is examined ever so little all its clear-
ness disappears. Thus he judges at random all the actions of men
and all the points of history, sometimes in one manner and some-
times in another, freely following his first view, and without
submitting his thought to the rules of reason, which has only
false standards, delighted to show by his example the contradic-
tions of the same mind. As a result of this wholly independent
attitude, it is the same to him either to get angry or not in
disputes, having always by one example or the other a means
of showing the weakness of opinions, being led with so much
advantage into universal doubt that he fortifies himself in it
equally by his triumph or defeat. It is on this foundation, all
floating and tottering as it is, that he combats with invincible
firmness the heretics of his time upon this that they are certain
Fontaine: Epictetus and Montaigne. IOI
that they alone know the true meaning of Scripture, and it is
from there also that he most rigorously strikes down the horrible
impiety of those who assert that there is no God.
" He takes them in hand especially in the apology of Kaymond
of Sabunde, 1 and finding them voluntarily deprived of all revela-
tion and left to their natural reason, which is nevertheless put on
one side, he questions them by what authority they who really
know not one of the least things in nature undertake to judge of
that sovereign Being who is infinite by His own definition. He
asks them on what principles they rely, and presses them to point
them out to him. He examines all those that they can produce,
and goes so far by the talent in which he excels that he shows the
self-conceit of all those who pass for the most enlightened and the
most firm. He asks if the soul knows anything, if it knows itself,
if it is substance or accident, body or spirit ; what each of these
things is, and if there is anything that is not of either of these
orders, if it knows its own body, if it knows what matter is, and
if it can distinguish bodies in the vast variety in which they are
produced; how it can reason if it is material, and how it can
be united to a particular body and feel its passions if it is
spiritual. When did it begin to exist with the body or before 1
and if it ends with it or not, if it is never deceived, if it knows
when it errs, considering that the essence of error consists in not
knowing it, if in obscurities it does not as firmly believe that two
and three are six as it believes afterwards that they are five; if
animals reason, think, and speak, who can decide what time is,
what space or extension is, what movement is, what unity is,
all which things surround us and are entirely inexplicable ; what
health is, or death, life, sickness, good, evil, righteousness, sin, of
which we are constantly talking; if we have in ourselves the
principles of the true, and if those that we believe and which are
called axioms or notions common to all men are conformable to
essential truth. And since we know by faith alone that an
infinitely good Being has given them to us true, creating us to
know the truth, who will know without this light if, being formed
1 Raymond of Sabunde professed, about the middle of the XVth century,
at Toulouse, medicine, theology, and philosophy. Montaigne translated his
Thtologie iiaturclle into French.
IO2 Port- Royal Education.
by chance, our notions are not uncertain ? or if, being formed by a
false and wicked being, he has not given them to us false in order
to mislead us, thus showing that God and the true are inseparable,
and that if the one is or is not, if it is certain or uncertain, the
other is necessarily the same? Who knows if common sense,
which we usually take for the judge of the true, was destined for
this office by Him who created it *\ And more, who knows what
truth is, and how we can be assured of having it without knowing
it 1 Who knows even what a being is ? Since it is impossible to
define it, there is nothing more universal, and to explain it we
should have to start by making use of the word being itself,
saying it is such or such a thing. And since we do not know
what the soul, body, time, space, motion, truth, good, nor even
being are, nor how to explain the idea that we form of them,
how can we assure ourselves that it is the same in every man,
seeing that we have no other marks than uniformity of conse-
quences, which is not always a sign of uniformity of principles ?
For they may be different and yet lead to the same conclusions,
everybody knowing that the true is often deduced from the false.
" Then he examines profoundly all the sciences : geometry, of
which he endeavours to show the uncertainty in its axioms, and
in the terms which it does not define, as extension, motion, &c. ;
natural science and medicine, which he depreciates in many ways ;
history, politics, ethics, jurisprudence, and the rest ; so that, with-
out revelation, we might believe, according to him, that life is
a dream from which we shall only awake at death, and during
which we possess the principles of truth as little as during natural
sleep. Thus he depreciates so strongly and cruelly reason devoid
of faith, that, making it doubt if it is reasonable, and if animals
are so or not, or more or less so than man, he brings it down from
the excellence it has attributed to itself, putting it as a favour on
a level with the brutes, without permitting it to leave this order
until it be informed by its Creator Himself of its true rank, of
which it is ignorant ; threatening, if it complains, to put it below
all, which appears to him as easy as the contrary, and in the mean-
while only acknowledging its power to act so far as to recognize its
weakness with sincere humility, instead of exalting itself by a
foolish vanity."
Fontaine: Epictetus and Montaigne. 103
M. de Saci thought himself in a new country, and listening to
a strange language; and repeated to himself these words of St.
Augustine : " God of truth ! are those who know these subtle-
ties of reasoning more pleasing to thee on that account 1" He
pitied this philosopher, who pricked and tore himself everywhere
with the thorns that he himself made, as St. Augustine says
of himself, when he was in that state. After having patiently
heard all, he said to M. Pascal, " I am much obliged to you, Sir ;
I am sure that if I had read Montagne for a long time I should
not know him so well as I know him through the conversation that
I have just had with you. This man should wish to be known
only by the account that you give of his writings, and he might
say with St. Augustine, Ibi me vides, attends. I certainly think
that this man had talent, but I am not sure that you do not lend
him a little more than he had by that exact concatenation that
you make of his principles. You may judge that, having passed
my life as I have done, I have seldom been advised to read this
author, all whose works contain nothing that we ought especially
to seek in our reading, according to the rule of St. Augustine,
because his words do not spring from humility and Christian
charity, and because they overturn the foundations of all know-
ledge, and consequently of religion itself. This is what this pious
doctor blamed in those philosophers of former times, who were
called academicians, and who wished to throw doubt upon every-
thing.
" But what need had Montagne to divert his mind by reviving
a theory which rightly passes among Christians for folly ? If it is
alleged in his excuse that, in what he says, he puts faith on one
side, we who have faith ought to put on one side all that Mon-
tagne says. I do not find fault with the talent of this author,
which is a great gift of God ; but he ought to make a better use of
it, and rather offer it to God than to the devil. Of what use is a
good thing when it is used so ill 1 You, Sir, are happy in having
raised yourself above these doctors who are plunged in the intoxi-
cation of science, and whose hearts are void of the truth. God
has poured into your heart other sweetness and attractions than
those you found in Montagne. He has recalled you from that
dangerous pleasure, as St. Augustine says, who gives thanks to
IO4 Port-Royal Education.
God that He has pardoned him the sins he had committed in
loving these vanities too much. St. Augustine is to be believed
in this so much the more as formerly he held those opinions ; and,
as you say of Montagne, that he combats the heretics of his time
by this universal doubt, it was also by this same doubt of the
academicians that St. Augustine forsook the heresy of the Mani-
chaeans. After he devoted himself to God, he renounced this
vanity, which he calls sacrilegious. He acknowledged the wisdom
of St. Paul in warning us not to be led away by eloquent argu-
ments. For he admits that there is a certain pleasure in them that
carries us away. We sometimes think that things are true because
they are said eloquently. They are dangerous viands, said he, that
are served up on fine dishes ; but these viands, instead of nourish-
ing the heart, leave it empty. We are then like men who are
asleep, and who think they are eating while they are sleeping."
M. de Saci added several similar things ; upon which M. Pascal
said that if he complimented him on knowing Montagne so
thoroughly, and knowing how to turn him so well, he might say,
without compliment, that he knew St. Augustine more thoroughly
and knew how to turn him better, although not very much to the
advantage of poor Montagne. M. Pascal appeared to be very
much edified by the solidity of all that M. de Saci had just put
before him. However, being still full of his author, he could not
avoid saying, " I admit, Sir, that I cannot see without pleasure, in
this author, haughty reason so irresistibly attacked with its own
weapons, and this sanguinary revolt of man against himself, which
casts him down to the condition of the brutes, from that inter-
course with God to which he raised himself by the principles of
his feeble reason. I should, with all my heart, have loved this
instrument of a great punishment, if, being a humble disciple of
the Church through faith, he had followed the rules of morality by
inducing these same men, whom he had so profitably humbled, not
to irritate by new crimes Him who alone can draw them from those
which he has proved to them that they cannot even understand.
But he acts, on the contrary, like a pagan. From this principle,
says he, that apart from faith everything is uncertain, and con-
sidering how long we have been seeking the true and the good
without making any progress towards tranquillity, he concludes that
Fontaine: Epictetus and Montaigne. 105
we ought to leave the search for these to others and to remain in
repose, passing lightly over these subjects, lest by bearing on them
we sink into them ; and to take the true and the good as they first
present themselves without insisting upon them, because they have
so little solidity that, however slightly we close our hand on them,
they run through the fingers and leave it empty. For this reason
he follows the impressions of the senses and common feelings,
because lie would have to do violence to himself to ignore them,
and does not know whether he would gain by doing so, being
ignorant as to where the truth lies. Thus he flies from pain
and death because his instinct drives him to do so, and because he
will not resist this instinct. He does not, however, decide whether
they are true evils, as he does not altogether trust these natural
feelings of fear, seeing that we have other feelings of pleasure
which are censured as being bad, although nature, he says, asserts
the contrary. Thus, he adds, there is nothing irrational in my
conduct. I act like others, and all that they do, with the silly
idea that they are following the true good, I do in accordance with
another principle, which is that, appearances being equal on both
sides, example and convenience are the influences which should
determine me.
" He follows, then, the manners of his country, because custom
governs him. He mounts his horse because the horse allows him
to do so, like any ordinary man who is not a philosopher; he
does not conceive that he has any moral right to do this, inasmuch
as he does not know whether the animal has not, on the contrary,
just as good a right to make use of him. He also does some
violence to himself in order to avoid certain vices, and even keeps
his marriage vow because of the trouble that follows disregard of
it, his rule of action in everything being his own convenience and
tranquillity. He casts far from him that Stoic Virtue that is
painted with a severe countenance, a fierce look, dishevelled hair,
a wrinkled and perspiring forehead, in a strained and painful
attitude, far from men, in gloomy silence and alone on the top of
a rock, a phantom, as he says, to frighten children, and which
does nothing but seek repose, which she never finds, by constant
toil. His science is artless, familiar, humorous, sportive, and
frolicsome. She follows what pleases her, and jests about things
io6 Port- Royal Education.
that happen whether good or bad, lying softly in the lap of an
idle tranquillity whence she shows men who are so painfully
seeking happiness, that it is only to be found there where she
is reposing, and that ignorance and absence of curiosity are two
soft pillows for a sound head, as he says himself.
"I cannot conceal from you," added M. Pascal, "that in
reading this author and comparing him with Epictetus, I have
thought that they were most certainly the two greatest defenders
of the two most celebrated schools of the infidel world, which
alone, among those of men destitute of the light of religion, have
judgments which are in some measure connected and consistent.
For what could they do but follow one or other of these two
systems *? The first, there is a God ; hence, it is He who created
man. He made him for Himself. He created him such as he
should be in order to be just and to become happy. Man can,
then, know the truth, and is in a position to raise himself by
wisdom up to God, who is his highest good. Second system,
man cannot raise himself up to God. His inclinations contradict
the law. He is prone to seek his happiness in visible good things,
and even in those which are most disgraceful. Everything appears
then uncertain, and the true good is so also ; and this seems to
reduce us to a state in which we have neither a fixed rule for
morals nor certainty in the sciences. I have had great pleasure
in remarking, in these various reasonings, in what points both
have perceived something of the truth that they have essayed to
learn. For if it is agreeable to observe in nature her desire to
paint God in all her works, in which indeed we see some mark
of Him, because they are images of Him, how much more just
is it to consider in the productions of men's minds the efforts that
they make to arrive at the truth, even while flying from it, and to
note in what points they touch it and in what points they depart
from it, as I have endeavoured to do in this study ^
"It is true, Sir, that you have just shown me, in an admirable
manner, the little need that Christians have of these philosophical
readings. I will, nevertheless, with your permission tell you my
thoughts on the subject, being ready notwithstanding to give up
all knowledge that does not corne from God, from whom alone we
can receive the truth with confidence. It seems to me that the
Fontaine: Epictetus and Montaigne. 107
source of the errors of the Stoics on the one hand, and of the
Epicureans on the other, is that they did not recognize that man's
present state differs from that at his creation ; so that the one
sect, noting some traces of his primitive dignity and ignorant of
his corruption, has considered nature as sound and without need
of a restorer, which leads it to the most extreme pride; while
those who belong to the other, feeling man's present misery, and
ignorant of his primitive dignity, consider nature as necessarily
unsound and incapable of improvement ; this makes them despair
of attaining a true good, and hence throws them into extreme
sloth. These two states, which it is necessary to see together
in order to perceive the whole truth, being seen separately,
necessarily lead to one of these two vices, pride or sloth,
in which all men are infallibly plunged before grace, since,
if they do not continue in their disorders through sloth, they
emerge from them through pride. Thus they are always slaves
of the spirits of evil, to whom, as St. Augustine remarks, men
sacrifice in many fashions. From this imperfect knowledge, then,
it happens that the one, knowing his impotence and not his duty,
sinks into sloth; and that the other, knowing his duty without
knowing his impotence, rises up in his pride ; whence it seems
that by combining them we should form a perfect morality. But
instead of this peace, there would only result from their junction
war and general destruction. For, the one establishing certainty
and the other doubt, the one the dignity of man and the other
his weakness, they cannot unite and agree ; so that they can
neither exist separately by reason of their defects, nor unite
because of their opinions, and thus they must necessarily be
shattered and annihilated in order to give place to the truth of
the Gospel. This truth, by a divine art, reconciles contradic-
tories. Uniting all that is true, and rejecting all that is false,
it teaches a truly heavenly wisdom, in which the opposing
principles, which were incompatible in those human doctrines,
agree. And the reason of this is that those wise men of the
world have placed the contraries in the same object. For one
attributes strength to nature, the other weakness to this same
nature, which cannot be; whereas faith teaches us to put them
in different objects, all that is weak appertaining to nature, and
io8 Port-Royal Education.
all that is powerful appertaining to grace. This is a new and
astonishing union, which a God alone could teach, which He alone
could make, and which is but an image and effect of the ineffable
union of two natures in the sole person of a God-man.
" I beg your pardon, Sir, for transporting myself before you into
theology instead of remaining in philosophy. But my subject
led me to it insensibly ; and it is difficult to avoid entering into
it, whatever truth is treated of, because it is the centre of all
truths ; and this is very plain here, since it so visibly contains
all those which are found in these opinions. Moreover, I do not
see how any one of them can refuse to follow it. For, if they
are full of the idea of the dignity of man, what have they
imagined in it that does not give way before the promises of the
Gospel, which are nothing else than the worthy reward of the
death of a Godl And if they take pleasure in seeing the
infirmity of nature, their idea does not equal that of the real
weakness of sin, of which the same death was the remedy. Thus
all find in it more than they wished ; and, what is wonderful, they
find themselves united in it, they who could not unite in an
infinitely lower grade."
M. de Saci could not avoid showing M. Pascal his surprise at
the manner in which he turned things. He acknowledged at the
same time that everybody had not the secret, like him, of making
such wise and elevated reflections on their reading. He told him
he was like those clever doctors, who by their skilful manner of
preparing the most powerful poisons could draw from them the
most powerful remedies. He added that, although he saw very
well, by all he had just told him, that this reading was useful
to him, nevertheless he could not think that it was advantageous
to many people, whose minds would not have sufficient elevation
to read and weigh these authors, and be able to pick up some
pearls from the dunghill, whence a black smoke arose, which
might obscure the tottering faith of those who read them ; that,
for this reason, he always advised those persons not to expose
themselves lightly to this reading, for fear of losing themselves
with those philosophers, and becoming the prey of demons, and
food for worms, according to the language of Scripture, as those
philosophers had been.
r -I \
Fontaine: Epictetus and Montaigne. 109
"As to the utility of this reading," said M. Pascal, "I will tell
you very simply my opinion. I find in Epictetus an incomparable
art to trouble the repose of those who seek it in exterior things,
and to compel them to acknowledge that they are veritable slaves
and miserable blind men ; that it is impossible for them to find
anything else than the error and pain that they shun if they do
not give themselves unreservedly to God. Montagne is incom-
parable for confounding the pride of those who, without -faith,
boast of true righteousness ; for disabusing those who cling to
their opinions, and who think they find in the sciences unshaken
truths, independently of the existence and perfections of God ;
for so thoroughly convicting reason of its small intelligence and
of its aberrations, that it is difficult, after that, to be tempted
to reject the mysteries because we think we find contradictions
in them ; for the mind is so beaten by them that it is far from
being willing to consider whether the Incarnation and the mystery
of the Eucharist are possible, which ordinary men do only too
often. But if Epictetus opposes idleness, he leads to pride, and
may be very hurtful to those who are not persuaded of the
corruption of all righteousness that does not spring from faith.
" Montagne is absolutely pernicious for those who have a leaning
towards impiety and vice. Therefore this reading should be
regulated with much care, discretion, and regard for the position
and morals of those to whom it is recommended. 1 It seems to
me even that by combining them they would not succeed entirely
ill because one opposes the evil of the other. They cannot give
virtue to man, but only disturb him in his vices; man finding
himself opposed by contraries, one of which chases away pride
and the other idleness, and not being able to rest in any of
these vices, although he cannot flee them all."
In this manner these two large-minded men agreed on the
subject of the reading those philosophers, and arrived at the same
1 Mme. de Sevigne recommends Mme. de Grignan not to let her daughter
Pauline ' ' dip her little nose into Montaigne, nor Charron . . . There is time
yet for her." (1690.) But how she felt the charm of the author of the
Essays! "Ah ! what an amiable man ! What good company he is ! He
is my old friend ; but, by force of being old, he is new to me." (6 Oct.,
1679.)
no Port- Royal Education.
result, although they did so by slightly different means ; M. de
Saci arriving at once by solely regarding Christianity, and M.
Pascal only arriving after many deviations by following the prin-
ciples of these Philosophers. (Fontaine, Memoires, t. iii. p. 77.)
OF A NEW METHOD OF EASILY LEAENING TO
READ IN ANY LANGUAGE, 1
This method chiefly concerns those who cannot yet read.
Simply learning the letters is not much trouble to beginners ;
there is more in putting them together.
Now what makes this more difficult at present is that, each
letter having its name, it is pronounced alone differently than
when it is joined with others. For example, if we make a child
put together / r y, we make him pronounce ef, ar, wy ; which
infallibly confuses him when he wishes to join these three sounds
together to make the sound of the syllable fry.
It seems then, that the most natural way, as some intelligent
persons have already remarked, would be, that those who are
teaching to read should, at first, only teach the children to know
their letters by their value in pronunciation; and that thus, to
teach to read in Latin, for example, they should give the same
name e to simple e, ce and ce, because they are pronounced in the
same way ; and the same to i and y; and also to o and au, as
1 M. Cousin has edited an unpublished letter of Jacqueline Pascal (26 Oct.,
1655), from which it results that the method of reading styled of Port-Royal
must be attributed to Pascal. " . . . Our mothers have commanded me to
write to you to send me all the particulars of your method of learning by the
B, C, D, E, in which it is not necessary for the children to know the names
of the letters ; for I see very well how they can be taught to read, for
example, Jesu, making them pronounce Je e, ze u ; but I do not see how they
can easily be made to understand that final letters must not add e; for
naturally, following this method, they will say Jesuse, unless they are told
that they must not pronounce e at the end unless it is really there ; nor do I
see how to teach them to pronounce the consonants which follow the vowels,
for instance en; for they will say ene, instead of pronouncing an as the
French often requires. In the same way, for on they will say one, and even
by making them slur over the e they will not pronounce it with a good accent
if they are not taught separately the pronunciation of the o with the n."
(Jacqueline Pascal, p. 265.) Jan. 31, 1656, Arnauld writes to the mother
Angelique to have Pascal's method of reading, in order to try it on a boy of
twelve years of age.
Lancelot : Learning to Read. 1 1 1
they are now pronounced in France, for the Italians make au a
diphthong.
Let the consonants also only be named by their natural sound,
simply adding e mute, which is necessary in order to pronounce
them. For example, let the name given to b be what is pro-
nounced in the last syllable of the French word tombe; to d that
of the last syllable of ronde ; and thus to the others which have
only a simple sound.
Let those which have several sounds, as c, g, t, s, be named by
the most natural and usual sound, which is for c the sound of &, 1
and for g the sound g hard, for t the sound of the last syllable of
forte, and for s that of the last syllable of bourse.
And then they would be taught to pronounce separately, and
without spelling, the syllables ce, ci, ge, gi, tia, tie, tii. And they
would be taught that s between two vowels is pronounced like z ;
miseria, misere, as if it were mizeria, mizere, &c.
These are the most general observations on this new method of
teaching to read which would certainly be very useful to children.
But to set it out in full would require a small separate treatise, in
which the observations necessary to fit it for any language might
be made. 2
OF THE VERB.
Men have not had less need to invent words which should
mark affirmation, which is the principal mode of our thought,
than to invent those which should mark the objects of our
thought.
1 Duclos proposed to employ Tc instead of c, keeping c for the sound ch t
for which there is no character in the alphabet. Charles- Quint would be
written Carle-Kint.
2 "The whole of this chapter is excellent," writes Duclos, " and admits of
no exception or reply. It is astonishing that the authority of Port-Royal,
especially at that time, and supported as it has since been by experience, has
not yet caused reason to triumph over the absurdities of the ordinary method.
Following the reasoning of Port-Royal, the Typographic Table gave their most
natural denomination to the letters fe, he, ke, le, me, ne, re, se, ze, ve, je,
and the abbreviation cse, gse; and not efe, ache, ka, ele, &me, ene, esse, zede, i
and u consonants, icse. This method, already admitted in the last edition
of the Dictionary of the Academy, and practised in the best schools, will
prevail sooner or later over the former system by the advantage that cannot
fail to be eventually acknowledged ; but it will require time, because that is
reasonable." (Commentaire sur la grammaire g6n6rale.) The victory is not
yet complete. See note on p. 255.
1 1 2 Port-Royal Education.
And it is in this properly that what we call the verb consists,
which is nothing else than a word tvhose chief use is to signify
affirmation, that is to say, to mark that the discourse in which
this word is used is the discourse of a man who not only conceives
of things, but judges of them and affirms something of them.
And in this the verb is distinguished from some words which also
signify affirmation, as affirmans, affirmatio, because they signify it
only in so far as, by a reflection of the mind, it has become the
object of our thought, and thus they do not mark that he who uses
these words affirms, but simply that he conceives an affirmation.
I have said that the principal office of the verb was to signify
affirmation, 1 because we shall show further on that it is also used
to signify other movements of the mind, as to desire, to ask, to
command, &c., but it is only by changing inflection and mood,
and thus we only consider the verb in the whole of this chapter
according to its principal signification, which is that which it has
in the indicative mood. According to this idea we may say that
the verb in itself ought to have no other office than to mark
the connection that we make in our mind between the two terms
of a proposition. But it is only the verb to be, which is called
substantive, that has preserved this simplicity ; and also, properly
speaking, it has only preserved it in the third person of the
present tense, is, and in certain connections ; for, as men are
naturally led to shorten their expressions, they have almost
always added other significations to the affirmation in the same
word.
1. They have joined to it that of some attribute, so that then
two words form a proposition ; as when I say, Petrus vivit, Peter
lives, because the word vivit contains in itself the affirmation, and
also the attribute to be living ; and thus it is the same thing
to say, Peter lives, as to say, Peter is living. Hence has come
the great diversity of verbs in every language; whereas if men
had been content to give the verb the general signification of
affirmation, without adding to it any particular attribute, a single
verb only would have been necessary in any language, namely,
that which is called substantive.
1 To affirm would be more exact than to signify affirmation.
Lancelot : Of the Verb. 1 1 3
2. They have also joined to it in certain circumstances the
subject of the proposition, so that then two words, and even one
word, may form a complete proposition. Two words, as when
I say, sum homo, because sum not only signifies affirmation,
but includes the signification of the pronoun ego, which is the
subject of this proposition, and which is always expressed in
our language, I am a man. One word, as when I say, vivo, sedeo;
for these verbs include in themselves both the affirmation and the
attribute, as we have already said ; and being in the first person,
they include also the subject : I am living, I am sitting. Hence
has arisen the difference of persons which is usually found in all
verbs.
3. They have also joined a reference to the time with respect
to which they affirm, so that a single word, as ccenasti, signifies
that I affirm of him to whom I speak the action of supping, not
for the present time, but for the past, and hence has come the
diversity of tenses, which is also usually common to all verbs.
The diversity of these significations joined to the same word
has prevented many persons, otherwise very intelligent, from
thoroughly understanding the nature of the verb, because they
have not considered it in its essential part, which is affirmation,
but in its other relations, which are accidental to it in so far
as it is a verb.
Thus Aristotle, 1 having stopped at the third of the significations
added to that which is essential in the verb, has defined it as
a word that signifies with time. 2
1 M. Egger very justly blames the author for not taking the trouble
to refer to the original texts, and for giving as Aristotle's an incomplete
definition of the verb from a quotation of Boxhorn's : "This idea of
affirmation is very clearly expressed in the second part of Aristotle's phrase,
which has been omitted in the quotation : It is always the sign of what
is affirmed of some other thing. This is precisely what the Port- Royal
logician wished to show. In no edition that I know of the work of Port-
Royal has this omission been noticed." (De VlielUnisme en France, t. ii.
p. 61.)
2 Beauzee remarks the same mistake in Scaliger. "The verb," says he,
* ' is the only kind of word which appears susceptible of distinction of tense.
Julius Csesar Scaliger thought it so essential to this part of speech that
he took it for the specific character which distinguishes it from all the rest."
(Grammaire gdne'rale, t. i. p. 422.) "The German grammarians," he adds,
" have given to the verb, in their language, the name of Zeit wort, composed
H4 Port- Royal Education.
Others, as Buxtorf, 1 having added the second to it, have defined
it as a word which has different inflexions with times and persons.
Others having stopped at the first of these added significations,
that of the attribute, and having considered that the attributes
which men have joined to the affirmation in a word are usually
those of actions or passions, have thought that the essence of the
verb consisted in signifying actions or passions.
And, in fine, Julius Caesar Scaliger 2 thought that he had found
a mystery in his book on the Principles of the Latin Tongue,
by saying that the distinction of things in permanentes et fluentes,
into those which remain and those which pass, was the real origin
of the distinction between nouns and verbs, the nouns signifying
what remains and the verbs what passes.
But it is easy to see that all these definitions are false, and do
not explain the true nature of the verb.
The manner in which the first two are conceived shows this
sufficiently ; since it is not said what the verb signifies, but only
that with which it signifies, with times and persons.
The last two are still worse ; for they have the two greatest
defects of a definition, that they do not include the whole of the
thing defined, nor only the thing defined.
For there are verbs which signify neither actions nor passions,
nor that which passes, as existit, quiescit, friget, alget, tepet, calet,
albet, viret, claret, &c.
And there are words which are not verbs, which signify actions
and passions, and even things which pass, according to the
definition of Scaliger; for it is certain that participles are true
nouns, and that, nevertheless, those of active verbs do not the
less signify actions, and those of the passive verbs passions, than
the verbs from which they come ; and there is no reason to assert
that fluens does not signify a thing which passes as well as fluit.
of Zeit, time, and Wort, word ; so that das Zeit wort signifies literally
the word of the time." Beauzee would only accept it by interpreting, by
metonymy, the name time by that of existence.
1 Buxtorf, a celebrated professor of Hebrew at Bale, died 1629.
2 Julius Caesar Scaliger, a celebrated philologer (1484-1558). His work,
De causis linguae latinae, libri xiii., appeared at Lyons in 1540. We see
even by Arnauld's criticism that Scaliger had endeavoured to introduce the
philosophical spirit into grammatical studies.
Lancelot : Of the Verb. 1 1 5
To which may be added, in opposition to the first two definitions
of the verb, that the participles also signify with time, since there
are present, past, and future, especially in Greek ; and those who
think, and not without reason, that a vocative is a true second
person, above all when it has a different termination from the
nominative, will find that there will only be, on that point, a
difference of more or less between the vocative and the verb. 1
Thus the essential reason why a participle is not a verb is that
it does not signify affirmation; 2 whence it comes that it cannot
make a proposition, which is the property of the verb, unless by
restoring what has been taken from it in changing the verb into a
participle. For why is Petrus vivit, Peter lives, a proposition, and
Petrus vivens, Peter living, not one, unless you add est, is, to it,
Petrus est vivens, Peter is living, unless, because the affirmation
contained in vivit has been taken away to make the participle
vivens? Whence it appears that the affirmation which is or
which is not in a word makes it a verb or not a verb.
On which it may be remarked, in passing, that the infinitive
which is very often a noun, as we shall state, as when we say le
boire, le manger, to drink, to eat, is then different from participles
in this, that the participles are nouns adjective, and that the in-
finitive is a noun substantive, made by the abstraction of this
adjective, as from candidus is made candor, and from white
whiteness. Thus the verb rubet signifies is red, including the
affirmation and the attribute ; the participle rubens signifies
simply red, without any affirmation ; and rubere, taken as a
noun, signifies redness.
It must, then, be regarded as certain, considering only what is
essential in the verb, that its only true definition is, vox significans
affirmationem, a word signifying affirmation. For no word denot-
ing affirmation can be found which is not a verb, nor a verb which
does not denote it, at least in the indicative. And it is undoubted
that, if we had one, as is would be, which should always mark
1 The nominative is the case that indicates the subject ; Dominus, the
Lord, the vocative is used to call Domine, Lord.
2 Certain grammarians admit, however, and not without reason, the
participial proposition. In this phrase, the parts being made, the lion
spoke thus, the words in italics are exactly equivalent to this proposition,
\ohen the parts were made.
Ii6 Port- Royal Education.
affirmation without any difference of person or tense, so that the
difference of person should be marked only by nouns and pro-
nouns, and the difference of tense by adverbs, there would still
be one real verb. As, in fact, there is in the propositions that
philosophers call eternal truths, as, God is infinite ; every body is
divisible ; the whole is greater than its part ; the word is signifies
simple affirmation only, without any regard to time, because it is
true for all times, and without our mind taking into consideration
any difference of persons.
Thus the verb, according to what is essential to it, is a word
which signifies affirmation ; but if we wish to put into the defini-
tion of the verb its principal accidents, we may define it thus :
vox signiftcans affirmationem, cum designations personae, numeri
et temporis; a word which signifies affirmation, with designation of
person, number, and tense, which exactly agrees with the verb
substantive.
For, in so far as the other verbs differ from the verb substantive
by the union which men have made of the affirmation with certain
attributes, they may be thus defined : vox signiftcans affirmationem
alicujus attributi ; cum designations personae, numeri et temporis ;
a word ivhich marks the affirmation of some attribute, with designa-
tion of the person, number, and tense}-
And it may be remarked, in passing, that the affirmation, in so
far as it is conceived, being able to be the attribute of the verb,
as in the verb affirmo, this verb signifies two affirmations, of
which one regards the person speaking, and the other the
person spoken of, whether it be oneself or another. For, when
I say Petrus affirmat, affirmat is the same thing as est affirmans?
and then est marks my affirmation, or the judgment that I form
concerning Peter ; and affirmans the affirmation that I conceive
and attribute to Peter. The verb nego, on the contrary, contains
an affirmation and a negation for the same reason.
For it must still be remarked that although all our judgments
1 There is room to complete this definition by adding to the mention of
time that of mood.
2 In English these two forms are not equivalent ; the present participle
with the auxiliary to be expresses more precisely that the affirmation is
relative to the moment in which the person is speaking.
Arnauld: Questions of Grammar. 117
are not affirmative, but some are negative, the verbs, nevertheless,
never signify by themselves anything but affirmations, the negation
being marked by the particles no, not, or by words which include
it, nullus, nemo, none, no one, which, being joined to verbs, change
the affirmation into negation, as no man is immortal; nullum
corpus est indivisibile, 1 no body is indivisible. (Grammaire generale
et raisonnee.)
QUESTIONS OF GRAMMAR.
MADAM, 2 Nothing could be more obliging than the reply of
the Academy. But as you would have reason to take it amiss
if I did not speak to you with all sincerity, I will tell you frankly
than I expected something more from such a celebrated society.
For of the five questions proposed to them, the last only regarding
French grammar in particular, and the first four regarding general
grammar, and being some of those which M. de la Chambre 3
admits can only be resolved by the deepest meditations of phil-
osophy, it would have been desirable that they should rather have
attended to them than to the last, which they might with more
reason refer to French grammar than the former; since it is
not usual to treat in special grammars what is common to every
language. . . . After all, Madam, it would be an ill return for
the obligation we are under to them for the information they
have given us to stop and make complaints that they have not
thought proper to give us more.
1 Beauzee (Grammaire gdnerale, t. i. p. 395) does not accept the theory of
Port-Royal. But his objections do not appear to me to be sound, and the
definition that he proposes to substitute has not been received very favour-
ably : Verbs are words which express indeterminate beings, pointing them out
by the precise idea of intellectual existence with relation to an attribute. The
least defect in this phrase is its abstractness and want of clearness.
Lancelot would, in my opinion, be inattackable if he had more clearly
laid it down that the essential and not only the principal office of the verb
is to affirm, and that it is by that that it has deserved to be called the word
par excellence, for it is the soul of the sentence. The moods, which he has
forgotten to mention, are only different manners of affirming. A negation is
still an affirmation contrary to another.
2 Letter of Arnauld to a lady on the subject of the reply of the French
Academicians to five questions that M. Arnauld had proposed to them on
general grammar, &c.
3 De la Chambre (1594-1660), physician to Louis XIV., member of the
French Academy and of the Academy of Sciences.
1 1 8 Port-Royal Education.
The manner in which they have answered the question which
specially referred to the French language shows such a strict
investigation into all the modes of expression in our language,
that there is nothing perfect and finished which may not be
expected from this society, if they give to the public, as we are
led to hope, their meditations and remarks. You will, neverthe-
less, Madam, allow me to lay before you a few small doubts.
I have some difficulty with the examples they bring forward
at the beginning, mile, qui parlemente, eau qui dort, &c. For our
language should be regulated by present and not by former usage.
Now I do not think that these modes of speaking, mile qui
parlemente^ eau qui dort, &c., are in the present use, but are
proverbs which have survived from the ancient language in which
the articles were almost always omitted. 1 To speak as we do now
we must no doubt say, une mile qui parlemente, une eau qui dort,
&c. And reason itself requires it thus, because, excepting proper
names, I think that it is a general rule that when a noun is the
subject of a proposition it should have an article or some word
standing in place of it, as tout, plusieurs, and names of number
deux, trois, &c. ; Phomme est raisonnable, tout homme est raison-
nable, deux hommes Font attaque, &c. But these gentlemen have
well remarked that vocatives must be excepted, because it is the
having no article 2 that distinguishes them from the nominative.
And besides, in our language they are only the subject of a
proposition when the pronoun vous is added, del, vous voyez mes
maux ; Soleil, vous eclair ez toutes choses. It is true that the
pronoun is not used when they are joined to the imperative ; del,
voyez ce que je souffre ; Seigneur , ecoutez ma voix. But then they
are not the subject of a proposition. I may easily be mistaken,
never having paid much attention to these things which depend
on usage. Nevertheless I think that this rule, that in our
language a common noun should always have an article when it is
the subject of a proposition, is true ; and that it should not be
thought false because the contrary is seen in many proverbial
modes of speaking, which have survived from the old language,
1 Latin, whence French is derived, has no article.
2 See note, p. 115.
Arnauld: Questions of Grammar. 119
and which it is proper to notice, but not to take as rules of usage
at the present time.
I am not sure, Madam, that we cannot say as much for the
greater number of the phrases that are given in the five remarks
that these gentlemen make to show in what circumstances qui
may be put after nouns without the article. For Jiomme qui vive,
dine qui vive, vie qui dure are the remains of the old style, which
continue to pass because usage permits it, especially in popular
style, but upon which, as I have already said, I do not think we
should regulate our language.
I also think that, to speak correctly according to present usage,
we should rather say, fai un homme en main qui /era ; je connais
dcs gens qui disent, &c., than fai homme en main, je connais
gens qui disent, &c. And I doubt, Madam, if you would use
this last, or if you ever said, Prenez ratines de betoine qui aient ete
sechees au soleil, or prenez eau-de-vie qui ait ete rectifiee, instead of
saying, as you no doubt have always done, prenez des racines de
betoine, &c. ; prenez de Veau-de-vie, &c. If doctors and apothe-
caries speak thus we should value their remedies without imitating
their style.
Nor do I think that you would agree that it would be speaking
correctly to say, tfest yrele qui tombe, c'est poison qu'il a pris,
c'est vin que vous buvez. But I think that you would always say,
c'est de la grele, &c. ; c'est du poison, &c. ; c'est du vin, &c.
Their remarks on these expressions, il vit en philosophe, &c.,
which are used sometimes absolutely and sometimes with qui, as,
il vit en philosophe qui suit Epicure, appeared to me very good ;
but I find a difficulty in the reason they give for them. They say
that some of these expressions are indeterminate and others deter-
minate ; that the indeterminate do not take the qui, and that the
others do. But it seems to me that this is giving for a reason the
thing itself for which we are seeking the reason. For it is incon-
testable that the qui which is joined to a word without the article
determines its signification; and thus it is the qui itself which
determines the expressions in which it is found, and which
without it would not be determined. So that it must not be said
that it is because they are determined that they take the qui, since,
on the contrary, they are only determined because they have a qui.
I2O Port-Royal Education.
And, in fact, if this rule were good, the rule would never be
broken by putting qui after a noun without the article ; since, the
qui making the expression determinate, we should always be
making an exception to the rule.
