LETTER XIX

Fendent opéra interrupta. Why did Pascal throw down his pen in the very moment of his intellectual triumph, a triumph which, to judge by this fragment of a nineteenth Letter, he was in no danger of forfeiting ? Différent answers hâve been suggested ; Monsieur Jovy,^ to my thinking, supplies the true one. Pascal was touched in two vital articles of his creed — loyalty to the Pope, and loyalty to the King." By this time Rome had spoken, and plainly. The Bull of Alexander VII., March, 1657, left no way of escape, although Arnauld and his friends made desperate efforts to find one. The Pope stigmatized as disturbers of the public peace and as children of iniquity ail who denied

ï Cf. Jovy, op. cit., t. ii., p. 30.

2 For the former, see above, note on p. 213, 1. 1 ; for the latter, cf. the signiftcaut passage in the Vie de Biaise Pascal by his sister, affixed to most éditions of the Pensées, " Il avoit un si grand zcle pour la gloire de Dieu . . . ce sont là les sentiments ou il (-toit pour le service de roy ; aussi étoit-il irréconciliable avec tous ceux qui s'y apposoient ".

fchat tho Five Propositions were containod in Jansen's book. On the other hand, the young King's attitude was openly and uncompromisingly hostile. Tho sentiments of both King and Pope were widely reflected through France in sentences of courts and parlements against writers and printers of Jansenist books, and in Roman decrees against the Lettres Provinciales. At last the orders to burn both the original French and the Latin translation, and to sigu the Formulary against Jansen (1661). Add to this graduai and increasing external pressure, Pasoal's inward movoment away from Port-Royal towards a more human System of thought, as indicated in tho last two Lettors, and you hâve ail the reasons for a weakening of the offensive. But of a woakoned offensive Pascal was of ail men the least capable. He could not adopt a middlo way. It is consonant with his charactor that he should hâve ceased writing as abruptly and impetuously as he had begun.

BIBLIOGEAPHY.

The eighteen Lettres écrites à un Provincial were published, without name of place or printer, at intervais between 27 January, 1656, and 14 May, 1657. Each was in quarto form and filled a sheet (8 pp.), or a sheet and a half (12 pp.). Two of them (XVI. and XVII.) were printed in much smaller type than the rest, in order to get the matter into the same limi^s. They were ail printed with the utmost secrecy by différent Paris presses, friendly to Port-Royal ; the first two probably by Petit, others by Langlois, Savroux, and Desprez ; some, it is said. in the cellars of the Colleç;o d'Harcourt — a stone's throw from the Sorbonne — and even in a water-mill on the Seine between the Pont-Neuf and the Pont au-Change. The police made repeated but fruitless attempts to discover their birthplace.

In February, 1657, the flrst seventeen pamphlets were collected and issued in a single volume with four pages of prelimînary matter, viz. page 1, a Title, •* Los Provinciales ou les Lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte à un Provincial de ses amis et aux RR. PP. Jésuites sur le sujet de la morale et de la politique de ces Pères. A Cologne chez Pierre de la Vallée MDGLVII. ; " pages 2-3, " Advertissement sur les XVII Lettres ou sont explin nez les sujets qui sont traitez dans chacune" (this was the work of Nicole, and consists of a summary of the situation when Pascal intervened, together with an analysis of the Letters) ; page 4, "Rondeau aux RR. PP. Jésuites sur leur morale accommodante ". To the volume thus formed were appended the Avis des Curez de Paris, the Requeste des Curez de Rouen, and other Jansenist pièces (108 pp.). The same year, 1657, saw the publication of two duodecimo éditions of the Eighteen Lotters, the former of which merely reproduces the original text, while the other introduces a number of altérations and " improvements " into Letters I.-III., and a few trifling ones into the rest of the séries. A glance at the critical apparatus will shew the character of thèse altérations. Their purpose is to soften or modify the sharpness of the original phrase.

In 1653 Nicole translated the Letters into Latin under the pseudonym ot " Willielmua Wendrockius, Salisburgensis Theologus ". This book bears the imprint of Cologne, •' apud Nicolaus Sohouten ". It is hardly neoessary to say that the use of the names Cologne, Schouten, La

Vallée, for this book and for tlie quarto of 1657, is a mère blind. The real place of printing was probably Amsterdam. Of Nicole's translation there appeared at least four éditions within twelve months. It was furnished with elaborate notes and dissertations.

In 1659 the Letters in Prench were republished, this time in octavo, with a fresh title : " Les Provinciales ou les Lettres escrites par Louis de Montalte à un Provincial de ses amis et aux RR. PP. Jésuites, avec la Théologie Morale desdits Pères et nouveaux Oasuistes, représentée par leur pratique et par leurs livres ; divisée en cinq parties. ... A Cologne chez Nicholas Schoutte MDOLIX." In this édition the Avis des Curez is replaced by the Théologie Morale. The verbal changes of 1657 are ail adopted and many more (and thèse more radical) are added ; in fact a serions attempt is made to edit Pascal's work.

