their fears, their precautions, their sensibility, are excited by the merest trifles of earth; and the man who will pass days and nights in excitement and desperation for the loss of a place, or under some imaginary offence to his honour, is he who, in the knowledge that death must put an end to all these things, awaits its approach without uneasiness or emotion! Is it not monstrous to see in the same heart, and at the same instant, sensibility so acute to the merest trifles, and an utter indifference to the most momentous interests? + It is surely a delusion beyond comparison, it is a supineness utterly out of nature; and indicates the hidden force of some mysterious and all-powerful agent! Must there not be some strange revulsion in the nature of man, that he should thus glory in a condition in which it might seem incredible that a human being could be found to exist? Yet does experience show me the number of such to be so great, that this again would excite astonishment, did we not know that the larger part of such persons do but counterfeit their belief, and are not, in reality, what they pretend to be. They are, in fact, people who fancy that good taste, according to the notions of the world, consists in such profane sallies. It is what they call throwing off old-fashioned prejudices, and weak scruples. Yet it would not be difficult to show how they deceive themselves in seeking reputation in this manner. It is not the best way to recommend themselves-I would even say with the persons of the world; who are apt to judge shrewdly of things, and who feel that the only means for their fellow-men to gain their good opinion is, to show themselves upright, faithful, judicious,—capable of friendship, and apt to good offices; because we naturally like such as can be useful to ourselves. Now what advantage is it to us to hear another say, he has thrown off the yoke of conscience; he has no belief in a God who takes cognizance of his conduct; he is the only master of his own actions, and expects to render account of them to none but himself? Does such a man think to induce us, by these avowals, to place the more confidence in him; or to seek at his hand the consolations, the counsel, or the aid, which we need in the varying events of life? Does he think it can be any satisfaction to us to be told, he considers the soul to be a mere breath or vapour; and this too with an air of dogmatism and self-satisfaction? Is such a tenet as this, then, one to be pronounced with hilarity and joy ; and not rather with the deepest sorrow, as an article of belief of all others the most affecting and mournful? If such persons were to reflect sincerely, they would see that their conduct is so injudicious, so contrary to good sense, so opposed to sound principle, and in every way so little conducive to that good opinion on the part of others which they desire to cultivate; that it is rather calculated to repel from them, than to corrupt those who might be under any temptation to become their followers. And, in reality, set them but to give some account of their reasons for denying the evidence of religion, you will find them so weak and poor, that they will bring you to the very opposite of their conclusions. This was what was once happily said to one of these persons," If you continue such discourse as this much longer, you will entirely convert me to piety." And he was right: for who would not dread to have for his companions persons holding sentiments so flagitious? Thus, such as make a mere pretence of these opinions are doubly unhappy, in masking their real views, in order to render themselves the most contemptible of If they are in their inmost feelings concerned at not being better informed, let them not disguise it; the confession will entail upon them no disgrace. The only shame is to be without shame. Nothing shows more an utter abjectness of spirit, than to be ignorant of man's unhappiness without a God; nothing proves more malignancy of heart, than not to desire the truth of eternal rewards; no cowardice is greater, than to affect hardihood against God! Let such impieties as these be left to those who are so unhappily constituted as to be really capable of harbouring them. Be at least honest, if you cannot be Christians; and confess that there are but two classes of persons who can properly be called rational, those who serve God from the heart, because they know him; and those who seek him with all their heart, yet cannot find him. But for those who live without knowing and without seeking him, they show themselves so indifferent to their own welfare, that they are little deserving of the solicitude of others; and it requires all the charity which is inspired by the religion they despise, not so far to despise their folly as to abandon them to its consequences. But, as that religion compels us ever to regard such persons, during their earthly existence, as capable of receiving its illuminating grace; and to believe it to be possible that such as these even may, by its omnipotent influences, become stronger in the faith than ourselves; while we, on the other hand, might be left to fall into the same lamentable darkness as themselves; we ought to do for them what we should desire them to do for us in their place; and entreat them to have pity upon themselves, and at least use some endeavours to attain to a better state of mind. Let them give to this treatise a few of those hours which they employ so unprofitably upon other objects: repugnant as it may be to them, it may chance that they may find in it some things for which they will not deem their labour thrown away. But as to such others as will bring to its perusal sincerity of purpose, and a real desire to discover truth, I trust they will find in it the satisfaction they seek, and be convinced of the divinity of our religion, by the evidences which they will find here brought together; and in which I have in a general way adopted the following arrangement. * Pascal did not revise the latter part of this introductory paper; at least the MSS. furnish only some isolated and imperfect notes of that portion. We have collected these at the end of the present volume, under the title of "Order," which he himself has given to it in several places. After the above, there occurs in the copy another fragment which is not a sequel, but evidently intended as a variation of the former. Pascal appears to have revised the first portion of the preface as far as the paragraph beginning "I know not." These words, which end the revised part, show that he would have retained in its present state the close of the preface. We furnish here the second revision, leaving it to the reader's own conjecture, which of the two is the one which this great writer would have finally adopted his choice seems to have remained undetermined, inasmuch as he has not struck out either of the fragments. : VARIATION OF THE GENERAL PREFACE. + BEFORE entering upon the proofs of the Christian religion, I think it necessary to show the unreasonableness of those persons, who pass their lives in indifference to the truth of a matter, so important in itself, and which interests them so deeply. + Of all the extravagancies of these men, this is indisputably the one which is most conclusive of their folly and blindness, and the most easy to expose on the simplest principles of common sense and sentiment of nature. It is not to be questioned, that the duration of our present life is but as an instant; that death-come how or when it will-brings it to an eternal close; and that thus, all our sentiments and our actions ought to pursue a course so different, according to our views of the eternal state, that it is impossible to take a single step in life with sense or judgment, excepting as it is regulated by our expectations upon this one great and final question. + Nothing can be more evident than this; and therefore, upon the mere principle of reason, any other line of conduct in men is utterly unreasonable. Let those then be judged by this rule, who live on without bestowing a thought upon the termination of life, who give the loose to their inclinations and passions, without reflection and solicitude; and, as if they had it in their |