conscience in error, and therefore it is important to choose safe
guides.
Thus they will be doubly guilty, both in having followed ways which
they should not follow, and in having hearkened to teachers to whom
they should not hearken.
Casuists submit the decision to corrupt reason, and the choice of
decisions to corrupt will, so that all that is corrupt in the nature
of man may help to rule his conduct.
They allow lust free play, and restrict scruples, whereas they should
do the exact contrary.
Must we slay in order that the wicked may cease to be? This is
to make two wicked instead of one. _Vince in bono malum._ Saint
Augustine.
The servant does not know what the master does, for the master tells
him only the act and not the purpose; this is why he is so often
slavishly obedient and often sins against the purpose. But Jesus
Christ tells us the purpose.
And you destroy this purpose.
Art thou less a slave because thy master loves and caresses thee?
Thou art indeed well off, slave. Thy master caresses thee, he will
presently beat thee.
Those who wrote thus in Latin speak in French.
The evil having been done of patting these things in French, we ought
to do the good of condemning them.
There is one only heresy, which is differently explained in the
schools and in the world.
_On confessions and absolutions without signs of regret._ God looks
at the heart alone, the Church looks at outward actions; God absolves
as soon as he sees penitence in the heart, the Church when she
sees it in works. God will make a Church pure within, which puts
to confusion by its interior and perfect spiritual holiness the
interior impiety of proud philosophers and Pharisees, and the Church
will make an assembly of men whose external morals are so pure that
they put to confusion heathen morals. If some are hypocrites, but so
well disguised that she does not recognise their venom, she bears
with them, for though they are not accepted of God, whom they cannot
deceive, they are of men, whom they deceive. And thus she is not
dishonoured by their conduct which appears holy. But you will have it
that the Church should judge neither of the heart, for that belongs
to God alone, nor of works, because God looks at the heart alone; and
so taking away from her all choice of men, you retain in the Church
the most debauched and those who so greatly dishonour her, that the
synagogues of the Jews and the sects of the philosophers would have
cast them out as unworthy, and have abhorred them as impious.
God has not willed to absolve without the Church. As she has part
in the offence he wills that she should have part in the pardon. He
associates her with this power as kings their parliaments; but if she
binds or looses without God, she is no more the Church, as in the
case of parliament. For even if the king have pardoned a man, it is
necessary that it should be ratified; but if the parliament ratifies
without the king, or refuses to ratify on the order of the king, it
is no more the parliament of the king, but a revolutionary body.
The Church teaches and God inspires, both infallibly. The operation
of the Church serves only to prepare for grace or for condemnation.
What it does suffices for condemnation, not for inspiration.
The Church has in vain established these words, anathema, heresies.
They are used against herself.
It is not absolution only which remits sins by the Sacrament of
Penance, but contrition, which is not a true contrition if it does
not frequent the sacrament.
Thus, again, it is not the nuptial benediction which hinders sin in
generation, but the desire of begetting children for God, which is no
true desire except in marriage.
And as a contrite man without the sacrament is more disposed for
absolution than an impenitent man with the sacrament, so the
daughters of Lot, for instance, who had only the desire for children,
were more pure without marriage than married persons without desire
for children.
_Casuists._--Much almsgiving, reasonable penance; even when we cannot
assign what is just, we see plainly what is not. It is strange that
casuists believe they can interpret this as they do.
People who accustom themselves to speak ill and to think ill.
Their great number, far from marking their perfection, marks the
contrary.
The humility of one makes the pride of many.
They make a rule of the exception. If the ancient fathers gave
absolution before penance; do this only as an exception. But of the
exception you make a rule without exception, so that you will not
even have it that the rule is exceptional.
Priest still who will, as under Jeroboam.
It is a horrible thing that they submit to us the discipline of the
Church in our days as so excellent that it is made a crime to wish to
change it Formerly it was infallibly good, and it was found it might
be changed without sin, and now, such as it is, we ought not to wish
it changed!
