Pascal's Pensées
not depart from God have this first effect. Therefore, those
whom we have seen possessed for some time of grace by this first
effect, cease to pray, for want of this first effect.
Then God abandons the first in this sense.
It is doubtful, however that this fragment should be included in
the _Pensées_, and it has seemed best to separate it from the
text. It has only once before appeared--in the edition of
Michaut (1896). The first half of it has been freely translated
in order to give an interpretation in accordance with a
suggestion from M. Emile Boutroux, the eminent authority on
Pascal. The meaning seems to be this. In one sense it is in our
power to ask from God, who promises to give us what we ask. But,
in another sense, it is not in our power to ask; for it is not
in our power to obtain the grace which is necessary in asking.
We know that salvation is not in our power. Therefore some
condition of salvation is not in our power. Now the conditions
of salvation are two: (1) The asking for it, and (2) the
obtaining it. But God promises to give us what we ask. Hence the
obtaining is in our power. Therefore the condition which is not
in our power must be the first, namely, the asking. Prayer
presupposes a grace which it is not within our power to obtain.
After giving the utmost consideration to the second half of this
obscure fragment, and seeking assistance from some eminent
scholars, the translator has been compelled to give a strictly
literal translation of it, without attempting to make sense.
[196] P. 141, l. 14. _Lord, when saw we_, etc.--Matthew xxv, 37.
[197] P. 143, l. 19. _Qui justus est, justificetur adhuc._--Apoc. xxii,
II.
[198] P. 144, l. 2. _Corneille._--See his _Horace_, II, iii.
[199] P. 144, l. 15. _Corrumpunt mores_, etc.--I Cor. xv, 33.
[200] P. 145. l. 25. _Quod curiositate_, etc.--St. Augustine, _Sermon
CXLI_.
[201] P. 146, l. 34. _Quia ... facere._--I Cor. i, 21.
[202] P. 148, l. 7. _Turbare semetipsum._--John xi, 33. The text is
_turbavit seipsum_.
[203] P. 148, l. 25. _My soul is sorrowful even unto death._--Mark xiv,
34.
[204] P. 149, l. 3. _Eamus. Processit._--John xviii, 4. But _eamus_ does
not occur. See, however, Matthew xxvi, 46.
[205] P. 150, l. 36. _Eritis sicut_, etc.--Genesis iv, 5.
[206] P. 151, l. 2. _Noli me tangere._--John xx, 17.
[207] P. 156, l. 14. _Vere discipuli_, etc.--Allusions to John viii, 31,
i, 47; viii, 36; vi, 32.
[208] P. 158, l. 41. _Signa legem in electis meis._--Is. viii, 16. The
text of the Vulgate is _in discipulis meis_.
[209] P. 159, l. 2. _Hosea._--xiv, 9.
[210] P. 159, l. 13. _Saint John._--xii, 39.
[211] P. 160, l. 17. _Tamar._--Genesis xxxviii, 24-30.
[212] P. 160, l. 17. _Ruth._--Ruth iv, 17-22.
[213] P. 163, l. 13. _History of China._--A History of China in Latin
had been published in 1658.
[214] P. 164, l. I. _The five suns_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 6.
[215] P. 164, l. 9. _Jesus Christ._--John v, 31.
[216] P. 164, l. 17. _The Koran says_, etc.--There is no mention of
Saint Matthew in the Koran; but it speaks of the Apostles
generally.
[217] P. 165, l. 35. _Moses._--Deut. xxxi, 11.
[218] P. 166, l. 23. _Carnal Christians._--Jesuits and Molinists.
[219] P. 170, l. 14. _Whom he welcomed from afar._--John viii, 56.
[220] P. 170, l. 19. _Salutare_, etc.--Genesis xdix, 18.
[221] P. 173, l. 33. _The Twelve Tables at Athens._--There were no such
tables. About 450 B.C. a commission is said to have been appointed
in Rome to visit Greece and collect information to frame a code of
law. This is now doubted, if not entirely discredited.
[222] P. 173, l. 35. _Josephus.--Reply to Apion_, ii, 16. Josephus, the
Jewish historian, gained the favour of Titus, and accompanied him
to the siege of Jerusalem. He defended the Jews against a
contemporary grammarian, named Apion, who had written a violent
satire on the Jews.
[223] P. 174, l. 27. _Against Apion._--ii, 39. See preceding note.
[224] P. 174, l. 28. _Philo._--A Jewish philosopher, who lived in the
first century of the Christian era. He was one of the founders of
the Alexandrian school of thought. He sought to reconcile Jewish
tradition with Greek thought.
[225] P. 175, l. 20. _Prefers the younger._--See No. 710.
