 Introductory note to Pensey. 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. Pensey by Blaise Pascal. Translated by W. F. Trotter. Introductory note. Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont in Auvern on June 19, 1623, the son of the President of the Court of Aids of Clermont. He was a precocious child and soon showed amazing mathematical talent. His early training was scientific rather than literary or theological, and scientific interests predominated during the first period of his activity. He corresponded with the most distinguished scholars of the time and made important contributions to pure and applied mathematics and to physics. Meantime, an accident had brought the Pascal family into contact with Jansenist doctrine and Blaise became an ardent convert. Jansenism, which took its name from Jansenius, the Bishop of Ypres, had its headquarters in the Cistercian Abbey of Port Royale and was one of the most rigorous and lofty developments of post-Reformation Catholicism. In doctrine, it somewhat resembled Calvinism in its insistence on grace and predestination at the expense of the freedom of the will and in its cultivation of a thoroughgoing logical method of apologetics. In practice, it represented an austere and even ascetic morality and it did much to raise the ethical and intellectual level of 17th century France. Jansenism was attacked as heretical, especially by the Jesuits and the civil power ultimately took measures to crush the movement, disbanding the nuns of Port Royale and by its persecutions affording to many of the Jansenist's opportunities for the display of a heroic obstinacy. In this struggle, Pascal took an important part by the publication under the pseudonym of Louis de Montault of a series of 18 letters attacking the morality of the Jesuits and defending Jansenism against the charge of heresy. In spite of the fact that the party for which he fought was defeated, in these provincial letters, as they are usually called, Pascal inflicted a blow on the society of Jesus from which that order has never entirely recovered. Pascal now formed the plan of writing an apology for the Christian religion and during the rest of his life he was collecting materials and making notes for this work. But he had long been feeble in health. In the ardour of his religious devotion he had undergone incredible hardships and on August 19, 1662 he died in his 40th year. It was from the notes for his contemplated apology that the Port Royalists compiled and edited the book known as his Ponce or Thoughts. The early texts were much tampered with and the material has been frequently rearranged but now at last it is possible to read these fragmentary jottings that came from the hand of their author. In spite of their incompleteness and frequentant coherence, the Thoughts have long held a high place among the great religious classics. Much of the theological argument implied in these utterances has little appeal to the modern mind but the acuteness of the observation of human life, the subtlety of the reasoning, the combination of precision and fervent imagination in the expression make this a book to which the discerning mind returns again and again for insight and inspiration. End of introductory note. Ponce by Blaise Pascal. Translated by W. F. Trotter. Section 1. Thoughts on mind and on style. 1. The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive mind. In the one the principles are palpable but removed from ordinary use so that for want of habit it is difficult to turn one's mind in that direction. But if one turns it dither ever so little, one sees the principles fully and one must have a quite inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so plain that it is almost impossible they should escape notice. But in the intuitive mind the principles are found in common use and are before the eyes of everybody. One has only to look and no effort is necessary it is only a question of good eyesight but it must be good for the principles are so subtle and so numerous that it is almost impossible but that some escape notice. Now the omission of one principle leads to error. Thus one must have a very clear sight to see all the principles and in the next place an accurate mind not to draw false deductions from known principles. All mathematicians would then be intuitive if they had clear sight for they do not reason incorrectly from principles known to them and intuitive minds would be mathematical if they could turn their eyes to the principles of mathematics to which they are unused. The reason therefore that some intuitive minds are not mathematical is that they cannot at all turn their attention to the principles of mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are not intuitive is that they do not see what is before them and that accustomed to the exact and plain principles of mathematics and not reasoning till they have well inspected and arranged their principles. They are lost in matters of intuition where the principles do not allow of such arrangement. When they are scarcely seen they are felt rather than seen there is the greatest difficulty in making them felt by those who do not of themselves perceive them. These principles are so fine and so numerous that a very delicate and very clear sense is needed to perceive them and to judge rightly and justly when they are perceived for without the most part being able to demonstrate them in order as in mathematics. Because the principles are not known to us in the same way as it would be an endless matter to undertake it. We must see the matter at once, at one glance and not by a process of reasoning at least to a certain degree. And thus it is rare that mathematicians are intuitive and that men of intuition are mathematicians because mathematicians wish to treat matters of intuition mathematically and make themselves ridiculous wishing to begin with definitions and then with axioms which is not the way to proceed in this kind of reasoning. The mind does not do so but it does it tacitly, naturally and without technical rules for the expression of it is beyond all men and only a few can feel it. Intuitive minds on the contrary being thus accustomed to judge at a single glance are so astonished when they are presented with propositions of which they understand nothing and the way to which is through definitions and axioms so sterile and which they are not accustomed to see thus in detail they are repelled and disheartened. But dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical. Mathematicians who are only mathematicians have exact minds provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms otherwise they are inaccurate and insufferable for they are only right when the principles are quite clear. And men of intuition who are only intuitive cannot have the patience to reach to first principles in things speculative and conceptual which they have never seen in the world in which are altogether out of the common. Two, there are different kinds of right understanding. Some have right understanding in a certain order of things and not in others where they go astray. Some draw conclusions well from a few premises and this displays an acute judgment. Others draw conclusions well where there are many premises. For example the former easily learned hydrostatics of premises are few but the conclusions are so fine that only the greatest acuteness can reach them. And in spite of that these persons would perhaps not be great mathematicians because mathematics contain a great number of premises and there is perhaps a kind of intellect that can search with ease a few premises to the bottom and cannot in the least penetrate those matters in which there are many premises. There are then two kinds of intellect the one able to penetrate acutely and deeply into the conclusions of given premises and this is the precise intellect the other able to comprehend a great number of premises without confusing them and this is the mathematical intellect. The one has force and exactness the other comprehension. Now the one quality can exist without the other the intellect can be strong and narrow and can also be comprehensive and weak. Three, those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning for they would understand at first sight and are not used to seek for principles and others on the contrary who are accustomed to reason from principles do not at all understand matters of feeling seeking principles and being unable to see at a glance. Four, mathematics intuition true