It has indeed been allowed to change the custom of not making priests
save with such great circumspection, that there were scarcely any
who were worthy, yet we are not allowed to complain of the custom
which makes so many who are unworthy.
Two sorts of people place things on the same level, as feasts and
working days, Christians and priests, all sins among themselves, etc.
Therefore the one set conclude that what is bad for priests is so
for Christians, and the other that what is not bad for Christians is
permissible for priests.
The Jansenists are like the heretics in the reformation of their
morals, but you are like them in evil.
Superstition to believe propositions, etc.
Faith, etc.
If Saint Augustine came at this day, and was as little authorised as
his defenders, he would do nothing. God governs his Church well, in
that he sent him before with authority.
Grace is needed to make a man into a saint, and if any man doubt this
he knows not what is a saint, nor what is a man.
The motions of grace, hardness of heart, external circumstances.
Grace will ever be in the world, and nature also, so that grace is
in some sort natural. Thus there will be always Pelagians, always
Catholics, always strife.
Because the first birth constitutes the one, and the grace of
regeneration the other.
It will be one of the confusions of the damned to see themselves
condemned by their own reason, by which they have thought to condemn
the Christian religion.
When it is said that Jesus Christ died not for all, you take
advantage of a defect inherent in men who immediately apply this
exception to themselves, which is to favour despair instead of
turning men from it to favour hope. For so we accustom ourselves to
interior virtues by exterior customs.
There is heresy in always explaining omnes by 'all,' and heresy in
not explaining it sometimes by 'all.' _Bibite ex hoc omnes_, the
Huguenots are heretics in explaining it by 'all.' _In quo omnes
peccaverunt_, the Huguenots are heretics in excepting the children of
the faithful. We must then follow the Fathers and tradition to know
when to do so, since there is heresy to be feared on one side or the
other.
_A point of form._--When Saint Peter and the apostles consulted about
the abolition of circumcision, when it was a question of acting in
contradiction to the law of God, they did not consult the prophets,
but considered simply the reception of the Holy Spirit in the persons
uncircumcised. They judged it more certain that God approved those
whom he filled with his spirit, than it was that the law must be
observed.
They knew that the end of the Law was none other than the Holy
Spirit, and thus as men certainly had this without circumcision,
circumcision was not needful.
But to preserve pre-eminence to himself he gives prayer to whom he
pleases.
Why God has established prayer.
1. To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causality.
2. To teach us from whom our virtue comes.
3. To make us deserve other virtues by work.
_Objection._ But we believe that prayer comes from ourselves.
This is absurd, for since before we have faith, we cannot have
virtues, how should we have faith? Is there a greater distance
between infidelity and faith than between faith and virtue?
_Merit._ This word is ambiguous.
_Meruit habere Redemptorem._
_Meruit tam sacra membra tangere._
_Digna tam sacra membra tangere._
_Non sum dignus, qui manducat indignus._
_Dignus est accipere._
_Dignare me._
God is only bound according to his promises.
He has promised to do justice to prayer, he has never promised prayer
only to the children of promise.
_Si_ does not mark indifference. Malachi, Isaiah.
Isaiah. _Si volumus_, etc.
_In quacumque die._
_Ne timeas, pusillus grex. Timore et tretmore.--Quid ergo? Ne timeas,
modo timeas._
Fear not, provided you fear, but if you fear not, then fear.
_Qui me recipit, non me recipit, sed eum qui me misit._
_Nemo scit neque Filius._
_Nubes lucida obumbravit._
Saint John was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and
Jesus Christ was to sow division. In this there is no contradiction.
The effects _in communi_ and _in particulari_. The semi-Pelagians err
in saying of _in communi_ what is true only _in particulari_, and the
Calvinists in saying _in particulari_ what is true _in communi_. So
it seems to me.
