Pensées

Blaise Pascal

• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9788827809365
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

Pascal's Pensées' is a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy written by 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. This book represented Pascal's defense of the Christian religion. The concept of "Pascal's Wager" stems from a portion of this work.

SECTION VII

MORALITY AND DOCTRINE

425

Second part.—That man without faith cannot know the truegood, nor justice.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whateverdifferent means they employ, they all tend to this end.[159]Thecause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the samedesire in both, attended with different views. The will never takesthe least step but to this object. This is the motive of everyaction of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faithhas reached the point to which all continually look. All complain,princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strongand weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries,all times, all ages, and all conditions.

A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainlyconvince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts.But example teaches us little. No resemblance is ever so perfectthat there is not some slight difference; and hence we expect thatour hope will not be deceived on this occasion as before. And thus,while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us,and frommisfortune to misfortune leads us to death, their eternalcrown.

What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim tous, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which therenow remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vaintries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absentthe help he does not obtain in things present? But these are allinadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by aninfinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by GodHimself.

He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken Him, it isa strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not beenserviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, theelements, 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 equallygood to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, toreason, and to the wholecourse of nature.

Some seek good in authority, others in scientific research,others in pleasure. Others, who are in fact nearer the truth, haveconsidered it necessary that the universal good, which all mendesire, should not consist in any of the particular things whichcan only be possessed by one man, and which, when shared, afflicttheir possessor more by the want of the part hehas not, than theyplease him by the possession of what he has. They have learned thatthe true good should be such as all can possess at once, withoutdiminution and without envy, and which no one can lose against hiswill. And their reason is that this desire being natural to man,since it is necessarily in all, and that it is impossible not tohave it, they infer from it ...

426

True nature being lost, everything becomes its own nature; asthe true good being lost, everything becomes its own true good.

427

Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainlygone astray, and fallen from his true place without beingable tofind it again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully everywherein impenetrable darkness.

428

If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do notdespise Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known thesecontradictions, esteemScripture.

429

The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes, and ineven worshipping them.

430

For Port Royal. The beginning, after having explained theincomprehensibility.—The greatness and the wretchedness ofman are so evident that the truereligion must necessarily teach usboth that there is in man some great source of greatness, and agreat source of wretchedness. It must then give us a reason forthese astonishing contradictions.

In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that thereis aGod; that we ought to love Him; that our true happiness is to be inHim, and our sole evil to be separated from Him; it must recognisethat we are full of darkness which hinders us from knowing andloving Him; and that thus, as our duties compel us to love God, andour lusts turn us away from Him, we are full of unrighteousness. Itmust give us an explanation of our opposition to God and to our owngood. It must teach us the remedies for these infirmities, and themeans of obtaining these remedies. Let us therefore examine all thereligions of the world, and see if there be any other than theChristian which is sufficient for this purpose.

Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward as thechief good, the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good?Have they found the remedy for our ills? Is man's pridecured byplacing him on an equality with God? Have those who have made usequal to the brutes, or the Mahommedans who have offered us earthlypleasures as the chief good even in eternity, produced the remedyfor our lusts? What religion, then, will teach us to cure pride andlust? What religion will in fact teach us our good, our duties, theweakness which turns us from them, the cause of this weakness, theremedies which can cure it, andthe means of obtaining theseremedies?

All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see whatthe wisdom of God will do.

"Expect neither truth," she says, "nor consolation from men. Iam she who formed you, and who alone can teach you what you are.But you are now no longer in the state in which I formed you. Icreated man holy, innocent, perfect. I filled him with light andintelligence. I communicated to him my glory and my wonders. Theeye of man saw then the majesty of God. He was not then inthedarkness which blinds him, nor subject to mortality and the woeswhich afflict him. But he has not been able to sustain so greatglory without falling into pride. He wanted to make himself his owncentre, and independent of my help. He withdrew himself from myrule; and, on his making himself equal to me by the desire offinding his happiness in himself, I abandoned him to himself. Andsetting in revolt the creatures that were subject to him, I madethem his enemies; so that man is now become like thebrutes, and soestranged from me that there scarce remains to him a dim vision ofhis Author. So far has all his knowledge been extinguished ordisturbed! The senses, independent of reason, and often the mastersof reason, have led him into pursuit of pleasure. All creatureseither torment or tempt him, and domineer over him, either subduinghim by their strength, or fascinating him by their charms, atyranny more awful and more imperious.

"Such is the state in which men now are. There remains to themsomefeeble instinct of the happiness of their former state; andthey are plunged in the evils of their blindness and their lust,which have become their second nature.

"From this principle which I disclose to you, you can recognisethe cause of thosecontradictions which have astonished all men, andhave divided them into parties holding so different views. Observe,now, all the feelings of greatness and glory which the experienceof so many woes cannot stifle, and see if the cause of them mustnot bein another nature."

