Studies on Pascal, Tr., with an Appendix of Notes, Partly Taken from the Writings of Lord Bacon and Dr. Chalmers, by T. Smith

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1859 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: IL RESTORATION OF PASCAL'S THOUGHTS. We are under great obligations to M. Faugere, but first let us thank M. Cousin. It is to him that we are indebted for this purified edition of the Thoughts. It is at least probable that, but for him, we should have had to wait long for it. Since the publication of his book it was doubly necessary. It was known, beyond the possibility of doubt, that we had not the true text of the Tlioughts; and many inquired if we had the true thought of Pascal. The labour of M. Faugere has dissipated this uncertainty. Pascal is restored to us; -- not the Pascal, sceptic and dissolute, of whom M. Cousin drew the black portrait, but the Pascal whom we knew, -- Pascal convinced, fervent, and happy. Once more, let us thank M. Cousin. Even before the new edition, the argument that we maintained with him was in nowise desperate; it is better still, since the publication which his Memoir has called forth. It is now also that we are made aware to what extent the timid prudence of the friends of the great man had corrupted (if that expression may be allowed) the text of these immortal fragments. M. Cousin was right when he said that there is no sort of alteration which the text has not undergone. The first editors allowed themselves every liberty, or rather imposed everything upon themselves as a duty, -- to suppress, to add, to transpose, to divide, to combine -- all seemed tothem to be their full right or their bounden duty. They had, in different instances, remodelled the plan of the work, the style of the author, and even his meaning. M. Faugere is only scrupulously true when he says...