eloquence makes light of eloquence true morality makes light of morality that is to say the morality of the judgment which has no rules makes light of the morality of the intellect for it is to judgment that perception belongs as science belongs to intellect intuition is the part of judgment mathematics of intellect to make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher. Five, those who judge of a work by rule are in regard to others as those who have a watch are in regard to others one says it is two hours ago the other says it is only three-quarters of an hour I look at my watch and say to the one you are weary and to the other time gallops with you for it is only an hour and a half ago and I laugh at those who tell me that time goes slowly with me and that I judge by imagination they do not know that I judge by my watch. Six, just as we harm the understanding we harm the feelings also the understanding and the feelings are molded by intercourse the understanding and feelings are corrupted by intercourse thus good or bad society improves or corrupts them it is then all-important to know how to choose in order to improve and not to corrupt them and we cannot make this choice if they be not already improved and not corrupted thus a circle is formed and those are fortunate who escape it. Seven, the greater intellect one has the more originality one finds in men ordinary persons find no difference between men. Eight, there are many people who listen to a sermon in the same way as they listen to Vespers. Nine, when we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that he heirs we must notice from what side he views the matter for on that side it is usually true and admit that truth to him but reveal to him the sod in which it is false he is satisfied with that for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed to see all sides now no one is offended at not seeing everything but one does not like to be mistaken and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at since the perceptions of our senses are always true. Ten, people are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others. Eleven, all great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theatre. It is a representation of the passion so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts and above all to that of love principally when it is represented as very chaste and virtuous. For the more innocent it appears to innocent souls the more they are likely to be touched by it. Its violence pleases our self-love which immediately forms a desire to produce the same effects which are seen so well represented and at the same time we make ourselves a conscience founded on the propriety of the feelings which we see there by which the fear of pure souls is removed since they imagine that it cannot hurt their purity to love with a love which seems to them so reasonable. So we depart from the theatre with our heart so filled with all the beauty and tenderness of love the soul and the mind so persuaded of its innocence that we are quite ready to receive its first impressions or rather to seek an opportunity of awakening them in the heart of another in order that we may receive the same pleasures and the same sacrifices which we have seen so well represented in the theatre. 12. Scaramouche who only thinks of one thing the doctor who speaks for a quarter of an hour after he has said everything so full as he of the desire of talking. Footnote Scaramouche and the doctor were stock characters in Italian comedy and the footnote 13. One likes to see the error the passion of Cleobeline because she is unconscious of it she would be displeasing if she were not deceived Footnote Cleobeline is princess of Corinth in Manmousel de Scuderi's romance of Artemaine ou le grand cirrus End of footnote 14. When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect one feels within oneself the truth of what one reads which was there before although one did not know it hence one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it for he has not shown us his own riches and thus this benefit renders him pleasing to us besides that such community of intellect as we have with him necessarily inclines the heart to love 15. Elegance which persuades by sweetness not by authority as a tyrant not as a king 16. Elegance is an art of saying things in such a way one that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure two that they feel themselves interested so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it it consists then in a correspondence which we seek to establish between the head and the heart of those to whom we speak on the one hand and on the other between the thoughts and the expressions which we employ this assumes that we have studied well the heart of man so as to know all its powers and then to find the just proportions of the discourse which we wish to adapt to them we must put ourselves in the place of those who are to hear us and make trial on our own heart of the turn which we give to our discourse in order to see whether one is made for the other and whether we can assure ourselves that the hearer will be as it were forced to surrender we ought to restrict ourselves so far as possible to the simple and natural and not to magnify that which is little or belittle that which is great it is not enough that a thing be beautiful it must be suitable to the subject and there must be in it nothing of excess or defect 17. Rivers are roads which move and which carry us wither we desire to go 18. When we do not know the truth of a thing it is of advantage that there should exist a common error which determines the mind of man as for example the moon to which is attributed the change of seasons the progress of disease etc for the chief melody of man is restless curiosity about things which he cannot understand and it is not so bad for him to be an error as to be curious to no purpose the manner in which Epictetus Montaigne and Salomon de Tutti wrote is the most usual the most suggestive the most remembered and the oftenest quoted because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life as when we speak of the common error which exists among men that the moon is the cause of everything we never fail to say that Salomon de Tutti says that when we do not know the truth of a thing it is of advantage that there should exist a common error etc which is the thought above footnote Salomon de Tutti is the name assumed by Pascal in his provincial letters end of footnote 19. The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first 20. Order Why should I undertake to divide my virtues into four rather than into six? Why should I rather establish virtue in four in two in one? Why into abstiné et sustiné footnote abstain and endure a stoic maxim end of footnote rather than into follow nature or conduct your private affairs without injustice as Plato or anything else but there he will say everything is contained in one word yes but it is useless without explanation and when we come to explain it as soon as we unfold this maxim which contains all the rest they emerge in that first confusion which you desire to avoid so when they are all included in one they are hidden and useless as in a chest and never appear save in their natural confusion nature has established them all without including one in the other 21. Nature has made all her truths independent of one another our art makes one dependent on the other but this is not natural each keeps its own place 22. Let no one say that I have said nothing new the arrangement of the subject is new when we play tennis we both play with the same ball but one of us places it better I had as soon it said that I used words employed before and in the same way if the same thoughts in a different arrangement do not form a different discourse no more do the same words in their different arrangement form different thoughts 23. Words differently arranged have a different meaning and meanings differently arranged have different effects 24. Language we should not turn the mind from one thing to another except for relaxation and that when it is necessary and the time suitable and not otherwise for he that relaxes out of season wearies and he who wearies us out of season makes us languid since we turn quite away so much does our perverse lust like to do the contrary of what those wish to obtain from us without giving us pleasure the coin for which we will do whatever is wanted 25. Elegance it requires the pleasant and the real