lieve, that a man in such a state of mind, would then easily admit all the proofs which might be brought to confirm the reality of those important truths of which he had spoken.

"Then in the way of proof, having shewn generally that these truths were contained in a book, the genuineness and authenticity of which, could not reasonably be doubted, he proposed to look minutely into the writing of Moses, in which these truths are especially taught, and to shew by an extensive series of unquestionable proofs, that it was equally impossible that Moses had left a written statement of untruths, or that the people to whom he left them, could have been deceived as to the facts, even though Moses himself had been an impostor.

"He would speak also of the miracles recorded there, and he would prove that it was not possible that they could not be true, not only by the authority of the book that relates them, but by the many attendant circumstances which made them, in themselves, unquestionable.

"Then he would proceed to shew, that the whole law of Moses was figurative; that all which happened to the Jews, was but a type of the realities accomplished at the coming of Messiah; and that the veil which covered these types having been withdrawn, it had become easy now to perceive the complete fulfilment of them, in those who had received Jesus Christ as the promised teacher come from God.

"He then undertook to prove the truth of religion by prophecy; and, on this point, he spoke more fully than on some others. Having thought and examined deeply on this subject, and having views which were quite original, he explained them with great accuracy, and set them forth with peculiar force and brilliancy.

"And then having run through the books of the Old Testament, and made many powerful observations, calculated to serve as convincing proofs of the truths of religion, he proposed to speak of the New Testament, and to draw from it the proofs which it afforded of the truth of the Gospel.

"He began with Jesus Christ; and although he had already triumphantly proved his Messiahship by prophecy, and by the

types of the law which he shewed to have in him their perfect accomplishment, he adduced further proofs still, drawn from his person, his miracles, his doctrine, and the events of his life. "He then came down to the Apostles; and in order to shew the truth of that faith which they had so generally preached, he first established the notion that they could not be accused of supporting a false system, but upon the supposition, either that they were deceivers, or were themselves deceived; and then in the second place, he shewed that the one and the other of these suppositions were equally impossible.

"Finally, he took a very comprehensive view of the evangelic history, making some admirable remarks on the gospel itself,on the style and character of the evangelists,- —on the apostles and their writings,-on the great number of miracles,-on the saints and martyrs of the early church, and on all the various means by which the Christian religion had obtained a footing in the world and although it was quite impracticable in such a discourse, to treat such an extensive range of material at length, and with the minuteness, accuracy, and collective force which he purposed in his work, he said enough to exhibit most luminously, the conclusion to which he wished to come, that God only could have so conducted the issue of so many different agents and influences, as that they should all concur in supporting the religion which he himself wished to establish among men."

This is the short Abstract which has been handed down of the plan of M. Pascal's work; and short as it is, it gives us some faint view of the comprehensiveness of his genius—of the grasp that he had of his subject, and of the irresistible mass of evidence in existence for the support of the Christian religion, if it could be thus brought to bear upon the question by the energies of one great mind adapted for the purpose. It must remain a matter of wonder to short-sighted mortals, why a work apparently so important, should not have been permitted to reach its completion. Perhaps the explanation of this difficulty may, in some measure, be obtained from one of M. Pascal's Thoughts, in which he says, "So many men make them

selve unworthy of God's clemency, that he is willing to leave them ignorant of those blessings for which they do not care to seek. It was not right that he should appear in a mode unequivocally divine, so as to force conviction upon all men. Nor was it right that he should be so entirely concealed, as not to be recognized by those who sincerely seek him. To such he wished to be known; and willing therefore to be discovered by those who seek him with their whole heart, but hidden from those who as heartily avoid him, he has so regulated the discovery of himself, that he has given evidences which will be clear and satisfactory to those who really seek him, but dark, and doubtful, and depressing, to those who seek him not." On this ground probably it is, that the evidences for our religion which do exist, have never yet been accumulated with all their force and brilliancy, so as to exhibit one comprehensive and conclusive testimony to the truth.

