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PASCAL, BLAISE (1623-1662)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 881 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PASCAL, BLAISE (1623-1662) , See also:French religious philosopher and mathematician, was See also:born at Clermont See also:Ferrand on the 19th of See also:June 1623. His See also:father was See also:Etienne Pascal, See also:president of the See also:Court of See also:Aids at Clermont; his See also:mother's name was Antoinette Begon. The Pascal See also:family were Auvergnats by extraction as well as See also:residence, had for many generations held posts in the • See also:civil service, and were ennobled by See also:Louis XI. in 1478, but did not assume the de. The earliest See also:anecdote of Pascal is one of his being bewitched and freed from the spell by the See also:witch with See also:strange ceremonies. His mother died when he was about four years old, and See also:left him with two sisters—Gilberte, who afterwards married M. See also:Perier, and Jacqueline. Both sisters are of importance in their See also:brother's See also:history, and both are said to have been beautiful and accomplished. When Pascal was about seven years old his father gave up his See also:official See also:post at Clermont, and betook himself to See also:Paris. It does not appear that Blaise, who went to no school, but was taught by his father, was at all forced, but rather the contrary. Nevertheless he has a distinguished See also:place in the See also:story of precocious See also:children, and in the much more limited See also:chapter of children whose precocity has been followed by See also:great performance at maturity, though he never became what is called a learned See also:man, perhaps did not know See also:Greek, and was See also:pretty certainly indebted for most of his See also:miscellaneous See also:reading to See also:Montaigne. The Pascal family, some years after settling in Paris, had to go through a See also:period of adversity. Etienne Pascal, who had bought some of the hotel-de-ville aerates, protested against See also:Richelieu's reduction of the See also:interest, and to See also:escape the See also:Bastille had to go into hiding.

He was, according to the !story (told by Jacqueline herself), restored to favour owing to the See also:

good acting and graceful See also:appearance of his daughter Jacqueline in a See also:representation of See also:Scudery's Amour tyrannique before Richelieu. Mme d'See also:Aiguillon's intervention in the See also:matter was perhaps as powerful as Jacqueline's acting, and Richelieu gave Etienne Pascal (in 1641) the important and lucrative 2 In vi. 116, he places " the See also:Castle of Frasargida, where is the See also:tomb of See also:Cyrus, and which is occupied by the Magi "—i.e. the guard of Magians mentioned by See also:Aristobulus, which had to protect the tomb—eastwards of See also:Persepolis, and by a curious confusion joins it to See also:Ecbatana. though somewhat troublesome intendancy of See also:Rouen. The be passed over, though they are in See also:part apocryphal. It seems family accordingly removed to the See also:Norman See also:capital, though Gilberte Pascal shortly after, on her See also:marriage, returned to Clermont. At Rouen they became acquainted with See also:Corneille, and Blaise pursued his studies with such vehemence that he already showed signs of an injured constitution. Nothing, however, of importance happened till the See also:year 1646. Then Pascal the See also:elder was confined to the See also:house by the consequences of an See also:accident on the See also:ice, and was visited by certain gentlemen of the neighbourhood who had come under the See also:influence of See also:Saint-Cyran and the Jansenists. It does not appear that up to this See also:time the Pascal family had been contemners of See also:religion, but they now eagerly embraced the creed, or at least the attitude' cf See also:Jansenism, and Pascal himself showed his zeal by informing against the supposed unorthodoxy of a Capuchin, the Pere Saint-Ange. His bodily See also:health was at this time very far from satisfactory, and he appears to have suffered, not merely from acute See also:dyspepsia, but from a See also:kind of See also:paralysis. He was, however, indefatigable in his mathematical See also:work.

