Part 93

P. 129, l. 18. a thousand and twenty-two. This was the number of stars comprised in the Catalogue of Ptolemy, according to the system of Hipparchus.

P. 132, l. 9. Non habemus regem nisi Cæsarem. Job. xx. 15.

P. 134, l. 12. Eris palpans in meridie. Incorrectly quoted from Deut. xxviii. 29.

P. 134, l. 13. Dabitur liber. Incorrectly quoted from Is. xxix. 12.

P. 135, l. 6. Effundam spiritum meum. Is. xliv. 2.

P. 135, l. 21. populum non credentem. Is. lxv. 2.

P. 136, l. 2. ex omnibus iniquitatibus. Probably a remembrance of Is. xliv. 22. Delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas.

P. 136, l. 13. The little stone. Dan. ii. 34.

P. 136, l. 33. Omnis Judæa regio. Incorrectly quoted from Matt. iii. 5.

P. 137, l. 3. These stones can become. Matt. iii. 9.

P. 140, l. 15. Grotius. The allusion is no doubt to his work, De Veritate Religionis Christianæ, which appeared in 1662.

P. 143, l. 6. the king of the Medes and Persians is Darius Codomanus; the King of the Greeks, Alexander. The four kings are, Seleucus, King of Syria; Ptolemy, King of Egypt; Lysimachus, King of Thrace, and Cassander, King of Macedonia, after the battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C.

P. 143, l. 12. This paragraph refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, who died 164 B.C. See the account of his death, 1 Macc. c. 6.

P. 145, l. 1. And in the end of years. The marriage of Antiochus Theos with Berenice took place about 247 B.C. Berenice was assassinated by Seleucus Ceraunos soon afterwards, and the war between Ptolemy Euergetes and the King of Syria lasted during almost all the reign of the latter. Syria regained the ascendancy only after the death of Ptolemy Euergetes in 222 B.C.

P. 145, l. 26. Raphia. The Battle of Raphia was gained by Ptolemy Philopator over Antiochus the Great, 217 B.C.

P. 145, l. 36. Euergetes, a mistake for Epiphanes.

P. 147, l. 2. The leader taken from the thigh. A literal translation of Gen. xlix. 10. Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda, et dux de femore ejus.

P. 152, l. 26. Pugio Fidei. The work so called, which Pascal first specifies in this place, is one of which he made great use in all his speculations on the fulfilment of Prophecy, and on the meaning of the Hebrew letters, etc. The book, of which the full title is Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judæos, was written in 1278 by Raymond Martin, a Catalonian monk. It remained almost unknown for four hundred years, and was first printed in 1651. It was, therefore, as it were, a new book when Pascal became acquainted with it. Under the name Mauri the author assails not the Koran nor Mahomet, but Arabic philosophy.

P. 161, l. 2. Ut sciatis quod filius hominis. Marc. ii. 10-11. The words of Jesus to the paralytic.

P. 164, l. 16. Signa legem in electis meis. Is. viii. 16, where the Vulgate has discipulis.

P. 165, l. 15. Fascination. i.e., Fascinatio nugacitatis, see p. 101, l. 16. The blindness produced by the love of temporal possessions, or as the A. V. translates it, "the bewitching of naughtiness."

P. 165, l. 15. Somnum suum. Ps. lxxvi. 5. Turbati sunt omnes insipientes corde. Dormierunt somnum suum: et nihil invenerunt omnes viri divitiarum in manibus suis.

P. 165, l. 15. Figura hujus mundi. 1 ad Cor. vii. 31. Et qui utuntur hoc mundo, tanquam non utantur: præterit enim figura hujus mundi.

P. 165, l. 16. Comedes panem tuum. Deut viii. 9. Panem nostrum. Luc. xi. 3.

P. 165, l. 17. Inimici Dei terram lingent. Ps. lxxii 8. The Psalm is of Solomon, Inimici ejus terram lingent.

P. 165, l. 22. cum amaritudinibus. Ex. xii. 8, where the Vulgate has cum lactucis agrestibus.

P. 165, l. 24. Singularis sum ego. Ps. cxli. 10, where the true reading is "singulariter."

P. 165, l. 34. We have no right. The following is the explanation of this and the next two paragraphs: In Is. ix. 6, a prophecy which the Rabbis apply to Messiah, and Christian interpreters to Jesus, are the words: Parvulus enim natus est nobis ... multiplicabatur ejus imperium. In the Hebrew words representing this latter clause, the closed mem, a letter ordinarily employed only at the end of a word, occurs where an open mem should be used. From this orthographic mistake the Rabbis have concluded that Messiah would be born of a virgin, ex virgine clausa. Moreover, as the closed mem in Hebrew writing means six hundred, the Rabbis supposed that Messiah was to come six hundred years after Isaiah. The final tsadé has the same value as the closed mem.