Pascal's Pensées
but contrition, which is not real if it does not seek the sacrament.
923
People who do not keep their word, without faith, without honour,
without truth, deceitful in heart, deceitful in speech; for which that
amphibious animal in fable was once reproached, which held itself in a
doubtful position between the fish and the birds ...
It is important to kings and princes to be considered pious; and
therefore they must confess themselves to you.
NOTES
The following brief notes are mainly based on those of M. Brunschvicg.
But those of MM. Faugère, Molinier, and Havet have also been consulted.
The biblical references are to the Authorised English Version. Those in
the text are to the Vulgate, except where it has seemed advisable to
alter the reference to the English Version.
[1] P. 1, l. 1. _The difference between the mathematical and the
intuitive mind._--Pascal is here distinguishing the logical or
discursive type of mind, a good example of which is found in
mathematical reasoning, and what we should call the intuitive type
of mind, which sees everything at a glance. A practical man of sound
judgment exemplifies the latter; for he is in fact guided by
impressions of past experience, and does not consciously reason from
general principles.
[2] P. 2, l. 34. _There are different kinds_, etc.--This is probably a
subdivision of the discursive type of mind.
[3] P. 3, l. 31. _By rule._--This is an emendation by M. Brunschvicg.
The MS. has _sans règle_.
[4] P. 4, l. 3. _I judge by my watch._--Pascal is said to have always
carried a watch attached to his left wrist-band.
[5] P. 5, l. 21. _Scaramouch._--A traditional character in Italian
comedy.
[6] P. 5, l. 22. _The doctor._--Also a traditional character in Italian
comedy.
[7] P. 5, l. 24. _Cleobuline._--Princess, and afterwards Queen of
Corinth, figures in the romance of Mademoiselle de Scudéry, entitled
_Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus_. She is enamoured of one of her
subjects, Myrinthe. But she "loved him without thinking of love; and
remained so long in that error, that this affection was no longer in
a state to be overcome, when she became aware of it." The character
is supposed to have been drawn from Christina of Sweden.
[8] P. 6, l. 21. _Rivers are_, etc.--Apparently suggested by a chapter
in Rabelais: _How we descended in the isle of Odes, in which the
roads walk_.
[9] P. 6, l. 30. _Salomon de Tultie._--A pseudonym adopted by Pascal as
the author of the _Provincial Letters_.
[10] P. 7, l. 7. _Abstine et sustine._--A maxim of the Stoics.
[11] P. 7, l. 8. _Follow nature._--The maxim in which the Stoics summed
up their positive ethical teaching.
[12] P. 7, l. 9. _As Plato._--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 9.
[13] P. 9, l. 29. _We call this jargon poetical beauty._--According to
M. Havet, Pascal refers here to Malherbe and his school.
[14] P. 10, l. 23. _Ne quid nimis._--Nothing in excess, a celebrated
maxim in ancient Greek philosophy.
[15] P. 11, l. 26. _That epigram about two one-eyed people._--M. Havet
points out that this is not Martial's, but is to be found in
_Epigrammatum Delectus_, published by Port-Royal in 1659.
_Lumine Æon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,
Et potis est forma vincere uterque deos.
Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede parenti,
Sic tu cæcus Amor, sic erit ilia Venus._
[16] P. 11, l. 29. _Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta._--Horace, _De Arte
Poetica_, 447.
[17] P. 13, l. 2. _Cartesian._--One who follows the philosophy of
Descartes (1596-1650), "the father of modern philosophy."
[18] P. 13, l. 8. _Le Maître._--A famous French advocate in Pascal's
time. His _Plaidoyers el Harangues_ appeared in 1657. _Plaidoyer
VI_ is entitled _Pour un fils mis en religion par force_, and on
the first page occurs the word _répandre_: "_Dieu qui répand des
aveuglements et des ténèbres sur les passions illégitimes._"
Pascal's reference is probably to this passage.
[19] P. 13, l. 12. _The Cardinal._--Mazarin. He was one of those
statesmen who do not like condolences.
[20] P. 14, l. 12. _Saint Thomas._--Thomas Aquinas (1223-74), one of the
greatest scholastic philosophers.
