Chapter XIII: Preface (12)

The more intellect we have ourselves, the more originality do we discover in others. Ordinary people find no difference between men.

Since we cannot be universal, and know all that is to be known of everything, we should know a little of everything. For it is far better to know something of all than to know the whole of one thing, this universality is the best. If we can have both, still better, but if we must choose, let us choose the first. The world feels and acts on this, and the world is often a good judge.

Certain authors speaking of their works, say: "My book, my commentary, my history, etc." They are like the middle-class people who have a small house of their own, and have "my house" always on the tongue. They would do better to say: "Our book, our commentary, our history, etc."; because there is in them generally more of other people's than their own.

A true friend is so great an advantage, even for the greatest lords, in order that he may speak well of them, and uphold them in their absence, that they ought to do all that is possible to have one. But they should choose well, for spite of all they may do for fools, whatever good these say of them would be useless, and they would not even speak well of them if they found themselves in the minority, for they are without authority. And thus they would abuse them in company.

"You are ungraceful, excuse me, I beg." Without that excuse I had not known there was aught amiss. "With reverence be it spoke...." The only evil is the excuse.

I always dislike such compliments as these: _I have given you a great deal of trouble._ _I fear I am tiring you._ _I fear this is too long._ For we either have our audience with us, or we provoke them.

Rivers are roads which move and carry us whither we wish to go.

In every action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all these things. And then we shall be very careful.

In every dialogue and discourse we ought to be able to say to those who are offended, "Of what do you complain?"

There are many people who listen to the sermon as they listen to vespers.

When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.

_NOTES._

_NOTES._

P. 2. _Pascal's Profession of Faith._ A few days after Pascal's death, a servant discovered this profession sewed into a fold of his master's waistcoat, _pourpoint_. It was written on parchment, with a copy on paper. His family believed that he had carefully placed this in each new garment, desiring to have always about him the memorial of the great spiritual crisis.

P. 3, l. 32. _Dereliquerunt me._ Jer. li. 13.

P. 3. _General Introduction._ In this are apparently two drafts of the same preface, the second beginning with the paragraph "Before entering," p. 9, l. 6. M. Faugère was the first to recognize the true character of this sketch, which has borne various titles. The Port Royal edition called it: "Against the Indifference of Atheists;" Condorcet headed it: "On the Need of Concern for the Proofs of a Future Life;" Bossut: "On the Need of a Study of Religion." See note on p. 61.

P. 3, l. 8. _Deus absconditus._ Is. xlv. 15. _Vere tu es Deus absconditus, Deus Israel salvator._

P. 11. _Notes for the General Introduction._ The fragments following are thus arranged by Molinier as having been in his judgment intended for and many of them expanded in the preceding Preface.

P. 12, l. 23. _Miton_ was a man of fashion at Paris, a friend of Pascal's friend, the Chevalier de Méré.

P. 17. _Preface to the First Part._ This is Pascal's own title to the section.

P. 17, l. 2. _Charron_, Pierre, was born at Paris in 1541. He was a friend of Montaigne, whose philosophy he adopted. His _Traité de la Sagesse_, Bordeaux, 1601, is the work of whose elaborate divisions Pascal complains.

P. 17, l. 12. _Montaigne's defects._ Mademoiselle de Gournay, Montaigne's adopted daughter, defends the Essayist in regard to this matter, in the preface to her edition of the Essays, Paris, 1595.

P. 17, l. 14. _people without eyes._ Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 17, l. 15. _squaring the circle_. _Ib._, l. ii. ch. xiv.

P. 17, l. 15. _a greater world._ Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 17, l. 16. _on suicide and on death._ _Ib._, l. i. ch. iii.

P. 17, l. 17. _without fear and without repentance._ _Ib._, l. iii. ch. ii.

P. 19. _Man's Disproportion._ Pascal's own title.

P. 19, l. 34. _the centre of which is every where, the circumference no where._ Voltaire attributed this famous saying to the pseudo-Timæus of Locris, an abridgement of Plato's _Timæus_, but in neither work is the whole sentence to be found. The saying, however, is not originally Pascal's. It is probably borrowed from Mlle. de Gournay's preface to her edition of Montaigne, Paris, 1635, and was taken by her from Rabelais, bk. iii. ch. 13, where it is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. M. Havet, who gives these, and many more details, finally traces it, on the authority of Vincent de Beauvais, 1200-1264, to Empedocles.

P. 21, l. 36. _I will discourse of the all._ This saying of Democritus is taken by Pascal from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 22, l. 4. _De omni scibili._ The title given to nine hundred propositions, put forth at Rome by Pico della Mirandola, then aged twenty-three, in 1486.

P. 22, l. 8. _The Principles of Philosophy._ Descartes wrote a work with this title, _Principia Philosophiæ_.

P. 22, l. 38. _Beneficia eo usque lata sunt._ Tacitus, _Ann._ lib. iv. c. xviii. Taken by Pascal from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii. ch. viii.

P. 24, l. 27. _And what completes our inability._ Compare for the whole of the passage on matter and spirit, Descartes, _Discours de la Méthode_.

P. 25, l. 34. _Modus quo corporibus adhæret spiritus._ S. Aug. _De Civitate Dei_, xxi. 10. Taken by Pascal from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 26, l. 31. _Lustravit lampade terras._ The full couplet is

_Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse
Jupiter auctiferas lustravit lampade terras_.

S. Aug. _De Civitate Dei_, v. 8, a translation by Cicero of two lines in the _Odyssey_, xviii. 136. The quotation is borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 27, l. 20. _a fly is buzzing._ Borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii. ch. xiii.

P. 27, l. 26. _flies which win battles._ Montaigne relates that the Portuguese besieging the town of Tamly were obliged to raise the siege on account of the clouds of flies. _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 28, l. 12. _Memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis._ Lib. Sap. v. 14.

P. 30, l. 4. _Plerumque gratæ_, altered from Hor. _Carm._ iii. 29, v. 13. _plerumque gratæ_ divitibus _vices_.

P. 30, l. 13. _Epaminondas._ The example is taken from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xxxvi.

P. 31, l. 22. _Sneezing absorbs all the faculties._ A paraphrase of a passage in Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii. ch. v.

P. 31, l. 28. _Scaramouch_. One of the traditional parts in Italian Comedy, at that time played by the well-known actor Tiberio Fiorelli, whom Pascal had probably seen.

P. 31, l. 29. _The doctor_, also a common character in Italian forces. Molière has borrowed from the Italian stage his doctor, so often a pedant and a fool, of whom le docteur Pancrace, in _Le Marriage Forcé_, is perhaps the most notable example, though that comedy was produced after the death of Pascal.

