[31] Œuvres, t. iv. pp. 160,161.
[33] Sir D. Brewster, in an article on Pascal’s Writings and Discoveries in North Brit. Rev., Aug. 1844. Sir David’s account is almost literally translated from M. Périer’s letter to Pascal, of date September 22, 1648, and embodied in Pascal’s “Récit de la grande Expérience de l’Équilibre des Liqueurs,” first published in 1648.
[39a] Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 94.
[39b] “Evidently,” says Cousin, “M. Habert de Montmor, the Mæcenas of the savants of the time.”
[41] Blaise Pascal. Préface de la nouvelle éd., P. 46. Œuvres, t. i. 1849.
[42a] Jus mihi esset hoc ipsum ab ipso potius quam a te expectare, ideo quod ego ipsi, jam biennium effluxit, auctor fuerim ejus experimenti faciendi, eumque certum reddiderim, nec de successu non dubitare, quamquam id experimentum nunquam fecerim. Verum quoniam D. R. amicitia junctus est qui mihi ultro adversatus . . . non sine ratione credendum est eum sequi passiones amici sui.—Descartes, Epist. Amstelodami, 1683.
[42b] Discours sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pascal, p. xviii.
[43a] Any reader curious as to how far Descartes had advanced in this matter may consult Montucla, Histoire des Mathématiques, vol. vi. p. 205. Montucla, no less than Baillet, writes with a clear bias in Descartes’s favour.
[43b] Récit de la grande Expérience de l’Équilibre des Liqueurs. Œuvres, t. iv. p. 301—“Je méditai des lors l’expérience dont je fais voir ici le Récit.”
[44] Intererat mea id rescire, ipse enim petii ab illo, jam exacto biennio, ut id faceret, eumque pulchri successus certum reddidi, quod esset omnino conforme meis Principiis, absque quo nunquam de eo cogitasset, eo quod contrariâ tenebatur sententiâ.—Ep. lxix., ibid.