Thus, if we could say, c'est un effet d' } avarice, qui est la plus
injuste des passions, or qui le possede depuis longtemps, we might
say, il a ete enleve par violence, qui est tout d fait cruelle. For we
might always give this reason, that these expressions are good
because they are determinate, whereas, what makes them bad
is that they are determined by the qui, the noun not being deter-
mined by the article. Therefore, as far as possible, the article
should be used with the noun, when we wish it to be followed by
qui. I say as far as possible, because there are combinations
in which the article cannot be used. And then, in such a case of
necessity, we can put the qui or an adjective, when we wish
to determine the general noun that we are using. Now I think
that one of these combinations is when the particle en is used
in the sense of the Latin ut, and not in that of in. For when it
is taken for in the article may be used ; il est alle en un pays
Stranger; il est en la ville $ Amiens. But in the sense of
ut, usage does not allow us to use the article; vivit ut philosophus,
il vit en philosophe, and not il vit en un philosophe; il donne
en roi, il agit en politique. Thus, when we wish to determine
these expressions it is done with qui ; il agit en politique qui sait
gouverner ; because on the one hand it was necessary to be able to
determine them, and on the other the article could not be used, as
it always should be when it is possible. And thus I can say with-
out determining, il lui a gagne son argent par fourberie. But if I
wish to determine this fourberie I cannot do so simply by adding
qui, il a gagne son argent par fourberie, qui est horrible, but must
also add the article to fourberie, par une fourberie qui est horrible.
Whence it seems that we should conclude .that, if we use qui in
the other expressions, en philosophe, en roi, although the noun has
no article, it is not because they are determined, for they are
so only by the qui itself, and they are no more so than this
one, par fourberie qui est horrible; but it is by a necessity
that dispenses with the rule, because they are not capable of
taking the article.
Arnauld ': Questions of Grammar. 121
There remains, Madam, a word to say on the question which
was the object of this resolution of the Academy. It was not on
the general rule ; but, on the contrary, taking that for granted, it
was asked why this expression is riot contrary to it, // est accuse de
crimes qui meritent la mort.
These gentlemen answer, as they had done in the preceding
difficulty, that it is not contrary to it, because it is only used
to specify the nature of the crimes, which is done by adding qui, or
an epithet which virtually contains it. But, besides what I have
already said against this reason, I do not see, if it is true, why it
does not take place in the singular as well as in the plural. Those
persons, however, who wish to speak correctly will not say, il a ete
accuse de crime qui merite la mort; but il a ete accuse d'un
crime qui merite la mort. There is an intention to specify the
nature of the crime in the singular as well as in the plural. Why
does not this reason, then, dispense from putting in the singular
the qui without the article, as is done in the plural, according to
the opinion of these gentlemen 1 This difficulty, Madam, gave me
an idea which I submit to the judgment of this illustrious society.
I think that the article un has a plural, not formed from itself, for
we do not say uns, unes, but taken from another word, which
is des before substantives, and de when the adjective precedes.
What inclines me to think so is that in every case, except
the genitive, for the reason that we shall give afterwards, wher-
ever un is put in the singular des is put in the plural, or de before
adjectives, as I have already said, and it should always be put in
all those cases where a qui is added.
Nominative. Un crime qui est si horrible merite la mort, des
crimes qui sont si horribles, &c.
Dative. II a eu recours a un crime qui merite la mort, il a eu
recours a des crimes qui meritent, &c.
Accusative. II a commis un crime qui merite la mort, il a
commis des crimes qui meritent la mort.
Ablative. II est puni pour un crime qui merite la mort, il est
puni pour des crimes qui meritent la mort.
According to this analogy, as a, which is the dative particle,
is added to form the dative of this article, as well in the
122 Port- Royal Education.
singular a un as in the plural a des ; il a eu recours a un crime,
il a eu recours a des crimes ; and as the genitive particle de is also
added to form the genitive singular d'un ; il est accuse d'un
crime, it is evident that the genitive plural should be formed in
the same manner by adding de to des, or de ; but this has not
been done, for a reason which causes the greater number of the
irregularities of languages, namely, disagreeable sound. For de
des, and still more de de, would have grated on the ear, which
would scarcely have supported il est accuse de des crimes, or il est
accuse de de grands crimes ; whereas it is not offended by hearing
in the dative, il a pardonne a des criminels, il a pardonne a de
mechants homines. Thus, Madam, if you will kindly pardon
me this little Latin sentence, which M. Yalant will explain to
you, impetratum est a ratione ut peccare suavitatis causa liceret. 1
If that is well founded, there is no longer any difficulty in the
question proposed. For either it is resolved, as in the preceding,
by the impossibility of putting the article, which gives liberty to
use the qui, although the noun has no article ; or, indeed, we may
say that the mere difficulty of pronunciation preventing the use
of the articles with nouns in these combinations, the article is
in the sense, although it is not expressed.
If I had not the honour, Madam, of knowing you as well
as I do I should offer you many excuses for having importuned
you by so long a letter upon things which appear very small.
But I know that you will not judge of them like ordinary people,
and that you consider nothing small that has reference to the
mind and reason. And, indeed, since speech is one of the greatest
endowments of man, the possession of this endowment in the
greatest possible perfection must not be despised, namely, not
only to have the use of it, but also to know the reason.
I am, &c.
(Arnauld, CEuvres, t. iv. p. 125.)
1 Reason allows a fault to bo made for the satisfaction of the ear.
Arnauld: Regulation of Studies. 123
MEMOIR OF ARNAULD ON THE REGULATION OF
STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES. 1
The regulation of the order of studies should be considered
both from the end proposed and from the means employed to
attain it; for among the various ends that might be proposed, it
is necessary to choose those which are of the greatest, most
general, and most lasting utility. And among the different
means that may be adopted, those which lead the most directly
and easily to it should be employed.
After having censured exercises in versification, amplification,
and declamation, themes and "empty phrases void of sense, in
order to make them learn rules which might be taught viva voce,"
theatrical representations, dictated lectures, and the infrequent
reading of authors, he proposes the following remedies :
" 1. The examination of scholars, in order to promote them
from one class to another, should only consist in seeing if they
thoroughly understand the authors they have been reading in the
class from which they wish to remove; without which they
should be retained in it with inflexible rigour, unless they are
found to be incapable of doing more or better.
"2. An entire hour should be given to the explanation of
an author every time the class meets, morning and afternoon ;
and this exercise should always be preferred to every other, and
never omitted.
" 3. It is, above all, very important to divide this explanation
into different portions, and oblige the scholars to give an account
in Latin and in French of what has been explained to them.
They would be accustomed without trouble to take the turn of
good Latinity by always making them speak like the best authors,
and they would acquire that spirit of analysis so necessary in all
positions. . . .
"4. The scholars should question themselves mutually, and
correct one another with politeness ; firstly, on the substance of
what has been translated during the week ; secondly, on the most
1 Although this memoir treats of classical studies, judicious advice on
teaching will he found in it, of which our teachers can make good use in
primary instruction.
124 Port-Royal Education.
remarkable thoughts and the finest turns of language ; thirdly, on
the explanation of certain passages that the teacher may have
thought necessary to give in a few words.
" 5. The regent should be careful to make them mark in the
margin, in different ways, the sentences and the fine thoughts, and
generally all that is noticeable in the authors, then to review them
after the reading is finished, and then to sum up the whole at the
end of each week.
"6. Places should only be awarded every month, or every
fortnight, by the examination of those who have succeeded best
in all the exercises, either viva voce or by written translation, not
of French into Latin, but of Latin into French, at least in the
four lower classes ; for what sort of Latin can really be expected
from those who do not yet know that language ]
" 7. Without excluding compositions for which prizes are offered,
the chief prizes will be distributed to those who have most dis-
tinguished themselves during the first six months, or the whole
year, if they are given only once ; and by this means the hopes
of all the scholars will be excited. It must not be forgotten
to publish the names of those who nearly succeeded in gaining
them; but the first prizes should be given to those who have shown
most religion and whose morals are irreproachable. Those who
have made efforts to imitate these should also be mentioned. The
heart should be rewarded before the head. Besides books that
will be explained in class, a book should be given to the scholars
to read privately, prescribing the same book to the whole class ;
and they should be compelled, as far as possible, to give to it every
day an hour of their private study.
" 8. In order to induce them to give more attention to it, one
day in the week should be set apart to review this particular
book, when the regent, who will have read and annotated the
book, will question the scholars on the difficult expressions and
fine thoughts which they ought to have remarked in it, in order
to make them accurate and judicious.
"9. In order to teach elocution, beginning from the lower
classes, it is useful to make two scholars tell a short story every
day, which they may take from Valerius Maximus, or Plutarch, or
any book they like, leaving them the choice ; and those must be
A man Id: Regulation of Studies. 125
judged the best who make the recital in the most free and natural
manner, and most in the spirit of the author, without confining
themselves to the same terms and expressions. This story should
be told in French in the three lower classes, setting them French
books. A very short piece of these authors will be given them
to recite, and all will be required to read every day a certain
portion of the history of France, and to be ready to recite it as
well as they can. 1
"10. A short time only should be given to the recitation of the
lessons that have been set, and which should be very short; a
quarter of an hour is sufficient, because this is one of the things
that cause much loss of time. When the regent explains the
lessons he should confine himself to making them well understood
without many words.
"11. The regents will never teach any verse or declamation of
their own making, nor dictate any rhetoric that they have com-
posed. They should explain especially Aristotle and Quintilian
. . . with the books of Cicero . . . the best part of the time is
lost in dictating.
" 13. It would be still better 2 to read out distinctly the Latin of
what has been dictated to them in French, and to make them
compose at once from the Latin they have just heard. The
model is correct, their time is spared, and, repeating this short
exercise, they are led by use to speak Latin well, without much
hesitation. 3
" 14. Useless methods, for the most part ill-conceived, ill-
digested, and wearisome for the young, should not be set to be
learnt by heart. They should be taught viva voce and by
1 Rollin, the recognized inheritor of the traditions of Port-Royal, ought to
have thoroughly assimilated this formal recommendation of Arnauld, and not
have permitted himself to write this phrase, a strange one in the mouth of
an ex-rector of the University of Paris : " Young people have no time to
learn the History of France ! "
2 Instead of giving a translation to be put into Latin.
3 Franklin declares that he had no other master for composition. About
the age of fifteen, when he was a printer's apprentice, he procured an odd
volume of Addison's Spectator, read an article in it, noted the principal ideas,
then, a few days after, in the evening or the morning, before work or on
Sundays, he tried to reproduce the original, which served him for a key.
This exercise may safely be recommended in primary schools, and in classes
for adults.
126 Port-Royal Education.
practice what are called rules, and only set in the lower classes
to bring them up as a small history ; and according as a noun or
a v/6rb is met with out of the general rule, the attention of the
scholars should be called to it, and they should be required to
/give a reason for it, as we have just explained, on the next meet-
| ing of the class.
"18. Lessons and translations should only be given to the
juniors and composition to the seniors in so far as it may be
reasonably calculated that they will have time remaining after
reading the prescribed authors. This article is more important
than may be thought, for we may be easily misled in it. Much
is thought to be gained by overloading the children with lessons
and compositions. There is no greater mistake. 1 They do not
know the value of the time sufficiently to make good use of it
when they are left to themselves. They are in no hurry, time
flies, the clock strikes; hence punishments, all is sadness, and
disgust finally spoils the whole. Those who learn more easily,
and have better memories, will be set to do more than the others,
by attaching rewards for it.
"19. It is usually lost time to set them to compose verses at
home. There may be two or three scholars out of seventy or
eighty from whom something may be drawn. The rest lose
heart, or torment themselves to do nothing of any value. A
subject may be prescribed to those who show taste and facility,
and the others may be set something according to their ability.
It may, however, be proposed to all to compose then and there
a small piece of verse of which the subject is given, each having
the liberty of saying how he will turn the matter of each line.
An epithet then comes from one corner, a more appropriate one
from another; with permission to speak, which is asked and
obtained by a sign only, in order to avoid confusion, they judge,
criticise, and give a reason for their choice. Those who have the
least energy try their utmost, and all strive at least to distinguish
themselves. This is one of the most useful exercises to please
them, and to form at least those who have some talent.''
1 An excellent observation. "We are always too much inclined to think
that the child is a vase that cannot be sufficiently filled. It is a soul that
must be formed.
Arnauld : Regulation of Studies. 127
Art. 22. He inscribes the History of France among the con-
ditions for the degree of Master of Arts.
"... what is gained by the exclusion of verses in the upper
classes, of themes in the lower, and, in fact, of lessons which
produce nothing of any value, will give time which will be much
more agreeably employed in reading for repetition and in learning
set passages by heart, and for private preparation of what has been
set in Latin grammar and rhetoric, according to the classes to
which one or two rules of grammar have been set, on which the
class will be questioned at their next meeting, in the evening or
morning, without compelling anyone to learn them word for
word. 1 They will the more readily give themselves up to this
study, which will even be useful in teaching them the art of
reasoning in a small way ; and more will be gained in this manner
than would have been from the other.
" Objection. By making fewer compositions they neither learn
to write nor speak Latin.
" Reply. We answer that the scholars will most certainly learn
much more by reading much, and speaking frequently after the
best authors, than by writing many dictations and incorrect
expressions to which they become accustomed, and which must
be corrected. Not being in a position to produce solid thoughts,
they do nothing else in all these school compositions but contract
the habit of bad speaking and bad thinking. On the contrary,
by filling their minds with good models their judgment is formed.
" Objection. The regents do not acquire practice if the liberty
of speaking is taken from them.
"Reply. We answer, they may speak as much as they like,
provided that it be not in the class time set apart for the in-
struction of the scholars. So much talk is not necessary to point
out the beauties of an author." (Arnauld, CEuvres, t. xli. p. 85.)
1 The definitions and rules, however, require great accuracy. When they
are well understood, it is very easy to retain the exact formula, which is
preferable, and is not useless to intellectual education.
128 Port- Royal Education.
POBT-KOYAL LOGIC.
FIRST DISCOURSE, SETTING FORTH THE DESIGN
OF THIS NEW LOGIC.
Nothing is more estimable than good sense and accuracy of
mind in discriminating the true from the false. All other mental
qualities have limited uses ; but accuracy of reasoning is useful
generally in all parts and employments of life. It is not alone
in the sciences that it is difficult to distinguish truth from error ;
but also in the greater number of the subjects on which men
speak, and the affairs of which they treat. Almost everywhere
there are different courses, some true, some false ; and it is the
part of reason to make choice between them. Those who choose
well are those who have sound minds, those who take the wrong
course are those whose minds are unsound ; and this is the chief
and most important distinction that can be made between the
qualities of men's minds.
Thus we should set ourselves principally to form our judgment,
and make it as accurate as possible ; and the greater part of our
studies should tend to this. We use reason as an instrument to
acquire the sciences, but we should, on the contrary, use the
sciences as an instrument for perfecting the reason ; 1 accuracy
of mind being infinitely more important than all speculative
knowledge, which we may attain by means of the most accurate
and solid sciences. And this should lead sensible persons to take
them up only in so far as they can serve to this end, and to make
an essay of them simply, and not employ the whole strength of
their minds. . . .
This care and study are so much the more necessary, that it is
strange how rare a quality this accuracy of judgment is. We
meet everywhere with unsound minds which have scarcely any
1 This pedagogic point of view is excellent ; but, without neglecting it,
we must attach more value to the acquisition of the sciences than Tort-
Royal does ; they are not only an instrument and means of culture, they
are also an aim and an end. To learn the truth is the most legitimate
employment of the intellect. They are besides, as Bacon says, the only
source of man's power over nature, and the most effective agents of civiliza-
tion and progress.
Nicole : Port-Royal Logic. 1 29
clear perception of the truth ; who take everything the wrong
way ; who are satisfied with bad reasons, and wish to satisfy
others with them ; who are carried away by slight appearances ;
who are always in excess and extremes ; who have no firm hold
on the truths which they know, because it is rather by chance
than real knowledge that they are attached to them ; or who
stop short, on the contrary, at the evidence of their senses, with
so much obstinacy, that they will hear nothing that may un-
deceive them ; who rashly decide on what they are ignorant of,
what they do not understand, and what no one, perhaps, has ever
understood ; who make no difference between one way of speak-
ing and another, 1 or who judge of the truth of things only by
the tone of voice : he who speaks fluently and gravely is right ;
he who has some difficulty in explaining himself, or who shows
some warmth, is wrong ; they know no more about it than this.
Therefore there are no absurdities so gross as not to find
supporters. Whoever means to deceive the world is certain to
find persons very willing to be deceived ; and the most ridiculous
nonsense always finds congenial minds. After seeing so many
persons infatuated with the follies of judicial astrology, 2 and even
grave persons treating this matter seriously, we need be astonished
at nothing. There is a constellation in the heavens which it has
pleased some persons to name the Balance, and which resembles
a balance as much as it does a wind-mill ; the balance is the
symbol of justice, hence those who are born under this con-
stellation will be just and equitable. 3 There are three other
signs of the Zodiac, which are named, one the Earn, another the
Bull, another the Goat, and which might just as well have been
called Elephant, Crocodile, and Rhinoceros. The ram, the bull,
and the goat are ruminating animals, hence those who take
1 The opposition is still clearer in that very sensible judgment that
Moliere puts in the mouth of Chrysale, who is laughing at Trissotin :
We seek what he said after he has spoken.
(Les Femmes savantes, act ii. sc. 7.)
8 "This is," said Bailly, "the longest malady that has afflicted human
reason ; it is known to have lasted fifty centuries." (Hist, de T astronomie. )
3 Louis XIII. was surnamed the Just, not by the gratitude of his people,
but from the day of his birth, because he was born under the sign of the
Balance !
K
130 Port-Royal Education.
medicine when the moon is in these constellations run the risk
of vomiting it again. However extravagant these reasonings may
be, there are persons who promulgate them, and others who suffer
themselves to be persuaded by them. 1
This unsoundness of mind is not only the cause of the errors
that are mixed up in the sciences, but also of the greater part
of the faults that are committed in civil life, unjust quarrels,
ill-founded lawsuits, rash advice, and ill-concerted enterprises.
There are few of these things which have not their source in
some error or fault of judgment, so that there is no defect which
we have more interest in correcting.
But it is as difficult to succeed in this correction as it is
desirable, because it depends very much on the measure of
intelligence we have at birth. Common sense is not so common
a quality as is supposed. 2 There is an infinite number of coarse
and stupid minds 3 that cannot be amended by giving them a
knowledge of the truth, but only by keeping them to the things
that are within their capacity, and preventing them passing judg-
ment on what they are not capable of understanding. It is true,
nevertheless, that many of the false judgments of men do not
La Fontaine protested against this popular error in the fable of the
I do not think that Nature
Has tied her hands, and ties ours still
So far as to write our fate in the skies :
It depends on a conjuncture
Of places, persons and times ;
Not of conjunctions of all the mountebanks.
This shepherd and this king are under the same planet ;
The one bears the sceptre, the other the crook.
Jupiter willed it so.
What is Jupiter ? An inanimate body.
Whence comes it then that his influence
Acts differently on these two men ?
Then, how can it penetrate to our world ?
How pass the deep regions of the air,
Mars, the Sun and the infinite void ?
An atom may turn it aside in its course :
Where will the casters of horoscopes find it again ? . . .
(LA FONTAINE, Fables, viii. 16.)
2 In spite of its name, common sense is rare. (ANDRIEUX.)
3 Here we recognize Nicole, the author of the Traitt de la faiblesse de
rhomme, who indulges himself too much in painting the mass of his fellow-
creatures as " steeped in stupidity." (Chap, x.)
Nicole: Port-Royal Logic. 131
spring from this principle, and are only caused by hastiness of
mind and want of attention, which cause men to judge rashly
what they only know in a confused and obscure manner. The
little love that men have for truth is the reason that they take
no trouble, for the most part, to distinguish the true from the
false. They allow all sorts of reasonings and maxims to enter
their minds ; they prefer to consider them as true rather than to
examine them. If they do not understand them they are willing
to believe that others understand them well ; and thus they load
their memories with a host of things false, obscure, and not
understood, and then reason from these principles, scarcely paying
attention to what they say or what they think.
Vanity and presumption contribute still more to this defect.
They think there is some disgrace in doubt and ignorance, and
prefer to speak and decide at a venture rather than to acknowledge
that they are not sufficiently informed on the matter to give a
decision. We are all of us full of ignorance and errors ; yet,
nevertheless, it is the greatest trouble in life to draw from men
this confession so true and so conformable to their natural state :
I am wrong, and know nothing about the matter.
There are others, on the contrary, who, having sufficient intelli-
gence to know that there are very many things obscure and
uncertain, and wishing, by another sort of vanity, to show that
they do not allow themselves to be carried away by popular
credulity, pride themselves on maintaining that nothing is certain.
They thus relieve themselves of the trouble of examining them ;
and, on this vicious principle, they throw doubt on the most
certain truths and on religion itself. This is the source of
Pyrrhonism, another extravagance of the human mind, which,
appearing contrary to the rashness of those who believe and
decide on everything, nevertheless springs from the same source,
namely, want of attention. For if the one set will not take the
trouble to discriminate errors, the other will not be at the pains
to examine the truth with the care necessary to discover the
evidence for it. The slightest glimmer suffices to persuade one
set of things very false, and to make the other doubt of the
most certain things; but the same defect of application produces
in both such very different results.
132 Port- Royal Education.
True reason sets all things in their proper rank ; it causes the
doubtful to be doubted, rejects those which are false, and honestly
recognizes those which are evident, without pausing over the
empty reasonings of the Pyrrhonists, which do not destroy, even
in the minds of those who propose them, the reasonable assurance
we have of things that are certain. No one ever seriously doubted
that there is an earth, a sun, and a moon, nor that the whole is
greater than its part. We can say outwardly, with our mouth,
that we doubt of these things, because we may lie ; but we cannot
say so to our heart. Thus the Pyrrhonists are not a sect of men
who are convinced of what they say, but are a sect of liars. 1
Moreover, in speaking of their opinions, they often contradict
themselves, their reason not being able to agree with their words,
as may be seen in Montaigne, who endeavoured to revive this sect
in the last century. . . .
SECOND DISCOURSE, CONTAINING A REPLY TO THE PRINCIPAL
OBJECTIONS MADE AGAINST THIS LOGIC.
Some persons have objected to the title The Art of Thinking,
instead of which they would have written, The Art of Reasoning
well ; but we beg them to consider that, the end of logic being
to give rules for all the operations of the mind, as well for simple
ideas as for judgments and arguments, there was scarcely any
other word that included all these different operations; and
certainly the word thought includes them all ; for simple ideas
are thoughts, judgments are thoughts, and arguments are thoughts.
We might, indeed, have said, The Art of Thinking well ; but this
addition was unnecessary, being sufficiently indicated by the word
art, which in itself signifies a method of doing something well,
as Aristotle himself remarks. Hence it suffices to say the art of
painting, the art of reckoning, because it is supposed that no art
is required to paint badly or to reckon badly.
1 This, in a work on the art of thinking, is a very bad example of
reasoning. Insults are never reasons, and the good faith of opponents
should never be doubted. Some years later Nicole will give the sage
advice "to put our mind in a condition to calmly support the opinions
of others, which appear to us to be wrong, in order to oppose them only
with a desire of being useful to them." See p. 185.
Nicole: Port- Royal Logic. 133
A much more important objection has been made against the
great number of examples drawn from different sciences that are
found in this logic ; and since it attacks its whole design and thus
gives us an opportunity of explaining it, we will examine it with
more care. Of what use, they say, is this medley of rhetoric,
ethics, physics, metaphysics, and geometry 1 When we expect to
find the rules of logic we are suddenly carried off to the highest
sciences, without the authors knowing if we have learnt them.
Ought they not to suppose, on the contrary, that if we already
had this knowledge we should not want this logic 1 And would
it not have been better to give us one quite simple and plain, in
which the rules were explained by examples taken from common
things, than to load them with so much matter as to deaden them ?
But those who reason in this way have not sufficiently con-
sidered that a book can scarcely have a greater defect than not
to be read, since it is only of use to those who read it ; and thus
everything that contributes to make a book read contributes also
to make it useful. Now it is certain that, if we had followed
their opinion, and only written a dry logic with the usual examples
of animal and horse, however accurate and methodical it might
have been, it would only have added to the great number of
others, of which the world is full, that are not read. Whereas
it is precisely that collection of different things that has given
some reputation to this one, and caused it to be read with a little
less tedium than the others.
But, nevertheless, our principal aim was not to attract people to
read it by making it more amusing than the ordinary books on
logic. We claim, in addition, to have followed the most natural
and advantageous mode of treating this art by remedying, as far
as possible, an inconvenience which rendered its study almost
useless.
For experience shows that of a thousand young men who learn
logic there are not ten who know anything of it six months after
they have finished their course. Now the real cause of this
forge tfulness, or this negligence, which is so common, seems to
be that all the matters treated of in logic being of themselves
very abstract and far removed from ordinary usage, they are
illustrated by uninteresting examples, such as are never spoken
134 Port- Royal Education.
of elsewhere. Thus the mind, which has some difficulty in
attending to it, has nothing to fix its attention, and easily loses
all the ideas that it had acquired, because they are never renewed
by practice.
Besides, as these ordinary examples do not clearly show how
this art can be applied to anything useful, they are accustomed
to confine logic to itself, without extending it further ; x whereas
it is only made to be an instrument for the other sciences ; so that
as they have never seen its real use they never use it, and are
very glad to get rid of it as a trivial and useless knowledge.
We have thought, then, that the best remedy for this dis-
advantage was not to separate logic so much as is usually done
from the other sciences for which it is intended, but to join it in
such a way, by means of examples, to solid knowledge, that the
rules and their application may be seen at the same time, in order
that we may learn to judge of the sciences by logic and retain
logic by means of these sciences.
Thus, so far from this diversity suppressing the rules, nothing
can more contribute to the understanding of them and cause their
retention, because they are too subtle by themselves to make
an impression on the mind, if they are not attached to something
more agreeable and more obvious.
In order to render this diversity more useful, the examples
have not been taken at random from these sciences; but the
most important points have been chosen, and those which might
best serve as rules and principles for discovering the truth in
other matters which we have not been able to treat of. ...
It only remains to answer a more unworthy complaint that
some persons make, namely, that examples of defective definitions
and bad arguments have been extracted from Aristotle, which
appears to them to arise from a secret desire to depreciate this
philosopher.
But they would never have formed so inequitable a judgment
1 Ramus had already complained of the little practical utility of the
exercises: "They have never regarded their rules but under the shadow
of scholastic disputations ; they have never brought logic into the dust and
sunshine of every-day use ; they have never called it into the conflict of
human examples."
Nicole: Port- Royal Logic. 135
if they had sufficiently considered the true rules that should be
followed in quoting examples of errors, and which we have had
in view in quoting Aristotle.
Firstly, experience shows that the majority of examples that
are usually given are not very useful, and make little impression
on the mind, because they are formed at pleasure, and are so
plain and palpable that it is thought impossible to fall into them.
It is, then, advantageous, in order to cause what is said of these
faults to be remembered and the faults to be avoided, to choose
real examples taken from some eminent author, whose reputation
excites us the more to beware of this kind of mistakes to which
we see that the greatest men are liable.
Besides, as our aim should be to make all we write as useful
as possible, we must endeavour to choose examples of faults of
which it is proper not to be ignorant, for it would be very useless
to load the memory with all the reveries of Flud, 1 Van-Helmont, 2
and Paracelsus. 3 It is better, therefore, to seek these examples
in authors so celebrated, that we are obliged in some sort to
know them, even to their faults.
Now all this is met with in Aristotle; for nothing can more
powerfully lead us to avoid an error than showing that such a
great mind fell into it ; and his philosophy has become so
celebrated through the great number of meritorious persons who
have embraced it, that it is necessary to know what defects it
might have. Thus, as it was judged to be very useful that those
who read this book should learn, in passing, various points of this
1 Robert Fludd, an English physician and philosopher (1574-1637), fell
into the errors of Alchemy. Gassendi, Mersenne, and Kepler did him the
honour of refuting him.
2 Van-Helmont (1577-1644), born at Brussels, chemist and physician.
Gui-Patin is never tired of calling him a wretch, ignorant, a mountebank,
a public impostor, and a sorry rogue. "He passes at the present day," says
Dr. Reveille-Parise, "for one of the greatest physicians that ever lived, for
the boldness, depth, and originality of his conceptions, in spite of the
oddity of his language and a certain affectation of mystical obscurity."
3 Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss physician. "This prince of mounte-
banks," exclaims again the irascible Gui-Patin, "and shameless impostor."
While a professor at Bale, he publicly burned the works of Avicenna and
Galen. His shoe-strings knew more than these authors, he impudently
asserted, and all the universities knew less than the hairs of his beard ! He
boasted of being able to prolong life and cure incurable diseases.
136 Port- Royal Edtication.
philosophy, and that, nevertheless, it is never useful to be deceived,
they have been brought forward in order to explain them, and
the error that has been found has been noted in passing in order
to prevent anyone being deceived.
It is not, then, to disparage Aristotle, but, on the contrary, to
honour him as much as possible in those things in which we are
not of his opinion, that we have taken examples from his books ;
and it is plain, besides, that the points on which he has been
criticised are of very slight importance, and do not touch the
foundation of his philosophy, which no one had any intention
of attacking.
If several excellent things which are found throughout
Aristotle's books have not been quoted, the reason is that they
did not enter into the subject of the discourse ; but if there had
been occasion to do so, it would have been taken with pleasure,
and we should not have failed to award the just praise due to
him. For it is certain that Aristotle had a vast and compre-
hensive mind, which discovers in the subjects of which he treats
a great number of connections and consequences; and for this
reason he has succeeded so well in what he has said on the
passions in the second book of his Rhetoric.
There are, besides, several beautiful things in his books on
Politics and Ethics, in his Problems and in the History of
Animals. And although there may be some confusion in his
Analytics, it must, nevertheless, be acknowledged that almost
all that is known of the rules of logic is taken from it ; so that,
in fact, there is no author from whom more things in this logic
have been borrowed than from Aristotle, since the whole body
of rules belongs to him.
It is true that his Physics appears to be his least perfect work,
as it is also that which has been the longest' condemned and
forbidden by the Church, as a learned author has shown in a
book written expressly for this purpose; 1 but yet its principal
defect is not that it is false, but, on the contrary, that it is too
true, and teaches us only things of which it is impossible to be
1 M. de Launoi, a doctor of the Sorbonne (1603-1678). De varia
Aristotelis in Academia Parisiensi fortuna.
Nicole: Port-Royal Logic. 137
ignorant. For who can doubt that all things are composed of
matter and of a certain form of that matter'? Who can doubt
that matter, in order to acquire a new manner and form, must
not have had it before, that is to say, that it had the privation
of it? Who can doubt, in fine, those other metaphysical
principles, that everything depends on form, that matter alone
does nothing, that there are place, motion, qualities, and
faculties'! But after having learnt all these things, it does not
seem that we have learned anything new, or that we are in a
position to give a reason for any of the effects in nature.
If there are persons who assert that it is by no means allowable
for a man to say that he is not of Aristotle's opinion, it would be
easy to show them that this scrupulousness is unreasonable.
For if any deference is due to certain philosophers, this can
only be for two reasons : either on account of the truth that they
have followed, or of the opinion of the men who support them.
In regard to the truth, respect is due to them when they
are right, but the truth cannot oblige us to respect falsehood
in any man, whoever he be.
The general consent of men in their estimation of a philosopher
certainly deserves some respect, and it would be imprudent to run
counter to it without using great precautions, and for this reason,
that by attacking what is generally accepted, a man renders
himself suspected of presumption in supposing that he has more
intelligence than others.
But when men are divided touching the opinions of an author,
and there are persons of eminence on either side, a man is not
obliged to show this reserve, but may freely declare what he
approves or disapproves in those books with regard to which men
of letters are divided, because this is not so much preferring
his own opinion to that of this author and his supporters, as
taking the side of those who are against him on this point.
This is exactly the position in which Aristotle's philosophy
is at the present time. As it has had various fortunes, having
been at one time generally rejected and at another generally
received, it is now reduced to a position that holds the mean
between these extremes ; it is upheld by many learned men and
is opposed by others of no less reputation, and every day men
138 Port- Royal Education.
write freely for and against Aristotle's philosophy in France,
Flanders, England, Germany, and Holland.
The conferences at Paris are divided, as well as the books, and
no one offends by opposing him. The most celebrated professors
no longer submit to the servitude of blindly accepting all that
they find in his books, and some of his opinions even are generally
abandoned. For what physician would now maintain that the
nerves spring from the heart, as Aristotle thought, since anatomy
clearly shows that they originate in the brain] . . . And what
philosopher persists in saying that the velocity of falling bodies
increases in the same ratio as their weight, since there is no
one now who cannot refute this opinion of Aristotle by letting
fall from a height two things of very unequal weight in which,
nevertheless, a very small inequality of velocity will be perceived]
Violent states are not usually lasting, and all extremes are
violent. To condemn Aristotle generally, as was formerly done,
is too severe ; and it is a great constraint to be obliged to approve
him in everything, and to take him as the standard of the truth
of philosophical opinions, as it seems men wished to do after-
wards.
The world cannot long submit to this constraint, and is in-
sensibly regaining possession of natural and reasonable liberty,
which consists in approving what we think true and rejecting
what we think false. 1
For it is not strange that reason should be subjected to
authority in those sciences which, treating of things that are
above the reason, must follow some other guidance, which cannot
be other than divine authority ; but it seems to be very just that
in human sciences, which profess to be founded only upon reason,
it should not be subjected to authority against reason. 2
1 "In every nation," Luis Vives had already written in the early part
of the sixteenth century, "great and free spirits, impatient of servitude,
arise ; they courageously shake off the yoke of the most dull and hard
servitude, and call their fellow-citizens to liberty."
2 Pascal has eloquently claimed the rights of reason in scientific matters.
See the preface to his Traitt du Tide.
Nicole : Of Bad Reasoning. 139
Of bad reasoning employed in civil life and in
ordinary discourse.
.... In considering generally the causes of our errors, it
appears that they may be referred chiefly to two ; the one
internal, namely, the uncertainty of the will, which troubles and
disorders the judgment ; the other external, which lies in the
objects on which we form a judgment, and which deceive our
minds by a false appearance. Now, although these causes are
almost always conjoined, there are, nevertheless, certain errors in
which one is more apparent than the other, and therefore we treat
of them separately.
Of the sophisms of self-love, inter 'est, and passion.
1. If we carefully examine that which usually attaches men to
one opinion rather than to another, it will be found that it is not
the penetrating power of the truth and the force of reasons, but
some bond of self-love, interest, or passion. This is the weight
which inclines the balance and which decides the majority of our
doubts ; it is this which gives the greatest impulse to our judg-
ments, and attaches us to them the most firmly. We judge of
things, not by what they are in themselves, but by what they are
with respect to us, and truth and utility are, in our opinion, one
and the same thing.
No other proofs are needed than those which we see every day,
that things held everywhere else as doubtful, or even false, are
held to be very true by all those of some one nation, profession,
or institution. For it not being possible that what is true in
Spain should be false in France, 1 nor that the minds of all
Spaniards should be formed so differently from those of French-
men, as that, judging things only by the rules of the reason,
what appears generally true to the former should appear generally
false to the latter, it is plain that this diversity of judgment can
proceed from no other cause than that it pleases some to hold as
1 "Truth on this side the Pyrenees, error on the other," said Pascal
ironically in liis Peiisees.
140 Port- Royal Education.
true what is advantageous to themselves, and that the others, not
having any interest in it, judge of it in another manner.
Nevertheless, what is less reasonable than to take our interest
as the motive for believing a thing 1 ? All that it can do at most
is to induce us to examine more attentively the reasons that may
lead us to discover the truth of that which we wish to be true ;
but it is only this truth which must be found in the thing, even
independently of our wish, which ought to persuade us. I belong
to such a country, therefore I must believe that such a saint
preached the Gospel there. I belong to a given order, therefore
I believe that a given privilege is right. These are no reasons.
Whatever country you may belong to you ought to believe only
what is true, and what you would be inclined to believe if you
were of another country, another order, or another profession.
2. But this illusion is still more apparent when some change
takes place in the passions; for although all things have remained
in their places, it seems, nevertheless, to those who are stirred by
some new passion that the change which has only taken place in
their hearts has transformed all external things which had any
connection with them. How often do we see persons who cannot
recognize any good quality, either natural or acquired, in those
against whom they have conceived an aversion, or who have
been opposed in some way to their opinions, their wishes, or
their interests ! That suffices to make them become at once, in
their eyes, rash, proud, and ignorant, without faith, without
honour, and without conscience. Their affections and desires
are not more just nor moderate than their hatred. If they love
anyone, he is free from all defects ; everything he wishes is just
and easy, all that he does not desire is unjust and impossible,
without their being able to allege any other reason for all these
judgments than the passion itself that possesses them; so that,'
although they do not make this formal reasoning in their mind,
I love him, therefore he is the most clever man in the world;
I hate him, therefore he is worthless, they do so, in a certain
way, in their hearts; and for this reason we may call this kind
of aberration sophisms and illusions of the heart, which consist
in transporting our passions into the objects of our passions, and
in judging that they are what we wish or desire they should be ;
Nicole : Of Bad Reasoning. \ 4 1
which is, doubtless, very unreasonable, since our wishes change
nothing in the existence of what is outside ourselves, and that
it is God alone whose will is so efficacious that things are what
He wills them to be.
3. We may refer to the same illusion of self-love that of those
who decide everything by a very general and convenient principle,
which is, that they are right, that they know the truth; whence
it is not difficult for them to conclude that those who are not of
their opinion are wrong ; in fact, the conclusion is necessary.
The fault in these persons springs only from this, that the
favourable opinion they have of their own sagacity makes them
consider all their thoughts as so clear and evident, that they
imagine it to be sufficient to state them in order to oblige all
the world to assent to them. They therefore give themselves
little trouble to advance proofs; they scarcely listen to others'
reasons; they wish to carry everything by their authority,
because they never distinguish their authority from reason.
All those who are not of their opinion they call rash, without
considering that, if others are not of their opinion, neither are
they of the opinion of others, and that it is not just to suppose,
without proof, that we are right, when it is a question of con-
vincing others who are of another opinion than ourselves simply
because they are persuaded that we are not right.
