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PASCAL, THE SCEPTIC.

No book, probably, has had so curious a literary history as Pascal's Pensées,' and, perhaps for that reason, no book has been so differently interpreted. For more than a century and a half, from the first edition in 1670 to the celebrated 'Rapport' of Victor Cousin, it was naturally considered to be the literary expression of the dominant convictions of Port Royal. It was subsequently discovered that it was only the mouthpiece of such mediocre thinkers as Etienne Périer and the Duc de Roannez, issued, perhaps, under the authority of Antoine Arnauld and Nicole. By a curious freak of fortune it was taken up by Condorcet and Voltaire in 1776 and 1778, but it is only since Cousin first restored the text of the genuine Pascal, which les Messieurs de Port Royal had mutilated, transposed, and re-written, that such editions as those of Faugère in 1844 and Havet in 1852 have become possible. And what sort of Pascal has the genuine text revealed? a fanatic, as Voltaire supposed? or a Catholic, as M. l'Abbé Maynard has laboriously undertaken to prove in the two volumes he issued in 1850? Is he a disguised Protestant, as M. Vinet and perhaps also Mr. Charles Beard seem inclined to think,

or was M. Victor Cousin right when he summarily declared him to be a sceptic? The controversy is by no means yet extinguished, for Pascal's name is equally cherished by literature and theology, and it is not often that a man has left behind him two works so diametrically opposed in spirit and in form as the 'Provincial Letters' and the 'Thoughts.' If the first was one of the earliest and most perfect achievements of French prose-writing, the second was only a somewhat heterogeneous mass of disjointed aphorisms; while the 'Letters' derive half their glory from their noble vindication of the rights of reason against ecclesiastical dogmatism, the 'Thoughts' are the gloomy record of a mind which was prepared to throw overboard every kind of knowledge at the bidding of authority, and to retain as elements of chief value the three qualities of 'pyrrhonien,'' géomètre,' and 'Chrétien soumis.' "Il faut avoir," says Pascal, “ces trois qualités, pyrrhonien, géomètre, Chrétien soumis; et elles s'accordent, et se tempèrent, en doutant où il faut, en assurant où il faut, en se soumettant où il faut."

With the true text of the 'Pensées' before us, and with Cousin's report to the Academy in our hands, it is difficult to overlook the obvious scepticism of Pascal-scepticism, be it understood, in philosophy, not in religion. Sceptic he appears at almost every page, and all the more savagely sceptic because he thought that this was the only portal to a belief in Revelation. He probably had not studied much philosophy, certainly not so much as either Arnauld or Nicole, for his talents lay rather in the direction of

geometry and science, but he does not hesitate to express his opinion of all philosophy. "Se moquer de la philosophie, c'est vraiment philosopher;" such is his decisive phrase. Descartes, whom Arnauld especially had introduced into Port Royal, he cannot away with. "Je ne puis pardonner à Descartes." "Descartes. Il faut dire en gros cela se fait pas figure et mouvement, car cela est vrai. Mais de dire quels, et composer la machine, cela est ridicule; car cela est inutile, et incertain, et pénible. Et quand cela seroit vrai, nous n'estimons pas que toute la philosophie vaille une heure de peine.” The only true philosophy is the negation of all philosophy, and therefore the only true philosophical system is Pyrrhonism. "Le pyrrhonisme est le vrai; car, après tout, les hommes, avant Jésus-Christ, ne savoient où ils en étoient, ni s'ils étoient grands ou petits." "Toute la dignité de l'homme est en la pensée. Mais qu'est-ce que cette pensée ? Qu'elle est sotte!" "Connaissez-donc, superbe, quel paradoxe vous êtes à vous-même. Humiliezvous, raison impuissante; taisez-vous, nature imbecile !" La belle chose de crier à un homme, qui ne se connoit pas, qu'il aille de lui-même à Dieu ! et la belle chose de le dire à un homme qui se connoit!" "Mon Dieu, que ce sont des sots discours! Dieu auroit-il fait le monde pour le damner? demanderoit-il tant de gens si foibles?' etc. Pyrrhonisme est le remède à ce mal, et rabattra cette vanité." The one philosopher whom Pascal thoroughly knew was Montaigne the sceptic, and though he ventures to criticize him here and there, his influence is visible at every page. And it is not only thoughts which Pascal

borrows from Montaigne, he uses his expressions. Here is a short list of words and phrases, taken from Montaigne's vocabulary, which are found in the Pensées.' Montaigne had written, "Le seul moyen que je prends pour rabattre cette frénésie." Pascal uses the word in the sentence quoted above: "Pyrrhonisme rabattra cette vanité." Pascal says, "Les enfants qui s'effrayent du visage qu'ils ont barbouillé;" and Montaigne, "Les enfants qui s'effrayent de ce même visage qu'ils ont barbouillé." "Le nœud de notre condition prend des replis," in Pascal, is taken bodily from Montaigne's "Ce devroit être un nœud prenant ses replis." The expression "avoir des prises" is common to the two writers. Montaigne had written, "Si les prises humaines étaient assez capables pour saisir la vérité;' and Pascal repeats, "Voyons si elle a quelques forces et quelques prises capables de saisir la vérité." Other characteristic phrases are used by both for instance, the verb 'couvrir,' in the sense of 'conceal'; 'gagner sur moi, sur lui,' in the sense of 'induce'; 'rapporter à,' in the sense of 'avoir rapport à'; 'tendu,' in the sense of 'prolonged'; and 'transi,' in the sense of 'transported.' Here, too, is a curious instance. Pascal wrote, "Un corps qui nous aggrave et nous abaisse vers la terre ;" apparently quoting Horace: "Corpus animum . . . . . prægravat atque affligit," but only doing so in the form in which Montaigne quotes him: "Corruptibile corpus aggravat animam."* But perhaps the most significant case is the

* Perhaps, however, both writers were quoting from the 'Book of Wisdom' in the Latin version (Lib. Sap. ix. 15).

employment of the word 'abêtir,' in Pascal's celebrated argument of 'taking the odds' as to the existence or non-existence of God: "Cela vous fera croire et vous abêtira." Montaigne had already said, "Il faut nous abestir pour nous assagir."

The argument itself, from which these last words are taken, is so astounding, both in conception and expression, that to most religious minds it has appeared little short of profane. Yet it is, after all, perfectly consistent with the attitude of a man who starts with the belief that all human reason and natural understanding are, owing to the Fall, incurably diseased and unprofitable. It is certainly rather more daring in expression, but also more logical than the language which a Jesuit or a Calvinist would allow himself, and the humeur bouillante which his sister Jacqueline found in Pascal, explains much of the passionate intensity of the phrases. If human reason be corrupt at its core, there can be of course no natural theology, and no rational proof of God's existence. Pascal is very explicit on this point. "I shall not attempt,” he says, "to prove by natural reasons either the existence of God or the immortality of the soul, or anything else of the like character; not only because I should not feel myself capable of finding anything in nature whereby to convince hardened Atheists, but also because such knowledge, without Jesus Christ, is useless and sterile. It is remarkable," he proceeds, "that no canonical author has ever made use of nature to prove God. They must have been cleverer than the cleverest men who have