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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
"THE
zeal for the Lord hath eaten me up." Such has indeed been the
case with Pascal, almost literally. The fire that burned in him was
too ardent and vehement for the vehicle, the material instrument,
which was very soon used up and reduced to ashes. At twenty-four he
was already a broken man, being struck with paralysis and
neurasthenia; he died at the comparatively early age of 39,
emulating, as it were, the life career of his Lord the Christ who
died at 33. The Fire martyrised the body, but kindled and brought
forth experiences and realisations that save and truths that abide.
It was the Divine
Fire whose vision and experience he had on the famous night of 23
November 1654 which brought about his final and definitive
conversion. It was the same fire that had blazed up in his brain,
while yet a boy, and made him a precocious genius, a marvel of
intellectual power in the exact sciences. At 12 this prodigy
discovered by himself the 32nd proposition of Euclid, Book I. At
sixteen he wrote a treatise on conic sections. At nineteen he
invented a calculating machine which, without the help of any
mathematical rule or process, gave absolutely accurate results. At
twenty-three he published his experiments with vacuum. At twenty-five
he conducted the well-known experiment from the tower of St. Jacques,
proving the existence of atmospheric pressure. His studies in
infinitesimal calculus were remarkably creative and original. And it
might be said he was a pioneer in quite a new branch of mathematics,
viz., the mathematical theory of probability. We shall see presently
how his preoccupation with the mathematics of chance and probability
coloured and reinforced his metaphysics and theology.
Page – 107 But the pressure upon his dynamic and heated brain – the fiery zeal in his mind – was already proving too much and he was advised medically to take complete rest. Thereupon followed what was known as Pascal's mundane life – a period of distraction and dissipation; but this did not last long nor was it of a serious nature. The inner fire could brook no delay, it was eager and impatient to englobe other fields and domains. Indeed, it turned to its own field – the heart. Pascal became initiated into the mystery of Faith and Grace. Still he had to pass through a terrible period of dejection and despair: the life of the world had given him no rest or relaxation, it served only to fill his cup of misery to the brim. But the hour of final relief was not long postponed: the Grace came to him, even as it came to Moses or St. Paul as a sudden flare of fire which burnt up the Dark Night and opened out the portals of Morning Glory. Pascal's place in the evolution of European culture and consciousness is of considerable significance and importance. He came at a critical time, on the mounting tide of rationalism and scepticism, in an age when the tone and temper of human mentality were influenced and fashioned by Montaigne and Rochefoucauld, by Bacon and Hobbes. Pascal himself, born in such an atmosphere of doubt and disbelief and disillusionment, had sucked in a full dose of that poison; yet he survived and found the Rock of Ages, became the clarion of Faith against Denial. What a spectacle it was! This is what one wrote just a quarter of a century after the death of Pascal: "They can no longer tell us that it is only small minds that have piety. They are shown how it has grown best in one of the the greatest geometricians, one of the subtlest metaphysicians, one of the most penetrating minds that ever existed on earth. The piety of such a philosopher should make the unbeliever and the libertine declare what a certain Diocles said one day on seeing Epicurus in a temple: 'What a feast, what a spectacle for me to see Epicurus in a temple! All my doubts vainsh, piety takes its place again. I never saw Jupiter's greatness so well as now when I behold Epicurus kneeling down!"¹
¹ "Ils ne
peuvent plus nous dire qu'il n'y a que de petits esprits qui aient de
la piété:
car on leur en fait voir de la mieux poussé
dans run des plus grands géo-mètres,
l'un des plus subtils métaphysiciens,
et des plus pénétrants
esprits que aient jamais été
au monde. La piété
d'un tel philosophe devrait faire dire aux indévots
et awe libertins ce que dit un jour un certain Dioclés,
en voyant Epicure dans un temple: 'Quelle fête,'
s'écriait-il, 'quelle spectacle
pour moi, de voir Epicure dans un temple! Tous mes soupçons
s'évanouissent: la piété
reprend sa place; et je ne vis jamais mieux la grandeur de Jupiter
que depuis que je vois Epicure à
genoux!' " a – Bayle: Nouvelle de la République
