 Section 2 of PENSEE This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Derek McLaughlin, London, Ontario, Canada. Latin language reading by Lenny, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. PENSEE by Blaise Pascal. Translated by W. F. Trotter. Section 2. The Misery of Man Without God. Part 2. 105. How difficult it is to submit anything to the judgment of another without prejudicing his judgment by the manner in which we submit it. If we say, I think it beautiful, I think it obscure, or the like, we either entice the imagination into that view, or irritate it to the contrary. It is better to say nothing, and then the other judges according to what really is, that is to say according as it then is, and according as the other circumstances not of our making have placed it. But we at least shall have added nothing, unless it be that silence also produces an effect according to the turn and the interpretation which the other will be disposed to give it, or as he will guess it from gestures or countenance, or from the tone of the voice, if he is a physiognomist. So difficult is it not to upset a judgment from its natural place, or rather so rarely is it firm and stable. 106. By knowing each man's ruling passion we are sure of pleasing him, and yet each has his fancies opposed to his true good in the very idea which he has of the good. It is a singularly puzzling fact. 107. Ustravit Lampa de Terras. Footnote. He has illumined the earth with a lamp. End of footnote. The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me. My prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter. I sometimes struggle against luck. The glory of mastering it makes me master it gaily, whereas I am sometimes surfeited in the midst of good fortune. 108. Although people may have no interest in what they are saying, we must not absolutely conclude from this that they are not lying, for there are some people who lie for the mere sake of lying. 109. When we are well we wonder what we would do if we were ill, but when we are ill we take medicine cheerfully, the illness persuades us to do so. We have no longer the passions and desires for amusements and promenades which health gave to us, but which are incompatible with the necessities of illness. Nature gives us then passions and desires suitable to our present state. We are only troubled by the fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves, for they add to the state in which we are the passions of the state in which we are not. As nature makes us always unhappy in every state, our desires picture to us a happy state, because they add to the state in which we are the pleasures of the state in which we are not. And if we attained to these pleasures we should not be happy after all, because we should have other desires natural to this new state. We must particularize this general proposition. 110. The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy. 111. Inconstancy. We think we are playing on ordinary organs when playing upon man. Men are organs it is true, but odd, changeable, variable, with pipes not arranged in proper order. Those who only know how to play on ordinary organs will not produce harmonies on these. We must know where the keys are. 112. Inconstancy. Things have different qualities and the soul different inclinations, for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul and the soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing. 113. Inconstancy and oddity. To live only by work and to rule over the most powerful state in the world are very opposite things. They are united in the person of the Great Sultan of the Turks. 114. Variety is as abundant as all tones of the voice, all ways of walking, coughing, blowing the nose, sneezing. We distinguish vines by their fruit and call them the Kondrian, the Dezarg, and such and such a stock. Is this all? Has a vine ever produced two bunches exactly the same, and has a bunch two grapes alike, etc.? I can never judge of the same thing exactly in the same way. I cannot judge of my work while doing it. I must do as the artists, stand at a distance, but not too far. How far then? Yes. 115. Variety. Theology is a science, but at the same time how many sciences? A man is a whole, but if we dissect him, will he be the head, the heart, the stomach, the veins, each vein, each portion of a vein, the blood, each humor in the blood? A town, a country place, is from afar a town and a country place, but as we draw near there are houses, trees, tiles, leaves, grass, ants, limbs of ants, in infinity. All this is contained under the name of country place. 116. Thoughts. All is one, all is different. How many natures exist in man? How many vocations? And by what chance does each man ordinarily choose what he has heard praised? A well-turned heel. 117. The heel of a slipper. Ah, how well this is turned. Here's a clever workman. How brave is this soldier? This is the source of our inclinations and of the choice of conditions. How much this man drinks? How little that one. This makes people sober or drunk. Soldiers, cowards, etc. 118. Chief talent, that which rules the rest. 119. Nature imitates herself. A seed sown in good ground brings forth fruit. A principle instilled into good mind brings forth fruit. Numbers imitate space, which is of a different nature. All is made and led by the same master, root, branches and fruits, principles and consequences. 120. Nature diversifies and imitates. Art imitates and diversifies. 121. Nature always begins the same things again, the years, the days, the hours. In like manner spaces and numbers follow each other from beginning to end. Thus is made a kind of infinity and eternity. Not that anything in all this is infinite and eternal, but these finite realities are infinitely multiplied. Thus it seems to me to be only the number which multiplies them that is infinite. 122. Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves. It is like a nation which we have provoked but meet again after two generations. They are still Frenchmen, but not the same. 123. He no longer loves the person whom he loved ten years ago. I quite believe it. She is no longer the same nor is he. He was young and she also. She is quite different. He would perhaps love her yet, if she were what she was then. 124. We view things not only from different sides but with different eyes. We have no wish to find them alike. 125. Contraries. Man is naturally credulous and incredulous, timid and rash. 126. Description of man, dependency, desire of independence, need. 127. Condition of man, inconstancy, weariness, unrest. 128. The weariness which is felt by us in leaving pursuits to which we are attached. A man dwells at home with pleasure, but if he sees a woman who charms him, or if he enjoys himself in play for five or six days, he is miserable if he returned to his former way of living. Nothing is more common than that. 129. Our nature consists in motion. Complete rest is death. 130. Restlessness. If a soldier or laborer complained of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing. 131. Weariness. Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair. 132. We think Caesar was too old to set about amusing himself with conquering the world. Such sport was good for Augustus, or Alexander. They were still young men, and thus difficult to restrain. But Caesar should have been more mature. 133. Two faces which resemble each other make us laugh when together by their resemblance, though neither of them by itself makes us laugh. 134. How useless is painting which attracts admiration by the resemblance of things, the originals of which we do not admire. 135. The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to see animals fighting, not the victor infuriated over the vanquished. We would only see the victorious end, and as soon as it comes we are satiated. 135. It is the same in play and the same in the search for truth. In disputes we like to see the clash of opinions, but not at all to contemplate truth when found. 136. To observe it with pleasure we have to see it emerge out of strife. So in the passions there is pleasure in seeing the collision of two contraries, but when one acquires the mastery it becomes only brutality. 137. We never seek things for themselves but for the search. Likewise in plays, scenes which do not rouse the emotion of fear are worthless, so are extreme and hopeless misery, brutal lust, and extreme cruelty. 136. A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us. 137. Without examining every particular pursuit it is enough to comprehend them under diversion. 138. Men naturally slayters and of all callings save in their own rooms. 139. Diversion. When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home, would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town. A commission in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found insufferable not to budge from the town. And men only seek conversation and entertaining games because they cannot remain with pleasure at home. But on further consideration, when, after finding the cause of all our ills, I have sought to find that there is one very real reason, namely the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely. Whatever condition we picture to ourselves, if we muster all the good things which it is possible to possess, royalty is the finest position in the world. Yet, when we imagine a king intended with every pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion, and be left to consider and reflect on what he is, this feeble happiness will not sustain him, he will necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers, of revolutions which may happen, and finally of death and inevitable disease, so that if he be without what is called diversion, he is unhappy, and more unhappy than the least of his subjects who plays and diverts himself. Hence it comes that play into society of women, war, and high posts are so sought after, not that there is in fact any happiness in them, or that men imagine true bliss to consist in money when at play, or in the hair which they hunt, we would not take these as a gift. We do not seek that easy and peaceful lot which permits us to think of our unhappy condition, nor the dangers of war, nor the labor of office, but the bustle which avert these thoughts of ours, and amuses us. Reasons why we like the chase better than the quarry. Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir, hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment, hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible, and it is in fact the greatest source of happiness in the condition of kings that men try incessantly to divert them, and to procure for them all kinds of pleasures. The king is surrounded by persons whose only thought is to divert the king, and to prevent his thinking of self, for he is unhappy king though he be, if he think of himself. This is all that men have been able to discover to make themselves happy, and those who philosophize on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities, but the chase which turns away our attention from these does screen us. The advice given to Pyrrhus to take the rest which he was about to seek with so much labor was full of difficulties. To bid a man live quietly is to bid him live happily. It is to advise him to be in a state perfectly happy, in which he can think at leisure without finding therein a cause of distress. This is to misunderstand nature. As men who naturally understand their own condition avoid nothing so much as rest, so there is nothing they leave undone in seeking turmoil. Not that they have an instinctive knowledge of true happiness. So we are wrong in blaming them. Their error does not lie in seeking excitement if they seek it only as a diversion. The evil is that they seek it as if the possession of the objects of their quest would make them really happy. In this respect it is right to call their quest a vain one. Hence in all this both the censurers and the censured do not understand man's true nature. And thus when we take the exception against them that what they seek with such fervor cannot satisfy them, if they replied, as they should do if they considered the matter thoroughly, that they sought in it a violent and impetuous occupation which turned their thoughts from self and that they therefore chose an attractive object to charm and ardently attract them they would leave their opponents without a reply. But they do not make this reply because they do not know themselves. They do not know that it is the chase and not the quarry which they seek. Dancing we must consider rightly where to place our feet. And gentlemen sincerely believes that hunting is great and royal sport but a beater is not of this opinion. They imagine that if they obtain such a post they would then rest with pleasure and are insensible of the insatiable nature of their desire. They think they are truly seeking quiet and they are only seeking excitement. They have a secret instinct which impels them to seek amusement and occupation abroad and which arises from the sense of their constant unhappiness. They have another secret instinct, a remnant of the greatness of our original reality consists only in rest and not in stir. And of these two contrary instincts they form within themselves a confused idea which hides itself from their view in the depths of their soul, inciting them to aim at rest through excitement and always to fancy that the satisfaction which they have not will come to them, if by surmounting whatever difficulties confront them they can thereby open the door to rest. Thus passes away all man's life. Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties and when they have conquered these rest becomes insufferable. For we think either of the misfortunes we have or those which threaten us. And even if we should see ourselves sufficiently sheltered on all sides, weariness of its own accord would not fail to arise from the depths of the heart wherein it has its natural roots and to fill the mind with its poison. Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness from the body of his disposition. And so frivolous is he that though full of a thousand reasons for weariness the least things such as playing billiards or hitting a ball is sufficient to amuse him. But will you say what object has he in all this? The pleasure of bragging tomorrow among his friends that he has played better than another. So others sweat in their own rooms to show to the learned that they have solved a problem in algebra which no one more exposed themselves to extreme perils in my opinion as foolishly in order to boast afterwards that they have captured a town. Lastly others wear themselves out in studying all these things not in order to become wiser but only in order to prove that they know them and these are the most senseless of the band since they are so knowingly whereas one may suppose of the others that if they knew it they would no longer be foolish. Thus man spends his life without awareness in playing every day for a small stake. Give him each morning the money he can win each day on condition he does not play. You make him miserable. It will perhaps be said that he seeks the amusement of play and not the winnings. Make him then play for nothing. He will not become excited over it and will feel bored. It is then not the amusement alone that he seeks a languid and passionless amusement will weary him. He must get excited over it and deceive himself by the happy to win what he would not have as a gift on condition of not playing and he must make for himself an object of passion and excite over it his desire, his anger, his fear to obtain his imagined end as children are frightened of the face they have blackened. Whence comes it that this man who lost his only son a few months ago or who this morning was in such trouble through being distressed by lawsuits and quarrels now no longer thinks of them. Do not fear, he is quite taken up in looking out for the boar which his dogs have been hunting so hotly for the last six hours. He requires nothing more. However full of sadness a man may be, he is happy for the time if you can prevail upon him to enter into some amusement, and however happy a man may be he will soon be discontented and wretched if he be not diverted and occupied by some passion or pursuit which prevents weariness from overcoming him. Without amusement there is no joy. With amusement there is no sadness. And this also constitutes the happiness of persons in high position that they have a number of people to amuse them and have the power to keep themselves in this state. Consider this. What is it to be superintendent, chancellor, first president, but to be in a condition wherein from early morning the large number of people come from all quarters to see them so as not to leave them an hour in the day in which they can think of themselves. When they are sent back to their country houses where they lack neither wealth nor servants to help them on occasion they do not fail to be wretched and desolate because no one prevents them from thinking of themselves. 140. How does it happen that this man so distressed at the death of his wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit which annoys him, is not at this moment sad and that he seems so free from all painful and disquieting thoughts. We need not wonder, for a bald has been served him and he must return it to his companion. He is occupied in catching it in its fall from the roof to win a game. How can he think of his own affairs prey when he has this other matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of occupying this great soul and taking away from him every other thought of the mind. This man born to know the universe, to judge all causes, to govern a whole state, is altogether occupied and taken up with the business of catching a man. If he does not lower himself to this and wants always to be on the strain, he will be more foolish still, because he would raise himself above humanity, and after all he is only a man, that is to say capable of little and of much, of all and of nothing. He is neither angel nor brute, but man. 141. Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare. It is the pleasure even of kings. 142. Diversion is not the royal dignity sufficiently great in itself to make its possessor happy by the mere contemplation of what he is. Must he be diverted from this thought, like ordinary folk? I see well that a man is main happy by diverting him from the view of his domestic sorrows so as to occupy all his thoughts with the care of dancing well. But will it be the same with the king, and will he be happier in the pursuit of these idle amusements than in the contemplation of his greatness? And what more satisfactory object could be presented to his mind? Would it not be a deprivation of his delight for him to occupy his soul with the thought of how to adjust his steps to the cadence of an air, or how to throw a ball skillfully, instead of leaving it to enjoy quietly the contemplation of the majestic glory which encompasses him? Let us make the trial. Let us leave a king all alone to reflect on himself quite at leisure, without any gratification of the senses, without any care in his mind, without society, and we will see that a king without diversion is a man full of wretchedness. So this is carefully avoided, and near the persons of kings there never fail to be a great number of people who see to it that amusement follows business, and to watch all the time of their leisure to supply them with delights and gains so that there is no blank in it. In fact, kings are surrounded with persons who are wonderfully attentive in taking care that the king be not alone and the state to think of himself, knowing well that he will be miserable, king though he be, if he meditate on self. In all this I am not talking of Christian kings as Christians, but only as kings. 143. Diversion. Men are entrusted from infancy with the care of their honor, their property, their friends, and even with the property and the honor of their friends. They are overwhelmed with business, with the study of languages, and with physical exercise, and they are made to understand that they cannot be happy unless their health, their honor, their fortune, and that of their friends be in good condition, and that a single thing wanting will make them unhappy. Thus they are given cares and business which make them bustle about from break of day. It is you will exclaim a strange way to make them happy. What more could be done to make them miserable? Indeed, what could be done? We should only have to relieve them from all these cares, for then they would see themselves, they would reflect what they are, once they came, whether they go, and thus we cannot employ and divert them too much. And this is why, after having given them so much business, we advise them if they have some time for relaxation to employ it in amusement, in play, and to be always fully occupied. 144. How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man. 144. I spent a long time in the study of the abstract sciences, and was still students in them. When I commenced the study of man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to man, and that I was wandering further from my own state in examining them, than others in not knowing them. I pardoned their little knowledge, but I thought at least to find many companions in the study of man, and that it was the true study which is suited to him. I have been deceived, still fewer study it than geometry. It is that we seek the other studies. But is it not that even here is not the knowledge which man should have, and that for the purposes of happiness it is better for him not to know himself. 145. One thought alone occupies us. We cannot think of two things at the same time. This is lucky for us according to the world, not according to God. 146. Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit, and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now the order of thought is to begin with self and with its author and its end. Now, of what does the world think? Never of this, but of dancing, playing the lute, singing, making verses, running at the ring, etc., fighting, making oneself king without thinking what it is to be a king, at what to be a man. 147. We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being. We desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness or generosity or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence. We would rather separate them than be cowards in order to acquire the reputation of being brave. A great proof of the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without the other, and to renounce the one for the other. For he would be infamous who would not die to preserve his honor. 