For Port-Royal to-morrow (Prosopopœa).—"It is invain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the remedy for yourills. All your light can only reach the knowledge that not inyourselves will you find truth or good. The philosophers havepromised you that, and have been unable to do it. They neither knowwhat is your true good, nor what is your true state. How could theyhave given remedies for your ills, when they did not even knowthem? Your chief maladies are pride, which takes you away from God,and lust, which binds you to earth; and they have done nothing elsebut cherish one or other of these diseases. If they gave you God asan end, it was only to administer to your pride; they made youthink that you are by nature like Him, and conformed to Him. Andthose who saw the absurdity of this claim put you on anotherprecipice, by making you understand that your nature was likethatof the brutes, and led you to seek your good in the lusts which areshared by the animals. This is not theway to cure you of yourunrighteousness, which these wise men never knew. I alone can makeyou understand who you are...."

Adam, Jesus Christ.

If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If youare humbled, it is by penitence, not by nature.

Thus this double capacity ...

You are not in the state of your creation.

As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not torecognise them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, andsee if you do not find the lively characteristics of these twonatures. Could so many contradictions be found in a simplesubject?

—Incomprehensible.—Not all that is incomprehensibleceases to exist. Infinite number. An infinite space equal to afinite.

—Incredible that God should unite Himself tous.—This consideration is drawn only from the sight of ourvileness. But if you are quite sincere over it, follow it as far asI have done, and recognise that we are indeed so vile that we areincapable in ourselves of knowing if His mercy cannot make uscapable of Him. For I would know how this animal, who knows himselfto be so weak, has the right to measure the mercy of God, and setlimits to it, suggested by his own fancy. He has so littleknowledge of what God is, that he does not know what he himself is,and, completely disturbed at the sight of his own state, dares tosay that God cannot make him capable of communion with Him.

But I would ask him if God demands anything else from him thanthe knowledge and love of Him, and why, since his nature is capableof loveand knowledge, he believes that God cannot make Himselfknown and loved by him. Doubtless he knows at least that he exists,and that he loves something. Therefore, if he sees anything in thedarkness wherein he is, and if he finds some object of his loveamong the things on earth, why, if God impart to him some ray ofHis essence, will he not be capable of knowing and of loving Him inthe manner in which it shall please Him to communicate Himself tous? There must then be certainly an intolerable presumption inarguments of this sort, although they seem founded on an apparenthumility, which is neither sincere nor reasonable, if it does notmake us admit that, not knowing of ourselves what we are, we canonly learn it from God.

"I do not mean that you shouldsubmit your belief to me withoutreason, and I do not aspire to overcome you by tyranny. In fact, Ido not claim to give you a reason for everything. And to reconcilethese contradictions, I intend to make you see clearly, byconvincing proofs, those divine signs in me, which may convince youof what I am, and may gain authority for me by wonders and proofswhich you cannot reject; so that you may then believe without ...the things which I teach you, since you will find no other groundfor rejecting them,except that you cannot know of yourselves ifthey are true or not.

"God has willed to redeem men, and to open salvation to thosewho seek it. But men render themselves so unworthy of it, that itis right that God should refuse to some, because of their obduracy,what He grants to others from a compassion which is not due tothem. If He had willed to overcome the obstinacy of the mosthardened, He could have done so by revealing Himself so manifestlyto them that they could not have doubted of the truth ofHisessence; as it will appear at the last day, with such thunders andsuch a convulsion of nature, that the dead will rise again, and theblindest will see Him.

"It is not in this manner that He has willed to appear in Hisadvent of mercy, because, as somany make themselves unworthy of Hismercy, He has willed to leave them in the loss of the good whichthey do not want. It was not then right that He should appear in amanner manifestly divine, and completely capable of convincing allmen; but it was alsonot right that He should come in so hidden amanner that He could not be known by those who should sincerelyseek Him. He has willed to make Himself quite recognisable bythose; and thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Himwith all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Himwith all their heart, He so regulates the knowledge of Himself thatHe has given signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, andnot to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those whoonly desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have acontrary disposition."

431

No other religion has recognised that man is the most excellentcreature. Some, which have quite recognised the reality of hisexcellence, have considered as mean and ungrateful the low opinionswhich men naturally have of themselves; and others, which havethoroughly recognised how real is this vileness, have treated withproud ridicule those feelings of greatness, which are equallynatural to man.

"Lift your eyes to God," say the first; "see Him whom youresemble, and who has created you to worship Him. You can makeyourselves like unto Him; wisdom will make you equal to Him, if youwill follow it." "Raise your heads, free men," says Epictetus. Andothers say, "Bend your eyesto the earth, wretched worm that youare, and consider the brutes whose companion you are."

What, then, will man become? Will he be equal to God or thebrutes? What a frightful difference! What, then, shall we be? Whodoes not see from all this that man has gone astray, that he hasfallen from his place, that he anxiously seeks it, that he cannotfind it again? And who shall then direct him to it? The greatestmen have failed.

432

Scepticism is true; for, after all, men before Jesus Christ didnot knowwhere they were, nor whether they were great or small. Andthose who have said the one or the other, knew nothing about it,and guessed without reason and by chance. They also erred always inexcluding the one or the other.

Quod ergo ignorantes, quæritis,religio annuntiatvobis.[160]

433

After having understood the whole nature of man.—That areligion may be true, it must have know...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION
• SECTION I
• SECTION II
• SECTION III
• SECTION IV
• SECTION V
• SECTION VI
• SECTION VII
• SECTION VIII
• SECTION IX
• SECTION X
• SECTION XI
• SECTION XII
• SECTION XIII
• SECTION XIV