Saint Augustine has said expressly that power would be taken away
from the righteous. But it is by chance that he said it, for it
might have been that the chance of saying it did not occur. But
his principles make us see that when the occasion for it presented
itself, it was impossible he should not say so, or that he should say
anything to the contrary. It is then rather that he was forced to
say it, when the occasion offered itself, than that he said it, the
occasion having offered itself, the one being of necessity, the other
of chance. But the two are all that we could ask.
_The end_. Are we certain? Is this principle certain? Let us examine.
The testimony of a man's self is naught Saint Thomas.
The image alone of all these mysteries has been openly showed to the
Jews and by Saint John the forerunner, and then the other mysteries,
to mark that in each man as in the world at large this order must be
observed.
It is, in technical language, _wholly_ the body of Jesus Christ, but
it cannot be said to be the _whole_ body of Jesus Christ.
The union of two things without change cannot enable us to say that
one becomes the other.
Thus the soul is united to the body, the fire to the fuel, without
change.
But change is necessary to make the form of the one become the form
of the other.
Thus the union of the Word to man.
Because my body without my soul would not make the body of a man,
then my soul united to any matter whatsoever would make my body.
It distinguishes for me the necessary condition with a sufficient
condition, the union is necessary, but not sufficient.
The left arm is not the right.
Impenetrability is a property of matter.
Identity of number in regard to the same time requires the identity
of matter.
Thus if God united my soul to a body in China, the same body, _idem
numero_ would be in China.
The same river which runs there is _idem numero_ as that which runs
at the same time in China.
_THOUGHTS ON STYLE._
Eloquence is an art of saying things in such a manner, 1, that those
to whom we speak can hear them without pain, and with pleasure; 2,
that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them
more willingly to reflect upon what is said. It consists therefore
in a correspondence which we endeavour to establish between the mind
and the heart of those to whom we speak on the one hand, and, on the
other, the thoughts and the expressions employed; this supposes that
we have thoroughly studied the heart of man so as to know all its
springs, and to find at last the true proportions of the discourse we
wish to suit to it. We should put ourselves in the place of those who
are to listen to us, and make experiment on our own heart of the turn
we give to our discourse, to see whether one is made for the other,
and whether we can be sure that our auditor will be as it were forced
to yield. So far as possible we must confine ourselves to what is
natural and simple, not aggrandise that which is little, or belittle
that which is great. It is not enough that a phrase be beautiful, it
must be fitted to the subject, and not have in it excess or defect.
Eloquence is painted thought, and thus those who, after having
painted it, add somewhat more, make a picture, not a portrait.
_Eloquence._--We need both what is pleasing and what is real, but
that which pleases must itself be drawn from the true.
Eloquence, which persuades by gentleness, not by empire, as a tyrant,
not as a king.
There is a certain pattern of charm and beauty which consists in a
certain relation between our nature, such as it is, whether weak or
strong, and the thing which pleases us.
Whatever is formed on this pattern delights us, whether house, song,
discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, rooms, dresses,
etc.
Whatever is not made on this pattern displeases those who have good
taste.
And as there is a perfect relation between a song and a house which
are made on a good pattern, because they are like this unique
pattern, though each after its kind, there is also a perfect relation
between things made on a bad pattern. Not that the bad is unique, for
there are many; but every bad sonnet, for instance, on whatever false
pattern it is constructed, is exactly like a woman dressed on that
pattern.
Nothing makes us understand better the absurdity of a false sonnet
than to consider nature and the pattern, and then to imagine a woman
or a house constructed on that pattern.
When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, we feel in
our mind the truth of what we read, which was there before, though we
did not know it, and we are inclined to love him who makes us feel
it. For he has not made a display of his own riches, but of ours, and
thus this benefit renders him pleasant to us, besides that such a
community of intellect necessarily inclines the heart to love.
All the false beauties which we blame in Cicero have their admirers
and in great number.
The last thing we decide on in writing a book is what shall be the
first we put in it.
