Pascal's Pensées
These two propositions are equally sound and certain. Scripture
manifestly declares this to us, when it says in some places: _Deliciæ
meæ esse cum filiis hominum.[162] Effundam spiritum meum super omnem
carnem.[163] Dii estis[164]_, etc.; and in other places, _Omnis caro
fænum.[165] Homo assimilatus est jumentis insipientibus, et similis
factus est illis.[166] Dixi in corde meo de filiis hominum._ Eccles.
iii.
Whence it clearly seems that man by grace is made like unto God, and a
partaker in His divinity, and that without grace he is like unto the
brute beasts.]
435
Without this divine knowledge what could men do but either become elated
by the inner feeling of their past greatness which still remains to
them, or become despondent at the sight of their present weakness? For,
not seeing the whole truth, they could not attain to perfect virtue.
Some considering nature as incorrupt, others as incurable, they could
not escape either pride or sloth, the two sources of all vice; since
they cannot but either abandon themselves to it through cowardice, or
escape it by pride. For if they knew the excellence of man, they were
ignorant of his corruption; so that they easily avoided sloth, but fell
into pride. And if they recognised the infirmity of nature, they were
ignorant of its dignity; so that they could easily avoid vanity, but it
was to fall into despair. Thence arise the different schools of the
Stoics and Epicureans, the Dogmatists, Academicians, etc.
The Christian religion alone has been able to cure these two vices, not
by expelling the one through means of the other according to the wisdom
of the world, but by expelling both according to the simplicity of the
Gospel. For it teaches the righteous that it raises them even to a
participation in divinity itself; that in this lofty state they still
carry the source of all corruption, which renders them during all their
life subject to error, misery, death, and sin; and it proclaims to the
most ungodly that they are capable of the grace of their Redeemer. So
making those tremble whom it justifies, and consoling those whom it
condemns, religion so justly tempers fear with hope through that double
capacity of grace and of sin, common to all, that it humbles infinitely
more than reason alone can do, but without despair; and it exalts
infinitely more than natural pride, but without inflating; thus making
it evident that alone being exempt from error and vice, it alone fulfils
the duty of instructing and correcting men.
Who then can refuse to believe and adore this heavenly light? For is it
not clearer than day that we perceive within ourselves ineffaceable
marks of excellence? And is it not equally true that we experience every
hour the results of our deplorable condition? What does this chaos and
monstrous confusion proclaim to us but the truth of these two states,
with a voice so powerful that it is impossible to resist it?
436
_Weakness._--Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they cannot have
a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have only that of
human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it securely. It is the
same with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We are incapable both of
truth and goodness.
437
We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty.
We seek happiness, and find only misery and death.
We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty
or happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish us, partly to
make us perceive wherefrom we are fallen.
438
If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made
for God, why is he so opposed to God?
439
_Nature corrupted._--Man does not act by reason, which constitutes his
being.
440
The corruption of reason is shown by the existence of so many different
and extravagant customs. It was necessary that truth should come, in
order that man should no longer dwell within himself.
441
For myself, I confess that so soon as the Christian religion reveals the
principle that human nature is corrupt and fallen from God, that opens
my eyes to see everywhere the mark of this truth: for nature is such
that she testifies everywhere, both within man and without him, to a
lost God and a corrupt nature.
442
Man's true nature, his true good, true virtue, and true religion, are
things of which the knowledge is inseparable.
443
_Greatness, wretchedness._--The more light we have, the more greatness
and the more baseness we discover in man. Ordinary men--those who are
more educated: philosophers, they astonish ordinary men--Christians,
they astonish philosophers.
Who will then be surprised to see that religion only makes us know
profoundly what we already know in proportion to our light?
444
This religion taught to her children what men have only been able to
discover by their greatest knowledge.
445
Original sin is foolishness to men, but it is admitted to be such. You
must not then reproach me for the want of reason in this doctrine, since
I admit it to be without reason. But this foolishness is wiser than all
the wisdom of men, _sapientius est hominibus_.[167] For without this,
what can we say that man is? His whole state depends on this
imperceptible point. And how should it be perceived by his reason, since
it is a thing against reason, and since reason, far from finding it out
by her own ways, is averse to it when it is presented to her?
446
_Of original sin.[168] Ample tradition of original sin according to the
Jews._
On the saying in Genesis viii, 21: "The imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth."
_R. Moses Haddarschan_: This evil leaven is placed in man from the time
that he is formed.
_Massechet Succa_: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture. It is
called _evil, the foreskin, uncleanness, an enemy, a scandal, a heart of
stone, the north wind_; all this signifies the malignity which is
concealed and impressed in the heart of man.
