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[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 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
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