human merit before God, shall find, in his daily conduct, proofs equally strong with those which the life of Pascal furnishes, of a sincere desire to mortify the deeds of the body, and to silence the impure suggestions of carnal inclination. Worn down, however, by rigid self-denial, and painful devotion to study, the frame of Pascal began to exhibit serious symptoms of decline. The constitutional disease, which had shown itself in earlier years, gained ground; and after five years of active exertion, his general health completely gave way, and be became, in several respects, a very great sufferer. One part of his affliction was a severe, and almost unceasing pain in the teeth, so that he was unable to sleep, and was compelled to lie whole nights in thought, in order, if possible, to divert his attention from the agony that he endured. of this world, are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light. The event, however, has its use in a different way. It tends to confirm our confidence in the superior mind of Pascal, as one of those lights that God has graciously vouchsafed to his church, to mark out the path of truth, amidst the mazes of error. And it exhibits, in a very interesting manner, the reality of Fascal's religion, that discoveries so calculated to gratify a mind like his, and to call out the ambitious desire of giving them to the world, should have appeared of little importance to him, compared with the general course of pious meditations, in which his days and nights were spent, and only worthy to occupy him seriously when it could be made to appear to him, however erroneously, that the publication might subserve the interests of that religion which was, of all things, nearest to his heart. There is very little At this time, however, an incident occurred indeed of this practical elevation above the world. which must not be omitted, because it tends to ex- There are few who really feel it; and whenever it hibit, in a striking point of view, the originality is seen, it is worthy of reverence; for few proofs of and superiority of his mind. During one of his the realizing consciousness of another existence, wakeful and painful nights, some propositions re- and of a rational hope of happiness in it, are more specting the curve, called the Cycloid, recurred to satisfactory and impressive than the calm and comhis recollection. He had, for a long time, given posure with which some superior minds loose their up all mathematical study; but the train of thought grasp upon those things of the present scene that to which these recollections led, interested him, and are naturally precious to them, and find their highbeguiled the pain under which he was suffering. He est delight in the promises of holiness and glory, allowed himself, therefore, to be led on by the beauty beyond this scene of death. As St. Paul says, Yea of the thoughts which occurred to him, and at length doubtless, and I count all things but dung that I may pressed his examination of the subject to such import- win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine ant results, hat even now the discoveries which he own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which made that i.ight, are regarded among the greatest is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which efforts of the human mind. Yet so completely had is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the his attention been turned away from such specula-power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his tions, and occupied with those religious contempla- sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if ions, which, as relating to God and eternity, he by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of hought far more important, that he did not attempt the dead. o commit to paper these interesting and splendid discoveries, till speaking one day of them to the Duke de Roannez, it was suggested to him that they might be made useful in support of the cause of the true religion, at that time persecuted in the persons of the Jansenists; and he then consented to the mode of publication which was subsequently adopted. In June, 1658, therefore, Pascal issued a paper, under the signature of Amos Dettonville, which is an anagram of the name of Louis de Montalte, the signature affixed to the Provincial Letters, proposing certain questions for solution, respecting the properties of the Cycloid, and offering two rewards if the questions were solved, and the mode of solution were exhibited, by a given day, to certain judges chosen for the purpose. The proposal gave rise to much discussion, and called forth much mathematical talent. Only two persons, however, claimed the prize, the Jesuit, Lallouere, and Dr. Wallis, the Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford; but at the expiry of the given time, they had not satisfied the judges that a proper solution of the questions had been offered, and then immediately Pascal printed his own treatise on the subject, which completely established his claim to the discovery of the right method of solution. How far this mathematical discovery could aid the cause of religion, is very questionable. Probably the Duke de Roannez wished it to be inferred, that the