_Midrasch Tillim_ says the same thing, and that God will deliver the
good nature of man from the evil.
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written, Psalm
xxxvii, 32: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay
him"; but God will not abandon him. This malignity tries the heart of
man in this life, and will accuse him in the other. All this is found in
the Talmud.
_Midrasch Tillim_ on Psalm iv, 4: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand in
awe and be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into sin. And
on Psalm xxxvi, 1: "The wicked has said within his own heart, Let not
the fear of God be before me." That is to say that the malignity natural
to man has said that to the wicked.
_Midrasch el Kohelet_: "Better is a poor and wise child than an old and
foolish king who cannot foresee the future."[169] The child is virtue,
and the king is the malignity of man. It is called king because all the
members obey it, and old because it is in the human heart from infancy
to old age, and foolish because it leads man in the way of
[_perdition_], which he does not foresee. The same thing is in _Midrasch
Tillim_.
_Bereschist Rabba_ on Psalm xxxv, 10: "Lord, all my bones shall bless
Thee, which deliverest the poor from the tyrant." And is there a greater
tyrant than the evil leaven? And on Proverbs xxv, 21: "If thine enemy be
hungry, give him bread to eat." That is to say, if the evil leaven
hunger, give him the bread of wisdom of which it is spoken in Proverbs
ix., and if he be thirsty, give him the water of which it is spoken in
Isaiah lv.
_Midrasch Tillim_ says the same thing, and that Scripture in that
passage, speaking of the enemy, means the evil leaven; and that, in
[_giving_] him that bread and that water, we heap coals of fire on his
head.
_Midrasch el Kohelet_ on Ecclesiastes ix, 14: "A great king besieged a
little city." This great king is the evil leaven; the great bulwarks
built against it are temptations; and there has been found a poor wise
man who has delivered it--that is to say, virtue.
And on Psalm xli, 1: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."
And on Psalm lxxviii, 39: "The spirit passeth away, and cometh not
again"; whence some have erroneously argued against the immortality of
the soul. But the sense is that this spirit is the evil leaven, which
accompanies man till death, and will not return at the resurrection.
And on Psalm ciii the same thing.
And on Psalm xvi.
Principles of Rabbinism: two Messiahs.
447
Will it be said that, as men have declared that righteousness has
departed the earth, they therefore knew of original sin?--_Nemo ante
obitum beatus est_[170]--that is to say, they knew death to be the
beginning of eternal and essential happiness?
448
[_Miton_] sees well that nature is corrupt, and that men are averse to
virtue; but he does not know why they cannot fly higher.
449
_Order._--After _Corruption_ to say: "It is right that all those who are
in that state should know it, both those who are content with it, and
those who are not content with it; but it is not right that all should
see Redemption."
450
If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, lust,
weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind. And if, knowing
this, we do not desire deliverance, what can we say of a man...?
What, then, can we have but esteem for a religion which knows so well
the defects of man, and desire for the truth of a religion which
promises remedies so desirable?
451
All men naturally hate one another. They employ lust as far as possible
in the service of the public weal. But this is only a [_pretence_] and a
false image of love; for at bottom it is only hate.
452
To pity the unfortunate is not contrary to lust. On the contrary, we can
quite well give such evidence of friendship, and acquire the reputation
of kindly feeling, without giving anything.
453
From lust men have found and extracted excellent rules of policy,
morality, and justice; but in reality this vile root of man, this
_figmentum malum_,[171] is only covered, it is not taken away.
454
_Injustice._--They have not found any other means of satisfying lust
without doing injury to others.
455
Self is hateful. You, Miton, conceal it; you do not for that reason
destroy it; you are, then, always hateful.
--No; for in acting as we do to oblige everybody, we give no more
occasion for hatred of us.--That is true, if we only hated in Self the
vexation which comes to us from it. But if I hate it because it is
unjust, and because it makes itself the centre of everything, I shall
always hate it.
In a word, the Self has two qualities: it is unjust in itself since it
makes itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others
since it would enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and would like
to be the tyrant of all others. You take away its inconvenience, but not
its injustice, and so you do not render it lovable to those who hate
injustice; you render it lovable only to the unjust, who do not any
longer find in it an enemy. And thus you remain unjust, and can please
only the unjust.
456
It is a perverted judgment that makes every one place himself above the
rest of the world, and prefer his own good, and the continuance of his
own good fortune and life, to that of the rest of the world!
457
Each one is all in all to himself; for he being dead, all is dead to
him. Hence it comes that each believes himself to be all in all to
everybody. We must not judge of nature by ourselves, but by it.
458
"All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the
eyes, or the pride of life; _libido sentiendi, libido sciendi, libido