P. 63, l. 9. Archesilas. Born at Pitane in Æolis of a Scythian father, about 300 b.c. He was founder of the School known as the Second Academy. See Montaigne, Essais, l. ii. ch. iii.
P. 64, l. 19. For all that is here said on Custom, see Montaigne, Essais, l. i. ch. xxii.
P. 65, l. 7. Pasce oves meas. Joh. xxi. 17. The words are those taken as the foundation of papal authority. You owe me pasturage, i.e. you owe me justice.
P. 65, l. 30. the soldiers of Mahomet, thieves, heretics. Pascal boldly joins heretics and thieves, for those who did not hold his creed appeared to him as men sans foi ni loi, faithless and lawless. In his eyes a Turk was scarce a man. See the Provincial Letters, let. xiv. "Sont-ce des religieux et des prêtres qui parlent de cette sorte? Sont-ce des Chrétiens? Sont-ce des Tures? Sont-ce des demons?" And Thoughts, p. 211, l. 30. "Do we not see beasts live and die like men, and Turks like Christians."
P. 66, l. 6. The Swiss. See [note on p. 56], l. 20.
P. 66, l. 10. condemning so many Spaniards to death. Possibly an allusion to the battle of the Dunes, 1659, which led to the Peace of the Pyrenees, so long desired by all but Spain, then obliged to consent.
P. 67, l. 13. Summum jus, summa injuria. Charron, Traité de la Sagesse, etc. ch. xxvii. art. 8.
P. 67, l. 26. The end of the Twelfth Provincial. The following is the passage to which Pascal alludes. "C'est une etrange et longue guerre que celle où la violence essaye d'opprimer la vérité. Tons les efforts de la violence ne peuvent affaiblir la vérité, et ne servent qu'à la relever davantage. Toutes les lumières de la vérité ne peuvent rien pour arrêter la violence et ne font que l'irriter encore plus ... la violence et la vérité ne peuvent rien l'une sur l'autre."
P. 67, l. 27. The Fronde. This was the name given to the party which rose against Mazarin and the Court during the minority of Louis XIV., and plunged France into civil war.
P. 69, l. 10. give me the strap. This is no exaggeration, since fifty years after Pascal wrote, Voltaire was beaten by the servants of the Duc de Rohan.