highest gifts of superior intellect are bestowed by a kind providence upon the servants of God, as a mark of approbation, and a proof of the nobler gifts of grace; but this is, to say the least of it, a very questionable position, and one not borne out by fact; for generally speaking, the children It is the curve, described by a nail upon the felly of a wheel of a carriage in motion In Pascal, turning aside from the career of fame to which his acute and active mind almost involun tarily led him, and neglecting those imposing discoveries which spontaneously opened to the energies of his genius, even in the very agonies of disease, to occupy himself with prayer and meditation on the Divine perfections, and with designs for the moral and religious improvement of his fellowcreatures, an instance of true magnanimity presents itself, which nothing but the reality of the great subject of his hopes can at all explain. Skeptics may profess to smile at what they call the superstitions of weaker minds, and they may find ample food for unholy mirth in the errors and im becilities of many faithful Christians, but when they see the loftiest spirits of the age, men whose comprehensive grasp of intellect makes all their boasted philosophy look mean and meagre, making light of all that the material world can offer to their notice, and eagerly holding forth the torch of revelation, to catch, as their worthiest prospect, a view of the realities of the eternal world, they are compelled to admit that there is, at least, no small probability that the testimony of that book is true, and that it is not folly to carry inquiry farther. The most interesting and important of the productions of this great mind, remains to be noticed. It has been seen, that the original tendencies of Pascal's mind, aided by the habits of his early edu cation, had peculiarly fitted him for patient and accurate investigation into any subject that came before him. He grappled with the difficulties of his subject, and never was satisfied till he had discovered the truth. Subsequently, the decline of his health, and some other providential circumstances, followed up by the advice of his pious relatives gave a decidedly religious bias to his mind, and with all his native ardor and acumen, and patience and perseverance in inquiry, he applied himself to the study of the Scriptures, the writings of the fathers, and every book of importance on the subject, on which he could lay his hand. In this way, following up his reading, according to his usual method, with frequent and mature reflection on the points in question in all the variety of their bearings, he gradually became completely master of the subject of the Christian religion, of the evidence for its truth, the suitability of the remedy to the state of man, the poverty and want of solidity in all the skeptical objections brought against it, and the true method of confuting each. The abstract which he has given of the opinions of Montaigne and Epictetus, shows how diligent had been his research into the opinions of other men, and how admirably fitted his mind was for unravelling their sophistries, and exposing their errors. Pascal, feeling no doubt master of his subject, and conscious, in a degree, of the fitness of his powers for it; at all events, tracing in his own mind a clear road to conviction of the truth of the Christian religion, determined to write a comprehensive work on the subject. Like most of his subjects of thought, he revolved it repeatedly in his mind, and sometimes spoke of it. On one occasion, he was requested to give in conversation, an outline of his plan, before a number of his friends. He consented; and in an extempore discourse of from two to three hours, developed the plan of his work. He pointed out the subject on which he purposed to treat; he gave a concise abridgment of the mode of reasoning, and a synoptical view of the order in which the different branches of the subject were to be treated; and his friends, who were themselves as capable as most men of judging in such a case, declared, that they had never heard any thing more admirable, or more powerfully convincing. It is recorded, that, from the hasty conversational view which he then gave them of the work, they anticipated a splendid performance from that mind, the powers of which they well knew, and whose assiduity they knew to be such, that he never contented himself with his first thoughts, but wrote and rewrote, even eight or ten times, tracts, which any one but himself, would have thought excellent at first. For this work, Pascal had been preparing several years; but the circumstances which occurred, in connection with the supposed cure of his niece, Mademoiselle Perier at Port Royal, and which peculiarly directed his attention to the subject of miracles, accelerated his efforts to accomplish it. He gave himself entirely to the work; and for a whole year, previously to the general breaking up of his health, he was occupied in collecting materials, and noting down his thoughts for the purpose. From that time, however, his life was an almost unbroken continuance of suffering, during which, he was able to do little towards the furtherance of his object. Worn down with pain, and oppressed by extreme