4. There are others, also, who have no other ground for reject-
ing certain opinions than this humorous reasoning : If that were
so, I should not be a clever man ; now I am a clever man, there-
fore it is not so. This is the principal reason which has caused
certain very useful remedies and some very decisive experiments
to be so long rejected, because those who had not yet known them
thought that they must have been in error up till that time.
" What ! " said they, "if the blood circulates in the body, 1 if the
food is not carried to the liver by the mesaraic veins, if the
pulmonary vein carries the blood to the heart, if the blood
rises by the descending vena cava; if nature does not abhor
a vacuum; if the air has weight and a downward motion,
1 The discovery of the circulation of the blood is due to Harvey, an
English physician, in 1628.
142 Port- Royal Education.
I have been ignorant of important things in anatomy and
physics ! All this then cannot be." But, in order to cure
them of this fancy, it is only necessary to show them that it is
a very small disadvantage for a man to be mistaken, and that
they may be very clever in other things although they have not
been so in those which have been newly discovered.
5. Nothing is more usual than to see people blame one another,
and call each other obstinate, passionate, and captious when they
are of different opinions. There are very few litigants who do
not accuse each other of lengthening the suit and concealing the
truth by subtle speeches ; and thus those who are right and those
who are wrong use very nearly the same language, make the
same complaints, and attribute to each other the same faults.
This is one of the most mischievous things in men's lives, and
one which throws truth and error, justice and injustice, into
such obscurity that ordinary people are incapable of distinguish-
ing them; and thus it happens that some attach themselves, by
chance and without knowledge, to one of these parties, and others
condemn both as being equally wrong.
All this oddness springs from the same malady which makes
each man assume as a principle that he is right ; for from that
it is not difficult to conclude that all who oppose us are obstinate,
since obstinacy is not giving way to reason.
But, although it be true that these reproaches of passion, blind-
ness, and captiousness, which are very unjust on the part of those
who are mistaken, are just and legitimate on the part of those who
are not mistaken, nevertheless, because they suppose that truth is
on the side of him who makes them, wise and judicious persons,
who treat on any disputed matter, ought to avoid using them
before thoroughly establishing the truth and justice of the cause
which they uphold. They will never then accuse their opponents
of obstinacy, rashness, and want of common sense before they have
clearly proved it. They will not say, if they have not previously
shown it, that they fall into gross absurdities and extravagances,
for the others will say as much on their side, which advances
nothing . . . and they will be satisfied with defending the truth
by arms which are appropriate to it and which falsehood cannot
borrow, namely, by plain and solid reasons. . . .
Nicole: Of Bad Reasoning. 143
Of False Reasonings which Spring from the
Objects Themselves.
... It is a false and impious opinion that truth is so like false-
hood and virtue so like vice that it is impossible to discriminate
between them ; but it is true that in the majority of things there
is a mixture of error and truth, of vice and virtue, of perfection
and imperfection, and that this medley is one of the most ordinary
sources of the false judgments of men.
The reason of this is that men seldom consider things in detail ;
they judge only by their strongest impression, and appreciate
only what strikes them most; thus, when they perceive many
truths in a discourse, they do not notice the errors that are
mingled with them; and, on the contrary, if there are truths
mixed with many errors, they pay attention only to the errors;
the strong carrying off the weak, and the clearer impression
effacing the more obscure.
Nevertheless, it is a manifest injustice to judge in this manner ;
there cannot be a just reason for rejecting reason, and truth is
none the less truth through being mixed with error. . . .
Therefore justice and reason requires that in all things that are
thus made up of good and bad a discrimination should be made,
and it is especially in this judicious separation that accuracy of
mind appears. . . .
And reason obliges us to this when we can make this dis-
tinction; but since we have not always the time to examine in
detail how much good and bad there is in each thing, it is fitting,
in these circumstances, to give them the name they deserve
according to their most considerable part ; thus we should call
a man a good philosopher when he reasons well generally, and a
book good when it has markedly more good than bad in it.
And it is in this again that men are often mistaken, for they
often only appreciate or blame things from their least important
parts, their small understanding making them unable to grasp the
most important part when it is not the most striking.
Thus, although those persons who are judges of painting value
drawing very much more than colouring or lightness of touch,
nevertheless, the ignorant are more impressed by a picture whose
144 Port- Royal Education.
colours are bright and striking than by another more sombre,
of which the drawing might be admirable.
It must, however, be admitted that false judgments are not so
usual in the arts, because those who know nothing of them more
readily defer to the opinion of those who are skilled in them ; but
they are very frequent in things which are in the jurisdiction
of the people, and of which the world takes the liberty of judging,
as, for example, eloquence.
A preacher, for instance, is called eloquent when his periods are
just, and he does not make use of inappropriate words ; and,
on this ground, Yaugelas says in one passage that an inappropriate
word does more harm to a preacher or an advocate than a bad
reason. We must believe that it is an actual truth that he states
and not an opinion that he sanctions. It is true that persons are
found who judge in this manner, but it is also true that nothing
is less reasonable than these judgments; for purity of language
and the number of rhetorical figures are, at most, to eloquence
what the colouring is to the picture, that is to say, its least
important and most materialistic part; but the principal part
consists in strongly conceiving and expressing the subjects, so that
a bright and lively image is impressed on the minds of the
hearers, 1 which presents not only the things themselves but also
the emotions with which they are conceived; and this may be met
1 Fenelon, who reduces all eloquence to three points, namely, to prove, to
painty and to move, thus develops the second : "To paint is not only
to describe things, but to represent their surroundings in such a lively
and impressive manner that the hearer may almost imagine he sees them.
For example, a cold historian relating the death of Dido would be satisfied
with saying she was so overcome with grief after the departure of ^Eneas that
she could not bear her life ; she \vent up to the top of her palace, threw her-
self on a funeral pyre, and killed herself. In listening to these words
you learn the fact, but you do not see it. Listen to Virgil, he will set
it before your eyes. Is it not true that when he brings together all the cir-
cumstances of this despair, when he shows you Dido furious, with a face in
which death is already painted, when he makes her speak at the sight
of that portrait and sword, your imagination transports you to Carthage ;
you think you see the Trojan fleet retiring from the coast, and the queen
whom nothing is able to console ; you have all the feelings that the actual
spectators would have had. You no longer listen to Virgil ; you are too
attentive to the last words of the unhappy Dido to think of him. The poet
disappears, and we see nothing but what he shows, and only hear those
whom he makes speak. Here is the power of imitation and painting." (2 e
Dialogue sur V eloquence.)
Nicole : Of Bad Reasoning. 145
with in persons who are not very precise in language nor exact in
harmony, and which is seldom met with in those who give too
much attention to words and embellishments, because this turns
them from the things and weakens the vigour of their thoughts,
as painters remark that those who excel in colouring do not
usually excel in drawing, the mind being incapable of this
divided attention, the one part injuring the other.
It may be said generally that in the world the majority of
things are judged only by the outside, because there is scarcely
anybody who examines the interior and foundation of them ;
everything is judged by the label, and woe to those who have not
a favourable one ! He is clever, intelligent, sound, what you
will ; but he does not speak fluently and cannot turn a compli-
ment neatly ; let him make up his mind to be held in small
esteem all his life by ordinary people, and to see a multitude
of little minds preferred to himself. Not to have the reputation
we deserve is not a very great evil, but to follow these erroneous
judgments, and only to look at things from the outside is so, and
is what we should endeavour to avoid.
2. Among the things which entangle us in error by a false
brilliancy, which prevents our recognizing it, we may rightly put
a certain sonorous and copious eloquence ; for it is strange how a
false reasoning glides gently from a period that satisfies the ear,
or from a figure that surprises us, and which it amuses us to
consider.
Not only do these ornaments conceal from us the falsehoods
that are mixed up in the discourse, but they insensibly form part
of them, because they are often necessary to the accuracy of the
period or the figure. Thus, when we hear an orator begin a long
climax or an antithesis with several clauses, we have a motive for
being on our guard, since it seldom happens that he extricates
himself without giving a wrench to the truth in order to fit it to
the figure. 1 He usually arranges it as a man would the stones
of a building or the metal of a statue ; he cuts it, spreads it out,
shortens it, and disguises it at need, in order to place it in
that useless work of words that he wishes to form.
1 Pascal compares these forced antitheses to "sham windows for
symmetry." (Pensees.)
L
146 Port-Royal Education.
How often has the desire to make a point produced unsound
thoughts ! How often has rime invited men to lie ! How often
has the affectation of using only Ciceronian words and what
is called pure Latinity made certain Italian authors write non-
sense ! Who would not laugh to hear Bembo 1 say that a pope
had been elected by the favour of the immortal gods ! There are
indeed poets who imagine that it is the essence of poetry to
introduce the pagan divinities ; and a German poet, as good a
versifier as he is an injudicious writer, having been properly
censured by Francis Picus Mirandola for having introduced all the
divinities of paganism into a poem in which he describes the
wars of Christians against Christians, and for having mixed
up Apollo, Diana, and Mercury with the pope, the electors, and
the emperor, boldly maintained that without that he would
not have been a poet, employing this strange reason, in order
to prove it, that the verses of Hesiod, Homer, and Yirgil are
filled with the names and fables of these gods, whence he
concludes that it is allowable for him to do the same.
This unsound reasoning is often unperceived by those who use
it, and deceives them first ; they are stunned by the sound of their
own words, dazzled by the brilliancy of their figures, and the
grandeur of certain words draws them on, without their perceiving
it, to thoughts of little solidity, which they would no doubt regret
if they reflected on them at all.
It is probable, for example, that it was the word vestal which
pleased an author of the present time and led him to say to a
lady, to prevent her being ashamed of knowing Latin, that she
need not blush to speak a language that the Yestals spoke ; for if
he had considered this idea, he would have seen that he might
have said to the lady, with as much reason, that she ought to
blush to speak a language that the courtezans of Rome formerly
spoke, who were much more numerous than the Yestals; 2 or that
she ought to blush to speak any other language than that of her
1 Pierre Bembo (1470-1547), secretary to Leo X., was so enamoured with
Cicero's style as to imitate him even in his pagan expressions ; he was elected
cardinal, and took orders in 1539.
2 The Vestals were virgins appointed to keep up the sacred fire on the altar
of the goddess Yesta ; there were only six.
Nicole : Of Bad Reasoning. 147
own country, since the ancient Vestals spoke only their native
language. All these arguments, which are worth nothing, are as
good as that of this author, and the truth is that the Vestals can
serve neither to justify nor condemn girls who learn Latin. 1
False reasonings of this sort, which are constantly met with in
the writings of those who most affect eloquence, show how the
majority of persons who speak or write would need to be per-
suaded of this excellent rule that nothing is beautiful but ivhat is
true? which would remove a vast number of worthless ornaments
and false thoughts from discourse. Certainly this precision renders
the style drier and less sonorous, but it also renders it more lively,
serious, clear, and worthy of a cultivated man; its impression is
stronger and more durable, whereas that which simply springs
from these nicely-balanced periods is so superficial, that it vanishes
almost as soon as it is heard. 8
3. It is a very common failing among men to judge rashly of
the actions and intentions of others, but they seldom fall into it
except through bad reasoning, by which, through not recognizing
with sufficient clearness all the causes that may produce a certain
effect, they attribute this effect to one cause alone, when it may
have been produced by several others ; or again, they suppose that
a cause which, by accident, has had a certain effect on one occasion,
when it was united with several other circumstances, ought to
have it under all conditions.
1 Malebranche quizzes good-naturedly the pretended reasons alleged by
Tertullian to justify himself for wearing the philosopher's mantle instead of
the ordinary robe. This mantle was formerly in use at Carthage, but " is it
allowable at the present time to wear the cap and ruff because our fathers
wore them ? " How could the phases of the moon, the variations of the
seasons, the renewing of the serpent's skin, &c., serve to justify his change ?
(Recherche de la vtrite', liv. ii. )
2 Boileau will make it the rule of literature : Rien n'est beau que le mai ;
le vrai seul est aimable. (Epitre ix.)
" Nothing is beautiful but the true ; the true alone is pleasing."
3 Fenelon very happily puts this criticism in the mouth of one of his
characters, the admirer of the sermon for Ash-Wednesday. He cannot give
an account of it. "The thoughts are so delicate, and depend so much on
the tone and shades of expression, that after having charmed for the moment
they are not easily remembered afterwards, and even if they should be, say
them in other terms and it is no longer the same thing, they lose their grace
and force. They are very fragile beauties then, Sir ; on endeavouriug to
touch them they disappear. I should much prefer a discourse with more
body and less spirit." (l er Dialogue sur I' Eloquence.)
148 Port- Royal Education.
A man of letters holds the same opinion as a heretic on a
matter of criticism, independent of religious controversies ; an
ill-natured opponent will conclude from this that he has some
leaning towards the heretics ; but he will conclude rashly and
maliciously, since it is perhaps reason and truth which lead him to
this opinion.
If a writer speak with some force against an opinion that he
thinks dangerous, he may be accused upon that of hatred and
animosity against the authors who have advanced it, but it would
be rashly and unjustly, for this force might spring from zeal for
truth quite as well as from hatred to persons.
A man is the friend of a bad man, hence it is concluded he
is allied with him by interest, and is a partaker in his crimes.
This does not follow ; perhaps he is ignorant of them, and perhaps
he has had no share in them.
A man fails to pay a compliment to those to whom it is due ; he
is called proud and insolent, but perhaps it is only inadvertence or
simply f orgetfulness.
All these exterior things are only equivocal signs, that is to
say, signs which may signify several things, and it is judging
rashly to limit this sign to a particular thing without having any
special reason for doing so. Silence is sometimes a sign of
modesty and judgment, and sometimes of stupidity. Slowness
sometimes indicates prudence and sometimes dulness of mind.
Change is sometimes a sign of inconstancy and sometimes of
sincerity ; thus it is bad reasoning to conclude that a man is
inconstant simply because he has changed his opinion, for he may
have had good reason to change it. ...
It is a weakness and an injustice, which is often condemned but
seldom avoided, to judge advice by the results, and to blame those
who have taken a prudent resolution according to the circum-
stances that they could then see, for all the bad results that have
followed, 1 either through a simple casualty or through the malice
1 Compared with this lagging prose how brilliant and striking is the
eloquence of Demosthenes, crushing that sophism in the mouth of uEschines !
Accused of being the author of the disaster at Chseronea, he haughtily
accepts the responsibility : ' ' Athenians, I am going to say a strange thing.
, . . If all of us had clearly seen the future, if you, ^schines, had
Nicole: Of Bad Reasoning. 149
of those who have thwarted it, or through some other circum-
stances which it was impossible for them to foresee.
Not only do men like to be fortunate as much as to be wise,
but they make no distinction between the fortunate and the wise
or between the unfortunate and the culpable. This distinction
appears to them too subtle. They are ingenious in finding out
the faults that they imagine have led to the ill-success, and as the
astrologers, when they know a certain event, never fail to discover
the aspect of the stars which produced it, they also never fail to
find, after disgraces and misfortunes, that those who have fallen
into them deserved them by some imprudence. He has not
succeeded, therefore he is wrong. Thus men of the world reason,
and have always reasoned, because there has always been little
equity in men's judgments, and because, not knowing the real
causes of things, they substitute others according to the event,
praising those who succeed and blaming those who do not.
If there are pardonable errors, they are certainly those that are
committed through excessive deference to the opinions of those
who are considered good men. But there is an illusion much
more absurd in itself, but which is, nevertheless, very common,
namely, thinking that a man speaks the truth because he is a man
of birth, wealth, or of high dignity.
Persons do not formally reason in this manner : he has a.
hundred thousand livres a year, therefore he is right; he is of
high birth, hence we ought to believe what he advances to be
true ; he is a poor man, therefore he is wrong. Nevertheless,
something of the kind passes through the minds of the majority
of men, and unconsciously carries away their judgment.
If the same thing be suggested by a person of quality and
by a man of no position, it will often be approved in the mouth
of the person of quality, while people will not deign to listen
to it from a man of the lower classes. Scripture intended to
announced it to us with your voice of thunder, you who did not even open
your mouth, even then Athens ought not to have renounced her principles,
if she had at heart her dignity, the glory of her ancestors, and the judgment
of posterity. . . . No, Athenians, you have not erred in throwing yourselves
into the midst of dangers for the liberty and the safety of all, I swear it by
your ancestors who braved the dangers of Marathon, by those who fought at
Platsea, at Salamis, at Artemisium," &c.
150 Port-Royal Education.
teach us this disposition of man, representing it exactly in the
book of Ecclesiasticus : " When a rich man speaketh, every man
holdeth his tongue, and look, what he saith, they extol it to the
clouds; but if the poor man speak, they say, What fellow is
this?"
It is certain that complaisance and flattery have a large share
in the approbation that men give to the words and actions of
persons of good birth, and these often attract it by a certain
outward grace, and a noble, free, and natural manner, which is
sometimes so peculiar to them that it is almost inimitable by
those of low birth; but it is also certain that many approve
all that the great do and say from a poverty of spirit which
bends under the weight of grandeur, and has not a sufficiently
strong sight to support its brilliancy, and that this external pomp
which surrounds them always imposes a little, and makes some
impression on the strongest minds.
The cause of this deception is in the corruption of the human
heart, which, having an ardent desire for honours and pleasures,
necessarily conceives a great love for riches and the other qualities
by means of which these honours and pleasures are obtained.
Now, the love that we have for all these things that the world
values causes us to think those fortunate who possess them,
and, judging them fortunate, we place them above ourselves,
and look upon them as exalted and eminent persons. This
habit of looking upon them with esteem passes insensibly from
their fortune to their mind. Men do not usually do things by
halves. They attribute to them, then, a mind as exalted as
their rank, and yield to their opinions, and this is the reason
of the credit they usually have in the affairs of which they treat.
But this illusion is still stronger in the great themselves, who
have not been careful to correct the impression that their fortune
naturally makes on their own minds, than it is in their inferiors.
There are few of them who do not make a reason of their rank
and wealth, and do not think that their opinions ought to prevail
over the opinions of those who are below them. They cannot
bear that people upon whom they look down should lay claim
to as much judgment and reason as themselves, and this makes
them impatient of the least contradiction.
Nicole : Of Bad Reasoning. 1 5 1
All this springs from the same source, that is to say, from the
false ideas they have of their grandeur, nobility, and wealth.
Instead of considering these as things entirely extraneous to their
existence, which do not prevent them being on a perfect equality
with the rest of mankind as to soul and body, nor having the
judgment as feeble and as capable of being deceived as that of
everybody else, they incorporate, in a certain way, in their very
essence all these qualities of great, noble, rich, master, lord, and
prince; they magnify their idea of them, and never think of
themselves without all their titles, their equipage, and their train. 1
They are accustomed to look upon themselves from their child-
hood as a separate species from other men ; they are never mixed
up in imagination with the crowd of mankind; they are always
counts or dukes in their own eyes, and never simply men ; thus
they cut out for themselves a mind and a judgment in proportion
to their fortune, and think themselves placed as far above others
in mind as they are in rank and wealth.
The folly of the human mind is such that there is nothing that
does not help it to aggrandize its idea of itself. A fine house,
a splendid coat, a long beard, make a man think himself more
clever; and if we take notice, he thinks more of himself on
horseback or in a coach than on foot. It is easy to persuade
everybody that nothing is more ridiculous than these judgments,
but it is very difficult to protect ourselves entirely against the
secret impression that all these things make on the mind. All
that we can do is to accustom ourselves, as far as possible, to
give no weight to those qualities which can in no way contribute
to the discovery of the truth, and to give to those that do
contribute to it only as much as they do really contribute.
Age, knowledge, study, experience, mind, activity, caution,
accuracy, and labour serve to discover the truth of hidden
things, and therefore these qualities deserve respect; but, never-
theless, they must be carefully weighed, and then compared with
1 You are deceived, Philemon, if you think you are more esteemed for
this brilliant carriage, this great number of knaves that follow you, and
these six animals that draw you. Men put aside all this outward show
to penetrate to you, who are nothing but a fop. (LA BKUY^RE, Caracteres,
cli. ii.)
152 Port- Royal Education.
the opposite reasons, for we can decide nothing with certainty
from each of these things hy itself, since very erroneous opinions
have been maintained by men of great intellect who had many of
these Qualities. (Logique, part iii. ch. xx.)
V* RULES OF THE METHOD IN THE SCIENCES.
^ Analysis consists more in the judgment and mental skill than
in particular rules. These four, nevertheless, that Descartes lays
down in his Method, may be useful in avoiding error in the
pursuit of truth in human sciences, although, to say the truth,
they are general for all kinds of methods and not peculiar to
analysis.
The first is, never to accept anything as true which we do not
plainly recognize as such ; that is to say, to carefully avoid hastiness
and prejudice, and not to include in our judgments anything that is
not presented so clearly to the mind that there is no room for doubt.
The second, to divide each of the difficulties that we are
examining into as many parts as possible, or as are requisite to
resolve it.
The third, to conduct our thoughts in order, beginning with the
simplest and most easily understood objects, in order to rise by
degrees to the knowledge of the more complex, and even to suppose
an order among those that do not naturally precede one another.
The fourth, to make throughout such complete enumerations and
general reviews that we may be certain of having omitted nothing.
It is true that there is much difficulty in observing these rules ;
but it is always useful to bear them in mind and to observe them,
as far as possible, when we wish to discover the truth by means of
the reason and as far as our mind is capable of knowing it.
The Method of the Sciences reduced to eight principal rules.
TWO RULES TOUCHING DEFINITIONS.
1. To leave no term in the least obscure or equivocal without
defining it.
2. To employ in the definitions only terms which are perfectly
known or already explained.
Nicole: Method in the Sciences. 153
TWO RULES FOR THE AXIOMS.
3. To demand as axioms only things perfectly evident.
4. To accept as evident that which needs only a little attention
in order to be recognized as true.
TWO RULES FOR THE DEMONSTRATIONS.
5. To prove all propositions, which are in the least obscure, by
employing in proof of them only preceding definitions, accepted
axioms, or propositions already demonstrated.
6. Never to abuse what is equivocal in terms by failing to
substitute for them mentally the definitions which restrict and
explain them.
TWO RULES FOR THE METHOD.
7. To treat of things as far as possible in their natural order,
commencing with the simplest and most general, explaining
everything that belongs to the nature of the genus before passing
to its particular species.
8. To divide, as far as possible, every genus into all its species,
every whole into all its parts, and every difficulty into all its
cases.
I have added to these two rules, as far as possible, because it
often happens that we cannot observe them rigorously, either
on account of the limits of the human understanding or of those
we have been obliged to set to every science.
This often causes us to treat of a species when we are not able
to treat of all that belongs to its genus ; as we treat of the circle
in common geometry without saying anything specially of the
curved line, which is its genus, and which we are satisfied with
simply defining.
We cannot either say all that can be said of a whole genus,
because that would often be too long ; but it is sufficient to say all
we wish to say of it before passing to the species.
But I think that a science can only be treated perfectly by
observing these two last rules as well as the others, and only
resolving to dispense with them from necessity or for some
special advantage. (Logique, part iv. ch. ii. and iii
UNIVERSITY
154 Port-Royal Education.
ON TEACHING READING AND WRITING ; EXERCISES IN
TRANSLATION, ELOCUTION, AND COMPOSITION.
"DEAR READER, Some of my friends having desired me to
speak more at length on the subject of teaching children Latin
than I haye done in the different prefaces to translations that
I have given to the puhlic, in which I have been satisfied with
representing chiefly that the system now followed is long, difficult,
and unnatural, and that I thought that there might be another
shorter, easier, and more conformable to nature, that is, to reason,
I will endeavour to satisfy them here as succinctly as possible,
labouring to build up, after having laboured in my other writings
to destroy. . . .
" In the first place, then, I say that it is a grave error to begin,
as is usually done, to teach children to read through Latin and not
through French.
" This road is so long and difficult, that it not only repels the
scholars from all other learning, by prejudicing their minds from
their earliest childhood with a distaste and an almost invincible
hatred for books and study, but it also makes the teachers
impatient and peevish, because both are equally wearied with the
trouble and time they give to it, which extends to three or four
years \ but the masters must consider that, if they have difficulty
in teaching, the children have incomparably more in learning,
which should be a motive for making them gentler and more
patient with them by making them sympathize with the weak-
ness of childhood. For they must not imagine that what they
find pleasure in knowing children can learn without trouble ;
but they should rather remember their own childhood, and the
difficulties they had in becoming learned. Thus they will adapt
themselves to the weakness of their scholars, and not give them
more trouble than they can help. . . .
" There will always be difficulties enough, either from things or
from their minds, or, in fact, from their natural inclinations or
aversions, without our adding others ourselves by the bad method
we follow in instructing them. 1
1 This justification of the method is full of good seuse and clearness.
Guyot: On Teaching Reading, Writing, etc. 155
" How, then, can children be expected to learn in a short time
and with pleasure, or, at least, without very great trouble, by
commencing to make them read in Latin, which is a tongue they
ido not understand in the least, and which they never hear spoken
(for that would be of great use to them, at least for the pronuncia-
jbion) except while they are being taught it ? Is it not more natural
to make use of what they know already, in order to teach them
what they do not know, since the very definition of the method of
teaching tells us to act in this manner 1 . . .
"Now French boys already know French, of which they are
acquainted with a large number of words; why not, then, teach
them first to read in French, since this method would be shorter
and less tedious 1 ? for they would only have to retain in their
minds the shape of the letters and their combinations ; in which
the memory of the things and the words that they already know,
with what they are constantly hearing in every-day life, would aid
them little by little in remembering them again ; whereas in Latin
they are not helped in any way, everything is strange and new,
and they can only fix their attention on the characters and com-
binations which are shown them ; and this is the cause that they
only retain them with much trouble and time, during which they
must be dinned into their ears over and over again, before they can
remember them once, having nothing to hold by, neither words,
nor things, nor what they hear said every day.
"Since, then, we must use what the children already know to
teach them what they do not know, which is a general rule, with-
out exception, for everything we wish to teach them, it would be
proper to make them read at first detached words only, of which
they know the things they represent, as those which they commonly
use, as bread, a bed, a room, &c. But they should have been
shown beforehand the shapes and characters of these words in an
alphabet, making them pronounce the vowels and diphthongs only,
and not the consonants, which they should be taught to pronounce
only in the different combinations that they form with the same
vowels or diphthongs in the syllables and words.
" For yet another fault is committed in the ordinary method of
teaching children to read, which is the manner in which they are
taught to name the letters separately, both consonants and vowels.
156 Port- Royal Education.
Now the consonants are called consonants only because they have
no sound by themselves, but they must be joined with vowels and
sound with them. 1 We are, then, contradicting ourselves in
teaching to pronounce alone letters which can only be pronounced
when they are joined with others ; for in pronouncing the conso-
nants separately, and making the children name them, we always
add a vowel, namely, e, which, belonging neither to the syllable
nor to the word, makes the sound of the letters named different
from their sound when joined with others ; thus, after the children
have spelled all the letters of a word one by one, they cannot pro-
nounce them altogether in the same word, because the medley of
different sounds confuses their ears and imagination. For example,
a child is made to spell the word bon, which is composed of three
letter , o, ra, which they are made to pronounce one after the
other. Now b, pronounced by itself, makes be-, o, pronounced
alone, is still 0, for it is a vowel ; but n, pronounced alone, makes
enne. How, then, can this child understand that all these sounds
that he has pronounced separately in spelling these three letters one
after the other can only make this single sound, bon ? He can
never understand this, and he only learns to put them together
because his teacher himself puts them together, and shouts in his
ear over and over again this single sound, bon.
" Again, the poor child is made to spell this other word, jamais,
and it is done in this way, j-a-m-a-i-s, jamais. How can this
child imagine that the six sounds which he has pronounced in
spelling these six letters make only these two, jamais ? For, when
we spell the letters of this word we pronounce separately j-a-em
a-i-esse. Here are six or seven sounds, of which, they say, he
ought to make these two, ja-mais. Would they not have done it
sooner by making him pronounce these two syllables only, ja-mais,
and not all the consonants and vowels separately, which only
confuses his mind by this multitude of different sounds, which he
can never put together as you wish him to do if you do not do it
yourself and pronounce it to him several times ? The same thing
1 The definition is not quite exact, since there are consonants which have
really a sound by themselves, for example, /, s, and even r.
Guyot : On Teaching Reading, Writing, etc. 157
may bo said of a great number of difficult words, as aimoient
faisoient, disoient, &C. 1
" Besides, you may make a child spell his letters as much as
you like, but he will never learn by this means to pronounce the
syllables and words; it is only the use and habit that he has
of hearing the same sound pronounced many times when they
point out to him the letters which make him learn them. But
this is because we always want to reason with children and
teach them by rules what depends on usage alone, which is the
only rule of language. And if you will pay attention to what
I say you will see that the syllables and words together are
repeated to them so many times that at last they retain them, and
remember that such and such letters joined together have such a
pronunciation, which they would never otherwise have imagined
by spelling the letters one after another. Therefore it is very
useless to make them lose so much time and pains by this way of
spielling, whereas they would have learnt the combinations of
letters very much sooner than this multitude of sounds from
which they are desired to compose one or two syllables. Thus
the knowledge of reading, which the children acquire at length, is
attributed, without reason, to this manner of spelling the letters,
but it is only an effect of the habit they have of hearing the
syllables and entire words pronounced very often. And for a
similar reason it is thought that the rules of Despautere 2 are the
cause of the correctness with which a child composes in Latin,
although in composing he had not even thought of them, having
only followed in that the usage of the Latin, which he has only
learnt by reading and writing and by making many mistakes
which have been corrected.
" After having shown to the children and pronounced the five
2 The pronunciation of oi of the imperfect was not then fixed. Father
Chiflet wrote in 1677 : " It is softer and more common among the upper
classes who speak well to pronounce je parlais. Nevertheless, it is not a
fault to say je parlois, since at Paris, at the bar and in the pulpit, many
eloquent speakers do not condemn this pronunciation." (Nouvelle et parfaite
grammairefranqaise, p. 203. )
2 Van Pauteren, in French Despautere (1460-1520), a professor at
Louvain and Bois-le-Duc. His Latin grammar was long in vogue in
schools.
158 Port-Royal Education.
^vowels a, e, i, 0, u, and the diphthongs ae, oe, au, eu, ei, 1
;and making them only look at the shapes of the consonants
'without letting them pronounce them except in combination
in entire syllables, of whicli they have drawn up and learnt a
list, it will be well to make them read first entire words detached
from one another, of which they should make a list in which they
would only insert the most common words that they hear most
often and whose meaning they know. And as they are taught to
pray to God from the age of four or five years (I suppose it
is done in French), we must begin by their prayers and the
catechism, 2 which they already know by heart, to make them
read a connected narrative, then break the thread of it to see
if they read from a knowledge of the words, or by heart and
rote ; in order that, when they can read their prayers and their
catechism equally well anywhere they are asked, we may then
begin to give them French books.
" Being, then, in a position to be able to learn to read in French
books, they must be given those in which the matter is adapted to
their intelligence. The small colloquies of Mathurin Cordier 3
would be very proper for this use, if they were translated into
better French ; for the purity of their native language must not
be corrupted from this early age ; but the fables of Phaedrus, the
Captivi of Plautus, the Bucolics of Yirgil, the three comedies
1 It is an error to call " diphthong" (two sounds) ae, oe, au, eu, ei, since
there is only one sound represented by two letters, which lose their proper
sound to form a new one. The Grammaire gne~rale of Port-Royal did not
commit this error : ' ' Eu, as it is in feu, pen, is only a simple sound,
although we write it with two vowels." (Part i. ch. i.) However, in
chapter iii. the authors call "diphthong" the sound of eau, which is,
however, simple.
2 Even if the law had not taken its religious character from the school, we
do not think that these are books to interest young children. The subjects
are too serious and beyond their capacity.
3 "Cordier, Mathurin, a priest (1479-1564), was one of the best class
regents that could be desired ; he understood Latin well, was a man of much
virtue, and devoted himself to his office, being as careful to instruct his
pupils in good behaviour as in good Latinity. He employed his life in
teaching children at Paris, Never s, Bourdcaux, Geneva, Neufchdtel, Lausanne,
and, lastly, again at Geneva, where he died on Sept. 8, 1564, aged 85, teaching
the young in the sixth class three or four days before his death. There is
scarcely a book that has served more than that to accustom children to
speak Latin." (BAYLE.)
Guyot : On Teaching Reading, Writing, etc. 159
of Terence, these letters and the collection of Cicero's letters
might be very useful to them ; for, by this means, they will learn
at the same time to read and speak their own language with
purity, as accomplished men talk in society, which is the principal
style in which it is necessary to bring them up, and they will
know in advance the subjects contained in the first Latin books
that they will read or learn by heart, which will make the
understanding of them easy, of which the beginning is so painful.
And, in this way, what they already know may be usefully
employed to teach them what they do not know. 1
" With regard to writing, great care should be taken to teach
children to write well, because, besides its usefulness, it is a very
good means of occupying them and driving away tedium ; for
when they can write well, they like to do so, because we
naturally like to do what we do well, and even desire to excel
in it. The best teachers should be chosen for this, provided they
will take the trouble and be careful that they hold the pen right,
for that is most important. They must not, then, be allowed
to write by themselves at the commencement, but before their
teachers, until they have acquired a good habit of holding the
pen, and when they have done that they should often pass|
the dry pen over the lines of their copy, in order that the muscles, /
nerves, and the whole hand should acquire the knack and
movement necessary for good writing. 2 And I should also wish
that they should not be given copies without rime or reason, but
some beautiful sentences in French or Latin verse, which might
serve to regulate their mind and their manners. 3 They would
1 There is an ingenious foresight in making the children read in French
what they will study later in Latin. But, looking closely into the matter,
are the proposed works well chosen ? The Fables of Phaedrus are perfectly
suitable. But the Comedies of Terence and Plautus and Cicero's Letters ?
It is a question of children "of tender years," who have just overcome the
first difficulties of reading ; this nutriment is much too strong.
2 This is a very judicious recommendation, and more simple in practice
than the use of those tablets over which the pupil moves his pencil in letters
formed of sunken lines.
3 At the time that Guyot was giving this wise advice Mine, de Maintenon
wrote with her own hand in the copy -books of her pupils at Saint-Cyr these
maxims as writing copies : * * Seek the truth in everything. Love to give pleasure
and never lie. There is nothing disgraceful but ill-doing. Submit to reason
as soon as you know it. Be severe towards yourselves and indulgent to others.
160 Port-Royal Education.
^unconsciously learn a great number of them, which would be
!so much good seed whose fruit would be seen in due season.
[It would be well to let them continue this exercise for several
years, and not to allow them to write either their themes or
translations badly ; for, besides that everything that we do should
, be well done, 1 as far as possible, they would soon unlearn what
[ they have learnt with much time and pains.
" I come now to the Latin, and I suppose, as everybody agrees,
that as native and living languages should be chiefly learnt by
use and intercourse with persons who speak them well, so the
dead languages should be learnt by reading the authors who
formerly spoke them well, and who live and speak to us now, in
a manner, in their works. But as the life and speech of these
dead authors is dying, not to say quite dead, and the tone of
their voice is so low and difficult to hear that it scarcely differs
from silence, it would be an incomparable advantage to resuscitate,
in some sort, these dead authors, and re-animate them with our
spirit, voice, and action, that they may teach us in a vivid and
natural manner. 2 And this may be done by translating their
works viva voce to the children, or reading the translation to them,
in this way serving them as a living and animated interpreter,
who speaks to them in their own tongue, as the dead would speak
to them in theirs if they were still living. And this shows that,
translation being the means that most nearly approaches the
natural manner of learning living languages, it is also the most
natural and useful means of learning the dead languages.
For is it not an inverted order, and quite contrary to nature, to
begin by writing in a language which they not only cannot speak
but do not even understand? Children who are beginning to
learn their native language begin by hearing it before speaking
If you feel pleasure when you are reproved, believe that you will have merit.
Let your conscience be simple and sincere. Never go to rest without having
learnt something," &c.
1 An excellent precept to recommend. Of what use is an hour's application
to the writing lesson, if they scribble the rest of the time ? Good teachers
have, from the same motive, suppressed the rough copy.
2 There is in all this page a very clear perception of the value of oral
teaching, of the living word of the teacher. Guyot returns to the subject a
little further on with a praiseworthy persistence.
Guyot : On Teaching Reading, Writing, etc. 161
it, and speaking it before writing it. Why, then, reverse this
order that nature prescribes in order to make children begin to
write in a language they do not understand? And this shows
that the method which is so common of making children write
Latin themes before teaching them to understand Latin, to say
nothing of speaking it, is a method entirely opposed to nature,
of which art should be the imitator. It is, then, certain that we
must begin by teaching the children Latin in order that they may
understand it before they speak or write it, and that there is no
other means than translation of making them understand it.
"Now there are two sorts of translation, one viva voce, the
other written. There is no doubt that the first is incomparably
more useful and more natural than the second ; for the voice in
this matter is like a faithful interpreter, who conducts us in a
living manner into the country of the dead, and makes us speak
and converse with them, or, at least, makes us listen to them
speaking and conversing with us, as he would make us speak
and converse with Turks or Germans, first letting us hear their
language, then speak with them, and finally write to them.
"But the better to understand the advantage that viva voce
translation has over written, it must be remarked that words have
a double signification, one natural, the other artificial; for, as
words are arbitrary signs of things or of mental ideas, they are
also natural signs of the emotions of the heart ; and this natural
signification is lost, in a manner, in writings, at least for those
who are only commencing to learn a dead language, for they only
understand the artificial signification of the things according to
the ideas that it awakens in their mind, which ideas are usually
rather obscure and confused in children ; but the viva voce trans-
lation better preserves this signification of the emotions of the
heart, for voice was given to man, not only to make known
things or the ideas they have of them, but also to express the
various emotions of their heart with respect to these same things,
or the ideas they have of them. And this they do in many
other ways, as by gesture and action, by the movements of their
hands, eyes, head, or shoulders, in fine, by the mute language of
the whole body. It is this language of the heart that must be
heard in order to understand a language well, because it is, as
M
1 62 Port- Royal Education.
it were, its spirit and life. For it is the passions and emotions
of the heart which make all the various beauties and figures of
the discourse, and which give it that omnipotence which is
attributed to eloquence and the distinct air or character which
is remarked in it, and which is found, not only in the particular
language of each individual man, but even in that of whole
tribes and nations. For some speak in a very gentle and others
in a rough manner, some in a modest, others in a haughty and
boastful manner, some in a simple and artless style, others in a
figurative and embellished style, some affect brevity, others a
great flow of words, some speak uncivilly, others with politeness,
some with amorous and tender air, others in a dry and harsh
tone ; all these differences spring from the emotions f-f the heart.