des Lettres. Page – 108 What characterises Pascal is the way in which he has bent his brain – not rejected it – but truly bent and forced even the dry "geometrical brain" to the service of Faith. In his inquiry into truth and certitude Pascal takes his stand upon what he calls the geometrical method, the only valid method, according to him, in the sphere of reason. The characteristic of this method is that it takes for granted certain fundamental principles and realities – called axioms and postulates or definitions – and proceeds to other truths that are infallibly and inevitably deduced from them, that are inherent and implied in them. There is no use or necessity in trying to demonstrate these fundamentals also; that will only land us into confusion and muddle. They have to be simply accepted, they do not require demonstration, it is they that demonstrate others. Such, for instance, are space, time, number, the reality of which it is foolishness and pedantry to I seek to prove. There is then an order of truths that do not i require to be proved. We are referring only to the order of I physical truths. But there is another order, Pascal says, equally I valid and veritable, the order of the Spirit. Here we have i another set of fundamentals that have to be accepted and taken for granted, matrix of other truths and realities. It can also be called the order of the Heart. Reason posits physical fundamentals; it does not know of the fundamentals of the Heart which are beyond its reach; such are God, Soul, Immortality which are evident only to Faith. But Faith and Reason, according to Pascal, are not contraries nor irreconcilables. Because the things of faith are beyond reason, it is not that they are irrational. Here is what Pascal says about the function and limitation of reason:
"The last movement of reason is to know that there
is an infinity of things that are beyond it. It must be a very weak
reason if it does not arrive there."¹
¹
"La dernière démarche
de la raison, c'est de connaître
qu'il y a une infinité de
chases qui la surpassent. Elle est bien faible si elle ne va
jusque-là
Page –
109 "One must know where one should doubt, where one should submit."¹ "Two excesses are equally dangerous: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason."² He goes farther and adopting a positive attitude says: "We know truth not by reason alone, but by the heart also: it is in the latter way that we know the first principles, and in vain does reasoning, that has no part in it, attempt to combat them... The heart feels... and the reason demon strates afterwards... Principles are felt, propositions are deduced. . . . "³ About doubt, Pascal says that the perfect doubter, the Pyrrhonian as he is called, is a fiction. Pascal asks: "What will men do in such a state? Will he doubt everything?... Will he doubt whether he doubts ? Will he doubt whether he exists?. . . In fact there has never been a perfectly effective Pyrrhonian."4 The process of conversion of the doubting mind, of the dry intellectual reason as propounded and perhaps practised by Pascal is also a characteristic mark of his nature and genius. It is explained in his famous letter on "bet" or "game of chance" (Le Pari). Here is how he puts the issue to the doubting mind (I am giving the substance, not his words): let us say then that in the world we are playing a game of chance. How do the chances stand? What are the gains and losses if God does not exist? What 'are the gains and losses if God does exist? If God exists, by accepting and reaching him what do we gain? All that man cares for – happiness, felicity. And what do we lose? We lose the world of misery. If, on the other 'hand, God does not exist, by believing him to exist, we lose nothing, we are not more miserable than what we are. If, however, God exists and we do not believe him, we gain this
¹ "Il faut savoir douter où il faut, se soumettre où il faut." ² "Ce sont deux exès également dangereux, d'exclure la raison, de n'admettre que la raison." ³ "Nous connaissons la vérité, non seulement par la raison, mais encore par Ie cæur; c'est de cette dernière sorte que nous connaissons les premiers principes, et c'est en vain que Ie raisonnement qui n'y a point de part, essaye de leg combattre... Le cÅ“ur sent et la raison démontre ensuite Les principes se sentent, leg propositions se concluent." 4"Que
Cera done l'homme en cet état?
Doutera-t-il de tout? . . . doutera-t-il s'il doute? doutera-t-il
s'il est?. .En fait qu'il n'y ajamais eu de pyrrhonien effectif
parfait."
Page – 110 world of misery but we lose all that is worth having. Thus Pascal concludes that even from the standpoint of mere gain and loss, belief in God is more advantageous than unbelief. This is how he applied to metaphysics the mathematics of probability. One is not sure if such reasoning is convincing to the intellect; but perhaps it is a necessary stage in conversion. At least we can conclude that Pascal had to pass through such a stage; and it indicates the difficulty his brain had to undergo, the tension or even the torture he made it pass through. It is true, from Reason Pascal went over to Faith, even while giving Reason its due. Still it seems the two were not perfectly synthetised or fused in him. There was a gap between that was not thoroughly bridged. Pascal did not possess the higher, intuitive, luminous mind that mediates successfully between the physical discursive ratiocinative brain-mind and the vision of faith: it is because deep in his consciousness there lay this chasm. Indeed, Pascal's abyss (l' abîme de Pascal) is a well-known legend. Pascal, it appears, used to have very often the vision of an abyss about to open before him and he shuddered at the prospect of falling into it. It seems to us to be an experience of the Infinity – the Infinity to which he was so much attracted and of which he wrote so beautifully (L'infiniment grand et l'infiniment petit) – but into which he could not evidently jump overboard unreservedly. This produced a dichotomy, a lack of integration of personality, Jung would say. Pascal's brain was cold, firm, almost rigid; his heart was volcanic, the faith he had was a fire: it lacked something of the pure light and burned with a lurid glare.
