Pascal's Pensées
Christ, without whom all communion with God is cut off. _Nemo novit
Patrem, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare._[92]
This is what Scripture points out to us, when it says in so many places
that those who seek God find Him.[93] It is not of that light, "like the
noonday sun," that this is said. We do not say that those who seek the
noonday sun, or water in the sea, shall find them; and hence the
evidence of God must not be of this nature. So it tells us elsewhere:
_Vere tu es Deus absconditus_.[94]
243
It is an astounding fact that no canonical writer has ever made use of
nature to prove God. They all strive to make us believe in Him. David,
Solomon, etc., have never said, "There is no void, therefore there is a
God." They must have had more knowledge than the most learned people who
came after them, and who have all made use of this argument. This is
worthy of attention.
244
"Why! Do you not say yourself that the heavens and birds prove God?" No.
"And does your religion not say so?" No. For although it is true in a
sense for some souls to whom God gives this light, yet it is false with
respect to the majority of men.
245
There are three sources of belief: reason, custom, inspiration. The
Christian religion, which alone has reason, does not acknowledge as her
true children those who believe without inspiration. It is not that she
excludes reason and custom. On the contrary, the mind must be opened to
proofs, must be confirmed by custom, and offer itself in humbleness to
inspirations, which alone can produce a true and saving effect. _Ne
evacuetur crux Christi._[95]
246
_Order._--After the letter _That we ought to seek God_, to write the
letter _On removing obstacles_; which is the discourse on "the
machine,"[96] on preparing the machine, on seeking by reason.
247
_Order._--A letter of exhortation to a friend to induce him to seek. And
he will reply, "But what is the use of seeking? Nothing is seen." Then
to reply to him, "Do not despair." And he will answer that he would be
glad to find some light, but that, according to this very religion, if
he believed in it, it will be of no use to him, and that therefore he
prefers not to seek. And to answer to that: The machine.
248
_A letter which indicates the use of proofs by the machine._--Faith is
different from proof; the one is human, the other is a gift of God.
_Justus ex fide vivit._[97] It is this faith that God Himself puts into
the heart, of which the proof is often the instrument, _fides ex
auditu_;[98] but this faith is in the heart, and makes us not say
_scio_, but _credo_.
249
It is superstition to put one's hope in formalities; but it is pride to
be unwilling to submit to them.
250
The external must be joined to the internal to obtain anything from God,
that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, etc., in order that
proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to
the creature.[99] To expect help from these externals is superstition;
to refuse to join them to the internal is pride.
251
Other religions, as the pagan, are more popular, for they consist in
externals. But they are not for educated people. A purely intellectual
religion would be more suited to the learned, but it would be of no use
to the common people. The Christian religion alone is adapted to all,
being composed of externals and internals. It raises the common people
to the internal, and humbles the proud to the external; it is not
perfect without the two, for the people must understand the spirit of
the letter, and the learned must submit their spirit to the letter.
252
For we must not misunderstand ourselves; we are as much automatic as
intellectual; and hence it comes that the instrument by which conviction
is attained is not demonstrated alone. How few things are demonstrated?
Proofs only convince the mind. Custom is the source of our strongest and
most believed proofs. It bends the automaton, which persuades the mind
without its thinking about the matter. Who has demonstrated that there
will be a to-morrow, and that we shall die? And what is more believed?
It is, then, custom which persuades us of it; it is custom that makes
so many men Christians; custom that makes them Turks, heathens,
artisans, soldiers, etc. (Faith in baptism is more received among
Christians than among Turks.) Finally, we must have recourse to it when
once the mind has seen where the truth is, in order to quench our
thirst, and steep ourselves in that belief, which escapes us at every
hour; for always to have proofs ready is too much trouble. We must get
an easier belief, which is that of custom, which, without violence,
without art, without argument, makes us believe things, and inclines all
our powers to this belief, so that out soul falls naturally into it. It
is not enough to believe only by force of conviction, when the automaton
is inclined to believe the contrary. Both our parts must be made to
believe, the mind by reasons which it is sufficient to have seen once in
a lifetime, and the automaton by custom, and by not allowing it to
incline to the contrary. _Inclina cor meum, Deus._[100]
The reason acts slowly, with so many examinations, and on so many
principles, which must be always present, that at every hour it falls
asleep, or wanders, through want of having all its principles present.
Feeling does not act thus; it acts in a moment, and is always ready to
act. We must then put our faith in feeling; otherwise it will be always
vacillating.
253
Two extremes: to exclude reason, to admit reason only.