"Thus, in order to bring out this natural signification of the
movements of the soul which accompanies the artificial significa-
tion of the thoughts, the teacher must brighten the lesson by his
tone of voice and his gestures in reading it to them, first in
French and then in Latin, with all the appropriate inflections
and accents. They will then understand and retain it much
sooner, because it will appeal to them more; whereas a simple
reading which they do themselves or which is done by the
teacher makes little impression on their minds. Thus an orator
or an actor makes us understand the subject of a piece much
better than a simple reading of it, because, adding his voice and
action to the matter, he makes the ideas strike the mind, and the
emotions move the heart more vividly. This is how we breathe
life into a dead language, and give a double life to a language yet
living. This opens and even elevates the children's minds, by
stirring up and agitating them powerfully, and thus renders them
capable of imitating, by art, the natural passions, which they can
only understand and imitate by these means, not being yet able
to be touched by them. . . .
"Since, then, French is to serve us as introducer to and
interpreter in the Latin country, it must take a step in advance,
I mean, French must be taught before Latin; and the children
should be so well grounded in the ordinary and familiar French
style by reading the books that I have mentioned, making them
learn them by heart, that the Latin which they will afterwards
Guyot : On Teaching Reading, Writing^ etc. 163
learn shall not be able to injure or corrupt the purity of their
French. Now the younger children are more fitted to learn
French in this way than the elder, because, having an imperfect
idea of things, they cannot detach them from the words by which
they entered their minds, being, so to say, clothed with the terms
and expressions which have made them conceive them ; whereas
the elder children, conceiving things in their own way, and accord-
ing to opinions which they have previously formed, express them
also in their own way, without confining themselves to the words
of their author. The younger children, then, must, as I have
said, be first grounded in the ordinary and familiar French, in
order that the Latin, which they will learn afterwards, and which
is so centre y to the French in its construction, may not injure
their native language, as usually happens. For we see that
children who have been taught in a different manner have often
unlearnt French, or rather have not learnt it at all, in learning
Latin, and have even rendered themselves more incapable of
learning it, as may be perceived by setting them to write in
French. . . . And this is the cause that at the present time the
most learned persons, and those who best understand the authors,
having neglected their native language in order to learn foreign
tongues, and having given up intercourse with the living in order
to converse only with the dead, can only translate their works
in a lifeless and foreign manner, and thus render themselves less
capable of filling the higher posts in the church and at the
bar. . . .
" The children, then, must acquire, through these French trans-
lations, a moderate usage of their native language, which consists
in the correctness of the words and their combinations, and in
clearness of style even in ordinary and familiar expressions.
They should not, therefore, read many French books of various
styles, and especially those of a bad style, for that would make
them incapable of distinguishing the good from the bad, as
persons who habituate themselves to all kinds of wines can no
longer appreciate nor distinguish their differences ; and their
minds should only be fed on delicate and intellectual things if
we wish to give them a delicate and intellectual taste. For this
reason it is a great error to make them read indifferently all sorts
164 Port- Royal Education.
of authors, whether Latin or French, and those who guide them
in this way show that they themselves have had the misfortune
not to be better guided, so that the fault that was committed in
their education is perpetuated indefinitely by their instructing
others as they themselves were instructed; and very few are
found who rise above custom to follow reason. . . .
" Since, then, our intention is to form the children to an ordinary
and familiar style, we must choose books proper for this object,
both in matter and style 1 . . . . Add to them, for Sundays and
Holy-days, the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, the last Lives
of the Saints, written by M. d'Andilly, his History of Josephus,
the Confessions of St. Augustine, the Imitation of Christ, the
Homilies of St. Chrysostom, and a few other books or histories
well written in French. This will fortify them in purity of
morals as well as in French, and furnish them with many good
things, of which they should lay up a store in good time. . . .
We may add a few of the most chaste poets, full of lively
descriptions, rich comparisons, and good moral teaching; for the
sweetness of the verses will charm their ears, and their harmonious
cadence will accustom them to a better pronunciation, and even
elevate their minds above ordinary thoughts and expressions.
"Children should read a little at a time and often, in a loud
and clear voice, because that will exercise the voice and chest,
and give an opportunity of teaching them to pronounce well, by
giving them the necessary accent to mark the different shades
which are appropriate to the subjects, and correct the false
cadences or inflections of voice into which they fall; thus they
will be habituated to fineness of ear, to the arrangement of the
words, and the harmony of the periods, and, in addition, by
reading a little at a time and often, their attention will not be
\ fatigued. For children are usually very inattentive, and too
[long application deadens their mind and extinguishes its fire. It
will be well also to read aloud before them, enlivening what is
read by the tone and accent proper to the subject, and to make
them attend to it ; that will do much to form them, for they have
a natural inclination to imitate and to learn by imitation. And
1 He repeats here the list already given above.
Guyot : On Teaching Reading, Writing, etc. 165
this is noticed even in animals, so that tones, gestures, and move-
ments make a natural impression on their intelligence, and even
on their bodily organs, which turns and disposes them to imitate
what they see and hear, as those who dance make others dance,
and those who make grimaces cause others to do the same, without
their intending or perceiving it. ...
"It would also be very useful to make the children repeat,
then and there, what they have retained of their reading; 1 for
that makes them more attentive, and the reflection that they
make then will fix the subjects more firmly in their minds, on
which the images of the words have just been impressed, following
the order of their reading, especially when the subjects are new
to them, and they want terms and other expressions to speak of
them; for their discourse still retains all the arrangement of the
words, without a break, and if they happen to miss or hesitate
they must be prompted from the book, if only in order not to
change or misplace anything in their minds ; and this arrangement
of the words is extremely important, because they fail in that
more than in the correctness of the words themselves; this is a
common fault in those who do not speak or write well, whether in
French or Latin.
"But care must be taken, in exercising them in speaking or
writing, that they do it with clearness and precision, and as they
can only do so by the clear and accurate knowledge they have of
things, and according to the construction of each language, the
same things should be explained to them clearly in a few words ;
for the multitude and diversity of words, generally springing
from indistinctness and confusion of thought, will cause the same
indistinctness and confusion in the minds of the children. 2 And
for this reason they should usually be set to speak or write only
1 A very good and useful practice, applicable even to elementary classes,
with children who cannot yet write ; it fixes their attention, develops
their intelligence, teaches them to speak correctly, and prepares them for
composition.
2 The only means of avoiding this capital fault in teaching is a con-
scientious preparation of every lesson, in addition to the general preparation
that a teacher should never neglect by keeping himself abreast of methods
and books, and in deepening and completing his knowledge by extensive
reading.
1 66 Port- Royal Education.
on the subjects that they know best, and in the style and terms
in which they have had most exercise ; otherwise they speak
confusedly as their thoughts are, and habituate themselves so
to speak, and to be satisfied with what they do not understand,
which is the cause of a very common fault among men, that is,
of speaking much on what they understand very little. It is
necessary, then, to explain to the children what they do not
understand, and to question them frequently, because we often
imagine that they understand very well what in fact they do
not understand, judging of their capacity by our own. They
should even be required to ask about what they do not under-
stand, and when they ask of their own accord, although the
subject may be above their capacity, we must not fail to instruct
them with so much the more care, as they are more disposed to
1 profit by it, since the curiosity which made them ask has opened
j their minds and rendered them capable of understanding what
iwill be said to them then. Children should be kept for a long
time to the same style ; for, in that, time will make more impres-
sion than all the observations that may be made to them on the
language, as water hollows out the stone more by falling drop by
drop than by falling all at once with great force.
" They may begin to write in French before they write in
Latin, by setting them to write short dialogues, narratives, or
stories, little descriptions or short letters, leaving them the choice
of subjects from their reading, that they may not be accustomed
to write obscurely and to be satisfied with what they do not
understand, which makes them lose the power of distinguishing
light from darkness, makes them take the false for the true, the
doubtful for the certain, in fine, evil for good. . . .
" I say nothing about synonyms and such expressions, about the
order and arrangement of the words, their natural or figurative
meaning, their connection and combinations, figures and transi-
tions, the turn of the discourse, or how to break it off, take it
up again and continue it. This must be reserved for practice, 1
1 It 13 evidently in the reading of a passage, or the explanation of a text,
that all these details should be taken up, much more usefully than in a dry
and barren nomenclature.
Nicole: Education of a Prince. 167
and when they are more advanced in intelligence and judgment ;
it is better to tell the scholars these things than to demand them
of them, since any rules that may be given them do not so much
prevent faults as serve to correct them when they have been
made.
" It is not desirable that whole books should be set to be learnt
by heart, but only the finest passages; for the memory of children,
which has its limits, should only be charged with what is most
excellent in books ; it must, nevertheless, be well exercised. . . ."
(Guyot, Billets de Ciceron, 1668. Preface.)
GENERAL VIEWS ON THE EDUCATION OF A PRINCE.*
.... The most essential quality in the preceptor of a prince
is a certain nameless one which does not belong to any special
profession ; it is not simply the being qualified in history, mathe-
matics, languages, politics, philosophy, ceremonies, and the
interests of princes ; all that may be made up for. It is not
necessary for him who is charged with the instruction of a
prince to teach him everything; it suffices that he teach him
the use of^everything. He must necessarily be assisted some-
times, and while he is preparing for certain things be only a
witness of what is taught by others. But that essential quality
which renders him fit for this employment cannot be made up
for, it cannot be borrowed from another, nor can it be prepared
for. Nature implants it, and it is improved by long exercise and
much reflexion. And thus those who have it not when they are
a little advanced in age will never have it.
It cannot be better explained than by saying that it is that
quality which makes a man always blame what is blameworthy,
praise what is praiseworthy, disparage what is low, impress with
a sense of what is great, judge everything wisely and equitably,
1 It is a sign of the times, and very honourable to our age, that the advice
given by Nicole on the education of a prince may be recommended without
exaggeration to the teachers of the people. A very slight change is neces-
sary to adapt it to the needs of elementary education, both to the training
of the teaching staff in the normal schools, and to the proper direction of
elementary studies.
1 68 Port- Royal Education.
and express his judgments in an agreeable manner, suitable to
those to whom he speaks, and, in fine, makes him direct the mind
of his pupil to the truth in everything.
It must not be imagined that he always does this from
special reflection, or that he stops every moment to give rules
on good and evil, the true and the false. On the contrary, he
almost always does it imperceptibly, by an ingenious turn that
he gives to the subject, which exposes to view what is grand
and deserves to be considered, and hides that which ought not
to be seen, which makes vice ridiculous and virtue pleasing, which
forms the mind imperceptibly to like and appreciate good things,
and to have a dislike and aversion for bad things. So that it
often happens that the same story or maxim which aids in form-
ing the mind when it is used by an able and judicious man only
serves to injure it when it is used by a man who is not so.
Ordinary preceptors only think themselves obliged to
instruct the princes at certain hours, when they give them
what they call a lesson; but the man of whom we are speaking
has no fixed hour for lessons, or, rather, he gives his pupils a lesson
at all hours ; for he often instructs him as much during play-time
and visits, or by conversations and table-talk, as when he is setting
him to read books. For his principal aim being to form his judg-
ment, the different subjects which offer themselves are often more
appropriate for this end than studied speeches, there being nothing
which sinks into the mind less than what enters it under the not
very agreeable form of a lesson and of teaching.
As this mode of instructing is unperceived, the advantage
drawn from it is so too, in a certain degree, that is to say, it is not
perceived by outward and visible signs ; and this deceives persons
of small intelligence, who imagine that a child instructed in this
manner is not more advanced than another, because, perhaps, he
cannot make a better translation from Latin into French, or does
not repeat a lesson of Virgil better; and thus, judging of the
instruction of their children only by these trifles, they often
make less account of a really able man than of one who has but
small knowledge and an unintelligent mind.
Not that common things should be neglected in the instruction
of princes, and that they should not be taught languages, history,
Nicole : Education of a Prince. 1 69
chronology, geography, mathematics, and even jurisprudence up to
a certain point. Their studies must be regulated as those of other
persons are. The aim should be to make them industrious.
They should pass from one occupation to another without
leaving any vacant or unoccupied time. Every opportunity of
teaching them something useful should be cleverly turned to
account. If possible, they should not be ignorant of anything
that is celebrated in the world. All this is good, useful, and
necessary in itself, provided that a stand is not made there as
if it were the end of their instruction, but it should be used to
form their habits and their judgment.
To form the judgment is to give to the mind the taste for
and perception of what is true, to render it acute in recognizing
rather obscure false reasonings, to teach it not to allow itself to be
dazzled by the false glitter of words void of sense, nor to be
satisfied with indefinite words or principles, and never to be
contented until it has probed things to the bottom ; it is to
render it quick to seize the point in intricate matters, and to
distinguish those which depart from it; it is to furnish it with
the principles of truth, which help to discover it in all things,
and especially in those of which it has most need. . . .
Although the study of morality should be the principal and
most constant of those to which princes are set, nevertheless it
should be carried on in a manner suited to their age and the
quality of their mind, so that not only they should not be
burdened with it, ]}n fc sh on lj . jH?t_fi v&rL - ^- aware- of- it. The
aim should be for them to know all morality almost without
knowing that there is a morality, 1 or that there was a design
to teach it to them ; so that when they come to study it in the
course of their lessons, they will be astonished at knowing before-
hand much more than is taught in them.
1 Bain equally recommends this indirect but only effective method of
moral instruction : * * Every man who is able to maintain the order and
discipline necessary to good intellectual teaching is sure to leave on the
children's minds impressions of true morality, even without intending to do
so. If, besides, the teacher possesses sufficient tact to make his pupils like
their work, and submit freely and willingly to the restraint that study im-
poses, so that they have, in sum, only good feelings towards their school-
fellows and himself, he may be called an excellent teacher of morals, whether
he has wished to earn this title or not." (La science de ^education, p. 292.)
I/O Port-Royal Education.
Nothing is more difficult than to adapt ourselves thus to
children's minds; and a man of the world rightly said that this
power of adaptation to these childish ways was the result of a
well-educated mind. It is easy to speak on morality for an hour ;
ibut to refer everything to it without a child perceiving it and
becoming disgusted demands a tact which few persons possess.
There are two things in vices : their unlawfulness, which
makes them displeasing to God ; and their folly, which makes
them despicable to men. Children, usually, are not very
sensible of the first, but they can be made to feel the second
in many ingenious ways that opportunities offer. Thus, by
making them hate vices as ridiculous, 1 they will be led to hate
them as contrary to the laws of God, and at the same time the
impression they make on their minds will be weakened. . . .
It is necessary to know the failings of the child whom we
instruct ; that is to say, to notice the bent of his desires, in
order to use all our tact to diminish it by removing all that
strengthens it, always carefully distinguishing passing faults
that age will remove from those which increase with age.
The aim should be not only to preserve him from failings,
but to scatter in his mind some seeds that will aid him to rise if
he should be so unfortunate as to let himself fall into them. . . .
It is not only necessary to form their minds to virtue as far
as possible, but it is also necessary to adapt their bodies to it; that
is to say, to prevent the body being an obstacle to their leading a
regular life, leading them, by its natural instincts, into irregu-
larities and disorders. 2
For it must be known that, men being composed of mind and
body, the bad direction given to the body in youth is often, in the
sequel, a great obstacle to piety. There are some who habituate
1 This is one of the favourite themes of Mme. de Maintenon : "Consider
that the best of your girls are those who appear the most vain . , , . with
a certain vanity that makes them afraid to be thought children, which
renders them sensitive to a public mortification, . . . They must die to this
sensitiveness when they are more advanced in piety ; but before dying to it
they must have lived in it."
2 One of the advantages of gymnastics is to usefully expend the strength
of the young, to maintain the equilibrium of body and mind, to secure a
refreshing sleep, and thus remove dangerous temptations. I think ^ this
moral action of physical exercises needs to be better understood than it is.
Nicole : Education of a Prince. 1 7 1
themselves to be so restless, so impatient, and so hasty as to
become incapable of uniform and tranquil occupations; others
become so delicate, that they cannot bear anything that is in the
least painful. Some become subject to a mortal tedium that
torments them all their lives.
It will be said that these are defects of the mind, but they
have a permanent cause in the body, and therefore they continue
even when the mind contributes nothing to them. . . .
Love of books and reading is a general preservative against
a great number of irregularities to which the great are subject
when they have nothing to occupy them, and therefore it cannot
be too much instilled into young princes. They should be
accustomed to read much and to hear much read, and to awaken
their minds that they may find amusement in it. They should
even be attracted to it by the character of the books, as by books
of history, voyages, and geography, which would be of no little
use to them if they would acquire the habit of passing a con-
siderable time in it without tedium and without ill-humour. 1
SPECIAL ADVICE CONCERNING STUDIES.
The aim of instruction is to carry our minds to the highesti
point they are capable of attaining. 2 I
It does not give memory, imagination, nor intelligence, but it
cultivates them all. By strengthening them one by another the
judgment is aided by the memory, and the memory is assisted by
the imagination and the judgment.
When some of these parts are absent they should be supplied
by others. Thus the tact of a master is shown in setting his
scholars to things for which they have a natural liking. 3 Some
1 It was one of Mine, de Sevigne's great troubles to see her daughter
and grand - daughter appreciate so little the study of history. "What a
misfortune," she says gaily, " if Pauline is obliged to pinch her nose to
take it," as if it were a medicine ! To grow weary of history ! why it is
the support of all the world !
2 The writers of Port-Royal have nowhere found a broader and more
admirable formula.
3 This tact, which bears fruit in competitive examinations, does not in the
least deserve encouragement. It is no doubt necessary to cultivate natural
aptitudes, but chiefly to endeavour to maintain the equilibrium of the
faculties, as lands are improved in which there'is an excess of such or such a
constituent element of the soil.
I7 2 Port- Royal Education.
children should be instructed almost solely in what depends on
memory, because their memories are strong but their judgment
weak, and others should at first be set to things requiring judg-
ment, because they have more judgment than memory.
It is not properly the teachers nor extraneous instruction that
cause things to be understood, at most they only expose them to
the interior light of the mind, by which alone they are com-
prehended ; a so that when this light is not found instruction is as
useless as wishing to show pictures during the night.
The greatest minds have but a limited capacity, and have
always some dark and shady places in it; but children's minds
are almost alway full of darkness, and only catch a glimpse of
small rays of light. Thus everything consists in making the most
of these rays, in augmenting them, and exposing to them what
we wish to be understood.
For this reason it is difficult to give general rules for the
instruction of anyone whatever, because it is necessary to adapt
it to this mixture of light and shade which is different in different
minds, and especially in children. "We must seek the light and
bring to it what we wish to be understood, and for that we must
often try different ways to enter into their minds and fix upon
those which succeed the best.
We may, nevertheless, say generally that as the intelligence of
children depends very much on the senses, instruction must, as
far as possible, be given through the senses, and be made to enter,
not through the mind alone, but through the eye, 2 there being no
other sense that makes a more vivid impression on the mind and
forms more clear and distinct ideas.
From these observations it may be inferred that geography 8 is
a very suitable study for children, because it depends very much
1 An accurate and profound idea, in the development of which Nicole gives
a proof of great acuteness in analysis.
2 An excellent recommendation still to be insisted on. Two gates permit
access to the child's intelligence, hearing and sight. Why do so many
teachers fail to think of opening them both ? It should be a main point in
the preparation of lessons to exercise ingenuity in procuring or fabricating
everything that might render the objects of the lesson visible to the eyes.^
3 The object lesson, still more than geography, lends itself to this teaching
through the sight. A great number of objects may be shown and handled,
for others we must be content with pictures.
Nicole: Education of a Prince. 173
on the senses, and through them are shown the situations of towns
and provinces, and in addition it is very entertaining, which is
also necessary in order not to repel them at first, and has little
need of reasoning, which they lack most at that age.
But to render this study more useful and pleasant at the same
time it is not sufficient to point out the names of towns and
provinces on a map, many artifices must be used to aid them
to remember them.
Books may be had in which there are paintings of the largest
towns, 1 and may be shown to them. Children like this sort of
amusement. They may be told some remarkable story about the
principal towns to fix them in their memory, battles which have
been fought there, councils which have been held in them, or
great men who have come from them may be noted, and something
may be said upon their natural history if there is anything remark-
able, or on the government, size, and trade of these towns. . . .
To this special study of geography should be joined a small
exercise which is only an amusement, but which does not fail
to contribute much to fix it in their minds. If some story is told
them, its place should always be pointed out to them on the map.
If, for instance, the Gazette is read, all the towns named should be
pointed out on the map. In fine, they should mark on their maps
every place they hear spoken of, that they may serve them as an
artificial memory to retain the stories, and the stories should help
them to remember the places where they happened.
There are several other useful subjects besides geography that
may enter children's minds through their eyes.
The machines of the Komans, their punishments, dress, arms,
and several other things of the same kind are represented in the
books of Lipsius, and may be usefully shown to children ; 2 they
may be shown, for instance, what a battering-ram was, how they
made a testudo, how the Roman armies were organized, the
number of their cohorts and legions, their officers, and a number
1 We may add views of mountains, of the courses of rivers, and of other
geographical prospects-. The pictures of M. Felix Hement are a beginning
of the application of this mode of teaching through the eye.
2 Our editors have not failed to put in practice these sensible hints, and
our children have in their hands books usefully illustrated for the study of
natural history, geography, and common subjects, &c.
174 Port- Royal Education.
of other pleasing and curious things, omitting those that are more
intricate. Very nearly the same advantage may be drawn from a
book entitled Roma Subterranea, and others in which have been
engraved what remains of the antiquities of this chief city of the
world, to which may be added the plates that are found in certain
voyages to India and China, in which the sacrifices and pagodas
of these wretched people are described, pointing out to them at
the same time to what excess of folly men are capable of going
when they follow only their own imagination and the light of
their own minds.
The book of Aldrovandus, 1 or rather the abridgment of it made
by Jonston, may also usefully serve to amuse them, provided that
he who shows it to them has taken pains to learn something of
the nature of animals, and to tell it to them not as a formal lesson
but in conversation. This book may also be used to show them
the pictures of the animals they hear spoken of either in books
or conversation.
An intelligent man has shown, at the present time, by a trial that
he made on one of his children, that at that age they are quite capable
of learning anatomy ; and no doubt they might be usefully taught
some general principles, if it were only to make them retain the
Latin names of the parts of the human body, 2 avoiding, however,
certain objectionable points on this matter.
It is useful, for the same reason, to show them the portraits of
the kings of France, the Koman emperors, the sultans, the great
captains and illustrious men of various nations. It is good that
they should amuse themselves by looking at them, and refer to
them whenever they are spoken of in their presence, for all this
serves to fix the ideas in their memories.
Teachers should try and cultivate a healthy curiosity in the
children to see strange and curious things, and lead them to
enquire the reasons of everything. This curiosity is not a vice
1 Aldrovandus, of Bologna (1520-1605), the author of a large Natural
History, comprising no less than 13 vols. in folio. We have nothing to
learn now from this immense and undigested compilation, in which poetry,
legends, and popular prejudices hold a larger place than real observation.
2 This is a very secondary consideration in comparison with the advantage
we might draw from it for the teaching of hygiene and gymnastics ; but
then they were more taken up with writing and even speaking Latin.
Nicole: Education of a Prince. 175
at their age, since it serves to open their minds, and may divert
them from some irregularities.
History may be placed among the acquirements that are gained
through the eyes, since various books of pictures and figures may
be used to help them to remember it. But even if none should
be found, it is in itself very suitable to children's minds. And
though it only exercises the memory, it is very useful in forming
the judgment. Every artifice, then, should be used to give them
a taste for it.
At first they may be given a general idea of universal history,
of the various monarchies, and the principal changes that have
taken place since the beginning of the world, by dividing the
course of time into different ages; as, from the creation to the
deluge, from the deluge to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses,
from Moses to Solomon, from Solomon to the return from the
Babylonish captivity, from the return from captivity to Christ,
from Christ to our own times, thus joining general chronology
to general history. 1 . . .
Besides these histories, which will form part of their studies and
occupations, it would be of advantage to relate to them every day
a detached episode, which would have no place in their regular
exercises, but would rather serve to amuse them. It might be
called the story of the day, and they might be practised in reciting
it in order to teach them to converse.
This story should contain some great event, some extraordinary
meeting, some striking example of vice, virtue, misfortune,
1 The present programmes of secondary classical instruction (decree of
2 Aug., 1880) are inspired by more correct ideas ; in the eighth class (the
lowest), History of France to Henri IV. ; seventh, from Henri IV. to the
present time ; sixth, History of the East ; fifth, History of Ancient Greece ;
fourth, Roman History ; third, History of Europe, and especially of France,
from 395 to 1270 ; second, from 1270 to 1610 ; in the class of rhetoric (first),
from 1610 to 1789 ; and in the class of philosophy, Contemporary History
from 1789 to 1875.
They have been less successful for primary instruction, where the short
time allowed for studies has compelled too great a condensation in the upper
forms. Where are the teachers to be found who are able to give properly, in
a year, notions on ancient history, Greek and Roman, the History of Europe
and of France to 1875 ? I regret, for my part, the old programme, which
made the pupils in the three courses review the History of France with new
developments.
176 Port-Royal Education.
prosperity, or singularity. It might include uncommon incidents,
prodigies, earthquakes, which have sometimes engulphed entire
cities, shipwrecks, battles, and foreign laws and customs. By
making the most of this practice they might be taught what
is finest in all histories ; but, for that, it is necessary to be regular,
and not to pass a day without relating a story and referring every
day to what has been told them before.
They should be taught to connect in their memory similar
stories that one may serve to recall another. For example, it is
proper for them to know some examples of all the greatest armies
that are spoken of in books, of great battles and slaughters, of
great cruelties, of great pestilences, of great prosperity and
adversity, of great riches, of great conquerors and captains, of
fortunate and unfortunate favourites, of the longest lives, of the
signal follies of men, of great vices and great virtues. 1 . . .
The idea of those who will have no grammar 2 is only the idea
of idle persons who wish to spare themselves the trouble of
teaching it ; but, far from relieving the children, it burdens them
much more than the rules, since it deprives them of know-
ledge that would facilitate the understanding of the books, and
obliges them to learn a hundred times what it would have sufficed
to learn only once.
It cannot be denied that the book Janua Unguarum 3 may have
some utility ; but it is, nevertheless, irksome to load the memory
of children with a book in which there are only words to be
learnt, since one of the most useful rules that can be followed in
their instruction is to join several useful things, and to act so that
the books they read in order to learn the language may also be of
use to form their mind, judgment, and morals, to which this book
cannot contribute. . . .
It is a general opinion, and one of great importance to teachers,
that they should have in their mind all that they should teach
1 Add to this list the much more important history of great inventions
and discoveries. Nicole would have heartily approved of the creation of the
BiUiotheque des merveilles, whose plan, happily enlarged, responds to his
indications.
2 Nicole is here concerned with teaching Latin. His observations are none
the less accurate and useful.
3 See Lancelot's opinion on the book of Comenius. (Introduction, p. 15.)
Nicole : Education of a Prince. 177
the children, and not be satisfied with simply finding it in their
memory when it is recalled to them. For we find many favour-
able opportunities of teaching children what we know well, and
make them when we will, and adapt ourselves better to their
capacity when the mind makes no effort to find what ought
to be read. . . .
Children should never be allowed to learn by heart anything
that is not excellent. For this reason it is a very bad method to
make them learn whole books by heart, because everything is not
equally good in books. . . .
This opinion is more important than is thought ; its aim is not
only to relieve the memory of children, but also to form their
mind and their style ; for things that are learnt by heart impress
themselves deeper on the memory, and are like moulds and forms
that the thoughts take when they wish to express them ; so that
if they only have good and excellent ones, they must necessarily
express themselves in a noble and elevated manner.
With respect to the study of rhetoric, Nicole makes this remark:
All those names of figures, all those subjects of arguments, all
those enthymemes and epicheremes will never be of use to any-
body ) and if they are taught to children, they should at least
be taught at the same time that they are very useless things. 1
Everything in the instruction of the elder scholars -should
be referred to ethics, and it is easy to apply this rule to what they
should be taught in rhetoric ; for true rhetoric is founded to true
ethics, since it should always leave a pleasing impression of the
speaker and make him pass for an honest man, which presupposes
that we know what honesty is, and which makes us liked. We
are speaking badly if we make ourselves disliked or despised
by speaking. And this rule obliges us to avoid all that savours of
vanity, levity, malignity, baseness, brutality, or effrontery, and
generally everything that gives an idea of any vice or defect
of mind.
1 It would be a signal service to the art of teaching to impress this upon
the masters and mistresses of our normal schools, who are still too much in
bondage to this old rhetoric. All these Greek names, that the children
so easily mispronounce, teach them nothing really useful. The secrets of the
art of writing should be taught by the explanation of good authors.
N
Port-Royal Education.
There is, for example, in Pliny the Younger, an air of vanity
and a sensitive love of reputation which spoil his letters, kowever
full of wit they may be, and give them a bad style, because we
can only imagine him as a vain and superficial man. The same
defect makes the person of Cicero despicable at the same time
that we admire his eloquence, because this air appears in almost
all his works. 1 No man of honour would wish to resemble
Horace or Martial in their malignity and impudence. Now,
to give these ideas of oneself is to offend against true rhetoric as
well as against true morality.
There are two kinds of beauty in eloquence of which we should
endeavour to render children sensible. One consists of good and
solid, but extraordinary and surprising thoughts. Lucan, Seneca,
and Tacitus are full of this kind of beauties.
The other, on the contrary, does not at all consist in rare
thoughts, but in a certain natural air, an easy, elegant, and
delicate simplicity, which does not strain the mind, which only
presents to it common, but lively and pleasing images, and
which can follow it in its movements so well, that it never fails to
put before it, on every subject, objects by which it may be
touched, and to express all the passions and emotions that the
things it represents ought to produce on it. This is the beauty
of Terence and Virgil. And we see by this that it is still more
difficult than the other, since there are no authors who have been
less nearly approached than these two.
It is this beauty, however, that causes the pleasure and charm
1 M. Legouve has warmly taken up the defence of Cicero in his eloquent
reply to the address of reception of M. G. Boissier : "One day the Emperor
Augustus surprised his grandson reading a book that he made haste to hide ;
the Emperor took the volume, it was a work of Cicero. After having read a
few lines he returned it to the child, and added in an agitated voice, in which
perhaps there was some remorse : ' My son, that man deeply loved his
country ! ; This was Cicero's dominant trait, this effaces all his faults,
this nourishes and immortalises his genius. . . What matters that this
great man had some small weaknesses, some passing vanity ? As soon
as the interest of Rome appeared, vanity, fears, hesitation, all disappeared ;
he saw but one thing, his country ; he had but one aim, the safety of Rome,
and he went straight, not only to duty, but to heroism, so that it may be said
that in those terrible civil commotions he had many small fears and great
courage. . . Ah ! believe me, sir, when we meet with such men in history we
must not diminish their greatness by their weaknesses, but sink their weak-
nesses in their greatness ! " (Academic franchise, seance du 21 dec., 1876.)
Nicole: Education of a Prince, 179
of polite conversation ; and thus it is more important to make it
appreciated by those whom we instruct than that other beauty of
thoughts, which is much less in use.
If we do not know how to mingle this natural and simple
beauty with that of great thoughts, we run the risk of writing
and speaking badly in proportion to our endeavour to write
and speak well; and the more intelligence we have the more
we fall into this vicious style. For this throws us into the
antithetic style, which is a very bad one. Even if thoughts
are good and solid in themselves, they nevertheless weary and
overwhelm the mind if they are in too great numbers, and
if they are employed on subjects which do not require them.
Seneca, who is admirable when taken in parts, wearies the mind
when read consecutively, and I think that if Quintilian rightly
said of him that he was full of agreeable defects, we may
say with as much reason that he is full of disagreeable beauties
disagreeable by their number and by the design that he appears to
have had of saying nothing simply, but putting everything in
antithetical form. There is no fault that it is more necessary
to point out to children when they are a little advanced than
that, because there is none which more destroys the fruit of
studies in what regards language and eloquence.
Everything should tend to form the judgment of the children,
and impress on their minds and hearts the rules of true morality.
Every occasion should be taken to teach it to them; but,
nevertheless, certain exercises may be practised which tend to
it more directly. And, firstly, we must endeavour to confirm
them in the faith, and strengthen them against the maxims of
free-thinking and impiety, which spread only too much in
courts. . . .
A book has just been published which may be one of the most
useful that can be put into the hands of intelligent princes. It is
the collection of Pensees of M. Pascal. In addition to the incom-
parable advantage that may be drawn from it to confirm them in
the true religion by reasons which will appear to them so much
the more solid the deeper they go into them, and which leave this
most useful impression that nothing is more ridiculous than
to make a boast of free-thinking and irreligion, a thing that
i8o Port-Royal Education.
is more important than can be believed for the great, there is,
besides, an air so grand, so elevated, and at the same time so
simple and so far removed from affectation in everything that he
writes, that nothing is fitter to form their minds and to give them
the taste for and the idea of a noble and natural manner of
writing and speaking. 1 . . .
Saint Basil advises to teach children sentences taken from the
Proverbs and the other books of Solomon, to sanctify their
memory by the word of God, and to instruct them in the
principles of morality. . . .
To these sentences from the Proverbs might be added others
drawn from pagan authors, setting them to learn only one a day. 2
This practice would suffice in the course of a few years to make
them retain the finest thoughts of the poets, historians, and
philosophers, and would even give an opportunity by choosing
some suitable to their faults, which would serve to point them out
and set them before their eyes in a gentle and less unpleasant
manner.
It would be too severe to absolutely forbid the children to use
pagan books, since they contain a great number of useful things ;
but the teacher should know how to render them Christian by the
manner in which he explains them. There are very true maxims
in these books, and these are Christian in themselves, since all
truth comes from God and appertains to God ! 3 It remains, then,
either to approve of them simply, or to show that the Christian
religion carries them farther, and makes the truth penetrate them
deeper. There are others that are false in the mouth of pagans,
1 Nicole no longer holds this language in his strange letter on the subject
of the Pensees of Pascal. (See Introduction, p. 24. )
2 Seneca, in his Letters to Lucilius, recommends his friend to gather in his
reading a maxim and to make of it "the food for the day." The suggestion
of Nicole is excellent, and deserves to be taken into consideration. Teachers
would find it a wonderful help in teaching morality.
3 These broader and sounder views soften what Nicole, led away by
an unreasoning piety, has said elsewhere of pagan literature, in which
he sees only the inspiration of the devil. (See Introduction, p. 23.)
Minucius Felix says in his Octavius: "It seems to me that at times the
ancient philosophers agree so well with the Christians, that it might be said,
either that the present Christians are philosophers, or that the former
philosophers were Christians.
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 181
but very sound and true in that of Christians. 1 And this is what]
a teacher should distinguish, by pointing out the hollowness of the!
pagan philosophy and opposing to it the solidity of the principles!
of Christianity.
In fine, there are some absolutely false, and he must show their
falseness by clear and solid reasons. By this means everything in
these books will be useful, and they will become books of piety, 2
since the very errors they contain will be used to make known the
truths which are contrary to them. . . .
(Nicole, Traite de V education d'un prince.)
OF THE MEANS OF PRESERVING PEACE WITH MEN.
. . . This agreement of faith and reason appears nowhere so
well as in the duty of preserving peace with those who are united
with us, and of avoiding all occasions to disturb it. And if
religion prescribes this to us as one of the most essential duties of
Christian piety, reason leads us to it also as one of the most im-
portant for our own interest.
For we cannot consider with any attention the source of the
greater part of the disquiet and opposition from which we suffer,
or from which we see others suffer, without recognizing that they
usually come from the fact that we do not sufficiently give way to
each other. And if we will do justice to ourselves, we shall find
that we are seldom spoken ill of without reason, or that men take
pleasure in hurting and offending us for their amusement; we
always contribute something to it. If there are no approximate
causes there are distant ones. And we fall unconsciously into
a number of small faults, with respect to those with whom we
live, which dispose them to take in bad part what they would
1 A singular and inadmissible assertion ! Truth is truth. What differ-
ence, for example, can be found, without the spirit of system, between these
words of Plato, "There is no other means of making ourselves loved by
God than to labour with all our strength to resemble Him " (Lois, liv. iv.),
and this precept of Christ, "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is
perfect " ? (See the conscientious work of M. EM. HAVET, Le christianisme et
ses origines. )
2 These books, which he denounced as the works of the devil, are here re-
habilitated. (See Introduction, p. 23.)
1 82 Port- Royal Education.
suffer without any trouble if they had not already the beginning
of bitterness in their mind. In fine, it is almost always true that, if
men do not love us, it is because we cannot make ourselves loved.
We contribute, then, ourselves to this disquiet and opposition,
and to these troubles that others cause us ; and as it is partly this
that renders us unhappy, nothing is more important for us, even
from a worldly point of view, than to set ourselves to avoid them.
And the science that teaches us to do this is a thousand times
more useful than all those that men learn with so much pains and
time. There is reason, therefore, to deplore the bad choice
that men make in the study of arts, exercises, and sciences. They
take great pains to acquire a knowledge of matter, and to find the
means of making it useful for their needs. They learn the art of
taming animals and employing them in the labours of daily life,
and do not give a thought to that of making men useful to them,
and preventing them troubling them and rendering their lives un-
happy, although men contribute infinitely more to their happiness
or unhappiness than all the other creatures. . . .
Charity not only includes all men, but includes them at all times.
