THE THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL, TRANSLATED FROM THE TEXT OF M. AUGUSTE MOLINIER BY C. KEGAN PAUL. "Pendent opera interrupta." LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1889. H. P271Em LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. A6013 CHISWICK PRESS-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. PREFACE. THOSE to whom the Life of Pascal and the Story of Port Royal are unknown, must be referred to works treating fully of the subject, since it were impossible to deal with them adequately within the limits of a preface. SainteBeuve's great work on Port Royal, especially the second and third volumes, and "Port Royal," by Charles Beard, B.A., London, 1863, may best be consulted by any who require full, lucid, and singularly impartial information. But for such as, already acquainted with the time and the man, need a recapitulation of the more important facts, or for those who may find an outline map useful of the country they are to study in detail, a few words are here given. Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne, on June 19, 1623. He sprung from a well-known legal family, many members of which had held lucrative and responsible positions. His father, Etienne Pascal, held the post of intendant, or provincial administrator, in Normandy, where, and at Paris previously, Pascal lived from the age of sixteen to that of twenty-five; almost wholly educated by his father on account of his precarious health. His mother died when he was eight years old. Etienne Pascal was a pious but stern person, and by no means disposed to entertain or allow any undue exaltation in religion, refusing as long as he lived to allow his daughter Jaqueline |