languor, he could not occupy himself in lengthened meditation, and his utmost effort was, during the short intervals of relief from pain that were granted him, to write down his thoughts on the first morsel of paper that came to hand; and at times, when he could not hold the pen, he dictated to his servant. In this way Pascal accumulated materials for his work. The whole subject came repeatedly before *The facts of the case are very curious; and there is no doubt that M. Pascal believed the truth of the mi. raculous cure; but to go into a minute examination of the circumstances, would far exceed the limits of this memoir, and must be reserved for a more extensive work in contemplation, but which may perhaps never be accomplished. him in the detail of its different parts; and any thought which it might be needful to work into the general scheme, was committed to paper as it arose, and with a degree of accuracy or inaccuracy, according to the state of his mind or body at the time, and the degree of attention that he was enabled to give. Hence some of them were expressed in a manner peculiarly short, imperfect, and eniginatical; while others were evidently labored, and made out with care. But in the mysterious providence of God, this work was not to be completed. The health of the author rapidly declined; and at his death, nothing was found of it but this mass of detached Thoughts, written on separate pieces of paper, which were evidently the raw material, out of which he had purposed to erect the fabric that he had planned. It may be thought by some surprising, that after several years of study, for the express purpose, nothing more connected was found among his writings; but the habit of his mind explains this. It had always been his custom to reflect much on the subjects on which he wrote, and completely to arrange the matter in his mind before he embodied it on paper, in order that he might ascertain carefully the order in which the different parts should be disposed, so as to produce the effect which he desired; and having a memory so retentive, that as he used to say, no thought which he had once strongly impressed on his mind, ever escaped him, it appears probable, that, confiding to the clear analytic view which he had of his plan, he went on, using the intervals of rest from pain, to collect the specific thoughts, and looking to a period of greater freedom from disease, to bring them forth according to the general arrangement on which he had determined. That period, however, did not arrive; and instead of a luminous and comprehensive defence of the whole Christian scheme, we have in his Thoughts, as published, only some imperfect attempts, expressive of his intentions. These are, however, admirably calculated to suggest subjects of interesting speculation to other minds, on many important points of the great question which he had in view, and from their almost unrivalled excellence as far as they go, must ever give rise to sincere and deep regret, that their author left his work unfinished. As to the plan of the work, we are left entirely to conjecture, except so far as he unfolded it in the conversation before mentioned; but of that abridged statement, one of his friends who was present, has given from memory the following account: "After having shown them what modes of proof produce the greatest impression on the minds o* men, and are most effectual as means of suasion, he undertook to show that the Christian religin had marks of certainty as decided, and evide.ice in its favor as strong, as any of those things which are received in the world as unquestionable. "He began by a delineation of man, in which he omitted nothing which might tend to give him a minute and comprehensive knowledge of himself, both within and without, even to the most secret emotions of his soul. He then supposed the case of a man, who, having lived in that state of ignorance in which men generally live, and in indifference to most things around him, but especially to those which concern himself, comes, at length, to consider himself in the picture which he had previously drawn, and to examine what he really is. He is surprised with the discovery which he makes there of a multitude of things, on which he had never previously thought; and he cannot notice without astonishment, all that Pascal's description causes him to feel of his greatness and his vileness. his power and his weakness, of the little light that lingers with him, and the thick darkness which al- is otherwise unknown. In fact, it would be his obmost entirely surrounds him, and of all those won-ject to point out man, as so accurately depicted in derful contrarieties which are found in his nature. this book, that he would appear in no respect differAfter this, however weak his intellectual powers ent from the character which he had previously may be, he can no longer remain in indifférence; traced. and however insensible he may have been hitherto to such questions, he cannot but wish, after having ascertained what he is, to know also whence he came, and what is to become of him. Pascal having, as he supposed, thus awakened in him the disposition to seek for information on a subject so important, proposed to direct his attention, first to