Thus we should have peace with all men and at all times, for there
is no time in which we ought not to love them and desire to serve
them ; and, consequently, there is none in which we should not,
for our part, remove all the obstacles that we may meet with, of
which the greatest is the aversion and coolness that they may feel
towards us. So that, even when we cannot preserve with them an
interior peace, which consists in unity of sentiments, we should
endeavour to preserve an exterior peace, which consists in the
duties of human civility, in order not to make ourselves incapable
of serving them some day, and to bear witness before God of our
sincere desire to do so.
Besides, if we do not actually serve them, we are obliged, at
least, not to hurt them. Now leading them to become cool
towards us by offending them is hurting them. It is doing them
a real harm to dispose them by the coolness they conceive towards
us to take our actions and words in bad part, to speak of them in an
unjust manner which would hurt their conscience and, in fine, to
despise even the truth from our mouth, and not to love justice
when it is we who defend it.
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 183
It is, then, not only the interest of men, but also that of truth
itself, which obliges us not to embitter them needlessly against us.
If we love it, we should avoid making it odious by our impru-
dence, and closing its entrance into the heart and mind of men by
closing'it to ourselves; and thus, to lead us to avoid this defect the
Scripture warns us, that wise men adorn knowledge, that is to say,
render it venerable to men, and that the esteem that they attract by
their moderation makes the truth which they announce appear
more august ; whereas by making ourselves despised or hated by
men we dishonour it, because contempt and hatred usually pass
from the person to the teaching. . . .
The trouble does not lie in convincing ourselves of the necessity
of preserving union with our neighbour, it is really to preserve it
by avoiding all that can disturb it, and it is certain that a large
charity alone can produce the grand effect. But, among the
human means that it is useful to employ, it seems there is none
more fitting than to endeavour to learn the usual causes of the
divisions that take place among men, in order to be able to
prevent them. Now, considering them in general, we may say
that we only fall out with men because in offending them we lead
them to hold themselves aloof from us ; or because being offended
by their actions or words we ourselves keep away from them, and
give up their friendship. Both may happen either by open
rupture, or by gradually increasing coolness ; but however it may
happen, it is always these reciprocal discontents which cause
divisions ; and the sole means of avoiding them is never to do
anything that may offend another, and never to be offended by
anything ourselves.
Nothing is easier than to prescribe this generally. But there are
few things more difficult to practise in particular ; and we may say
that here is one of those rules which, being short in words, are
very general in sense, and include in their generality a great
number of very important duties. For this reason it will be
profitable to develop it by examining more particularly by what
means we may avoid offending men, and may put our own minds
in a condition not to be offended by what they may do or say
against us.
The means of succeeding in the practice of the first of these
184 Porl-Royal Education.
duties is to learn what it is that offends them, and causes aversion
and coolness. Now it seems that all these causes may be reduced
to two, namely, contradicting their opinions and opposing their
passions. . . .
Men are naturally attached to their opinions, because they
always have some desire to rule over others in every possible
manner. Now we rule in a certain way by our reputation ; for
it is a kind of authority to make others receive our opinions.
And thus the opposition we meet with wounds us in proportion
as we are fond of this sort of domination. Man puts his joy,
says the Scripture, in the thoughts that he sets forth. For in
setting them forth he makes them his own, he makes them
his goods, he clings to them by interest; to destroy them is to
destroy something belonging to him. It cannot be done without
showing him that he is mistaken, and a man has no pleasure in
being mistaken. He who contradicts another on any point claims
to have more knowledge of it than he has. And thus two dis-
agreeable ideas are presented to him at once one, that he fails
in knowledge ; the other, that he who corrects him surpasses
him in intelligence. The first humiliates him, the second arouses
his jealousy. These impressions are more deep and clear as the
desire to rule is more lively and active ; but there are few persons
who do not feel them in some degree, or who submit to contradic-
tion without some displeasure.
Besides this general cause, there are several others which make
men cling to their ideas, or make them more sensitive to con-
tradiction. Although it may appear that piety, by diminishing
the esteem we may have for ourselves, and the desire to dominate
over the minds of others, ought to diminish our attachment to
our own opinions, it often has the contrary effect. For as
spiritual persons 1 look at all things from a spiritual point of
view, and yet are sometimes deceived, sometimes also they
spiritualize certain falsehoods, and support some unsettled or
ill-founded opinions with conscientious reasons, which cause them
to cling to them with obstinacy. So that, applying their general
love of truth, virtue, and the interests of God to those opinions
1 That is, those who live a spiritual rather than a bodily life.
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 185
which they have not sufficiently examined, their zeal is aroused
and inflamed against those who oppose them, or who show that
they are not persuaded by them ; and what remains of the desire
to rule, mingling and blending with these impulses of zeal, spreads
so much the more freely as they make less resistance, and do not
discriminate this double movement which acts in their heart,
because their mind is only perceptibly occupied with these spiritual
reasons, which appear to them the sole source of their zeal. . . .
The impatience which leads us to contradict others with warmth
comes from the fact that we find a difficulty in allowing others to
hold different opinions from our own. These opinions offend us,
not because they are contrary to truth, but because they are
contrary to our feelings. If our aim were to be of use to those
whom we contradict, we should employ other means and measures.
We only wish to subject them to our opinions, and exalt our-
selves above them ; or, rather, we wish, by contradicting them,
to take a small vengeance for the annoyance they have given
us by offending our feelings. So that there are altogether in
this proceeding pride, which causes this annoyance, want of
charity, which leads us to revenge ourselves by an injudicious
contradiction, and hypocrisy, which makes us cloak our corrupt
feelings under the pretext of love of truth, and the charitable
desire of disabusing others, whereas, in fact, we are only seeking
to gratify ourselves. And thus what the sage says may be applied
to us, that the warnings that a man who wishes to insult gives
are false and deceitful : Est correptio mendax in ore coniumeliosi.
Not that he always says false things, but that, in wishing to appear
to have the desire to serve us by correcting us for some fault, he
only has the desire to displease and insult us.
We ought, then, to regard this impatience that leads us to
oppose without discernment what appears to us false as a very
considerable fault, which is even greater than the pretended
error from which we wish to free others. Thus, as we owe
the first charity to ourselves, our first care should be work
upon ourselves, and endeavour to put our mind into such a
state as to bear without emotion the opinions of others which
appear false to us, in order never to oppose them, but with the
desire to be useful to them. . . .
1 86 Port-Royal Education.
We must not, however, carry the principles which we have
laid down so far as to scruple generally in conversation, to show
that we do not approve some of the opinions of those with
whom we live. This would be destroying social intercourse
instead of preserving it, because this restraint would be too
great, and everyone would prefer to stay at home. This reserve,
then, should be confined to the most essential things, and to
those in which we see men take most interest; and there are
methods of contradicting them by which it would be impossible
for them to be offended. And this should be especially studied,
since public intercourse could not exist if we had not the liberty
of showing that we do not hold the opinions of others.
Thus it is very useful to carefully study how we may express
our opinions in a manner so gentle, reserved, and agreeable, that
no one can be offended by them.
Men of the world do this admirably with respect to the great,
because cupidity makes them find the means. And we should
find them as easily as they do if charity were as active in us as
cupidity is in them . . . and made us as apprehensive of offending
our brethren ... as they are of offending those whom they have
an interest in making use of to further their fortune.
This practice is so important and so necessary during the whole
course of life, that special care should be taken in using it. For
i very often it is not so much our opinions that offend others as
i the haughty, presumptuous, passionate, disdainful, and insulting
I manner in which we express them. We should, then, learn to
'contradict politely and gently, and to consider the faults we
make in this as very considerable.
It is difficult to comprise in special rules and precepts the
various ways of contradicting the opinions of others without
offending them. Circumstances give rise to them, and the
charitable fear of offending our brethren makes us find them.
But there are certain common faults that we should be careful
to avoid, and which are the ordinary sources of this bad conduct.
The first is an air of superiority, that is to say, an imperious
manner of expressing our opinions, that very few people can
put up with, as much because it indicates a proud and haughty
spirit, which is naturally disliked, as because it seems that we
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 187
wish to dominate and make ourselves masters over the minds of
others. . . .
For example, it is a kind of superiority to show displeasure
that we are not believed, and to complain of it; for it is like
accusing those to whom we speak either of a stupidity that
prevents them understanding our reasons, or of an obstinacy
which prevents their yielding to them. We ought to be per-
suaded, on the contrary, that those who are not convinced by our
reasons will not be shaken by our reproaches, since these re-
proaches give them no more information, and only show that we
prefer our own opinion to theirs, and that we are careless of
offending them.
Another great fault is to speak with an authoritative air, as
if what we say cannot reasonably be contested; for we offend
those to whom we speak in this manner by making them feel that
they are opposing an indubitable fact, or by making it appear
that we wish to deprive them of the liberty of examining and
judging by their own intelligence, which appears to them an
unjust assumption.
It was to lead religious men to avoid this offensive manner
that a saint advised them to season their discourse with the salt
of doubt, as opposed to that dogmatic and authoritative air:
Omnis sermo vester dubitationis sale sit conditus, because he
thought that humility did not allow us to claim such a perfect
knowledge of the truth as not to leave room for doubt. 1
For those who have this peremptory manner bear witness that
not only they have no doubt of what they advance, but also that
they will not have others doubt of it. Now this is demanding
too much of others, and claiming too much for ourselves. Every
man wishes to be the judge of his own opinions, and only to
accept -them because he approves them. All that these persons
gain, then, by this is that men attach themselves more than they
otherwise would to reasons for doubting what they say, because
1 We must not, however, on this pretext, adopt the ridiculous position of
Marphurius : "Seigneur Sganarelle, change this mode of speaking, if you
E lease. Our philosophy commands us not to enounce a decisive proposition,
ut to speak of everything with doubt, and always to suspend our judg-
ment ; and for this reason you should not say * I am come, but, * It seems
to me that I am conic.' " (MoLikiiE, U Afariage force, act i. sc. 8.)
1 88 Port-Royal Education.
this manner of speaking arouses a secret desire of contradicting
them, and of showing that what they propose with so much
assurance is not certain, or not so certain as they imagine. . . .
Employing insulting and depreciatory terms in an argument is
so visible a fault that it is not necessary to refer to it. But it is
proper to remark that there is a roughness and incivility that
proceed from contempt, although they may come from another
principle. It is sufficient to convince those whom we oppose that
they are wrong and mistaken, without making them feel, by using
harsh and humiliating expressions, that we think they have not
the least spark of intelligence. And the change of opinion to
which we wish to drive them is sufficiently hard for human nature
without adding new difficulties to it. These terms can only be
useful in written refutations, in which the design is to convince
those who read them of the small intelligence of him who is
refuted rather than to convince the man himself.
In fine, abruptness, which does not so much consist in harshness
of terms as want of certain palliatives, offends also, usually
because it includes a species of indifference and disdain. For it
leaves the wound made by the contradiction without any remedy
to diminish the pain. Now it is not showing sufficient regard for
men to give them pain without feeling it ourselves, and without
endeavouring to relieve it; and abruptness does not do this,
because, properly speaking, its essence consists in not doing it,
and in saying harsh things harshly. We treat tenderly those
whom we love and esteem, and thus we openly testify to those
whom we do not treat so, that we have no friendship nor esteem
for them.
It is not enough to avoid offending men in order to preserve
peace with them; we must also bear with them when they
commit faults against us. For it is impossible to preserve
internal peace if we are so sensitive to what they may do and
say contrary to our inclinations and feelings; and it is difficult
for the internal displeasure that we have conceived not to break
out and dispose us to act towards those who have offended us
in a manner capable of offending them in their turn, and this
gradually increases the differences, and often carries them to
extremities.
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 189
We must endeavour, then, to stop divisions and quarrels in
their very beginning. Self-esteem never fails to suggest to us
on this subject that the means of succeeding in it would be
to correct those who incommode us and to bring them to reason,
showing them that they are wrong in acting towards us as they
do. This leads us to complain of the proceedings of others and
to notice their faults, either to correct what displeases us in them,
or to punish them by the vexation our complaints may cause them
and the disapprobation they may draw upon them.
But if we ourselves were really reasonable, we should easily
see that this design of establishing peace by the reformation of
others is ridiculous, because its success is impossible. The more
we complain of the proceedings of others, the more we exasperate
them against ourselves without correcting them. We cause
ourselves to be considered fastidious, proud, and haughty, and
the worst is that this opinion will not be altogether unjust, since,
in fact, these complaints only proceed from fastidiousness and
pride. Those even who show that they accept our reasoning,
and who think that some injustice has been done us, will not
fail to be ill-satisfied with our sensitiveness. And as men are
naturally inclined to justify themselves, if those of whom we
complain have a little tact, they will turn things in such a
manner as to put us in the wrong ; for the same defect of
narrowness of mind and want of equity which attributes to
people the faults of which we complain, prevents them also
very often from acknowledging them, and makes them take as
true and just all that may serve to justify them.
For if those of whom we complain are higher than ourselves
in rank, influence, or authority, the complaints that we might
make would be still more useless and dangerous. They can only
give us the malignant and transitory satisfaction of getting them
condemned by those to whom we complain, and produce in the
sequel durable and permanent bad effects, by exasperating those
persons against us and destroying all harmony that we might have
with them.
Prudence, then, obliges us to take the opposite road, to entirely
abandon the chimerical design of correcting everything that dis-
pleases us in others, and to endeavour to found our peace and
i go Port- Royal Education.
repose upon our own proper reformation and on the moderation
of our passions. Neither the mind nor the language of men is
at our command, and we are accountable for their actions only
in so far as we have given occasion to them, but we are account-
able for our own actions, words, and thoughts. We are charged
to watch over ourselves and correct our faults; and if we do so
properly, nothing that comes from without will be able to trouble
us. ...
It is not sufficient, in order to preserve peace with ourselves
and others, not to offend anyone, and not to demand either friend-
ship, esteem, confidence, gratitude, or civility from anyone; we
must have a patience proof against all sorts of humours and
caprices. For as it is impossible to make all those with whom
we live just, moderate, and faultless, we must despair of being
able to preserve tranquillity of mind if we confine it to this
means.
We must expect, then, that, living with men, we shall find
disagreeable tempers, people who get angry without a motive,
who take things amiss, who argue, who show a haughty superiority
or a base and displeasing complacency ; some will be too pas-
sionate, others too cold ; some will contradict without any reason,
others will not bear the least contradiction in anything; some
will be envious and malicious, others insolent, full of themselves
and without regard for others ; some will be found who think
that everything is due to them, and who, never thinking of how
they act towards others, will not fail to exact from them excessive
deference.
What hope should we have of living quietly if all these defects
disturb, trouble, and upset us, and unsettle our minds ?
We must, then, bear them patiently and firmly, if we wish to
possess our souls, as the Scripture says, and prevent impatience
making us break out every moment, and throw us into all the
difficulties that we have spoken of ; but this patience is not a
very common virtue. So that it is very strange that, it being on
the one hand so difficult and so useful on the other, we take so
little pains to exercise ourselves in it, at the same time that we
study so many other useless and unprofitable things/
One of the principal means of acquiring it is to minimise the
Nicole: On Preserving Peace with Men. 191
deep impression that the defects of others make on us. And for
this purpose it is useful to consider : \^^^
1. That, defects being as common as they are, it is foolish "to
be surprised at them and not to expect them. Men are made up
of good and bad qualities; they must be taken on this footing,
and whoever wishes to reap advantages from their intercourse
ought to resolve to submit patiently to the inconveniences that
are attached to it.
2. That nothing is more ridiculous than to be unreasonable
because another is so, to injure ourselves because another injures
himself, and to become a participator in all the follies of another,
as if we had not enough with our own defects and the misfortunes
of all the rest. Now this is what we do in losing patience at the
faults of others.
3. That, however great the defects that we find in others may
be, they only injure those who have them, and do us no harm
unless we voluntarily receive .the impression of it. They are
objects of commiseration, not of anger, and we have as little
reason to be irritated against the maladies of others' minds as
against those that attack their bodies. There is even this
difference, that we may contract bodily maladies against our
will, whereas only our own will can give entrance to mental
maladies.
4. We should not only regard the defects of others as maladies,
but also as maladies that are common to us, for we are subject to
them as they are. There are no defects to which we are not
liable, and if there are some that we have not, we have, perhaps,
others greater. Thus, having no reason to prefer ourselves to
them, we shall find that we have none to take offence at what
they do, and that if we suffer from them we make them suffer in
our turn.
5. The faults of others, if we could regard them with a tranquil
and charitable eye, should be lessons for us so much the more useful
as we saw the deformity in them much better than in our own, a
part of which self-esteem always hides from us. They might
give us an opportunity of remarking that the passions usually
have a different effect from what is asserted. We get angry in
order to make ourselves believed, and the more angry we become
1 92 Port-Royal Education.
the less we are believed. We are offended because we are not so
much esteemed as we think we deserve, and we are less esteemed
the more we seek to be so. We are angry at not being liked,
wishing to be so by force, and we draw upon us still more men's
aversion.
We might also see with astonishment how far these same
passions blind those who are possessed by them. For these
effects, which are so perceptible to others, are usually unknown to
themselves. And it often happens that, making themselves
odious and disagreeable, they are the only persons who do not
perceive it.
And all that may help us to remember either faults into which
we formerly fell through like passions, or those into which we still
fall through other passions, which are not, perhaps, less dangerous,
and to which we are not less blind; and in this way, all our
attention being drawn to our own faults, we shall become more
disposed to bear with those of others.
In fine, we should consider that it is as ridiculous to get angry
for the faults and whims of others as to be offended because
the weather is bad, or is too cold or too hot, because our anger is
as little capable of correcting men as of changing the seasons. 1
It is even more unreasonable in this point, that by getting angry
with the seasons we do not make them either more or less in-
commodious ; whereas the exasperation that we feel towards men
irritates them against us, and makes their passions more lively
and active.
1 Nicole compromises his thesis by insisting too much on this excellent
precept of indulgence, especially by means of these comparisons more striking
than exact. Cold and^ heat are necessary consequences of physical phenomena.
Do men's vices and faults obey the same law ? If so, what becomes of
morality ? And if we can no more correct men than change the seasons,
what is the aim of education or preaching ? We must not try to prove too
much.
Arnauld: Eulogy of Descartes. 193
EULOGY ON DESCARTES' PHILOSOPHY.
... A man must ill understand the philosophy of M. Descartes
to believe of it what this author x says : That it consists in some
truths, or seeming truths, mixed with some errors or uncertain
conjectures; that it draws bad conclusions from good premisses ; that
it defends and explains truths by false reasoning ; that if it some-
times find* the truth it is more by a happy accident than by a sure
method ; that it supports it rather by imagination than by science;
and that it is more fertile in discussion than in doctrine. We have
only to take the opposite of all this to form a true idea of the
philosophy of M. Descartes ; for never has a philosopher reasoned
more clearly and exactly, avoided long discourses, and said more
things in fewer words, been less satisfied with seeming truths and
uncertain conjectures, and taken more pains to build on the rock
and not on the sand, that is to say, to lay down nothing but on
clear and certain principles. It is only necessary to read the first
book of his Principles or his Meditations to be convinced of that.
Nothing is more ill-founded in this respect than the parallels that
this writer draws between heresy and philosophy. . . .
The author of the treatise then objected to philosophy that it
passed off as common opinions and the prejudices of habit, the
notions most universally received by all men, as heresies make the
things most universally received pass for popular opinions. Arnauld
accepts the parallel, but with the conclusion that if "the heretics
are wrong the philosophers are right."
Many judgments that men form on natural things may be false,
although they may be common to all rneo, because they have
a cause of error common to all men, namely, the prejudices of
their childhood. For as long as we are children, judging things
only by the senses, we are inclined to think that what we do not
perceive by any sense does not exist. Thus we all think, in our
1 Le Moine, dean of the chapter at Vitre, in Britanny, had composed
a treatise on the essence of the body and of the union of the soul with the
body, against the philosophy of Descartes. Arnauld, then at Delft, in
Holland (1680), replied to it in a letter to his niece, the mother Angelique
de Saint- Jean, which was found and published in 1780.
O
194 Port-Royal Education,
childhood, that there is nothing at all in a bottle when there
is no more wine in it, because we do not see the air that has taken
the place of the wine. We think, in the same way, that all
heavy things fall of themselves; but there is this difference
between these two false judgments, that many correct the first,
because by degrees we learn about the air ; for, being sometimes
hot and sometimes cold, and being able to be moved with force by
the wind or a fan against our faces, the sense of touch teaches us
that we were deceived when we thought that it was nothing.
But because we could not discover by any sense the subtle matter
that draws down heavy bodies, it has been an opinion almost
universally received by men before M. Descartes that they have
themselves a certain quality, called heaviness, which is the cause
of their fall. Now I maintain that he was right in not resting on
this opinion, although it is universally received, because it is false,
and destroys one of the clearest proofs of the divinity, which
is that matter can never move of itself ; so that, since there is
movement in nature, matter must necessarily have received it from
a higher cause, which can only be God. There are many other
things in which M. Descartes has done well to reject as vulgar
errors what is believed without reason, because it was believed
in childhood, however universally received these opinions may
be
uc. . .
In creating the philosophers of the present day, God does not
give them a larger, more enlightened, and less defective intellect
than He did to those who lived two thousand years ago. The
general corruption of human nature does not diminish with the
progress of the ages ; rather it increases, and with it the blindness
of the natural intellect. Nothing is less sound than this assertion.
It is not a question of intellect in itself, whether it be greater
and less defective in the men of the present day than in those
of former times. It is, perhaps, equal in all men, and possibly
it is only the manner of using it that makes some men more able
than others. It is only a question, then, of ability itself, and not
even of general ability, but only of that which regards the natural
sciences. Now it is a ridiculous paradox to suppose that the most
ancient have always been the most learned men, for the reason
that the number of centuries increases the general corruption of
A rnauld : Eulogy of Descartes. \ 9 5
human nature, and with it the blindness of the natural intellect.
If that were so it follows that there were before the deluge more
able physicians, more learned geometricians, and greater astronomers
than Hippocrates, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Is it not clear, on
the contrary, that human sciences are perfected by time ? I do
not condescend to discuss it. It is plain that nothing is more
ill-founded than what this writer advances on the increase of
blindness of the natural intellect, in order to conclude from it, as
he does, that M. Descartes is not comparable to the philosophers
of antiquity. We must not flatter the men of this age, he says.
If they are compared, having only the light that they bring ivith
them into the world and without that which they receive through
instruction in the Christian verities, they are not comparable for
energy of mind, soundness of judgment, and accuracy of reasoning
with the great men of pagan antiquity.
But it is rather those great men of pagan antiquity who are by
no means to be compared in respect to the natural sciences, of
which alone we are speaking, with the great men of these latter
times. For all that Ptolemy and the most able astronomers of
past ages knew of the heavens and of the courses of the stars
does not approach what is known at present, since Copernicus
and Tycho Brahe* have carried this science very much farther
than it was before their time ; that Galileo has still more improved
it by the use of telescopes; and that such men of our time as
M. Huyghens and M. Cassini are still making new discoveries. 1
Galen understood anatomy best of all the ancients, and better
described the uses of the parts of the human body ; nevertheless,
this is almost nothing if we compare it to what Harvey, Stenon,
1 Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, second century B.C. Copernicus, a Pole
(1473-1543), demonstrated the falsity of Ptolemy's theories, and founded the
planetary system, which places the sun in the centre of the universe.
Tycho Brahe, a Swede (1546-1601) ; a better theory of the moon and
numerous observations of the stars are due to him. Cassini, Jean-Dominique
(1625-1712), an Italian naturalized in France, the head of an illustrious
family of scholars, author of some remarkable works on Jupiter, Mars, Venus,
the satellites of Saturn and the Zodiacal light ; organizer of the Observatory
of Paris. Huyghens, a Dutchman (1629-1695), a celebrated mathematician
and astronomer. To him are especially due the discovery of Saturn's ring,
the adaptation of the pendulum to clocks, &c. The disastrous revocation
of the Edict of Nantes obliged him to leave France.
196 Port- Royal Education.
Willis, 1 and so many others have discovered in our time. How
many things has chemistry (of which the ancients had no
knowledge) made known in minerals, plants, and the parts of
animals, of which the ancients had not the least suspicion, the
least ideal The invention of the microscope has given us, as it
were, new eyes to see an infinite number of God's works, of which
the ancients had no knowledge. Is it otherwise than by reason-
ing more accurately than the ancients that it has been discovered
that a vast number of effects, which they attributed to a fantastic
horror of a vacuum, ought to be attributed to the gravity of the
air? And, in fine, although Archimedes, Apollonius, and many
other great men of antiquity have left us some very fine things
in geometry and other parts of mathematics, a man must be a
very bad judge of these things not to admit that M. Descartes
has gone incomparably farther than all of them in his Geometry
and Dioptrics? I might say as much of music and mechanics;
the two small tracts that he gave upon them, which are almost
nothing, and which he wrote for pastime, are worth more than
all the ancients wrote on both these sciences. . . .
OF THE UNION OF THE SOUL AND BODY.
I cannot avoid showing here some indignation against this
opponent of M. Descartes' philosophy ; for who can bear with
patience that he should single out, in order to decry it, what all
enlightened philosophers, if they are at all equitable, must admit
to be his greatest glory, and what all pious persons must regard
as a singular effect of God's Providence, which has willed to
prevent the frightful leaning that many persons in these latter
times seem to have towards irreligion and freethinking, by a
means suitable to their disposition ? They are people who will
1 Galen, a Greek physician, second century A.D., much attached to the
ideas of Aristotle, dominated medicine throughout the Middle Ages as his
master did philosophy. Harvey, an English physician (1578-1658) ; his
most celebrated discovery was that of the circulation of the blood (1628).
Stenon, a Swedish anatomist (1638-1687). Willis, an English physician
(1622-1675).
2 Dioptrics is that part of optics that especially treats of refraction and
catoptrics of reflection.
Arnauld: Eulogy of Descartes. 197
accept nothing but what can be known by the light of reason,
who have a thorough disinclination to begin by believing, who
suspect all who profess piety to be weak-minded, and who close
every avenue to religion by the opinion which they hold, and
which is, in the greater number, a result of their moral corrup-
tion, that all that is said of another life is nothing but fables,
and that everything dies with the body. There are minds of
this sort in all religions, and still more now among heretics
than among Catholics. And it is sufficiently clear that as long
as they hold these false principles, it is not to be hoped either
that the former will become sincere Catholics or the latter
embrace piety and become good Christians. It seems, then, that
it was most important, in order to remove the greatest obstacle
to the salvation of all these people, and prevent this contagion
from spreading more and more, to disturb them in their false
repose, which only rests on their persuasion that it is a weakness
of mind to believe that the soul survives the body. Now could
God, who uses His creatures as it pleases Him, and in this way
hides the operation of His providence, cause them this trouble,
so well fitted to make them return to themselves, better than
by raising up a man 1 who possessed all the qualities that this
sort of people could desire, in order to abase their presumption,
and force them at least to a proper mistrust of their pretended
lights] a grandeur of mind quite extraordinary in the most
abstract sciences ; an application to philosophy alone, which is
not suspicious to them j an open avowal to throw off all ordinary
prejudices, which is much to their taste, and which, by that very
fact, has found a way to convince the most incredulous, provided
they will only open their eyes to the light that is presented to
them, that nothing is more contrary to reason than to wish that
the dissolution of the body, which is nothing but the disarrange-
ment of certain parts of the matter that composes it, should be
the extinction of the soul? And how did he discover thatl
1 Arnauld, alone at Port-Royal, exhibits this lively admiration for the
genius of Descartes. I have shown in the Introduction, p. 28, Nicole's in-
consistency on this point, and, p. 11, the prejudice of de Saci, who smiles at
seeing Aristotle despoiled by a robber, who will be despoiled in his turn.
198 Port- Royal Education.
Precisely by doing what this author thinks it so bad that he has
done, so depraved is his taste.
By establishing on clear principles solely founded on natural
notions, with which every man of good sense should agree,
that the soul and the body, that it is say, that which thinks and
that which has extension, are two substances totally distinct ; so
that it is impossible that the extended substance should be a
modification of that which thinks or that thought should be a
modification of extended substance. For that alone being well
established, as it is in the Meditations of M. Descartes, no free-
thinker who has an equitable mind can remain convinced that
our souls die with our bodies. For there are none who more
readily agree that nothing that exists returns into nothingness,
and that thus what is called the death of the body is the destruc-
tion of some parts of matter, which always remains in nature.
They cannot, then, imagine that the thinking substance can
be reduced to nothing, since the bodies themselves are not so
reduced. And they must, besides, admit that what may be called
destruction in the body cannot be suitable to that, because there
can be neither change nor disarrangement of parts in a substance
which has none, such as a thinking substance.
But this author, far from being grateful to M. Descartes for
having so clearly established the distinction between soul and
body, which is the only solid foundation of its immortality, makes
it a reason for insulting him, as if he had spoilt everything by
that. If M. Descartes, he says, has found some new secret in
nature^ it is that of having separated soul and body rather than
uniting them. . . . He could not more highly praise those whom
he undertakes to decry. Yes, we admit it, if anything renders M.
Descartes commendable, it is to have so clearly separated soul and
body, and to have so well established that they are two totally
distinct substances, of which one only is material, that we need
no longer trouble ourselves, after that, how two substances so
different can be united to form one man. He need not carry his
views very far before recognizing that it is infinitely more important
to convince men that the thinking part in them is entirely differ-
ent from that part of matter which forms their bodies, than
to prove to them that this part of matter is joined to their soul.
Arnauld ' : Eulogy of Descartes. 199
They arc sufficiently convinced of this union, and there is more
reason to fear that they will carry it too far by conceiving of their
soul only as a more subtle part of their body, like the Epicureans
and the Stoics, than there is to fear that they may believe that
their soul is to their body what a pilot is to a ship that he navigates.
"We know that this last was the idea of the Platonists ; hence the
definition that they gave of man was that he is a soul that
governs a body. And St. Augustine deemed so little that this was
a pernicious error, that he reproduces the opinion of these philo-
sophers without condemning it in the book, Morals of the Catholic
Church, ch. iv., admitting that it is a rather difficult question to
solve. . . . M. de Pibrac, 1 also, has not been censured for saying
the same thing in one of his quatrains, which have had great
vogue, and have been translated into many languages :
That which you see of man is not man ;
It is the prison in which he is shut up ;
The tottering bed on which he sleeps a short sleep.
It is, therefore, very strange that this author was ignorant of
such a common thing, which makes him exclaim, after having
falsely attributed this operation to M. Descartes, This thought is
irrelevant, ridiculous, false, and heretical in philosophy itself, in the
judgment of all men, in all times, and in every part of the world,
except among the Cartists. 2
That is doubly false ; for it is not true that this was the opera-
tion of the Cartists ; and it is true that it was that of the great
philosophers of antiquity. However it may be, although it might
be said that the distinction that M. Descartes has so well estab-
1 Gui diiK seigneur de Pibrac, born at Toulouse in 1529, died 1584,
president c^^wtier and chancellor of Queen Marguerite at Nerac. Et.
Pasquier calls him "one of the lights of the age." De Thou, in his
Memoires, says of him, " A man of incorruptible probity ... a noble heart
and generous mind." Montaigne also celebrates "the worthy Monsieur
Pibrac, a mind so gentle, opinions so sound, manners so agreeable." (Essays, iii.
9.) His Quatrains moraux, contenant preceptes et enseignements utiles pour la
vie de Vhomme public were printed for the first time in 1574. "Translated
into all the languages of Europe, and even into Arabic, Turkish, and
Persian, they did more than secularize the teaching of virtue, they popular-
ized it ; this very small book has truly been the catechism of several
generations." (E. COUGNY, Pibrac, sa vie et ses Merits, 1869.)
2 We say Cartesians, from the Latin name of Descartes, Cartesius. His
philosophy is called Cartesianism,
2OO Port-Royal Education.
lished between the soul and body might give reason to think
of man as the Platonists did, this would be the prick of a pin in
comparison with the great plague that he cured in destroying
by this distinction the impious opinion of the mortality of the
soul, which is principally founded on the idea that it is of the
same nature as the body, and which is the most damnable of
all errors, those who hold it being led to abandon themselves to all
their passions, because, being persuaded that there is nothing
to expect after this life, they have no curb to restrain them.
Where, then, is the judgment of those who, being obliged to
acknowledge, if they are at all fair, that the philosophy of M.
Descartes has, without comparison, broken up more than any
other the foundation of freethinking, hold it in small esteem, and
do not show any gratitude towards him but are disturbed by the
fear that it will lead men to think that they are not composed of
body and soul 3 It is like a man who should quarrel with the
doctor who had cured a mortal ulcer by a small incision, which it
might be feared he would not be able to close. The comparison is
exact, for here in the same way the fear is imaginary, the union of
soul and body being at least as well explained in this philosophy
as in any other.
(Arnauld, (Euvres, t. xxxviii. p. 90.)
EXCELLENT MAXIMS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE RULES
THAT A PRECEPTOR SHOULD LAY DOWN FOR
HIMSELF IN THIS EMPLOYMENT.
No art is without its rules, and no science without^^principles
and particular maxims.
It must not, then, be doubted that the Christian education
of children has its own, which are as much more excellent as the
end proposed is infinitely above the temporal conveniences and
advantages that are the object of the other arts and sciences.
There would be a greater number of these maxims if we wished
to repeat them all; I shall here set down only the principal, on
which each man may, if he shall think fit, make others for his own
special use.
Coustel: Rules for Education. 2OI
To be very Assiduous ivith Children.
Nothing is so useful as assiduity for learning the temper, mind,
and genius of children ; x they may be hid for some hours, but it
is impossible for them to use a constant dissimulation. Thus we
are in a better position to counteract their bad inclinations by
seeing from what sources they spring. . . .
In order to judge how useful this assiduity is, we have only to
consider that what Plautus says of the general of an army may be
said of a preceptor, that disorders always happen when he is
absent, which his presence, no doubt, would have prevented. . . .
To be very Watchful of Himself and Them.
It is not sufficient for a preceptor to be assiduous with the
children confided to his care ; besides that, he must be very
watchful over himself and them.
Over himself, because children are lynx-eyed for the smallest
actions, words, and movements of their masters, to make them
the subject of their conversations and often of their raillery if\
they are not well disciplined ; for this reason he should always
be on his guard, as if he were in an enemy's country. 2
He should also carefully watch over his children, for three
reasons.
The first is that it is much easier to prevent faults than to
correct them when they are once fixed in their hearts. There- \
fore it is necessary to reprove them constantly. That which has
been once cut, as St. Bernard says, will quickly shoot out again
in them ; what has been driven away returns ; what has been
extinguished is relighted ; and what has only been lulled to sleep
soon awakens. 1 ^
1 These pedagogic reasons have quite another value than the motive so
often given by the masters of Port-Royal, namely, the necessity of watch-
fulness to prevent the devil devouring his prey. (See Saint-Cyran, p. 76.)
2 " Remember," says Mme. de Maintenon to the Ladies of Saint-Cyr,
''that you must appear irreproachable to children. You cannot imagine
how clear-sighted they are, and what small account they make of persons
whom they do not esteem. . . . You must not think that you will impose
upon children, they can discover the bad faith of persons who seek for
pretexts to hide their defects or their passions. Truth, as you know, pierces
through walls, and sooner or later appears, whatever care may be taken to
hide it." (Entretien, Dec., 1706.)
2O2 Port-Royal Education.
The second reason is that the faults of children are usually
imputed to the teachers, and attributed to their want of care or
negligence.
In fine, the third and most important is the indispensable
obligation they are under to answer for them to God. . . .
This watchfulness of the preceptor refers not only to those who
are firm, whom he should, if possible, prevent from falling, but
also to those who have fallen, to whom he should give a hand to
raise them from their fall.
It should go so far as to take note of the tempers and dominant
inclinations of the children, in order to quickly apply the remedies
that prudence will show them to be the most useful, for it may be
said that the strength of desire, which only ceases in us with
death, is so much the more violent in them as the reason is
weaker, and that they have as yet no experience of the world.
It is necessary, then, to weaken and diminish it by retrenching all
that is capable of fortifying and encouraging it.
In order to do this, it is necessary to note their inclinations and
the direction of their natural disposition ; that is to say, whether
they are gentle, 'affable, and obliging, or, on the contrary, whether
they are proud, irritable, and disdainful; whether they are sober and
temperate, or whether they like drinking and good cheer ; whether
they have the fear of God, or are hasty and disobedient, &c.
But how are we to know this 1 ? you will say. I answer that their
disposition soon shows itself in their conversation and actions.
But it is not sufficient to know what the disposition of children
is, it must also be remedied. And this is the difficulty; for
wherever there is opposition there is a struggle, which is unpleas-
ing to human nature, which does not like to be reproved.
It is in this, then, that the vigilance, wit, and tact of a preceptor
should appear ; he should rouse a naturally slow child, and, on the
contrary, soften and restrain a too impetuous and excitable nature.
On this subject, it has been remarked that those who had
charge of the education of Sebastian, King of Portugal, 1 made a
1 Sebastian, the successor of John III., in 1557. Philip II. perfidiously
encouraged him to go to war in Morocco, where he met his death in the
bloody battle of Alcazar-Kebir (1578). Portuguese nationality was lost
until the awakening in 1640.
Coustel: Rules for Education. 203
very great mistake, for he was of an ardent and fiery nature. As
he burnt with the excessive desire of acquiring glory, there was
material to form an Alexander if he had had the good fortune
to find an Aristotle ; but that failed him. Instead of moderating
the excessive ardour that he showed in everything, he was allowed
to follow his course. The most violent exercises were his ordinary
diversions. He affected, in hunting, the chase of the wild boar,
and went on the sea when it was most stormy, and he was praised
for this. But at last this courage, which had not early been
trained to submit to reason and allow itself to be conducted by
its light, became fatal to him. He was carried away by his zeal
to turn his arms against the Moors ; and this zeal, which was good
but not sufficiently under control, caused the loss of the battle of
Alcacer, which brought on his subjects numberless miseries, and
caused them to fall under the yoke of their greatest enemies.
It must, however, be admitted that more difficulty is found in
the practice than in the theory of this maxim.
To have Special Regard to their Good Morals.
