The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

by Blaise Pascal

P. 76, l. 12. Cromwell. As Charles II. was restored in 1660, this fragment was written about that date, two years before Pascal's death. Cromwell's death did not arise from the cause stated in the text.

P. 77, l. 8. the automaton. The expression of Descartes and his school for the animal body.

P. 77, l. 25. Inclina cor meum, Deus. Ps. cxix. 36. "Inclina cor meum in testimonia tua, et non in avaritiam."

P. 77, l. 30. Eritis sicut dii. Gen. iii. 5.

P. 79, l. 30. men laugh and weep at the same thing. The thought is from Charron, Traité de la Sagesse, l. i. ch. xxxviii.

P. 80, l. 35. the grand Sultan. None of Pascal's editors have discovered whence he drew this purely fictitious description of the Sultan.

P. 81, l. 9. That epigram about the two one-eyed people. This is not Martial's. It is found in Epigrammatum Delectus, published by Port Royal in 1659.

Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,

Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos.