SOURCE: A conclusion to Pascal: His Life and Works, translated by G. S. Fraser, Harvill Press, 1952, pp. 179-201.

Below, Mesnard examines Pascal's life and career as a scientist, thinker, theologian, and artist.

I. Gi; I. the Man =~ Sthe Man

"Pascal, not the writer, but the man": with this phrase the Swiss moral philosopher, Vinet, drawing his inspiration from one of the most famous of the Pensées, headed one of the chapters of his Etudes sur Pascal. It is, indeed, one of the most notable facts about Pascal's astonishing personality that, however great his genius as a mere writer may appear to us to be, it is Pascal the man, in the end, whom we really wish to grasp; even more than Pascal's thought, it is the soul of Pascal that criticism seeks to revive for us. Let us, in our turn, seek to lay bare his secret...