P. 32, l. 11. _the Condrieu, the Desargues._ Gerard Desargues was a mathematician at Condrieu on the Rhone, who had been Pascal's teacher. Among the Muscat grapes grown at Condrieu, Pascal distinguishes a special variety of Desargues, and among these a particular vine.

P. 32, l. 28. _the Passion of Cleobuline._ In _Artamène, on le Grand Cyrus_, the celebrated romance of Mademoiselle de Scudery, Cleobuline, princess, afterwards queen of Corinth, is one of the principal characters. She is represented as in love with Myrinthe, one of her subjects, but "she loved him without thinking of love; and remained so long in her error, that when she became aware of it, her affection was no longer in a condition to be overcome."

P. 33. _Diversion._ Under this heading Pascal comprises not only trivial occupations, and the distractions of idle society, but all which, save truth alone, can form the study or the research of man. The main idea of the chapter is borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii. chap. x.

P. 35. l. 17. _The counsel given to Pyrrhus._ _Ib._, l. i. ch. xliii.

P. 36, l. 11. _as children are frightened at a face._ Borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. iii., and Montaigne in his turn borrowed it from Seneca, _Ep._ 24.

P. 36, l. 28. _superintendent._ Of finances. The last who held this office was Fouquet, still in office when this was written. He was dismissed in disgrace in 1661.

P. 36, l. 29. _first president._ Of the Parliament of Paris.

P. 36, l. 32. _dismissed to their country houses._ At that date, and for a long time afterwards, a Minister of State rarely fell from Office without receiving a _Lettre de cachet_ which banished him to the seclusion of his country estate.

P. 39, l. 17. _In omnibus requiem quæsivi._ Eccles. xxiv. 7.

P. 40, l. 9. _will arise weariness._ Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii.

P. 41, l. 7. _Cæsar was too old._ See Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xxxiv.

P. 43. _The Greatness and Littleness of Man._ The title suggested by Pascal, in many passages of the autograph MS.

P. 43, l. 11. _for Port Royal._ The letters A. P. R. occur in several places in Pascal's MS. It is generally thought that they mean _à Port-Royal_, and are intended to indicate subjects to be developed later in _conférences_ or lectures at that house.

P. 45, l. 1. _Man is neither angel nor brute._ This is closely borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. iii. ch. xiii.

P. 46, l. 15. _Corrumpunt mores bonos colloquia prava._ 1 ad Cor. xv. 33, but the Vulgate reading has _mala_.

P. 47, l. 18. _Paulus Emilius._ The example is taken from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xix. See also Cic. _Tuscul._ v. 40.

P. 47, l. 31. _Ego vir videns_, Lament, iii. 1. _Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus._

P. 51. _Of the deceptive powers_, etc. This is Pascal's own title for this section.

P. 51, l. 14. _Imagination._ Pascal uses this word in an extended sense already given to it by Montaigne, and means that faculty by which we attribute a value to those things which in fact have none.

P. 53, l. 11. _furred cats._ Rabelais, bk. v. ch. 11.

P. 54, l. 2. _Della Opinione._ No work is known under this name. Pascal possibly means a work of Carlo Flosi, _L'Opinione tiranna, moralmente considerata ne gli affari del mondo_, Mondovi, 1690. But it is not certain that this edition is the reprint of a work extant before Pascal wrote.

P. 54, l. 27. _Diseases are another source of error._ Taken from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 56, l. 20. _in Switzerland that of the burgesses._ This may be compared with p. 66, l. 6. In the majority of Swiss towns every candidate for municipal office must needs possess the freedom of the town, but the intention was not to set aside those of noble birth, as Pascal supposes, but foreigners, and those of other towns, each of which was considered as a separate state.

P. 57, l. 27. _would care nothing for Provence._ Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xxii. "_C'est par l'entremise de la coustume que chascun est contant du lieu où nature l'a planté: et les sauvages d'Escosse n'ont que faire de la Touraine, ny les Scythes de la Thessalie._"

P. 57, l. 28. _Ferox gens._ Livy, l. xxxiv. c. 17.

P. 58. l. 20. _Brave deeds._ Borrowed from Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xl.

P. 61. _Of Justice_, etc. These fragments, now among the best known of Pascal's Thoughts, but for the most part brought to notice in the Edition of Bossut, 1779, have their present arrangement and title from Molinier.

P. 61, l. 30. _Nihil amplius._ These sentences, borrowed from Montaigne, are quoted, the first of them wrongly, from Cicero, _De Finibus_, v. 21; the second from Seneca, _Ad Lucilium_, _Ep._ 95; the third from Tacitus, _Annales_, iii. 25. Compare with the whole passage Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii. and l. iii. ch. xiii.

P. 62, l. 29. _Quum veritatem._ S. Aug., _De Civit. Dei_, iv. 31. From Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. iii.

P. 62, l. 27. _the wisest of law givers._ Socrates, in the _Republic_ of Plato.

P. 63, l. 9. _Archesilas._ Born at Pitane in Æolis of a Scythian father, about 300 B.C. He was founder of the School known as the Second Academy. See Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. iii.

P. 64, l. 19. For all that is here said on Custom, see Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xxii.

P. 65, l. 7. _Pasce oves meas._ Joh. xxi. 17. The words are those taken as the foundation of papal authority. You owe me pasturage, _i.e._ you owe me justice.

P. 65, l. 30. _the soldiers of Mahomet, thieves, heretics._ Pascal boldly joins heretics and thieves, for those who did not hold his creed appeared to him as men _sans foi ni loi_, faithless and lawless. In his eyes a Turk was scarce a man. See the _Provincial Letters_, let. xiv. "_Sont-ce des religieux et des prêtres qui parlent de cette sorte? Sont-ce des Chrétiens? Sont-ce des Tures? Sont-ce des demons?_" And _Thoughts_, p. 211, l. 30. "Do we not see beasts live and die like men, and Turks like Christians."

P. 66, l. 6. _The Swiss._ See note on p. 56, l. 20.

P. 66, l. 10. _condemning so many Spaniards to death._ Possibly an allusion to the battle of the Dunes, 1659, which led to the Peace of the Pyrenees, so long desired by all but Spain, then obliged to consent.

P. 67, l. 13. _Summum jus, summa injuria._ Charron, _Traité de la Sagesse_, etc. ch. xxvii. art. 8.

P. 67, l. 26. _The end of the Twelfth Provincial._ The following is the passage to which Pascal alludes. "_C'est une etrange et longue guerre que celle où la violence essaye d'opprimer la vérité. Tons les efforts de la violence ne peuvent affaiblir la vérité, et ne servent qu'à la relever davantage. Toutes les lumières de la vérité ne peuvent rien pour arrêter la violence et ne font que l'irriter encore plus ... la violence et la vérité ne peuvent rien l'une sur l'autre._"

P. 67, l. 27. _The Fronde._ This was the name given to the party which rose against Mazarin and the Court during the minority of Louis XIV., and plunged France into civil war.

