SYSTEMS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

STOICS, ATHEISTS, PYRRHONISTS, ETC.

I. The philosophers propounded no sentiments adapted to the two-fold condition of man.

They sought to inspire emotions of pure greatness; and this is not man's condition.

They inspired emotions of pure degradation; this also is not man's condition.

Man needs abasement; and that, not excited merely by natural emotions, but by a sense of penitence; not that he should remain perpetually in his low estate, but that he should rise from it to greatness. He needs to be made to feel his greatness, not of merit but of grace, and after duly passing through the probation of abasement.

II. This intestine war between reason and passion has led to the formation, in the way of compromise, of two sects. The one has aimed to teach men to extinguish passion, and become gods; the other, to renounce the rule of reason, and become brute-beasts :-these latter are Barreauxs.* But neither of them has been success

* It is well known that Barreaux, the real or supposed author of the famous sonnet, "Grand Dieu, tes jugements sont remplis d'équité ;" &c., was a great lover of play, conviviality, and pleasure, and, according to Tullement, inculcated Atheism. (See Note at Thought No. LVIII., Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 210, 211.) Pascal had very probably met him in society in the same circle where he had become acquainted with Miton and the Chevalier de Méré.

ful; and reason ever exists, in the one class to challenge the baseness and culpability of the passions, and disturb their tranquillity in the indulgence of them; while the passions are as constantly reviving in those who ineffectually aim to subdue them.

III. The three kinds of concupiscence have formed three sects; the philosophers have done nothing more than follow some one or other of them.

IV. All their principles are true, -pyrrhonists, stoics, atheists, &c. But their conclusions are false, because the opposite principles are true also.

V. Human nature is to be regarded under two aspects: the one, its ultimate purpose and destination, which are incomparably great; the other, its actual state in the case of multitudes; as we judge of the tendencies" et animum arcendi"-of horses and dogs: here we behold man abject and vile. From these two different views arise the variety of our judgments, and the endless controversies of philosophers.

The one in fact denies the assumption of the other. The one says, Man is not born to this end and aim; the other says, He diverges from it when he follows courses so ignoble.

VI. + Stoics.

They maintain, that a thing can be at all times done which can sometimes be done; and that since the desire

of glory, though partial in its degree, is capable of inciting its possessor to good deeds, it must necessarily do the same with all persons.

These, however, are mere feverish movements, which health is incapable of imitating.

+ The conclusion which Epictetus comes to is, that, as we see some instances of great religious constancy, all must be alike constant.

+

VII. How difficult and how futile are the tenets of the stoics!

+ These people fancy that all who have not attained to the highest degree of wisdom, are in the same degree foolish and vicious; as those who are two inches below the surface

VIII. The stoics say, Enter into your own selves; there will find peace.

you

Others say,

This is not true.

Get out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement. This again is not true. Can sickness be banished?

Happiness is neither without nor within ourselves: it is in God; and, in him, both without and within ourselves.

+

IX. Philosophers have consecrated vices in attributing them to God himself. Christians consecrate

virtues.

X. The fallacy of philosophers, who have not ques

tioned the immortality of the soul! The fallacy of their dilemma in Montagne.*

This is indubitable: the question whether the soul is mortal or immortal, is, of all others, the most momentous of all in respect of morals; yet have the philosophers treated of morals altogether independently of this.

+ Immateriality of the soul:-philosophers have succeeded in subduing the passions; what mere matter could have done it?†

XI. Philosophers.
+

+ We abound in influences which urge us beyond ourselves.

Natural instinct makes us feel that happiness is not to be found within ourselves. Our passions drive us abroad, and external objects present themselves for their gratification: they lure and invite us, when even our thoughts do not tend towards them. In the face of all this, philosophy has cried, "Enter within yourselves,

The following is the passage to which Pascal here alludes:-" Ils ont ce dilemme tousjours en la bouche, pour consoler notre mortelle condition: ou l'âme est mortelle, ou immortelle; si mortelle, elle sera sans peine; si immortelle, elle ira en amendant. Ils ne touchent jamais l'autre branche: quoy, si elle va en empirant? Et laissent aux poètes les menaces des peines futures. Mais par là ils se donnent un beau jeu. . ." Essay, Book ii., ch. xii. The original of this passage is imperfect in construction. (Transl.)

there is your happiness." She is disbelieved; and those who believe her, are only the empty and the foolish.

XII. + Philosophers.

+ I know not which is the most extravagant,-to tell a man who knows not, or one who knows himself, that he should, of his own choice, go to God!

XIII. + Philosophers.

They hold that God is alone worthy to be loved and admired, while they desire to be loved and admired of men; and yet they are ignorant of their own corruption. If they are indeed conscious of a supreme desire to love and admire Him, and find in this their chief satisfaction, let them think well of themselves. But if they are

averse to such things, if their * only aim is to stand well in the esteem of man, and without exercising constraint over their inclination, endeavour notwithstanding to make them seek their happiness in loving themselves,— then, I say, their fancied perfection is guilt. They profess to know God; yet it is not only their endeavour that men should make them the object of attachment, but that they should rest in them, and make them their final aim for enjoyment and happiness!

XIV. + Search after true happiness.

+ Most men hold that worldly good consists in fortune, and external advantages; or, at best, in amuse

*"S'ils n'ont." MSS. "S'il n'u."

"Mais," wanting in the MS.