THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
M'Crie (Edinburgh, 1847), and in Temple Classics (London, 1904).
When its termination left him free to carry out
his plan for a great apologetic work, his health was
so increasingly feeble that he could do nothing
more than leave a few scattered sheets
4. Thoughts to represent his thoughts. In 1661 a on Religion, new attack upon Port-Royal gave him
much pain, which was increased by what he thought the weakness of the submission of Arnauld and Nicole, and by the death of his sister Jacqueline (Oct. 4, 1661). His last few months were spent in retirement and in devotional exercises and works of charity. His remains were buried in the church of St. Etienne du Mont. The fragments found among his papers, representing his desultory preparations for the great work which was to have converted the atheists, were published by his friends under the title Pensees de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets qui ont ete trouvees apres sa mort parmi ses papier s (Paris, 1670). Unfortunately Nicole and Arnauld felt obliged or authorized to alter the text almost out of all recognition; and it was not until the publication of Victor Cousin's Des Pensees de Pascal (Paris, 1843) that attention was drawn to the original. The first correct edition was that of M. P. Faugere, Pensees, fragments et lettres de Blaise Pascal (1844); Eng. transl., Thoughts on Religion and Evidences of Christianity (London, 1850). Other English translations are by Basil Kennett (1727, 1893), and C. K. Paul (London, 1885). G. Michaut, PensSes disposees suivant I'ordre du cahier autographe, aims to give a literal reproduction (Freiburg in Switzerland, 1896). Scientific studies, according to Pascal, leave the riddle of life unsolved, and the deepest cravings of the heart unsatisfied. Hence he turned to the study of man. Mathematical logic is incontrovertible but minus concrete truth. For
5. Contents, scientific deduction God is cognizable
only as a mathematical determination or concept of limitation. Only a single ethical effect follows the contemplation of the mathematical; through the conception of the infinitely small and the infinitely great, man comes to the realization of self and reverence before the infinite. The study to which man is called by his own constitution is the study of man. The first results are despairing; man is a chaos, a being full of inexplicable contradictions. But the very fact that he seeks and yet is helplessly weak, is proof that he once possessed a real happiness. He seeks in that which he has not the help which he finds not in that which he has, while neither the one nor the other is able to deliver him, because this infinite abyss is only to be filled by an infinite means. Mere philosophy can not bridge the chasm. Of the two fundamental types, Stoicism sets forth the grandeur of man but is blind to his misery and ethical impotenoe: skepticism recognizes his misery, but stumbles over his greatness. Philosophy points out the way of escape from the dilemma by preparing man for the receptivity of faith or leading to theology, the center of all truth. Reason affords a knowledge of God as a philosophical postulate but not as salvation; how God exists and how he is related to man must
come by religious revelation. In the search for true religion, in the first place, reason is the only instrument: divine revelation must be cognizable by it, or at least not opposed to it. By miracle, prophecy, and the historic life of Jesus, Christianity reveals itself to reason as the true religion. The proofs are not " mathematically convincing," but they offer the Christian religion as a hypothesis that satisfies the reason. The doctrines of nature and grace, of the fall and of a divine-human Redeemer, are the necessary complement of experience as to the conjoint misery and greatness of man. But as the ungodly passions set themselves against the reasonable apprehension of God and his revelation, man can strengthen his faith by a second means; namely, habit. The habit of acting as though he believed, will reduce the frowardness of man's heart. Actual faith, however, is a gift of the divine grace; not indirectly through the reason but directly God inspires faith in the heart, whenever it suits his pleasure. The result is an absolute certainty and blessedness. The inspiration which makes the heart certain of the truth of religion proceeds from Christ, through whom alone we know God. Christian perfection consists for Pascal in the imitation of the self-denying life of Jesus — penitent self-contemplation, monastic mortification of the natural man, mystical surrender, and contemplative elevation are the means of sanctification. Thus his ideal of life is largely negative, the duty of charity toward the poor and suffering being the principal positive precept. This insistence on the inner life and personal sanctification is far removed from the Jesuit cosmopolitan morality; but it is almost equally far from the Evangelical conception of Christian perfection. There is nothing in all his work to show that he had any real understanding of or sympathy with Protestantism; yet he has been, like his contemporaries of Port-Royal, a stranger in the Roman Catholic Church to this day. Like Paul and Augustine, his great teachers, he has been a pathfinder to all those who were seeking God. A prince in the realm of science, he is even a greater than a prince in that of faith. (Etjgen Lachenmann.)
Bibliography: Noteworthy editions of the works of Pascal are: C. Bossut, 5 vols., The Hague, 1779; Abbe Maynard, 2 vols., Paris, 1851; C. Lahure, 2 vols., ib. 1858, with " Life " by Mme. Perier; J. de Soyres, Cambridge, 1880; L. Derome, Paris, 1885 sqq.; P. Faugere, Paris, new ed., 1886-95; E. Havet, 2 vols., ib. 1889; Molinier, ib. 1891; and the latest, by L. Brunschvicg and P. Boutroux, ib. 1908. The works were translated into Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, and English (London, 1657). His Miscellaneous Writings, translated from Faugere's ed., appeared London, 1849. For discussions of Pascal's life and work consult: E. Boutroux, Pascal, Paris, 1900, Eng. transl., Manchester, 1902 (the ripest fruit of the later investigations); C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vols, iiiii., Paris, 1860; idem, Portraits contemporains, ib. 1847; idem, Monday Chats, Chicago, 1877; idem, Essays on Men and Women, London, 1890; A. H. Reuchlin, Pascal's Leben und der Geist seiner Schriften, Stuttgart, 1840; V. Cousin, Etudes sur Pascal, Paris, 1857; H. Weingarten, Pascal als Apologet, Leipsic, 1863; E. Saisset, Le Scepticisme, pp. 241-342, Paris, 1865; T. W. Ecklin, Blaise Pascal, ein Zeuge der Wahrheit, Basel, 1870; J. G. Dreydorff, Pascal, sein Leben und seine Kampfe, Leipsic, 1870; idem, Pascal's Gedanken iiber die Religion, ib. 1875; J. Tulloch, Pascal, Edinburgh, 1878; E. Droz, Etude sur le scepticisme de Pascal, Paris, 1886; E. Scherer, Etudes