_Language._--We ought not to turn the mind from one thing to another
save for relaxation, at suitable times, and no other, for he that
diverts out of season wearies, and he who wearies us out of season
repels us, and we simply turn away. So much it pleases our wayward
lust to do the exact contrary of what those seek to obtain from us
who give us no pleasure, the coin for which we will do whatever we
are asked.
When we meet with a natural style, we are charmed and astonished, for
we looked for an author, and we found a man. But those who have good
taste, and who seeing a book expect to find a man, are altogether
surprised to find an author: _plus poetice quam humane locatus es_.
Those pay great honour to nature, who show her that she is able to
discourse on all things, even on theology.
Languages are ciphers, where letters are not changed into letters,
but words into words, so that an unknown language can be deciphered.
When in a discourse we find words repeated, and in trying to
correct them find we cannot change them for others without manifest
disadvantage, we must let them stand, for this is the true test;
our criticism came of envy which is blind, and does not see that
repetition is not in this place a fault, for there is no general rule.
_Miscellaneous. Language._--Those who force words for the sake of
antitheses are like those who make false windows for symmetry.
Their rule is not to speak accurately, but in accurate form.
To put a mask on nature and disguise her. No more King, pope, bishop,
but _sacred majesty_, no more Paris, but _the capital of the Kingdom_.
There are places in which we should call Paris, Paris, and others in
which we ought to call it the capital of the Kingdom.
There are those who speak well and write ill. Because the place and
the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than would
have been produced without that warmth.
_Miscellaneous._--A figure of speech, "I should have wished to apply
myself to that."
The _aperitive_ virtue of a key, the _attractive_ virtue of a crook.
To guess. _The part that I take in your sorrow._ The Cardinal did not
choose to be guessed.
_My mind is disquieted within me._ I am disquieted is better.
_To extinguish the torch of sedition_, too luxuriant.
_The restlessness of his genius._ Two striking words too much.
A coach _upset_ or _overturned_, according to the meaning.
_Spread abroad_, or _upset_, according to the meaning.
The argument by force of M. le M. over the friar.
Symmetry.
Is what we see at one glance.
Founded on the fact that there is no reason for any difference.
And founded also on the face of man.
Whence it comes that symmetry is only wanted in breadth, not in
height or depth.
Sceptic, for obstinate.
Descartes useless and uncertain.
No one calls another a courtier but he who is not one himself, a
pedant save a pedant, a provincial but a provincial, and I would
wager it was the printer who put it on the title of _Letters to a
Provincial_.
The chief talent, that which rules all others.
If the lightning were to strike low-lying places, etc., poets, and
those whose only reasonings are on things of that nature would lack
proofs.
_Poetical beauty._--As we talk of poetical beauty, so ought we to
talk of mathematical beauty and medical beauty; yet we do not use
those terms, because we know perfectly the object of mathematics,
that it consists in proofs, and the object of medicine, that it
consists in healing, but we do not understand wherein consists charm
which is the object of poetry. We do not know what is the natural
model to be imitated, and for want of that knowledge we invent a set
of extravagant terms, "_the golden age_, _the wonder of our times_,
_fatal_," etc., and fall this jargon poetic beauty.
But if we imagine a woman on that pattern, which consists in saying
little things in great words, we shall see a pretty girl bedecked
with mirrors and chains absurd to our taste, because we know better
wherein consists the charm of woman than the charm of verse. But
those who do not know, would admire her in such trimmings, and in
many villages she would be taken for the queen, wherefore sonnets
made on such a pattern have been called _The Village Queens_.
Those who judge of a work without rule are in regard to others as
those who possess a watch are in regard to others. One says, "it was
two hours ago," another, "it is only three-quarters of an hour." I
look at my watch and say to the one, "you are weary of us," and to
the other, "time flies fast with you, for it is only an hour and
a half." And I laugh at those who say that time goes slowly with
me, and that I judge by fancy. They do not know that I judge by my
watch.
_VARIOUS THOUGHTS._
_Mathematics, Tact._--True eloquence makes light of eloquence, true
morality makes light of morality, that is to say, the morality of the
judgment makes light of the morality of the intellect, which has no
rules.
