Pascal Blaise

Pascal, Blaise (1623-62), was born at Clermont-Ferrand. When he was seven years old his father, who was his teacher, went to live at Paris, where the child gave evidence of his powers by writing an Essay on Conic Sections at the age of sixteen. The family went to Rouen, where the father was appointed intendant, in 1641; and here Pascal first came into connection with the Jansenists and underwent his first "conversion." In 1647 he published Nouvelles Experiences sur le Vide, and in this year was visited at Clermont by Descartes. In 1650 he returned to Paris, and saw much society, until his second "conversion," four years later, from which time he began to be much at the Convent of Port Royal and to lead an ascetic life. Early in 1656 he undertook the defence of Arnauld, the leading member of that house, who had been condemned for his Jansenism by the Sorbonne, in the first of the Lettres a un Provincial, which was written under the pseudonym, "Louis de Montalte." It was followed by 17 others. As time went on, Pascal became more and more ascetic. His health had always been poor, and he died, worn-out by hard study and severe discipline, having barely reached middle age. Pascal was equally great as a mathematician and as a philosopher. He solved the problem of the quadrature of the cycloid, and founded the doctrine of probability; and by the experiments which he planned on the Puy de Dome, first showed that the height of the mercury column in a barometer decreases when it is carried upwards through the atmosphere. His Lettres Provinciales (inaccurately so called) are equally admirable for their logic, their lightness of touch, and their inimitable style, which delighted Bossuet and Voltaire alike. The posthumous Pensees have been claimed by some as a sketch of an intended apology for Christianity; while others, like Cousin, have discovered in them proofs of the possession by the writer of a most daringly sceptical mind.