Pascals Pensees | Page 6

accordingly needful
to state in brief what the dangerous doctrine of Jansenius was, without
advancing too far into theological refinements. It is recognised in
Christian theology--and indeed on a lower plane it is recognised by all
men in affairs of daily life--that freewill or the natural effort and ability
of the individual man, and also supernatural grace, a gift accorded we
know not quite how, are both required, in co-operation, for salvation.
Though numerous theologians have set their wits at the problem, it

ends in a mystery which we can perceive but not finally decipher. At
least, it is obvious that, like any doctrine, a slight excess or deviation to
one side or the other will precipitate a heresy. The Pelagians, who were
refuted by St. Augustine, emphasised the efficacy of human effort and
belittled the importance of supernatural grace. The Calvinists
emphasised the degradation of man through Original Sin, and
considered mankind so corrupt that the will was of no avail; and thus
fell into the doctrine of predestination. It was upon the doctrine of grace
according to St. Augustine that the Jansenists relied; and the
Augustinus of Jansenius was presented as a sound exposition of the
Augustinian views.
[B] The great man of Port-Royal was of course Saint-Cyran, but any
one who is interested will certainly consult, first of all, the book of
Sainte-Beuve mentioned.
Such heresies are never antiquated, because they forever assume new
forms. For instance, the insistence upon good works and "service"
which is preached from many quarters, or the simple faith that any one
who lives a good and useful life need have no "morbid" anxieties about
salvation, is a form of Pelagianism. On the other hand, one sometimes
hears enounced the view that it will make no real difference if all the
traditional religious sanctions for moral behaviour break down, because
those who are born and bred to be nice people will always prefer to
behave nicely, and those who are not will behave otherwise in any case:
and this is surely a form of predestination--for the hazard of being born
a nice person or not is as uncertain as the gift of grace.
It is likely that Pascal was attracted as much by the fruits of Jansenism
in the life of Port-Royal as by the doctrine itself. This devout, ascetic,
thoroughgoing society, striving heroically in the midst of a relaxed and
easy-going Christianity, was formed to attract a nature so concentrated,
so passionate, and so thoroughgoing as Pascal's. But the insistence
upon the degraded and helpless state of man, in Jansenism, is
something also to which we must be grateful, for to it we owe the
magnificent analysis of human motives and occupations which was to
have constituted the early part of his book. And apart from the

Jansenism which is the work of a not very eminent bishop who wrote a
Latin treatise which is now unread, there is also, so to speak, a
Jansenism of the individual biography. A moment of Jansenism may
naturally take place, and take place rightly, in the individual;
particularly in the life of a man of great and intense intellectual powers,
who cannot avoid seeing through human beings and observing the
vanity of their thoughts and of their avocations, their dishonesty and
self-deceptions, the insincerity of their emotions, their cowardice, the
pettiness of their real ambitions. Actually, considering that Pascal died
at the age of thirty-nine, one must be amazed at the balance and justice
of his observations; much greater maturity is required for these
qualities, than for any mathematical or scientific greatness. How easily
his brooding on the misery of man without God might have encouraged
in him the sin of spiritual pride, the concupiscence de l'esprit, and how
fast a hold he has of humility!
And although Pascal brings to his work the same powers which he
exerted in science, it is not as a scientist that he presents himself. He
does not seem to say to the reader: I am one of the most distinguished
scientists of the day; I understand many matters which will always be
mysteries to you, and through science I have come to the Faith; you
therefore who are not initiated into science ought to have faith if I have
it. He is fully aware of the difference of subject-matter; and his famous
distinction between the esprit de géométrie and the esprit de finesse is
one to ponder over. It is the just combination of the scientist, the
honnête homme, and the religious nature with a passionate craving for
God, that makes Pascal unique. He succeeds where Descartes fails; for
in Descartes the element of esprit de géométrie is excessive.[C] And in
a few phrases about Descartes, in the present book, Pascal laid his
finger on the place of weakness.