P. 69, l. 10. _give me the strap._ This is no exaggeration, since fifty years after Pascal wrote, Voltaire was beaten by the servants of the Duc de Rohan.

P. 69, l. 12. _It is odd that Montaigne._ _Essais_, l. i. ch. xlii.

P. 69, l. 16. _When power attacks craft._ _Satyre Menippée_, Harangue du Sire de Rieux: "_il n'y a ny bonnet quarré, ny bourlet, que je ne face voler_."

P. 69, l. 30. _figmentum malum._ Ps. ciii. 13. _Quomodo miseretur pater filiorum, misertus est Dominus timentibus se: Quoniam ipse cognovit figmentum nostrum._

P. 70, l. 14. _Savages laugh at an infant king._ Pascal is alluding to the story in Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xxx., of the savages presented to Charles IX. at Rouen, who were astonished to see bearded men obey a child.

P. 72, l. 16. _Epictetus._ See p. 45, l. 30, in order to understand this somewhat enigmatic fragment. In the next paragraph is an allusion to the passage in which Epictetus says, l. iv. ch. 7, that the philosopher may well be constant and detached from life by wisdom, as were the Galilæans by their fanaticism.

P. 73. _Weakness, unrest, and defects of man._ The arrangements of these fragments under this title is Molinier's.

P. 73, l. 1. _We anticipate the future._ Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. iii.

P. 74, l. 28. _Alexander's chastity._ To attribute this virtue to Alexander is strange, but no doubt the circumstance in Pascal's thought was his generous conduct to the family of Darius, after the battle of Issus.

P. 75, l. 12. _the King of England._ Probably Charles II., then living in exile, rather than Charles I. The King of Poland was Jean Casimir, driven from his throne by Charles X. of Sweden, after the battle of Warsaw in 1656. The Queen of Sweden was Christina, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, who abdicated in favour of her cousin, Charles X., in 1654.

P. 75, l. 29. _we shall die alone_, "on mourra seul." It is a curious instance of the fact how little Pascal is known in England, that Keble having quoted this sentence wrongly, probably from memory, in the first edition of the _Christian Year_, as "Je mourrai seul," it has remained uncorrected and apparently unnoticed to this day.

P. 76, l. 12. _Cromwell._ As Charles II. was restored in 1660, this fragment was written about that date, two years before Pascal's death. Cromwell's death did not arise from the cause stated in the text.

P. 77, l. 8. _the automaton._ The expression of Descartes and his school for the animal body.

P. 77, l. 25. _Inclina cor meum, Deus._ Ps. cxix. 36. "_Inclina cor meum in testimonia tua, et non in avaritiam._"

P. 77, l. 30. _Eritis sicut dii._ Gen. iii. 5.

P. 79, l. 30. _men laugh and weep at the same thing._ The thought is from Charron, _Traité de la Sagesse_, l. i. ch. xxxviii.

P. 80, l. 35. _the grand Sultan._ None of Pascal's editors have discovered whence he drew this purely fictitious description of the Sultan.

P. 81, l. 9. _That epigram about the two one-eyed people._ This is not Martial's. It is found in _Epigrammatum Delectus_, published by Port Royal in 1659.

_Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,
Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos.
Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede parenti;
Si tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus._

P. 81, l. 12. _Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta._ Horace, _De Arte Poetica_, v. 447.

P. 83, l. 22. _Spongia solis._ The spots on the sun. Du Cange explains _spongia_ by _macula_. Pascal seems to mean that the spots on the sun prepare us for its total extinction; that the sun will eventually expire, so that, contrary as it seems to the course of nature, there will come a day when there will be no sun.

P. 89. The title given to this second part is furnished by Pascal. In the first part he has wished to prove the fallen state of man, and his weakness; he now maintains that man may be restored by faith in Jesus Christ, and the practice of religion.

P. 91, l. 26. _Nemo novit._ Matt. xi. 27. _Et nemo novit Filium nisi Pater: neque Patrem quis novit, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare._

P. 92, l. 3. _Vere tu es._ Is. xlv. 15, see p. 3, l. 8.

P. 92, l. 10. _Quod curiositate cognoverint._ Probably cited from recollection of Saint Augustine, but the passage is not verbally to be found.

P. 96, l. 6. _neither the stars._

_Porrum et cæpe nefas violare et frangere morsu
O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina!_ Juvenal, _Sat._ xv. 9.

See also Montaigne, _Essais_, l. i. ch. xlii.

P. 97, l. 28. _stultitiam._ 1 Cor. i. 19.

P. 101, l. 12. _the opinion of Copernicus._ Pascal no doubt refers to a passage in Montaigne, _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii., in which he abstains from deciding between the rival systems of astronomy. Pascal, however, had no doubt on the matter himself, as is plain from the passage on Galileo in the Eighteenth _Provincial_.

P. 101, l. 16. _Fascinatio nugacitatis._ Lib. Sap. iv. 12. _Fascinatio enim nugacitatis obscurat bona._ See note on p. 165.

P. 102, l. 12. _So our people often act._ Fénélon, _Lettre à l'Evêque d'Arras_, says, "_Toutes les difficultés s'evanouissent sans peine des qu'on a l'esprit gueri de la présomption. Alors suivant le règle de Saint Augustin_, Epist. ad Hier., _on passe sur tout ce que l'on n'entend pas, et on s'edifie de tout ce qu'on entend_."

See also _De Imitatione Christi_, l. i. ch. v.

P. 104, l. 4. _Harum sententiarum. Harum sententiarum quæ vera sit Deus aliquis viderit._ Cic. _Tuscul._ i. 11.

P. 104, l. 14. _The Preacher shows._ The precise thought as Pascal has it here is not easy to find in Ecclesiastes. It is probably a reminiscence of Eccles. viii. 17.

P. 105. _The Philosophers._ The title of this chapter is that given by Molinier to the collection of fragments contained in it. A few expressions and thoughts are from Montaigne, many more from Descartes, _Discours de la Méthode_.