the philosophers of this world; and having unfolded to him all that the wisest philoscphers of all the different sects have said on the subject of man, to point out to him so many defects, weaknesses, contradictions, and falsehoods, in all that they have advanced, that it would not be difficult for the individual in question, to determine, that it is not in the schools of human philosophy that he must seek for instruction. "He then carries his disciple over the universe, and through all the ages of its history, and points cut to him the variety of religions which have obtained in it; but he shows him, at the same, by strong and convincing reasons, that all these religions are full of vanity and folly, of errors, extravagance and absurdity, so that here also he finds nothing which can give him satisfaction. "Then Pascal directs his attention to the Jewish people, and points out a train of circumstances so extraordinary, that they easily rivet his attention. And having called his attention to all the singularities of that nation, he fixes it especially on the one book by which that people are guided, and which comprehends at once their history, their law, and their theology. Scarcely has he opened this book, when he learns that the world is the work of God, and that the same God has made man in his own image, and endowed him with all the powers of body and mind, adapted to this state of being. Although he has not yet attained to a conviction of these truths, they are a source of gratification to him; and reason alone is sufficient to discover to him more probability in the supposition, that one God is the creator of men, and of all things in the universe, than in all the wild inventions which tradition offers elsewhere to his notice. He soon perceives, however, that he is far from possessing all the advantages which belonged to man, when he first came from the hands of his Maker. But his doubt in this matter is speedily cleared up; for on reading further, he ascertains, that after man had been created in a state of innocence, and gifted with many perfections, his first act was to rebel against his Maker, and to use his new created powers in offending him. "Pascal proposed then to show him, that this crime being one of the most aggravated in all its circumstances, it was punished, not only in the first man, who, having fallen by that sinful act, sunk at once into misery, and weakness, and blindness, and error, but also in all his descendants, in all time following, to whom he transmits, and will transmit, his own corrupt nature. "But merely to teach man the truth of his misery, would not be enough. Pascal proposed to show him, that in this same book also he might find his consolation. He would point out that it is said there, that the remedy of this evil is with God; that we must go to him for strength; that he will have compassion, and will send a deliverer who will make a satisfaction for guilty man, and be his support in weakness. "After having set before his disciple a number of, important remarks on the sacred book of this peculiar people, he proposed to show him that this was the only book which had spoken worthily of the Supreme Being, and that had given the idea of an universal religion. He would point out what should be the most evident marks of such a religion; which he would then apply to those which this book inculcated, and would direct his attention especially to the fact, that these Scriptures make the essence of religion to consist in the love of God, which is a feature entirely peculiar to themselves, and distinguishes them from all other religious writings in the world, the falsehood of which appears manifestly detected by the want of this essential characteristic. "Hitherto, although Pascal might have led his scholar so far onward towards a disposition for the adoption of the Christian religion, he had said uothing to convince him of the truth of the things which he had discovered; he had only induced in him the disposition to receive them with pleasure, if he could be satisfied that it was his duty; he had led him to wish with his whole heart, that these things were substantial and well-founded truths, since he found in them so much that tended to give him repose, and to clear up his serious and distressing doubts. And this, M. Pascal considered, is the state in which every reasonable man should be, who has once seriously entered on that train of considerations that he wished to set before the mind of his disciple; and that there is reason to believe, that a man in such a state of mind, would then easily admit all the proofs which might be brought to confirm the reality of those important truths of which he had spoken. "Then in the way of proof, having shown generally that these truths were contained in a book, the genuineness and authenticity of which, could not reasonably be doubted, he proposed to look minutely into the writings of Moses, in which these truths are especially taught, and to show by an extensive series of unquestionable proofs, that it was equally impossible that Moses had left a written statement of untruths, or that the people to whom he left them, could have been deceived as to the facts, even though Moses himself had been an impostor. He would