In 1647 he published his Nouvelles experiences sur le vide, and in the next year the famous experiment with the See also:

barometer on the See also:Puy de See also:Dome was carried out for him by his brother-in-See also:law Perier, and repeated on a smaller See also:scale by himself at Paris, to which place by the end of 1647 he and his See also:sister Jacqueline had removed, to be followed shortly by their father. In a See also:letter of Jacqueline's, dated the 27th of See also:September, an See also:account of a visit paid by See also:Descartes to Pascal is given, which, like the other See also:information on the relations of the two, give strong suspicion of mutual See also:jealousy. Descartes, however, gave Pascal the very sensible See also:advice to stay in See also:bed as See also:long as he could (it may be remembered that the philosopher himself never got up till eleven) and to take plenty of See also:beef-See also:tea. As See also:early as May 1648 Jacqueline Pascal was strongly See also:drawn to See also:Port Royal, and her brother frequently accompanied her to its See also:church. She desired indeed to join the See also:convent, but her father, who returned to Paris with the dignity of counsellor of See also:state, disapproved of the See also:plan, and took both brother and sister to Clermont, where Pascal remained for the greater part of two years. E. Flechier, in his account of the Grands Jours at Clermont many years after, speaks of a " belle savante " in whose See also:company Pascal had frequently been—a trivial mention on which, as on many other trivial points of scantily known lives, the most childish structures of comment and conjecture have been based. It is sufficient to say that at this time, despite the Rouen " See also:conversion," there is no See also:evidence to show that Pascal was in any way a recluse, an ascetic, or in See also:short anything but a See also:young man of great intellectual promise and performance, not indifferent to society, but of weak health. He, his sister and their father returned to Paris in the See also:late autumn of 165o, and in September of the next year Etienne Pascal died. Almost immediately afterwards Jacqueline fulfilled her purpose of joining Port Royal—a proceeding which led to some soreness, finally healed, between herself and her brother and sister as to the disposal of her See also:property. It has sometimes been supposed that Pascal, from 1651 or earlier to the famous accident of 1654, lived a dissipated, extravagant, worldly, luxurious (though admittedly not vicious) See also:life with his friend the duc de Roannez and others. His Discours sur See also:les passions de l'amour, a striking and characteristic piece, not very long since discovered and printed, has also been assigned to this period, and has been supposed to indicate a hopeless See also:passion for See also:Charlotte de Roannez, the See also:duke's sister.

But this is sheer romancing. The extant letters of Pascal to the See also:

lady show no trace of any See also:affection (stronger than friendship) between them. It is, however, certain that in the autumn of 1654 Pascal's second " conversion " took place, and that it was lasting. He betook himself at first to Port Royal, and began to live a recluse and austere life there. Mme Perier simply says that Jacqueline persuaded him to abandon the See also:world. Jacqueline represents the retirement as the final result of a long course of dissatisfaction with mundane life. But there are certain anecdotic embellishments of the See also:act which are too famous to that Pascal in See also:driving to Neuilly was run away with by the horses, and would have been plunged in the See also:river but that the traces fortunately See also:broke. To this, which seems See also:authentic, is usually added the tradition (due to the See also:abbe Boileau) that afterwards he used at times to see an imaginary precipice by his bedside, or at the See also:foot of the See also:chair on which he was 'sitting. Further, from the 23rd of See also:November 1654 See also:dates the singular document usually known as " Pascal's See also:amulet," a See also:parchment slip which he wore constantly about him, and which bears the date followed by some lines of incoherent and strongly mystical devotion. It must be noted that, though he lived much at Port Royal, and partly at least observed its See also:rule, he never actually became one of its famous solitaries. But for what it did for him (and for a time his health as well as his See also:peace of mind seems to have been improved) he very soon paid an ample and remarkable return. At the end of 1655 See also:Arnauld, the See also:chief See also:light of Port Royal, was condemned by the See also:Sorbonne for heretical See also:doctrine, and it was thought important by the Jansenist and Port Royal party that steps should be taken to disabuse the popular mind.

