v f mu 
 
 
 
 
 a. 
 
EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED BY J. a. BALLANTTNB, 
 
 PAUL'S WORK. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029456856 
 
JAQUELINE PASCAL; 
 
 CONVENT LIFE AT PORT ROYAL. 
 
 COMPILED FROM THE TRENCH OP 
 
 VICTOK COUSIN, FAUGEKE, VINET, 
 
 AND OTHER SOURCES. 
 
 By H. N. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 W. K. WILLIAMS, D.D. 
 
 LONDON* 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLIV. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Pago 
 
 Introduction, by Rev. W. R. Williams ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PASCAL FAMILY. 
 Gilberte, Madame Perier — The Writings of the Women of Port Royal 
 — Jaqueline Pascal — Birth and Education of Jaqueline Pascal — 
 Her Love of Poetry — Her Presentation at Court — The Small-pox, 
 and her Verses on it — Cardinal Richelieu, and his Reception of 
 Jaquejhie and her Father, ..... 12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE YOUNG POETESS AT ROUEN. 
 
 Removal to Rouen — Jaqueline's Reception there — Her Sister's Marriage 
 — Her Poems — Offers of Marriage — Consolation for the Death of 
 a Huguenot Lady — Accident to her Father — Its Consequences — 
 Conversion of Blaise Pascal and Jaqueline, ... 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PORT ROTAL. 
 
 Illness of Blaise Pascal — His Residence with Jaqueline at Paris — The 
 Interview with Descartes— Singlin's Preaching — Introduction to 
 Port Royal — Sketch of its History and Constitutions — Joint Letter 
 of Pascal and Jaqueline to Madame Perier, ... 40 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 
 
 Page 
 Recall of Etienne Pascal to Paris — His Opposition to Jaqueline's Plans — 
 Correspondences with Mere Agnes — Her Mode of Living — Journey 
 to Auvergne — Paraphrase of a Latin Hymn — Port Royal, and 
 Female Genius — Return to Paris, . 82 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NOVICE. 
 
 Death of Etienne Pascal — Feelings of Blaise — His Opposition to Jaque- 
 line's Plans — Her Removal to Port Royal — Letters to him and to 
 Madame Perier — Pecuniary Trials — Jaqueline's Narrative — Her 
 Profession as a Novice, ..... 98 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 pascal's conversion. 
 
 Illness of Madame Perier — Jaqueline's Letters — Pascal's Worldly Habits 
 — His final Conversion through his Sister's Instrumentality — 
 Jaqueline's Account of her Occupation at Port Royal — Her Letters 
 on Education — Her Regulations for Children, . . . 122 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THOEN. 
 
 Account of the Founders of Jansenism, and the Recluses of La Grange 
 — Margaret Perier and the Miracle of the Holy Thorn, as related 
 in the Letters of her Aunt — Poem of the Latter — The Provincial 
 Letters — Letters : to her Nieces : to the Mere Angeliqne de St 
 Jean, on the Death of a Sister, ..... 145 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 
 
 Jaqueline's Last Letters to her Kindred — The Persecution re-commences 
 — The Formulary — Departure of the Abbess Angelique from Port 
 Royal des Champs — The Dispersion of the Novices — Letter to Jaque- 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Page 
 line and Margaret Perier — Examination of Jaqueline Pascal — 
 Blaise Pascal forced into Opposition to the Pope — Jaqueline's Letter 
 on the Formulary, enclosed in one to Arnauld — The Death of An- 
 gelique — Signature of the Formulary — Jaqueline's Death, . 171 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SUEVIVOKS. 
 
 Pascal's Feelings on the Death of Jaqueline — Letters of Condolence 
 addressed to him and to Madame Perier — Death of Pascal — After- 
 history of Madame Perier and her Daughters — M. Cousin's Con- 
 cluding Reflections, ..... 195 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 An Essay, by M. Vinet, of Lausanne, ..... 209 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Regulations for Children, by Jaqueline Pascal, . . . 231 
 
 1 1. Recollections of the Mdre Angelique, .... 283 
 
JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Pascal deserves to rank among the foremost names of the 
 race. In that age of French literature which was embla- 
 zoned with the most profuse and gorgeous array of talent, 
 none of his contemporaries surpassed, if any equalled him 
 in reach and depth of thought, clearness and force of expres- 
 sion, and an eloquence graceful, winning, witty, sublime, or 
 overwhelming, as the theme and the occasion might demand. 
 In Science he enrolled himself amongst those of most inven- 
 tive and profound genius. To Religion and its defence he 
 brought the homage and consecration of powers which scep- 
 tics like Condorcet and Voltaire could not venture to scorn, 
 nor aspire even to rival. And he was not a thinker, dwelling 
 apart from the great controversies, and the critical, practical 
 issues of his time. He was a power in his age. Upon the 
 history of his Church he graved indelibly his mark in the 
 Provincial Letters, working thereby an immediate and withal 
 an enduring influence which has no counterpart in literary 
 history. Jesuitism received from those Letters a wound from 
 
 A 
 
2 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 which it never recovered, and which aided many years after 
 to bring about its abolition. Ever since its restoration, the 
 Jesuit order bears yet about it, amid its resuscitation, the 
 scar not only, but the ulcer, the chronic and incurable in- 
 firmity, which it contracted in the collision of its adroit and 
 unscrupulous casuists with the terrible and invincible Louis 
 de Montalte, the name that Pascal chose to wear on his vizor 
 and shield, as he rode into the lists to cope, single-handed, 
 with the most potent and crafty, the most widely-spread and 
 closely united, of the great religious orders of the time. And 
 all this was accomplished amid broken health, and ere an 
 early death had taken him away from other and unfinished 
 tasks of yet larger compass and higher aims. 
 