P. 108, l. 16. _Deliciæ meæ._ Prov. viii. 31.

P. 108, l. 17. _Effundam spiritum._ Joel ii. 28.

P. 108, l. 17. _Dii estis_, Ps. lxxxii. 6.

P. 108, l. 18. _Omnis caro fœnum._ Is. xl. 6.

P. 108, l. 18. _Homo assimilatus est._ Ps. xlix. 20.

P. 108, l. 20. _Dixi in corde meo._ Eccl. iii. 18.

P. 110, l. 28. _Ex senatus consultis._ Seneca, _Ep._ xcv., sec. 30.

P. 110, l. 29. _Nihil tam absurde._ Cic. _De Divia._ ii. 58.

P. 110, l. 32. _Ut omnium rerum._ Seneca, _Ep._ cvi. But the real reading is _Quemadmodum--omnium rerum_.

P. 110, l. 34. _Id maxime._ Cic. _De Off._ i. 31.

P. 110, l. 35. _Hos natura modos._ Virg. _Georg._ ii. 20.

P. 111, l. 4. _Mihi sic usus est._ Ter. _Hea._ i. 1, 28.

P. 111, l. 6. _falsity of their dilemma in Montaigne._ _Essais_, l. ii. ch. xii. "_Si l'âme est mortelle, il est absurde de craindre la mort, si elle est immortelle elle ne peut aller qu'en s'ameliorant._"

P. 112, l. 11. _Felix qui potuit._ Virg. _Georg._ ii. l. 489.

P. 112, l. 13. _nihil mirari._ Hor. _Epist._ 1, vi. l. 1. The whole passage is,

_Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici,
Solaque, quæ possit facere et servare beatum_.

P. 113, l. 15. _two sects._ Epicureans and Stoics.

P. 113, l. 17. _Des Barreaux._ Jacques Desbarreaux was an Epicurean poet born at Paris in 1602, died in 1673, who in his poems paraded his unbelief. Curiously enough, his only extant verses were written when he lay ill, and are addressed to God.

P. 113, l. 28. _Epictetus concludes._ _Encheiridion_, iv. 7.

P. 113, l. 30. _three sects._ Pascal no doubt refers the _libido sentiendi_ to the Epicureans, the _libido dominandi_ to the Stoics, and the _libido sciendi_ to the dogmatic schools of Plato and Aristotle, of which Cicero always speaks as though they taught one and the same philosophy.

P. 114, l. 3. _two inches under water_, are equally drowned with those who are at the bottom.

P. 115. The fragments collected in this chapter are here placed by Molinier according to the plan which Pascal had traced out for his work, in which after he had laid the various philosophical systems before his supposed unbeliever, he brought forward for examination the other religions.

P. 115, l. 20. _forbade men to read it._ It is not known whence Pascal obtained this statement, which is a complete mistake.

P. 116, l. 15. _Jesus Christ wills that his testimony to himself should be of no avail._ John v. 31. "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true."

P. 116, l. 30. _The Koran says that Saint Matthew._ The Koran does not name Saint Matthew, but says in general terms that Mahomet regarded the apostles of Jesus as holy.

P. 117, l. 27. _whose witnesses let themselves be slaughtered._ After this Pascal had written, but erased the words "which of the two is most to be blamed, Moses or China?" and these aid us in the explanation of this enigmatic passage. The Jesuits had established themselves in China at the end of the sixteenth century, and when Pascal wrote their missions were in a flourishing state. They had studied the language, history, and literature of China. But the difficulty presented itself of reconciling the cosmogony and chronology of the Bible with those of the Chinese sages. It is probable that this passage was inspired by a private conversation with some one who had read letters from a missionary, for no book on the subject appears to have existed in Pascal's day.

P. 118, l. 4. _The five suns_, etc. Montaigne, from whom this is taken, _Essais_, l. iii. ch. iv., probably borrowed it from some Spanish book now forgotten.

P. 119. _Of the Jewish People._ This position in his intended treatise, before the sections on the Sacred Books and on Prophecy, is that which Pascal himself designed for his remarks on the Jews.

P. 123, l. 5. _The Masorah._ The unwritten tradition of the Jews.

P. 126, l. 9. _Quis mihi det._ Num. xi. 29. The true reading is, _Quis tribuat ut omnis populus prophetet_.

P. 126, l. 17. _If the story in Esdras is credible._ In the 14th Chapter of the Second Book of Esdras God appears to Esdras in a bush, and orders him to assemble the people and deliver the message. Esdras replies, "I will go as thou hast commanded me, and reprove the people which are present, but they that shall be born afterward who shall admonish them?... _For thy law is burnt_, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the works that shall begin. But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the world since the beginning." ... Then God ordered him to take five scribes, to whom for forty days he dictated the ancient law.

The authenticity of this story, coming into conflict as it does with many passages of the prophets, and specially with Jeremiah, appeared open to such grave doubts, that at the Council of Trent the last book of Esdras, called in the Catholic Church, Esdras IV., by Protestants Esdras II., was then rejected from the Canon.

P. 126, l. 27. _Jeremiah gave them the law._ See 2 Maccabees, ch. xi.

P. 128, l. 31. _Qui justus est justificetur adhuc._ Apocal. xvii. 4.

P. 129, l. 18. _a thousand and twenty-two._ This was the number of stars comprised in the Catalogue of Ptolemy, according to the system of Hipparchus.

P. 132, l. 9. _Non habemus regem nisi Cæsarem._ Job. xx. 15.

P. 134, l. 12. _Eris palpans in meridie._ Incorrectly quoted from Deut. xxviii. 29.

P. 134, l. 13. _Dabitur liber._ Incorrectly quoted from Is. xxix. 12.

P. 135, l. 6. _Effundam spiritum meum._ Is. xliv. 2.

P. 135, l. 21. _populum non credentem._ Is. lxv. 2.

P. 136, l. 2. _ex omnibus iniquitatibus._ Probably a remembrance of Is. xliv. 22. _Delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas._

P. 136, l. 13. _The little stone._ Dan. ii. 34.

P. 136, l. 33. _Omnis Judæa regio._ Incorrectly quoted from Matt. iii. 5.

P. 137, l. 3. _These stones can become._ Matt. iii. 9.

P. 140, l. 15. _Grotius._ The allusion is no doubt to his work, _De Veritate Religionis Christianæ_, which appeared in 1662.

P. 143, l. 6. _the king of the Medes and Persians_ is Darius Codomanus; the King of the Greeks, Alexander. The four kings are, Seleucus, King of Syria; Ptolemy, King of Egypt; Lysimachus, King of Thrace, and Cassander, King of Macedonia, after the battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C.

P. 143, l. 12. This paragraph refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, who died 164 B.C. See the account of his death, 1 Macc. c. 6.

P. 145, l. 1. _And in the end of years._ The marriage of Antiochus Theos with Berenice took place about 247 B.C. Berenice was assassinated by Seleucus Ceraunos soon afterwards, and the war between Ptolemy Euergetes and the King of Syria lasted during almost all the reign of the latter. Syria regained the ascendancy only after the death of Ptolemy Euergetes in 222 B.C.