but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true 26. Elegance is a painting of thought and thus those who after having painted it add something more make a picture instead of a portrait 27. Miscellaneous language those who make antithesis by forcing words are like those who make false windows for symmetry their rule is not to speak accurately but to make apt figures of speech 28. Symmetry is what we see at a glance based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference and based also on the face of man whence it happens that symmetry is only wanted in breadth not in height or depth 29. When we see a natural style we are astonished and delighted for we expected to see an author and we find a man whereas those who have good taste and who seeing a book expect to find a man are quite surprised to find an author 28. Plus poetique qu'un humane locutus es footnote you have spoken more poetically than humanly end of footnote those honor nature well who teach that she can speak on everything even on theology 30. We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting the rule is uprightness beauty of omission of judgment 31. All the false beauties which we blame in Cicero have their admirers and in great number 32. There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature such as it is weak or strong and the thing which pleases us whatever is formed according to the standard pleases us be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose woman, birds, rivers, tree, rooms, dress, etc whatever is not made according to the standard displeases those who have good taste and as there is a perfect relation between a song and a house which are made after a good model because they are like this good model though each after its own kind even so there is a perfect relation between things made after a bad model not that the bad model is unique for there are many but each bad sonnet for example on whatever false model it is formed is just like a woman dressed after that model nothing makes us understand better the ridiculousness of a false sonnet than to consider nature and the standard and then to imagine a woman or a house made according to that standard 33. Poetical beauty as we speak of poetical beauty so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty but we do not do so and the reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics and that it consists in proofs and what is the object of medicine and that it consists in healing but we do not know in what grace consists which is the object of poetry we do not know the natural model which we ought to imitate and through lack of this knowledge we have coined fantastic terms the golden age, the wonder of our times, fatal, etc and call this jargon poetical beauty but whoever imagines a woman after this model which consists in saying little things in big words will see a pretty girl adorned with mirrors and chains at whom he will smile because we know better wherein consists the charm of woman than the charm of verse but those who are ignorant would admire her in this dress and there are many villages in which she would be taken for the queen hence we call sonnets made after this model village queens 34 no one passes in the world as skilled in verse unless he has put up the sign of a poet, a mathematician, etc but educated people do not want a sign and draw a little distinction between the trade of a poet and that of an embroiderer people of education are not called poets or mathematicians, etc but they are all these and judges of all these no one guesses what they are when they come into society they talk on matters about which the rest are talking we do not observe in them one quality rather than another save when they have to make use of it but then we remember it for it is characteristic of such persons that we do not say of them that they are fine speakers when it is not a question of oratory and that we say of them that they are fine speakers when it is such a question it is therefore false praise to give a man when we say of him on his entry that he is a clever poet and it is a bad sign when a man is not asked to give his judgment on some verses 35 we should not be able to say of a man he is a mathematician or a preacher or eloquent but that he is a gentleman that universal quality alone pleases me it is a bad sign when on seeing a person you remember his book I would prefer you to see no quality till you meet it and have occasion to use it make with nimis footnote nothing in excess end of footnote for fear some one quality prevail and designate the man let none think him a fine speaker unless oratory be in question and then let them think it 36 man is full of wants he loves only those who can satisfy them all this one is a good mathematician one will say but I have nothing to do with the mathematics he would take me for a proposition that one is a good soldier he would take me for a besieged town I need then an upright man who can accommodate himself generally to all my wants 37 since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything we ought to know a little about everything for it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing this universality is the best if we can have both still better but if we must choose we ought to choose the former and the world feels this and does so for the world is often a good judge 38 a poet and not an honest man 39 if lightning fell on low places etc poets and those who can only reason about things of that kind would lack proofs 40 if we wish to prove the examples which we take to prove other things we should have to take those other things to be examples 40 as we always believe the difficulty is in what we wish to prove we find the examples clearer and a help to demonstration thus when we wish to demonstrate a general theorem we must give the rule as applied to a particular case but if we wish to demonstrate a particular case we must begin with the general rule for we always find the thing obscure which we wish to prove and that clear which we use for the proof for when a thing is put forward to be proved we first fill ourselves with the imagination that it is therefore obscure and on the contrary that what is to prove it is clear and so we understand it easily 41 epigrams of Marshall man loves malice but not against one-eyed men nor the unfortunate but against the fortunate and proud people are mistaken in thinking otherwise for lust is the source of all our actions and humanity etc we must please those who have humane and tender feeling that epigram about two one-eyed people is worthless for it does not console them and only gives a point to the author's glory all that is only for the sake of the author is worthless ambitiosa requident ornamenta footnote they cut off superfluous ornament horus and a footnote 42 to call a king prince is pleasing because it diminishes his rank 43 certain authors speaking of their works say my book my commentary my history etc they resemble middle-class people who have a house of their own and always have my house on their tongue they would do better to say our book our commentary our history etc because there is in them usually more of other peoples than their own 44 do you wish people to believe good of you? don't speak 45 languages are ciphers wherein letters are not changed into letters but words into words so that an unknown language is decipherable 46 a maker of witticisms a bad character 47 there are some who speak well and write badly for the place and the audience warm them and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth 48 when we find words repeated in a discourse and in trying to correct them discover that they are so appropriate that we would spoil the discourse we must leave them alone this is the test and our attempt is the work of envy which is blind and does not see that repetition is not in this place a fault for there is no general rule 49 to mask nature and disguise her no more king, pope, bishop but august monarch etc not Paris, the capital of the kingdom there are places in which we ought to call Paris, Paris and others in which we ought to call it the capital of the kingdom 50 the same meaning changes with the words which express it meanings receive their dignity from words instead of giving it to them examples should be sought 51 skeptic for obstinate 52 no one calls another a Cartesian but he who is not one himself a pedant but a pedant a provincial but a provincial and I would wager it was the printer who put it on the title of letters to a provincial 53 a carriage upset or overturned according to the meaning to spread abroad or upset according to the meaning the argument by force of Monsieur Lemaître over the friar 54 miscellaneous a form of speech I should have liked to apply myself to that 55 the imperative virtue of a key the attractive virtue of a hook 56 to guess the part that I take in your trouble the cardinal footnote Cardinal Mazarin and a footnote did not want to be guessed my mind is disquieted I am disquieted is better 57 I always feel uncomfortable under such compliments as these I have given you a great deal of trouble I am afraid I'm boring you I fear this is too long we either carry our audience with us or irritate them 58 you are ungraceful excuse me pray without that excuse I would not have known there was anything amiss with reverence be it spoken the only thing bad is their excuse 59 to extinguish the torch of sedition too luxuriant the restlessness of his genius too superfluous grand words end of section one section two of Pancé 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 Pancé by Blaise Pascal translated by W. F. Trotter section two the misery of man without God part one sixty first part misery of man without God second part happiness of man with God or first part that nature is corrupt proved by nature itself second part that there is a redeemer proved by scripture 61 order I might well have taken this discourse in an order like this to show the vanity of all conditions of men to show the vanity of ordinary lives and then the vanity of philosophic lives, skeptics, stoics but the order would not have been kept I know a little what it is and how few people understand it no human science can keep it Saint Thomas did not keep it mathematics keep it but they are useless on account of their depth 62 preface to the first part to speak of those who have treated of the knowledge of self of the divisions of Charon which sadden and weary us of the confusion of Montaigne that he was quite aware of his want of method and shunned it by jumping from subject to subject that he sought to be fashionable his foolish project of describing himself and this not casually and against his maxims since everyone makes mistakes but by his maxims themselves and by first and chief design for to say silly things by chance and weakness is a common misfortune but to say them intentionally is intolerable and to say such as that 63 Montaigne Montaigne's faults are great lewd words this is bad not withstanding Mademoiselle de Gournet footnote Montaigne's adopted daughter who defends him in a preface which she added to his essays and a footnote credulous people without eyes ignorant squaring the circle a greater world his opinions on suicide on death he suggests an indifference about salvation without fear and without repentance as his book was not written with a religious purpose he was not bound to mention religion but it is always our duty not to turn men from it one can excuse his rather free and licentious opinions on some relations of life 730 231 but one cannot excuse his thoroughly pagan views on death for a man must renounce piety altogether if he does not at least wish to die like a Christian now through the whole of his book his only conception of death is a cowardly and effeminate one 64 it is not in Montaigne but in myself that I find all that I see in him 65 what good there is in Montaigne can only have been acquired with difficulty the evil that is in him I mean apart from his morality could have been corrected in a moment if he had been informed that he made too much of trifles and spoke too much of himself 66 one must know oneself if this does not serve to discover truth it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better 67 the vanity of the sciences physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in a time of affliction but the science of ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences 68 men are never taught to be gentlemen and are taught everything else and they never plume themselves so much on the rest of their knowledge as on knowing how to be gentlemen they only plume themselves on knowing the one thing they do not know 69 the infinites the mean when we read too fast or too slowly we understand nothing 70 nature nature has set us so well in the center that if we change one side of the balance we change the other also eacht Greek footnote animals run end of footnote this makes me believe that the springs in our brain are so adjusted that he who touches one touches also its contrary 71 too much and too little wine give him none he cannot find truth give him too much the same 72 man's disproportion this is where our innate knowledge leads us if it be not true there is no truth in man and if it be true he finds therein great cause for humiliation being compelled to abase himself in one way or another and since he cannot exist without this knowledge I wish that before entering on deeper researches into nature he would consider her both seriously and at leisure that he would reflect upon himself also and knowing what proportion there is let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and grand majesty and turn his vision from the low objects which surround him let him gaze on that brilliant light set like an eternal lamp to illumine the universe let the earth appear to him a point in comparison with the vast circle described by the sun and let him wonder at the fact that this vast circle is itself but a very fine point in comparison with that described by the stars and their revolution around the firmament but if our view be arrested there let our imagination pass beyond it will sooner exhaust the power of conception than nature that of supplying material for conception the whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature no idea approaches it we may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable space we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things it is an infinite sphere the center of which is everywhere the circumference nowhere in short it is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination loses itself in that thought returning to himself let man consider what he is in comparison with all existence let him regard himself as lost in this remote corner of nature and from the little cell in which he finds himself lodged I mean the universe let him estimate at their true value the earth kingdoms cities and himself what is a man in the infinite? but to show him another prodigy equally astonishing let him examine the most delicate things he knows let a might be given him with its minute body and parts incomparably more minute limbs with their joints veins in the limbs blood in the veins humours in the blood drops in the humours vapours in the drops dividing these last things again let him exhaust his powers of conception and let the last object at which he can arrive be now that of our discourse perhaps he will think that here is the smallest point in nature I will let him see therein a new abyss I will paint for him not only the visible universe but all that he can conceive of nature's immensity in the womb of this abridged atom let him see therein an infinity of universes each of which has its firmament its planets its earth in the same proportion as in the visible world in each earth animals and in the last mites in which he will find again all that the first had finding still in these others the same thing without end and without cessation let him lose himself in wonders as amazing in their littleness as the others in their vastness for who will not be astounded at the fact that our body which a little ago was imperceptible in the universe itself imperceptible in the bosom of the whole is now a colossus a world or rather a whole in respect of the nothingness which we cannot reach he who regards himself in this light will be afraid of himself and observing himself sustained in the body given him by nature between those two abysses of the infinite and nothing will tremble at the sight of these marvels and I think that as his curiosity changes into admiration he will be more disposed to contemplate them in silence than to examine them with presumption for in fact what is man in nature a nothing in comparison with the infinite an all in comparison with the nothing a mean between nothing and everything since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him an impenetrable secret he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which he was made and the infinite in which he is swallowed up what will he do then but