 But to the Christian, the crowning grace of Pascal's cha- 
 racter is the high, earnest, and absorbing zeal for God and 
 his truth, that possessed and consecrated all his faculties and 
 attainments, and gave the law to their action and influence. 
 He laboured not for fame or power, but for Truth and its 
 defenders. In that body of mighty and devout men, the 
 Jansenists of France, were others not unworthy to share, by 
 their force of intellect and power as writers, in Pascal's sym- 
 pathies and his tasks ; whilst to some of them, for their 
 simple, earnest, and consuming piety, even he looked up with 
 reverence and docility. 
 
 The history of the Jansenists forms one of the most inte- 
 resting and remarkable episodes in the annals of the Chris- 
 tian Church. Although Port Eoyal, their great foundation, 
 after a fierce and prolonged struggle, sank under the com- 
 bined force of regal and sacerdotal enmity, Jesuitism could 
 not at the same time extirpate the doctrines and system of 
 Jansenism. These yet survived, and wrought widely and 
 vividly. Their influence either within or without the bounds 
 of the Romish Church is not yet spent ; and of their relations 
 to the cause of Christian morals and evangelical doctrine, of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 6 
 
 sound learning and national freedom, and individual worth, 
 the Protestant no less than the Romanist may well be the 
 patient and delighted student. 
 
 Whilst the struggle was yet going on between a dominant 
 Jesuitism, and the spiritual and more scriptural Jansenism 
 that it hated and proscribed, a contemporary English scholar, 
 Theophilus Gale, one of the most learned of all the Noncon- 
 formists, and the author of the erudite Court of the Gentiles, 
 published for British Christians a brief history of Jansenism. 
 Owen's works shew his interest in and acquaintance with the 
 same controversy. The devout Archbishop Leighton, whose 
 seraphic piety so delighted Doddridge, and in our own times 
 so enchanted Coleridge, is thought to have derived some of 
 his religious traits from his acquaintance, whilst in France, 
 during his earlier years, with some of the excellent Jansenists 
 of that country. In a later day, Count Zinzendorff, the 
 reviver of Moravianism, and who gave to " The United Bre- 
 thren " of Qermany their present polity, was in like manner 
 benefited and kindled by intimacy, during a visit in youth to 
 France, with devout adherents of the same system. One of 
 the essays of the eminent Jansenist moralist Nicole, upon 
 which Voltaire has bestowed the warmest eulogies, seems to 
 have equally won the admiration of the English philosopher 
 Locke, who translated it into his own tongue, — it is said for 
 the especial benefit of his patron and friend, the versatile, 
 restless, and unscrupulous Earl of Shaftesbury. Left in 
 manuscript long after Locke's death, it was a few years since 
 for the first time published. More recently Hannah More 
 was an admirer and student of Nicole, and incurred there- 
 fore the sportive reproof of Dr Johnson. Alexander Knox 
 and his friend Bishop Jebb seem to have been conversant 
 with the same treasures of Jansenist piety. An English Pro- 
 testant, Mrs Schimmelpenninck, was the compiler of a work 
 entitled Memoirs of Port Boyal, which has passed through 
 
4 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 several editions. Still more recently than Mrs Schimmelpen- 
 ninck, a German Protestant, Eeuchlin, has gathered from a 
 wide study of the literature of Jansenism, and after personal 
 research amid the manuscript collections of France, the mate- 
 rials for a history of Port Eoyal, which has appeared in his 
 own tongue. St Beuve, one of the most distinguished of the 
 living critics of France, has for years heen occupied in a 
 similar task. His history of Port Eoyal, the volumes of 
 which have been issued at intervals, remains as yet incom- 
 plete. 
 
 To his labours his personal friend, the late lamented 
 Vinet, more than once alludes, in the frequent references 
 which that profound thinker and most accomplished writer 
 has made to the history and character of Jansenism. 
 Vinet, it need not be said, was a staunch and uncompro- 
 mising Protestant. He was more — a most able and un- 
 daunted champion for evangelical doctrine and spiritual 
 religion, to whom his sceptical and Eomish contemporaries 
 were compelled to do honour for his attainments and taste, 
 and the rare graces of his style, as well as for the power 
 and reach of his intellect.* 
 
 With such precedents, numerous and honoured, it will 
 not, we must hope, be considered as compromising the 
 Protestant character of the accomplished translator and 
 compiler of the following volume, that she has prepared for 
 the press this sketch of the Life, Character, and Writings 
 of the younger sister of Pascal, illustrating as it does inci- 
 dentally the principles and struggles of Port Eoyal and the 
 Jansenists. 
 