For perception belongs to judgment, as science belongs to the
intellect. Tact is the part of judgment, mathematics of the intellect.
To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
The nourishment of the body is little by little, too much nourishment
gives little substance.
There is an universal and essential difference between the actions of
the will and all others.
The will is one of the principal organs of belief, not that it forms
belief, but because things are true or false according to the side
from which we regard them. The will, pleased with one rather than the
other, turns the mind from the consideration of that which has the
qualities it cares not to see, and thus the intellect, moving with
the will, stays to regard the side it loves, and thus judges by what
it sees.
The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not, as we feel in a
thousand instances. I say that the heart loves the universal Being
naturally, and itself naturally, according as it gives itself to
each, and it hardens itself against one or the other at its own will.
You have rejected one and kept the other, does reason cause your love?
It is the heart which is conscious of God, not the reason. This then
is faith; God sensible to the heart, not to the reason.
Reason acts slowly and with so many views, on so many principles,
which it ought always to keep before it, that it constantly slumbers
and goes astray, from not having its principles at hand. The heart
does not act thus, it acts in a moment, and is always ready to act.
We must then place our faith in the heart, or it will be always
vacillating.
Men often mistake their imagination for their heart, and they believe
they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
Those who are accustomed to judge by the heart do not understand
the process of reasoning, for they wish to understand at a glance,
and are not accustomed to seek for principles. And others on the
contrary, who are accustomed to reason by principles, do not at all
understand the things of the heart, seeking principles and not being
able to see at a glance.
If we wished to prove those examples by which we prove other things,
we should have to take those other things to be examples. For as we
always believe the difficulty is in the matter we wish to prove, we
find the examples clearer and aids to demonstration.
Thus when we wish to demonstrate a general proposition, we must
give the rule special to a case, but if we wish to demonstrate a
particular case, we must begin with the particular rule. For we
always find the thing obscure which we wish to prove, and that clear
which we employ as proof; for when a matter is proposed for proof
we first fill ourselves with the imagination that it is therefore
obscure, and on the contrary that what is to prove it is clear, and
so we understand with ease.
Far from believing a thing because you have heard it, you ought to
believe nothing without having put yourself in the same position as
if you had never heard it.
What should make you believe is your own assent to yourself, and the
constant voice of your reason, not that of others.
Belief is so important!
A hundred contradictions might be true.
If antiquity were the rule of faith then the men of old time had no
rule. If general consent, if men had perished....
False humility is pride.
Lift the curtain.
You may try as you please. You must either believe, or deny, or doubt.
Have we then no rule?
We judge that animals do well what they do. Is there no rule whereby
to judge men?
To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man what paces are to
a horse.
Memory is necessary for every operation of the reason.
Memory and joy are feelings, and even mathematical propositions
become so, for reason makes what is felt natural, and natural
feelings are effaced by reason.
All our reasoning is reduced to yielding to feeling.
But fancy is like yet contrary to feeling, so that we cannot
distinguish between these contraries. One man says that my feeling is
fancy, another that his fancy is feeling. We must have a rule. Reason
offers herself, but she is pliable in all directions, and so there is
no rule.
Reason commands us much more imperiously than a master, for in
disobeying the one we are unhappy, and in disobeying the other we are
fools.
When we are accustomed to use bad reasons for proving natural
effects, we do not wish to receive good reasons even when they are
discovered. An example may be taken from the circulation of the
blood, to give a reason why the vein swells below the ligature.
We are usually better persuaded by reasons which we have ourselves
discovered, than by those which have come into the mind of others.
M. de Roannez said: "Reasons come afterwards, but at first a thing
pleases or shocks me, without my knowing the reason, and yet it
displeased me for the reason which I only discover later." But I
believe, not that he was displeased for those reasons which he
afterwards discovered, but that those reasons were only discovered
because the thing was displeasing.