Arnauld would have undertaken the task himself, but his wiser See also:

friends knew that his See also:style was anything but popular, and overruled him. It is said that he personally suggested to Pascal to try his See also:hand, and that the first of the famous Provinciales (Provincial Letters, properly Lettres ecrites See also:par Louis de Montalte a un provincial de ses amis) was written in a few days, or, less probably, in a See also:day. It was printed without the real author's name on the 23rd of See also:January 1656, and, being immensely popular, and successful, was followed by others to the number of eighteen. Shortly after the appearance of the Provinciales, on the 24th of May 16 c6, occurred the See also:miracle of the See also:Holy See also:Thorn, a fragment of the See also:crown of See also:Christ preserved at Port Royal, which cured the little See also:Marguerite Perier of a See also:fistula lacrymalis. The See also:Jesuits were much mortified by this Jansenist miracle, which, as it was officially recognized, they could not openly deny. Pascal and his friends rejoiced in proportion. The details of his later years after this incident are somewhat scanty. For years before his See also:death we hear only of acts of charity and of, as it seems to See also:modern ideas, extravagant See also:asceticism. Thus Mme Perier tells us that he disliked to see her caress her children, and would not allow the beauty of any woman to be talked of in his presence. What may be called his last illness began as early as 058, and as the disease progressed it was attended with more and more See also:pain, chiefly in the See also:head. In June 1662, having given up his own house to a poor family who were suffering from small-pox, he went to his sister's house to be nursed, and never afterwards left it. His state was, it seems, mistaken by his physicians, so much so that the offices of the Church were long put off.

He was able, however, to receive the See also:

Eucharist, and soon afterwards died in See also:convulsions on the 19th of See also:August. A post mortem examination was held, which showed not only See also:grave derangement in the See also:stomach and other See also:organs, but a serious See also:lesion of the See also:brain. Eight years after Pascal's death appeared what purported to be his Pensees, and a See also:preface by his See also:nephew Perier gave the world to understand that these were fragments of a great projected See also:apology for See also:Christianity which the author had, in conversation with his friends, planned out years before. The editing of the See also:book was See also:peculiar. It was submitted to a See also:committee of influential Jansenists, with the duc de Roannez at their head, and, in addition, it See also:bore the imprimatur of numerous unofficial- approvers who testified to its orthodoxy. It does not appear that there was much suspicion of the garbling which had been practised—garbling not unusual at the time, and excused in this See also:case by the fact of a See also:lull in the troubles of Port Royal and a great See also:desire on the part of its friends to do nothing to disturb that lull. But as a matter of fact no more entirely factitious book ever issued from the See also:press. The fragments which it professed to give were in themselves confused and incoherent enough, nor is it easy to believe that they all formed part of any such single and coherent See also:design as that referred to above. But the editors omitted, altered, added, separated, combined and so forth entirely at their See also:pleasure, actually making some changes which seem to have been thought improvements of style. This rifacimento remained the See also:standard See also:text with a few unimportant additions for nearly two centuries, except that, by a truly comic revolution of public See also:taste, See also:Condorcet in 1776 published, after study of the See also:original, which remained accessible in See also:manuscript, another garbling, See also:con-ducted this time in the interests of unorthodoxy. It was not till 1842 that See also:Victor See also:Cousin See also:drew See also:attention to the absolutely untrustworthy See also:condition of the text, nor till 1844 that A. P.

Faugere edited that text from the MS. in something like a condition of purity, though, as subsequent See also:

editions have shown, not with See also:absolute fidelity. But even in its See also:spurious condition the book had been recognized as remarkable and almost unique. Its contents, as was to be expected, are of a very chaotic See also:character—of a character so chaotic indeed that the reader is almost at the See also:mercy of the arrangement, perforce an arbitrary arrangement, of the editors. But the subjects dealt with concern more or less all the great problems of thought on what may be called the theological See also:side of See also:metaphysics—the sufficiency of See also:reason, the trustworthiness of experience, the admissibility of See also:revelation, See also:free will, foreknowledge, and the See also:rest. The peculiarly disjointed and fragmentary condition of the sentiments expressed by Pascal aggravates the appearance of universal doubt which is See also:present in the Pensees, just as the completely unfinished condition of the work, from the See also:literary point of view, constantly causes slighter or graver doubts as to the actual meaning which the author wished to See also:express. Accordingly the Pensees have always been a favourite exploring ground, not to say a favourite See also:field of See also:battle, to persons who take an interest in their problems. Speaking generally, their tendency is towards the combating of See also:scepticism by a deeper scepticism, or, as Pascal himself calls it, Pyrrhonism, which occasionally goes the length of denying the possibility of any natural See also:theology. Pascal explains all the contradictions and difficulties of human life and thought by the doctrine of the Fall, and relies on faith and revelation alone to justify each other. Excluding here his scientific attainments (see below), Pascal presents himself for comment in two different See also:lights, the second of which is, if the expression be permitted, a composite one. The first exhibits him as a man of letters, the second as a philosopher, a theologian, and simply a man, for in no one is the See also:colour of the theology and the See also:philosophy more distinctly See also:personal. Yet his character as a man is not very distinct. The accounts of his sister and niece have the defect of all See also:hagiology; they are obviously written rather with a view to the ideas and the wishes of the writers than with a view to the actual and absolute See also:personality of the subject.