 * The Count de Montalembert, in the pamphlet issued by him but the last year 
 (1852), and entitled, Jks IrUSrSts CatKoliqaes au XIX e Slide (The Interests of Catholi- 
 cism in the 19th century), which recounts with such glowing eloquence the re- 
 cruited glories, real or imaginary, of Romanism in the last half century, says that 
 Protestantism, with its thousand sects, "has not produced a theologian or a 
 preacher since the death of Vinet and the conversion of Newman " (p. 59). 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 Kindred in genius, as she was most closely united by affec- 
 tion, to her distinguished brother, Jaqueline Pascal was a 
 faithful witness, and, in the mental sufferings which hastened 
 her end, a meek victim for the truth, as she regarded it. 
 And, like her illustrious kinsman, she protested, though 
 vainly, yet to the last, against some of those accommoda- 
 tions, extorted, as they supposed, by the necessities of the 
 time, which some of the other great leaders of Jansenism — 
 the firm and dauntless Anthony Arnauld amongst them — 
 advised and urged. These advances for the sake of peace 
 were unavailing endeavours, that, as Pascal had forewarned 
 the counsellors of them, failed to save the Institution, but 
 sacrificed the truth. 
 
 It seemed due to the integrity of history to preserve the 
 allusions which, in Jaqueline's letters and other writings, 
 recur not unfrequently to the usages and opinions of the 
 Romish Church. It was a just complaint with respect to 
 one of the English histories of Jansenism, to which we have 
 referred, and was made by the London Christian Observer at 
 the time when the history appeared, that by assiduous and 
 systematic suppression, from the narratives and conversations 
 which it recorded, of all the Catholic peculiarities which in 
 the original French authorities they presented, the book 
 taught a Protestant reader to suppose the Jansenists more 
 free from grave errors, and more assimilated to Protestantism, 
 than in truth they were. 
 
 For the authority of Scripture, the need of personal con- 
 version, and the great doctrines of grace, as they were 
 stated by Augustine, this body in the Catholic Church con- 
 tended most strenuously and irrefragably. That the first 
 impulse to their studies in this direction might have been 
 supplied to Jansenius and his friend St Cyran by the Synod 
 of Dort, and the controversies which it awakened throughout 
 Protestant Europe, living as Jansenius did in Flanders, a 
 
6 JAQTTELINE PASCAL. 
 
 territory contiguous to the scene of that memorable synod, 
 is not improbable. That the Huguenot creed of some of the 
 ancestors of the Arnaulds may have contributed to render 
 other and Catholic members of the family favourable to 
 views of doctrine so nearly resembling Calvinism, was a 
 favourite imputation of their Jesuit antagonists, but seems 
 much less tenable. The great leaders of the Jansenist body 
 sought most strenuously to purge themselves from any 
 appearance of identity or sympathy with the Protestants of 
 France and Holland, by works of controversy directed against 
 eminent Huguenot writers, or written in defence of leading 
 Catholic tenets. Upon transubstantiation, for instance, the 
 work conjointly issued by Arnauld and Nicole, entitled The 
 Perpetuity of the Faith, remains yet the most admired bul- 
 wark of this doctrine in the Catholic schools, who retain and 
 extol this treatise of Jansenist scholarship, though Jansenism 
 itself, as a system, and other writings of these very authors, 
 have incurred the ban of the Vatican. 
 
 In the case of a thoughtful and dispassionate Protestant, 
 the study of the lives and writings of the devout Jansen- 
 ists must, it would seem to us, serve to deter and alienate 
 from Rome, rather than to win to its communion. The 
 system was an endeavour to graft the doctrines of grace, as 
 Augustine had so mightily and effectively presented them in 
 their symmetry and fulness, vipon all the mediseval usages 
 and abuses — the accumulated traditions and inventions of 
 successive centuries in the Romish Church. Had Rome 
 accepted these truths, and yielded gracefully to the engraft- 
 ment, it would have "healed her wound" — the eating and 
 widening cancer of error within her system — so far, at least, 
 as to have made her teachings and her confessors far more 
 specious and attractive in the sight of one who, studying 
 the epistles of Paul, had there found a greater than Augus- 
 tine, in the name and right of a wiser and greater than either 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 Augustine or Paul, setting forth the same glorious system 
 as to the way of salvation by grace. Had Kome Jansenised, 
 men loving the theology of Paul and Paul's Master might 
 have begun to hope that such truths, indulged and honoured 
 within the bounds of the Papal communion, must soon expel 
 her remaining errors. But when the Infallible Church cast 
 them out, and condemned their defenders, whilst meaning 
 but to disown St Cyran or Quesnel, she forgot that she was 
 condemning Augustine, the greatest of the old Fathers. 
 God allowed her thus to put a fresh contradiction amongst 
 her own doctors, and a new and deliberate impeachment of 
 His own apostles and apostolic verities upon her own records. 
 And the more able, the more excellent, and the more devoted 
 the men and women adhering to Jansenism, thus disavowed 
 and extruded, the more emphatically did Rome put herself in 
 the wrong ; and her Protestant accusers were established, all 
 the more assuredly, as being in the right, when they pro- 
 claimed the Communion that persecuted such confessors, and 
 branded such a confession, as a Communion hopelessly blinded 
 and irremediably corrupted — whose delusion was judicial and 
 final, and for whose maladies there remained neither remedy 
 nor hope. 
 