148. We are so presumptuous that we would wish to be known by all the world, even by people who shall come after, when we shall be no more, and we are so vain that others delights and contents us. 149. We do not trouble ourselves about being esteemed in the towns through which we pass, but if we are to remain a little while there we are so concerned. How long is necessary? A time commensurate with our vain and paltry life. 150. Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter, brags even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against it want to have the glory of having written well, and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it. 151. Glory. Admiration spoils all from infancy. Ah, how well said, ah, how well done, how well behaved he is, etc. 152. Pride. Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish to know but to talk. Otherwise, we would not take a sea voyage in order never to talk of it, and for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever communicating it. 153. Of the desire of being esteemed by those who write against it. Ah, how well said, ah, how well done, of the desire of being esteemed by those with whom we are. Pride takes such natural possession of us in the midst of our woes, errors, etc. We even lose our life with joy provided people talk of it. Vanity, play, hunting, visiting, false shams, a lasting name. 154. I have no friends to your advantage. 155. It is so great an advantage even for the greatest lords in order that he may speak well of them and back them in their absence that they should do all to have one. But they should choose well for if they spend all their efforts in the interests of fools it will be of no use, however well these may speak of them and these will not even speak well of them if they find themselves on the weakest side for they have no influence and thus they will speak ill of them 156. Faroks gins, nullum esse widthams sine armies rati.of foot note, a fierce people who thought Life was nothing without arms livy, end of foot note they prefer death to peace others prefer death to war every opinion may be held preferable to life the love of which is so strong and so natural. 157. Contradiction, contempt for our existence to die for nothing, hatred of our existence. 158. Pursuits. The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death. 159. Noble deeds are most estimable when hidden. When I see some of these in history, they please me greatly, but after all they have not been quite hidden since they have been known, and though people have done what they could to hide them, the little publication of them spoils all, for what was best in them was the wish to hide them. 160. Sneezing absorbs all the functions of the soul, as well as work does, but we do not draw therefrom the same conclusions against the greatness of man, because it is against his will, and although we bring it on ourselves, it is nevertheless against our will that we sneeze. It is not in view of the act itself, it is for another end, because it is not a proof of the weakness of man, and of his slavery under that action. It is not disgraceful for man to yield to pain, and it is disgraceful to yield to pleasure. This is not because pain comes to us from without, and we ourselves seek pleasure, for it is possible to seek pain and to yield to it purposely, without this kind of baseness. Whence comes it then that reason thinks it honourable to succumb under stress of pain, and disgraceful to yield to the attack of pleasure? It is because pain does not tempt and attract us. It is we ourselves who choose it voluntarily, and will it to prevail over us, so that we are masters of the situation, and in this man yields to himself. But in pleasure it is man who yields to pleasure. Now only mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame. 161. Vanity How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the vanity of the world is so little known, that it is a strange and surprising thing to say that it is foolish to seek greatness. 162. He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the causes and effects of love. The cause is I know not what, cornae, and the effects are dreadful. This I know not what, so small an object that we cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies, the entire world. Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter the whole aspect of the world would have been altered. 163. Vanity The cause and the effects of love. Cleopatra. 164. He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain. Indeed, who does not see it but youths who are absorbed in fame, diversion and the thought of the future, but take away their diversion and you will see them dried up with weariness. They feel then their nothingness without knowing it, for it is indeed to be unhappy, to be an inseparable sadness as soon as we are reduced to thinking of self and have no diversion. 165. Thoughts In omnibus requiem quai siui. Footnote. In all things I have sought rest. End of footnote. If our condition were truly happy we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy. 166. Diversion Death is easier to bear without thinking of it than is the thought of death without peril. 167. The miseries of human life have established all this. As men have seen this, they have taken up diversion. 168. Diversion As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads in order to be happy not to think of them at all. 169. Despite these miseries man wishes to be happy and only wishes to be happy and cannot wish not to be so. But how will he set about it? To be happy he would have to make himself immortal, but not being able to do so it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death. 170. Diversion If man were happy he would be the more so the less he was diverted, like the saints and God. Yes, but is it not to be happy to have a faculty of being amused by diversion? No, for that comes from elsewhere and from without, and thus is dependent and therefore subject to be disturbed by a thousand accidents which bring inevitable griefs. 171. Misery The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is diversion and yet this is the greatest of our miseries, for it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in a state of weariness and this weariness would spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us and leads us unconsciously to death. 172. We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future is too slow and coming as if in order to hasten its course, or we recall the past to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us, and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight because it troubles us and if it be delightful to us we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future and think of arranging matters which are not in our power for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present and if we think of it it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The past and the present are our means. The future alone is our end. So we never live but we hope to live and as we are always preparing to be happy it is inevitable we should never be so. 173 They say that eclipses for token misfortune because misfortunes are common so that as evil happen so often they often foretell it whereas if they said that they predict good fortune they would often be wrong. They attribute good fortune only to rare conjunctions of the heavens so they seldom fail in prediction. 174 Misery Solomon and Job have best known and best spoken of the misery of man the former the most fortunate and the latter the most unfortunate of men the former knowing the vanity of pleasures from experience the latter the reality of evils. 175 We know ourselves so little that many think they are about to die when they are well and many think they are well when they are near death unconscious of approaching fever or of the abscess ready to form itself. 176 Cromwell was about to ravage all Christendom the royal family was undone and his own forever established save for a little grain of sand which formed in his ureter Rome herself was trembling under him but this small piece of gravel having formed there he is dead his family cast down all is peaceful and the king is restored. 177 Three hosts would he who had possessed the friendship of the king of England the king of Poland and the queen of Sweden have believed he would lack a refuge and shelter in the world. 178 Macrobius on the innocence slain by Herod 179 When Augustus learned that Herod's own son was amongst the infants under two years of age whom he had caused to be slain he said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. Macrobius Saturnalia Chapter 4 180 The great and the humble have the same misfortunes the same griefs the same passions the same sorrow and the other near the centre and so less disturbed by the same revolutions. 181 We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill as a thousand things can do and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good without troubling himself with its contrary evil would have hit the mark it is perpetual motion. 192 Those who have always good hope in the midst of misfortunes and who are delighted with good luck are suspected of being very pleased with the ill success of the affair if they are not equally distressed by bad luck and they are overjoyed to find these pretexts of hope in order to show that they are concerned and to conceal by the joy which they feigned to feel that which they have at seeing the failure of the matter. 183 Carelessly to the precipice after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it. End of Section 2 Part 2 Section 3 of Pense This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Derek McLaughlin London, Ontario, Canada Language reading by Lenny Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Ponce by Blaise Pascal Translated by W. F. Trotter Section 3 of the Necessity of the Wager 184 A letter to incite to the search after God and then to make people seek him among the philosophers, skeptics and dogmatists who disquiet him who inquires of them 185 The conduct of God who disposes all things kindly is to put religion into the mind by reason and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there, but terror. Footnote Terror rather than religion End of Footnote 186 Pre-rentur et non-doquerentur Improva quasi-dominatio videretur Augustine, ep. 48 or 49 Footnote If they were not terrified and were instructed, it would seem like an unjust tyranny. End of Footnote Contramendachium aconsentium Footnote to meet a lie appeal to the council. End of Footnote 187 Order Men despise religion They hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason, that it is venerable to inspire respect for it. Then we must make it lovable to make good men hope it is true. Finally we must prove it is true. Venerable because it has perfect knowledge of man. Venerable because it promises the true good. 188 In every dialogue and discourse we must be able to say to those who take offense of what do you complain. 