[21] P. 14, l. 16. _Charron._--A friend of Montaigne. His _Traité de la
Sagesse_ (1601), which is not a large book, contains 117 chapters,
each of which is subdivided.
[22] P. 14, l. 17. _Of the confusion of Montaigne._--The Essays of
Montaigne follow each other without any kind of order.
[23] P. 14, l. 27. _Mademoiselle de Gournay._--The adopted daughter of
Montaigne. She published in 1595 an edition of his _Essais_, and,
in a Preface (added later), she defends him on this point.
[24] P. 15, l. 1. _People without eyes._--Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[25] P. 15, l. 1. _Squaring the circle._--Ibid., ii, 14.
[26] P. 15, l. 1. _A greater world._--Ibid., ii, 12.
[27] P. 15, l. 2. _On suicide and on death._--Ibid., ii, 3.
[28] P. 15, l. 3. _Without fear and without repentance._--Ibid., iii.,
2.
[29] P. 15, l. 7. (730, 231).--These two references of Pascal are to the
edition of the _Essais_ of Montaigne, published in 1636.
[30] P. 16, l. 32. _The centre which is everywhere, and the
circumference nowhere._--M. Havet traces this saying to Empedocles.
Pascal must have read it in Mlle de Gournay's preface to her
edition of Montaigne's _Essais_.
[31] P. 18, l. 33. _I will speak of the whole._--This saying of
Democritus is quoted by Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[32] P. 18, l. 37. _Principles of Philosophy._--The title of one of
Descartes's philosophical writings, published in 1644. See note on
p. 13, l. 8 above.
[33] P. 18, l. 39. _De omni scibili._--The title under which Pico della
Mirandola announced nine hundred propositions which he proposed to
uphold publicly at Rome in 1486.
[34] P. 19, l. 26. _Beneficia eo usque læta sunt._--Tacitus, _Ann._,
lib. iv, c. xviii. Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 8.
[35] P. 21, l. 35. _Modus quo_, etc.--St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xxi,
10. Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[36] P. 22, l. 8. _Felix qui_, etc.--Virgil, _Georgics_, ii, 489, quoted
by Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 10.
[37] P. 22, l. 10. _Nihil admirari_, etc.--Horace, _Epistles_, I. vi. 1.
Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 10.
[38] P. 22, l. 19. 394.--A reference to Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[39] P. 22, l. 20. 395.--Ibid.
[40] P. 22, l. 22. 399.--Ibid.
[41] P. 22, l. 28. _Harum sententiarum._--Cicero, _Tusc._, i, 11,
Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[42] P. 22, l. 39. _Felix qui_, etc.--See above, notes on p. 22, l. 8
and l. 10.
[43] P. 22, l. 40. 280 _kinds of sovereign good in
Montaigne._--_Essais_, ii, 12.
[44] P. 23, l. 1. _Part I_, 1, 2, _c_. 1, _section_ 4.--This reference
is to Pascal's _Traité du vide_.
[45] P. 23, l. 25. _How comes it_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 8.
[46] P. 23, l. 29. See Epictetus, _Diss._, iv, 6. He was a great Roman
Stoic in the time of Domitian.
[47] P. 24, l. 9. _It is natural_, etc.--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, i,
4.
[48] P. 24, l. 12. _Imagination._--This fragment is suggestive of
Montaigne. See _Essais_, iii, 8.
[49] P. 25, l. 16. _If the greatest philosopher_, etc. See Raymond
Sebond's _Apologie_, from which Pascal has derived his
illustrations.
[50] P. 26, l. 1. _Furry cats._--Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 8.
[51] P. 26, l. 31. _Della opinione_, etc.--No work is known under this
name. It may refer to a treatise by Carlo Flori, which bears a
title like this. But its date (1690) is after Pascal's death
(1662), though there may have been earlier editions.
[52] P. 27, l. 12. _Source of error in diseases._--Montaigne, _Essais_,
ii, 12.
[53] P. 27, l. 27. _They rival each other_, etc.--Ibid.
[54] P. 28, l. 31. _Næ iste_, etc.--Terence, _Heaut._, IV, i, 8.
Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 1.
