the other a gift from God, “justus ex fide vidit,” it is this which God himself places in the heart, and of which evidence is often the instrument: "fides ex auditu." But this faith is in the heart, and leads us to say, not "scio" but "credo"

+ A letter upon the folly of human science and philosophy.

This to precede that upon Amusement.

+ In the Letter upon Injustice, may be inserted the jest respecting the seniors who possess all.-My friend, you are descended on this side from Montagne; it is right therefore that your senior should possess all.

+ Why do you kill me?

Why do you kill me?

What! Don't you live on the other side of the water? My friend, were you resident on this side, I should be an assassin, and it would be unjust to kill you in this way; but, being on the other side, I only show my bravery, and it is all right.*

+ Insert in the chapter on Fundamentals, that part in the one on Figuratives, respecting the origin of figures : why Jesus Christ prophesied during his first advent: why his predictions were of an obscure character.

The reference here seems to be to a former passage on the injustice of wars, originating, as they often do, in mere local antipathies.-See p. 127. (Transl.)

SUPPLEMENTARY PASSAGES

RESPECTING THE JEWISH PEOPLE. (See Chapter on the Jewish People.)

EVERYTHING relating to this people excites my astonishment, and seems deserving attention.

I consider their law, of which their boast is, that it is derived to them from God,—and it appears to me admirable:* it is the earliest of all laws;-so much so, that before even the word law was in use among the Greeks, this had been promulgated and observed nearly a thousand years without interruption. It is to me, therefore, wonderful to find the earliest law in the whole world, so uniformly perfect; and that, to such a degree, that the greatest legislators have borrowed from it, as appears from the Law of the Twelve Tables of Athens: and this again was adopted afterwards by the Romans, as would be easy to show if Josephus and others had not sufficiently treated of the matter.

Memoranda for the same Chapter.

+

+ The sincerity of the Jews. The final, and defective letters. Their sincerity, though to their disgrace, and dying for it; having no parallel in the world, and wholly contrary to the tendencies of nature.

Same Chapter.

+ This book will be your witness.

* At first :-" admirable, and the finest laws in the whole world." The latter words erased in the MS.

+ See Chapter on Figures.

ON THE CHAPTER ON PROPHECIES.

Prophecies.*

+ Page 659.—+ In Egypt.-+ Talmud.

+ It is a tradition among us, that, when the Messiah shall come, the house of God, intended for the teaching of his word, shall be full of filth and impurity; and that the wisdom of the scribes shall be corrupt and debased. Those who fear to commit sin, shall be reviled by the people, and treated as fools and mad.

*The whole of this in the copy only.

TREATISE

ON THE

CONVERSION OF THE SINNER.

EDITORIAL NOTICE.

THE Treatise on the Conversion of the Sinner, was first published, in the complete works of Pascal, in 1779, by the Abbé Bossut, who expressed no doubt of the authenticity of the fragments. Yet that editor had been acquainted with the third MS. Collection of P. Guerrier, where the same paper, under the title of " Essay on the Conversion of the Sinner," is accompanied with a note, in which Guerrier expressly says, "he is not aware who was the author of this treatise."

The MS. Suppl. Franc., No. 1485, appends, in its turn, also, the following note :-" This treatise was transcribed from a copy which is amongst the papers left behind by Mademoiselle Perier. It bears no author's name. I believe it to have been a writing of Mademoiselle Pascal previous to her entering the convent."

This conjecture seems unfounded; and we hesitate not to attribute this fragment to Pascal himself, because

First. It is found in the small MS. in 18mo., as Pascal's ; and, the fragments contained in the MS. being incontestably his, there is equal reason to believe that this is his also.

Secondly. It has all the characteristics of Pascal's thoughts and language; not, indeed, of his most mature and dignified style, but of that which had already proved so effective before the appearance of the Provincials; for this fragment, like that which follows, (the Prayer,) must have been composed about the year 1647 or 1648, when he was in about his twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth year;—at that period of his life which may be termed his first conversion; and it appropriately expresses the sentiments and feelings which then occupied his mind. (French Editor.)