Except from these interesting but somewhat tainted See also:

sources, we know little or nothing about him. Hence conjecture, or at least inference, must always enter largely into any estimate of Pascal, except a purely literary one. On that side, fortunately, there is no possibility of doubt or difficulty to any competent inquirer. The Provincial Letters are the first example of French See also:prose which is at once consider-able in bulk, varied and important in matter, perfectly finished in See also:form. They owe not a little to Descartes, for Pascal's indebtedness to his predecessor is unquestionable from the literary side, whatever may be the case with the scientific. But Descartes had had neither the opportunity, nor the desire, nor probably the See also:power, to write anything of the literary importance of the Provinciales. The first example of polite controversial See also:irony since See also:Lucian, the Provinciales have continued to be the best example of it during more than two centuries in which the style has been sedulously practised, and in which they have furnished a See also:model to See also:generation after generation. The unfailing freshness and See also:charm of the contrast between the importance, the gravity, in some cases the dry and abstruse nature, of their subjects, and the lightness, sometimes almostapproaching levity in its See also:special sense, of the manner in which these subjects are attacked is a See also:triumph of literary See also:art of which no familiarity dims the splendour, and which no See also:lapse of time can ever impair. Nor perhaps is this literary art really less evident in the Pensees, though it is less clearly displayed, owing to the fragmentary or rather chaotic condition of the work, and partly also to the nature of the subject. The vividness and distinction of Pascal's phrase, his singular See also:faculty of inserting without any loss of dignity in the gravest and most impassioned meditation what may be almost called quips of thought and diction, the intense earnestness of meaning weighting but not confusing the style, all appear here. No such See also:positive statements as these are, however, possible as to the substance of the Pensees and the attitude of their author. Hitherto the widest See also:differences have been manifested in the estimate of Pascal's opinions on the See also:main questions of philosophy, theology and human conduct.

He has been represented as a determined apologist of intellectual orthodoxy animated by an almost fanatical " hatred of reason," and possessed with a purpose to overthrow the See also:

appeal to reason; as a sceptic and pessimist of a far deeper dye than Montaigne, anxious chiefly to show how any positive decision on matters beyond the range of experience is impossible; as a See also:nervous believer clinging to conclusions which his clearer and better sense showed to be indefensible; as an almost ferocious ascetic and paradoxer affecting the credo quia impossibile in intellectual matters and the odi quia amabile in matters moral and sensuous; as a wanderer in the regions of doubt and belief, alternately bringing a vast though vague power of thought and an unequalled power of expression to the expression of ideas incompatible and irreconcilable. An unbiased study of the scanty facts of his history, and of the tolerably abundant but scattered and chaotic facts of his literary See also:production, ought to enable any one to See also:steer clear of these exaggerations, while admitting at the same time that it is impossible to give a See also:complete and final account of his attitude towards the See also:riddles of this world and others. He certainly was no See also:mere See also:advocate of orthodoxy; he as certainly was no mere victim of terror at scepticism; least of all was he a freethinker in disguise. He appears, as far as can be judged from the fragments of his Pensees, to have seized firmly and fully the central See also:idea of the difference between reason and religion. Where the difficulty rises respecting him is that most thinkers since his day, who have seen this 'difference with equal clearness, have advanced from it to the negative side, while he advanced to the positive. In other words, most men since his day who have not been contented with a mere See also:concordat, have let religion go and contented themselves with reason. Pascal, equally discontented with the concordat, held fast to religion and continued to fight out the questions of difference with reason. See also:Surveying these positions, we shall not be astonished to find much that is surprising and some things that are contradictory in Pascal's utterances on " les grands sujets." The influence exercised on him by Montaigne is the one fact regarding him which has not been and can hardly be exaggerated, and his well-known Entretion with Sacy on the subject (the restoration of which to • its proper form is one of the most valuable results of modern See also:criticism) leaves no doubt possible as to the source of his " Pyrrhonian " method. But it is impossible for anyone who takes Pascal's Pensees simply as he finds them in connexion with the facts of Pascal's history to question his theological orthodoxy, understanding by theological orthodoxy the See also:acceptance of revelation and See also:dogma; it is equally impossible for any one in the same condition to declare him absolutely content with dogma and revelation. It is of the essence of an active mind like Pascal's to explore and state all the arguments which make for or make against the conclusion it is investigating. To sum up, the Pensees are excursions into the great unknown made with a full See also:acknowledgment of the greatness of that unknown. From the point of view that belief and knowledge, based on experience or reasoning, are See also:separate domains with an unexplored See also:sea between and See also:round them, Pascal is perfectly comprehensible, and he need not be taken as a deserter from one region to the other.