speak also of the miracles recorded there, and he would prove that it was not possible that they could not be true, not only by the autho rity of the book that relates them, but by the many attendant circumstances which made them, in them selves, unquestionable. "His plan was then to point out to him several passages of this book, in which he must discover the "Then he would proceed to show, that the whole averment of this truth. He shows him that it never law of Moses was figurative; that all which hapspeaks of man but with reference to this state of pened to the Jews, was but a type of the realities weakness and disorder; that it is frequently said accomplished at the coming of Messiah; and that there, that all flesh is corrupt; that men are become the veil which covered these types having been sensual, and that they have a bias to evil from their withdrawn, it had become easy now to perceive tho birth. He shows him that this first fall is the ori- complete fulfilment of them, in those who had regin, not only of all that is otherwise incomprehen-ceived Jesus Christ as the promised teacher come sible in the nature of man, but also of many effects from God. which are external to him, and of which the cause "He then undertook to prove the truth of religion by prophecy; and, on this point, he spoke more fully than on some others. Having thought and examined deeply on this subject, and having views which were quite original, he explained them with great accuracy, and set them forth with peculiar force and brilliancy. "And then having run through the books of the Old Testament, and made many powerful observations, calculated to serve as convincing proofs of the truths of religion, he proposed to speak of the New Testament, and to draw from it the proofs which it afforded of the truth of the gospel. "He began with Jesus Christ; and although he had already triumphantly proved his Messiahship by prophecy, and by the types of the law which he showed to have in him their perfect accomplishment, he adduced further proofs still, drawn from his person, his miracles, his doctrine, and the events of his life. cumulated with all their force and brilliancy, so as to exhibit one comprehensive and conclusive testimony to the truth. But though Pascal did not live to complete his work, the fragments that he left behind him were too valuable to be lost. It was necessary that they should be given as a posthumous work to the public. His friends, therefore, who were aware of his design to write such a work, were peculiarly careful after his death, to collect every thing which he had written on the subject; and they found only the Thoughts which are published, with others yet more imperfect and obscure, written, as has been mentioned, on separate pieces of paper, and tied up in several bundles, without any connection or arrangement whatever, but evidently being, in the greater proportion of instances, the mere rough expression of the thought as it first entered his mind. He had been often heard to say, that the work would require ten years of health to complete it; and he had only been able to devote to it the short intervals of comparative ease, or rather of less acute suffering, which he enjoyed during four or five years of a complicated mortal disease. de Roannez, and Messieurs Arnauld, Nicole, De Treville, Dubois, De la Chaise, and the elder Perier. "He then came down to the apostles; and in order to show the truth of that faith which they had so generally preached, he first established the notion that they could not be accused of supporting a false system, but upon the supposition, either that they were deceivers, or were themselves deceived; and At first, from their confused and imperfect state, then in the second place, he showed that the one and it seemed almost impossible to give these papers the other of these suppositions were equally impos-publicity; but the demand for them, even as they sible. were, was so impatient, that it became necessary to. "Finally, he took a very comprehensive view of gratify it; and the labor of editing them was comthe evangelical history, making some admirable re-mitted to his leading confidential friends, the Duc marks on the gospel itself-on the style and character of the evangelists-on the apostles and their writings on the great number of miracles-on the saints and martyrs of the early church, and on all the various means by which the Christian religion had obtained a footing in the world: and although it was quite impracticable in such a discourse, to treat such an extensive range of material at length, and with the minuteness, accuracy, and collective force which he purposed in his work, he said enough to exhibit most luminously, the conclusion to which he wished to come, that God only could have so conducted the issue of so many different agents and influences, as that they should all concur in supporting the religion which he himself wished to establish among men." This is the short abstract which has been handed down of the plan of M. Pascal's work; and short as it is, it gives us some faint view of the comprehensiveness of his genius-of the grasp that he had of his subject, and of the irresistible mass of evidence in existence for the support of the Christian