 It was, again, a justification from a new and opposite 
 quarter, of the ground taken in the Protestant Reforma- 
 tion. Salvation by grace, the same great elementary truth 
 that was the core and pith of Jansenism, had, in the hands 
 of Luther and Zwingle, of Calvin, Knox, and Cranmer, revolu- 
 tionised the Churches now known as the Reformed, and sent 
 a new life into the governments, homes, workshops, and 
 sanctuaries of their nations. But it had been the suspicion 
 of some Protestants, more conservative than comprehensive 
 in their views, that these truths might have been sustained, 
 and yet the great mass of Romish rites have been retained, 
 and Christendom kept up unbroken the' bond of a common 
 
8 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 ecclesiastical fellowship. The suspicion was based on for- 
 getfulness of the fact that Eome had herself banished the 
 Eeformers, and that the rent was torn by her own proud 
 hands, quite as much as by the divisive energy of the truth 
 itself. But now, as if to put the truth of this conjecture as 
 to precipitancy in the Reformers to a decisive test, rose up 
 in Catholic France a body of learned, able, devout men, who 
 resisted and denounced Protestantism, but asked to cherish, 
 as Augustine had before them cherished, and as St Paul 
 in Scripture taught them, the great fact of the faith, that 
 man's salvation is merely and purely of God's free grace. 
 They gave every evidence of sincerity, even to obstinacy, in 
 their attachment to Eomish usages, the Papal Communion, 
 and Peter's Chair. They honoured relics, and kept saints' 
 days, and used pictures, and adored the sacrament, and were 
 punctual in confession. In these and the like things they 
 yearned to be Pharisees of the Pharisees, the most Romanis- 
 ing of Romanists. But they would, with these, hold the 
 old and great principles as to the mode of man's salvation, 
 that the best men of the Church, in its best ages, had 
 enounced and defended. In refusing such a desire, offered 
 by such men, Rome silenced the Protestant cavillers at the 
 old Reformers. Knox had been charged with barbarism, 
 and truly or untruly been represented as saying that the 
 rookeries of cathedrals must fall, or the rooks of the clergy 
 would return. The Papacy now virtually uttered a cruder 
 and fiercer edict. It swept out doves, and hewed down 
 dovecotes, that the owl might sleep in peace, nor the raven 
 be shamed by comparison with the birds of a softer cry and 
 a brighter wing. 
 
 As to the miracles claimed to have been wrought in de- 
 fence of Jansenist innocence and sanctity, whether in the 
 earlier times of the body, while Pascal yet lived, or in the 
 much later age of the Convulsionnaires, as one portion of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. y 
 
 later Jausenists were called, the subject would require a 
 volume, if its discussion were to be commenced at all. No one 
 who knows the character, either of Pascal or of his sister, can 
 be persuaded that for any earthly consideration they would 
 have lent themselves to a conscious fraud in holy things. 
 That their niece was, after the application of the Holy Thorn, 
 healed of a tedious and noisome ulcer, entirely, suddenly, and 
 permanently, seems established by evidence that it would 
 be impossible to overturn. But the force of hope and ex- 
 cited feeling is to some modern physiologists a sufficient 
 explanation. They believe that the physical influence of 
 mind over body is greater than has been generally supposed, 
 and see in this the solution of the mystery. Of the cases of 
 healing, in far later years, said to have occurred in the 
 churchyard of St Medard in Paris, at the grave of the Jan- 
 senist M. Paris, they were, in proportion to the multitude 
 of applicants, few and dubious, ill-authenticated or transitory. 
 Hume, indeed, affected to see in these, rivals and counter- 
 parts of the miracles of the gospel, so different in number, 
 variety, constancy of effect, and sufficiency of authentication. 
 Had they been as numerous, startling, and unquestionable, 
 as for the purposes of the sceptic's argument they ought to 
 have been — but as in reality they were not — there are many 
 Protestants who would see in them no seal of Heaven, but 
 rather a new betrayal of the traits and predicted marks of 
 the Antichrist whom Paul denounced, and whom Christ's 
 coming is to destroy. Though some thinkers — the honoured 
 Dr Wardlaw, in his late work on Miracles, is one with them 
 — deny the power of working miracles to any but the One 
 Supreme God, it has been the judgment of theologians of 
 the highest name in former times, that — in Scripture we 
 find, as from reason we might anticipate, that — under the 
 government of that Supreme Jehovah, he has allowed, 
 under certain limits, the exhibition of superhuman power by 
 