P. 145, l. 26. _Raphia._ The Battle of Raphia was gained by Ptolemy Philopator over Antiochus the Great, 217 B.C.

P. 145, l. 36. _Euergetes_, a mistake for Epiphanes.

P. 147, l. 2. _The leader taken from the thigh._ A literal translation of Gen. xlix. 10. _Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda, et dux de femore ejus._

P. 152, l. 26. _Pugio Fidei._ The work so called, which Pascal first specifies in this place, is one of which he made great use in all his speculations on the fulfilment of Prophecy, and on the meaning of the Hebrew letters, etc. The book, of which the full title is _Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judæos_, was written in 1278 by Raymond Martin, a Catalonian monk. It remained almost unknown for four hundred years, and was first printed in 1651. It was, therefore, as it were, a new book when Pascal became acquainted with it. Under the name Mauri the author assails not the Koran nor Mahomet, but Arabic philosophy.

P. 161, l. 2. _Ut sciatis quod filius hominis._ Marc. ii. 10-11. The words of Jesus to the paralytic.

P. 164, l. 16. _Signa legem in electis meis._ Is. viii. 16, where the Vulgate has _discipulis_.

P. 165, l. 15. _Fascination._ _i.e._, _Fascinatio nugacitatis_, see p. 101, l. 16. The blindness produced by the love of temporal possessions, or as the A. V. translates it, "the bewitching of naughtiness."

P. 165, l. 15. _Somnum suum._ Ps. lxxvi. 5. _Turbati sunt omnes insipientes corde. Dormierunt somnum suum: et nihil invenerunt omnes viri divitiarum in manibus suis._

P. 165, l. 15. _Figura hujus mundi._ 1 ad Cor. vii. 31. _Et qui utuntur hoc mundo, tanquam non utantur: præterit enim figura hujus mundi._

P. 165, l. 16. _Comedes panem tuum._ Deut viii. 9. _Panem nostrum._ Luc. xi. 3.

P. 165, l. 17. _Inimici Dei terram lingent._ Ps. lxxii 8. The Psalm is of Solomon, _Inimici ejus terram lingent_.

P. 165, l. 22. _cum amaritudinibus._ Ex. xii. 8, where the Vulgate has _cum lactucis agrestibus_.

P. 165, l. 24. _Singularis sum ego._ Ps. cxli. 10, where the true reading is "_singulariter_."

P. 165, l. 34. _We have no right._ The following is the explanation of this and the next two paragraphs: In Is. ix. 6, a prophecy which the Rabbis apply to Messiah, and Christian interpreters to Jesus, are the words: _Parvulus enim natus est nobis ... multiplicabatur ejus imperium._ In the Hebrew words representing this latter clause, the _closed mem_, a letter ordinarily employed only at the end of a word, occurs where an _open mem_ should be used. From this orthographic mistake the Rabbis have concluded that Messiah would be born of a virgin, _ex virgine clausa_. Moreover, as the _closed mem_ in Hebrew writing means six hundred, the Rabbis supposed that Messiah was to come six hundred years after Isaiah. The _final tsadé_ has the same value as the _closed mem_.

P. 166, l. 8. _the way of the philosopher's stone_, no doubt the way of _finding_ the philosopher's stone. The dreams of the alchemists on this subject were early mingled with those of the Rabbis on the Messiah. Nor had the Cabbala lost all credit in Pascal's days. In 1629 Robert Fludd, in Latin De Fluctibus, an Englishman, educated at Oxford, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians, published at Frankfort his _Medicina Catholica_. In this, sect 1. pt. ii. b. 1. ch. i. he speaks of sicknesses and healing as both sent from God by angelic intermediaries, and that all angelic natures are summed up in the great angel Mittatron, whom the Scriptures call Wisdom. In a further passage he says that in him whom the Cabalists call Mittatron others recognise Messiah, and quotes the passage of Isaiah in which occurs the _closed mem_.

In Reuchlin's book _De Arte Cabalistica_ the _open mem_ is said to represent the sphere of Jupiter, and the _closed mem_ the sphere of Mars.

P. 166, l. 12. _Apocalyptics._ Interpreters of the Apocalypse.

P. 166, l. 13. _Preadamites._ Those who hold that Adam was the progenitor of the Jews only, and not of the whole human race.

P. 166, l. 13. _Millenarians._ The believers in the reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years.

P. 166, l. 19. The allusion is probably to 2 Paralip. i. 14. _Et fecit eos esse in urbibus quadrigarum, et cum rege in Jerusalem._

P. 166, l. 31. _Exortum est lumen._ Ps. cxii. 4. But the word _corde_ does not appear in the Vulgate.

P. 168, l. 30. _Agnus occisus est._ Apoc. xiii. 8.

P. 170, l. 23. _the breasts of the Spouse._ Song of Songs, iv. 5.

P. 171, l. 32. _Nisi fecissem._ A partial citation of Joh. xv. 24.

P. 174, l. 32. _Adam forma futuri_, ad Rom. v. 14.

P. 175, l. 7. _the six mornings._ This passage is taken from S. Aug. _De Genesi contra Manichæos_, i. 23. Pascal probably intending to write _les six orients_, dawns or mornings, his amanuensis has written _les six arians_, a source of much misunderstanding. The six mornings are, the creation; the deliverance from the Ark; the call of Abraham; the carrying away into Babylon; the preaching of Jesus.

P. 175, l. 29. _Fac secundum exemplar._ Exod. xxv. 40, but the Vulgate has _monstratum_.

P. 176, l. 9. _Saint Paul says._ 1 Cor. vii.; 1 Tim. iv. 3.

P. 176, l. 14. _On which Saint Paul says._ Heb. viii. 5.

P. 176, l. 16. _Veri adoratores._ Joh. iv. 23. _Ecce agnus Dei._ Joh. i. 29.

P. 187, l. 11. _ne evacuata sit crux._ 1 ad Cor. i. 17. _ut non evacuetur crux Christi._

P. 187, l. 12. _says that he came neither with wisdom nor with signs._ See however 2 Cor. xii. 12. "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, _in signs_ and wonders and mighty deeds."

P. 191, l. 7. _Deliciæ meæ._ Prov. viii. 31. _Effundam._ Joel, ii. 28. _Dii estis._ Ps. lxxxii. 6. _Omnis caro fœnum._ Is. xl. 6. _Homo comparatus est._ Ps. xlix. 20. _Dixi in corde._ Eccles. iii. 18.