religion, if it could be thus brought to bear upon the question by the energies of one great mind adapted for the purpose. It must remain a matter of wonder to short-sighted mortals, why a work apparently so important, should not have been permitted to reach its completion. Perhaps the explanation of this difficulty may, in some measure, be obtained from one of M. Pascal's Thoughts, in which he says, "So many men make themselves unworthy of God's clemency, that he is willing to leave them ignorant of those blessings for which they do not care to seek. It was not right that he should appear in a mode unequivocally divine, so as to force conviction upon all men. Nor was it right that he should be so entirely concealed, as not to be recognized by those who sincerely seek him. To such he wished to be known; and willing therefore to be discovered by those who seek him with their whole heart, but hidden from those who as heartily avoid him, he has so regulated the discovery of himself, that he has given evidences which will be clear and satisfactory to those who really seek him, but dark, and doubtful, and depressing to those who seek him not." On this ground probably it is, that the evidences for our religion which do exist, have never yet been ac Number 17. And here a serious difficulty was to be encountered on the threshold. In what form should these fragments be given to the world? To print them precisely in the state in which they were found, would be worse than useless. They would have been a mass of mere confusion. To complete them as far as possible, by adding to the imperfect Thoughts, and enlightening the obscure, would have produced a very interesting and useful work; but it would not have been the work of Pascal, even supposing the editors able to enter fully into his original design. Both these methods, therefore, were rejected; and a third plan was adopted, according to which they are now reprinted. The editors selected from a great number of Thoughts, those which appeared the most perfect and intelligible; and these they printed as they found them, without addition or alteration, except that they arranged them as nearly as might be in that order, which, according to the Syllabus that Mr. Pascal had formerly given of his plan, they conceived would come nearest to his wishes. The first editions of the work were comparatively imperfect; but subsequently, many other valuable Thoughts were gleaned from the MSS. and in the later editions an accurate collation with the original papers, has secured, as far as possible, the meaning of the author. The first edition was printed in 1669, and was surprisingly successful. Tillemont, in speaking of it, says, "It has even surpassed all that I expected from a mind which I considered the greatest that had appeared in one century. I see only St. Augustine that can be compared with him." And most unquestionably, however imperfect the work remains, or rather, though it falls entirely short of being the efficient defence of the Christian religion which Pascal had contemplated; yet even now, this collection of scattered Thoughts stands forth to claim the meed of praise, as a work of unrivalled excellence. It bears the marks of the most extraordinary genius. It exhibits a master's hand in touching the difficult questions of the evidences for our religion, and in probing the secrets of the hu man heart. It exhibits many points of the argument with great originality and force, and contains the strongly disposed. His most ardent affections for any thing in this life, were given to his sister Jacqueline; yet so effectually had he, by Divine contemplation, become elevated above the common views which men take of separation by death, and so entirely was he absorbed in approbation of the will of God, that when her death was announced to him, an event which occurred about six months anterior to his own, he merely said, "May God give us grace to die as she died;" and thenceforth, he never spoke of her, but to remark on the grace with which God had blessed her during her life, and the peculiar mercy of her death at that time, in the crisis of the afflictions and persecutions of the Port Royal establishments; concluding always with the passage of Scripture, “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." germ of many new and valuable speculations. | to lawful objects here, to which he was by nature Many of these thoughts, hastily and imperfectly expressed as they are, have been the native ore, out of which other students have drawn the most valuable and elaborate treatises on different points of the extensive argument which he purposed to consider,* But one of the finest features of the work, is, the mastery which his mighty mind had over the human heart. Pascal had been a diligent student of his own heart; he knew its tendencies, its weaknesses, its errors. He knew what were its natural resources for comfort, and he knew their vanity; and having gone down into the depths of this question for his own sake, he was able to deal with a resistless power with the children of sin and folly. He could strip their excuses of all vain pretence. He could exhibit their lying vanities in all their poverty and comfortlessness; and he could set forth man in all the