predecessors of his, Francis Bacon and Saint Augustine. Yet Descartes' great postulate, his methodical principle of doubt, suggests at once that studied uncertainty with which many of the Essais end. Of more consequence than this possible external connection between the two writers is the fact that they chose the same field for their observations. As Montaigne studied his own feelings, attributes, desires, and generalized them by his erudition, so Descartes fixed his attention on the processes of his own thought, as typical of the thought of humanity. The essayist scouts the authorities of the preceding centuries, the schoolmen with their logomachies and their educational system. The philosopher rejects the abstractions of mediæval learning and its formal classifications, and seeks in man himself the exact expression of the conditions of life and knowledge. And when he reaches a conclusion satisfactory to his own mind he formulates it in his celebrated thesis regarding his own nature: Je pense, donc je suis." This idea is a genuine product of the Renaissance, an attempt to explain the facts of humanity by the attributes of each individual composing it.

66

Beside these characteristics, created by the times in which it was conceived, the Discours de la méthode throws much light on Descartes' personality. It tells of his liking for mathematics on account of the exactness of its demonstrations. His philosophy is imbued with mathematics, rests on it, in fact, to such an extent that we might say he applies mathematics to the opera

eight. Showed great aptitude for mathematics. Remained there eight years, going thence to Poitiers, where he took a degree in law, November 10, 1614. Lived in Paris. In 1617 volunteered under Maurice of Nassau. Sees the world. Is stationed in Holland and Germany. Resigns commission in 1621, and travels in Central Europe and Italy. Returns to Paris in 1625. At La Rochelle in 1628. Settles at Amsterdam in 1629. In 1649 goes to Stockholm, on invitation of Queen Christina, where he dies February 11, 1650. Always studying and writing, he does not publish till 1637 (Discours de la méthode). In 1641 his Méditations appeared, at first in Latin; in 1644, his Principia; in 1649, the Traité des passions de l'âme.

tions of the mind, and becomes a mathematical psychologist. His temperament could not endure obscurity. His nature inclined wholly towards logical deductions from a determined principle. Granting his premises, there was no escaping his conclusions. But his premises were assumptions. Steady, clear, persistent thinking does not necessarily prove the existence of the thing thought of, and Cartesianism suffered the fate of all systems of philosophy.

Apart from the benefit the world at large derived from Descartes' labors, they were of considerable direct profit to French literature. They introduced philosophy to a larger public by substituting the vernacular of the educated for the Latin of the learned much such a service as Calvin had rendered to theology. Furthermore, the so-called "precepts" enjoined in the Discours de la méthode (see pages 16, 17 of this edition), aided clear thought and correct expression, while the attempt to put all ideas and notions under the control of the reason would do away with many whims and vagaries. Yet Descartes' own style does not fully exemplify the rules of his method. It leaves much to be desired in the way of conciseness and directNor did his eulogy of reason have the immediate effect on literature that has sometimes been claimed. The school of common sense in France had been founded by Malherbe some decades before the Discours de la méthode was generally known. Still the popularization of Cartesianism seems to have contributed its share to the destruction of the heroic-gallant novel of La Calprenède and Mlle de Scudéry, in the later fifties, and furnished Molière with some of his arguments for temperance and moderation in life and expression. One of the lasting attributes of French writers is their fondness for orderly arrangement and clear deduction. The Discours de la méthode did not create this trait, but it undoubtedly aided greatly in establishing it.

ness.

II.

Pascal was a mathematician also, and, like Descartes and Montaigne, his study was the study of man. But his interest did not lie in the demonstration of man's existence, nor in noting man's ways and manners. His gaze was bent on the soul rather than the mind, and it was to the problem of the soul's salvation that he applied his energies. For mathematics could not satisfy his inner life, if it could Descartes' (see page 95, pensée 23). The study that could engage Pascal, “la science que l'homme doit avoir," was the study of the Cross. And it was to this that he gave the years of retreat which followed his conversion.