I have already said that there is much difference between the
education that the pagans gave to their children and that which
Christians should give theirs. As the former had only the world
in view, they paid especial attention to making their children
recommendable by the sciences and polite literature. But it is]
not so with Christians ; they have heaven in view, for which
sciences are much less necessary than good morals.
We must imitate sometimes the sculptors, who are constantly
removing their imperfections, and sometimes the painters, who
finish their works by daily adding some new touch of the brush
or some new lines of beauty. 1
St. Chrysostom compares the soul of children to a golden city,
in the midst of which the King of Heaven wishes to place His
residence ; and he compares the preceptor to the governor, who
should watch over its preservation.
He says that its citizens are thoughts which go in and out by
three principal gates, the eyes, the ears, and the mouth.
1 These graceful expressions are borrowed from St. Chrysostom.
2O4 Port-Royal Education.
He wishes the council to take every precaution and to do its
duty by setting trusty guards at these three gates, through which
death may enter into the soul.
As to the eyes, which are, he says, very difficult to guard, he
wishes children not to be taken to balls or the theatre. 1 For the
mouth, he wishes care to be taken that the children hold proper
discourse, that they do not sing secular songs, that they do not
pass their time in answering, slandering, or laughing at persons.
And as there is a great tie between the ears and the tongue, in
order to provide for the safety of the ears, he forbids too great
freedom of speech to be used before children, because they
resemble echoes that only repeat what they have heard.
To Separate them from those whose Company might be
Injurious to them.
As vices, whether bodily or mental, are easily communicated,
and as they work their way by an imperceptible contagion even
into the hearts of children, through their inclination to evil, one
of the principal objects of the vigilance of a preceptor is to
prevent the children under his care from having any intercourse
with those of their own age who might corrupt them, especially
if they are swearers, not decent in conversation, or given to wine
and dishonesty, for children are usually very much disposed to
imitate others in evil as well as good . . .
To have the Heart full of Charity towards them.
As in this employment the preceptor holds the place of the
parents, he should endeavour to enter into their spirit, and fill
his heart with the tenderness and love that nature has given
them for their children ; or, better, with the charity that . . . has
all the tenderness of natural affection without its defects and
weaknesses.
1 All the masters of Port-Royal are unanimous in condemning the theatre.
Lancelot gave up his preceptorship with the princesse de Conti, rather than
take her children to the theatre. Nicole calls dramatic authors public
poisoners, and does not even spare the Cid. Racine, who on this occasion
quarrelled with Port-Royal, succeeded, however, in getting Phcdrc approved
by Arnauld.
Coustel : Rules for Education. 205
This charity will teach him not to treat them in a base and
flattering manner, overlooking the imperfections that he should
correct; nor in a domineering manner, which would become
hateful and insupportable to them, but in a manner always gentle
and condescending, so that the children fear him as their master,
respect him as their father, and love him as their best friend.
This will make him take every precaution to make them avoid
what will be injurious to them.
This will lead him always to speak to them, not in a rough
and repellent tone, but with a moderation and gentleness which
will give them the confidence that they should always have in
him. . . .
And, in fact, as heavy rains run over the surface of the ground
without penetrating and fertilizing it, so rough words make no
impression on the mind, into which they do not sink.
As studies give most trouble to young children, it will cause
him to seek every means of relieving them ; for example, by
telling them the words that they cannot find, explaining the
difficulties that stop them, and thus making their understanding
of their authors more easy; in fine, by encouraging those of
moderate capacity, and aiding them to learn their lessons, &c.
This charity also will make him bear with much patience a
hundred small defects that age will cure, by showing very often
greater signs of affection to those who have greater natural
imperfections, and imitating in this way the conduct of mothers
who caress more, says St. Bernard, the weakest of their children.
No doubt nothing is so useful both to the preceptor and to the
children as this kindly and charitable conduct, because it is an
infallible means for the preceptor to make himself loved, and to
incline his children, in consequence, to study and virtue ; for as
the heart is the source of all actions, being once master of that,
he gets done all that he wishes.
Love with all your heart, says St. Augustine, and afterwards
do what you like to your neighbour. If you reprove him and
become angry with him, he will not take offence, because he
knows that you act in this way only because you love him; and
even if you go so far as to chastise him, he accepts it, because he
is convinced that you only wish for his good. . . .
2o6 Port-Royal Education.
To bear their Inattention to Study and all their other Defects icith
much Patience.
We must not be astonished to find defects in children. . . .
Whether these defects proceed from the corruption of nature or
the weakness of their age, it is necessary to bear them with much
patience and compassion, and assist the children to correct them
little by little. . . .
But, you will say, how is it possible to bear so many small
trifles, whose repetition makes them tiresome, as also their in-
attention to study and their small liking for the finest things that
are told them?
I admit that it is troublesome and annoying, and the more
intelligence and energy a person has the more trouble he has to
descend to these minutiae.
But it is necessary, however, thus to descend, in order to
elevate them little by little, and to imitate nurses, who are
satisfied with giving milk to their little ones, waiting for them
to grow and arrive at a state in which more solid food may
be given them.
And, in fact, demanding reason from children and exacting
from them firmness and attachment to what is good is like seeking
fruit on a tree newly planted. We must put up with their weak-
ness for some time. . . . We must remember the fine saying of St.
Chrysologus, that a physician who will not suffer with the patient,
and who does not become infirm with the infirm, is not in a
position to restore him to health. . . .
To treat them, as far as possible, with great Gentleness.
It is not sufficient to bear the faults of children with great
patience, but this toleration must be accompanied with great
gentleness.
Experience sufficiently shows that children who are treated too
severely, under the pretext of making them accomplished men,
imperceptibly accustom themselves to dissimulate, and that under
an appearance of virtue they conceal a fund of corruption and
horrible licentiousness.
Coustcl : Rules for Education. 207
It is the same as regards studies, for too great severity in the
master very often induces aversion for them. We must, then, as
far as possible, and following Plato's advice, rather lead children
to virtue and study by the gentleness of persuasion than by
excessive rigour. . . .
Away, then, with those looks in which the marks of an odious
severity are continually depicted ! We cannot expect by frighten-
ing children to make them respect us and to lead them to their
duties, love being incomparably more powerful than fear in obtain-
ing from them what we desire. . . .
" Labour rather," says St. Bernard, " to make yourselves loved
by children than feared. And if sometimes it is needful to use
severity, let it be the severity of a father, and not that of a tyrant.
Show that you are the mothers of the children by treating them
with much tenderness, and their fathers by reproving them for
their faults. Cease to be haughty and cruel, and become gentle.
Lay aside punishments and rods. . . ."
But when I say that a preceptor should treat his children with
much gentleness, I do not mean that it should degenerate into an
indulgence that encourages vice and tends to multiply faults which
he is bound to punish, since this gentleness would be equally pre-
judicial to himself and the children.
And as the corruption of human nature seems at present to
have reached its height, although it is to be wished that all
children could always be treated with great mildness, there are
some, nevertheless, with respect to whom we must be contented
to keep it in our hearts, it being more advantageous to their well-
being that we should always appear rather severe ; and this it
seems is what the Holy Spirit meant to confirm by opposing, as
He does, that indulgence which is natural to parents, in many
passages where He seems always to put the rod into their hands.
" He that loveth his son causeth him oft to feel the rod, that he
may have joy of him in the end." (Eccles. xxx. 1.)
" He that spare th his rod hateth his son." (Prov. xiii. 24.)
" The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself
bringeth his mother to shame." (Prov. xxix. 15.) 1
1 The worthy Rollin will equally tax his ingenuity to soften the most
precise texts by an interpretation inspired by his love of children: "The
208 Port- Royal Education.
To employ Exhortations rather than Threats in order to lead them
to Piety and Virtue.
What a man does against his will and by a sort of constraint
not only is not praiseworthy, but cannot even be lasting; for
what is forced soon returns to its previous state, as a tree that
has been forcibly bent soon returns to its former direction, whereas
what is done from free choice is usually stable and permanent.
We must, then, always endeavour to render virtue lovable in
itself, sometimes by praising before the children 1 those who are
really virtuous, and sometimes by making them understand the
shame and confusion by which bad actions are usually followed.
They must also always be exhorted to look to God rather than
man in all their actions, and to fear much more in their thoughts
the judgment of Him who penetrates the depths of the heart than
men's reproof by words.
When they do well they must be encouraged to do better,
because not to advance constantly on the road of virtue is to
recede ; and they must remember this proverb, that however good
a horse may be, he always needs the spur. . . .
To add Good Examples to Good Teaching.
It is not enough to give children good instruction, we must also
endeavour to give them good examples. . . .
Nothing has more influence on the mind, and especially the
mind of children, who notice much more what they see their
Holy Scripture, by these and other similar words, means perhaps punishment
in general, and condemns the false tenderness and blind indulgence of parents.
. . . Supposing it necessary to take the word rod literally, there is great
appearance that this chastisement is advised for those hard, gross, un teach-
able, and intractable characters which are insensible to reprimands or honour.
But can we think that Scripture, so full of charity and mildness, and of
compassion for weaknesses, even at a more advanced age, means that children
should be treated harshly whose faults often spring rather from thoughtless-
ness than perversity?" (Traite des ttudes, liv. viii.)
1 This was not the opinion of M. de Saci. (See p. 93.) He advises
Fontaine to thank God in secret for the good that he recognizes in children.
Pascal, who laments that " admiration spoils everything in children," states,
on the other hand, that " the children of Port-Royal, to whom this stimulus
to envy and glory is not given, fall into heedlessness." (Pens&s, ed. Havet,
p. 449.)
Coustel: Rules for Education. 209
teachers do than what they may say to them, and can have only
contempt for the good that they propose when their actions are
not conformable to their words.
And, in fact, can we listen to a man who does not listen to
himself? And have we reason to think that he is convinced
of the truths that he endeavours to make others believe, when
he will not take the trouble to practise them ? x . . .
A preceptor should be to his children like clear glass and like a
beautiful mirror, in which they may see their spots and imperfec-
tions, or, again, like a rule, which corrects by its straightness
whatever was uneven and defective. He must speak to them,
I say, more by his actions than by his words, and must show
them the way in which they should go more by acting than
talking.
If he does himself what he intends to enjoin on those under
his charge, not only will he correct their faults, but also he will
shield himself from the just reproach that the Apostle addresses
to those who do not act thus : " Why do you not teach yourselves,
you who pretend to teach others ! "
Now, nothing serves a teacher to set a good example so much as
uniformity of conduct.
Lay down for yourselves, then, a good mode of life, and set
yourselves a rule to follow, said Seneca ; regulate all your actions
by it, for irregularity of conduct is the mark of an inconstant
mind which has no firm foundation. . .
1 Mme. de Main tenon sets this excellent lesson in a clearer light in a
letter to a lady of Saint-Cyr : "You will make them reasonable only by
imparting reason to them by your discourses and by your example, which
will be still more efficacious than your words. They will be very nearly
what you are ; if you are sincere, they will be sincere ; if you act uprightly,
they will act uprightly ; if you are remiss, they will be remiss ; if you are
superficial, they will be superficial ; if you act otherwise when you are seen
than you do when you are not seen, they will do the same ; if you are in
earnest, they will be in earnest in the things you give them to do ; if you
hide yourselves from your superiors, they will hide themselves from you."
(A Mme. de la Mairie, 1714.)
2io Port- Royal Education.
OF CIVILITY AND POLITENESS IN CHILDREN.
It is not sufficient to do good, but we must always endeavour
to do it in the best manner possible. . . . And, in fact, as meats
good in themselves but badly seasoned are not very agreeable, so a
good action awkwardly done cannot be pleasing.
What I here call politeness and civility is an easy, open, and
becoming manner ; and I maintain that, in order to acquire it,
not only is it necessary to learn its maxims early, but to put
them in practice, according to this axiom of the philosophers,
that things that are learnt for use are best learnt by use. Now
the politeness of children should especially appear in their
deportment and their behaviour at table as well as in their
conversation. 1
Of the Manner in which they should Sit and Behave at Table.
They should always sit upright, without moving their arms and
legs about, and, if possible, without inconveniencing those who
are near them.
It is very impolite to be constantly looking at the dishes, and
devouring with our eyes all the viands that are served up.
You must not put your hand in the dish first, nor show signs of
impatience before you are served, or too much haste and eagerness
in eating w r hat has been given you.
Put gently on your plate what is offered you, bowing your head
slightly, to thank him who serves you, without taking off your
Jiatj 2 unless to persons who are of higher rank than yourself, and
foFwhom you are bound to have a marked respect.
1 Coustel justifies himself for entering into details that may appear
trivial by this judicious saying of Quintilian : "What must be done
deserves to be learnt." The annexed extract on behaviour at table is a very
curious study of manners.
2 La Biensfance de la conversation entre les hommes, published at Pont-a-
Mousson in 1618, mentions this custom of wearing the hat at meals :
"When you are at table, it is sufficient to make a slight bow, for it is not
seemly to imcover at table."
Father de la Salle recommends the guests to remain standing and un-
covered until grace has been said, and not to put on their hats until they
are seated, and the most distinguished persons have put on theirs." (Les
flegles de la bicnsdance et de la civilite' chreticnne.)
Coustel : Civility and Politeness in Children. 2 1 1
Never refuse what is offered, for this would be a tacit reproach
either that it has not been well chosen or to show that it is not to
your taste.
It is advantageous to habituate yourself early to cut the meat
neatly, to present it gracefully, and even to learn which is the
best part of a capon, a partridge, or waterfowl. *
If you may take the liberty of putting your hand in the dish,
take what is before you, without seeking right and left what may
seem to you better.
If there is a nice piece, never take it for yourself, but present
it to those whom you have invited, or who are the most dis-
tinguished in the company.
Keep your eyes on your plate, without constantly looking over
others to see what they are eating.
Take what is served you with your fork, and not with your
fingers.
Do not put very large pieces into your mouth nor inflate your
cheeks in eating, as if you were blowing the fire.
I Do not break your bread with your hand, but always use your
jknife to cut it.
Masticate the meat you have in your mouth slowly; this con-
tributes very much to health, for the second digestion does not
correct the imperfection of the first.
Never dip in the dish a morsel you have already put in your
mouth.
Avoid as much as possible a diversity of meats, for nothing
ruins the stomach so much, or is so prejudicial to health.
Never begin a meal by drinking; that has too much the
appearance of the drunkard, who drinks more by habit than
necessity. Never be the first to drink. Wipe your mouth, and
swallow what you have in it before drinking.
Always put water in your wine. Pure wine is to the body
what oil is to fire ; for it inflames it more, instead of moderating
and diminishing the heat that is consuming it.
1 Father de la Salle enters into kitchen details on the different meats,
boiled or roast, and fish, "in order that you may not take the best parts
for yourself (which might happen by mistake, for want of knowing), and
may offer them seasonably to those to whom it is fitting." (CiviliM chrttienne,
p. 107.) Coustel, a few lines further on, gives the same reason.
212 Port- Royal Education.
If anyone does you the honour of drinking your health,
modestly thank him who does so.
Do not make a boast of drinking to excess ; a barrel has a
much greater capacity than the largest stomach.
The custom of forcing others to drink the healths which have
been proposed, to the prejudice of their own, is neither honest
nor praiseworthy; a man must be a glutton and unmannerly to
do so.
\ Equals do not offer things to one another, presuming to do so
ps attempting to take the upper hand and act the host.
It is showing too great daintiness to complain that the viands
are ill-cooked, or that they are not to our taste.
If the company remain too long at table you may retire quietly,
after saluting them in a civil and obliging manner.
OF CONVERSATION.
Conversation must not be judged by the oddities and bad
temper of certain melancholy persons, but by the general feeling
that the Author of Nature has imprinted on the mind of all men.
God did not give them the use of speech to make them pass their
lives in the deserts, but to converse with one another, that they
may learn what they did not know, and may perfect themselves
in the knowledge of what they already know. As, then, con-
versation sharpens the wit, forms the judgment, makes us know
ourselves, and not have a blind attachment to our own opinions,
in fine, as it teaches us to live with everybody in an honest and
seemly manner, we are right in calling it the school of wisdom and
the teacher of civility. We may say that it is certainly very
useful, and may even go farther and maintain that it is necessary.
And, in fact, there are very many things that Jesus Christ
commands in the gospel that can only be done by conversing with
men, as, for example, consoling the afflicted, instructing the
ignorant, correcting those who commit faults, and setting on the
right road those who have strayed.
Admitting, then, the necessity for conversation, it may be asked
here, What ought to be its qualities? with what persons should
we converse? how should young persons conduct themselves
Coustel ': Civility and Politeness in Children. 213
in it l \ what arc the principal faults to be avoided ? . . . Oaths,
blasphemy, indecent and equivocal words should be banished
from it, and, in a word, nothing should ever be said that may
pain the listener or shame the speaker.
It should be very circumspect. Thus it is ill to play the
cheerful man before persons who are afflicted or the sad with
those who only think of amusing themselves. . . .
It should be respectful and full of deference, especially towards
women and the aged, to whom good breeding should lead us
to give the best places. . . .
In the fourth place it should be sincere; for, as soon as we
accustom ourselves to disguises and deceit, we lose all influence,
and get involved in many awkward affairs.
In fine, it should be charitable towards ourselves and towards
others ; towards ourselves, by profiting by what is said ; for if a
learned man is speaking all that he says instructs, and if a
thoughtless person he should make those who listen to him more
reticent, in order not to commit the same faults.
It is also necessary in conversation to be charitable towards
others by falling in with their humour, by interpreting favourably
all that they say, by overlooking their defects, and, in fine,
by preventing improper talk and slander, if we have sufficient
authority for that, or, at least, in showing by our coolness and
silence that we will take no part in it.
It may be asked here if women's conversation is advantageous
to young men; to which it is not difficult to respond, if we
follow the light of Christianity rather than the corrupt maxims of
the age. . . . There is danger, no doubt, in the conversation of
women, who are called, on this subject, the snares of the devil,
and the net in which those who are not on their guard are
caught. 1 . . .
To show here that young men seldom think of forming their
minds by conversing with women, and of learning, as they say,
politeness and civility, they do not usually like the conversation
of those who are somewhat old, although their seriousness and
1 Nicole says, not very gallantly : " Having a woman for adviser is
having a double concupiscence." (Essais de Morale, t. vi. p. 266.) This was
not Franklin's opinion.
214 Port- Royal Education.
great experience might be more useful to them; but they like
bodily much more than mental beauty; and the brightness of
a young face has more charms for them than the marks of
extraordinary virtue and merit in an old person. . . .
It is necessary to become acquainted with the ceremonies that
are practised in the country where we are. I mean by ceremonies
the outward marks of honour and respect that are paid to certain
persons. . . .
Ceremonies must be used with much prudence and propriety,
not too sparingly nor too prodigally.
To use none is boorish ; to use them through interest is
disguise and flattery ; to use them with persons who are very
busy is indiscreet ; and to use them with those whom we do not
intend to oblige is an insult.
Useless ceremonies should not be affected, refusing, for instance,
the first place when it is undoubtedly our due, and offering
battle, as they say, in order not to enter a door first.
You must not walk about when the others are sitting down,
nor bite your nails nor pick your teeth before company, thus
showing that their society is not agreeable, and that you seek
amusement by these little pastimes.
When you are seated you must not lean upon others nor turn
your back to them, nor stretch out your arms nor make un-
becoming gesticulations; such liberties are only allowable in
persons of much higher rank than the others.
It is a fundamental maxim of our religion always to treat
others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Always excuse, then,
the faults of others, and put a good construction on their actions
and words. Thus, if on entering someone does not salute you,
do not say that he despises or disdains you ; but rather suppose
that he did not see you, or that his mind was elsewhere and
occupied with something else.
Endeavour to keep an even temper, and fall in with the temper
of others when it is not in sympathy with your own.
Complaisance is the soul of society and the seasoning of conver-
sation. It should, then, be very great with respect to everybody,
yet without ever making us approve of what is manifestly unjust
and bad. . . .
Const el : Civility and Politeness in Children. 215
Always be more pleased to listen to what others say than
to talk yourself, and on this subject remember what Plutarch
says, " that Numa taught the Komans to reverence more than any
other a goddess to whom he gave the name of Tacita (the
Silent). . . ."
The advantage gained by silence is that it makes those who
know how to observe it pass before the world as very wise, how-
ever ignorant and stupid they may be. 1
There are times when nothing should be said, there are others
when it is necessary to say something ; but there are none when it
is necessary to say all that we know.
Be very reserved when you are in company where there are
persons of rank, very learned men, and old men to whom age has
given much experience.
When you take upon yourself to speak, be careful of these
three things : of what you speak, before whom you have to speak,
how you ought to speak.
Do not open your mouth before you have well arranged and
digested in your mind what you have to say, 2 lest your thoughts
be like those abortions which have not had sufficient time to
be perfectly formed ; for the trouble we have in expressing our-
selves usually comes from the fact that we have not thoroughly
arranged what we have to say ; for we always express ourselves
well when we have arranged in our minds what we wish to
say. . . .
Do not undertake to speak of things which are above your
capacity, and only speak of those that you think you know best
with great moderation and reserve.
If you wish to pass for an able man strive to be really so ; for
1 Grimarest, in the Life of Molitrc, relates a very amusing scene. Moliere
and Chapelle, returning by water from Auteuil to Paris, were discussing
about Gassendi and Descartes before a friar minim who was on the boat,
and the two speakers took him for judge. The friar minim only replied by
"hum! hum I" or by motions of his head. Our philosophers were a little
confused on perceiving a little later by his wallet that he was a serving
brother, and quite a stranger to these questions. Moliere then said to
the young baron who accompanied them, " See, my lad, what silence does
when it is carefully observed."
2 " There are people," says La Bruyere shrewdly, "who speak a moment
before they have thought." (Caracteres, ch. iv.)
216 Port- Royal Education.
time, which discovers all, will show you such as you are ; and
there may be someone in the company who will perhaps expose
your ignorance to your mortification.
If an opportunity offers of telling some story, come to the
point at once, without stopping to make a long and tiresome pre-
face, and always use in telling it proper, natural, and pleasing
expressions. . . .
Always endeavour to excuse him of whom evil is spoken ; and
if you cannot excuse the action that is blamed, excuse at least its
motive by saying that he was surprised, and that he did not
sufficiently reflect. If you cannot excuse the motive, attribute his
act to human infirmity and the strength of the temptation which
would very likely have carried away others if they had been in
the same position as he.
If anyone says something indecent, either pretend not to have
heard it, or show by your coolness or silence that you are
unwilling to take any part in it.
It is not necessary in company to remain always silent nor
to be continually talking ; the first would be a mark of stupidity
or contempt, and the other would show a too great assumption
of capacity. It is right for everyone to pay his share as much
for food for the mind as for food for the body.
Conversation should always be adapted to the places and
the persons with whom we are. Thus it is ungraceful to play
the Cato 1 before women, or the preacher before people who are
thinking only of amusing themselves.
Points of theology or questions difficult to resolve should not
be brought forward at table, but only those things on which each
may express his ideas without too much concentration of
mind. . . .
If a man has advanced an extravagant or pernicious opinion
it is useful and even praiseworthy for him to change it ; whereas
it would be a shameful thing to change an opinion that is just
and true. It is only persons of understanding and judgment,
says St. Augustine, who recall things ill said; and a man is
1 Cato the Censor (233-183 B.C.), celebrated for his seventy against luxury,
especially that of women.
Coustel : Civility and Politeness in Children. 217
usually more admired when he becomes, against himself, the censor
of an opinion advanced out of season than if he had never held
it, or if he had corrected another. . . .
Jokers, boasters, and great talkers are not usually liked.
Here, however, innocent joking must be distinguished from that
which is altogether odious.
For there is joking that is not only permissible but which
even enlivens conversation, and, therefore, those who succeed in
it are always well received. Now I call a joke a sensible thing
said to the point, and which amuses. For this it should be :
1. Subtle and refined, for both the joke and the joker are
laughed at when it is not so.
2. The things that are joked upon should not be serious or
criminal, for there is no subject for joking when there is no
subject for laughing.
3. Great defects of body or mind should not be taken as
subjects for it. Man did not make himself; God made him
as he is; it is upon Him then that the jokes fall.
4. Joking must be used with discretion ; thus we should never
joke about the powerful.
5. We should never joke about the wretched, because they are
worthy of compassion.
In fine, joking should be used in moderation, for excess is
always blamable, and there is no pleasure in driving people to
extremes.
I do not speak here of those whose jokes are stinging, and
who do not care if they give pain and trouble to others, provided
that they show themselves off and acquire the reputation for
wit. Nothing lowers and makes a young man disliked more than
that.
Boasters, again, are very disagreeable persons in conversation,
for they have always in their mouths the names of their ancestors
and their estates, and talk only of their own clever schemes.
Be afraid of pleasing yourself, lest you please yourself alone.
It is the same with the good qualities of our minds as with the
nudity of our bodies. We should always hide them from our
servants, and modesty does not permit us to dwell on them.
There are also odd people who love only themselves, whom
2i8 Port- Royal Education.
everything that others say displeases, and who think nothing
well done which they do not do themselves.
Obstinate and opjninnfl.f.p.fl persons are also very disagreeable.
When things are oi small consequence we should not wish to
carry them with a high hand ; victory is always dangerous in this
sort of encounters, since we often lose a good friend for a thing of
no value. Besides, we show our bad humour in good company.
(Coustel, Regies de ^education des enfants.)
ON THE PERSECUTIONS OF PORT -ROYAL. 1
. . . There must be a strange confusion in the affairs of this
world, since we see those who may certainly be said to have done
some service to the Church persecuted, ill-treated, calumniated,
and oppressed under the fictitious name of an imaginary sect, and
scarcely daring to defend themselves against the most unjust and
outrageous accusations ; and those, on the contrary, who dishonour
the Church by their ignorance and passion, as M. Mallet has done,
held in honour and credit, and not only free from fear of punish-
ment for their excesses, but making themselves feared, through the
power that is given them, by all those whom they consider their
enemies, because they are the enemies of their errors, their
extravagances, and their falsehoods.
Nevertheless, after all, we have no reason to be astonished at
this conduct. God permits it, God ordains it, for the good of
His elect. And, considering it in this light, we should not only
submit to it, but adore and kiss the hand which strikes us. I
adore the infinite variety of Thy commands, my God, ever just,
ever holy in the government of Thy creatures, both old and new,
that is to say, the world and the Church.
1 "We can scarcely read now those great volumes of heavy discussion.
Their conclusion alone need be noticed for its eloquence and sentiment. It
is said that the Chancellor Le Tellier could never tire of reading these
pages nor of making his friends read them ; his enthusiasm, however,
did not lead him so far as to repeat anything of them to the king.
Racine, it is said, re-read them with a lively admiration which I wish
we could share for the moral beauty of it!" (SAINTE-BEUVE, 'Port-Royal,
t. v. p. 297.)
Arnauld: Persecutions of Port- Royal. 219
It would be showing little faith in Thy promises to be moved
by what is passing in these days of clouds and darkness, in diebus
nulis et caliyinis, as Thou in Thy Scriptures callest these times of
trouble and tempest, in which it seemeth that Thou abandonest
innocence to the rage of the wicked, and takest pleasure in
permitting vice, injustice, and violence to triumph. What, after
all, can they do to those who put their confidence only in Thee,
and only love eternal things'? 1
They deceive princes, and cause them to take their most faithful
servants for enemies. But the heart of kings is in Thy hands, and
Thou canst change it in a moment by discovering what is hidden
from them, and removing the false impressions that have been
given them. If it do not please Thee to dissipate these clouds,
should it not suffice Thy servants that the depths of their hearts
are known to Thee, waiting till Thou give grace to princes, who
are incited against them, to penetrate the artifices by which they
are prejudiced, and to use their power only for the punishment
of the wicked and the protection of the good, for it is for this
only that Thou hast given it to them, as Thy apostles declare.
In the meanwhile they are proscribed, banished, and deprived
of liberty. Can a Christian, to whom all the earth is a place of
exile and a prison, be much troubled by a change of dungeon?
Thou art found everywhere, my God. Even loaded with fetters,
those who possess Thee are more free than kings. No prison is
to be dreaded but that of a soul whose vices and passions hold it
confined arid prevent it enjoying the liberty of the children of
God, and this it was that made one of Thy saints 2 say that the
conscience of a wicked man is full of darkness, more fatal and
more horrible, not only than all prisons, but even than hell itself.
But we may die from the fatigues and labours of a wandering
life. Should we avoid it if we were more at ease 1 ? A little
sooner, a little later, what is that when compared with eternity 1
1 This sentiment of confidence also greatly animated the Mother Angelique
Arnauld when she supported the courage of her nuns : " What ! are we
weeping here ? Come, my children, what is this ? Have you no faith ? At
what are you surprised ? What ! men are bestirring themsel ves ; well ! they
are flies that make a little noise when they fly. Do you trust in God and yet
fear ? Believe me, fear Him alone, and all will be well."
a Saint Augustine.
22O Port- Royal Education.
Thou hast numbered our days; we came into the world when
Thou wouldest, and go from it when it pleaseth Thee. The evils
of this world affright us when they are seen from afar ; we grow
accustomed to them when they are present, and Thy grace renders
all things endurable ; and besides, they are always less than we
deserve for our sins. Thou hast taught us by Thine apostle that
all who serve Thee should be willing to say like him : / know both
how to be abased, and I know how to abound : everywhere and in
all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Him who
strengtheneth me.
But how far are we still removed from the state of those of
whom the same apostle says : they were destitute, afflicted, tor-
mented, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in the
deserts and on the mountains, and hiding in dens and caves of
the earth!
We have but to acknowledge Thy bounty, Lord, who hast
condescended to treat as weak those whom Thou knowest to have
yet not much strength. Thou fulfillest the promises of Thy
Gospel, and givest them, in place of what they have left for love
of Thee, fathers, mothers, brethren, and sisters, in whom Thou
breathest a charity so tender towards those whom they regard as
suffering for the truth, and so great diligence in supplying all their
needs, that by singular goodness Thou changest the cross that
Thou layest upon them into sweetness and consolation. But they
trust in Thy mercy that if Thou preparest for them harder trials
Thou wilt also give them more grace and a greater abundance of
Thy Spirit to support them as true Christians. This is the sole
foundation of their confidence ; for they know well that we can
do nothing without Thee, and that however persuaded we may
be of the truths that Thou teachest us, they are only practised
when Thou makest them pass from the mind to the heart, and
that Thou fulfillest that which one of Thy saints has said, that
Thou alone settest the will to the good work, and removest the
difficulties to make it easy for the will. ... I am ready then,
my God, to follow Thee wherever it shall please Thee to lead
me ; and though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear
nothing while Thou leadest me by the hand. On this hope I rest,
Mere Agnes : Constitutions of St.-Sacrement. 221
and shall await with patience until, being softened by the prayers
of so many good men, Thou restore to Thy Church the tranquillity
that she cannot enjoy unless Thou quellest, by the authority of
Thy ministers, the stormy winds of human opinions that strive to
raise themselves above the truths of Thy Gospel, and until Thou
appease by Thy Word the storms that carnal men raise when they
are troubled in the right they think they have to live as heathens
and none the less to expect the rewards of the other life, which
Thou hast only promised to true Christians. 1
(Arnauld, GEuvres, t. vii. p. 902.)
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE MONASTERY OF PORT-
ROYAL DU SAINT-SACREMENT. 2
Of the Instruction of the Girls?
Girls may be received in the monastery for instruction in the
fear of God during several years, but not for one year only,
because that is not sufficient to form them in good morals
according to the rules of Christianity.
Those only will be received whose parents desire them to be
instructed in this way, and who offer them to God without an
expressed desire for them to be nuns or lay persons, but as it may
please God to ordain.
The girls shall be in a department separate from the nuns, with
a mistress to instruct them in virtue, to whom assistants will be
given to instruct them in reading, writing, needlework, and other
useful things, and not those which only minister to vanity.
1 Many men have spoken of their misfortunes, their unmerited troubles,
and their noble poverty, and have even turned them to account to make an
ostentatious display. What renders the words which we have just read
really noteworthy is that there is not a syllable that is not sincere, that
Arnauld says nothing more than he feels and is ready to do on the instant ;
the character of the writer confirms and completes the eloquence. I have
been obliged to quote the whole passage, which was formerly celebrated. It
is classic in the history of the exiled Arnauld. (SAINTE-BEUVE, Port-Royal,
t. v. p. 300.)
2 " The Constitutions of the monastery of Port-Royal du Saint-Sacrement,
which are the result of the instructions of M. de Saint-Cyran, were written
by the Mother Agnes (at the time of the foundation of the Institut du Saint-
Sacrement in 1647), after having been long practised. They were printed for
the first time in 1666." (Me'moires de Lancelot, t. i. p. 423.)
3 See Introduction, p. 46.
222 Port- Royal Education.
They will wear the novices' dress ; nevertheless, they shall not
be compelled to do so at first, if they show any dislike to it, until
familiarity and the sight of their companions make them desire it.
If anyone persists in not wishing it, she shall wear secular dress,
but not silk, and without lace, in order that the others may not
envy her.
They shall sing in the choir at certain hours when they shall be
of age to do so, and demand it ; as also in the refectory, where
they shall sit at a separate table with their mistress.
No more than twelve girls, under ten years of age, will be
received, lest the charity that the sisters show in that be preju-
dicial to them, by giving them too much occupation, and with-
drawing them from their other duties ; and also that they may
fulfil their duties more perfectly, without failing in any attentions
necessary to their good education.
They may be kept until the age of sixteen years, although they
do not wish to be nuns, provided that they are docile and modest,
that they take no liberties, and profit by the instruction given
them, confirming themselves more and more in Christian virtue.
If, on the contrary, they have a vain and worldly temper, they
shall be promptly dismissed, at any age, lest they corrupt the rest.
If one had lost her mother, and it were beneficial for her to
remain after the age of sixteen, permission may be asked of
the superior to keep her, and action will be taken as he shall
think fit.
The number of junior girls shall be at the most twelve, as we
have said; nevertheless, when they have passed the age of ten
years they shall not be considered juniors, and younger girls may
be taken in their place, although they still live in the monastery,
because there is much less care and work with them than with the
younger.
The nuns shall not ask to receive girls, nor use any influence
with the parents to make them give them, not even with those
who are related to them; this should proceed from their own
proper impulse, and a sincere desire for the good education of
their children.
Girls of three or four years of age, who have no mother, will
be more easily and willingly received, and all necessary assistance
Mere Agnes : Constitutions of St.-Sacrement. 223
will be affectionately given them in their helplessness, considering
in this that the charity is so much greater as these young orphans
are sometimes badly brought up, having no mother to watch over
them.
And let not the sisters think this an occupation ill-fitted for
their position, namely, to undertake the bringing-up of children
who are not yet capable of receiving any instruction for their
salvation, since in that they imitate God Himself, who first
formed the body of the first man, into which He then inspired
the breath of life.
Let them take, then, for their share the nourishment of their
small bodies with all necessary care, until their age is fitted for
the infusion of grace, by this means becoming like the mothers
of these children, which will make their virginity fruitful before
God, whose spouses they are, as He is the Father of souls and
spirits according to St. Paul.
The sisters who shall be employed in this duty having under-
taken, as has been said, a work of charity, should consider that
it is at the same time an exercise of patience, there being much
to suffer from these little creatures, and a great restraint with
them.
Let them not complain of either, but make themselves, for the
love of Christ, who became a child for us, the servants of these
children in whom He Himself dwells, humbling Himself in their
weaknesses. Let them also bear with their little tempers, which
are sometimes very tiresome. Let them never reprove them by a
movement of anger, but let them suspend punishment until their
emotion has passed, and that the children themselves may think
that they do not love them less when they punish than when they
caress them.
The mistresses will take great care not to be partial towards the
children, not loving more those who are more agreeable and pretty,
in order not to make the others jealous. Let them not amuse
themselves by playing with them more than is necessary for their
diversion, while they are still incapable of joining the other girls,
nor permit the children to caress them too much, nor attach them-
selves too much to them, which would make them ill-humoured
with others who might be given to them.
224 Port- Royal Education.
They must only gain their affections in so far as they are their
mistresses, and not as private persons. And although children are
not able to make this distinction, the mistresses should do so, and
oblige the children to give as much to one of the mistresses as to
another. For example, if a child would not obey one of the
mistresses because she liked her less, the other mistress, instead
of being gratified that this child liked her more, should show
severity, and make her give her companion the obedience which
is due to her. 1 And as a proof that the sisters do not wish to
be loved by the children, except for the good of the children
themselves, when they are removed from this office they will
no longer caress them when they meet them any more than the
other sisters do, who should never so amuse themselves, even if
they should be their relations, except in so far as the mother should
think convenient, in order to accustom the children on their first
entrance, or under some special circumstances. With these
exceptions, they will not show any tenderness they may feel
for them, and they will make a sacrifice of it to God, to obtain
from His goodness that these children may benefit by the good
education that will be given them.
When the mistresses take the children to the parlour they will
not exhibit a too marked affection for them before the parents ;
but only show that they love them so far as they are obliged, and
that they take the greatest possible care of them. They will not
praise the children too much, if some were very pretty, but will
simply say that they are very docile, or something of the sort.
They will not blame them for their faults nor accuse them of
anything, unless the mother has expressly told them to do so ; if
they are questioned to know if they are bad or tiresome, they will
say that much still remains to be done, without showing that they
are wearied or disgusted with it, in order not to give pain to the
1 Mme. de Maintenon gives the same recommendation to the Ladies of
Saint-Cyr, but with less measure and accuracy : * ' If the girls carry
flattery so far as to give you to understand that they like you more than
they like the others, show such a profound contempt for this baseness, and
so great a desire that your sisters may be not less esteemed and loved than
yourself, that they may understand that you are far from taking pleasure in
their discourse. It would be very wrong to let them perceive that you had
this weakness." (Entretiens, 1703.)
