The Inquisition, and the society of Jesuits, are the two scourges of the truth.

78. I was asked first, if I repented of having writ ten the Provincial Letters? I answered, That far from repenting, if I had it to do again, I would write them yet more strongly.

I was asked in the second place, why I named the authors from whom I extracted those abominable passages which I have cited? I answered, If I were in a town where there were a dozen fountains, and I knew for certain that one of them was poisoned, I should be under obligation to tell the world not to draw from that fountain; and, as it might be supposed, that this was a mere fancy on my part, I should be obliged to name him who had poisoned it, rather than expose a whole city to the risk of death.

I was asked, thirdly, why I adopted an agreeable, jccose, and entertaining style? I answered, If I had written dogmatically, none but the learned would have read my book; and they had no need of it, knowing how the matter stood, at least as well as I did. I conceived it therefore my duty to write, so that my letters might be read by women, and people in general, that they might know the danger of all those maxims and propositions which were then spread abroad, and admitted with so little hesitation.

Finally, I was asked If I had myself read all the books which I quoted? I answered, No. To do this, I had need have passed the greater part of my life in reading very bad books. But I have twice read Escobar* throughout and for the others, I got several of my friends to read them; but I have never used a single passage without having read it myself in the book quoted, without having examined the case in which it is brought forward, and without having read

* A Spanish Jesuit, who died in 1669. His principles of morality, in 7 vols. folio, are ridiculed by Pascal in the Provincial Letters.. A. E.

the preceding and subsequent context, that I might not run the risk of citing that for an answer, which was, in fact, an objection, which would have been very unjust and blamable.

79 The Arithmetical machine produces results which come nearer to thought, than any thing that brutes can do; but it does nothing that would, in the least, lead one to suppose that it has a will like them.

80. Some authors, speaking of their works, say, "My book, my commentary, my history." They betray their own vulgarity, who have just got a house over their heads, and have always, "My house," at their tongue's end. It were better to say, "Our book, our history, our commentary, &c. for generally there is more in it belonging to others than to themselves.

81. Christian piety annihilates the egotism of the heart; worldly politeness veils and represses it.

82. If my heart were as poor as my understanding, I should be happy, for I am thoroughly persuaded, that such poverty is a means of salvation.

83. One thing I have observed, that let a man be ever so poor, he has always something to leave on his death-bed.

84. I love poverty, because Jesus Christ loved it. I love wealth, because it gives the means of assisting the wretched. I wish to deal faithfully with all men. I render no evil to those who have done evil to me; but I wish them a condition similar to my own, in which they would not receive from the greater portion of men either good or evil. I aim to be always true, and just, and open towards all men. I have much tenderness of heart towards those whom God has more strictly united to me. Whether I am in secret, or in the sight of men, I have set before me in all my actions, the God who will judge them, and to whom I have consecrated them. These are my feelings; and I bless my Redeemer every day of my life, who has planted them in me; and who, from a man full of weakness, misery, lust, pride, and ambition, has formed one victorious over these evils by the power

of that grace, to which I owe every thing, seeing that in myself there is nothing but misery and horror.

85. Disease is the natural state of Christians; for by its influence, we become what we should be at all times; we endure evil; we are deprived of all our goods, and of all the pleasures of sense; we are freed from the excitement of those passions which annoy us all through life; we live without ambition and without avarice, in the constant expectation of death. And is it not thus, that Christians should spend their days? And is it not real happiness to find ourselves placed by necessity in that state in which we ought to be, and that we have nothing to do, but humbly and peaceably submit to our lot. With this view, I ask for nothing else but to pray God, that he would bestow this grace upon me.

86. It is strange that men have wished to dive into the principles of things, and to attain to universal knowledge; for surely it were impossible to cherish such a purpose, without a capacity, or the presumption of a capacity, as boundless as nature itself.

87. Nature has many perfections to shew that it is an image of the Deity. It has defects, to shew that

it is but an image.

88. Men are so completely fools by necessity, that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly, who does not confess his foolishness.

89. Do away the doctrine of probability, and you please the world no longer. Give them the doctrine of probability, and you cannot but please them.

90. If that which is contingent were made certain, the zeal of the saints, for the practice of good works, would be useless.

91. It must be grace indeed that makes a man a saint. And who, even in his most doubtful mood, does not know what constitutes a saint, and what a natural man.

92. The smallest motion is of importance in nature. The whole substance of the sea moves when we throw in a pebble. So in the life of grace, the most trifling action has a bearing in its consequences upon the whole. Every thing then is important.

97. Naturally men hate each other. Much use has been made of human corruption, to make it subserve the public good. But then, all this is but deception; a false semblance of charity; really it is only hatred after all. This vile resource of human nature, this figmentum malum is only covered. It is not removed.

98. They, who say that man is too insignificant to be admitted to communion with God, had need be more than ordinarily great to know it assuredly.

99. It is unworthy of God to join himself to man in his miserable degradation; but it is not so to bring him forth from that misery.

100. Who ever heard such absurdities? sinners purified without penitence; just men made perfect without the grace of Christ; God without a controlling power over the human will; predestination without mystery; and a Redeemer without the certainty of salvation.

103. That Christianity is not the only religion, is no real objection to its being true. On the contrary, this is one of the means of proof that it is true.

104. In a state established as a republic, like Venice, it were a great sin to try to force a king upon them, and to rob the people of that liberty which God had given them. But in a state where monarchical power has been admitted, we cannot violate the respect due to the king, without a degree of sacrilege; for as the power that God has conferred on him, is not only a representation, but a participation of the power of God, we may not oppose it without resisting manifestly the ordinance of God. Moreover, as civil war, which is the consequence of such resistance, is one of the greatest evils that we can commit in violation of the love of our neighbour, we can never sufficiently magnify the greatness of the crime. The primitive Christians did not teach us revolt, but patience, when kings trampled upon their rights.

I am as far removed from the probability of this sin, as from assassination and robbery on the highway. There is nothing more contrary to my natural disposition, and to which I am less tempted.

105. Eloquence is the art of saying things in such a manner, that in the first place, those to whom we speak, may hear them without pain, and with pleasure; and, in the second, that they may feel interested in them, and be led by their own self-love, to a more willing reflection on them. It consists in the endeavour to establish a correspondence between the understanding and heart of those to whom we speak, on the one hand, and the thoughts and expressions of which, we make use on the other; an idea which supposes, at the outset, that we have well studied the human heart, to know all its recesses, and rightly to arrange the proportions of a discourse, calculated to meet it. We ought to put ourselves in the place of those to whom we speak, and try upon our own heart, the turn of thought which we give to a discourse, and thus ascertain if the one is adapted to the other, and if we can in this way acquire the conviction, that the hearer will be compelled to surrender to it. Our strength should be, in being simple and natural, neither inflating that which is little, nor lowering that which is really grand. It is not enough that the statement be beautiful. It should suit the subject, having nothing exuberant, nothing defective.

Eloquence is a pictural representation of thought; and hence, those who, after having painted it, make additions to it, give us a fancy picture, but not a portrait.*

106. The Holy Scripture is not a science of the understanding, but of the heart. It is intelligible only to those who have an honest and good heart. The veil that is upon the Scriptures, in the case of the Jews, is there also in the case of Christians. Charity is not only the end of the Holy Scriptures, but the entrance to them.

107. If we are to do nothing, but where we have

* These views are worthy of the serious consideration of every public speaker. A. E.