[226] P. 176, l. 32. _The books of the Sibyls and Trismegistus._--The
Sibyls were the old Roman prophetesses. Their predictions were
preserved in three books at Rome, which Tarquinius Superbus had
bought from the Sibyl of Erythræ. Trismegistus was the Greek name
of the Egyptian god Thoth, who was regarded as the originator of
Egyptian culture, the god of religion, of writing, and of the arts
and sciences. Under his name there existed forty-two sacred books,
kept by the Egyptian priests.
[227] P. 177, l. 3. _Quis mihi_, etc.--Numbers xi, 29. _Quis tribuat ut
omnis populus prophetet_?
[228] P. 177, l. 25. _Maccabees._--2 Macc. xi, 2.
[229] P. 177, l. 7. _This book_, etc.--Is. xxx, 8.
[230] P. 178, l. 9. _Tertullian._--A Christian writer in the second
century after Christ. The quotation is from his _De Cultu Femin._,
ii, 3.
[231] P. 178, l. 16. (+Theos+), etc.--Eusebius, _Hist._, lib. v, c. 8.
[232] P. 178, l. 22. _And he took that from Saint Irenæus._--_Hist._,
lib. x, c 25.
[233] P. 179, l. 5. _The story in Esdras._--2 Esdras xiv. God appears to
Esdras in a bush, and orders him to assemble the people and
deliver the message. Esdras replies that the law is burnt. Then
God commands him to take five scribes to whom for forty days He
dictates the ancient law. This story conflicted with many passages
in the prophets, and was therefore rejected from the Canon at the
Council of Trent.
[234] P. 181, l. 14. _The Kabbala._--The fantastic secret doctrine of
interpretation of Scripture, held by a number of Jewish rabbis.
[235] P. 181, l. 26. _Ut sciatis_, etc.--Mark ii, 10, 11.
[236] P. 183, l. 29. _This generation_, etc.--Matthew xxiv, 34.
[237] P. 184, l. 11. _Difference between dinner and supper._--Luke xiv,
12.
[238] P. 184, l. 28. _The six ages_, etc.--M. Havet has traced this to a
chapter in St. Augustine, _De Genesi contra Manichæos_, i, 23.
[239] P. 184, l. 31. _Forma futuri._--Romans v, 14.
[240] P. 186, l. 13. _The Messiah_, etc.--John xii, 34.
[241] P. 186, l. 30. _If the light_, etc.--Matthew vi, 23.
[242] P. 187, l. 1. _Somnum suum._--Ps. lxxvi, 5.
[243] P. 187, l. 1. _Figura hujus mundi._--1 Cor. vii, 31.
[244] P. 187, l. 2. _Comedes panem tuum._--Deut. viii, 9. _Panem
nostrum,_ Luke xi, 3.
[245] P. 187, l. 3. _Inimici Dei terram lingent._--Ps. lxxii, 9.
[246] P. 187, l. 8. _Cum amaritudinibus._--Exodus xii, 8. The Vulgate
has _cum lacticibus agrestibus_.
[247] P. 187, l. 9. _Singularis sum ego donec transeam._--Ps. cxli, 10.
[248] P. 188, l. 19. _Saint Paul._--Galatians iv, 24; I Cor. iii, 16,
17; Hebrews ix, 24; Romans ii, 28, 29.
[249] P. 188, l. 25. _That Moses_, etc.--John vi, 32.
[250] P. 189, l. 3. _For one thing alone is needful._--Luke x, 42.
[251] P. 189, l. 9. _The breasts of the Spouse._--Song of Solomon iv, 5.
[252] P. 189, l. 15. _And the Christians_, etc.--Romans vi, 20; viii,
14, 15.
[253] P. 189, l. 17. _When Saint Peter_, etc.--Acts xv. See Genesis
xvii, 10; Leviticus xii, 3.
[254] P. 189, l. 27. _Fac secundum_, etc.--Exodus xxv, 40.
[255] P. 190, l. 1. _Saint Paul._--1 Tim. iv, 3; 1 Cor. vii.
[256] P. 190, l. 7. _The Jews_, etc.--Hebrews viii, 5.
[257] P. 192, l. 15. _That He should destroy death through
death._--Hebrews ii, 14.
[258] P. 192, l. 30. _Veri adoratores._--John iv, 23.
[259] P. 192, l. 30. _Ecce agnus_, etc.--John i, 29.
[260] P. 193, l. 15. _Ye shall be free indeed._--John viii, 36.
[261] P. 193, l. 17. _I am the true bread from heaven._--Ibid., vi, 32.
[262] P. 194, l. 27. _Agnus occisus_, etc.--Apoc. xiii, 8.
[263] P. 194, l. 34. _Sede a dextris meis._--Ps. cx, 1.
[264] P. 195, l. 12. _A jealous God._--Exodus xx, 5.
