Part 89

P. 31, l. 22. Sneezing absorbs all the faculties. A paraphrase of a passage in Montaigne, Essais, l. iii. ch. v.

P. 31, l. 28. Scaramouch. One of the traditional parts in Italian Comedy, at that time played by the well-known actor Tiberio Fiorelli, whom Pascal had probably seen.

P. 31, l. 29. The doctor, also a common character in Italian forces. Molière has borrowed from the Italian stage his doctor, so often a pedant and a fool, of whom le docteur Pancrace, in Le Marriage Forcé, is perhaps the most notable example, though that comedy was produced after the death of Pascal.

P. 32, l. 11. the Condrieu, the Desargues. Gerard Desargues was a mathematician at Condrieu on the Rhone, who had been Pascal's teacher. Among the Muscat grapes grown at Condrieu, Pascal distinguishes a special variety of Desargues, and among these a particular vine.

P. 32, l. 28. the Passion of Cleobuline. In Artamène, on le Grand Cyrus, the celebrated romance of Mademoiselle de Scudery, Cleobuline, princess, afterwards queen of Corinth, is one of the principal characters. She is represented as in love with Myrinthe, one of her subjects, but "she loved him without thinking of love; and remained so long in her error, that when she became aware of it, her affection was no longer in a condition to be overcome."

P. 33. Diversion. Under this heading Pascal comprises not only trivial occupations, and the distractions of idle society, but all which, save truth alone, can form the study or the research of man. The main idea of the chapter is borrowed from Montaigne, Essais, l. iii. chap. x.

P. 35. l. 17. The counsel given to Pyrrhus. Ib., l. i. ch. xliii.

P. 36, l. 11. as children are frightened at a face. Borrowed from Montaigne, Essais, l. ii. ch. iii., and Montaigne in his turn borrowed it from Seneca, Ep. 24.

P. 36, l. 28. superintendent. Of finances. The last who held this office was Fouquet, still in office when this was written. He was dismissed in disgrace in 1661.

P. 36, l. 29. first president. Of the Parliament of Paris.

P. 36, l. 32. dismissed to their country houses. At that date, and for a long time afterwards, a Minister of State rarely fell from Office without receiving a Lettre de cachet which banished him to the seclusion of his country estate.

P. 39, l. 17. In omnibus requiem quæsivi. Eccles. xxiv. 7.

P. 40, l. 9. will arise weariness. Compare Montaigne, Essais, l. iii.

P. 41, l. 7. Cæsar was too old. See Montaigne, Essais, l. ii. ch. xxxiv.

P. 43. The Greatness and Littleness of Man. The title suggested by Pascal, in many passages of the autograph MS.

P. 43, l. 11. for Port Royal. The letters A. P. R. occur in several places in Pascal's MS. It is generally thought that they mean à Port-Royal, and are intended to indicate subjects to be developed later in conférences or lectures at that house.

P. 45, l. 1. Man is neither angel nor brute. This is closely borrowed from Montaigne, Essais, l. iii. ch. xiii.

P. 46, l. 15. Corrumpunt mores bonos colloquia prava. 1 ad Cor. xv. 33, but the Vulgate reading has mala.

P. 47, l. 18. Paulus Emilius. The example is taken from Montaigne, Essais, l. i. ch. xix. See also Cic. Tuscul. v. 40.

P. 47, l. 31. Ego vir videns, Lament, iii. 1. Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus.

P. 51. Of the deceptive powers, etc. This is Pascal's own title for this section.

P. 51, l. 14. Imagination. Pascal uses this word in an extended sense already given to it by Montaigne, and means that faculty by which we attribute a value to those things which in fact have none.

P. 53, l. 11. furred cats. Rabelais, bk. v. ch. 11.

P. 54, l. 2. Della Opinione. No work is known under this name. Pascal possibly means a work of Carlo Flosi, L'Opinione tiranna, moralmente considerata ne gli affari del mondo, Mondovi, 1690. But it is not certain that this edition is the reprint of a work extant before Pascal wrote.

P. 54, l. 27. Diseases are another source of error. Taken from Montaigne, Essais, l. ii. ch. xii.

P. 56, l. 20. in Switzerland that of the burgesses. This may be compared with p. 66, l. 6. In the majority of Swiss towns every candidate for municipal office must needs possess the freedom of the town, but the intention was not to set aside those of noble birth, as Pascal supposes, but foreigners, and those of other towns, each of which was considered as a separate state.

P. 57, l. 27. would care nothing for Provence. Compare Montaigne, Essais, l. i. ch. xxii. "C'est par l'entremise de la coustume que chascun est contant du lieu où nature l'a planté: et les sauvages d'Escosse n'ont que faire de la Touraine, ny les Scythes de la Thessalie."

P. 57, l. 28. Ferox gens. Livy, l. xxxiv. c. 17.