To those who hold that all intellectual exercise outside the See also:

sphere of religion is impious or that all intellectual exercise inside that sphere is futile, he must remain an See also:enigma. There are few writers who are more in need than Pascal of being fully and competently edited. The chief nominally complete edition at present in existence is that of Bossut (1779, 5 vols., and since reprinted), which not only appeared before any See also:attempt had been made to restore the true text of the Pensees, but is in other respects quite inadequate. The edition of Lahure, 1858, is not much better, though the Pensees appear in their more genuine form. An edition promised for the excellent collection of Les Grands ecrivains de la See also:France by A. P. Faugere has been executed as far as the Pensees go by See also:Leon Brunschvig (3 vols., 1904), who has also issued a one-See also:volume edition. The Euvres completes appeared in three volumes (Paris, 1889). Meanwhile, with the exception of the Provinciales (of which there are numerous editions, no one much to be preferred to any other, for the text is undisputed and the book itself contains almost all the exegesis of its own contents necessary), Pascal can be read only at a disadvantage. There are five chief editions of the true Pensees earlier than Brunschvig's: that of Faugere (1844), the editio princeps ; that of See also:Havet (18 2, 1867 and 1881), on the whole the best; that of Victor See also:Rochet (1873), good, but arranged and edited with the deliberate intention of making Pascal first of all an orthodox apologist; that of See also:Molinier (1877-1879), a carefully edited and interesting text, the important corrections of which have been introduced into Havet's last edition and that of G. Nlichelant (See also:Freiburg, 1896). Unfortunately, none of these can be said to be exclusively satisfactory.

The See also:

minor See also:works must chiefly be sought in Bossut or reprints of him. Works on Pascal are innumerable: Sainte-Beuve's Port Royal, Cousin's writings on Pascal and his Jacqueline Pascal, and the essays of the editors of the Pensees just mentioned are the most noteworthy. See also:Principal See also:Tulloch contributed a useful little monograph to the See also:series of See also:Foreign See also:Classics for See also:English Readers (See also:Edinburgh and See also:London, 1878). See also:Recent handlings are, in French, E. Boutroux's Pascal (Paris, 1903) and, in English, an See also:article in the Quarterly See also:Review (No. 407) for See also:April 1906. (G. SA.) Pascal as Natural Philosopher and Mathematician.—Great as is Pascal's reputation as a philosopher and man of letters, it may be fairly questioned whether his claim to be remembered by posterity as a mathematician and physicist is not even greater. In his two former capacities all will admire the form of his work, while some will question the value of his results; but in his two latter capacities no one will dispute either. He was a great mathematician in an See also:age which produced Descartes, See also:Fermat, See also:Huygens, See also:Wallis and See also:Roberval. There are wonderful stories on See also:record of his precocity in mathematical learning, which is sufficiently established by the well-attested fact that he had completed before he was sixteen years of age a .work on the conic sections, in which he had laid down a series of See also:pro-positions, discovered by himself, of such importance that they may be said to form the See also:foundations of the modern treatment of that subject. Owing partly to the youth of the author, partly to the difficulty in See also:publishing scientific works in those days, and partly no doubt to the continual struggle on his part to devote his mind to what appeared to his See also:conscience more important labour, this work (like many others by the same See also:master hand) was never published.