perceive the appearance of the middle of things in an eternal despair of knowing either their beginning or their end all things proceed from the nothing and are born towards the infinite who will follow these marvelous processes the author of these wonders understands them none other can do so through failure to contemplate these infinites men have rashly rushed into the examination of nature as though they bore some proportion to her it is strange that they have wished to understand the beginnings of things and thence to arrive at the knowledge of the whole with a presumption as infinite as their object for surely this design cannot be formed without presumption or without a capacity infinite like nature if we are well informed we understand that as nature has graven her image and that of her author on all things they almost all partake of her double infinity thus we see that all the sciences are infinite in the extent of their researches for who doubts that geometry for instance has an infinite infinity of problems to solve they are also infinite in the multitude and fineness of their premises for it is clear that those which are put forward as ultimate are not self-supporting but are based on others which again having others for their support do not permit a finality but we represent some as ultimate for reason in the same way as in regard to material objects we call that an indivisible point beyond which our senses can no longer perceive anything although by nature it is infinitely divisible of these two infinites of science that of greatness is the most palpable and hence a few persons have pretended to know all things I will speak of the whole, said democratis but the infinitely little is the least obvious philosophers have much often are claimed to have reached it and it is here they have all stumbled this has given rise to such common titles as first principles principles of philosophy and the like as ostentatious in fact though not in appearance as that one which blinds us they omniscibili footnote concerning everything knowable the title under which pico della merandola announced the 900 propositions which he undertook to defend in 1486 end of footnote we naturally believe ourselves far more capable of reaching the center of things than of embracing their circumference the visible extent of the world visibly exceeds us but as we exceed little things we think ourselves more capable of knowing them and yet we need no less capacity for attaining the nothing than the all infinite capacity is required for both and it seems to me that whoever shall have understood the ultimate principles of being might also attain to the knowledge of the infinite the one depends on the other and one leads to the other these extremes meet and reunite by force of distance and find each other in God and in God alone let us then take our compass we are something and we are not everything the nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expansive nature limited as we are in every way this state which holds the mean between two extremes is present in all our impotence our senses perceive no extreme too much sound defends us too much light dazzles us too great distance or proximity hinders our view too great length and too great brevity of discourse tend to obscurity too much truth is paralyzing I know some who cannot understand that to take for from nothing leaves nothing first principles are too self-evident for us too much pleasure disagrees with us too many concords are annoying in music too many benefits irritate us we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts we benefit from the light which we have inside and so we can with a lot in front of us but thanks to the radio footnote, benefits are pleasant while it seems possible to re-quite them when they become much greater they produce hatred rather than gratitude tacitus and a footnote we feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold excessive qualities are prejudicial to us and not perceptible by the senses we do not feel but suffer them extreme youth and extreme age hindered the mind as also too much and too little education in short extremes are for us as though they were not and we are not within their notice they escape us or we them this is our true state this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge and of absolute ignorance we sail within a vast sphere ever drifting in uncertainty driven from end to end when we think to attach ourselves to any point and to fasten to it it wavers and leaves us and if we follow it it eludes our grasp slips past us and vanishes forever nothing stays for us this is our natural condition and yet most contrary to our inclination we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation wear on to build a tower reaching to the infinite but our whole ground work cracks and the earth opens to abysses let us therefore not look for certainty and stability our reason is always deceived by fickle shadows nothing can fix the finite between the two infinites which both enclose and fly from it if this be well understood I think that we shall remain at rest each when the state where in nature has placed him as this sphere which has fallen to us as our lot is always distant from either extreme what matters it that man should have a little more knowledge of the universe if he has it he but gets a little higher is he not always infinitely removed from the end and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity even if it lasts ten years longer in comparison with these infinites all finites are equal and I see no reason for fixing our imagination on one more than on another the only comparison which we make of ourselves to the finite is painful to us if man made himself the first object of study he would see how incapable he is of going further how can a part know the whole but he may perhaps aspire to know at least the parts to which he bears some proportion but the parts of the world are also related and linked to one another that I believe it impossible to know one without the other and without the whole man for instance is related to all he knows he needs a place where into abide time through which to live motion in order to live elements to compose him warmth and food to nourish him air to breathe he sees light he feels bodies in short he is in a dependent alliance with everything to know man then it is necessary to know how it happens that he needs air to live and to know the air we must know how it is thus related to the life of man etc flame cannot exist without air therefore to understand the one we must understand the other since everything then is cause and effect dependent and supporting immediate and immediate and all is held together by a natural though imperceptible chain which binds together things most distant and most different I hold it equally impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole and to know the whole without knowing the parts the eternity of things in itself or in God must also astonish our brief duration the fixed and constant immobility of nature in comparison with the continual change which goes on within us must have the same effect and what completes our incapability of knowing things is the fact that they are simple and that we are composed of two opposite natures different in kind soul and body for it is impossible that our rational part should be other than spiritual and if anyone maintained that we are simply corporeal this would far more exclude us from the knowledge of things there being nothing so inconceivable as to say that matter knows itself it is impossible to imagine how it should know itself so if we are simply material we can know nothing at all and if we are composed of mind and matter we cannot know perfectly things which are simple whether spiritual or corporeal hence it comes that almost all philosophers have confused ideas of things and speak of material things in spiritual terms and of spiritual things in material terms for they say boldly that bodies have a tendency to fall that they seek after their center that they fly from destruction that they fear the void that they have inclinations sympathies antipathies all of which attributes pertain only to mind and in speaking of minds they consider them as in a place and attribute them movement from one place to another and these are qualities which belong only to bodies instead of receiving the ideas of these things in their purity we color them with our own qualities and stamp with our composite being all the simple things