10 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 beings superior to man, though inferior to himself. Satan, 
 too, may work his wonders, though, for the purpose they would 
 subserve, they are but lying wonders. The security of man 
 against fatal delusion, lies in the fact that God exercises the 
 higher power, and works the more numerous, august, and 
 controlling miracles ; and in the principle, that man, in the 
 case of a doctrine claiming superhuman endorsements, must 
 test the doctrine by the Scriptures, as well as the alleged 
 miracle and seal by his senses. Buttressed about, as Scrip- 
 ture is, by evidence of miracle and prophecy (which is cumu- 
 lative and germinant miracle), the great doctrines of Scrip- 
 ture might now legitimately overweigh any amount of 
 supposed miracle that such hostile but superhuman agency 
 should be permitted to work, in derogation and confutation 
 of those statements of Eevelation. Many of the Protestant 
 opponents of Eome believe that they see in Scripture distinct 
 warning that her claims were to be, at times, aided by such 
 feigned and delusive prodigies. And seeing, from the his- 
 tories of Job, and Peter, and Paul, how close the contiguity 
 which the deceiver Satan may secure to the task, and path 
 even of God's elect, such Protestants can believe that good 
 men — the favoured and beloved of Heaven, but unhappily 
 entangled in an unscriptural system and communion — may, 
 as the consequence and retribution of that entanglement, 
 have been the witnesses and dupes of such specimens of his 
 subtle and potent jugglery. Without undertaking to dog- 
 matise on a subject intricate and disputed, it would seem 
 that, on such principles, we might fully admit the honesty 
 not only, but the eminent piety, of those witnessing to 
 strange appearances, which yet, in connexion with the un- 
 scriptural doctrines and usages they were to support, win 
 neither our submission nor our reverence. 
 
 The young and accomplished author, whose first appear- 
 ance the present volume brings with it, seems to us, in most 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 of her translations, to have succeeded in preserving an idio- 
 matic, flowing, and racy style, which might often lead the 
 reader to suppose that the document he peruses had been 
 first written in our tongue. In introducing to Christians 
 who speak the English language and hold the Protestant 
 system, the character and writings, the Christian graces 
 and the bitter trials, of a gifted and devout Romanist, the 
 compiler trusts that the great truths in which Jaqueline 
 Pascal, like her fellow-confessors, was united with us, will 
 be regarded as receiving fresh illustration from their effect 
 upon one in whom dignity and lowliness, wisdom and 
 simplicity, lofty genius and saintly piety, the martyr's 
 firmness and the woman's tenderness, were so rarely and 
 beautifully blended. 
 
 WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS. 
 \3tAJu<nel&53. 
 
12 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 %\t faral familg. 
 
 The family of the Pascals was truly a remarkable one. 
 When Richelieu,* with his eagle glance, perceived in his 
 audience chamber Etienne Pascal, accompanied by his son 
 Blaise, then about fifteen, and his two girls Gilberte and 
 Jaqueline, he was astonished at the children's beauty, and 
 instead of waiting for the father to introduce them to his 
 notice, himself bade the elder Pascal take special care of his 
 offspring, saying, " I mean to make something great of 
 them.'' 
 
 Etienne Pascal was himself an excellent man. He belonged 
 to an old family of the province of Auvergne, in the south 
 of France, studied law in Paris, and returning thence to his 
 native city of Clermont, purchased the office of assessor- 
 general. He was afterwards made president of the court of 
 excise. In 1618 he married Antoinette Begon, who died in 
 1628, leaving him with three children, Gilberte, Blaise, and 
 Jaqueline. In 1630 he sold his ofBce of president, together 
 with the greater part of his possessions in Auvergne, in- 
 vesting the proceeds in rents of the Hotel-de-Ville in Paris, 
 whither he removed in order to educate his children, more 
 particularly Blaise. He was a well-informed and even a 
 
 * The cardinal-duke, who, in the reign of Louis XIII. of France, exercised 
 despotic authority as Prime Minister. 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 13 
 
 learned man, who associated with mathematicians and 
 scientific persons, and shared in their toils. There is extant 
 a letter of his to the Jesuit Noel, wherein he advises him, 
 in a tone half-jest, half-earnest, not to commit himself in 
 disputing with Blaise Pascal about the weight of the atmo- 
 sphere, and warns him that he will find the latter a formi- 
 dable adversary. He bestowed on his son a somewhat 
 systematic education, which was not without its influence 
 on the bent of his mind. The two daughters also received 
 very thorough instruction. The elder, Gilberte, devoted to 
 the other children all a mother's care. Margaret Perier, her 
 daughter, says of her, " When my grandfather came to Paris 
 for his children's education, she was ten years old. She 
 married at twenty-one, while her father was living in Eouen," 
 Monsieur Perier, a distant cousin, who belonged to Clermont, 
 but was sent with a commission to Normandy in 1640, 
 which he executed so well as to excite the esteem of Mon- 
 sieur Pascal, and the latter gave him his daughter's hand. 
 They resided partly in Auvergne, partly in Paris or Rouen. 
 " When at Clermont, Mad. Perier went into society suitable 
 for persons of her age and rank, and was much admired, 
 being beautiful, graceful, and very witty. My grandfather 
 had educated her, and from her earliest youth amused him- 
 self with teaching her mathematics, philosophy, and history." 
 This picture need not be suspected of embellishment. The 
 austere Margaret never flattered, and such a Jansenist as 
 she would not have noticed her mother's beauty unless it 
 had been something extraordinary. The Jansenist manu- 
 scripts contain many of Mad. Perier's letters, but posterity 
 is more indebted to her for the well-known Life of Pascal, 
 an admirable biography, which makes us love Pascal. His 
 sister, in the discharge of her affectionate task, says as little 
 as possible of herself, and thinks only of delineating her 
 brother. Nevertheless, as Eeuchlin remarks, the Life of 
 
14 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Pascal by Mad. Perier plainly yet unintentionally reveals the 
 latter's sound sense, and loving care for one who was her 
 pride, and whom she deeply reverenced. Many sufferings 
 awaited him through life, but she, like a true Martha, stood 
 at his side to help him, while Jaqueline, though younger 
 than he, may be considered as Pascal's spiritual twin-sister. 
 Gilberte early regarded her brother as a superior being, both 
 in mind and character; and though she was herself no idle 
 spectator of his great achievements, Jaqueline exercised a 
 stronger influence over him. The latter in after years 
 manifested the spirit of a Mary. Hand-in-hand with him 
 she traversed the journey of life, and his death soon followed 
 hers. The twin-souls were not long divided. 
 
