Jean Steinmann, Pascal

An interesting parallel could be drawn between the night of Pascal and that of Descartes. In his Olympica Descartes wrote the following sentence which is reported by his biographer, Adrien Baillet: “[10th November 1619] Cum plenus forem enthousiasmo et mirabilis scientiae fundamenta reperirem….” And Baillet goes on to describe in detail three dreams which Descartes had on the night of the Feast of St Martin. He felt himself driven by the wind against the wall of a church, heard a clap of thunder “and opening his eyes, he saw many sparks flying all over the room”. Lastly, in a third dream, he found himself reading an anthology of poetry:

This last dream, in which there was nothing that was not gentle and agreeable,
pointed to his own future….But he took the two earlier dreams for warnings
related to his past life, which might not have been so innocent in the sight of
God as in the eyes of men. The impression which remained with him of these
disturbances led him on the following day to reflect on the path he was to
follow. In his perplexity, he turned to God and besought him to make his will
known to him, to enlighten him and guide him in his search for truth.

(Adam-Tannery, Oeuvres de Descartes, vol. X, pp.182-6)

How clearly we perceive in this account all the resemblances and all the differences between Pascal and Descartes, between the two great geniuses who were at once so close and so far from one another.

They were both Christians, both enlightened by God in the course of a November night, but with a light which has neither the same origin nor illumines the same truths. Descartes dreamt; Pascal was awake. When he woke Descartes reflected, while Pascal, who had not slept, read the Bible. If Descartes felt remorse it was before God, whereas Pascal was conscious of having denied and crucified Jesus Christ. Descartes was seeking truth and wanted to discover it on his own. Pascal possessed truth; it was enough for him to remain faithful to it. Descartes left on one side the dogmas of faith; Pascal flung himself into them completely. The two Catholics were separated by the Bible and the Mediator.

--Jean Steinmann, Pascal (Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York: 1966), 84-85.

375.

I have passed a great part of my life believing that there was justice, and in this I was not mistaken; for there is justice according as God has willed to reveal it to us. But I did not take it so, and this is where I made a mistake; for I believed that our justice was essentially just, and that I had that whereby to know and judge of it. But I have so often found my right judgment at fault, that at last I have come to distrust myself and then others. I have seen changes in all nations and men, and thus, after many changes of judgment regarding true justice, I have recognised that our nature was but in continual change, and I have not changed since; and if I changed, I would confirm my opinion.

524 and 525.

There is no doctrine more appropriate to man than this, which teaches him his double capacity of receiving and of losing grace, because of the double peril to which he is exposed, of despair or of pride.


The philosophers did not prescribe feelings suitable to the two states.
They inspired feelings of pure greatness, and that is not man's state.
They inspired feelings of pure littleness, and that is not man's state.
There must be feelings of humility, not from nature, but from penitence, not to rest in them, but to go on to greatness. There must be feelings of greatness, not from merit, but from grace, and after having passed through humiliation.

195a.

Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly.
Of all their errors, this doubtless is the one which most convicts them of foolishness and blindness, and in which it is easiest to confound them by the first glimmerings of common sense and by natural feelings.
For it is not to be doubted that the duration of this life is but a moment; that the state of death is eternal, whatever may be its nature; and that thus all our actions and thoughts must take such different directions, according to the state of that eternity, that it is impossible to take one step with sense and judgement, unless we regulate our course by the truth of that point which ought to be our ultimate end. There is nothing clearer than this; and thus, according to the principles of reason, the conduct of men is wholly unreasonable, if they do not take another course.
On this point, therefore, we condemn those who live without thought of the ultimate end of life, who let themselves be guided by their own inclinations and their own pleasures without reflection and without concern, and, as if they could annihilate eternity by turning away their thought from it, think only of making themselves happy for the moment...

546.

Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery; with Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery; in Him is all our virtue and all our happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice, misery, darkness, death, despair.

472.

Self-will will never be satisfied, though it should have command of all it would; but we are satisfied from the moment we renounce it. Without it we cannot be discontented; with it we cannot be content.

425b.

What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.
He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the whole course of nature.