189 To begin by pitying unbelievers, they are wretched enough by their condition. We ought only to revile them where it is beneficial, but this does them harm. 190 For are they not unhappy enough to invade against those who make a boast of it? 191 And will this one scoff at the other who ought to scoff? And yet the latter does not scoff at the other, but pities him. 192 To reproach Mithon with not being troubled since God will reproach him. 193 Quith fiet rominibus quiminima contemnut maiora non credut. Footnote. What will happen to men who despise the smallest things and do not believe the greater? End of footnote. 194 Let them at least learn what is the religion they attack before attacking it. If this religion boasted of having a clear view of God and of possessing it open and unveiled, it would be attacking it to say that we see nothing in the world which shows it with this clearness. But since, on the contrary, it says that men are in darkness and estranged from God, that he has hidden himself from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which he gives himself in the scriptures. 193 Footnote. A hidden God. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 15. End of footnote. And finally, if it endeavors equally to establish these two things that God has set up in the church visible signs to make himself known to those who should seek him sincerely, and that he has nevertheless so disguised them that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart. What advantage can they obtain when, in the negligence with which they make profession of being in search of the truth, they cry out that nothing reveals it to them. And since that darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the church, establishes only one of the things which she affirms without touching the other, and very far from destroying, proves her doctrine. In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had made every effort to seek him everywhere, and even in that which the church proposes for their instruction, but without satisfaction. If they talked in this manner, they would in truth be attacking one of her pretensions. But I hope here to show that no reasonable person can speak with us, and I venture even to say that no one ever has done so. We know well enough how those who are of this mind behave. They believe they have made great efforts for their instruction when they have spent a few hours in reading some book of Scripture and have questioned some priest on the truths of the faith. After that they boast of having made vain search in books and among men. But verily I will tell them what I have often said that this negligence is insufferable. We are not here in the trifling interest of some stranger that we should treat it in this fashion. The matter concerns ourselves and our all. The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. All our actions and thoughts must take such different courses according as there are or are not eternal joys to hope for, that it is impossible to take one step with sense and judgment unless we regulate our course by our view of this point which ought to be our ultimate end. Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten ourselves on this subject, whereon depends all our conduct. Therefore among those who do not believe I make a vast difference between those who strive with all their power to inform themselves and those who live without troubling or thinking about it. I can have only compassion for those who bewail their doubt, who regard it as the greatest of misfortunes and who sparing no effort to escape it make of this inquiry their principal and most serious occupation. But as for those who pass their life without thinking of this ultimate end of life and who for the soul reason that they do not find within themselves the lights which convince them of it neglect to seek them elsewhere and to examine thoroughly whether this opinion is one of those which people receive with credulous or one of those which although obscure in themselves have nevertheless a solid and immovable foundation I look upon them in a manner quite different. This carelessness in a matter which concerns themselves their eternity their all moves me more to anger than pity it astonishes and shocks me it is to me monstrous. I do not say this out of the pious zeal of a spiritual devotion. I expect on the contrary that we ought to have this feeling from principles of human interest and self-love for this we need only see what the least enlightened persons see. We do not require great education of the mind to understand that here is no real and lasting satisfaction that our pleasures are only vanity that our evils are infinite and lastly that death which threatens us every moment must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful necessity of being forever either annihilated or unhappy. There is nothing more real than this nothing more terrible. Be as heroic as we like that is the end which awaits the noblest life in the world. Let us reflect on this and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there is no good in this life but in the hope of another that we are happy only in proportion as we draw near it and that is there are no more woes for those who have complete assurance of eternity so there is no more happiness for those who go into it. Surely then it is a great evil thus to be in doubt but it is at least an indispensable duty to seek when we are in such doubt and thus the doubter who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy and completely wrong. And if besides this he is easy and content, professed to be so and indeed boasts of it if it is this state itself which is the subject of his joy and vanity I have no words to describe this future. How can people hold these opinions? What joy can we find in the expectation of nothing but hopeless misery? What reason for boasting that we are in impenetrable darkness? And how can it happen that the following argument occurs to a reasonable man? I know not who put me into the world nor what the world is not what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything I know not what my body is nor my senses nor my soul is in that part of me which thinks what I say which reflects on all and on itself and knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me and I find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse without knowing why I am put in this place rather than in another nor why the short time which is given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see nothing but infinite on all sides which surround me as an atom and as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is that I must soon die but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape. As I know not whence I come so I know not whether I go. I know only that in leaving this world I fall forever either into annihilation or into the hands of an angry God without knowing to which of these I shall be forever assigned such as my state full of weakness and uncertainty. And from all this I conclude that I ought to spend all of the days of my life without caring to inquire into what must happen to me. Perhaps I might find some solution to my doubts but I will not take the trouble nor take a step to seek in and after treating the scorn those who are concerned with this care I will go without foresight and without fear to try the great death uncertain of the eternity of my future state. Who would desire to have for a friend a man who talks in this fashion? Who would choose him out from the others to tell him of his affairs? Who would have recourse to him in affliction and indeed to what use in life could one put him? In truth it is the glory of religion to have for enemies men so unreasonable and their opposition to it is so little dangerous that it serves on the mind to establish its truths for the Christian faith goes mainly to establish these two facts the corruption of nature and redemption by Jesus Christ. Now I contend that if these men do not serve to prove the truth of the redemption by the holiness of their behavior they at least serve admirably to show the corruption of nature by sentiments so unnatural. Nothing is so important to man as his own state nothing is so formidable to him and thus it is not natural that there should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence and to the perils of everlasting suffering. They are quite different with regard to all of the things. They are afraid of mere trifles they foresee them they feel them. And this same man who spends so many days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of office or for some imaginary insult to his honor is the very one who knows without anxiety and without emotion that he will lose it. It is a monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time the sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the greatest objects. It is an incomprehensible enchantment and a supernatural slumber which indicates as its cause an all-powerful force. There must be a strange confusion in the nature of man that he should boast of being in that state in which it seems incredible that a single individual should be. However experience has shown me so great a number of such persons that the fact would be surprising if we did not know that the greater part of those who trouble themselves about the matter are disingenuous and not in fact what they say. They are people who have heard it said that it is the fashion to be thus daring. It is what they call shaking off the yoke and they try to imitate this. But it would not be difficult to make them understand how greatly they deceive themselves in thus seeking esteem. This is not the way to gain it. Even I say among those men of the world who take a healthy view of things and who know that the only way to succeed in this life is to make ourselves appear honorable, faithful, judicious and capable of useful service to a friend because naturally men love only what may be useful to them. Now what do we gain by hearing it said of a man that he has now thrown off the yoke, that he does not believe there is a God who watches our actions and that he considers himself the sole master of his conduct and that he thinks he is accountable for it only to himself? Does he think that he has thus brought us to have henceforth complete confidence in him and to look to him for consolation, advice and help in every need of life? Do they profess to have delighted us by telling us that they hold our soul to be only a little wind and smoke, especially by telling us this in a haughty and self-satisfied tone Is this a thing to say gaily? Is it not on the contrary a thing to say sadly as the saddest thing in the world? If they thought of it seriously they would see that this is so bad a mistake, so contrary to good sense, so opposed to decency and so removed in every respect from that good breeding which they seek that they would be more likely to correct than to pervert those who had an inclination to follow them and indeed make them give the account of their opinions and of the reasons which they have for doubting religion, and they will say to you things so feeble and so petty that they will persuade you of the contrary. The following is what a person one day said to such and one very oppositely, if you continue to talk in this manner you will really make me religious. And he was right, for who would not have a horror of holding opinions in which he would have such contemptible persons as companions. Thus