And the reason is his metaphysics. It is the Jansenist
conception of God and human nature that inspired and coloured all his
experience and consciousness. According to it, as according to the
Calvinist conception, man is a corrupt being, corroded to the core,
original sin has branded his very soul. Only Grace saves him and
releases him. The order of sin and the order of Grace are distinct
and disparate worlds and yet they complement each other and need each
other. Greatness and misery are intertwined, united, unified with
each other in him. Here is an echo of the Manichean position which
also involves an abyss. But even then God's grace is not a free
Page – 111 agent, as Jesuits declare; there is a predestination that guides and controls it. This was one of the main subjects he treated in his famous open letters (Les Provinciales) that brought him renown almost overnight. Eternal hell is a possible prospect that faces the Jansenist. That was why a Night always over-shadowed the Day in Pascal's soul. Man then, according to Pascal, is by nature a sinful thing. He can lay no claim to noble virtue as his own: all in him is vile, he is a lump of dirt and filth. Even the greatest has his full share of this taint. The greatest, the saintliest, and the meanest, the most sinful, all meet, all are equal on this common platform; all have the same feet of clay. Man is as miserable a creature as a beast, as much a part and product of Nature as a plant. Only there is this difference that an animal or a tree is unconscious, while man knows that he is miserable. This knowledge or perception makes him more miserable, but that is his real and only greatness – there is no other. His thought, his self-consciousness, and his sorrow and repentance and contrition for what he is – that is the only good part – Mary's part – that has been given to him. Here are Pascal's own words on the subject: "The greatness of man is great in this that he knows he is miserable. A tree does not know that it is miserable. It is misery indeed to know oneself miserable. But one is great when one knows thus that he is miserable. Thought is man's greatness. Man is a mere reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed."¹
Pascal's faith had not the calm, tranquil, serene,
luminous and happy self-possession of an Indian Rishi. It was ardent
and impatient, fiery and vehement. It had to be so perhaps, since it
was to stand against his steely brain (and a gloomy vital or life
force) as a counterpoise, even as an antidote. This tension and
schism brought about, at least contributed to his neurasthenia and
physical infirmity. But whatever the effect
¹"La grandeur de l'homme est grande en se qu'il se connaît misérable. Un arbre ne se connaît pas miserable. C'est done être misérable que de se connaître miserable. Mais c'est être grand que de connaître qu'on est misérable. Pensée fait la grandeur de l'homme.
L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, Ie plus faible de la nature,
mais e'est un roseau pensant."
Page – 112 upon his inner consciousness and spiritual achievement, his power of expression, his literary style acquired by that a special quality which is his great gift to the French language. If one speaks of Pascal, one has to speak of his language also; for he was one of the great masters who created the French prose. His prose was a wonderful blend of clarity, precision, serried logic and warmth, colour, life, movement, plasticity. A translation cannot give any idea of the Pascalian style; but an inner echo of the same can perhaps be caught from the thought movement of these characteristic sayings of his with which we conclude: "Contradiction is not a mark of falsehood, nor is uncontradiction a mark of truth."¹ "The infinite distance of the body from the mind images the distance infinitely more infinite of the mind from Charity (Divine Grace, Faith)."² "The heart has its reasons which Reason knows not... I say, the heart loves the universal being naturally, and itself also naturally, according to whichsoever it gives itself. And it hardens itself against the one or the other according to its choice. You have rejected one and preserved the other. Is it by the reason that you love ?"³
"Know then, a you proud one, what a paradox you are
to yourself. Humble yourself, impotent Reason. Learn, man surpasses
man infinitely. Hear from your Master your true state which you do
not know. Listen to God."4
¹ "Ni la contradiction n'est marque de fausseté, ni l'incontradiction n'est marque de vérité." ² "La distance infinite des corps aux esprits figure la distance infiniment plus infinie des esprits à la charité." ³ "Le cÅ“ur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point; ... Je dis que Ie cÅ“ur aime l'être universel naturellement, et soi-même naturellement, selon qu'il s'y donne; et il se durcit contre l'un ou l'autre, à son choix. Vous avez rejeté l'un et conservé l'autre. Est-ce par raison que vous aimez?"
4"Connaissez done, superbe,
quel paradoxe vous êtes à
vous-même. Humiliezvous, raison
impuissante: apprenez que l'homme passe infiniment l'homme, et
entendez de votre maître votre
condition véritable que vous
ignorez. Écoutez Dieu.'. Page – 113
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