escartes had shown, are in their very nature alien
each from the other. How then does the soul attain a knowledge of
the external world? In God, the absolute substance, are the ideas
of all things; in God we behold those ideas which matter could never
convey to us, and which we could never ourselves originate; in God
we see and know all things. The _Recherche de la Verite_ (1674-75)
was admirably written and was widely read. The theologians found it
dangerous; and when six years later Malebranche published his _Traite
de la Nature et de la Grace_, characterised briefly and decidedly
by Bossuet as "pulchra, nova, falsa," at Bossuet's request both
Arnauld and Fenelon attempted to refute "the extravagant Oratorian."
His place in the evolution of philosophy lies between Descartes and
Spinoza, who developed and completed the doctrine of Descartes. In
the transition from dualism to monism Malebranche served as a
mediator.

Religious thought in the seventeenth century, wedded to an austere
morality, is expressed by the writers of Port-Royal, and those who
were in sympathy with them. They could not follow the flowery path
of piety--not the less the narrow path because it was cheerful--pointed
out by St. Francois de Sales. Between nature and grace they saw a deep
and wide abyss. In closest connection with them was one man of the
highest genius--author of the _Provinciales_ and the _Pensees_--whose
spiritual history was more dramatic than any miracle-play or morality
of the Middle Ages.

BLAISE PASCAL was born at Clermont-Ferrand in 1623. His father, a
president of the Court of Aids at Clermont, a man of intellect and
character, guided his education in languages, natural science, and
mathematics. The boy's precocity was extraordinary; at sixteen he
had written a treatise on Conic Sections, which excited the
astonishment of Descartes. But the intensity of study, preying upon
a nervous constitution, consumed his health and strength; at an early
age he suffered from temporary paralysis. When about twenty-three
he fell under the religious influences of certain disciples of St.
Cyran, read eagerly in the writings of Jansen and Arnauld, and
resolved to live for God alone. But to restore his health he was urged
to seek recreation, and by degrees the interests and pleasures of
the world took hold upon him; the master of his mind was the sceptical
Montaigne; he moved in the mundane society of the capital; and it
has been conjectured fr