those who only feign these opinions would be very unhappy if they restrained their natural feelings in order to make themselves the most conceited of men. If at the bottom of their heart they are troubled at not having more light let them not disguise the fact this avowal will not be shameful the only shame is to have none. Nothing reveals more an extreme weakness of mind than not to know the misery of a godless man. Nothing is more indicative of the notion of heart than not to desire the truth of eternal promises. Nothing is more dastardly than to act the bravado before god. Let them then leave these impiates to those who are sufficiently ill-bred to be really capable of them. Let them at least be honest men if they cannot be Christians. Finally let them recognize that they are two kinds of people one can call reasonable. Those who serve god with all their heart because they know him cannot know him. But as for those who live without knowing him and without seeking him they judge themselves so little worthy of their own care that they are not worthy of the care of others. And it needs all the charity of their religion which they despise not to despise them even to the point of leaving them to their folly. But because this religion obliges us always to regard them so long as they are in this life as capable of the grace which can enlighten them and to believe that they may be more replenished with faith than we are and that on the other hand we may fall into the blindness wherein they are we must do for them what we would they should do for us if we were in their place and call upon them to have pity upon themselves and to take at least some steps in the endeavor to find light. Let them give to reading this some of the hours which they otherwise employ so uselessly. Whatever aversion they may bring to the task they will perhaps gain something but at least will not lose much. But as for those who bring to the task perfect sincerity and a real desire to meet with truth those I hope will be satisfied and convinced of the proofs of our religion so divine which I have here collected and in which I have followed somewhat after this order. 195 Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth which is so important to them and which touches them so nearly. Of all their errors this doubtless is the one which most convicts them of foolishness and blindness and in which it is easiest to confound them by the first glimmerings of common sense and by natural feelings. For it is not to be doubted that the duration of this life is but a moment that the state of death is eternal whatever may be its nature and that thus all our actions and thoughts must take such different directions of eternity that it is impossible to take one step without sense and judgment unless we regulate our course by the truth of that point which ought to be our ultimate end. There is nothing clearer than this and thus according to the principles of reason the conduct of men is wholly unreasonable if they do not take another course. On this point therefore we condemn those who live without thought of the ultimate end of life who let themselves be guided by their own inclinations and their own pleasures without reflection and without concern and as if they could annihilate eternity by turning away their thought from it think only of making themselves happy for the moment. Yet this eternity exists and death which must open into it and threatens them every hour must in a little time infallibly put them under the dreadful necessity of being either annihilated or unhappy forever without knowing which of these eternities is forever prepared for them. This is a doubt of terrible consequence. They are in peril of eternal woe and there upon as if the matter were not worth the trouble they neglect to inquire whether this is one of those opinions which people receive with too credulous a facility or one of those which obscure in themselves have a very firm though hidden foundation. Thus they know not whether there be truth or falsity in the matter nor whether there be strength or weakness in the proofs. They have them before their eyes they refuse to look at them and in that ignorance they choose all that is necessary to fall into this misfortune if it exists to await death to make trial of it yet to be very content in this state to make profession of it and indeed to boast of it. Can we think seriously on the importance of the subject without being horrified at conduct so extravagant. This resting in ignorance is a monstrous thing and they who pass their life in it must be made to feel its extravagance stupidity by having it shown to them so that they may be confounded by the sight of their folly. For this is how men reason when they choose to live in such ignorance of what they are and without seeking enlightenment. I know not, they say. 196 Men lack heart. They would not make a friend of it. 197 To be insensible to the extent of despising interesting things and to become insensible to the point which interests us most. 198 The sensibility of man to trifles and his insensibility to great things indicates a strange inversion. 199 Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death where some are killed each day in the sight of the others and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. 190 A man in a dungeon ignorant whether his sentence be pronounced and having only one hour to learn it but this hour enough if he know that it is pronounced to obtain his repeal would act unnaturally in spending that hour not in ascertaining his sentence but in playing pique. So it is against nature that man, etc. It is making heavy the hand of God. Thus not only the zeal of those who seek him proves God but also the blindness of those who seek him not. 201 All the objections of this one and that one only go against themselves and not against religion. All that infidels say Note, in the text the thought is incomplete. End of note. 202 From those who are in despair at being without faith we see that God does not enlighten them but as to the rest we see there is a God who makes them blind. 203 Faskinati onugakitatis Footnote the bewitching of naughtiness wisdom chapter 4 verse 12 end of footnote that passion may not harm us let us act as if we had only 8 hours to live. 204 If we ought to devote 8 hours of life we ought to devote a hundred years. 205 When I consider the short duration of my life swallowed up in the eternity before and after the little space which I fill and even can see engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not I am frightened and I am astonished at being here rather than there for there is no reason why here rather than there why now rather than then who has put me here by whose order and direction had this place brought to me Memoria hospitis unius diae prai tereuntis Footnote the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day wisdom chapter 5 verse 14 end of footnote 206 the eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me 207 how many kingdoms know us not 208 why my knowledge limited why my stature why my life to 100 years rather than to a thousand what reason has nature had for giving me such and for choosing this number rather than another in the infinity of those from which there is no more reason to choose one than another trying nothing else 209 art thou less a slave by being loved and favored by thy master thou art indeed well off slave thy master favors thee and will soon beat thee 210 the last act is tragic however happy all the rest of the play is at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head and that is the end forever 211 we are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow men wretched as we are powerless as we are they will not aid us we shall die alone we should therefore act as if we were alone we should build fine houses etc we should seek the truth without hesitation and if we refuse it we show that we value the esteem of man more than the search for truth 212 instability it is a horrible thing to feel all that we possess slipping away 213 between us and heaven or hell there is only life which is the frailest thing in the world 214 injustice that presumption should be joined to meanness is extreme injustice 215 to fear death without danger and not in danger for one must be a man 216 sudden death alone is feared hence confessors stay with lords 217 an error finds the title deeds of his house will he say perhaps they are forged and neglect to examine them 218 dungeon I approve of not examining the opinion of Copernicus but this it concerns all our life to know whether the soul be mortal or immortal 219 it is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul must make an entire difference to morality and yet philosophers have constructed their ethics independently of this they discuss to pass an hour Plato to incline to Christianity 220 the fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the immortality of the soul the fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne 221 atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident now it is not perfectly evident that the soul is material 222 atheists what reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from the dead is it more difficult to be born or to rise again that what has never been should be or that what has been should be a game is it more difficult to come into existence than to return to it habit makes the one appear easy to us want of habit makes the other impossible a popular way of thinking why cannot a virgin bear a child does a hen not lay eggs without a cock what distinguishes these outwardly from others and who has told us that the hen may not form the germ as well as the cock 223 what have they to say against the resurrection and against the child bearing of the virgin which is the more difficult to produce a man or an animal or to reproduce it and if they had never seen any species of animals could they have conjectured whether they were produced without connection with each other 224 how I hate these fallies of not believing in the Eucharist etc if the gospel be true if Jesus Christ be God what difficulty is there 225 atheism shows strength of mind but only to a certain degree 226 infidels who profess to follow reason ought to be exceedingly strong in reason what say they then do we not see, they say that the brutes live and die like men and Turks like Christians they have their ceremonies, their prophets their doctors, their saints, their monks like us etc is this contrary to scripture does it not say all this if you care but little to know the truth, here is enough of it to leave you in repose but if you desire with all your heart to know it it is not enough, look at it in detail this would be sufficient for a question in philosophy but not here where it concerns your all and yet after a trifling reflection of this kind let us go to amuse ourselves etc let us inquire of this same religion whether it does not give a reason for this obscurity perhaps it will teach it to us 227 order by dialogues what ought I to do I see only darkness everywhere shall I believe I am nothing shall I believe I am God all things change and succeed each other you are mistaken there is in the text the thought is incomplete end of note 228 objection of atheists but we have no light 229 this is what I see and what troubles me I look on all