which we contemplate who would not think seeing us compose all things of mind and body but that this mixture would be quite intelligible to us yet it is the very thing we least understand a man is to himself the most wonderful object in nature for he cannot conceive what the body is still less what the mind is at least of all how a body should be united to a mind this is the consummation of his difficulties and yet it is his very being footnote the manner in which spirits are united to bodies cannot be understood by men yet such as man end of footnote finally to complete the proof of our weakness I shall conclude with these two considerations 73 but perhaps the subject goes beyond the capacity of reason let us therefore examine her solutions to problems within her powers if there be anything to which her own interest must have made her apply herself most seriously it is the inquiry into her own sovereign good let us see then wherein the strong and clear-sighted souls have placed it and whether they agree one says that the sovereign good consists in virtue another in pleasure another in the knowledge of nature another in truth footnote happy as he who could understand the causes of things Virgil end of footnote another in total ignorance another in indolence others in disregarding appearances another in wondering at nothing footnote to wonder at nothing is almost the only thing which can make and keep a man happy Horace end of footnote and the true skeptics in their indifference doubt and perpetual suspense and others wiser think to find a better definition we are well satisfied to transpose after the laws of the following title we must see if this fine philosophy has gained nothing certain from so long and so intense study perhaps at least the soul will know itself let us hear the rulers of the world on the subject what have they thought of her substance 394 footnote numbers are references to Montaigne's essays book 2 chapter 12 end of footnote have they been more fortunate in locating her 395 what have they found out about her origin, duration and departure 399 is then the soul too noble a subject for their feeble lights let us then abase her to matter and see if she knows whereof is made the very body which she animates and those others which she contemplates and moves at her will to make dogmatists who are ignorant of nothing known of this matter 393 this would doubtless suffice if reason were reasonable she is reasonable enough to admit that she has been unable to find anything durable but she does not yet despair of reaching it she is as ardent as ever in this search and is confident she has within her the necessary powers for this conquest we must therefore conclude to examine her powers and their effects observe them in ourselves and see if she has a nature and a grasp capable of laying hold of the truth 74 a letter on the foolishness of human knowledge and philosophy this letter before diversion Felix Cui Potwit footnote happy he who could understand the causes of things Virgil end of footnote Nihil Admirari footnote to wonder at nothing is almost the only thing which can make and keep a man happy Horus end of footnote 280 kinds of sovereign good in Montaigne 75 part 1 1 2 C 1 section 4 probability it will not be difficult to put the case a stage lower and make it appear ridiculous to begin at the very beginning what is more absurd than to say that lifeless bodies have passions fears, hatreds that insensible bodies, lifeless and incapable of life have passions which presuppose at least a sensitive soul to feel them nay more that the object of their dread is the void what is there in the void that could make them afraid nothing is more shallow and ridiculous this is not all it is said that they have in themselves a source of movement to shun the void have they arms legs nerves 76 to write against those who made too profound a study of science 77 I cannot forgive Descartes in all his philosophy he would have been quite willing to dispense with God but he had to make him give a fillip to set the world in motion beyond this he has no further need of God 78 Descartes useless and uncertain 79 Descartes we must say summarily this is made by figure and motion for it is true but to say what these are and to compose the machine is ridiculous for it is useless uncertain and painful and were it true we do not think all philosophy is worth one hour of pain 80 how comes it that a cripple does not offend us but that a fool does because a cripple recognizes that we walk straight whereas a fool declares that it is we who are silly if it were not so we should feel pity and not anger a pictitus asks still more strongly why are we not angry if we are told that we have a headache and why are we angry if we are told that we reason badly or choose wrongly the reason is that we are quite certain that we have not a headache or are not lame but we are not sure that we make a true choice so having assurance only because we see with our whole sight it puts us into suspense and surprise when another with his whole sight sees the opposite and still more so when a thousand others deride our choice for we must prefer our own lights to those of so many others and that is bold and difficult there is never this contradiction in the feelings towards a cripple 81 it is natural to believe and for the will to love so that for want of true objects they must attach themselves to false 82 imagination it is that deceitful part in man that mistress of error and falsity the more deceptive that she is not always so for she would be an infallible rule of truth if she were an infallible rule of falsehood but being most generally false she gives no sign of her nature impressing the same character on the true and the false I do not speak of fools I speak of the wisest men and it is among them that the imagination has the great gift of persuasion reason protests in vain it cannot set a true value on things this arrogant power the enemy of reason who likes to rule and dominate it has established in man a second nature to show how all powerful she is she makes men happy and sad healthy and sick however she compels reason to believe doubt and deny she blunts the senses or quickens them she has her fools and sages and nothing vexes us more than to see that she fills her devotees with a satisfaction far more full and entire than does reason those who have a lively imagination are a great deal more pleased with themselves than the wise can reasonably be they look down upon men with haughtiness they argue with boldness and confidence others with fear and diffidence and this gaiety of countenance often gives them the advantage in the opinion of the hearers such favor have the imaginary wise in the eyes of judges of like nature imagination cannot make fools wise but she can make them happy to the envy of reason which can only make its friends miserable the one covers them with glory the other with shame what but this faculty of imagination dispenses reputation God's respect and veneration to persons works laws and the great how insufficient are all the riches of the earth without her consent would you not say that this magistrate whose venerable age commands the respect of a whole people is governed by pure and lofty reason and that he judges causes according to their true nature without considering those mere trifles which only affect the imagination of the weak see him go to sermon full of devout zeal strengthening his reason with the ardor of his love he is ready to listen with exemplary respect let the preacher appear and let nature have given him a horse voice or comical cast of countenance or let his barber have given him a bad shave or let by chance his dress be more dirty than usual then however great the truth he announces I wager our senator lose his gravity if the greatest philosopher in the world find himself upon a plank wider than actually necessary for a precipice his imagination will prevail though his reason convince him of his safety many cannot bear the thought without a cold sweat I will not state all its effects everyone knows that the sight of cats or rats the crushing of a coal etc may unhinge the reason the tone of voice affects the wisest and changes in the force of a discourse or a poem love or hate alters the aspect of justice how much greater confidence has an advocate retained with a large fee in the justice of his cause how much better does his bold manner make his case appear to the judges deceived as they are by appearances how ludicrous is reason blown with a breath in every