Pascal's first appearance in literature was as a polemist. His Lettres provinciales were written for the purpose of defending Arnauld against the attacks of his enemies among the Jesuits and at the Sorbonne. This immediate purpose, however, actuated a few of the letters only, for with the fourth of the series he dropped his simulated defense of Arnauld, and began a violent assault on the ethical teachings of the Jesuits. Herein lies the interest of the Provinciales. The argument which Pascal employs in them and it shows us the real cause of his enmity towards the doctrine he combats is that the individual is directly responsible to his Maker for his conduct, and that this responsibility cannot be avoided nor remitted. He believes in original sin. The soul by nature is prone to evil. Divine grace alone can save it. The church may train and confessors may

I Blaise Pascal, born at Clermont (Puy-de-Dôme), June 19, 1623. Moved to Paris in 1630. Educated by father, a magistrate fond of the natural sciences. Early aptitude for mathematics and physics. Treatise on conic sections at sixteen, arithmetical machine at eighteen. Constitution undermined by study. Sister, Jacqueline, took the veil at Port-Royal in 1652. Pascal, converted in 1654, became Jansenist also. Ascetic life attended with feeble health and suffering. Died August 19, 1662.- In defense of his Port

Royal teachers, wrote the Lettres provinciales in 1656-1657. Left posthumous notes on the way of salvation, published by friends of Port-Royal in 1670, under the title of Pensées. Minor scientific and moral writings.

warn, but neither the church nor the confessor can abrogate the great fact of personal accountability for transgression.

Their

If divine grace

In this way the Provinciales foretold the Pensées. leading principle is the same, applied in the former to a specific case, extended and made general in the latter. alone can heal, then God is essential to man. If the great concern of humanity is its eternal welfare, then without God man is of all creatures most miserable. With Him we have full happiness and joy. Here is the fundamental thought of the Pensées. God being necessary to man's happiness, all man's energies should be bent towards seeking God. Neither scepticism nor intellectual vain-glory should hinder so urgent a quest. With Montaigne and Descartes ever before him indeed, the occasion of the Pensées may be found in the attraction exerted on their author by the Essais (see the "Entretien avcc M. de Saci on Epictetus and Montaigne)- Pascal is forced into a warfare against both religious indifference and a God revealed by reason. He could not base his faith on such uncertainties. They did not satisfy the needs of his soul. Nature does not know that God is. The mind does not see His existence. The soul alone, which feels its wretchedness in sin, is sure that there is a Redeemer, for it is only under the conditions of wants thus felt that the Redeemer reveals Himself. There is, therefore, an inherent antagonism between the Essais and Discours on the one hand and the Pensées on the other. Pascal by no means rejects reason: "Toute notre dignité consiste donc en la pensée " (Art. I, pensée 61, page 83, line 17; see, also, Art. I. pensées 2 and 11). A religion which is not reasonable would be absurd. Yet he denies to pure thought the power of attaining the goal of humanity. It is the heart, rather: "Le cœur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point" (Art. XXIV, pensée 5, page 110), and God is perceived by the feelings, not by the judgment.

These truths are vital, and Pascal's mode of expressing them was commensurate with their importance. If classical French

prose did not begin with the Lettres provinciales, as is often said, it cannot be questioned that they are the first prose work in French which maintains a uniform standard of literary excellence. Controversial literature does not know their like for keenness, vigor, and variety of argument. Their vocabulary is abundant and ready, their periods clear, strong and concise. These are qualities which characterize the Pensées also, despite the absence of the last touch of the master's hand, while the later work adds to them the attractions of eloquence and imagination.

III.

It is quite another study of man which Pascal's noble contemporary, La Rochefoucauld,' offers us. Concern for the soul's salvation is among the least of his cares. Born to one of the highest stations in France, mingling always with the life of courts, La Rochefoucauld's objective point was the rewards of this world. His failure to attain them made him an author. Literature became a means with him of enjoining the lessons of frustrated ambition. His Maximes, therefore, are rather individual than general. They are the fruits of the career of one man, and present observations which were made on but one class of society. So far as the traits of character they delineate are common to mankind, so far their epigrams are true and lasting. Otherwise they tell but a part of the story, and possess that interest only which attaches to the satire of the past.

La Rochefoucauld's philosophy of man is quite like Pascal's, notwithstanding his different purpose in formulating it. The

1 François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, born at Paris, September 15, 1613. Married in 1628, soldier 1629, begins court life in 1630. Many love affairs. Joined the Fronde because his duchess was refused a stool at court, and the right to enter the gate of the Louvre in her carriage. From 1656, in broken health, frequents the salons of Paris. Attaches himself to Mme de Sablé and Mme de La Fayette. Died March 16, 1680.— Published the Maximes (from 1665 on.) Wrote Mémoires of the Regency of Anne of Austria.