 Jaqueline is a much more remarkable character than 
 even Gilberte. Heaven had gifted her with genius as well 
 as with feminine attractions. Neither in intellect nor dispo- 
 sition was she inferior to her brother Pascal, and it is impos- 
 sible to measure what her attainments might have been, had 
 she cared for fame, and cultivated her native powers. But 
 perfection, of whatever kind, imperiously requires of all who 
 would attain it, that they should eagerly and perseveringly 
 search for it. To win fame, we must value it, for genius 
 needs resolute tillage before it will yield abundant fruit. 
 So is it with virtue ; the happiest dispositions, the most 
 noble instincts of our nature, are insufficient, unless to 
 these be added a determination to do right, submission to 
 law, and ceaseless vigilance in order to prevent errors, to 
 fortify and develop good impulses, and to convert them into 
 good habits. The women of Port Royal set before them- 
 selves great objects — -salvation and spiritual perfection ■ and 
 sought to attain their ideal by continued effort, diligent 
 meditation, earnest prayer, and austere self-denial. Half as 
 much care bestowed on their minds, would have placed 
 them in the first rank of writers. Where are the men who 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 15 
 
 have dared more, struggled more, suffered more or better, 
 than these very women ? They knew and braved persecu- 
 tion, calumny, exile, imprisonment. When they wrote, they 
 did it with a mingled simplicity and grandeur. We cannot 
 but recognise in them minds and hearts of a rare and totally 
 different stamp from those of the most brilliant dames in 
 the cotemporary court circles. With a little cultivation, 
 they were capable of producing masterpieces. For what, in 
 fact, is style 1 The expression of thought and character. 
 Whoever thinks meagrely and feels but feebly, is incapable of 
 a good style. On the contrary, any one of lofty intelligence, 
 devoted to sublime contemplations, and that has a soul in 
 unison with his intellect, cannot help occasionally writing 
 lines worthy of admiration. And if reflection and study be 
 superadded, such an one has within him the materials of a 
 great writer. The Mere AgnSs and the Mere Angelique 
 wrote much, yet neither they nor their brother Antoine 
 Arnauld left behind them models of composition. How 
 was this 1 They lacked the difficult art of making expression 
 equal the thoughts and feelings it was intended to convey. 
 That art they would have disdained, or rather rejected as 
 sinful. Far from displaying their genius, they endeavoured 
 to stifle it in humility, in silence, and in complete abnega- 
 tion of the world and self. They only wrote as they spoke 
 — from pure necessity. Here and there certain beautiful 
 phrases escape from them unconsciously, by the sole force of 
 noble thought. But art being absent, their unpolished and 
 careless style soon sinks, and, unless dictated by strong 
 feeling, becomes diffuse, dull, .or dry. And Jaqueline Pascal, 
 their disciple, their equal in intelligence and feeling, imitated 
 them in the attempt to extinguish her own enthusiasm and 
 genius, or rather to turn both into another channel. She 
 attained the moral excellence she sought ; she failed in 
 attaining the literary excellence she despised. We acknow- 
 
16 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 ledge that her writings are not highly polished, but they 
 indicate great natural talent. Many of her pieces in prose 
 and verse are to be found scattered through the Jansenist 
 collections ; and to these we have united a number of pieces 
 hitherto unpublished, more especially letters addressed to 
 her sister Gilberte and her brother Pascal. No means of 
 improving our knowledge of that noble family ought to be 
 neglected, and Jaqueline, moreover, deserves attention for 
 her own sake. 
 
 Gilberte Pascal, not satisfied with writing her brother's 
 life, sought also to preserve some memorials of her darling 
 sister. Accordingly, she composed sketches of Jaqueline 
 from early childhood until the latter's entrance into the 
 convent of Port Eoyal, which display the same simplicity, 
 good sense, and graceful style, as does the Life of Pascal. 
 Several paragraphs devoted to her aunt, in the Memoirs 
 of Margaret Perier, Gilberte's daughter, continue and com- 
 plete her mother's work ; and by the aid of these sparse 
 fragments, the biography of Jaqueline Pascal must be com- 
 posed. However, the writings she has left, and her confi- 
 dential letters, shew her intellect and disposition, and teach 
 us not only to admire but to love her. 
 
 Her life and writings may be divided into three parts : — 
 1. From her childhood till her conversion. 2. From her 
 conversion till she became a nun. 3. From thence until 
 her death. 
 
