Pascal's Pensees Part 76

Proofs of prayer. _Petenti dabitur._

Therefore it is in our power to ask. On the other hand, there is G.o.d. So it is not in our power, since the obtaining of (the grace) to pray to Him is not in our power. For since salvation is not in us, and the obtaining of such grace is from Him, prayer is not in our power.

The righteous man should then hope no more in G.o.d, for he ought not to hope, but to strive to obtain what he wants.

Let us conclude then that, since man is now unrighteous since the first sin, and G.o.d is unwilling that he should thereby not be estranged from Him, it is only by a first effect that he is not estranged.

Therefore, those who depart from G.o.d have not this first effect without which they are not estranged from G.o.d, and those who do not depart from G.o.d have this first effect. Therefore, those whom we have seen possessed for some time of grace by this first effect, cease to pray, for want of this first effect.

Then G.o.d abandons the first in this sense.

It is doubtful, however that this fragment should be included in the _Pensees_, and it has seemed best to separate it from the text. It has only once before appeared--in the edition of Michaut (1896). The first half of it has been freely translated in order to give an interpretation in accordance with a suggestion from M. Emile Boutroux, the eminent authority on Pascal. The meaning seems to be this. In one sense it is in our power to ask from G.o.d, who promises to give us what we ask. But, in another sense, it is not in our power to ask; for it is not in our power to obtain the grace which is necessary in asking.

We know that salvation is not in our power. Therefore some condition of salvation is not in our power. Now the conditions of salvation are two: (1) The asking for it, and (2) the obtaining it. But G.o.d promises to give us what we ask. Hence the obtaining is in our power. Therefore the condition which is not in our power must be the first, namely, the asking. Prayer presupposes a grace which it is not within our power to obtain.

After giving the utmost consideration to the second half of this obscure fragment, and seeking a.s.sistance from some eminent scholars, the translator has been compelled to give a strictly literal translation of it, without attempting to make sense.

[196] P. 141, l. 14. _Lord, when saw we_, etc.--Matthew xxv, 37.

[197] P. 143, l. 19. _Qui justus est, justificetur adhuc._--Apoc. xxii, II.

[198] P. 144, l. 2. _Corneille._--See his _Horace_, II, iii.

[199] P. 144, l. 15. _Corrumpunt mores_, etc.--I Cor. xv, 33.

[200] P. 145. l. 25. _Quod curiositate_, etc.--St. Augustine, _Sermon CXLI_.

[201] P. 146, l. 34. _Quia ... facere._--I Cor. i, 21.

[202] P. 148, l. 7. _Turbare semetipsum._--John xi, 33. The text is _turbavit seipsum_.

[203] P. 148, l. 25. _My soul is sorrowful even unto death._--Mark xiv, 34.

[204] P. 149, l. 3. _Eamus. Processit._--John xviii, 4. But _eamus_ does not occur. See, however, Matthew xxvi, 46.

[205] P. 150, l. 36. _Eritis sicut_, etc.--Genesis iv, 5.

[206] P. 151, l. 2. _Noli me tangere._--John xx, 17.

[207] P. 156, l. 14. _Vere discipuli_, etc.--Allusions to John viii, 31, i, 47; viii, 36; vi, 32.

[208] P. 158, l. 41. _Signa legem in electis meis._--Is. viii, 16. The text of the Vulgate is _in discipulis meis_.

[209] P. 159, l. 2. _Hosea._--xiv, 9.

[210] P. 159, l. 13. _Saint John._--xii, 39.

[211] P. 160, l. 17. _Tamar._--Genesis x.x.xviii, 24-30.

[212] P. 160, l. 17. _Ruth._--Ruth iv, 17-22.

[213] P. 163, l. 13. _History of China._--A History of China in Latin had been published in 1658.

[214] P. 164, l. I. _The five suns_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 6.

[215] P. 164, l. 9. _Jesus Christ._--John v, 31.

[216] P. 164, l. 17. _The Koran says_, etc.--There is no mention of Saint Matthew in the Koran; but it speaks of the Apostles generally.

[217] P. 165, l. 35. _Moses._--Deut. x.x.xi, 11.

[218] P. 166, l. 23. _Carnal Christians._--Jesuits and Molinists.

[219] P. 170, l. 14. _Whom he welcomed from afar._--John viii, 56.

[220] P. 170, l. 19. _Salutare_, etc.--Genesis xdix, 18.

[221] P. 173, l. 33. _The Twelve Tables at Athens._--There were no such tables. About 450 B.C. a commission is said to have been appointed in Rome to visit Greece and collect information to frame a code of law. This is now doubted, if not entirely discredited.

[222] P. 173, l. 35. _Josephus.--Reply to Apion_, ii, 16. Josephus, the Jewish historian, gained the favour of t.i.tus, and accompanied him to the siege of Jerusalem. He defended the Jews against a contemporary grammarian, named Apion, who had written a violent satire on the Jews.

[223] P. 174, l. 27. _Against Apion._--ii, 39. See preceding note.

[224] P. 174, l. 28. _Philo._--A Jewish philosopher, who lived in the first century of the Christian era. He was one of the founders of the Alexandrian school of thought. He sought to reconcile Jewish tradition with Greek thought.

[225] P. 175, l. 20. _Prefers the younger._--See No. 710.

[226] P. 176, l. 32. _The books of the Sibyls and Trismegistus._--The Sibyls were the old Roman prophetesses. Their predictions were preserved in three books at Rome, which Tarquinius Superbus had bought from the Sibyl of Erythrae. Trismegistus was the Greek name of the Egyptian G.o.d Thoth, who was regarded as the originator of Egyptian culture, the G.o.d of religion, of writing, and of the arts and sciences. Under his name there existed forty-two sacred books, kept by the Egyptian priests.

[227] P. 177, l. 3. _Quis mihi_, etc.--Numbers xi, 29. _Quis tribuat ut omnis populus prophetet?_

[228] P. 177, l. 25. _Maccabees._--2 Macc. xi, 2.

[229] P. 177, l. 7. _This book_, etc.--Is. x.x.x, 8.

[230] P. 178, l. 9. _Tertullian._--A Christian writer in the second century after Christ. The quotation is from his _De Cultu Femin._, ii, 3.

[231] P. 178, l. 16. (Te??), etc.--Eusebius, _Hist._, lib. v, c. 8.

[232] P. 178, l. 22. _And he took that from Saint Irenaeus._--_Hist._, lib. x, c 25.

[233] P. 179, l. 5. _The story in Esdras._--2 Esdras xiv. G.o.d appears to Esdras in a bush, and orders him to a.s.semble the people and deliver the message. Esdras replies that the law is burnt. Then G.o.d commands him to take five scribes to whom for forty days He dictates the ancient law. This story conflicted with many pa.s.sages in the prophets, and was therefore rejected from the Canon at the Council of Trent.

[234] P. 181, l. 14. _The Kabbala._--The fantastic secret doctrine of interpretation of Scripture, held by a number of Jewish rabbis.

[235] P. 181, l. 26. _Ut sciatis_, etc.--Mark ii, 10, 11.

[236] P. 183, l. 29. _This generation_, etc.--Matthew xxiv, 34.

[237] P. 184, l. 11. _Difference between dinner and supper._--Luke xiv, 12.