254
It is not a rare thing to have to reprove the world for too much
docility. It is a natural vice like credulity, and as pernicious.
Superstition.
255
Piety is different from superstition.
To carry piety as far as superstition is to destroy it.
The heretics reproach us for this superstitious submission. This is to
do what they reproach us for ...
Infidelity, not to believe in the Eucharist, because it is not seen.
Superstition to believe propositions. Faith, etc.
256
I say there are few true Christians, even as regards faith. There are
many who believe but from superstition. There are many who do not
believe solely from wickedness. Few are between the two.
In this I do not include those who are of truly pious character, nor all
those who believe from a feeling in their heart.
257
There are only three kinds of persons; those who serve God, having found
Him; others who are occupied in seeking Him, not having found Him; while
the remainder live without seeking Him, and without having found Him.
The first are reasonable and happy, the last are foolish and unhappy;
those between are unhappy and reasonable.
258
_Unusquisque sibi Deum fingit._[101]
Disgust.
259
Ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that about which they
do not wish to think. "Do not meditate on the passages about the
Messiah," said the Jew to his son. Thus our people often act. Thus are
false religions preserved, and even the true one, in regard to many
persons.
But there are some who have not the power of thus preventing thought,
and who think so much the more as they are forbidden. These undo false
religions, and even the true one, if they do not find solid arguments.
260
They hide themselves in the press, and call numbers to their rescue.
Tumult.
_Authority._--So far from making it a rule to believe a thing because
you have heard it, you ought to believe nothing without putting yourself
into the position as if you had never heard it.
It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own
reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.
Belief is so important! A hundred contradictions might be true. If
antiquity were the rule of belief, men of ancient time would then be
without rule. If general consent, if men had perished?
False humanity, pride.
Lift the curtain. You try in vain; if you must either believe, or deny,
or doubt. Shall we then have no rule? We judge that animals do well what
they do. Is there no rule whereby to judge men?
To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race is to
a horse.
Punishment of those who sin, error.
261
Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed,
and that a multitude deny it. And so their error arises only from this,
that they do not love either truth or charity. Thus they are without
excuse.
262
Superstition and lust. Scruples, evil desires. Evil fear; fear, not such
as comes from a belief in God, but such as comes from a doubt whether He
exists or not. True fear comes from faith; false fear comes from doubt.
True fear is joined to hope, because it is born of faith, and because
men hope in the God in whom they believe. False fear is joined to
despair, because men fear the God in whom they have no belief. The
former fear to lose Him; the latter fear to find Him.
263
"A miracle," says one, "would strengthen my faith." He says so when he
does not see one. Reasons, seen from afar, appear to limit our view; but
when they are reached, we begin to see beyond. Nothing stops the
nimbleness of our mind. There is no rule, say we, which has not some
exceptions, no truth so general which has not some aspect in which it
fails. It is sufficient that it be not absolutely universal to give us a
pretext for applying the exceptions to the present subject, and for
saying, "This is not always true; there are therefore cases where it is
not so." It only remains to show that this is one of them; and that is
why we are very awkward or unlucky, if we do not find one some day.
264
We do not weary of eating and sleeping every day, for hunger and
sleepiness recur. Without that we should weary of them. So, without the
hunger for spiritual things, we weary of them. Hunger after
righteousness, the eighth beatitude.[102]
265
Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of
what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
266
How many stars have telescopes revealed to us which did not exist for
our philosophers of old! We freely attack Holy Scripture on the great
number of stars, saying, "There are only one thousand and
twenty-eight,[103] we know it." There is grass on the earth, we see
it--from the moon we would not see it--and on the grass are leaves, and
in these leaves are small animals; but after that no more.--O
presumptuous man!--The compounds are composed of elements, and the
elements not.--O presumptuous man! Here is a fine reflection.--We must
not say that there is anything which we do not see.--We must then talk
like others, but not think like them.
267
The last proceeding of reason is to recognise that there is an infinity
of things which are beyond it. It is but feeble if it does not see so
far as to know this. But if natural things are beyond it, what will be
said of supernatural?
268
_Submission._--We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where
to submit. He who does not do so, understands not the force of reason.
There are some who offend against these three rules, either by affirming
everything as demonstrative, from want of knowing what demonstration is;
or by doubting everything, from want of knowing where to submit; or by
submitting in everything, from want of knowing where they must judge.
269
Submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity.
270
_St. Augustine._[104]--Reason would never submit, if it did not judge
that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is then
right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit.
271