Page:Blaise Pascal works.djvu/88



To fear death without danger, and not in danger, for one must be a man.

Sudden death alone is feared; hence confessors stay with lords.

An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say, "Perhaps they are forged?" and neglect to examine them?

Dungeon.&mdash;I approve of not examining the opinion of Copernicus; but this…! It concerns all our life to know whether the soul be mortal or immortal.

It is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul must make an entire difference to morality. And yet philosophers have constructed their ethics independently of this: they discuss to pass an hour.

Plato, to incline to Christianity.

The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the immortality of the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.

Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is not perfectly evident that the soul is material.

Atheists.&mdash;What reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to return to it? Habit makes the