sides and I see only darkness everywhere nature presents to me nothing which is not matter of doubt and concern if I saw nothing there which revealed a divinity I would come to a negative conclusion if I saw everywhere the signs of a creator I would remain peacefully in faith but seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure I am in a state to be pitied wherefore I have a hundred times wished that if a God maintains nature she should testify to him unequivocally and that if the signs she gives are deceptive she should suppress them all together that she should say everything or nothing that I might see which cause I ought to follow whereas in my present state ignorant of what I am or what I ought to do I know neither my condition nor my duty my heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good in order to follow it nothing would be too dear to me for eternity I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness and who make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I would make such a different use 230 it is incomprehensible that God should exist and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist that the soul should be joined to the body and that we should have no soul that the world should be created and that it should not be created etc that original sin should be and that it should not be 231 do you believe it to be impossible that God is infinite without parts yes I wish therefore to show you an infinite and indivisible thing it is a point moving everywhere with an infinite velocity for it is one in all places and is all totality in every place let this effect of nature which previously seemed to you impossible make you know that there may be others of which you are still ignorant do not draw this conclusion from your experiment that there remains nothing for you to know but rather that there remains an infinity for you to know 232 infinite movement moment of rest infinite without quantity indivisible and infinite 233 infinite nothing our soul is cast into a body where it finds number, time, dimension thereupon it reasons and calls this nature necessity and can believe nothing else unity joined to infinity adds nothing to it no more than one foot to an infinite measure is annihilated in the presence of the infinite and becomes a pure nothing so our spirit before God so our justice before divine justice there is not so great a disproportion between our justice and that of God as between unity and infinity the justice of God must be vast like his compassion now justice to the outcast is less vast and not less to offend our feelings than mercy towards the elect we know that there is an infinite and our ignorant of its nature as we know it to be false that numbers are finite it is therefore true that there is an infinity in number but we do not know what it is it is false that it is even it is false that it is odd for the addition of a unit can make no change in its nature yet it is a number and every number is odd or even this is certainly true of every finite number so we may well know that there is a God without knowing what he is is there not one substantial truth seeing there are so many things which are not the truth itself we know then the existence and nature of the finite because we also are finite and have extension we know the existence of the infinite and our ignorant of its nature because it has extension like us but not limits like us existence nor the nature of God because he has neither extension nor limits but by faith we know his existence in glory we shall know his nature now I have already shown that we may well know the existence of a thing without knowing its nature let us now speak according to natural lights if there is a God he is infinitely incomprehensible since having neither parts nor limits he has no affinity to us we are then incapable of knowing either what he is or if he is this being so who will dare to undertake the decision of the question not we who have no affinity to him who then will blame Christians for not being able to give a reason for their belief since they profess a religion for which they cannot give a reason they declare in expounding it to the world that it is a foolishness stultitium if they proved it they would not keep their word it is in lacking proofs that they are not lacking in sense yes but although this excuses those who offer it as such and take away from them the blame of putting it forward without reason it does not excuse those who receive it let us then examine this point and say God is or he is not but to which side shall we incline reason can decide nothing here there is an infinite chaos which separates us a game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up what will you wager according to reason you can do neither the one thing nor the other according to reason you can defend neither of the propositions do not then reprove for error those who have made a choice for you know nothing about it no but I blame them for having made not this choice but a choice heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault they are both in the wrong the true course is not to wager at all yes but you must wager it is not optional you are embarked which will you choose then let us see since you must choose let us see which interests you least you have two things to lose the true and the good and two things to stake your reason and your will your knowledge and your happiness your reason is done error and misery your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other since you must of necessity choose this is one point settled but your happiness let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is let us estimate these two chances if you gain you gain all if you lose you lose nothing wager then without hesitation that he is that is very fine but I may perhaps wager too much let us see since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss if you had only to gain two lives instead of one you might still wager but if there were three lives to gain you would have to play since you are under the necessity of playing and you would be imprudent when you are forced to play not to chance your life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain there is an eternity of life and happiness and this being so if there were an infinity of chances of which one only would be for you you would still be right in wagering one to win two and you would act stupidly being obliged to play by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you if there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss and what you stake is finite it is all divided wherever the infinite is and there is not an infinity of chances of loss against that of gain there is no time to hesitate you must give all and thus when one is forced to play he must renounce reason to preserve his life rather than risk it for infinite gain likely to happen as the loss of nothingness for it is no use to say it is uncertain if we will gain and it is certain that we risk and that the infinite distance between the certainty of what is staked and the uncertainty of what will be gained equals the finite good which is certainly staked against the uncertain infinite it is not so as every player stakes a certainty to gain an uncertainty and yet he stakes a finite certainty to gain a finite uncertainty without transgressing against reason there is not an infinite distance between the certainty staked and the uncertainty of the gain that is untrue in truth there is an infinity between the certainty of gain and the certainty of loss but the uncertainty of the gain is proportioned to the certainty of the stake according to the proportion of the chances of gain and loss hence it comes that if there are as many risks on one side the course is to play even and then the certainty of the stake is equal to the uncertainty of the gain so far is it from fact that there is an infinite distance between them and so our proposition is of infinite force when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gaining of loss and the infinite to gain this is demonstrable and if men are capable of any truths this is one I confess it, I admit it but still is there no means of seeing the faces of the cards yes scripture and the rest etc yes but I have my hands tied and my mouth closed I am forced to wager, I am not free I am not released and I am so made that I cannot believe what then would you have me do true but at least learn your inability to believe since reason brings you to this and yet you cannot believe endeavor then to convince yourself not by increase of proofs of God but by the abatement of your passions you would like to attain faith and do not know the way you would like to cure yourself of unbelief and ask the remedy for it learn of those who have been bound like you and who now stake all their possessions these are people who know the way which you would follow and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured as they began by acting as if they believe taking the holy water having masses said etc even this will naturally make you believe and deaden your acuteness but this is what I am afraid of and why what have you to lose but to show you that this leads you there it is this which will lessen the passions which are your stumbling blocks the end of this discourse now what harm will be will befall you in taking this side you will be faithful honest, humble, grateful generous, a sincere friend truthful certainly you will not have those poisonous pleasures glory and luxury but will you not have others I will tell you that you will thereby gain in this life and that at each step you take on this road you will see so great certainty of gain so much nothingness in what you risk that you will at last recognize a wagered for something certain and infinite for which you have given nothing ah, this discourse transports me, charms me, etc if this discourse pleases you and seems impressive know that it is made by a man who has knelt both before and after it in prayer to that being infinite and without parts before whom he lays all he has for you also to lay before him all you have for your own good and for his glory no strength may be given to lowliness 234 if we must not act save on a certainty we ought not to act on religion for it is not certain but how many things we do on an uncertainty sea voyages, battles I say then we must do nothing at all for nothing is certain and that there is more certainty in religion than there is as to whether we may see tomorrow for it is not certain that we may see tomorrow and it is certainly possible that we may not see it we cannot say as much about religion it is not certain that it is but who will venture to say that it is certainly possible that it is not now when we work for tomorrow and so on an uncertainty we act reasonably for we ought to work for an uncertainty according to the doctrine of chance which was demonstrated above St. Augustine has seen that we work for an uncertainty on sea, in battle, etc but he has not seen the doctrine of chance which proves that we should do so Montaigne has seen that we are shocked at a fool and that habit is all powerful but he has not seen the reason of this effect all these persons have seen the effects but they have not seen the causes they are in comparison with those who have discovered the causes