Part 91

P. 77, l. 30. Eritis sicut dii. Gen. iii. 5.

P. 79, l. 30. men laugh and weep at the same thing. The thought is from Charron, Traité de la Sagesse, l. i. ch. xxxviii.

P. 80, l. 35. the grand Sultan. None of Pascal's editors have discovered whence he drew this purely fictitious description of the Sultan.

P. 81, l. 9. That epigram about the two one-eyed people. This is not Martial's. It is found in Epigrammatum Delectus, published by Port Royal in 1659.

Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro, Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos. Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede parenti; Si tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus.

P. 81, l. 12. Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta. Horace, De Arte Poetica, v. 447.

P. 83, l. 22. Spongia solis. The spots on the sun. Du Cange explains spongia by macula. Pascal seems to mean that the spots on the sun prepare us for its total extinction; that the sun will eventually expire, so that, contrary as it seems to the course of nature, there will come a day when there will be no sun.

P. 89. The title given to this second part is furnished by Pascal. In the first part he has wished to prove the fallen state of man, and his weakness; he now maintains that man may be restored by faith in Jesus Christ, and the practice of religion.

P. 91, l. 26. Nemo novit. Matt. xi. 27. Et nemo novit Filium nisi Pater: neque Patrem quis novit, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare.

P. 92, l. 3. Vere tu es. Is. xlv. 15, see p. 3, l. 8.

P. 92, l. 10. Quod curiositate cognoverint. Probably cited from recollection of Saint Augustine, but the passage is not verbally to be found.

P. 96, l. 6. neither the stars.

Porrum et cæpe nefas violare et frangere morsu O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Numina! Juvenal, Sat. xv. 9.

See also Montaigne, Essais, l. i. ch. xlii.

P. 97, l. 28. stultitiam. 1 Cor. i. 19.

P. 101, l. 12. the opinion of Copernicus. Pascal no doubt refers to a passage in Montaigne, Essais, l. ii. ch. xii., in which he abstains from deciding between the rival systems of astronomy. Pascal, however, had no doubt on the matter himself, as is plain from the passage on Galileo in the Eighteenth Provincial.

P. 101, l. 16. Fascinatio nugacitatis. Lib. Sap. iv. 12. Fascinatio enim nugacitatis obscurat bona. See note on p. 165.

P. 102, l. 12. So our people often act. Fénélon, Lettre à l'Evêque d'Arras, says, "Toutes les difficultés s'evanouissent sans peine des qu'on a l'esprit gueri de la présomption. Alors suivant le règle de Saint Augustin, Epist. ad Hier., on passe sur tout ce que l'on n'entend pas, et on s'edifie de tout ce qu'on entend."

See also De Imitatione Christi, l. i. ch. v.

P. 104, l. 4. Harum sententiarum. Harum sententiarum quæ vera sit Deus aliquis viderit. Cic. Tuscul. i. 11.

P. 104, l. 14. The Preacher shows. The precise thought as Pascal has it here is not easy to find in Ecclesiastes. It is probably a reminiscence of Eccles. viii. 17.

P. 105. The Philosophers. The title of this chapter is that given by Molinier to the collection of fragments contained in it. A few expressions and thoughts are from Montaigne, many more from Descartes, Discours de la Méthode.

P. 108, l. 16. Deliciæ meæ. Prov. viii. 31.

P. 108, l. 17. Effundam spiritum. Joel ii. 28.

P. 108, l. 17. Dii estis, Ps. lxxxii. 6.

P. 108, l. 18. Omnis caro fœnum. Is. xl. 6.

P. 108, l. 18. Homo assimilatus est. Ps. xlix. 20.

P. 108, l. 20. Dixi in corde meo. Eccl. iii. 18.