Mere Agnes: Constitutions of St.-Sacrement. 225
parents. They will ask nothing for the children without the per-
mission of the mother, not even toys, nor books, nor anything
else, as much not to importune the parents as not to give occasion
for jealousy to the others, to whom nothing will be given. And
for this reason it would be desirable that they were all equal ; l
therefore we shall continue, as heretofore, to undertake their
maintenance in order to avoid the inequality that is found
among their parents, some of whom would give liberally and
others would withhold what would be necessary for them, which
would make the former proud and give pain to the others ; this is
avoided by treating them almost all equally, so far as discretion
permits.
The junior girls shall not be left in the parlour alone when they
are very young, nor when they are older, unless with their father
and mother, if they desire it, and only for a very short time.
The very young children should never be lost sight of, lest they
fall and hurt themselves ; they will not even be allowed to play
together in a remote part of their room, but will be constantly
watched, to correct them in the small irregularities they may
commit.
The senior girls shall not be exempt from this supervision ; on
the contrary, the inconveniences may be greater ; therefore equal
or greater care will be taken that they shall not be left without a
person to take charge of them.
They are not to be allowed to whisper together, however little.
One of the mistresses is to sleep in their room, and in going
through the monastery to the choir and the refectory, they are
always to be conducted, care being taken that they do not go
together. In fine, constant attention must be given to remove
from them, as far as possible, all occasions of doing harm to one
another, which is usually what most corrupts the young. . . .
The sisters who shall be employed in the care of the children
1 It was unavoidable to make some exception in an age when ranks were so
distinct. We see in Leclerc that Mile. d'Elbceuf, who entered Port-Royal at
the age of nine years, was the object of special care in the boarders' room ; the
Mother Angelique had a small space divided off where she slept. "As to
food, she was served first, and her ordinary fare was also different. ... At
thirteen she had a room to herself and a sister to wait on her. ..." (Vies
inter essantes, t. iii. p, 183.)
Q
226 Port-Royal Education.
shall act, as has been said, with great affection and fidelity, and at
the same time great indifference, dreadiog this charge on account
of the many opportunities it gives of committing errors, of
diverting themselves too much, and of losing the spirit of
meditation, which it is not easy to preserve in such an important
occupation ; if, nevertheless, obedience retains them in it, let
them trust that God will support them, and that the charity
which necessarily accompanies this duty will cover their faults.
Let them know also, for their consolation, that in taking care
to bring up these children well, they are recalling before God the
years of their own childhood and youth, which they perhaps
employed ill for want of a similar education.
REGULATIONS FOR THE CHILDREN OF PORT-ROYAL.
Advertisement.
Although this regulation for children is not a mere fancy, but
has been drawn up on what has been practised at Port-Royal des
Champs during many years, it must, nevertheless, be admitted
that, for what is external, it would not always be easy nor even
useful to put it in practice with all its severity. For it may be
that all the children are not capable of such strict silence and so
strained a life without being depressed and wearied, which must
be avoided above all things, and that all mistresses cannot
keep them under such exact discipline, gaining at the same time
their affection and love, which is absolutely necessary in order to
succeed in their education. It is the part of prudence, then, to
moderate all these things, and, according to the saying of a pope,
to join the strength which retains the children without repelling
them to a gentleness tljk wins them without enervating them :
Sit rigor, sed non exasp^j^ ; sit amor, sed non emolliens.
Regulation for the Children.
To MONSIEUR SINGLIN, APRIL 15, 1657.
I humbly beg your pardon for having so long delayed to give
you an account of the manner in which I act with children. 1
1 Jacqueline Pascal, younger sister of Pascal, born in 1625, retired from
the world in which she had early shone by her wit and a certain poetic
Pascal: The Children of Port-Royal. 227
What prevented me doing so from the first word you said to
me about it was, that I thought you asked me to set down in
writing how they ought to be treated, which I did not think
myself able to undertake without great temerity, having so little
knowledge for so difficult an employment. For I can assure you
that obedience alone can make me do the least thing in it, and
if I do not spoil all, it is to be attributed to the efficacity of the
words of our mother, who told me, when giving me the charge,
not to be anxious about anything, and God would do all. This
so appeased the trouble in which my impotence had put me, that
I remained full of confidence and with as much tranquillity as
if God Himself had given me this promise, and I acknowledge
to my confusion that, when I look at myself and fall into
despondency, as you know I do very often, these words alone,
God will do all, repeated with confidence, restore peace to my
mind. But what removed my trouble was that you told me
afterwards that you did not ask me to write how they should
be treated, but only how I treated them, in order to notice
the faults that I commit, which, not only destroy what God
does in it through me, but even place great obstacles to the grace
that He puts in these souls. . . .
I, In what spirit we should render service to the children.
Union of the mistresses. Some general advice for their conduct,
chiefly towards the younger children.
1. I think, then, that to be useful to the children, we should
never speak to them, nor act for their good, without looking
to God and asking His grace, desiring to take in Him all that
is needful to instruct them in His fear.
2. We should have great charity and tenderness for them,
neglecting them in nothing whatever, either spiritual or bodily,
showing them upon every occasion that we set ourselves no limits
talent, and entered Port-Royal in 1652, where she took the name of sister
Sainte-Euphemie. From 1657 to 1659 she had charge of the education of
the children, and, in virtue of this, drew up the annexed regulation. She
was afterwards sent to Port-Royal des Champs, as sub-prioress, to direct the
novices. She died in 1661 from sorrow and remorse at having signed the
formulary against her conscience in deference to the authority of Arnauld.
M. Cousin has devoted a volume full of interest to this distinguished
228 Port-Royal Education.
for their service, and that we do it with affection and with all our
heart, because they are children of God, and that we feel ourselves
obliged to spare nothing to render them worthy of this sacred
title.
3. It is very necessary to devote ourselves to them without
reserve and not to leave their quarters without unavoidable
necessity, in order to be always present in the room where they
are working, if we are not talking to them or visiting them
when they are ill or employed in other things which concern
them.
4. No difficulty should be made in missing all the service for
this, unless the elder children are present at it. The constant
care of the children is of such importance, that we should prefer
Jhisjiuty to all others, 1 when obedience lays it on us, and much
more than our own private gratification, even when it concerns
spiritual things. The charity with which all the services which
are useful to them will be given, will cover not only many of our
faults, but will take the place of many things that we think would
be useful for our own perfection.
5. There will be a sister on whom we can rely, without in any
way relieving us of our duty. This sister who will be given
us should be attached, as far as possible, to the schoolroom.
Therefore it would be desirable to have two, animated with the
same zeal and the same spirit for the children, and who most
often should be together in the schoolroom, even in the presence
of the head mistress, in order that, seeing the respect with which
the children behave before her, they may both have the right to
demand for themselves the same respect in her absence as in her
presence.
6. We should act in such a manner that the children may
notice a great harmony and perfect union and confidence with
the sister who is given to us for a companion. She should not,
therefore, be reproved for what she has done or ordered, if what
she has ordered is not well, in order that the children should
1 For greater security, Mnie. de Maintenon will make the Ladies of Saint-
Cyr, in addition to the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, take a
fourth and special vow, namely, to devote themselves to the education of the
, girls of Saint-Cyr.
Pascal: The Children of Port- Royal. 229
never notice any contrariety, but should be warned privately.
For it is important, and almost necessary, in order to govern
the children well, that the sister who is given as assistant
should be inclined to think everything good that is said to her.
If it were not so, it would be necessary to report it to the
mother superior. If what she might do contrary to us only
touched our temper, and did no harm to the children, we should
demand God's grace to rejoice that we had an occasion to be
vexed.
7. We should pray to God to give the children a great respect
for the sisters who are with us. We should also give them great
authority, but especially to her who is next to us. It is well, then,
to show the children, and even tell them at times, that she has a
great charity for them, that she loves them, and that we order her
to tell all that takes place in the schoolroom, and to tell her before
the children that she is obliged by duty and charity to tell us not
only all their greater faults, but even their slight failings, in order
to aid them in correcting them.
8. We put a sort of confidence in the sisters who aid us, by
telling them the inclinations of the children, especially of the
younger ones, and also those of the elder which might cause some
disorder, that they may the better watch over them. We should
not, however, so readily tell them things that the children tell
us privately if we do not see in this a necessity for their good,
lest they should inadvertently let them know something of it. I
think it of great importance that the children should see that we
can keep a secret, although what they tell us may not be of great
importance for the time, because it might happen that they would
have something important to tell us another time, especially when
they advance in age, which they would have some difficulty in
telling us if they had found out that we had not been faithful in
small things.
9. As it is very important that we should be in perfect harmony
and complete accord with the sisters who are appointed to assist
us, it is still more so that these sisters act only according to the
order that they find and see established, and that they should so
conform to the ideas of the head mistress as to speak only through
her mouth and see only through her eyes, in order that the children
230 Port- Royal Education.
may notice nothing that is not in perfect agreement between them; 1
and if the sisters find anything to object to in the conduct of the
head mistress they should tell her, if they have sufficient con-
fidence in her, and have permission from their superiors. If God
does not give them this confidence they should inform the mother
of it, lest unintentionally they let something of it appear before
the children.
10. When two nuns are in the schoolroom when the bell rings
for service, they may say it one after the other, that there may be
one to overlook the children ; but she will say nothing of the faults
she may see them commit if they are unimportant until her com-
panion has finished her prayers, in order to inspire them with
great respect when they see anyone engaged in prayer. But as
soon as the service is over, which is very short when it is said
in a low voice, they must be punished according to the gravity
of the fault, and more severely than when prayers are not being
said.
11. When there is only one, she need make no difficulty in
casting a look at them, but must say nothing until she has
finished her prayer. We have seen by experience the good this
does them, and when we are strict in not speaking to nor
reproving them during the prayer, 2 this makes them more re-
1 Mme. de Maintenon equally insists on this recommendation : " In order
to succeed in your government it would be necessary for all to have the same
ideas and the same maxims, or at least, if you have different ones, to be
sufficiently humble to renounce your own opinions and follow those of your
/superiors, maintaining what is established by them against your own judg-
mient. . . . Lay aside the private projects that self-love makes in order to
compensate the necessity of falling in with the opinion of an official. You
have still the pleasure of inwardly disapproving of her conduct and of
saying, If I ever have that place I shall act in a different manner, I shall
,do this or that, I shall be more gentle or more firm. Never, I repeat, will
I your authority be established by such diversity of conduct. It would be
I better not to do quite so well but to do always the same, than to show this
\ unevenness in the manner of educating your young ladies and fulfilling your
duties." (Entretiens, 1703.)
2 No detail, perhaps, shows better the depth and sincerity of the religious
feeling that animated the monastery of Port-Royal. The Constable Anne de
Montmorency had fewer scruples. "He never missed his devotions nor
prayers," says BrantOme ; " for he did not fail to repeat his Paternosters
every morning, whether he remained at home or mounted his horse and
went through the fields to the armies, where they used to say that they
must beware of the Constable's Paternosters ; for while saying and mumbling
Pascal: The Children of Port- Royal. 231
specif ul when they pray, and more "afraid of interrupting us.
We cannot too much inspire the young with respect for God
as much by our example as by our words. For this reason we
shall be very precise in repeating our prayers at the hours when
they are said in the choir, in leaving off what we are doing at
the second bell, and never letting ourselves be carried away by
the desire to finish something. Not that, if the necessity of
rendering some service to the children occurred, we should not
attend to it before our prayers ; but it is right that the children
and our own conscience should be convinced that we are only
working for God, our example being the best instruction we can
give them, for the devil gives them memory to make them
remember our least faults, and takes it away to prevent them
remembering the trifling good that we do them.
12. Therefore we cannot pray to God too much, nor humble
ourselves and watch over ourselves too much, in order to discharge
our duty to the children, since obedience binds us to it; and I
think that it is one of the most important duties of the house,
and we cannot be too apprehensive 1 in fulfilling it, although we
must not be pusillanimous, but put our trust in God, and force
Him, by our groans, to grant us what we do not deserve of our-
selves, but what we ask of Him through the blood of His Son,
shed for these innocent souls that He has put into our hands. For
we should always look upon these tender souls as sacred deposits
that He has entrusted to us, and of which He will make us give
account ; therefore we should speak less to them than to God for
them.
13. And as we are obliged to be with them always, we must
behave so that they cannot see in us any inequality of temper, 2
them, when the circumstances occurred, because many outbreaks and dis-
orders now happen there, he used to say, ' Hang me such a one, bind that
man to this tree, send that man through the pikes immediately. . . . burn
me that village,' and thus he pronounced such or suchlike sentences of justice
and military police according to emergencies, without leaving his Pater-
nosters, until he had finished them."
1 The saying of Saint-Cyran, ' ' a tempest of the mind," will be remembered.
2 * ' The sole desire of children is to find out the weak side of their teachers,
as of those to whom they are subject ; as soon as they can encroach upon
them they gain the upper hand, and assume an influence over them that they
never lose. That which makes us once lose this superiority over them also
prevents us recovering it." (LA BRUYEUE. )
232 Port-Royal Education.
by treating them sometimes with too much mildness and at other
times with severity. These two faults usually follow each other ;
for when we allow ourselves to caress and flatter them, giving
them liberty to go as far as their temper and inclination lead
them, reproof infallibly follows, and this causes that unevenness
of temper which is much more painful to the children than
always keeping them to their duty.
14. We must never be too familiar with them, nor show them
too much confidence, even when they are grown up ; but we must
show them real kindness and great gentleness in all that they need,
and even anticipate them.
15. We must treat them with courtesy and speak to them with
deference, and give way to them as far as possible. This wins
them over, and it is well to condescend to them sometimes in
things which in themselves are indifferent, in order to gain their
hearts.
16. When it is necessary to reprove their levity and awkward-
ness, they should never be mimicked nor excited by harshness,
although they may be in a bad temper; on the contrary, they
must be spoken to with great mildness and given good reasons in
order to persuade them ; which will prevent them becoming
soured, and make them accept what is said to them.
17. We must pray to God to make the children straight-
forward, and labour ourselves to turn them from all tricks and
artifices, but this must be done so simply as not to make them
artful while exhorting them to be artless. 1 Therefore, I think
that we should not let it appear that they have so much artifice.
For sometimes by constantly telling them that they must not be
1 This wise advice recalls this lively passage of a letter of Mme. de
Maintenon to Mme. de Fontaine, 20 September, 1691, at tl^lHfcie of the
reformation of Saint-Cyr : " Pray to God, and make the others pray that He
will change their hearts (the girls'), and that he will give us all humility ;
but, Madam, it is not necessary to talk much of it to them. Everything
at Saint-Cyr is turned into discoursing ; they often talk of simplicity, seek
to define it correctly, to understand it, to distinguish what is simple from
what is not so ; then in practice they amuse themselves by saying, ' Through
simplicity I take the best place, through simplicity I am going to praise my-
self, through simplicity I desire what is farthest from me on the table.'
Really, this is playing with everything, and making a joke of what is most
Pascal: The Children of Port-Royal. 233
artful we make them so, and that they make use of everything
which was told them, when they were not so, at another time,
when they need to use artifice to hide some faults which they do
not wish to be known.
18. Therefore the children must be constantly watched, never
leaving them alone in any place whatever, in health or in sickness,
but without letting them see that this is done so strictly, in order
not to foster in them a distrustful spirit constantly on the watch.
For that accustoms them to play tricks on the sly, especially
the young ones. Thus, I think, that our constant watching
should be effected with mildness and a certain confidence which
may make them think they are loved, and that it is only for the
sake of accompanying them that we are with them. This makes
them like this supervision rather than fear it.
19. As to the youngest children, they must be, more than the
rest, familiarized and brought up, if possible, like young doves.
When they have committed a considerable fault which deserves
punishment, few words should be used; but when you are
perfectly certain, they must be punished without saying a word
why they are punished until it is over. And even then it is
good to ask them, before telling them anything, if they know why
they have been punished ; for usually they have not failed to
recognize it. This punishment, promptly administered without
a word, prevents them telling untruths in order to make excuses
for their faults, to which young children are very prone ; and I
think that they correct their faults better themselves, because
they fear being surprised.
20. I think also that in slight faults small warning should be
given them, for insensibly they get accustomed to be always
talked to. Therefore you should pretend only to see one out of
three or four faults; but after having looked at them some
time, they must be caught and made to give satisfaction at once.
That corrects them much better than many words.
21. When young children are very obstinate and rebellious, they
should be made to undergo the same punishment three or four
times, which subdues them completely when they see that you are
not wearied. But when you do this one day and forgive them the
next or neglect them, it makes no impression on their minds, and
234 Port- Royal Education.
it is found to be necessary to adopt more stringent measures
than those which would have been necessary with any sort of
regularity.
22, Lying is very common with young children. Everything
therefore should be done to accustom them not to fall into this
vicious habit ; and for that it seems to me that they should
be cautioned with great gentleness, to make them confess their
faults, saying that we know very well what they have done,
and when they confess of themselves they should be forgiven,
or their punishment should be mitigated.
23. While the children are still very young, as four or five years
old, they should not be left all day with nothing to do, but their
time should be divided, making them read for a quarter of an
hour, then play for another quarter, and then work again for
a short time. These changes amuse them, and prevent them
falling into the bad habit, to which children are very liable,
of holding their book and playing with it, or with their work,
of sitting sideways and often turning their heads. But when
they are told to employ a quarter or half an hour well, and
are promised that if they attend to their lesson or their work
they shall be allowed to play, they work quickly and well for this
short time in order to be rewarded afterwards. And when you
have made this promise before work, although they play during
the time, you must say nothing ; but at the end, when the time is
up, and they think they are going to play, they must again give
the time to the work, pointing out to them that you do not always
wish to speak, but that, since they have done nothing but trifle,
they must begin again. That surprises them, and puts them on
their guard another time. 1
II. To what we lead them in general conversations and in con-
junctures in which they give us cause to speak to and ivarn them.
They are made to understand that perfection does not consist in
doing many special things, but in doing well what they do in
common, that is to say, cheerfully and for the love of God, with
1 This is an application of natural sanction, so dear to Rousseau and
Spencer. That is better than all arbitrary punishments and reprimands.
The child feels the justice of it, and corrects himself.
Pascal: The Children of Port-Royal. 235
a great desire to please Him, and always to do His holy will with
joy-
They are taught to value the small opportunities that God gives
them of suffering something for His sake, as some slight contempt
shown by their sisters, some accusations wrongly made against
themselves, some privations of their desires and inclinations,
some occasion for renouncing their own will which may be
given by their teachers, or by some other occurrence. They are
asked to receive all this as a gift of God, and a witness of His
great love, and of the care that He takes to give them oppor-
tunities of perfecting themselves every day. 1
They should often be spoken to of the pleasure and satisfaction
of giving themselves entirely to God and of serving Him in truth
and simplicity, without wishing to keep anything back from Him ;
. . . that some will gain heaven and others deserve only chastise-
ment for the same action, according to the impulse of their heart
and the purity or impurity of their motives. It is well to make
them understand this by some slight comparisons, as, for example,
that a good action done for God's sake, and from a desire to please
Him and to do His holy will leads us to heaven ; and that, on the
contrary, the same action done in a spirit of hypocrisy or vanity,
and only with the desire to be well thought of by our fellow-
creatures, deserves only punishment; 2 for having done nothing
for God, we ought not to expect a reward, but only punishment in
recompense of our hypocrisy.
Children should be strongly exhorted to know themselves, their
1 This morality is very ill adapted to the intelligence and character of
children. It is simpler and more practical to tell them that in order to
render social life possible, we ought mutually to bear our imperfections,
to avoid offending our neighbours, and to arm ourselves with patience.
These are the reasons that Nicole develops in his celebrated treatise on
the Means of living in peace with men.
2 Mme. de Maintenon will be less severe. * ' You cannot too much inspire
your young ladies with the love of reputation. They must be very scrupulous
on the subject. Consider those who are the vainest as the best of your
pupils . . . they must die to this scrupulousness when they are more
advanced in piety ; but before dying to it they must have lived in it.
Nothing is so bad as certain natures without honour and without vanity ;
we do not know how to take them in order to make them surmount the
obstacles they find in their path ; thus it would be very dangerous to stifle
these sentiments in young persons who usually are incapable of an exalted
piety." (Entretiens, 1703.)
236 Port-Royal Education.
inclinations, vices, and passions, and to go to the root of their
defects. It is well, also, that they know to what their nature
inclines them, in order to remove what may be displeasing
to God, and to change their natural inclinations into spiritual.
To tell them, for example, that if they are of a sympathetic
disposition they should change the love they have for themselves
and their fellow-creatures into loving God with all their hearts,
and thus with their other inclinations.
They may be shown sometimes that one of the greatest faults
of the young is indocility, and that it is, as it were, natural to
them ; that if they do not take care this vice will ruin them,
making them incapable of accepting advice, and that this is always
the mark of a proud spirit. Therefore, they will often be told
that they should wish to be treated with firmness, and that they
should show, by the meekness with which they receive advice
that is given them, that they are willing that everything that may
be displeasing to God should be destroyed in them.
We exhort them not to be ashamed of doing good. For some-
times those who have been unruly are ashamed to do what is right
before those who have seen their unruliness. They must be told
to pray to God to strengthen them that they may do good freely,
and that, although at first they often fall back, they must raise
themselves again often and more courageously. These instructions
should be given generally, and even at times when none are dis-
orderly, that they may serve for another time, and that those who
should be more orderly may apply them to themselves if needful.
We tell them that their difficulties in acquiring virtue proceed
from this, that as soon as some vice to be overcome or some virtue
to be acquired appears, they fall back upon themselves in order to
consult their own temper, inclination, self-love, and weaknesses,
and the trouble that they have to conquer themselves ; but instead
of weakening themselves by these human views, they must turn to
God, in whom they will find all strength, even in their weakness ;
. . , that if they were told to throw off their troubles and weak-
nesses by themselves they would have good reason to be discouraged ;
but since they are told that God will Himself remove their diffi-
culties, they have only to pray and hope. . . .
We ought not to anticipate them touching religion, especially in
Pascal: The Children of Port-Royal 237
general, nor let them see how few persons we think are saved
in the world ; it is sufficient to let them see that there are
many difficulties in being saved in it. ... What they ought
to avoid if they return to society should be pointed out to
them. . . .
If they enter on the subject of religion of their own accord, in
order to express their opinions on it, the opportunity may very
well be taken to tell them something of the happiness of a good
nun. 1 . . .
It is well to let them know sometimes that they are loved for
God's sake, and that this affection makes us so sensitive to their
faults and renders it so difficult to support them, and that the
ardour of this love makes the words we use in reproving them
sometimes so severe. At the same time, we shall assure them
that, in whatever manner we act. we are led only by the
affection we bear them and the desire to make them such as God
would have them to be ; that our heart is always tender towards
them, that our severity is only for their faults, and that we do
great violence to ourselves, having much more inclination to treat
them gently than severely.
III. How children should be spoken to in private.
The habit of speaking to children in private makes their govern-
ment easier. In these conversations their troubles are relieved, we
enter into their spirit to make them strive against their faults,
we lay bare their vices and passions to the roots, and I may say
that when God gives them a thorough confidence in their teacher,
there is much to be hoped for ; and I have not seen one who en-
joyed this perfect confidence who has not succeeded.
The conversations with them should be very serious, and great
kindness should be shown them, but no familiarity ; and if there
were one who was seen to seek talking for amusement, she should
be treated more coolly than the rest. Therefore we have need of
great discretion, not only in the conversation itself, but also in the
time chosen for it. I think about every fortnight is sufficient,
unless for some special need, for which no rule can be given.
1 The recommendation was not needed. Everything in this education
tended to conventual life.
238 Port-Royal Education.
We must take great care, and not allow ourselves to be deceived;
and it is a great advantage when they are forewarned that we know
all the artifices of children, which makes them give up the design,
and unconsciously return to simplicity and sincerity, without which
it is impossible to serve them usefully.
It is, then, very necessary not to allow ourselves to be surprised,
and we cannot avoid this without God's continual help. Therefore
we shall never speak to them without having prayed to God, and
considered, even in His presence, what we think they should tell
us, and what we think He wishes that we should reply to them x
. . . and if, while speaking to them, they tell us something of
the truth of which we are not quite certain, we shall tell them
that we will take time to pray to God before replying to them, in
order that He may prepare them to receive with a heart entirely
free from all human interest, all that we shall tell them from Him
for their good. We shall also use this retardation as soon as we
see that their mind is soured by what we have said to them, or
that they do not take in good part some advice that we have
given them. We may tell them that we see that they are not
very well disposed to listen to us, or that perhaps we are not well
informed, and that by both praying to God, if we do it with
humility, He will no doubt have pity on us. This slight con-
descension and all these things should not be told to all, but is
of great use to the elder girls and to those who are intelligent.
Great discretion is needed to speak to them at a proper time
and place. Therefore I repeat here what I cannot say too often,
and what I do not do enough, namely, to pray more than talk, and
I think we must always have our heart and mind raised to heaven
to receive from God all the words that we should say to them. 2
Constant vigilance is necessary in order to form an opinion of
them and to discover their tempers and inclinations, that we may
learn, by regarding them attentively, what they have not the
courage to disclose to us. It is well to encourage them when
we see that they are ashamed to tell of their faults in order to
give them more freedom to disclose them ; it is well to hide from
1 This is, indeed, the teaching of Saint-Cyran. (See p. 77.)
2 See the saying of Saint-Cyran. (p. 70.)
Pascal: The Children of Port- Royal. 239
them many truths that we think would be too hard for their
imperfect state. . . .
If they ask to be set to do many private things, few or none
will be given them, pointing out to them that they will not please
God in that way if it does not come from a heart really touched
by love of Him and a sincere desire to please Him and do
penance ; that we do not judge them by these actions, but by
their obedience to the smallest rules of the schoolroom, by the
support they give their sisters, by the kindness with which they
help them at need, and by their care in mortifying their faults ;
these things will make us think they wish to serve God, and not
a number of private actions. . . .
We shall tell them these things, although sometimes we shall
not fail to allow them to do in other circumstances what they ask
us, without appearing to take notice or taking any account of it ;
on the contrary, during the time that they are asking for some-
thing extraordinary to do, we shall pretend not to be occupied
with them, not failing to notice their actions much more than at
other times, in order to point them out afterwards when
opportunity offers. By behaving thus to them we shall soon
discover if they only ask these things through hypocrisy. For
then, if they have only done it to be noticed, when they see that
we do not notice them they will let them go and ask nothing
more. . . .
IV. Of General and Private Penances that may be imposed
on them.
They must be obliged to beg pardon of those sisters or of their
companions of whom they have spoken ill with mockery, or given
some other offence or shown a bad example.
This pardon may be asked in several ways, according to the
gravity of the fault, either in public or in private, in the refectory
or during lessons. They may also be commanded to kiss the feet
of the companion whom they have offended. Above all, care
must be taken that if the fault was only witnessed by two or
three persons, they must make amends only in private, at least, if
the fault was of little consequence, it being very dangerous to N
inform needlessly those who have not seen the faults of others.
240 Port-Royal Education.
I say the same of the faults of some of the leading girls ; when a
considerable numher have fallen into them it will be necessary to
wait and reprove each privately or all the guilty together, in order
not to inform the weak needlessly.
They may be obliged to wear a grey cloak, to go to the refectory
without a veil or a scapulary, and even to stand at the church
door in this state.
They should also be deprived of going to church for one or
more days, according to the gravity of their fault, or made to
stand at the church door or in some other place separate from the
rest ; above all, care must be taken that the deprivation of going
to church is not indifferent to them.
The children of the lower and middle classes may be made to
wear a paper written in large characters expressing their faults ;
it is sufficient if there is a word or two, as idle, negligent, un-
truthful, &C. 1
To make them ask the sisters of the refectory to pray for them,
telling them the fault into which they have fallen or the virtue
which they lack. 2
The elder girls should be made to fear for God's sake, and
through fear of His judgments, and in certain circumstances
some of the penances that are imposed on the younger may be
imposed on them, as making them go without a veil, or ask the
prayers of the sisters in the refectory. But it must be considered
if that would be useful and not harmful to them by only exas-
perating them. This obliges us to pray to God that He will
enlighten us and guide us in everything for His glory and the
salvation of these souls that He has committed to our care. . . .
V. Of Confession.
. . . The youngest girls will not go so soon or so often to
confession ; before making the younger go, you will wait until
they are reasonable and show a wish to correct their small
failings, nothing being so much to be dreaded as making the -
1 This public humiliation has the grave disadvantage of weakening the
sentiment of honour in children ; it depraves instead of correcting.
2 It was demanding great perfection from the children to impose a burden
which, moreover, ran the risk of being insincere.
Pascal: The Children of Port- Royal. 241
children go so young without seeing any change in them, and you
should at least wait until they have persevered for some time in
trying to do better. . . .
We take care that the children are benefited by the confession
before permitting them to return to it; and when they have
committed some considerable faults, we exhort them to make
amends for them first ; and if they have the confidence to tell
them to us, which is the most useful, we advise them to make
amends according to the gravity of their faults, but especially
in things which mortify them and are opposed to their faults. 1
As, for example, if they have failed in the charity that they owe
to their sisters, they will be made to serve them and fulfil towards
them all the duties of charity with more unction and gentleness ;
and if the fault has been seen, they will ask pardon both of her
who has been offended and of those who have seen it ; they will
also repeat some prayers for those whom they have offended. We
shall act in such a way that they do not return to confession until
their heart is really humbled, and they are sorry that they have
offended God. We shall act thus with respect to the greater faults
that the children commit in order that they may not make their
confession by routine, which is much to be feared for everybody,
but especially for children. . . .
VI. Of Reading.
The books used for the instruction of the children are the
Imitation of Christ, Fr. Luis de Granada, The Philothee, St.
John Climacus, The Tradition of the Church, the Letters of M.
de Saint-Cyran, the Familiar Theology, the Christian maxims in
the Boole of Hours, the Letters of a Carthusian Father, lately
translated, and other books whose object is to form the true
Christian life.
For the reading by one of them after vespers other books may
be used, as some letters of St. Jerome, the Christian Almsgiving,
1 This is one of the important points of the moral reform of Saint-Cyran.
He thought it shameful that Christians should think it sufficient to go and
tell their faults to a priest, and consider themselves absolved by God and
their conscience for having afterwards recited a few prayers by way of
penance, without altering their conduct in the least. (See Introduction,
pp. 61 and 62, the violent outburst of Arnauld against this abuse.)
R
242 Port-Royal Education,
some passages of St. Teresa's Way of Perfection, and also of The
Foundations in what concerns the narrative, the Lives of the
Fathers of the Desert, and other lives of saints which are in
special books.
We ourselves do all the reading in public except that after
vespers, but we are always present to explain what is read to
them and address them upon it. The object should be to
habituate them not to listen to the reading for the sake of
amusement or curiosity, but with a desire to apply it to them-
selves ; and for that it is necessary that the manner of explaining
it should aim rather at making them good Christians and leading
them to correct their own faults than making them learned. . . .
In the readings that we do not do ourselves we mark what they
have to read, and they are not permitted to change either the
passage or the book, for there are very few books in which there
is not something to pass over.
At the reading after vespers they are allowed and even enjoined
to ask questions constantly upon everything that they do not
understand, provided that it be done with respect and humility ;
and in replying we teach them how to apply this reading to the
correction of their manners. If, in reading, we see that they ask
no questions on something that we think most of them do not
understand, they are asked if they understand it, and, if we see
that they cannot answer, they will be reproved for remaining in
ignorance, since they have been told to ask for instruction in what
they do not know.
As soon as the reading is finished the book is taken away, for
we leave them no other book in private than their Hours, the
Familiar Theology, the Words of our Lord, an Imitation of Christ,
and a Latin and French Psalter. Their mistress keeps all their
other books, which they think very proper, having recognized that
it is more advantageous to them, and that the most pious reading
is of no use to them when it is done through curiosity. . . .
They are never allowed to open a book that does not belong to
them, nor to borrow from each other without permission from their
mistress, which is seldom given, in order to avoid the confusion
that these loans occasion.
Pascal : The Children of Port-Royal. 243
VII. Of the Sick and their Bodily Needs.
Very great care must be taken of those who fall sick, attending
upon them properly and exactly at the stated hours; calling in the
physician if the malady requires him, and carrying out punctually
all that he orders for the relief of their sickness. . . .
We accustom them not to make difficulties in taking the most
disagreeable remedies. We are always present, in order to speak
to them of God, to encourage them, and make them offer their
sickness to God. . . .
They are exhorted never to find fault with the doctor's pre-
scriptions, because he holds the place of God with respect to them
in their sickness. Therefore they ought to obey him as they
would God Himself, abandoning their life, their health, or their
sickness to the order of Divine Providence, who uses the good
or ill success of the remedies for our welfare. Therefore, in every-
thing untoward that may happen, the blame must never be laid on
the physician nor on the remedies, but, in silence and humility, the
order that the Divine Goodness lays upon us must be adored; and
to give occasion to the sick to be in this frame of mind, I pre-
suppose that we always have, if possible, physicians who are good
Christians as well as good physicians. 1
There will always be a room set apart for the sick, which the
other children will not be allowed to enter, unless in case of great
necessity, and with the permission of their mistress. During the
time of recreation one of the more steady may be sent to amuse
them. The sister in attendance must not leave them, unless there
be some older children, as those who are ready to enter upon their
1 Port-Royal, in fact, counted some distinguished physicians among her
solitaries ; first Pallu, from 1643 to 1650, of whom Fontaine has left us this
delightful portrait: "Everything belonging to him was small, except his
mind ; a small body, a small house, a small horse, but everything well fitting,
well proportioned, and very agreeable. Who would not have loved this
worthy recluse ? It was almost agreeable to fall ill in order to have the
pleasure of enjoying his conversation." Then Hamon, from 1650 to 1687,
graver, more authoritative, and an ardent mystic, which made this simple
layman, during the years of persecution, the consoler and director of the
sisters. The Mother Angelique wrote to him: "After the great gift of a
perfect confessor, nothing is more important than that of a truly Christian
physician, who expresses, in all his words and actions, the pious maxims of
Christianity." His pupil, Racine, desired to be interred at the foot of his
grave. And lastly, Hecquet, from 1668 to 1693.
244 Port-Royal Education.
novitiate, and who may be entirely trusted, who may watch and
even attend upon them if the illness is not very serious.
. When there are many patients a sister is placed there, besides
her who takes care of them in health, and the sisters must be
discreet and gentle ; discreet, to keep them to their duty, lest
during the sickness they lose what they have acquired with so
much labour in health, and also not to humour them in their
inclinations or the repugnance they have in taking the remedies
that are ordered them, and the abstinence they should practise
from certain food which would be hurtful to them; but they must
also be gentle, in order to soften, by the kind way in which they
act and by gentle words, all that must be refused them for their
health. 1
We pay great attention to the sick, leaving rather even the
healthy, as much to treat them properly, as to keep them in
order and teach them to be sick like Christians. . . .
As soon as the children are cured they go back to the others, lest
they should become unruly, which is to be feared in the young,
who most often only ask for liberty. 2 But, although they have
returned to the schoolroom, great care will be taken to feed them,
and give them repose when they need it for the perfect recovery of
their health.
For slight ailments which may come upon them every attention
will be paid them, but they will not be petted too much; for
children sometimes pretend to be ill. I have seen some of this
sort, although, through God's grace, it has not happened among
ours for a long time. But, when it does occur, you must not
show that you think that they wish to deceive you, but, on the
contrary, pity them a good deal and tell them that they are really
1 Pascal said during his sufferings : * ' Do not pity me, sickness is the
natural state of Christians." According to the fine expression of Saint-
Cyran, "the sick should regard their bed as an altar, on which they offer to
God continually the sacrifice of their life, to restore it to Him when He shall
please ! " Pliny the younger wrote upon this thought one of his finest
letters : " We are all good people when we are ill ; for what sick man does
avarice or ambition tempt ? . . . I can give here, between us two and in few
words, a lesson on which the philosophers make whole volumes. Let us
persevere in being such in health as we should wish to become when we are
sick."
2 "What a criticism on this monastic system of education !
Besogne: Sister Anne-Eugenie. 245
ill, and immediately put them to bed in a separate room, with a
sister to nurse them, but who is not to speak to them at all, telling
them that talking will do them harm, and that they require rest. 1
They are put for a day or two on a diet of broth and eggs. If
the illness is real this diet is very good for them, and if not there
is no doubt they will say next day that they are not ill; and
thus they will be cured of their deceit, without giving them an
opportunity of complaining, a thing that happens when they are
told that they have not the illness that they complain of, and even
risks making them tell untruths and pretend still more.
SISTER ANNE-EUGENIE DE I/INCARNATION, MISTRESS
OF THE BOARDERS.
The Mother Angelique recalled sister Eugenie, after a residence
of three and a half years at Maubuisson, in 1631.
Her return to Port-Royal was a subject of great joy for the
house. She was entrusted with the care of the younger boarders,
and performed this duty with very great success. This will easily be
understood when it is known on what principles and on what
method she acted in this office. First, she had a special zeal
in making the children value the grace of baptismal innocence.
She often spoke to them of it, and did so with incredible energy,
and, consequently, she took them to the parlour, to the visitors who
came to see them, with very great reluctance ; and when she was
there, took very great care to avoid conversation which might
inspire them with love of the world. She taught the children
that the society of worldly people was contagious for the soul, as
the plague is for the body. 2 She knew how to impress upon them
a great respect for the mysteries of religion, for the grandeur of
God, and for the truths of the gospel. She never told any of
these truths to the children, except after having prepared them,
1 This little comedy, so legitimately acted, shows another application of
natural sanction. (See note, p. 234.)
2 This was a strange preparation for social life. Mme. de Maintenon,
notwithstanding her desire to educate better than the convent, paints the
world in frightful colours, without recalling to mind the wise definition
of Fenelon : ' ' The world is not a phantom, it is the assemblage of all the
families."
246 Port- Royal Education.
and often after having made them do something to deserve it.
She announced several days in advance that she had a great
truth to tell them, and thus made it expected and desired. She
only taught these truths one by one, dreading lest the habit of
hearing them should accustom the children to them, and that they
should be no longer touched by them, having known them before
they had sufficient grace and understanding to comprehend and
feel them. She gave a constant attention to everything that
concerned the spiritual welfare of the children, she was quite
taken up with it, she prayed without ceasing for them, she even
made a practice of regularly attending all the prayers of the
children that were said in common, and of saying them with
them, considering herself charged to pay to God the worship
that these children were not yet able to pay Him, and to supply
by her will that which the children lacked.