P. 192, l. 3. _Marton._ Probably a mistake of the amanuensis for Miton. See p. 12, l. 22.

P. 192, l. 10. _Sapientius est hominibus._ 1 ad Cor. i. 25.

P. 194, l. 5. _Nemo ante obitum beatus est._ Ovid, _Met._ iii. 136. The passage runs:--

_Dicique beatus
Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet._

P. 194, l. 19. The citations from the Rabbis are taken from the _Pugio Fidei_.

P. 195, l. 36. _Chronology of Rabbinism._ The chronology here given is in many points at variance with modern scholarship.

P. 197, l. 19. _Salutare tuum expectabo._ Gen. xlix. 18.

P. 200, l. 12. _Miserere._ The first word of Ps. li., "_Miserere mei Deus_." _Expectavi._ The first word of Ps. xl., "_Expectans expectavi Dominum_."

P. 200, l. 29. _Dixit Dominus._ The first words of Ps. cx.

P. 209, l. 11. _Excæca._ Is. vi. 10.

P. 210, l. 13. _nisi efficiamini._ Matt, xviii. 3.

P. 213, l. 21. _Quis mihi det ut._ Job, xix. 23-25.

P. 215, l. 5. _Quare fremuerunt gentes._ Ps. ii. 1, 2.

P. 215, l. 30. _Ingrediens mundum._ Probably a recollection of the meaning, but not the words, of Heb. i. 6.

P. 215, l. 31. _Stone upon stone._ Mark, xiii. 2.

P. 216, l. 23. _in sanctificationem et in scandalum_, a partial quotation of Isaiah, viii. 14.

P. 217, l. 3. _Ænigmatis._ The word nowhere appears, but the allusion is no doubt to 1 ad Cor. xiii. 12. _Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem._

P. 219, l. 3. _gladium tuum._ Ps. xlv. 3. _Accingere gladio tuo super femur tuum, potentissime._

P. 220, l. 21. _He hath blinded them._ Is. vi. 10.

P. 221, l. 22. _Great Pan is dead._ Plutarch _De Oraculis_.

P. 221, l. 26. _Barcoseba_, or Barcochebas, a Jewish impostor who claimed to be the Messiah, A.D. 135.

P. 222, l. 3. _Curse of the Greeks_, no doubt against those Heretics who tried to discover the exact date of the end of the world.

P. 225, l. 19. _Quia non cognovit._ The quotation is modified from 1 ad Cor. i. 21, and with the important omission of the final word "_credentes_."

P. 226, l. 24. _Quod ergo ignorantes quæritis._ Adapted from Act. Ap. xvii. 23. _Quod ergo ignorantes colitis ego annuncio vobis._

P. 226, l. 28. _via, veritas._ Joh. xiv. 6.

P. 227, l. 12. _Jaddus to Alexander._ Jaddus was the Jewish High Priest, who on Alexander's invasion of Syria refused to aid him. Thereupon Alexander marched on Jerusalem. Jaddus came out to meet him in processional pomp, when the conqueror prostrated himself at his feet, saying he had seen such a man in a dream, who had promised him the Empire of Asia.

P. 228, l. 14. _Archimedes, though of princely birth._ Plutarch says that Archimedes was of a family allied to that of Hiero, King of Syracuse.

P. 229, l. 11. _I will bless those that bless thee._ Gen. xii. 3. _Benedicam benedicentibus tibi._

P. 229, l. 13. _Parum est ut._ Is. xlix. 6. _Parum est ut sis mihi servus ad suscitandas tribus Jacob et faeces Israel convertendas. Ecce dedi te in lucem gentium._

P. 229, l. 15. _Non fecit taliter._ Ps. cxlvii. 20.

P. 230, l. 8. _Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all._ "_Jesu Redemptor omnium_" is the first verse of the Christmas Vesper Hymn.

P. 230, l. 21. _Lord, when saw we thee an hungered?_ Matt. xxv. 34.

P. 231. _The Mystery of Jesus._ This fragment has only been included by more recent editors. But it exists in the autograph MS., and unquestionably forms a part of the intended work.

P. 231, l. 3. _turbare semetipsum._ Joh. xi. 33. In the text _turbavit seipsum_.

P. 232, l. 9. _Eamus. Processit._ A recollection of Joh. xviii. 4, but the word _eamus_ does not occur in the verse, being borrowed from the account in Matt. xxvi. 46.

P. 233, l. 25. _ut immundus pro luto._ Possibly a reminiscence and misquotation of 2 Pet. ii. 22. _Sus lota in volutabro luti._

P. 234, l. 33. _Noli me tangere._ Joh. xx. 17.

P. 235, l. 21. _Et tu conversus._ Luc. xxii. 32. _Conversus Jesus._ _ib._ 61. _before_ should be "after."

P. 238, l. 16. _Qui adhæret Deo._ 1 ad Cor. v. 17. _Qui autem adhæret Domino unus spiritus est._

P. 238, l. 28. _because it has perhaps merited ours._ See Bossuet's Catechism. _Qu'entendez vous par la Communion des Saints? J'entends principalement la participation qu'ont tous les fidèles au fruit des bonnes œuvres les uns des autres._

P. 240, l. 28. _Book of Wisdom._ Ch. ii. 6. But the sense only, and not the words, is given.

P. 241, l. 16. _et non intres in judicium._ Ps. cxliii. 2.

P. 241, l. 19. _The goodness of God._ Rom. ii. 4.

P. 241, l. 20. _Let us do penance._ Jonah, iii. 9. But the sense only, not the words, is quoted.

P. 243, l. 2. _qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur._ 1 ad Cor. i. 31.

P. 243, l. 4. _libido sentiendi._ From Jansenius, _De statu naturæ lapsæ_, ii. 8.

P. 243, l. 5. _Woe to the accursed land._ This and the following paragraphs are taken from Saint Augustine's commentary on Ps. cxxxvii., _Super flumina Babylonis_.

P. 244, l. 1. _Abraham took nothing for himself._ Gen. xiv. 24.

P. 244, l. 5. _Sub te erit appetitus tuus._ Gen. iv. 7.

P. 244, l. 29. _Multi crediderunt._ Joh. viii. 30-33.

P. 245, l. 17. _Comminutum cor._ No doubt a misquotation of Ps. li. _cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies_.

P. 245, l. 18. _Albe vous a nommé._ Corneille, _Horace_, act ii. sc. 3.

P. 248, l. 1. _Omnis creatura subjecta est vanitati._ Eccles. iii. 19, but the true reading is "_cuncta subjacent vanitati_."

P. 249, l. 33. _Inclina cor meum._ Ps. cxix. 36.

P. 251, l. 13. _Ne evacuetur crux Christi._ 1 ad Cor. i. 17.

P. 253. _The Arrangement._ Scattered here and there in Pascal's MS. were a number of notes concerning the plan, form, and matter of his intended treatise, many of them marked with the word "_Ordre_." These are gathered together by recent editors, and some others which seem to cohere with them added, but Molinier's arrangement, as well as that of Faugère, is necessarily somewhat arbitrary.