[55] P. 28, l. 15. _Quasi quidquam_, etc.--Plin., ii, 7. Montaigne,
ibid.
[56] P. 28, l. 29. _Quod crebro_, etc.--Cicero, _De Divin._, ii, 49.
[57] P. 29, l. 1. _Spongia solis._--The spots on the sun. Pascal sees in
them the beginning of the darkening of the sun, and thinks that
there will therefore come a day when there will be no sun.
[58] P. 29, l. 15. _Custom is a second nature_, etc.--Montaigne,
_Essais_, i, 22.
[59] P. 29, l. 19. _Omne animal._--See Genesis vii, 14.
[60] P. 30, l. 22. _Hence savages_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 22.
[61] P. 32, l. 3. _A great part of Europe_, etc.--An allusion to the
Reformation.
[62] P. 33, l. 13. _Alexander's chastity._--Pascal apparently has in
mind Alexander's treatment of Darius's wife and daughters after the
battle of Issus.
[63] P. 34, l. 17. _Lustravit lampade terras._--Part of Cicero's
translation of two lines from Homer, _Odyssey_, xviii, 136.
Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
_Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse
Jupiter auctiferas lustravit lampade terras._
[64] P. 34, l. 32. _Nature gives_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 19.
[65] P. 37, l. 23. _Our nature consists_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_,
iii, 13.
[66] P. 38, l. 1. _Weariness._--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[67] P. 38, l. 8. _Cæsar was too old_, etc.--See Montaigne, _Essais_,
ii, 34.
[68] P. 38, l. 30. _A mere trifle_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 4.
[69] P. 40, l. 21. _Advice given to Pyrrhus._--Ibid., i, 42.
[70] P. 41, l. 2. _They do not know_, etc.--Ibid., i, 19.
[71] P. 44, l. 14. _They are_, etc.--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 38.
[72] P. 46, l. 7. _Those who write_, etc.--A thought of Cicero in _Pro
Archia_, mentioned by Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 41.
[73] P. 47, l. 3. _Ferox gens._--Livy, xxxiv, 17. Montaigne, _Essais_,
i, 40.
[74] P. 47, l. 5. _Every opinion_, etc.--Montaigne, ibid.
[75] P. 47, l. 12. 184.--This is a reference to Montaigne, _Essais_, i,
40. See also ibid., iii, 10.
[76] P. 48, l. 8. _I know not what (Corneille)._--See _Médée,_ II, vi,
and _Rodogune_, I, v.
[77] P. 48, l. 22. _In omnibus requiem quæsivi._--Eccles. xxiv, II, in
the Vulgate.
[78] P. 50, l. 5. _The future alone is our end._--Montaigne, _Essais_, i,
3.
[79] P. 50, l. 14. _Solomon._--Considered by Pascal as the author of
Ecclesiastes.
[80] P. 50, l. 20. _Unconscious of approaching fever._--Compare
Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 19.
[81] P. 50, l. 22. _Cromwell._--Cromwell died in 1658 of a fever, and
not of the gravel. The Restoration took place in 1660, and this
fragment was written about that date.
[82] P. 50, l. 28. _The three hosts._--Charles I was beheaded in 1649;
Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated in 1654; Jean Casimir, King of
Poland, was deposed in 1656.
[83] P. 50, l. 32. _Macrobius._--A Latin writer of the fifth century. He
was a Neo-Platonist in philosophy. One of his works is entitled
_Saturnalia_.
[84] P. 51, l. 5. _The great and the humble_, etc.--See Montaigne,
_Essais_, ii, 12.
[85] P. 53, l. 5. _Miton._--A man of fashion in Paris known to Pascal.
[86] P. 53, l. 15. _Deus absconditus._--Is. xiv, 15.
[87] P. 60, l. 26. _Fascinatio nugacitatis._--Book of Wisdom iv, 12.
[88] P. 61, l. 10. _Memoria hospitis_, etc.--Book of Wisdom v, 15.
[89] P. 62, l. 5. _Instability._--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 12.
[90] P. 66, l. 19. _Foolishness, stultitium._--I Cor. i, 18.
[91] P. 71, l. 5. _To prove Divinity from the works of nature._--A