direction I should have to enumerate almost every action of men who scarce waiver save under her assaults for reason has been obliged to yield and the wisest reason takes as her own principles those which the nation of man has ever where rashly introduced he who would follow reason only would be deemed foolish by the generality of men we must judge by the opinion of the majority of mankind because it has pleased them we must work all day for pleasures seem to be imaginary and after sleep has refreshed our tired reason we must forthwith start up and rush after phantoms and suffer the impressions of this mistress of the world this is one of the sources of error but it is not one our magistrates have known well this mystery their red robes and urban in which they wrapped themselves like furry cats the courts in which they administer justice the flood elite and all such Augusta peril were necessary if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide they would never have duped the world which cannot resist so original an appearance if magistrates had true justice and the physicians had the true art of healing they would have no occasion for square caps the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough but having only imaginary knowledge they must employ those silly tools that strike the imagination with which they have to deal and thereby in fact they inspire respect soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner because indeed their part is the most essential they establish themselves by force the others by show therefore our kings seek out no disguises they do not mask themselves in extraordinary costumes to appear such but they are accompanied by guards and halberd years those armed and red faced puppets who have hands and power for them alone those trumpets and drums which go before them and those legions round about them make the stoutest tremble they have not dress only they have might a very refined reason is required to regard as an ordinary man the grand turk in his superb sureglio surrounded by 40,000 janissaries we cannot even see an advocate in his robe and with his cap on his head without a favorable opinion of his ability the imagination disposes of everything it makes beauty, justice and happiness which is everything in the world I should much like to see an Italian work of which I know only the title is worth many books footnote an opinion queen of the world the book has not been certainly identified end of footnote I approve of the book without knowing it save the evil in it if any these are pretty much the effects of the deceptive faculty which seems to have been expressly given us to lead us into necessary error we have however many other sources of error not only our old impressions capable of misleading us the charms of novelty have the same power hence arise all the disputes of men who taunt each other either with following the false impressions of childhood or with running rashly after the new who keeps the do mean let him appear and prove it there is no principle however natural to us from infancy which may not be made to pass for a false impression either of education or of sense because say some you have believed from childhood that a box was empty when you saw nothing in it you have believed in the possibility of a vacuum this is an illusion of your senses strengthened by custom which science must correct because say others you have been taught at school that there is no vacuum you have perverted your common sense which clearly comprehended it and you must correct this by returning to your first state which has deceived you your senses or your education we have another source of error in diseases they spoil the judgment and the senses and if the more serious produce a sensible change I do not doubt that slighter ills produce a proportionate impression our own interest is again a marvelous instrument for nicely putting out our eyes the justice man in the world is not allowed to be judged in his own cause I know some who in order not to fall into the self love have been perfectly unjust out of opposition the sure way of losing a just cause has been to get it recommended to these men by their near relatives justice and truth are two such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately if they reach the point they either crush it or lean all round more on the false than on the true man is so happily formed that he has no good of the true and several excellent of the false let us now see how much but the most powerful cause of error is the war existing between the senses and reason 83 we must thus begin the chapter on the deceptive powers man is only a subject full of error natural and ineffasible without grace nothing shows him the truth everything deceives him these two sources of truth reason and the senses besides being both wanting in sincerity deceive each other in turn the senses mislead the reason with false appearances and receive from reason in their turn the same trickery which they apply to her reason has her revenge the passions of the soul trouble the senses and make false impressions upon them they rival each other in falsehood and deception but besides those errors which arise accidentally and through lack of intelligence with these heterogeneous faculties 84 the imagination enlarges little objects so as to fill our soul with a fantastic estimate and with rash insolence it belittles the great to its own measure as when talking of God 85 things which have most hold on us as the concealment of our few possessions are often a mere nothing it is a nothing which our imagination magnifies into a mountain another turn of the imagination would make us discover this without difficulty 86 my fancy makes me hate a croaker and one who pants when eating fancy has great weight shall we profit by it? shall we yield to this weight because it is natural? no, but resisting it 87 87 87 footnote as if anything more unfortunate could happen to a man ruled by his own fancies plenty end of footnote 88 children who are frightened at the face they have blackened are but children but how shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? we only change our fancies all that is made perfect by progress perish is also by progress all that has been weak can never become absolutely strong we say in vain he has grown he has changed he is also the same he who is accustomed to the faith believes in it can no longer fear hell and believes in nothing else he who is accustomed to believe that the king is terrible, etc who doubts then that our soul being accustomed to see number space, motion believes that and nothing else 90 90 children who are afraid of death when they are not afraid they see the enemy and they are not cured footnote what a man sees often he does not wonder at although he knows not why it happens if something occurs which he has not seen before he thinks it a marvel cicero end of footnote 90 footnote verily that man will have uttered great trifles with huge effort Terrence end of footnote 91 Spongia solis footnote, spots on the sun end of footnote when we see the same effect always recur we infer a natural necessity in it as that there will be a tomorrow, etc but nature often deceives us and does not subject yourself to her own rules 92 what are our natural principles but principles of custom in children there are those which they have received from the habits of their fathers as hunting in animals a different custom will cause different natural principles this is seen in experience and if there are some natural principles ineradicable by custom there are also some customs opposed to nature ineradicable by nature or by a second custom 93 parents fear lest the natural love of their children may fade away what kind of nature is that which is subject to decay custom is a second nature which destroys the former but what is nature for is custom not natural I am much afraid that nature is itself only a first custom as custom is a second nature 94 the nature of man is holy animal footnote all animal end of footnote there is nothing he may not make natural there is nothing natural he may not lose 95 memory joy are intuitions and even mathematical propositions become intuitions for education produces natural intuitions and natural intuitions are erased by education 96 when we are accustomed to use bad reasons for proving natural effects we are not willing to receive good reasons when they are discovered an example may be given from the circulation of the blood as a reason why the veins swells below