P. 254, l. 6. _Justus ex fide vivit._ Habac. ii. 4. Ad Rom. i. 17.

P. 254, l. 8. _fides ex auditu._ Ad Rom. x. 17.

P. 254, l. 14. _divide my moral qualities into four._ The classical division of ancient philosophy was into four: prudence, temperance, justice, magnanimity.

P. 254, l. 16. _Abstine et sustine._ The Stoic formula.

P. 257. _The Miracle of the Holy Thorn._ Marguerite Perier, Pascal's niece, aged ten, was cured of lachrymal fistula on March 24, 1656, after touching the diseased part with a reliquary containing a thorn from the Saviour's crown. This was at the time that Port Royal was suffering deeply from persecution, and was considered by many a signal mark of the favour of heaven. The Jesuits did not deny the miracle, but the conclusions drawn from it.

P. 257, l. 20. _those who heal by invocation of the devil._ Pascal, when a child, was supposed both to have been made ill and restored to health by a witch. He desires to show that this was no miracle.

P. 258, l. 9. _Believe the Church._ Matt. xviii. 17.

P. 258, l. 13. _Montaigne._ Cf. _Essais_, i. 26.

P. 258, l. 23. _Judæi signa petunt._ 1 ad Cor. i. 22.

P. 258, l. 25. _Sed plenum signis._ This and the following one are not to be found. Pascal is probably citing Saint Paul from memory.

P. 258, l. 29. _Sed vos non creditis._ Joh. x. 26.

P. 261, l. 5. _Saint Augustine._ Pascal does not appear to refer to any single passage, but to the general teaching of Saint Augustine. But see especially _De Civit. Dei_, xxii. 9.

P. 262, l. 19. _Scimus quia venisti a Deo._ Joh. iii. 2.

P. 263, l. 3. _We have Moses._ John ix. 21.

P. 263, l. 30. _Quid debui._ Is. v. 4. _Quid est quod debui facere vineæ meæ et non feci ei._

P. 264, l. 16. _Barjesus was blinded._ Acts xiii. 6-11.

P. 264, l. 22. _Si angelus._ A reference to ad Gal. i. 8.

P. 264, l. 28. _my good father._ Probably Father Annat. See p. 289, l. 28.

P. 265, l. 21. _1 P. ix. 113, a. 10, ad. 2._ These signs refer to the Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas here quoted, and mean _Parte 1, quæstione 113, articulo 10, ad objectionem 2_.

P. 265, l. 22. _Si tu es Christus._ Luc. xxii. 66.

P. 265, l. 23. _Opera quæ ego facio._ Joh. v. 36.

P. 265, l. 25. _Sed non vos creditis._ Joh. x. 26.

P. 265, l. 29. _Nemo potest facere signa._ Joh. iii. 2.

P. 265, l. 34. _Generatio prava._ Matt. xii. 39.

P. 266, l. 5. _Nisi videritis signa non creditis._ Joh. iv. 48.

P. 266, l. 9. _Secundum operationem Satanæ._ 2 ad Thess. ii. 9.

P. 266, l. 12. _Tentat enim vos Deus._ Deut. xiii. 3.

P. 266, l. 14. _Ecce prædixi vobis._ Matt. xxiv. 25.

P. 267, l. 26. _Father Lingende._ Claude de Lingendes, 1591-1660, was a Jesuit preacher. His sermons were published in 1666.

P. 268, l. 11. _Ubi est Deus tuus._ Ps. xlii. 3.

P. 268, l. 22. _do not believe that the five propositions are in Jansenius._ To explain this fully would need a far longer note than can here be given. It may be said shortly that the allusion is to the "Augustinus" of Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres. Two questions arose: first, whether the propositions condemned were heretical, and second, whether if heretical they were in Jansen's book. The second assertion was that which the nuns of Port Royal refused to make. They had not read the book, and could not affirm that of which they were ignorant. The five propositions were on the Doctrines of Grace and Free Will.

P. 268, l. 27. _Tu quid dicis._ These are partial quotations from Joh. iv. 19, etc.

P. 269, l. 9. _Nemo facit virtutem._ Marc. ix. 38, but incorrectly. The true reading is _Nemo est enim qui faciat_.

P. 269, l. 25. _Omne regnum divisum._ Matt. xii. 25.

P. 269, l. 28. _Si in digito Dei._ Luc. xi. 20.

P. 269, l. 35. _Vatable_, who died in 1517, was professor of Hebrew at the Collége Royal established by Francis I. In 1539 Robert Etienne published an edition of the Latin Bible of Leo of Modena--Rabbi Jehuda--to which he added under Vatable's name, notes which were not really Vatable's, but borrowed from various writers of the Reformation. These notes were condemned by the Sorbonne. The Bible known as that of Vatable contains the Hebrew, the Vulgate Version, and that of Rabbi Jehuda.

P. 271, l. 23. _miracles of Vespasian._ Tacitus, _Hist._ iv. 81.

P. 273. _Jesuits and Jansenists._ A collection of fragments on these subjects, which perhaps might be considered rather as an appendix to, or notes for the _Provincial Letters_, than a part of the _Thoughts_, properly so called. But they form part of the autograph MS.

P. 273, l. 9. _There is a time to laugh._ Eccles. iii. 4. _Responde, ne respondeas._ Prov. xxvi. 4.

P. 275, l. 9. _Elias was a man like ourselves._ Quoted by memory as from Saint Peter, but really from Saint James, v. 17.

P. 275, l. 14. _accused of many crimes._ Athanasius was accused of rape, of murder, and of sacrilege. He was condemned by the Councils of Tyre, A.D. 335, of Arles, A.D. 353, and of Milan A.D. 355. Pope Liberius, after having long refused to ratify the condemnation, was said to have finally done so A.D. 357. But this is disputed by recent authorities. For Athanasius we are of course here to read Jansenius and Arnauld; for Saint Theresa, la mère Angélique or la mère Agnès; for Liberius, Clement IX.

P. 275, l. 33. _Antonio Escobar y Mendoza._ The Spanish Jesuit whose system of morals was so severely handled by Pascal in the _Provincial Letters_. He is among those whose names have given rise to a word: "_escobarderie_" is a synonym for equivocation.

P. 276, l. 6. _Molina_, Louis, a Spanish Jesuit, born 1535, died 1601. The Jansenists accused his Commentary on the Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas of favouring a lax morality.

P. 277, l. 4. _Mohatra._ "The contract Mohatra, by which a man buys cloth at a dear rate and on credit, to re-sell it at once to the same person cheaply for ready money." Eighth _Provincial_.

