the leading features of quarrel with her on the part of the Protestant Churches, would have almost ceased to exist. But it is not so. These men must now be looked on only as extraordinary exceptions, from the dominant evils of that community. They are not specimens of the brilliant attainments in knowledge and piety of the disciples of the Papacy. They are anomalies to the universality of error. They are only a few scattered lights, that have been permitted occasionally to shine out amidst the surrounding gloom,—to make the palpable thickness of the darkness that covers the multitude more visible. They are only proofs of what the Romish clergy should have been, and might have been, even while they remained conscientiously in communion with that church. But they stand forth as a swift witness against the errors, that have almost universally been sanctioned and encouraged by its authorities; and perhaps, no condemnation more fearful will issue in the last day against the anti-christian errors of Rome than that which marks, with Divine approbation, the solemn protestation of Pascal and his friends, and recognizes the melancholy fact, that sound Scriptural truth was hunted down and prosecuted, and condemned in their persons, and the true religion of the Saviour once more sacrificed in them to the worldly policy and intrigue, to the pride and passion of the Jesuits. With the death of Pascal, and the banishment of his friends, all rational hope of the reformation of the French church ceased. "Darkness covered the people-gross darkness that might be felt." And from that day to this, successive woes have fallen, in almost unmingled bitterness, on that irreligious and careless people. What further evils may yet assail them, time will unfold; but even now, increasing darkness gathers round. The sad lessons of experienced suffering, are already thrown aside; and darker superstition frowns, while she forges for them new and heavier chains. In the prospect of the gloom that lowers upon that melancholy country, and in the belief that the torch of truth in the hand of the Jansenists, and of their great champion, might have dispelled it, the friends of true religion may well take up the friendly lamentation which mourned over the tomb of Pascal, the loss sustained by his country in his untimely fall, and say, Heu! Heu! Cecidit Pascalis. Pascal was buried at Paris, in the parish church of 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 of 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. 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, Christianæ Moralis Corruptorum acerrimus hostis. Hunc Pii venerantur austerum. 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 ΠΑΣ ΚΑΛΙΟΣ. 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 Consilarius, ac Gilbertæ Pascal, Blasii Pascal sororis, conjux amantissimus, 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, 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 *The Copernican system was not then generally received by the members of the Romish Church. limits of its space. Let us labor 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 around 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; humors in that blood ;globules in that humor; 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 |