 " My sister," says Madame Perier, in her Sketch of the 
 Life of Sister Jaqueline de Sainte Euphemie, by birth, 
 Jaqueline Pascal, "was bom at Clermont* on the 4th of 
 
 * Clermont, a city of Auvergne, one of the southern provinces of France now 
 comprising the Departments of Puy de Dome and Cantal. Auvergne is a moun- 
 tainous region, proverbial for the obstinacy of its inhabitants. Blaise Pascal was 
 
 proud of his birthplace, and Jaqueline thus describes it in one of her poems : 
 
 " A climate, fertile in unnumber'd charms, 
 Though ornaments, save nature's, it hath none; 
 In stern simplicity, untouch 'd by art, 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 17 
 
 October, in the year 1625. I was six years older than she, 
 and can remember, that as soon as she began to speak, she 
 gave signs of great intelligence, besides being perfectly 
 beautiful, and of a kindly and sweet temper, the most win- 
 ning in the world. She was, therefore, as much loved and 
 caressed as a child could possibly be. My father removed 
 to Paris in 1631, and took us all with him. My sister was 
 then six years old, still very pretty, and so agreeable, that 
 she was a general favourite, in request with all our friends, 
 and spent but little of her time at home. 
 
 " At seven years old, she began to learn to read, and by 
 my father's wish, I became her teacher. This was a trouble- 
 some task, on account of her great aversion to it ; and, do 
 what I would, I could not coax her to come and say her les- 
 son. One day, however, I chanced to be reading poetry 
 aloud, and the rhythm pleased her so much that she said 
 to me, ' If you want me to read, teach me out of a verse- 
 book, and then I will say my lesson as often as you like.' 
 This surprised me, because I did not think that a child of 
 her age could distinguish verse from prose ; and I did as 
 she wished. After that time she was always talking about 
 verses, and learned a great many by heart, for she had an 
 excellent memory. She wanted to know the rules of poetry, 
 and at eight years old, before knowing how to read, she be- 
 gan to compose some that were really not bad — a proof how 
 strong in this respect was her native bent. 
 
 " She had then two playmates who contributed not a 
 little to her enjoyment. They were the daughters of Madame 
 
 It yields a picture of its Maker's power. 
 There, in Auvergne,' — from those proud peaks afar, 
 Whose gloomy heights nor fruit nor harvests know, 
 But in their stead dark precipices yawn ; — 
 Rises a little hill, so fresh and fair, 
 So favour'd by the Sun's celestial ray, 
 That Clairmont seems its most appropriate name." 
 B 
 
18 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Saintot, and themselves made verses, though not much older 
 than Jaqueline ; so that, in the year 1636, when my father 
 took me with him on a journey to Auvergne, and Madame 
 de Saintot hegged that she might keep my sister with her 
 while we were gone, the three little girls took it into their 
 heads to act a play, and composed plot and verses, without 
 the least aid from any one else. It was, however, a co- 
 herent piece, and had five acts, divided by scenes regularly 
 arranged. They performed it themselves twice, with some 
 other actors whom they invited, before a large company. 
 Everybody wondered that such children should be capable 
 of constructing a complete work, and many pretty things 
 were discovered in it, so that it became the talk of all Paris 
 for a long time." 
 
 Thus began the reputation for talent which Jaqueline 
 never afterwards lost. The play, could we recover it, would 
 be a curiosity, but it has entirely disappeared. 
 
 " My sister still continued to make verses about what- 
 ever came into her head, as well as on all extraordinary occur- 
 rences. At the beginning of 1638, when the Queen was 
 expecting an heir, she did not fail to write on so fine a sub- 
 ject, and these verses were better than any of her previous 
 efforts. We lived at that time very near Monsieur and 
 Madame de Morangis, who took so much delight in the 
 child's pretty ways, that she was with her nearly every day. 
 Madame de Morangis, charmed with the idea of Jaqueline's 
 having written verses on the Queen's situation, said that she 
 would take her to St Germain (one of the royal palaces) 
 and present her. She kept her word ; and on their arrival, 
 the Queen being at the moment engaged, every one surround- 
 ed the little girl, in order to question her and see her verses." 
 Jaqueline was then only twelve years old, and so small of 
 her age, that some suspicion was naturally awakened whether 
 she had really composed them, and her ability was at once 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 19 
 
 tested. "Mademoiselle,* then very young, said to her, 
 ' Since you make verses so well, make some for me.' Jaque- 
 line went quietly into a corner and composed an epigram 
 for the princess, which plainly shewed that it was written 
 on the spur of the moment, by referring to the command 
 that Mademoiselle had just given. It ran as follows :— 
 
 " It is our noble princess' will, 
 That thou, my Muse, exert thy skill 
 To celebrate her charms to-day : 
 Hopeless our task! — the only way 
 To praise her well is to avow 
 The simple truth — we know not how ! " 
 
 Mademoiselle, seeing that" she had finished it so quickly, 
 said, i Now make one for Madame de Hautefort.'t She 
 immediately wrote another epigram for that lady, which, 
 though very pretty, was easily seen to be impromptu : — 
 
 " O marvel not, bright masterpiece of earth, 
 At the prompt tribute by your charms call'd forth. 
 Your glance, that roves the world around. 
 In every clime hath captives found. 
 That ray, which charms my youthful heart, 
 May well arouse my fancy's art." 
 
