Opening the text

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'CriePascal, Blaise

Religion

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

Name: The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Author: Pascal, Blaise

Pascal, Blaise

Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800

I am aware that those who are not very well acquainted with you, are at
a great loss what to think on this subject, as they find themselves
under the painful necessity, either of believing the incredible crimes
with which you charge your opponents, or (what is equally incredible) of
setting you down as slanderers. “Indeed!” they exclaim, “were these
things not true, would clergymen publish them to the world—would they
debauch their consciences and damn themselves by venting such libels?”
Such is their way of reasoning, and thus it is that the palpable proof
of your falsifications coming into collision with their opinion of your
honesty, their minds hang in a state of suspense between the evidence of
truth which they cannot gainsay, and the demands of charity which they
would not violate. It follows, that since their high esteem for you is
the only thing that prevents them from discrediting your calumnies, if
we can succeed in convincing them that you have quite a different idea
of calumny from that which they suppose you to have, and that you
actually believe that in blackening and defaming your adversaries you
are working out your own salvation, there can be little question that
the weight of truth will determine them immediately to pay no regard to
your accusations. This, fathers, will be the subject of the present
letter.

My design is, not simply to show that your writings are full of
calumnies: I mean to go a step beyond this. It is quite possible for a
person to say a number of false things believing them to be true; but
the character of a liar implies the intention to tell lies. Now I
undertake to prove, fathers, that it is your deliberate intention to
tell lies, and that it is both knowingly and purposely that you load
your opponents with crimes of which you know them to be innocent,
because you believe that you may do so without falling from a state of
grace. Though you doubtless know this point of your morality as well as
I do, this need not prevent me from telling you about it; which I shall
do, were it for no other purpose than to convince all men of its
existence, by showing them that I can maintain it to your face, while
you cannot have the assurance to disavow it, without confirming, by that
very disavowment, the charge which I bring against you.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'CriePascal, Blaise

Religion

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

Pascal, Blaise

Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800

I am aware that those who are not very well acquainted with you, are at
a great loss what to think on this subject, as they find themselves
under the painful necessity, either of believing the incredible crimes
with which you charge your opponents, or (what is equally incredible) of
setting you down as slanderers. “Indeed!” they exclaim, “were these
things not true, would clergymen publish them to the world—would they
debauch their consciences and damn themselves by venting such libels?”
Such is their way of reasoning, and thus it is that the palpable proof
of your falsifications coming into collision with their opinion of your
honesty, their minds hang in a state of suspense between the evidence of
truth which they cannot gainsay, and the demands of charity which they
would not violate. It follows, that since their high esteem for you is
the only thing that prevents them from discrediting your calumnies, if
we can succeed in convincing them that you have quite a different idea
of calumny from that which they suppose you to have, and that you
actually believe that in blackening and defaming your adversaries you
are working out your own salvation, there can be little question that
the weight of truth will determine them immediately to pay no regard to
your accusations. This, fathers, will be the subject of the present
letter.

My design is, not simply to show that your writings are full of
calumnies: I mean to go a step beyond this. It is quite possible for a
person to say a number of false things believing them to be true; but
the character of a liar implies the intention to tell lies. Now I
undertake to prove, fathers, that it is your deliberate intention to
tell lies, and that it is both knowingly and purposely that you load
your opponents with crimes of which you know them to be innocent,
because you believe that you may do so without falling from a state of
grace. Though you doubtless know this point of your morality as well as
I do, this need not prevent me from telling you about it; which I shall
do, were it for no other purpose than to convince all men of its
existence, by showing them that I can maintain it to your face, while
you cannot have the assurance to disavow it, without confirming, by that
very disavowment, the charge which I bring against you.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

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