Pascal's Pensées
traditional argument of the Stoics like Cicero and Seneca, and of
rationalist theologians like Raymond Sebond, Charron, etc. It is
the argument from Design in modern philosophy.
[92] P. 71, l. 27. _Nemo novit_, etc.--Matthew xi, 27. In the Vulgate,
it is _Neque patrem quis novit_, etc. Pascal's biblical quotations
are often incorrect. Many seem to have been made from memory.
[93] P. 71, l. 30. _Those who seek God find Him._--Matthew vii, 7.
[94] P. 72, l. 3. _Vere tu es Deus absconditus._--Is. xiv, 15.
[95] P. 72, l. 22. _Ne evacuetur crux Christi._--I Cor. i, 17. In the
Vulgate we have_ut non_ instead of _ne_.
[96] P. 72, l. 25. _The machine._--A Cartesian expression. Descartes
considered animals as mere automata. According to Pascal, whatever
does not proceed in us from reflective thought is a product of a
necessary mechanism, which has its root in the body, and which is
continued into the mind in imagination and the passions. It is
therefore necessary for man so to alter, and adjust this mechanism,
that it will always follow, and not obstruct, the good will.
[97] P. 73, l. 3. _Justus ex fide vivit._--Romans i, 17.
[98] P. 73, l. 5. _Fides ex auditu._--Romans x, 17.
[99] P. 73, l. 12. _The creature._--What is purely natural in us.
[100] P. 74, l. 15. _Inclina cor meum, Deus._--Ps. cxix, 36.
[101] P. 75, l. 11. _Unus quisque sibi Deum fingit._--See Book of Wisdom
xv, 6, 16.
[102] P. 76, l. 34. _Eighth beatitude._--Matthew v, 10. It is to the
fourth beatitude that the thought directly refers.
[103] P. 77, l. 6. _One thousand and twenty-eight._--The number of the
stars according to Ptolemy's catalogue.
[104] P. 77, l. 29. _Saint Augustine._--_Epist._ cxx, 3.
[105] P. 78, l. 1. _Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli._--Matthew xviii, 3.
[106] P. 80, l. 20. _Inclina cor meum, Deus, in_....--Ps. cxix, 36.
[107] P. 80, l. 22. _Its establishment._--The constitution of the
Christian Church.
[108] P. 81, l. 20. _The youths and maidens and children of the Church
would prophesy._--Joel ii, 28.
[109] P. 83, l. 11. _On what_, etc.--See Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[110] P. 84, l. 16. _Nihil amplius ... est._--Ibid. Cicero, _De
Finibus_, v, 21.
[111] P. 84, l. 17. _Ex senatus ... exercentur._--Montaigne, _Essais_,
iii, 1. Seneca, _Letters_, 95.
[112] P. 84, l. 18. _Ut olim ... laboramus._--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii,
13. Tacitus, _Ann._, iii, 25.
[113] P. 84, l. 20. _The interest of the sovereign._--The view of
Thrasymachus in Plato's _Republic_, i, 338.
[114] P. 84, l. 21. _Another, present custom._--The doctrine of the
Cyrenaics. Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 13.
[115] P. 84, l. 24. _The mystical foundation of its
authority._--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 13. See also ii, 12.
[116] P. 85, l. 2. _The wisest of legislators._--Plato. See _Republic_,
ii, 389, and v, 459.
[117] P. 85, l. 4. _Cum veritatem_, etc.--An inexact quotation from St.
Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, iv, 27. Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[118] P. 85, l. 17. _Veri juris._--Cicero, _De Officiis_, iii, 17.
Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, I.
[119] P. 86, l. 9. _When a strong man_, etc.--Luke xi, 21.
[120] P. 86, l. 26. _Because he who will_, etc.--See Epictetus, _Diss._,
iii, 12.
[121] P. 88, l. 19. _Civil wars are the greatest of evils._--Montaigne,
_Essais_, iii, 11.
[122] P. 89, l. 5. _Montaigne._--_Essais_, i, 42.
[123] P. 91, l. 8. _Savages laugh at an infant king._--An allusion to a
visit of some savages to Europe. They were greatly astonished to
see grown men obey the child king, Charles IX. Montaigne,
_Essais_, i, 30.
[124] P. 92, l. 8. _Man's true state._--See Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 54.
[125] P. 95, l. 3. _Omnis ... vanitati._--Eccles. iii, 19.
[126] P. 95, l. 4. _Liberabitur._--Romans viii, 20-21.
