St Etienne du Mont, behind the main altar, near to, and directly before the pillar on the left hand, entering the Chapel of the Virgin. A Latin epitaph, remarkably quaint and original in its style, written by Aimonius Proust de Chambourg, Professor of Law in the University of Orleans, was laid over the grave; but as it lay in a very frequented part of the Church, it was speedily effaced; and a second inscription, engraved on a marble tablet, was affixed to the pillar immediately adjoining. This second inscription, owing to some repairs in the Church, was afterwards removed, and placed over the side door at the right side of the Church. During the revolution, it was carried away to the Museum of French Monuments; but on the 21st April, 1818, it was restored to its original pillar, in the presence of the Prefect of the department of the Seine, a deputation of the Academy, and many relations of the deceased. Nobilissimi Scutarii Blasii Pascalis Tumulus. D. O. M. BLASIUS PASCALIS SCUTARIUS NOBILIS HIC JACET. Pietas si non moritur, æternùm vivet ; Religione sanctus, Virtute clarus, Ingenio acutus, Sanguine et animo pariter illustris ; Equitatis amator, Veritatis defensor, Viginum ultor, Christianæ Moralis Corruptorum acerrimus hostis. Hunc Rhetores amant facundum, Quid plura? Viator, quem perdidimus IS LUDOVICUS erat MONTALTIUS. Satis dixi, urgent lachrymæ, Ei qui benè precaberis, benè tibi eveniat, Vixit. An. 39. m. 2. Obiit an. rep. Sal. 1662. ΩΛΕΤΟ ΠΑΣΚΑΛΙΟΣ. ΦΕΥ! ΦΕΥ! ΠΕΝΘΟΣ ΟΣΟΝ! Heu! Heu! qualis luctus! Posuit A. P. D. C. mærens Aurelian. Canonista. Pro columna superiori, Sub tumulo marmoreo, Jacet BLASIUS PASCAL, Claromontanus, Stephani Pascal in Supremâ apud Arvernos Subsidiorum Curiâ Præsidis filius, post aliquot annos in severiori secessu et divinæ legis meditatione transactos, feliciter et religiosè in pace Christi, vitâ functus anno 1662, ætatis 39, die 19 Augusti. Optasset ille quidem præ paupertatis et humilitatis studio, etiam his sepulchri honoribus carere, mortuusque etiamnùm latere, qui vivus semper latere voluerat.__Verùm ejus hac in parte votis cùm cedere non posset Florinus Perier in eâdem subsidiorum Curia Consiliarius, ac Gilbertæ Pascal, Blasii Pascal sororis, conjux amantissi mus, hanc tabulam posuit, qua et suam in illum pietatem significaret, et Christianos ad Christiana precum officia sibi et defuncto profutura cohortaretur. THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. CHAPTER I. ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE. WHEN man considers himself, the first thing that claims his notice is his body; that is a certain portion of matter evidently appertaining to himself. But if he would know what this is, he must compare himself with all that is superior or inferior to him; and thus he will ascertain his own just limits. But he must not rest contented with the examination of the things around him. Let him contemplate universal nature in all the height and fulness of its majesty. Let him consider that glorious luminary, hung as an eternal lamp, to enlighten the universe. Let him consider that this earth is a mere point, compared with the vast circuit which that bright orb describes.* Let him learn with wonder, that this wide orbit itself is but a speck compared with the course of the stars, which roll in the firmament of heaven. And if here our sight is limited, * The Copernican system was not then generally received by the members of the Romish Church. A let the imagination take up the inquiry and venture further. It will weary with conceiving, far sooner than nature in supplying food for thought. All that we see of the universe is but an almost imperceptible spot on the ample bosom of nature. No conception even approaches the limits of its space. Let us labour as we will with our conceptions, we bring forth mere atoms, compared with the immensity of that which really is. It is an infinite sphere, whose centre is every where, and whose circumference is no where. And, in fact, one of the most powerful sensible impressions of the omnipotence of God is, that our imagination is lost in this thought. Then let man return to himself, and consider what he is, compared with all else that is. Let him consider himself as a wanderer in this remote corner of nature; and then from what he sees of this narrow prison in which he lies-this visible world; let him learn to estimate rightly the earth, its kingdoms, its cities, himself, and his own real value. What is man in this infinity? Who can comprehend him ? But to shew him another prodigy equally astonishing, let him search among the minutest objects round him. Let a mite, for instance, exhibit to him, in the exceeding smallness of its frame, portions yet incomparably smaller; limbs well articulated; veins in those limbs; blood in those veins; humours in that blood; globules in that humour; and gases in those globules;-and then dividing again their smallest objects, let him exhaust the powers of his conception, and then let the lowest particle that he can imagine become the subject of our discourse. He thinks, perhaps, that this is the minutest atom of nature, but I will open to him, within it, a new and fathomless abyss. I can exhibit to him yet, not only the visible universe, but even all that he is capable of conceiving of the immensity of nature, embosomed in this imperceptible atom. Let him see there an infinity of worlds, each of which has its firmament, its planets, its earth; bearing the same proportion to the other parts as in the visible world: and in this earth, animals, and even mites again, in which he shall trace the same discoveries which the first mites yielded; and then again the same in others without end and without repose. He is lost in these wonders, equally astonishing in their minuteness, as the former by their extent. And who would not wonder to think that this body, which so lately was not perceptible in that universe, which universe was itself an imperceptible spot on the bosom of infinity, should now appear a colossus, a world, a universe, compared with that ultimate atom of minuteness to which we cannot arrive. He who thus thinks of himself, will doubtless be alarmed to see himself, as it were, suspended in the mass of matter that is allotted to him, between these two abysses of infinity and nothingness, and equally remote from both. He will tremble at the perception of these wonders; and I would think, that his curiosity changing into reverence, he would be more disposed to contemplate them in silence, than to scrutinize them with presumption. For what after all is man, in nature? A nothing compared with infinity,-a universe compared with nothing,—a mean between all and nothing. He is infinitely distant from both extremes. His being is not less remote from the nothing out of which he was formed, than from the infinity in which he is lost. His mind holds the same rank in the order of intelligent beings, as his body in material nature; and all that it can do, is to discern somewhat of the middle of things, |