We know something of what it contained from a See also:

report by See also:Leibnitz, who had seen it in Paris, and from a resume of its results published in 164o by Pascal himself, under the See also:title Essai pour les coniques. The method which he followed was that introduced by his contemporary See also:Girard Desargues, viz. the transformation of geometrical figures by conical or See also:optical See also:projection. In this way he established the famous theorem that the intersections of the three pairs of opposite ses of a hexagon inscribed in a conic are collinear. This proposition, which he called the mystic hexagram, he made the See also:keystone of his theory; from it alone he deduced more than 400 corollaries, embracing, according to his own account, the conics of See also:Apollonius, and other results innumerable. Pascal also distinguished himself by his skill in the infinitesimal calltilus, then in the embryonic form of Cavalieri's method of indivisibles. The See also:cycloid was a famous See also:curve in those days; it had been discussed by Galileo, Descartes, Fermat, Roberval andiTorricelli, who had in turn exhausted their skill upon it. Pascal solved the hitherto refractory problem of the generalquadrature of the cycloid, and proposed and solved a variety of others See also:relating to the centre of gravity of the curve and its segments, and to the volume and centre of gravity of solids of revolution generated in various ways by means of it. He published a number of these theorems without demonstration as a See also:challenge to contemporary mathematicians. Solutions were furnished by Wallis, Huygens, See also:Wren and others; and Pascal published his own in the form of letters from See also:Amos Dettonville (his assumed name as challenger) to See also:Pierre de Carcavy. There has been some discussion as to the fairness of the treatment accorded by Pascal to his rivals, but no question of the fact that his initiative led to a great See also:extension of our knowledge of the properties of the cycloid, and indirectly hastened the progress of the See also:differential calculus. In yet another See also:branch of pure See also:mathematics Pascal ranks as a founder. The mathematical theory of See also:probability and the allied theory of the combinatorial See also:analysis were in effect created by the See also:correspondence between Pascal and Fermat, concerning certain questions as tc the See also:division of stakes in See also:games of See also:chance, which had been propounded to the former by the gaming philosopher De Mere.

A complete account of this interesting correspondence would surpass our present limits; but the reader may be referred to See also:

Todhunter's History of the Theory of Probability (See also:Cambridge and London, 1865), pp. 7-21. It appears that Pascal contemplated publishing a See also:treatise De aleae geometria; but all that actually appeared was a fragment on the arithmetical triangle (Traite du triangle arithmetique, " Properties of the Figurate See also:Numbers "), printed in 1654, but not published till 1665, after his death. Pascal's work as a natural philosopher was not less remarkable than his discoveries in pure mathematics. His experiments and his treatise (written before 1651, published 1663) on the See also:equilibrium of fluids entitle him to See also:rank with Galileo and See also:Stevinus as one of the founders of the See also:science of See also:hydrodynamics. The idea of the pressure of the See also:air and the invention of the See also:instrument for measuring it were both new when he made his famous experiment, showing that the height of the See also:mercury See also:column in a barometer decreases when it is carried upwards through the See also:atmosphere. This experiment was made by himself in a See also:tower at Paris, and was carried out en a See also:grand scale under his instructions by his brother-in-law Florin Parier on the Puy de Dome in See also:Auvergne. Its success greatly helped to break down the old prejudices, and to bring See also:home to the minds of See also:ordinary men the truth of the new ideas propounded by Galileo and See also:Torricelli. Whether we look at his pure mathematical or at his See also:physical researches we receive the same impression of Pascal; we see the strongest marks of a great original See also:genius creating new ideas, and seizing upon, mastering, and pursuing farther every-thing that was fresh and unfamiliar in his time. We can still point to much in exact science that is absolutely his; and we can indicate infinitely more which is due to his See also:inspiration. (G.

End of Article: PASCAL, BLAISE (1623-1662)

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