THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS OF BLAISE PASCAL. A NEW TRANSLATION WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY THE REV. THOMAS M‘CRIE. EDINBURGH. If my letters are condemned at Rome, that which I condemn in them is condemned in heaven.—PASCAL. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS No. 530 BROADWAY. ------------------ 1856. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE, vii HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, ix LETTER I. Disputes in the Sorbonne, and the invention of proximate power—a term employed by the Jesuits to procure the censure of M. Arnauld, 63 LETTER II. Of sufficient grace, which turns out to be not sufficient—Concert between the Jesuits and the Dominicans—A parable, 76 Reply of “the Provincial” to the first two Letters, 88 LETTER III. Injustice, absurdity, and nullity of the censure on M. Arnauld—A personal heresy, 90 LETTER IV. Actual grace and sins of ignorance—Father Bauny’s Summary of sins, 100 LETTER V. Design of the Jesuits in establishing a new system of morals—Two sorts of casuists among them—A great many lax and some severe ones—Reason of this difference—Explanation of the doctrine of probabilism—A multitude of modern and unknown authors substituted in the place of the holy fathers—Escobar, 116 LETTER VI. Various artifices of the Jesuits to elude the authority of the gospel, of councils, and of the popes—Some consequences resulting from their doctrine of probability—Their relaxations in favor of beneficiaries, of priests, of monks, and of domestics—Story of John d’Alba, 135 LETTER VII. Method of directing the intention adopted by the casuists—Permission to kill in defence of honor and property, extended even to priests and monks—Curious question raised as to whether Jesuits may be allowed to kill Jansenists, 152 LETTER VIII.