ich thinks what I am saying, which
reflects upon every thing and upon itself, and is no better
acquainted with itself than with any thing else. I see these
appalling spaces of the universe which enclose me, and I find
myself tethered in one corner of this immense expansion without
knowing why I am stationed in this place rather than in another, or
why this moment of time which is given me to live is assigned me at
this point rather than at another of the whole eternity that has
preceded me, and of that which is to follow me.

'I see nothing but infinities on every side, which enclose me like
an atom, and like a shadow which endures but for an instant, and
returns no more.

'All that I know, is that I am soon to die; but what I am most
ignorant of, is that very death which I am unable to avoid.

'As I know not whence I came, so I know not whither I go; and I
know only, that in leaving this world I fall forever either into
nothingness or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing
which of these two conditions is to be eternally my lot. Such is my
state,--full of misery, of weakness, and of uncertainty.

'And from all this I conclude, that I ought to pass all the days
of my life without a thought of trying to learn what is to befall
me hereafter. Perhaps in my doubts I might find some enlightenment;
but I am unwilling to take the trouble, or go a single step in
search of it; and, treating with contempt those who perplex
themselves with such solicitude, my purpose is to go forward
without forethought and without fear to try the great event, and
passively to approach death in uncertainty of the eternity of my
future condition.'

Who would desire to have for a friend a man who discourses in this
manner? Who would select such a one for the confidant of his
affairs? Who would have recourse to such a one in his afflictions?
And, in fine, for what use of life could such a man be destined?

The central thought on which the projected apologetic of Pascal was to
revolve as on a pivot, is the contrasted greatness and wretchedness of
man,--with Divine Revelation, in its doctrine of a fall on man's part
from original nobleness, supplying the needed link, and the only link
conceivable, of explanation, to unite the one with the other, the human
greatness with the human wretc