PAS 
feffed ci natural kind of eloquence, which was in a manner 
irrefiftible. He intended to have written a work againft 
alheifts and unbelievers in Chriffianity ; and collected 
materials for that purpofe, which he did not live long 
enough to diged. Thefe confided of reflections upon 
devout, moral, and other fu'bjeHs connected with the 
evidences of the Chriftian religion, which were written 
down by him at different times, on the fird piece of pa¬ 
per which he could find ; and he commonly fet down only 
a few words of each fentence, as he penned them merely 
for his own ufe. After his death, thefe pieces of paper 
were found filed upon different pieces of firing, without 
any order or connexion ; and, being- exafily copied as 
they were written, they were afterwards arranged and 
publifhed in thirty-two chapters, under the title of “Pen- 
Ices de M. Pafcal fur la Religion et fur quelques autres 
Sujets,” x2mo. They have been tranflated into theEng- 
fifii and various other languages ; and have been defervedly 
admired as the precious remains of a great man, which 
exhibit ftriking traits of.his fublimity of genius, beau¬ 
tiful turn of fentiment, as well as force and elegance of 
expreffion. At the fame time we mud acknowledge, that 
fome opinions occur in them, relative to the condition 
of human nature, and the proceedings of the divine go¬ 
vernment, which appear to us to be utterly jrreconcile- 
able with juft and rational views of religion, and to re¬ 
flect difhonour on the wifdom and benevolence of the 
Deity. On fome of thefe Voltaire has made able animad- 
verfions in his Lettres Philofophiques. 
' The works of M. Pafcal were collected together, and 
publifhed in five volumes, Svo. in 1779, at the Hague, 
and at Paris ; confiding of the articles mentioned in the 
preceding narrative, and fome pieces which had till then 
remained only in manufcript. This collection was given 
to the public by the abbe Boffu, wliofe eulogium on the 
author we prefent to our readers : “This extraordinary 
man.” fays he, “ inherited from nature all the powers of 
genius. He was a geometrician of the fird rank, a pro¬ 
found reafcner, and a fublime and elegant writer. If we 
reffeCt that, in a very fhort life, opprefied by continual 
infirmities, he invented a curious arithmetical machine, 
the elements of the calculation of chances, and the me¬ 
thod of refolving various problems refpeCting the cycloid ; 
that lie fixed in an irrevocable manner the wavering opi¬ 
nions of the learned concerning the weight of the air; 
that he wrote one of the mod perfeCt works exiding in 
the French language; and that in his Penfies there are 
paffages, the depth and beauty of which are incomparable; 
we can hardly believe that a greater genius ever exided 
in any age or nation.” The celebrated Bnyle pronounces 
3VI . Pafcal to have been “one of the fublimed geniufles 
whom the world ever produced—a prodigy; and,” fays 
he, “ if I might be fo bold as to ufe the exprelfion, I 
would call him, a paradoxical individuum of the human 
fpecies; that is, we arealmod inclined to doubt that he 
was born of a woman, like the man mentioned by Lu¬ 
cretius : Ut vix humana vicleater Jtirpe creatus." 
We fhall conclude with extracting what Mr. Dugald 
Stewart has 'fa id of this didinguilhed writer in his “Ge¬ 
neral View of Philofophy,” prefixed to tiie Supplement to 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
The name of Pafcal (that “prodigy of parts,” as 
Locke calls him) is more familiar to modern ears than 
that of any of the other learned and poliflied anchorites, 
who have rendered the fan Hilary of Port-Royal fo illuf- 
trious; but his writings furnifli few materials for philo- 
fopliical bidory. AbdraCting from his great merits in 
mathematics and in phyfics, his reputation reds chiefly on 
the Provincial Letters ; a work from which Voltaire, not- 
withltanding his ffrong prejudices againlt the author, 
dates the fixation of the French language. The enthufi- 
aftic admiration of Gibbon for this book, which he was 
accuftomed from his youth to read once a-year, is well 
known ; and is fufficient to account for the rapture with 
which it never fails to be fpolcen of by “ the erudite vul- 
C A L. 7.81 
gar” (eruditurft- vulgus, Pliny, lib. ii.) in tin’s country. 
I cannot help, however, fufpeCting, that it is now more 
praifed than read in Great Britain ; fo completely h.-ve 
thofe difputes, to which it owed its firft celebrity, loft 
their intereft. Many paffage.s in it, indeed, will always 
be perilled with delight; but it may he qu&.ftioned, if 
Gibbon himfelf would have read it fo often from begin¬ 
ning to end, had it not been for the ffrong hold which 
ecclefiaftical controverfies, and the Roman Catholic faith, 
had early taken of his mind. In one refpeCt, the Pro¬ 
vincial Letters are well entitled to the attention of phi- 
lofophers ; inafmuch as they prefent fo faithful and lively 
a picture of the influence of ralfe religious views in per¬ 
verting the moral fentiments of mankind. The over¬ 
whelming ridicule lavilhed by Pafcal 011 the whole fyftern 
of jefuitical cafuiftry, anti the happy effeCts 6f his p'lea- 
fantry in preparing, from a diftance, the fall of that for¬ 
midable order, might be quoted as proofs, that there are 
at lead: fome truths, in wliofe defence thi's weapon may be 
fafely employed; perhaps with more advantage than the 
commanding voice of Reafon herfelf. The mifehieyous 
abfurdities which it was his aim to correCt, fcarcely. ad¬ 
mitted of the gravity of logical difeuffion ; requiring 
only the extirpation or the prevention of thofe early pre¬ 
judices w'hich choke the growth of common (enfe and of 
confcience: and for this purpofe, what fo likely to fuc- 
ceed with the open and generous minds of youth, as ri¬ 
dicule, managed with decency and tafte ; more efpecially 
when feconded, as in the Provincial Letters, by acutenefs 
of argument, and by the powerful eloquence of the 
heart ? In this point of view, few practical moralifts can 
boaft of having rendered a more important fervice than 
Pafcal to the general interefts of humanity. Were it not, 
indeed, for his exquifite fatire, we lhould already be 
tempted to doubt, if, at fo recent a date, it were pof- 
fible for fucli extravagancies to have maintained a dan¬ 
gerous afeendant over the human underdanding. 
The unconnected fragment of Pafcal, entitled 
“Thoughts on Religion,” contains various reflections 
which are equally jud and ingenious: fome of which are 
truly fublime; and not a few which are falfe and puerile : 
the whole, however, deeply tinCtured with that afcetic 
and morbid melancholy, which feems to have at lad pro¬ 
duced a partial eclipfe of his faculties. Voltaire has ani¬ 
madverted on this fragment with much levity and petu¬ 
lance ; mingling, at the lame time, with many very ex¬ 
ceptionable driCtures, feveral of which it is impoflible to 
difpute the judnefs. The following reflection is worthy 
ofAddifon; and bears a drong refemhlance in its i pi ri t 
to the amiable leflons inculcated in his papers on Cheer- 
fulnefs: “ To conlider the world as a dungeon, and the 
whole human race as lo many criminals doomed to exe¬ 
cution, is the idea of an enthufiad ; to fuppofe the world 
to be a feat of delight, where we are to expect nothing- 
but pleafure, is the dream of a Sybarite ; but to conclude 
that the earth, man, and the lower animdls, are, all of 
them, fubfervient to the purpofes of an unerring Pro¬ 
vidence, is, in my opinion, thefydemof a wife and good 
man.” Spectator, lNk>. 381 and 387. 
Underneath the Portrait which accompanies this ar¬ 
ticle, a hand from heaven is feen filling out of a (mall 
phial the lamp of Pafcal’s fhort life. We take this oppor¬ 
tunity of fupplying our omiffion of explaining the alle¬ 
gorical Entablature which accompanies the Portrait of 
old Parr, which alludes to a life as much lengthened be¬ 
yond the ufual dandard as the other falls diort of it: there, 
Clotho and Lachefis loin on the life of Parr, while Atro- 
pos feems totally to forget or to negleCt the ufe of her 
iciffars. See p. 637. 
PASCAL A N'K, a river of North-Carolina, which 
runs into Albemarle Sound in lat. 36. 6. N. Ion. 76. 
32. W. 
PASCA'LIA,/. [fo named by Profeftor Ortega, pro¬ 
bably to commemorate fome botanift.] In botany a ge¬ 
nus of the clafs fyngenefia, order polygatnia-fuperflua, 
natural 