P. 278, l. 21. _Est and non est._

P. 278, l. 26. _Væ qui conditis leges iniquas._ Is. x. 1. But the Vulgate reads _Væ qui condunt_.

P. 279, l. 22. _M. de Condran._ No doubt Charles de Condren, 1588-1641, doctor of the Sorbonne, and second General of the French Oratory, a society of priests founded by Cardinal de Bérulle at Paris in 1611.

P. 280, l. 7. _Sanctificavi prælium._ Mic. iii. 5.

P. 280, l. 12. _Ne convertantur._ Is. vi. 10.

P. 282, l. 21. _Coacervabunt tibi magistras._ 2 ad Tim. iv. 3, where the Vulgate has "_sibi_."

P. 282, l. 28. _not to make appointments to bishoprics._ But a few years after this Fathers La Chaise and Le Tellier, as Confessors to the King, had this power in their hands.

P. 282, l. 31. _Father Brisacier_, born 1603, a Jesuit, and a warm opponent of Jansenism. He wrote _Le Jansénisme confondu_, and several minor works. He is constantly quoted in the _Provincial Letters_.

P. 283, l. 1. _Venice._ The Jesuits had just returned to Venice in 1657, having been expelled thence in 1606.

P. 283, l. 22. _Amice, ad quid venisti._ Matt. xxvi. 50.

P. 283, l. 24. _probability_, or, technically, probabilism. Probabilism teaches that it is permissible to act on an opinion which is less probable than the opinion opposed to it so long as there is a solid ground for regarding it as probable _in itself_. Thus, if out of three moral theologians of recognised authority, two give it as their opinion that a certain course of conduct is unlawful, while the third asserts it to be lawful, probabilism permits the adoption in practice of the third opinion in opposition to the other two. A confessor would therefore have no right to forbid it under pain of sin.

P. 284, l. 12. _Dii estis._ Ps. lxxxii. 6.

P. 284, l. 13. _If my Letters are condemned at Rome._ The _Provincial Letters_ were condemned at Rome, Sept. 6, 1657.

P. 285, l. 22. _imago._ An allusion to the famous panegyric on the Jesuits called, "_Imago primi sæculi_." See Fifth _Provincial_.

P. 285, l. 36. _Si non fecissem quæ alius non fecit._ Jon. xv. 24.

P. 286, l. 31. _These nuns._ The nuns of Port Royal were called upon to sign the Formula which declared that the Five Propositions were _in Jansenius_.

P. 287, l. 4. _Vide si via iniquitatis in me est._ Ps. cxxxix. 24.

P. 287, l. 15. _they are so no longer_, i.e. since the miracle.

P. 288, l. 18. _Vos autem non sic._ Luc. xxii. 26.

P. 289, l. 28. _Annat_, 1590-1670, a Jesuit priest, Provincial of the Order, and Confessor to Louis XIV., 1654-1670. He wrote the well-known book, _Le Rabat-joie des Jansénistes_, 1666, and to him were addressed Pascal's Seventeenth and Eighteenth _Provincials_.

P. 290, l. 9. _Montalte._ Louis de Montalte was the pseudonym adopted by Pascal as the writer of the _Provincial Letters_.

P. 290, l. 26. _A fructibus eorum._ Matt. vii. 16.

P. 291, l. 6. _Lessius_, Leonard, a Jesuit born at Brecht, near Antwerp, 1554, died 1623, a pupil of Suarez. He was censured by the Faculty of Louvain in 1584. He wrote, among others, a treatise, _De licito usu æquivocationum et mentalium restrictionum_.

P. 291, l. 9. _Bauny._ Pascal in his Eighth _Provincial_ quotes an opinion of Father Bauny on the question of restitution to be made by one who has caused the burning of his neighbour's barn.

P. 291, l. 10. _quam primum._ A reference to the rule that if a priest personally disqualified from saying Mass on account of any mortal sin is yet obliged to do so for the sake of his parishioners, it is sufficient that he make an act of contrition, and as soon as possible "_quam primum_" seek the Sacrament of Penance.

P. 292, l. 18. _State super vias._ A partial quotation from Jer. vi. 16.

P. 293, l. 20. _Vince in bono malum._ Ad Rom. xii. 21.

P. 297, l. 5. _Bibite ex hoc omnes._ Matt xvii. 27.

P. 297, l. 7. _In quo omnes peccaverunt._ Ad Rom. v. 12.

P. 298, l. 10. _Ne timeas, pusillus grex._ Luc. xii. 32.

P. 298, l. 13. _Qui me recipit._ Matt. x. 40.

P. 298, l. 14. _Nemo scit neque Filius._ Luc. x. 22.

P. 298, l. 15. _Nemo lucida obumbravit._ Matt. xvii. v.

P. 303, l. 6. _plus poetice quam humane locutus es._ Petronius, c. 90, where the words have not the turn that Pascal here gives them.

P. 304, l. 2. _The part that I take in your sorrow._ The Chevalier de Méré, in his _Discours de la Conversation_, says, that he had been witness to a bet, that on opening a letter of condolence the set phrase condemned above would occur, and that the lady to whom the letter was addressed could not help laughing in spite of her distress. Pascal's note is against writing mere formal phrases which can thus be easily guessed. The Cardinal is Mazarin.

P. 304, l. 9. _M. le M._ Le Maistre, Antoine, 1608-1658. The allusion is to _Les Plaidoyers et Harangues_ de M. le Maistre, Paris, 1657. On the first page of Plaidoyer VI., _Pour un fils mis en religion par force_, we find "_Dieu qui répand des aveuglements et des ténèbres sur les passions illégitimes_," and Pascal probably refers to this passage as one in which the word _répandre_ could not be replaced by _verser_.

P. 305, l. 23. _I judge by my watch._ Mlle. Perier says, that Pascal always wore a watch attached to his left wrist-band.

P. 309, l. 27. _An example may be taken from the circulation of the blood._ Apparently taken from Descartes, _Discours de la Méthode_, pt. v., in which Descartes speaks of Harvey's discovery.

P. 309, l. 33. _M. de Roannez._ Gouffier, Duc de Roannez, was a friend of Pascal, some seven or eight years younger than he. He was a devoted adherent of Port Royal, and died unmarried.

P. 312, l. 23. _Salomon de Tultie._ An anagram for Louis de Montalte, see p. 290, l. 9.

P. 313, l. 11. _The story of the pike and frog._ This story has hitherto escaped research.

P. 313, l. 17. _conatus recedendi._ Centrifugal force.

P. 316, l. 3. _When a strong man armed._ Luke xi. 21.

_INDEX._

_INDEX._

Abel and Cain, 267

Abraham, 197

---- stones can become the children of, 137