But though Pascal did not live to complete his work, the fragments that he left behind him were too valuable to be lost. It was necessary that they should be given as a posthumous work to the public. His friends, therefore, who were aware of his design to write such a work, were peculiarly careful after his death, to collect every thing which he had written on the subject; and they found only the Thoughts which are published, with others yet more imperfect and obscure, written, as has been mentioned, on separate pieces of paper, and tied up in several bundles, without any connection or arrangement whatever, but evidently being, in the greater proportion of instances, the mere rough expression of thought as it first entered his mind. He had been often heard to say, that the work would require ten years of health to complete it; and he had only been able to devote to it the short inter. vals of comparative ease, or rather of less acute suffering, which he enjoyed during four or five years of a complicated mortal disease.

At first, from their confused and imperfect state, it seemed almost impossible to give these papers publicity; but the demand for them, even as they were, was so impatient, that it

became necessary to gratify it ;and the labour of editing them was committed to his leading confidential friends, the Duc de Roannez, and Messieurs Arnauld, Nicole, De Treville, Dubois, De la Chaise, and the elder Perier.

And here a serious difficulty was to be encountered on the threshhold. In what form should these fragments be given to the world? To print them precisely in the state in which they were found, would be worse than useless. They would have been a mass of mere confusion. To complete them, as far as possible, by adding to the imperfect Thoughts, and enlightening the obscure, would have produced a very interesting and useful work; but it would not have been the work of Pascal, even supposing the editors able to enter fully into his original design. Both these methods, therefore, were rejected; and a third plan was adopted, according to which they are now reprinted. The editors selected from a great number of Thoughts, those which appeared the most perfect and intelligible; and these they printed as they found them, without addition or alteration, except that they arranged them as nearly as might be in that order, which, according to the Syllabus that Mr. Pascal had formerly given of his plan, they conceived would come nearest to his wishes.

The first editions of the work were comparatively imperfect; but subsequently, many other valuable Thoughts were gleaned from the MSS. and in the later editions an accurate collation with the original papers has secured, as far as possible the meaning of the Author. The first edition was printed in 1669, and was surprisingly successful. Tellemont, in speaking of it, says, "It has even surpassed all that I expected from a mind which I considered the greatest that had appeared in one century. I see only St. Augustine that can be compared with him." And most unquestionably, however imperfect the work remains, or rather, though it falls entirely short of being the efficient defence of the Christian religion which Pascal had contemplated; yet even now, this collection of scattered Thoughts stand forth to claim the meed of praise, as a work of

unrivalled excellence. It bears the marks of the most extraordinary genius. It exhibits a master's hand in touching the difficult questions of the evidences for our religion, and in probing the secrets of the human heart. It exhibits many points of the argument with great originality and force, and contains the germ of many new and valuable speculations. Many of these Thoughts, hastily and imperfectly expressed as they are, have been the native ore, out of which other students have drawn the most valuable and elaborate treatises on different points of the extensive argument which he purposed to consider.*

But one of the finest features of the work, is, the mastery which his mighty mind had over the human heart. Pascal had been a diligent student of his own heart; he knew its tendencies, its weaknesses, its errors. He knew what were its natural resources for comfort, and he knew their vanity; and having gone down into the depths of the question for his own rake, he was able to deal with a resistless power with the children of sin and folly. He could strip their excuses of all vain pretence. He could exhibit their lying vanities in all their poverty and comfortlessness; and he could set forth man in all the reality of his misery, as a dark and cheerless being, without hope or solace, except he find it in the mercy of his God, and in the revealed record of his compassion.

It is this extensive knowledge of human nature which constitutes the peculiar charm of the Pensees. They who read it, feel that the writer gets within their guard; that he has, from experience, the power of entering into the secret chamber

*A work of very superior talent on Prophecy has been lately sent forth by the Rev. John Davidson of Oriel College, Oxon, of which the germ is to be found in the following Thought of M. Pascal. "The prophecies are composed of particular prophecies, and prophecies relating to the Messiah; in order that the prophecies of Messiah might not be without collateral proof, and that the prophecies relating to particular cases, might not be useless in the general system."