[127] P. 95, l. 4. _Saint Thomas._--In his Commentary on the Epistle of
St. James. James ii, 1.
[128] P. 96, l. 9. _The account of the pike and frog of Liancourt._--The
story is unknown. The Duc de Liancourt led a vicious life in
youth, but was converted by his wife. He became one of the firmest
supporters of Port-Royal.
[129] P. 97, l. 18. _Philosophers._--The Stoics.
[130] P. 97, l. 24. _Epictetus._--_Diss._, iv, 7.
[131] P. 97, l. 26. _Those great spiritual efforts_, etc.--On this, and
the following fragment, see Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 29.
[132] P. 98, l. 3. _Epaminondas._--Praised by Montaigne, _Essais_, ii,
36. See also iii, 1.
[133] P. 98, l. 17. _Plerumque gratæ principibus vices._--Horace,
_Odes_, III, xxix, 13, cited by Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 42. Horace
has _divitibus_ instead of _principibus_.
[134] P. 99, l. 4. _Man is neither angel nor brute_, etc.--Montaigne,
_Essais_, iii, 13.
[135] P. 99, l. 14. _Ut sis contentus_, etc.--A quotation from Seneca.
See Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 3.
[136] P. 99, l. 21. _Sen._ 588.--Seneca, _Letter to Lucilius_, xv.
Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, I.
[137] P. 99, l. 23. _Divin._--Cicero, _De Divin._, ii, 58.
[138] P. 99, l. 25. _Cic._--Cicero, _Tusc_, ii, 2. The quotation is
inaccurate. Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.
[139] P. 99, l. 27. _Senec._--Seneca, _Epist._, 106.
[140] P. 99, l. 28. _Id maxime_, etc.--Cicero, _De Off._, i, 31.
[141] P. 99, l. 29. _Hos natura_, etc.--Virgil, _Georgics_, ii, 20.
[142] P. 99, l. 30. _Paucis opus_, etc.--Seneca, _Epist._, 106.
[143] P. 100, l. 3. _Mihi sic usus_, etc.--Terence, _Heaut._, I, i, 28.
[144] P. 100, l. 4. _Rarum est_, etc.--Quintilian, x, 7.
[145] P. 100, l. 5. _Tot circa_, etc.--M. Seneca, _Suasoriæ_, i, 4.
[146] P. 100, l. 6. _Cic._--Cicero, _Acad._, i, 45.
[147] P. 100, l. 7. _Nec me pudet_, etc.--Cicero, _Tusc._, i, 25.
[148] P. 100, l. 8. _Melius non incipiet._--The rest of the quotation is
_quam desinet_. Seneca, _Epist._, 72.
[149] P. 100, l. 25. _They win battles._--Montaigne, in his _Essais_,
ii, 12, relates that the Portuguese were compelled to raise the
siege of Tamly on account of the number of flies.
[150] P. 100, l. 27. _When it is said_, etc.--By Descartes.
[151] P. 102, l. 20. _Arcesilaus._--A follower of Pyrrho, the sceptic.
He lived in the third century before Christ.
[152] P. 105, l. 20. _Ecclesiastes._--Eccles. viii, 17.
[153] P. 106, l. 16. _The academicians._--Dogmatic sceptics, as opposed
to sceptics who doubt their own doubt.
[154] P. 107, l. 10. _Ego vir videns._--Lamentations iii, I.
[155] P. 108, l. 26. _Evil is easy_, etc.--The Pythagoreans considered
the good as certain and finite, and evil as uncertain and
infinite. Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 9.
[156] P. 109, l. 7. _Paulus Æmilius._--Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 19.
Cicero, _Tusc._, v, 40.
[157] P. 109, l. 30. _Des Barreaux._--Author of a licentious love song.
He was born in 1602, and died in 1673. Balzac call him "the new
Bacchus."
[158] P. 110, l. 16. _For Port-Royal._--The letters, A. P. R., occur in
several places, and are generally thought to indicate what will be
afterwards treated in lectures or conferences at Port-Royal, the
famous Cistercian abbey, situated about eighteen miles from Paris.
Founded early in the thirteenth century, it acquired its greatest
fame in its closing years. Louis XIV was induced to believe it
heretical; and the monastery was finally demolished in 1711. Its
downfall was no doubt brought about by the Jesuits.
[159] P. 113, l. 4. _They all tend to this end._--Montaigne, _Essais_,
i, 19.
[160] P. 119, l. 15. _Quod ergo_, etc.--Acts xvii, 23.
