P. 143, l. 6. the king of the Medes and Persians is Darius Codomanus; the King of the Greeks, Alexander. The four kings are, Seleucus, King of Syria; Ptolemy, King of Egypt; Lysimachus, King of Thrace, and Cassander, King of Macedonia, after the battle of Ipsus, 301 b.c.
P. 143, l. 12. This paragraph refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, who died 164 b.c. See the account of his death, 1 Macc. c. 6.
P. 145, l. 1. And in the end of years. The marriage of Antiochus Theos with Berenice took place about 247 b.c. Berenice was assassinated by Seleucus Ceraunos soon afterwards, and the war between Ptolemy Euergetes and the King of Syria lasted during almost all the reign of the latter. Syria regained the ascendancy only after the death of Ptolemy Euergetes in 222 b.c.
P. 145, l. 26. Raphia. The Battle of Raphia was gained by Ptolemy Philopator over Antiochus the Great, 217 b.c.
P. 145, l. 36. Euergetes, a mistake for Epiphanes.
P. 147, l. 2. The leader taken from the thigh. A literal translation of Gen. xlix. 10. Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda, et dux de femore ejus.
P. 152, l. 26. Pugio Fidei. The work so called, which Pascal first specifies in this place, is one of which he made great use in all his speculations on the fulfilment of Prophecy, and on the meaning of the Hebrew letters, etc. The book, of which the full title is Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judæos, was written in 1278 by Raymond Martin, a Catalonian monk. It remained almost unknown for four hundred years, and was first printed in 1651. It was, therefore, as it were, a new book when Pascal became acquainted with it. Under the name Mauri the author assails not the Koran nor Mahomet, but Arabic philosophy.
P. 161, l. 2. Ut sciatis quod filius hominis. Marc. ii. 10-11. The words of Jesus to the paralytic.
P. 164, l. 16. Signa legem in electis meis. Is. viii. 16, where the Vulgate has discipulis.
P. 165, l. 15. Fascination. i.e., Fascinatio nugacitatis, see [p. 101], l. 16. The blindness produced by the love of temporal possessions, or as the A. V. translates it, "the bewitching of naughtiness."