as those who have only eyes are in comparison with those who have intellect for the effects are perceptible by sense and the causes are visible only to the intellect and although these effects are seen by the mind this mind is in comparison with the mind which sees the causes as the bodily senses are in comparison with the intellect 235 footnote, they saw the thing not the cause end of footnote 236 according to the doctrine of chance 237 237 chances we must live differently in the world according to these different assumptions 1. that we could always remain in it 2. that it is certain that we shall not remain here long and uncertain if we shall remain here 1 hour this last assumption is our condition 238 objection, those who hope for salvation are so far happy but they have as a counter-poise the fear of hell reply, who has most reason to fear hell? he who is in ignorance whether there is a hell and who is certain of damnation if there is or he who certainly believes there is a hell and hopes to be saved if there is 240 now it is for you to begin if I could I would give you faith I cannot do so nor therefore test the truth of what you say but you can well renounce pleasure and test whether what I say is true 241 order I would have far more fear of being mistaken and of finding that the Christian religion was true than of not being mistaken in believing it true end of section 3 section 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Derrick McLaughlin London, Ontario, Canada Latin language reading by Lenny Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Ponce by Blaise Pascal translated by W.F. Trotter section 4 of Belief 242 preface to the second part to speak of those who have treated of this matter I admire the boldness with which these persons undertake to speak of God in addressing their argument to infidels their first chapter is to prove divinity from the works of nature I should not be astonished at their enterprise if they were addressing their argument to the faithful for it is certain that those who have the living faith in their heart see at once that all existence is none other than the work of the God whom they adore but for those in whom this light is extinguished and in whom we purpose to rekindle it persons destitute of faith and grace who, seeking with all their light whatever they see in nature that can bring them to this knowledge find only obscurity and darkness to tell them that they have only to look at the smallest things which surround them and they will see God openly to give them as a complete proof of this great and important matter the course of the moon and planets and to claim to have concluded the proof of such an argument is to give them ground for believing that the proofs of our religion are very weak and I see by reason and experience that nothing is more calculated to arouse their contempt it is not after this manner that scripture speaks which has a better knowledge of the things that are of God it says on the contrary that God is a hidden God and that since the corruption of nature he has left men in a darkness from which they can escape only through Jesus Christ without whom all communion with God is cut off footnote Matthew chapter 11 verse 27 all things have been delivered unto me of my father and no one knoweth the son save the father neither doth any know the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son willeth to reveal him end of footnote this is what scripture points out to us when it says in so many places that those who seek God find him it is not of that light like the noonday son that this is said we do not say that those who seek the noonday son or water in the sea shall find them and hence the evidence of God must not be of this nature so it tells us elsewhere footnote Isaiah chapter 45 verse 15 verily thou art a God that hideest thyself O God of Israel, the Saviour end of footnote 243 it is an astounding fact that no canonical writer has ever made use of nature to prove God they all strive to make us believe in him David, Solomon, etc. have never said there is no void, therefore there is a God they must have had more knowledge than the most learned people who came after them and who have all made use of this argument this is worthy of attention 244 why do you not say yourself that the heavens and birds prove God no and does your religion not say so no, for although it is true in a sense for some souls to whom God gives this light yet it is false with respect to the majority of men 245 there are three sources of belief reason, custom, inspiration the Christian religion which alone has reason does not acknowledge as her true children those who believe without inspiration it is not that she excludes reason and custom on the contrary the mind must be opened to proofs, must be confirmed by custom, and offer itself in humbleness to inspirations which alone can produce a true saving effect footnote first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17 for Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel not in wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made void end of footnote 246 order after the letter that we ought to seek God to write the letter on removing obstacles which is the discourse on the machine on preparing the machine on seeking by reason 247 order a letter of exhortation to a friend to induce him to seek and he will reply but what is the use of seeking nothing is seen then to reply to him do not despair and he will answer that he would be glad to find some light but that according to this very religion if he believed in it in that therefore he prefers not to seek and to answer to that the machine 248 a letter which indicates the use of proofs by the machine faith is different from proof the one is human the other is a gift of God footnote Romans chapter 1 verse 17 for therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith as it is written we will live by faith and a footnote it is this faith that God himself puts into the heart of which the proof is often the instrument footnote Romans chapter 10 verse 17 so believe cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of Christ and a footnote but this faith is in the heart and makes us not say footnote I know footnote I believe 249 it is superstition to put one's hope in formalities but it is pride to be unwilling to submit to them 250 the external must be joined to the internal to obtain anything from God that is to say we must kneel pray with a lips etc in order that proud man who would not submit himself to God be now subject to the creature to expect help from these externals is superstition to refuse them to the internal is pride 251 other religions as the pagan are more popular for they consist in externals but they are not for educated people a purely intellectual religion would be more suited to the learned but it would be of no use to the common people the Christian religion alone is adapted to all being composed of externals and internals it raises the common people to the internal and humbles the proud to the external it is not perfect without the two for the people must understand the spirit of the letter and the learned must submit their spirit to the letter 252 for we must not misunderstand ourselves we are as much automatic as intellectual as it comes that the instrument by which conviction is attained is not demonstration alone how few things are demonstrated proofs only convince the mind custom is the source of our strongest and most believed proofs it bends the automaton which persuades the mind without its thinking about the matter who has demonstrated that there will be a tomorrow and that we shall die and what is more believed it is then custom which persuades us of it it is custom that makes so many men Christians custom that makes them Turks, heathens artisans, soldiers, etc faith in baptism is more received among Christians than among Turks finally we must have recourse to it when once the mind has seen where the truth is in order to quench our thirst and steep ourselves in that belief which escapes us at every hour for always to have proofs ready is too much trouble we must get an easier belief which is that of custom which without violence, without art without argument makes us believe things and inclines all our powers to this belief so that our soul falls naturally into it it is not enough to believe only by force of conviction when the automaton is inclined to believe the contrary both our parts must be made to believe the mind by reasons which it is sufficient to have seen once in a lifetime and the automaton by custom and by not allowing it to incline to the contrary footnote, Psalm 119 verse 36 incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness end the footnote the reason acts slowly with so many examinations and on so many principles which must be always present that at every hour it falls asleep or wanders through want of having all its principles present feeling does not act thus it acts in a moment and is always ready to act we must then put our faith in feeling otherwise it will be always vacillating 253 to extremes to exclude reason to admit reason only 254 it is not a rare thing to have to reprove the world it is too much docileity it is a natural vice like credulity and as pernicious superstition 255 piety is different from superstition to carry piety as far as superstition is to destroy it the heretics reproach us for this superstitious submission this is to do what they reproach us for infidelity not to believe in the Eucharist because it is not seen superstition to believe propositions faith etc 256 I say there are few true Christians even as regards faith there are many who believe but from superstition there are many who do not believe solely from wickedness few are between the two in this I do not include those who are of truly pious character nor all those who believe from a feeling in their heart there are only three kinds of persons those who serve God having found Him others who are occupied in seeking Him having not found Him while the remainder live without seeking Him and without having found Him the first are reasonable and happy the last are foolish and unhappy those between are unhappy and reasonable 258 footnote each one makes a God for himself footnote discussed 259 ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that about which they do not wish to think do not meditate on the passages about the Messiah said the Jew to His Son thus our people often act thus our false religions preserved and even the true one in regard to many persons but there are some who have not the power of thus preventing thought so much the more as they are forbidden these undo false religions and even the true one if they do not find solid arguments 260 they hide themselves in the press and call numbers to their rescue tumult authority so far from making it a rule to believe a thing because you have heard it you ought to believe nothing without putting yourself into the position as if you had never heard it it is your own ascent to yourself and the constant voice of your own reason and not of others that should make you believe belief is so important a hundred contradictions might be true if antiquity were the rule of belief men of ancient time would then be without rule if general consent if men had perished false humility pride lift the curtain you try in vain if you must either believe or deny or doubt shall we then have no rule we judge that animals do well what they do is there no rule whereby to judge men to deny, to believe and to doubt well are to a man what the race is to a horse punishment of those who sin error 261 the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed and that a multitude deny it and so their error arises only from this that they do not love either truth or charity thus they are without excuse 262 superstition and lust scruples, evil desires evil fear fear not such as comes from a belief in God but such as comes from a doubt whether he exists or not true fear comes from faith false fear comes from doubt true fear is joined to hope because it is born of faith and because men hope in the God in whom they believe false fear is joined to despair because men fear the God in whom they have no belief the former fear to lose him the latter fear to find him 263 a miracle says one would strengthen my faith he says so when he does not see one reasons seen from afar appear to limit our view but when they are reached we begin to see beyond nothing stops the nimbleness of our mind there is no rule say we which has not some exceptions no truth so general which has not some aspect in which it fails it is sufficient that it be not absolutely universal to give us a pretext for applying the exception to the present subject for saying this is not always true there are therefore cases where it is not so it only remains to show that this is one of them and that is why we are very awkward or unlucky if we do not find one some day 264 we do not weary of eating and sleeping every day for hunger and sleepiness recur without that we should weary of them so without the hunger for spiritual things we weary of them hunger after righteousness the eighth beatitude 265 faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell but not the contrary of what they see it is above them and not contrary to them 266 how many stars have telescopes revealed to us which did not exist for our philosophers of old we freely attack holy scripture on the great number of stars saying there are only 1,028 we know it there is grass on the earth we see it from the moon we could not see it and on the grass are leaves and in these leaves are small animals but after that no more oh presumptuous man the compounds are composed of elements and the elements not oh presumptuous man here is a fine reflection we must not say that there is anything which we do not see we must then talk like others 267 the last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it it is but feeble if it does not see so far as to know this but if natural things are beyond it what will be said of supernatural 268 submission we must know where to doubt where to feel certain where to submit he who does not do so understands not the force of reason there are some who offend against these three rules either by affirming everything is demonstrative from want of knowing what demonstration is or by doubting everything from want of knowing where to submit or by submitting in everything from want of knowing where they must judge 269 submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity 270 Saint Augustine reason would never submit if it did not judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit it is then right for it to submit when it judges that it ought to submit 271 wisdom sends us to childhood footnote Matthew chapter 18 verse 3 verily I say unto you except ye turn and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter unto the kingdom of heaven end of footnote 272 there is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason 273 if we submit everything to reason our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element if we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous 274 all our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling but fancy is like though contrary to feeling so that we cannot distinguish between these contraries one person says that my feeling is fancy another that his fancy is feeling we should have a rule reason offers itself but it is pliable in every sense and thus there is no rule 275 men often take their imagination and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted 276 Monsieur de Roenay said reasons come to me afterwards but at first a thing pleases or shocks me without my knowing the reason and yet it shocks me for that reason which I only discover afterwards but I believe not that it shocked him for the reasons which were found afterwards but that these reasons were only found because it shocks him 277 the heart has its reasons which reason does not know we feel it in a thousand things I say that the heart naturally loves the universal being and also itself naturally according as it gives itself to them and it hardens itself against one or the other at its will you have rejected the one and kept the other is it by reason that you love yourself 278 the heart which experiences God and not the reason this then is faith God felt by the heart not by the reason 279 faith is a gift of God do not believe that we said it was a gift of reasoning other religions do not say this of their faith they only gave reasoning in order to arrive at it and yet it does not bring them to it 280 the knowledge of God is very far from the love of him 281 heart instinct principles 282 we know truth not only by the reason but also by the heart and it is in this last way that we know first principles and reason which has no part in it tries in vain to impugn them the skeptics who have only this for their object labor to no purpose we know that we do not dream and however impossible it is for us to prove it by reason this inability demonstrates only the weakness of our reason but not as they affirm the uncertainty of all our knowledge for the knowledge of first principles as space, time, motion, number is as sure as any of those which we get from reasoning and reason must trust these intuitions of the heart and must base on them every argument we have intuitive knowledge of the tridimensional nature of space and of the infinity of number and reason then shows that there are two square numbers one of which is double of the other principles are intuitive propositions are inferred all with certainty though in different ways and it is as useless and absurd for reason to demand from the heart proofs of her first principles before admitting them as it would be for the heart to demand from reason an intuition of all demonstrated propositions before accepting them this inability ought then to serve only to humble reason which would judge all but not to impugn our certainty as if only reason were capable of instructing us would to God on the contrary that we had never need of it and that we knew everything by instinct and intuition but nature has refused us this boon on the contrary she has given us but very little knowledge of this kind and all the rest can be acquired only by reasoning therefore those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very fortunate and justly convinced but to those who do not have it we can give it only by reasoning waiting for God to give them spiritual insight without which faith is only human and useless for salvation 283 order against the objection that scripture has no order the heart has its own order the intellect has its own which is by principle and demonstration the heart has another we do not prove that we ought to be loved by enumerating in order the causes of love that would be ridiculous Jesus Christ and St. Paul employ the rule of love not of intellect for they would warm not instruct it is the same with St. Augustine there are questions on each point to indicate the end and keep it always in sight 284 do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning God imparts to them love of him and hatred of self he inclines their heart to believe men will never believe with the saving and real faith unless God inclines their heart and they will believe as soon as he inclines it and this is what David knew well religion is suited to all kinds of minds some pay attention only to its establishment and this religion is such that its very establishment suffices to prove its truth others trace it even to the apostles the more learned go back to the beginning of the world the angels see it better still and from a more distant time 286 those who believe without having read the testaments do so because they have an inward disposition entirely holy and all that they hear of our religion conforms to it they feel that a God has made them they desire only to love God they desire to hate themselves only they feel that they have no strength in themselves that they are incapable of coming to God and that if God does not come to them they can have no communion with him and they hear our religion say that men must love God only and hate self only but that all being corrupted and worthy of God God made himself man to unite himself to us no more is required to persuade men who have this disposition in their heart and to have this knowledge of their duty and of their inefficiency 287 those whom we see to be Christians without the knowledge of the prophecies and evidences nevertheless judge of their religion as well as those who have that knowledge in their heart as others judge of it by the intellect God himself inclines them to believe and thus they are most effectively convinced I confess indeed that one of those Christians who believe without proofs will not perhaps be capable of convincing an infidel who will say the same of himself but those who know the proofs of religion will prove without difficulty that such a believer is truly inspired by God that we cannot prove it himself for God having said in his prophecies which are undoubtedly prophecies that in the reign of Jesus Christ he would spread his spirit abroad among nations and that the youths and maidens and children of the church would prophesy it is certain that the spirit of God is in these and not in the others 288 instead of complaining that God has hidden himself you will give him thanks for having revealed so much of himself and you will also give him thanks for having revealed himself to haughty sages unworthy to know so holy as God two kinds of persons know him those who have a humble heart and who love lowliness whatever kind of intellect they may have high or low and those who have sufficient understanding to see the truth whatever opposition they may have to it 289 proof one, the Christian religion having established itself so strongly so gently whilst so contrary to nature two, the sanctity the dignity and the humility of a Christian soul three, the miracles of holy scripture four, Jesus Christ in particular five, the apostles in particular six, Moses and the prophets in particular seven, the Jewish people eight, the prophecies nine, perpetuity no religion has perpetuity ten, the doctrine which gives a reason for everything eleven, the sanctity of this law twelve, by the course of the world surely after considering what is life and what is religion we should not refuse to obey the inclination to follow it if it comes into our heart and it is certain that there is no ground for laughing at those who follow it 290 proofs of religion morality doctrine, miracles prophecies, types end of section 4