the ligature 97 the most important affair in life is the choice of a calling chance decides it custom makes men masons soldiers slaters he is a good slater says one and speaking of soldiers remarks they are perfect fools the rest of men are good for nothing we choose our callings according as we hear this or that praised or despised in our childhood for we naturally love truth and hate folly these words move us the only error is in their application so great is the force of custom that out of those whom nature has only made men are created all conditions of men for some districts are full of masons others of soldiers etc certainly nature is not so uniform it is custom then which does this for it constrains nature but sometimes nature gains the ascendancy and preserves man's instinct in spite of all custom good or bad 98 bias leading to error it is a deplorable thing to see all men deliberating on means alone and not on the end each thinks how he will acquit himself in his condition but as for the choice of condition or if country chance gives them to us it is a pitiable thing to see so many Turks heretics and infidels follow the way of their fathers for the sole reason that each has been imbued with the prejudice that it is the best and that fixes for each man his condition of locksmith soldier etc hence savages care nothing for Provence 99 there is a universal and essential difference between the actions of the will and all other actions which she factors in belief not that it creates belief but because things are true or false according to the aspect in which we look at them the will which prefers one aspect to another turns the mind away from considering the qualities of all that it does not like to see and thus the mind moving in accord with the will stops to consider the aspect which it likes and so judges by what it sees 100 self love the nature of self love self only and consider self only but what will man do he cannot prevent this object that he loves from being full of faults and wants he wants to be great and he sees himself small he wants to be happy and he sees himself miserable he wants to be perfect and he sees himself full of imperfections he wants to be the object of love and esteem among men and he sees that his faults merit only their hatred and contempt which finds himself produces in him the most unrighteous and criminal passion that can be imagined for he conceives a mortal enmity against the truth which reproves him and which convinces him of his faults he would annihilate it but unable to destroy it in its essence he destroys it as far as possible in his own knowledge and in that of others that is to say he devotes all his attention to hiding his faults both from others and from himself and he cannot endure either that others let him out to him or that they should see them truly it is an evil to be full of faults but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion we do not like others to deceive us we do not think it fair that they should be held in higher esteem by us than they deserve it is not then fair that we should deceive them and should wish them to esteem us more highly than we deserve thus when they discover only the imperfections and vices which we really have it is plain they do us no wrong since it is not they who cause them they rather do us good since they help us to free ourselves from an evil namely the ignorance of these imperfections we ought not to be angry at their knowing our faults and despising us it is but right that they should know us for what we are and should despise us if we are contemptible such are the feelings that would arise of equity and justice what must we say then of our own heart when we see in it a wholly different disposition for is it not true that we hate truth and those who tell it us and that we like them to be deceived in our favor and prefer to be esteemed by them as being other than what we are in fact one proof of this makes me shudder the Catholic religion does not bind us to confess our sins indiscriminately to everybody that allows them to remain hidden save one to whom she bids us reveal the innermost recesses of our heart and show ourselves as we are there is only this one man in the world whom she orders us to undeceive and she binds him to an inviolable secrecy which makes this knowledge to him as if it were not can we imagine anything more charitable and pleasant and yet the corruption of man is such that he finds even this law harsh and it is one of the main reasons which have caused a great part of Europe to rebel against the church how unjust and unreasonable is the heart of man which feels a disagreeable to be obliged to do in regard to one man what in some measure it were right to do to all men for is it right that we should deceive men there are different degrees in this aversion to truth but all may perhaps be said to have it in some degree because it is inseparable from self-love it is this false delicacy which makes those who are under the necessity of reproving others choose so many windings and middle courses to avoid offense they must lessen our faults appear to excuse them interspersed praises and evidence of love and esteem despite all this the medicine does not cease to be bitter to self-love it takes as little as it can always with disgust and often with a secret spite against those who administer it hence it happens that if any have some interest in being loved by us they are averse to render us a service they know to be disagreeable they treat us as we wish to be treated we hate the truth and they hide it from us we desire flattery and they flatter us we like to be deceived and they deceive us so each degree of good fortune which raises us in the world removes us further from truth because we are most afraid of wounding those whose affection is most useful and whose dislike is most dangerous a prince may be the byword of all Europe and he alone will know nothing of it it is not astonished to tell the truth is useful to whom it is spoken but disadvantageous to those who tell it because it makes them disliked now those who live with princes love their own interests more than that of the prince whom they serve and so they take care not to confer on him a benefit so as to injure themselves this evil is no doubt greater and more common among the higher classes but the lower are not exempt from it since there is always some advantage in making men love us there is only a perpetual illusion men deceive and flatter each other no one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence human society is founded on mutual deceit few friendships would endure if each knew what his friend said of him in his absence although he then spoke in sincerity and without passion man is then only disguise falsehood and hypocrisy both in himself and in regard to others he does not wish anyone to tell him the truth he avoids telling it to others and all these dispositions so removed from justice and reason have a natural root in his heart 101 I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other there would not be four friends in the world this is apparent from the quarrels which arise from the indiscreet tales told from time to time I say further all men would be 102 some vices only lay hold of us by means of others vices like branches fall on removal of the trunk 103 the example of Alexander's chastity has not made so many continent as that of his drunkenness has made intemperate it is not shameful not to be as virtuous as he and it seems excusable to be no more vicious we do not believe ourselves to be exactly sharing in the vices of the vulgar when we see that we are sharing in those of great men and yet we do not observe that in these matters they are ordinary men we hold on to them by the same end by which they hold on to the rabble for however exalted they are they are still united at some point to the lowest of men they are not suspended in the air quite removed from our society no no if they are greater than we it is because their heads are higher but their feet are as low as ours they are all on the same level and rest on the same earth and by that extremity they are as low as we are as the meanest folk, as infants and as the beasts 104 when our passion leads us to do something we forget our duty for example we like a book and read it when we ought to be doing something else now to remind ourselves of our duty we must set ourselves a task we dislike we then plead that we have something else to do and by this means remember our duty end of section 2 part 1