[161] P. 119, l. 26. _Wicked demon._--Descartes had suggested the
possibility of the existence of an _evil genius_ to justify his
method of universal doubt. See his _First Meditation_. The
argument is quite Cartesian.
[162] P. 122, l. 18. _Deliciæ meæ_, etc.--Proverbs viii, 31.
[163] P. 122, l. 18. _Effundam spiritum_, etc.--Is. xliv, 3; Joel ii,
28.
[164] P. 122, l. 19. _Dii estis._--Ps. lxxxii, 6.
[165] P. 122, l. 20. _Omnis caro fænum._--Is. xl, 6.
[166] P. 122, l. 20. _Homo assimilatus_, etc.--Ps. xlix, 20.
[167] P. 124, l. 24. _Sapientius est hominibus._--1 Cor. i, 25.
[168] P. 125, l. 1. _Of original sin._--The citations from the Rabbis in
this fragment are borrowed from a work of the Middle Ages,
entitled _Pugio christianorum ad impiorum perfidiam jugulandam et
maxime judæorum_. It was written in the thirteenth century by
Raymond Martin, a Catalonian monk. An edition of it appeared in
1651, edited by Bosquet, Bishop of Lodève.
[169] P. 125, l. 24. _Better is a poor and wise child_, etc.--Eccles.
iv, 13.
[170] P. 126, l. 17. _Nemo ante_, etc.--See Ovid, _Met._, iii, 137, and
Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 18.
[171] P. 127, l. 10. _Figmentum._--Borrowed from the Vulgate, Ps. ciii,
14.
[172] P. 128. l. 5. _All that is in the world_, etc.--First Epistle of
St. John, ii, 16.
[173] P. 128, l. 7. _Wretched is_, etc.--M. Faugère thinks this thought
is taken from St. Augustine's Commentary on Ps. cxxxvii, _Super
flumina Babylonis._
[174] P. 129, l. 6. _Qui gloriatur_, etc.--1 Cor. i, 31.
[175] P. 130, l. 13. _Via, veritas._--John xiv, 6.
[176] P. 130, l. 14. _Zeno._--The original founder of Stoicism.
[177] P. 130, l. 15. _Epictetus._--_Diss._, iv, 6, 7.
[178] P. 131, l. 32. _A body full of thinking members._--See I Cor. xii.
[179] P. 133, l. 5. _Book of Wisdom._--ii, 6.
[180] P. 134, l. 28. _Qui adhæret_, etc.--1 Cor. vi, 17.
[181] P. 134, l. 36. _Two laws._--Matthew xxii, 35-40; Mark xii, 28-31.
[182] P. 135, l. 6. _The kingdom of God is within us._--Luke xvii, 29.
[183] P. 137, l. 1. _Et non_, etc.--Ps. cxliii, 2.
[184] P. 137, l. 3. _The goodness of God leadeth to repentance._--Romans
ii, 4.
[185] P. 137, l. 5. _Let us do penance_, etc.--See Jonah iii, 8, 9.
[186] P. 137, l. 27. _I came to send war._--Matthew x, 34.
[187] P. 137, l. 28. _I came to bring fire and the sword._--Luke xii,
49.
[188] P. 138, l. 2. _Pharisee and the Publican._--Parable in Luke xviii,
9-14.
[189] P. 138, l. 13. _Abraham._--Genesis xiv, 22-24.
[190] P. 138, l. 17. _Sub te erit appetitus tuus._--Genesis iv, 7.
[191] P. 140, l. 1. _It is_, etc.--A discussion on the Eucharist.
[192] P. 140, l. 34. _Non sum dignus._--Luke vii, 6.
[193] P. 140, l. 35. _Qui manducat indignus._--I Cor. xi, 29.
[194] P. 140, l. 36. _Dignus est accipere._--Apoc. iv, II.
[195] P. 141. In the French edition on which this translation is based
there was inserted the following fragment after No. 513:
"Work out your own salvation with fear."
Proofs of prayer. _Petenti dabitur._
Therefore it is in our power to ask. On the other hand, there is
God. So it is not in our power, since the obtaining of (the
grace) to pray to Him is not in our power. For since salvation
is not in us, and the obtaining of such grace is from Him,
prayer is not in our power.
The righteous man should then hope no more in God, for he ought
not to hope, but to strive to obtain what he wants.
Let us conclude then that, since man is now unrighteous since
the first sin, and God is unwilling that he should thereby not
be estranged from Him, it is only by a first effect that he is
not estranged.
Therefore, those who depart from God have not this first effect
without which they are not estranged from God, and those who do