In 1684 Nicole's translation was reissued, accompanied in parallel columns by the original French (textof 1657), a translation into Spanish by " Gratien Oordero de Burgos," and one into Italian by " Cosimo Brunetti, gentilhomme florentin ". It is preceded by an address to the reader on the XVIII. Letters, in ail four languages.

In 1699 Mlle de Joncoux (1660-1715), an Auvergnate and évident Jansenist, translated the notes and dissertations of " Wendrockius " into French and issued them, with the text of 1659, in 3 vols. 12mo. This was subsequently and repeatedly reissued in 4 vols. 12mo.

Throughout the eighteenth century and far into the nineteenth century the Letters continued to be reprinted, always in the text of 1659. At length in 1846, when interest had been aroused in the history of Pascal and of his controversy by the publication of Sainte-Beuve's Port-Royal (1842) and by Victor Gousin's appeal for a sound text of the Pensées (1845), a fervent Pascalisant, M. Basse, began to collect material for a critical édition of the Provinciales, which never saw the light. His copy of the original issue, with copious manuscript notes and variants, a monument of careful scholarship, is now in the British Muséum (G 53, d. 10).

But the honour of the first critical édition belongs to the Abbé Maynard (2 vols., 8vo, 1851). He follows the text of 1659, which for reasons which will appear immediately, cannot be regarded as satisfactory, but he gives in footnotes the readings of 1656 and 1657. The commentary which accompanies Maynard's text is extremely valuable as reproducing the replies of the seventeenlh century Jesuits, brought up to date by an accomplished theologian. But his sympathy with the other side is so strong that it blinds him to Pascal's sinoerity and honesty, and conveys an impression of partisanship.

A real attemnt to get back to Pascal's true text was made by M. A. H. Lesieur in 1867. His Texte primitif des Lettres Provi7iciales d'après un exemplaire in 4° (Paris, 4°, 1867) is founded on a copy of the original issue in his possession containing, in a contemporary seventeenth century hand, no less than 381 corrections, 285 of which appear in the édition of 1659. The fact that none of the corrections are in Pascal's

BIBLIOGRAPHY 337

own writing and that 97 of them were not swîopted in 1659 confirma the impression which the instructed reader cannot fail to form, viz. that the édition of 1659 represents not tlie mind or style of Biaise Pascal, but what his Jansenist frienda would hâve them be.

Yet the next editor of the Provhiciales, Mr. John de Soyres, who had the chance of consulting Lesieur, deliberately retumed to the text of 1659, although he records most of the earlier variants. It is a very great pity, for this work (Cambridge, 1881, 8vo) has sterling merit, and hia notes and introduction are marked by wide leaming and sound sensé. E. Havot praises the book aa constituting the tirât historical oommentary on the Letters. Cambridge and England hâve indeed every reason to be proud of it.

Eight years later E. Havet himself, who had already won distinction by a most valuable édition of the Pensées, produced his Provinciales (Paris, 1889, 2 vols.). His text is that of the original issue, with seloctod rcadings at the foot of the page, an excellent commentary and an illuminating Introduction. Havet claims in hia Préface to hâve refrained throughout from polemic, and lie holds the balance evenly between the two parties. But he is somotimes rather less than fair to Christian doctrine and the great truths for which Pascal fought.

Much the same may be said of Auguste Molinier, who also, after the Pensées (1879), came on to the Provinciales (1891) in the original text. What seems a slight roligious bias is indeed the only flaw to be found in an édition which for leaming, accuracy, taste, and judgment, is without a rival. His two volumes are as delightful to the eye and touch as they are to the intelligence.

The latest édition of the Provinciales is unfortunately buried in the Collected Works of Pascal edited by MM. Brunschvicg, P. Boutroux, and F. Qazier, for the séries of the Grands Ecrivains de la France. The éditera do not provide much help in the way of oommentary, but their work ia of inestimable value for the history, external and internai, of the Letters, and for the sources from whicli they were compiled. One signal advantage of this édition is that the student can safely control ail Pascal's références, without handling the quartos of Amauld and the vast folios of the Casuists. One cannot but regret that the chronological System adopted by the editors has practically put their leaming outside the reach of readers who hâve not a long purse or access to a large library ; for in their édition the Provinciales &re scattered overthe four volumes which represent Pascal's life during the years 1656 and 1657; and in thèse volumes (which, howover, can be purchased separately) there is much that has only an indirect bearing on the Letters.

A Word of gratitude must be added for two éditions of the Letters (I., IV., and XIII.) by H. Michel (Beriin, 1881), and by Brunetière (Hachette, 1916, 6th éd.). If either of thèse critics had done for the other Letters what they did for the selected three, the présent édition would not bave been needed.