[265] P. 195, l. 14. _Quia confortavit seras._--Ps. cxlvii, 13.
[266] P. 195, l. 17. _The closed mem._--The allusions here are to
certain peculiarities in Jewish writing. There are some letters
written in two ways, closed or open, as the _mem_.
[267] P. 199, l. 1. _Great Pan is dead._--Plutarch, _De Defect. Orac._,
xvii.
[268] P. 199, l. 2. _Susceperunt verbum_, etc.--Acts xvii, 11.
[269] P. 199, l. 20. _The ruler taken from the thigh._--Genesis xlix,
10.
[270] P. 208, l. 6. _Make their heart fat._--Is. vi, 10; John xii, 40.
[271] P. 209, l. 1. _Non habemus regem nisi Cæsarem._--John xix, 15.
[272] P. 218, l. 17. _In Horeb_, etc.--Deut. xviii, 16-19.
[273] P. 220, l. 34. _Then they shall teach_, etc.--Jeremiah xxxi, 34.
[274] P. 221, l. 1. _Your sons shall prophesy._--Joel ii, 28.
[275] P. 221, l. 20. _Populum_, etc.--Is. lxv, 2; Romans x, 21.
[276] P. 222, l. 25. _Eris palpans in meridie._--Deut. xxviii, 29.
[277] P. 222, l. 26. _Dabitur liber_, etc.--Is. xxix, 12. The quotation
is inaccurate.
[278] P. 223, l. 24. _Quis mihi_, etc.--Job xix, 23-25.
[279] P. 224, l. 1. _Pray_, etc.--The fragments here are Pascal's notes
on Luke. See chaps. xxii and xxiii.
[280] P. 225, l. 20. _Excæca._--Is. vi, 10.
[281] P, 226, l. 9. _Lazarus dormit_, etc.--John xi, 11, 14.
[282] P. 226, l. 10. _The apparent discrepancy of the Gospels._--To
reconcile the apparent discrepancies in the Gospels, Pascal wrote
a short life of Christ.
[283] P. 227, l. 13. _Gladium tuum, potentissime._--Ps. xlv, 3.
[284] P. 228, l. 25. _Ingrediens mundum._--Hebrews x, 5.
[285] P. 228, l. 26. _Stone upon stone._--Mark xiii, 2.
[286] P. 229, l. 20. _Jesus Christ at last_, etc.--See Mark xii.
[287] P. 230, l. 1. _Effundam spiritum meum._--Joel ii, 28.
[288] P. 230, l. 6. _Omnes gentes ... eum._--Ps. xxii, 27.
[289] P. 230, l. 7. _Parum est ut_, etc.--Is. xlix, 6.
[290] P. 230, l. 7. _Postula a me._--Ps. ii, 8.
[291] P. 230, l. 8. _Adorabunt ... reges._--Ps. lxxii, 11.
[292] P. 230, l. 8. _Testes iniqui._--Ps. xxv, 11.
[293] P. 230, l. 8. _Dabit maxillam percutienti._--Lamentations iii, 30.
[294] P. 230, l. 9. _Dederunt fel in escam._--Ps. lxix, 21.
[295] P. 230, l. 11. _I will bless them that bless thee._--Genesis xii,
3.
[296] P. 230, l. 12. _All nations blessed in his seed._--Ibid., xxii,
18.
[297] P. 230, l. 13. _Lumen ad revelationem gentium._--Luke ii, 32.
[298] P. 230, l. 14. _Non fecit taliter_, etc.--Ps. cxlvii, 20.
[299] P. 230, l. 20. _Bibite ex hoc omnes._--Matthew xxvi, 27.
[300] P. 230, l. 22. _In quo omnes peccaverunt._--Romans v, 12.
[301] P. 230, l. 26. _Ne timeas pusillus grex._--Luke xii, 32.
[302] P. 230, l. 29. _Qui me_, etc.--Matthew x, 40.
[303] P. 230, l. 32. _Saint John._--Luke i, 17.
[304] P. 230, l. 33. _Jesus Christ._--Ibid., xii, 51.
[305] P. 231, l. 5. _Omnis Judæa_, etc.--Mark i, 5.
[306] P. 231, l. 7. _From these stones_, etc.--Matthew iii, 9.
[307] P. 231, l. 9. _Ne convertantur_, etc.--Mark iv, 12.
[308] P. 231, l. 11. _Amice, ad quid venisti?_--Matthew xxvi, 50.
[309] P. 231, l. 31. _What is a man_, etc.--Luke ix, 25.
[310] P. 231, l. 32. _Whosoever will_, etc.--Ibid., 24.
[311] P. 232, l. 1. _I am not come_, etc.--Matthew v, 17.