142 PASTEUR 



istence of the infinite, and no one can evade 

 doing so, sums up in that affirmation more of 

 the supernatural than is contained in all the 

 miracles of all religions; for the notion of the 

 infinite has this double character, of being un- 

 deniable and incomprehensible. When this no- 

 tion once takes possession of our understand- 

 ing there is nothing left but to prostrate our- 

 selves before it. More than that, at this mo- 

 ment of poignant anguish, we must needs crave 

 mercy from our own brains; all the sources of 

 intellectual life threaten to give way; we feel 

 ourselves on the point of yielding to the 

 sublime folly of Pascal. This positive and 

 primordial notion is gladly set aside, with all 

 its consequences, by modern positivism, in the 

 social life of today. 



"On all sides I find the inevitable expression 

 of this idea of the infinite in our world. It is 

 through this that the supernatural lies at the 

 bottom of every heart. The idea of God is one 

 form of the idea of the infinite. So long as 

 the mystery of the infinite weighs upon human 