reality of his misery, as a dark and cheerless being, without hope or solace, except he find it in the mercy of his God, and in the revealed record of his compassion. But this endeavor to break loose from all earthly attachments, did not arise in him, as it does in some stoical minds, from a proud sense of superiority, and a dominant feeling of satisfaction in himself. On the contrary, he powerfully felt his own defects-he was equally anxious that others should not form any attachment to him. On this point he became so determined, and so conscientiously strict, that his manner seriously grieved his sister, Madame Perier, during his last illness, who complained of the evident coldness and reserve with which he received her tenderest and most assiduous attention to his infirmities. Madame Perier states, that this dryness and reserve were to her very enigmatical, because she saw, notwithstand It is this extensive knowledge of human nature which constitutes the peculiar charm of the Pensees. They who read it, feel that the writer gets within their guard; that he has, from experience, the power of entering into the secret chamber of their conscience, and of exhibiting to them the many evils which would otherwise lie there unmolested, but which, seen in the light in which he placed them, must be recognized as their own. The arguments of such a writer must have weight; and it is almost natural to feel, that he who has so thorough a knowledge of the disease, may be fol-ing the coldness of his general manner, that whenlowed also in his recommendation of a remedy. ever an opportunity occurred in which he could serve her, he embraced it with all his original ardor; and she mentions, that the difficulty on her mind in this respect, was never cleared up till the day of his death, when he stated his views to a friend, that it was highly criminal, for a human being, full of infirmities, to attempt to occupy the affections of a heart which should be given to God only, and that it was robbing God of the most precious thing that this world afforded. The close, however, of M. Pascal's life, demands our attention. His infirmities and sufferings rapidly increased; and at length unfitted him for any exertion whatever; but they had a most blessed effect upon himself as the means of preparing him more manifestly and entirely for a holier world. It was evidently his wish to detach himself as much as possible from the present material scene; and, with this view, he made it a matter of conscience to check the indulgence of all his appetites and affec- Nor did Pascal's endeavor to rise superior to tions. His disease rendered it absolutely necessary earthly attachments, originate in hard-heartedness that his food should be very delicate, but he was al- or misanthropy. On the contrary, in proportion as ways anxious to take it without occupying his mind he separated himself from the ties of affection to with it, or remarking upon its flavor. All this he relatives, and well known individuals, his affecconsidered as savoring strongly of sensuality. He tions towards the poor and the afflicted of his felobjected therefore to the introduction of any kind low-creatures increased. And herein he obtained of sauces, even the juice of an orange into his food, an eminent degree of assimilation to the Divine and rigidly regulated the quantity which he thought mind. When a stone is thrown into the water, the he ought to take daily for his sustenance; and this ripple occasioned nearest to the centre of impulse, he would not exceed. He watched with an anxious is the largest; and as the circles widen and recede, jealousy over the still stronger passions, lest the it diminishes. This is an emblem of human affecslightest indulgence should be given to them, in tion. The nearer the relation of the object to ourhimself or others. His views of the necessity of selves, the warmer is our love; and as the objects purity in general conversation, were of the highest become remote, our love declines, till it is scarcely kind; and he would not even allow his sister to re- perceptible. Perfect love, the love of God, is the mark on the personal beauty of any one whom she same to all; and with him, nearness of relation, or had seen, lest in the minds of his servants, of young position makes no difference. All God's creatures people or himself, it should give rise to a ques are loved by him, with an affection proportioned to tionable thought. their real worth: and the more fully we are assiM. Pascal felt it necessary, even to detach him-milated to the Divine Being, the more shall we reself still more from the present world, and to re-alize of this reigning principle of love; we shall strain within himself those excessive attachments love, not because we are loved, or because we receive any thing again, or because, in the person of our relatives, we bestow our affection remotely on our own flesh; but we shall love souls for their own sake, for their intrinsic value as the creatures of God, and as sharers with us in the same necessities and distresses. M. Pascal's regard for the necessities of the poor was so great, that he could not refuse to give alms, even though he was compelled to take from the supply necessary to relieve his own infirmities. |