The children's faults affected her as much as her own ; she did
penance for them, and incited them to do it for themselves accord-
ing to their slender capacity. If she found one who was not
willing to acknowledge her fault she said nothing more to her,
prayed for her in private, and left her with a kindness and tolera-
tion that sooner or later bore fruit. She had this maxim from
M. de Saint-Cyran, as well as all the preceding, that with the young
it was necessary to speak little, tolerate much, and pray still more.
She contrived little artifices of charity to make them love what is
good, she composed devout little notes on the virtues, and made
them draw lots for them, which piously amused the children.
She represented some virtue by an emblem, she made an enigma-
tical portrait of it, and left them to guess what virtue it was.
Recreation usually began with that, and then she left them to
amuse themselves with their little games ; for she never failed
to be present at the commencement of their recreation every day,
which astonished the sisters, who knew how devout she was, and
not being ignorant of how much natural dislike she had for
teaching children, wondered how she constrained herself to
become a child with the children and willingly remain among
these little people. Moreover the great punishment she employed
with regard to them when she had any reason for displeasure,
was not to be present at their recreation. All the party then
Nicole: A Recreation at Port-Royal. 247
burst into tears, and the other sisters had to go and beg Sister
Eugenie to return and dry their tears. She was fifteen or sixteen
years in this employment.
Her humble simplicity was towards the end put. to a proof
which turned to her glory, but not to the welfare of the children.
The mothers, who had received and admitted to the house a sister
from Gif, named Sister Flavie Passart, were thoroughly deceived
in her. They saw that she was capable of many things by the
mental qualities that she possessed, and they thought that she had
also those of the heart. They made her assistant mistress of the
boarders under Sister Eugenie. This young woman, who was full
of ambition, set to work to draw all authority to herself. 1 She
substituted a high-handed and despotic manner for that of Sister
Eugenie, who was full of gentleness. She even succeeded in
making Sister Eugenie believe that hitherto she had acted
wrongly, that her gentleness was the cause that the children
did not correct themselves, and that they would succeed better
by severity. Sister Eugenie was simple and humble enough to
adopt the views of this young woman. She allowed her to act,
believing that she was doing better than herself, she bewailed
without ceasing the pretended faults that she had committed in
her place ; at last she earnestly begged to be relieved of her
employment, especially as she was getting very infirm.
(Besogne, Hist, de Vabbaye de Port-Royal, t. i. p. 348.)
A RECREATION AT PORT-ROYAL.
" In the monastery of Port-Royal des Champs," Desmarets 2
relates, "the mistress of the boarders had instructed her scholars
in matters contested between the disciples of Jansenius and the
Jesuit fathers, and having inspired them with a terrible aversion
for these fathers, had given them the idea of making a doll and
1 Sister Flavie, Nicole tells us, was mistress of the boarders for fifteen
years. (Les Visionnaircs, p. 347.)
2 Desmarets de Saint -Sorlin (1595-1676), a member of the French
Academy, the author of the comedy of the Visiannaires, and of the poem
Clovis ; he was distinguished among the most violent enemies of Jansenism.
His reason went astray in the folly of a mystical illuminism. Nicole
defended Port-Royal against him, as Boileau undertook to avenge antiquity
for his attacks.
248 Port-Royal Education.
dressing it like a Jesuit. Then they made another doll and dressed
it like a capuchin. They took them to the sisters for their amuse-
ment, and after several questions between one and another, one,
who was the president, summed up and condemned the Jesuit.
Then all the boarders and the sisters clapped their hands in token
of victory, rose up tumultuously, and carried the Jesuit doll in
triumph into the garden, where there was a pond, plunged it in
several times, and at last drowned it. This was done with trans-
ports of joy, bursts of laughter, flying veils and wimples in
disorder, and laughing frenzy, and the poor counterfeit Jesuit was
like a wretched Orpheus in the hands of furious Menads. Never-
theless, that was called a becoming recreation for pious nuns and
devout school girls, and passed off with the great satisfaction and
approbation of the mothers, who are very pious, if you will believe
their apologist."
EXPLANATIONS.
"Here," replies Nicole, "is one of the strangest examples to be
found of the artifices that malice can inspire to raise the blackest
calumnies on the slightest and most simple grounds. This is all
that can have given rise to this scandalous story. When nothing
but Escobar was spoken of in Paris and throughout France, some
engravers made a ridiculous picture of him. A young child of
good family, who was then about eight or nine years old, gave one
to his sisters, who were about his own age, and were brought up
in the monastery of Port-Royal des Champs. These little girls
having seen it, and being struck with the name and the expression
of the personage of whom their brother had sometimes spoken to
them laughing, brought him to trial and condemned him to be
drowned. To carry out this sentence they made a paper boat,
and their intention was to put Escobar 1 in it, and send him to be
drowned into the middle of the canal that ran through their
garden. But this design was discovered before it was executed
... so that it was very near costing these poor little girls more
than Escobar. . . . This is all that is true in this tale, which only
shows the wisdom of the nuns of Port-Royal." (Les Visionnaires,
p. 350.)
1 Escobar y Mendoza (1589-1669), a Spanish casuist of the Society of
Jesus, whose lax morality Pascal has branded with immortal ridicule.
APPENDIX.
A STUDY OF THE WRITEES OF PORT-ROYAL BY
FATHER BOUHOURS. 1
. . . WHAT do you think, said Ariste, of those solitaries who have
written so much during the last twenty years? I do them justice,
replied Eugene, and I candidly admit that they have contributed
much to the perfection of our language.
Have you seen, said Ariste, the translation that they have made
of the Imitation of Christ? I have heard say that it is one of their
best works, and that they propose it themselves as a model of the
purity of the language.
I have been reading it for some days, replied Eugene, and I esteem
it at least as much as the Confessions of St. Augustine and the Life
of Doni Barthelemy des Martyrs, in which the long sentences rather
fatigue the reader.
It is true, replied Ariste, that these very famous writers cannot
be accused of brevity ; they like long discourses naturally, long
parentheses please them very much, long periods, and especially those
which, by their excessive length, make one out of breath to read them,
are quite to their taste. The fine Life of the Archbishop of Prague
1 Father Bouhours, a Jesuit (1628-1702) and a meritorious critic, author
of the Entretiens d* Ariste ct d' Eugene, of Remarques sur la langue franqaise,
and of the Maniere de bien penser dans les ouvrages d' esprit. ' ' He overflows
with wit," Mme. de Sevigne wrote of him. Racine, addressing to him,
about 1676, the first four acts of Phedre, begs him "to mark the faults that
he may have committed agOTst the language, of which you are one of our
most excellent masters." But his character and morals do not deserve the
same praise: "He is a wretch of whom nothing good is to be expected,"
writes Arnauld to M. du Vaucel (18 August, 1690). If this testimony
seems suspicious, why did the archbishop of Paris not permit Bouhours to
put his name, "as being too undignified," to his translation of the New
Testament ?
250 Port- Royal Education.
begins with an inordinately long sentence ; a man must have good
lungs to deliver it all in one breath, and pay great attention to under-
stand it the first time of reading.
That may be called getting tired at the beginning of the journey,
said Eugene ; but the fact is, he added, these gentlemen have been
going on in this style for a long time ; they are used to it, and
apparently they will have some difficulty in giving it up. After all,
we must not quarrel with them for a fault that only proceeds from
copiousness ; if making long sentences is a vice, it is the vice of great
orators ; and this makes me think that these gentlemen will not get
rid of it.
Why should they not get rid of their long periods ? replied Ariste ;
with time they have got rid of their exaggerations. Nothing was
more common in their earlier books than extravagant expressions, as :
la plus granule et la plus punissaUe de toutes les hardiesses, la plus sanglante
de toutes les invectives, la plus etrange tSme'rite et la plus grossiere ignorance
qui fut jamais. There was seen, even in titles and narratives that
ought to be plain and simple, une audace qui n'eut jamais de pareille,
une ignorance insupportable, une insolence punissable, la plus insigne de
toutes les fourberies, la plus Idche ^prevarication qui fut jamais. One of
the most judicious critics of our time formerly reproached them with
this.
They have not entirely given up this kind of expressions, said
Eugene. They still put le plus in many places where it is not wanted ;
or, if they do not use this term to exaggerate what they say, they use
big words and grand epithets, which have nearly the same effect. For
instance, une impertinence signak'e, un e'garement prodigieux, un attentat
insupportable, un emportement diabolique, un effroyable exces de malice
et de folie. As to the length of the sentences, far from shortening
them, they add tails, which make the discourse extremely long. For
example, after long sentences, which are tiring in themselves, they
usually put some participle, as : etant certain que . . . , rien n'etant
plus avantageux que . . . , which does not give much repose to the
mind, nor allow readers to take breath.
I do not, indeed, find hyperbolical expressions nor inordinately long
sentences in the Imitation of Christ ; notwithstanding, to hide nothing
from you, there is a something, I do not know what, that I do not
like. These are scruples, perhaps ; you shall judge, if you like, and
I begin with the epistle dedicatory.
Tant s'en faut que ce glorieux rabaissement soit indigne du courage de
votre naissance. I confess that this glorieux rabaissement does not please
me very much. It does not please me at all, said Ariste, and I doubt
Appendix. 251
whether rabaissement is French. I have heard talk of the rate's of
money ; and perhaps we might say the rabaissement of a person who
lias been deprived of his dignity and rank ; but I do not think we say
rabaissement for humility and this glorieux does not suit very well,
according to my idea.
There is a word which surprised me in the Avertissement au lecteur,
continued Eugene. II e'yale la hautesse et la magnificence des ouvrages
des saints Peres. What do you say of hautesse? Until now, said
Ariste, I thought that the title hautesse was given to a nobleman, and
I did not think the title hautesse ought ever to be given to the Fathers.
I would as soon call them altesse, and I should think the altesse of their
works as good as hautesse. Joking apart, hautesse offends me still more
than rabaissement. But let us see the rest (Eugene then read the
following passages) : Uwil est insatiable de voir ; Us travaillent plus d
s'acque'rir de Ve'clat qu'a se fonder dans Vhumilite'. Geux qui sont encore
nouveaux et inexpe'rimente's dans la voie de Dieu.
I think your previous doubts are very well founded, said Ariste.
Insatiable is one of those words that have nothing after them, that
govern nothing. We say insatiable avarice (une avarice insatiable), an
insatiable heart (un coeur insatiable), but we cannot say insatiable de
manger, nor insatiable de voir. We may, indeed, say un desir insatiable
d'apprendre; but then d'apprendre is governed by desir, and not by
insatiable.
Se fonder dans Vhumilite' does not seem to me very good ; but
acque'rir de Veclat does not seem to me to be French. We say indeed
aimer V eclat, faire de P&lat ; but we do not say, that I know, acque'rir
de Ve'clat in any sense whatever.
Inexperimente* is a word in the style of these gentlemen, as well as
inallie, inalliable, incorrompu, inconvertible, intolerance, clairvoyance^
inobservation, inattention, desoccupation, desoccuper, desaveugler, coronateur,
insidiateur ; to which may be added elevement, abregement, brisement,
dechirement, resserrement, attiedissement ; and these adverbs de'clarement,
inexplicablement, and incontestablement. For they have no difficulty in
making new words, and even claim to have the right to do so ; as
if private persons and solitaries had a power that kings themselves
do not possess.
It is apparently in virtue of this assumed authority, said Eugene,
that the translator of the Imitation has coined a word, of which we
have never heard speak, namely, indisposer, with an active signification
Celui qui, apres m'avoir regu, se repand aussit6t en des satisfactions
exterieures, ^indispose beaucoup pour me recevoir. . . .
This indisposer is pleasant, replied Ariste, and I shall be very much
252 Port- Royal Education.
deceived if that word makes its way ; for it is with words something
like it is with men : some have a lucky star, so to say, and are received
as soon as they present themselves ; but there are some unlucky ones
that cannot be tolerated, and to which we can never get accustomed.
Indisposer is one of these unfortunate ones, as well as Jtevemcnt, which
these gentlemen put everywhere, and nobody but themselves uses.
Well, what would you have ? said Eugene ; they are fond of new
words, and like making them. But let us go on. Do you like
se trouver dans Vobscurcissement, dans Venivrement et dans le resserrement ?
... Do you like Venivrement of the amusements of the world?
Complaire a Dieu instead of plairel . . .
To be plain with you, said Ariste, I do not like all that.
I do not know, said Eugene, if you will like better what remains
to read. . . . Vous serez sujet malgre vous d la mutabilite et au change-
ment. Gelui qui est encore assujetti au trouble de ses passions. These
two phrases do not please me. A man is subject to change, but is not
subject to mutability ; mutabilite means a disposition to change ; to
be changeable is to be subject to change, so that to be subject to
mutability means the same as to be subject to a disposition to change
and to the power of changing, which does not seem to me very reason-
able. I say the same of assujetti au trouble de ses passions, a man is
subject to his passions, he is the slave of his passions, but is not
assujetti au trouble, nor esclave du trouble de ses passions ; that is neither
according to reason nor usage.
Qu'il est triste, au contraire, et penible de voir des personnes sans ordre
et sans regie ! II est triste de voir, il est penible de voir displease me.
Celui-ld est vraiment sage qui ne prete point Voreille aux amorces et aux
enchantements de ces sirenes qui tuent en caressant. I would pardon this
preter Voreille aux amorces in insignificant writers, who are not expected
to be so correct ; but I cannot pardon it in great writers, who should
excuse nothing in themselves. Amorces (bait) is one of those meta-
phorical words in which something of their primary meaning still
remains. We say indeed the amorces of vice ; we might say, To allow
ourselves to be caught by the amorces of the sirens ; but I doubt if we
can say, Preter Voreille aux amorces (to listen to the bait). It seems
to me that these two words, oreille and amorces, do not go well
together.
Que cette vie est malheureuse, puisqu'elle est toujours assitfge'e de pieges
et de filets, et pleine d'une infinite* d'ennemis qui Venvironnent de toutes
parts! This word assiege'e does not very well agree with pieges and
filets ; it would agree better with ennemis, and this passage would be
better thus : Que cette vie est malheureuse, puisqu'elle est toujours assiegee
Appendix. 253
tfennemis, et pleine tfune infinite de pieges et de filets qui I'environnent
de toutes parts !
Afin que vous soyez le dominateur de vos actions.
Good heavens ! what a way to talk ! I would as soon say le seigneur
et le roi de vos actions. Not that dominateur is not French ; but
dominateur and actions do not harmonize.
II faut que vous conserviez votre dme dans une privation de toutes les
douceurs. Abaissez mon cou et ma tite superbes, afin de faire plier ma
rolonte' ddreyUe et inflexible sous la rectitude et la saintete' de la v6tre.
Here are what may be called phrases. To preserve his soul in the
privation of all delights ; to make his will bend under the rectitude
of the will of God : either I am no judge, or else this is rather like
Nerveze. 1
Je suis dans une defaillance generale de toutes choses. This is not well
expressed, meaning I am in want of all things ; defaillance does not
mean manquement and defaut, in that sense. We say defaillance de
c&ur, defaillance d'esprit, defaillance des astres; but not defaillance in
speaking of money, of clothes, or of things necessary to life.
L'impuissance ou je me trouve d'etre console* par aucun homme. Etre
dans Vimpuissance agrees very well with an active verb, but not with
a passive verb. We say, Je suis dans Vimpuissance de vous assister, de
vous servir ; but 1 do not think we can say, Je suis dans Vimpuissance
d'etre assist^ de mes amis, d'etre console par aucun homme.
Si impuissant a vous taire ; si facile pour la dissipation et le ris ; si
fecond a former de bonnes resolutions, et si sterile a en produire les effets.
These phrases are not French. What style ! Je suis impuissant d
parler, je suis impuissant a me taire, meaning I cannot speak, I cannot
be silent. Foreigners who are beginning to learn French speak in
that manner ; they should say, Si peu maitre de votre langue, instead
of Si impuissant a vous taire. Facile does not go well with pour, nor
with a noun; either it requires nothing after it or d and a verb. C'est
un esprit facile, c'est une chose facile d faire. Fecond and sterile are not
joined with verbs. The earth is feconde, a field is sterile; but the earth
is not feconde a former metals in its bowels ; a field is not sterile d
produire du bU ; at most the earth is feconde en mttaux, a field is
sUrile en ble. The translator should have said, Si fecond en bonnes
resolutions, et si sterile en bons effets.
1 De Nerveze, the author of Essais potttiques, dedicated to Henri de
Bourbon (1603). Furetiere, in \\isfactums, speaks of the strained metaphors
which make his songs, sonnets, heroic epistles, ballets, &c., ridiculous.
Father Bouhours says a little above : the nerveze, the gibberish, and the
bombast.
254 Port-Royal Education.
De peur que m'abstenant plus longtemps de votre sacre corps, je ne me
refroidisse pen a peu de mes saints dfoirs. Se refroidir de ses saints desirs
is a new phrase that I have not yet heard. I have always heard say :
Se refroidir dans ses exercices de piete', dans une entreprise ou Von s'est
engag& avec chaleur.
etat sacr6 de la vie religieuse, qui rend Vhomme cheri de Dieu ! Si
vous aviez soin de rendre votre dme vide de I'affection de toutes les creatures.
I am sure that persons at all fastidious in language will not like
this style of speaking : Rendre cheri, rendre vide. Rendre does not agree
with participles, nor with all kinds of adjectives. We do not say
II se rend aime', although we may say II se rend aimaUe. Nor do we
say rendre vide any more than rendre plein, meaning vider and remplir.
These expressions are like rendre connu, which Balzac has absolutely
condemned in the sonnet on Job.
Comme Us n'ont pas en moi une pleine confiance, Us s'entremettent encore
du soin d'eux-mSmes. That is not French. We say indeed, S 'entremettre
d'une affaire ; but we do not say, S 'entremettre du soin d'ime affaire, nor
du soin d'une personne.
Tous mes desirs soupirent vers vous. It is the heart, the person that
sighs (soupire) ; but desires do not sigh, they cause to sigh. Soupirent
vers vous is not good ; it should be Soupirent apres vous, or pour vous.
Je ne trouve du repos en aucune creature, mais en vous seul, 6 mon Dieu.
This construction is not regular. Je ne trouve du repos does not agree
well with mais en vous seul. The phrase should be turned differently, or
at least it should be mais fen trouve en vous seul. The verb should not
be understood in these constructions ; it should always be expressed,
and we should not be afraid to repeat the same word ; repetition is
not disagreeable when it contributes to regularity of construction and
clearness of style.
Vous vous aimes trop par un amour de're'gle'. Conside'rer tout par un
ceil si pur et si eclaire*. As soon as a person loves himself too much,
he loves himself extravagantly ; thus par un amour de're'gle' is useless
after trop. Besides, s'aimer par un amour de're'gle' is not well expressed,
no more than considerer par un ceil si pur et si e'claire; we must say,
S 'aimer d'un amour dere'gle', considerer tout d'un ceil si pur et si e'claire'.
II y en a peu qui sortent entierement de leurs inclinations et de kur
humeur. This is not good French for saying, Qui renoncent enticement
a leurs inclinations et a leur humeur. We say of a man carried away
by passion, il est hors de soi, il est rentre' en soi-m$me; but we do not
say, II est sorti de soi-meme; thus we say, Sortir de son pe'che', sortir de
son caract&re; but we do not say, Sortir de ses inclinations et de son
humeur. . , f
Appendix. 255
We should never end, said Eugene, if I were to read you all the
passages that I have marked. There is not a chapter on which I have
not some doubts. Nevertheless, the Imitation of Christ is the smallest
book of these gentlemen, and has had the greatest popularity of all
their books ; it has gone to thirteen editions.
I conclude from all this, said Ariste, that the greatest masters are
liable to be mistaken sometimes.
(Deuxieme entretien d } Ariste et <V Eugene, p. 187.)
The Bureau typographique or Typographic Table was a method of
teaching the alphabet invented by Louis Dumas (1676-1744), a French
litterateur of Montpellier. It was a table with compartments like a
printer's case, containing the letters of the alphabet and the ortho-
graphical signs written on cards ; over the compartments the names
of the letters were written as they are given in the note (p. 111).
The child picked out the letters to form the words that were given
him to spell, and afterwards distributed the letters into their proper
divisions, thus learning, in play, orthography and the elements of
grammar. This was a favourite system in the 18th century.
(Note by the Translator.)
INDEX.
Abgarus : 38.
Agnes, The Mother, (Jeanne-Cathe-
rine Agnes Arnauld, sister of Dr.
Arnauld) : 6, 46, 49, 51, 53, note;
65, note; 75, note; 95, note; 221,
note.
Aguesseau, D': 40.
Aldrovandus : 174 and note.
Alembert, D': 64.
Alet (Bp. of) : 63, note.
Alvares : 14, note.
Ambrose, St.: 13.
Andilly, D', see Villeneuve, son of.
Arnauld d' (elder brother of Dr.
Arnauld): 25, 45, 46, note; 78,
note ; 81, 82.
Angelique, The Mother (Marie Ange-
lique Arnauld, sister of Dr.
Arnauld) : 45 and note ; 46 and
note ; 48, 50, 54, note ; 55 and
note ; 60, note ; 110, note ;
219, note ; 225, note ; 243, note ;
245.
de Saint-Jean (Arnauld), The
Mother (niece of Dr. Arnauld) :
46, 193, note.
Annat, Father, Jesuit : 19, 44.
Anne of Austria, 63.
Eugenie de 1' Incarnation, Sister
(sister of Dr. Arnauld) : 50, 54,
245 seq.
Archimedes : 195.
Aristotle : 11, 28, 29 ; definition of
the verb, 113 and note ; 125, 132
seq.
Arnauld (advocate) : 43, note.
Antoine, Dr. (son of preceding) :
1, 9 and note ; Author of Port-
Royal books, 12, 17, 19, 21, note ;
22, 25 ; Logic, 26 ; a Cartesian,
27, 28 and note ; Logic, 31, 43 seq.
and note ; composition of the
Logic, 44, 52, 55, 56, 59, note;
61, 62 and note; 65, note; 82,
89, note ; 96 and note ; 110, note ;
114, note ; letter on grammar,
117 seq.; on classical studies, 123
seq., 193, note ; 197, note ; 204,
note; 221, note; 227, note; 241,
note ; his opinion of Bouhours,
249, note.
Arsenius, St. : 71 and note.
Aubry, Mile.: 21, 39.
Augustine, St.: 13, 36, 83, note ; 96,
103, 104, 107, 199, 205, 216, 219,
note.
Avaux, M. d' : 21, note.
Bacon : 31 and notes his opinion of
the Jesuits as educators, 59, note ;
128, note.
Bailly : judicial astrology, 129, note.
Bain : indirect moral instruction,
169, note.
Balzac, M. de : 16, 84, note ; 254.
Barbier, notice on Guyot : 42.
Barcos, M. de : 21, 82.
Basil, St. : 180.
Bauny, Father : 36.
Bayle: 66.
Beaubrun, M. de, on Nicole's Jansen-
ism : 22.
Beauzee : 113, note ; 117, note.
Bembo : 146 and note.
Benedict, St. : 71, 76.
Bernard, St. : 85, note ; 201, 205,
207.
Bernieres, M. de : 86, note.
Berulle, De : 60.
Besogne : Nicole's classical know-
ledge, 22, 41, 44, 47 and note; 50,
55, note ; 62.
Bignon, M. Jer6me : 3, note ; 8, 13,
31, note ; 70 and note.
JerOme and Thierri : 3, note ; 45,
70, note>
Index,
257
Bignou, Marie : 3, note ; 47, 70, note.
Boileau : 20 ; Arrtt burlesque, 30,
66, 147, note.
Boisguilbert, 45, 46, note.
Boissier, M. G. : 178, note.
Bona, Card. : 65, note.
Bossuet : 19, note ; 24, 27, note ;
29, note; 34, 37, note; 44,
96, note.
Bouhours, Father : 16 and note ; 19,
note ; 249 and note ; 253, note.
Bourbon, Henri de : 63, 253, note.
Bourdoise : 60.
Boutiot, M. Th. : 47, note.
Boxhorn : 113, note.
Breal, Michel : 17.
Brisacier, Father: 19, note; 44.
Bruno, Giordano : 29.
Burnouf: 17.
Bussy : 14.
Buxtorf : 114 and note.
Calvin : 19, note ; 62.
Camper : 79, note.
Canaye, Father : 59.
Cassini, astronomer: 195.
Cato the Censor : 216 and note.
Chambre, M. de la : 117 and note.
Champagne, Philippe de- 97 and
note.
Channing : 2, note ; 80, note.
Chapelain : 17, 20, 25, 26.
Chapelle: 215, note.
Charron : 109, note.
Chaze, Mme. de : 50.
Chevreuse, Due de : 20, 44.
Chiflet, Father : pronunciation of oi t
157, note.
Choisy, Mme. de : 66.
Chrysologus, St. : 206.
Chrysostom, St.: 13, 203 and note.
Cicero: 125, his letters, 176 and note.
Clemencet : 47, note.
Canard: 14.
Comenius : 15.
Condillac: 17.
Contarini : 60, note.
Conti, La princesse de : 63, 204, note.
Conti, Le prince de : 20, 63 and note.
Copernicus : 195.
Corbinelli: 14.
Cordier, Mathurin, teacher : 158 and
note.
Corneille : 18, 24, 46, note.
Cousin, M.: 46, 63, 110, note; 227,
note.
Coustel or Coutel : 12, 41, 210, note ;
211, note.
Descartes: 10, 11, 17, 18, 27, 28, 29
and note ; 30, 65, 96, note ; 193
seq., 196 seq., 215, note.
Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin : 247 and
note.
Despautere : 14, 157, note.
Diez: 17.
Diibner: 15.
Duclos: 17, 111, notes.
DufossiS : 7, 48, 49, note.
Du Fargis, Mile : 54, note.
Duguet : 59, note.
Du Marsais: 17.
Duvergier de Hauranne, see Saint-
Cyran : 1.
Egger, M.: 14, 15, 113, note.
Elboeuf, Mile, d': 225, note.
Elzevier, Daniel : 18.
Embrun (Abp. of) : 44.
Epictetus : 10, 95, note ; Pascal's
opinion of, 97 seq.
Epicurus : 27.
Escobar : 36, 54, 56, 248 and note.
Espinoy, M. d': 81 and note ; see
also Saint- Ange (the young).
Fayette, Mme. de la : 24, 34, 39.
Fenelon: 14, 18, note; on eloquence,
144, note ; id. 147, note ; definition
of the world, 245, note.
Fermat : 96, note.
Fleurv, Card.: 67.
Fludd, Robert : 135 and note.
Foix, Mme. de : 53, note ; 65, note.
Fontaine (Nicolas) : 2, 8 ; description
of de Saci, 10, 20, 93, note ; 208,
note ; 243, note.
Fontaine, Mme. de : 232, note.
Fontpertuis, Mme. de : 21, note.
Fouruel, M. V.: 39.
Francois de Sales : 60.
Franklin : 125, 213.
Fromageau, Abb6 : 47.
Furetiere : 253, note.
Furstemberg, Card.: 4l.
Galen : 195, 196, note.
Galileo: 29.
2 5 8
Port-Royal Education.
Garasse, Father : 23, note.
Gassendi : 27, 135, note ; 215, note.
Gerberon : 66, note.
Gregory Nazianzen, St. : 6.
Grignan, Mme. de : 64, 109, note.
Grimarest : 215, note.
Grimm : 17.
Guedreville, De : 47.
Guenegaut, Mme. de : 63.
Guise, Due de : 79.
Duchesse de : 4, 79.
Gui Patin : 60, note ; 135, notes.
Guy Joly : 63, note.
Guyot : 4, 6, 12 ; his translations,
41, 42 and note ; 159, note ; 160,
note.
Hamon, M., physician: 97, 243,
note.
Harcourt, D': 63.
Harlai (Abp. of Paris) : 44.
Harvey, physician : 141, note ; 195,
196, note.
Hecquet, physician : 243, note.
Hement, M. Felix : 173, note.
Hippocrates, 195.
Hocquincourt, Marquis d': 59.
Huet: 27.
Hufeland : 5.
Humboldt: 17.
Huyghens : 96, note ; 195 and note.
Innocent X : 60, note.
James II.: 21, note.
Jansenius (Cornelius, Bp. of Ypres) :
11, 43, note ; 57, 60, 66, note ; 83,
note.
Joubert : 11, 36, note ; his estimate
of Balzac, 85, note.
Jurieu : 27, 44.
Kepler : 135, note.
La Boetie : 40.
La Bruyere: 23, 40, 43, note; 151,
note ; 215, note.
La Fontaine : 20 ; the Horoscope,
130, note.
La Marans : 32, note.
Lamoignon, Sister Louise Saint-
Praxede de : 46, note.
Lancelot, Claude : 1, 2, 3, and note;
4, 6 ; pedagogic directions, 7, 8, 12 ;
enters Port-Royal, 13 ; publishes
Latin Grammar, id. , Greek Gram-
mar, 14 ; his opinion on Janua
linguarum, 15 ; Grammaire gene-
rale, 17 and note ; , Italian and
Spanish Grammars under the name
of M. de Trigny, id. ; declines to
write a French Grammar, 18, 19 ;
publishes four treatises on poetry,
20 ; end of his pedagogic career, 21 ;
his exile and death, id. and note,
41, 62, 70, note ; 73, note ; 81,
note ; 82, note ; 83 note ; 117,
note ; 204, note.
La Rochefoucauld : 35, 40.
Launoi, M. de : 136, note.
Lavaur (Bp. of) : 44.
Leclerc : 50, 54, note ; 225, note.
Legouve, M., his defence of Cicero,
178, note.
Leibnitz, his objections to Descartes'
philosophy, 27 and note; his opinion
of the Jesuits as educators, 59, note.
Le Maistre, J.: 34.
Lemaitre (Antoine) : 5, note ; 7, 41,
51, 70, note ; 85, note ; 95, note.
Lemoine : 27, 44, 193, note.
Le Nain de Tillemont : 45.
Leo X.: 146, note.
Le Tellier : 12, 218, note.
Lipsius, 173.
Littre, 17.
Locke, 5, 93, note.
Longueville, Mme. de : 62, 63 and
note ; 86, note.
Louis XIII.: 129, note.
Louis XIV.: 62, 63, 90, note; 117,
note.
Lucian : 80, note.
Luines, Due de : 44, 63.
Luther: 62.
Maimbourg, Jesuit : 44.
Maintenon, Mme. de : 4, note ; her
opinion on the books of Port- Royal,
19, 51, 55 and note; relates two
anecdotes 56, 62 ; sets writing
copies, 159, note ; 170, note ;
advice to teachers, 201, note, and
209, note ; 224, note ; 228, note ;
230, note ; 232, note ; 235, note ;
245, note.
Index.
259
Malebranche: 44, 147, note.
Mallet, M.: 218.
Marcus Aurelius : 97, note.
Maria Teresa, Donna: 17.
Marie, Mme. de la: 4, note ; 209, note.
Martha, M.: 97, note.
Martin, Henri, method of Saint-
Cyran, 65.
Maurepas : 67.
Me'gret, Louis: 18, note.
Melanchthon : 80, note.
Manage, M. : 16 and note.
Mersenne, Father : 27, 29, 96, note ;
135, note.
Michelet: 46.
Minucius Felix : 180, note.
Mirabeau : 46, note.
Mirandola, Francis Picus : 146.
Moliere : 51, note ; 129, note ; 215,
note.
Montaigne : 5, 10, 32, note ; 40, 93,
note ; Pascal's opinion of, 97 seq.,
132, 199, note.
Montmorency, Constable Anne de :
230, note.
Morel : 44.
Nerveze, De : 253 and note.
Nicole: 12, 21, 22; his prejudice
against ancient literature, 23 ;
criticism on French literature, 24 ;
his literary taste, 25 ; Logic, 26,
28, 31 ; Essais de morale, 32 seq. ;
education of a prince, 40, 41, 43,
44, 46, 59, note ; 62, 89, note ;
130, note ; 132, note ; 167, note ;
172, note ; 176, note ; on study of
rhetoric, 177, 192, note ; 197,
note ; 204, note ; 213, note ; 235,
note ; 247, note ; reply to Des-
marets, 248.
Nouet: 44.
Olivet, Abbe d' : 25.
Olympia, Signora : 60, note,
Origen : 83 and note.
Pallu, physician : 243, note.
Palsgrave, French Grammar: 18.
note.
Paracelsus, physician : 135 and note.
Pascal : 10, 19 ; Pens6es, 24 ; their
style corrected, 25, 32 and note ;
36, note ; 39, 40, 44, 45, 59, note;
85, note ; at Port-Royal, 95 seq. ;
his method of reading, 110, note;
138, note; 139, note; 145, note;
Nicole's opinion on the Pensees,
179, 208, note ; 244, note.
Pascal, Jacqueline (Sister Sainte-
Euphe'mie) : 50, 53 ; Port-Royal
method of reading, 110, note ;
226, note.
Pasquier, Etienne : 71, note.
Pasquin : 60, note.
Passart, Sister Flavie : 247 and note.
Perdreau, Sister Marie -Doro the" e : 49,
75, note.
Perefixe (Archbishop of Paris) : 44,
56.
Perrier, M. : 25.
Pestalozzi : 93, note.
Petau, Father : 19, 44.
Philip II. : 202, note.
Pibrac, M. de, his quatrains : 199
and note.
Plato: 207.
Plautus: 201.
Pliny the Younger, his letters : 178,
244, note.
Plutarch : 32 note.
Pomponne, M. Arnauld de: 46, note.
Ptolemy: 195 and note.
Quesnel, Father : 22.
Quintilian: 13, 14, 125, 179, 210,
note.
Rabelais : 5, 93, note.
Racine (Jean) : 8, 15, 20, 24, 45, 47,
48, 59, 63, 204, note ; 243, note ;
249, note.
(Bonaventure), Abbe : 45, note.
Ramus : 14 ; French Grammar, 18,
note ; 134, note.
Ranee, De : 60.
Rapin, Father: 2, 14, note; 19, 22,
52, 55, 62 and note ; 64, 67, 92,
note.
Raymond of Sabunde: 101 and note.
Renan, M : 63.
Retz, Card, de : 62, 63 and note.
Richelieu : 3, 69, note ; 78, note ;
82, 97, note.
Rivet, D.: 49.
Roberval : 96, note.
Rollin : 17, 40, 125, note ; 207, note.
26o
Port-Royal Education.
Rousseau : 5, 6 ; negative education,
71, note ; 93, note ; 234, note.
Sabl^, Mme. de : 28, note.
Saci, Louis- Isaac Lemaitre de (brother
of Antoine Lemaitre) : 3, note ;
6 ; his poetical talent, 8 seq. ; his
translation of the Bible, 11, 21,
59, note ; 62 and note ; 70, note ;
73, note ; 82 ; Patience and silence,
92, 93, note ; 96 seq., 197, note ;
208, note.
M. Sylvestre de : 40.
Sainte- Agnes de Feron, Sister Eliza-
beth de : 50.
Sainte - Aldegonde des Pommares,
Sister Marie de ; 49.
Saint- Ange, M. de : 81, note.
(the young) : 7. See also Espinoy.
Saint-Amour, Dr.: 18.
Sainte-Beuve : 11 ; Lancelot's incon-
sistency, 20, 45, 46, note ; 95,
note ; 97, note.
Jacques de : 89 and note.
Saint-Cyran, Abbe de : his ideas on
education, 1 seq., 13, 21, 23, 43
and note; 46, note; 50, 55, 57,
59, note ; 60, 62, 65, 69, notes,
et seq. ; on corporal punishment,
75 and note; 221, note; 231,
note : 241, note ; 244, note ; 246.
Sainte-Domitille, Sister Jeanne de :
54, note.
Saint- Evremond : 59.
Saint-Pierre, Abbe de : 24.
Sainte-Suzanne. Sister : 97, note.
Salle, Father de la: 210, note; 211,
note.
Sanctius : 14, note.
Scaliger, Julius Caesar: 113, note;
114 and note.
Scioppius : 14, note.
Sebastian, King of Portugal : 202 and
note.
Seneca: 178, 179, 180, note; 209.
t Senecey, Marquis de : 63.
Sevigne" , Marquis de : 24, 32, note ;
63.
Sevigne, Mme. de : 16 and note, 21 ;
her admiration of Nicole, 31, 32,
34 ; her criticism of Nicole, 35
seq., 39, 40, 63, note ; 64, 66, 109,
note; 171, note; 249, note.
Simon, Richard: 44.
Singlin, Abbe", 3, 8, 21, 22, 50, 62,
63, note ; 74 and note ; 82, and
Pascal, 96, 226.
Sirmond, Jesuit : 44.
Socrates, Nicole's opinion of, 28.
Spencer, 234, note.
Stenon: 195, 196, note.
Sully- Prudhomme, M.: 38.
Tetu, Abbe* : 32, note.
Theodosius the Great : 71, note.
Thou, De : 199, note.
Torricelli : 96, note.
Tracy, De : 17.
Trigny, M. de : 17 ; see Lancelot.
Tycho Brahe : 195 and note.
Vabres (Bp. of) : 44.
Valant, M.: 122.
Van-Helmont : 135 and note.
Vanini: 29.
Varin : 76, note.
Vaucel, M. du: 21, note ; 249, note.
Vaugelas : 18, note ; 84, note ; 144.
Vauvenargues : 40.
Vavasseur, Father : 25.
Vergara : 14.
Villeneuve, M. de: 81; see also
Andilly, D'.
Villeroi: 63.
Vincent de Paul : 2, 60 and note.
Virgil: 6, 73.
Vitard, M.: 13.
Vives, Luis : 138, note.
Voltaire : 21, 40, 45.
Vossius : 14 and note.
Wallon de Beaupuis, M : 12, 42.
Willis, physician : 196 and note.
Ypres^
Jansenius.
W. Brendon and Son,
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