 Soon after this, permission was given to enter the Queen's 
 apartment, and Madame de Morangis led my sister in. The 
 Queen was surprised at her poetry, but fancied at first that 
 it was either not her own, or that she had been greatly aided. 
 All present thought the same, but Mademoiselle removed 
 their doubts by shewing them the two epigrams that Jaque- 
 
 * Mademoiselle de Montpensier, daughter of the Duke of Orleans, and niece to 
 Louis XIII., better known in history as the Great Mademoiselle. She was after- 
 wards one of the most conspicuous heroines of the Fronde, and during that 
 struggle ordered the cannon of the Bastile to be turned against the royal troops. 
 Late in life she married the Duke de Lauzun, who was greatly her inferior in 
 rank, and repaid her condescension with neglect and unkindness. 
 
 t Madame de Hautefort, one of the ladies in waiting on the Queen, Anne of 
 Austria. 
 
20 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 line had just made in her presence, and by her own orders. 
 This circumstance increased the general admiration, and from 
 that day forward my sister was often at court, and much 
 caressed by the King, the Queen, Mademoiselle, and all who 
 saw her. She even had the honour of waiting on her Majesty 
 when she dined in private, Mademoiselle taking the place of 
 chief butler. 
 
 " She wrote many other pretty things, such as graceful 
 notes to her friends ; and her repartees were remarkable for 
 point : one could not wish finer. But all this did not in 
 the least lessen her gay good-humour. She amused herself 
 most heartily with her playmates in all childish games, and 
 when alone, played with her dolls." 
 
 In 1638 a small collection of her poems was printed, and 
 dedicated to the Queen, Anne of Austria, who had taken so 
 much interest in the little poetess. Several of the pieces are 
 addressed to her. Another collection was made by Margaret 
 Perier, the niece of Jaqueline, many years afterwards. Those 
 poems most likely to interest modern readers have been 
 translated, and will be given according to their dates. The 
 remainder, though reprinted by M. Cousin, and not destitute 
 of poetic grace, yet scarcely deserve transfer into a foreign 
 tongue. They consist of odes in honour of the Virgin Mary 
 and St Cecilia, together with a number of short epigrams and 
 love-songs which it is difficult to believe could have been 
 written by one so young. Even in that age of gallantry, 
 they drew from Bensserade, a poet of some note, and the rival 
 of Voiture, a long address, one verse of which says — 
 
 " When girls of thirteen sigh and weep for love, 
 'Tis often wrong ; 
 But genius lifts thee common rules above, 
 Fair child of song ! " 
 
 Jaqueline herself considered her poetic talent as an instinct 
 implanted by her Creator, for which she claimed no merit, 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 21 
 
 but ascribed all the glory to him. A little poem 011 this 
 subject, written in August 1638, is not without a degree of 
 elevation, both in thought and style. 
 
 STANZAS 
 
 THANKING GOD FOR THE POWER OF WRITING POETRY. 
 
 Lord of the Universe, 
 
 If the strong chains of verse 
 Round my delighted soul their links entwine, 
 
 Here let me humbly own 
 
 The gift is thine alone, 
 And comes, great God, from no desert of mine. 
 
 Tea, Lord, how many long 
 
 For the sweet power of song, 
 Which thou hast placed in my young feeble heart ! 
 
 Thy bounties string my lyre, 
 
 And, with celestial fire, 
 To my dull soul a hidden light impart. 
 
 Lord, a thankless mind 
 Will not acquittal find 
 
 In thy pure presence. Therefore it is just 
 That, touch'd with godlike flame, 
 
 1 should thy love proclaim, 
 
 And chant the glories of thy name august, 
 
 As waterfalls, and rills, 
 
 And streams wind past the hills 
 In steady progress toward their parent sea, 
 
 Thus, Lord, my simple lays, 
 
 Heedless of this world's praise, 
 Find their way home, Source Divine, to thee ! 
 
 August 1638. 
 
 In the following year, the tranquillity of home, that im- 
 portant requisite in Etienne Pascal's plan of education, was 
 suddenly disturbed by an event, the consequences of which 
 greatly influenced the bent of his children's minds, and their 
 ultimate destiny. France was then at war with Spain, and 
 the contest not taking so favourable a turn as had been pre- 
 
22 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 dieted at its commencement, the government found itself in 
 urgent need of funds. The all-important supplies were ob- 
 tained by dint of attentions and flattery to the corporation 
 of Paris, which induced them to acquiesce in measures for 
 the arbitrary seizure of private property. The elder Pascal 
 had, as we have seen, made large investments in bonds of the 
 Hotel-de-Ville, and Cardinal Eichelieu plundered him, as 
 well as others, of a portion of their income. This injustice 
 came near provoking an insurrection. Some of the greatest 
 stockholders, among whom was Pascal, went, in March 1638, 
 to the Chancellor, and remonstrated so strongly, even threat- 
 eningly, against the wrong done to themselves, and to four 
 or five hundred more, that the Chancellor became alarmed, 
 and Eichelieu gave orders to have the malcontents arrested. 
 Pascal, learning betimes that Borne of his companions were 
 in the Bastile, thought it advisable to travel incognito into 
 Auvergne ; and thus, when the halberdiers came to search 
 his dwelling, he could not be found. 
 
 Mad. Perier's account of the transaction is this : — " In 
 March 1638, my father, together with many other persons 
 who, like himself, were interested in the rents charged upon 
 the Hotel-de-Ville, was at the Chancellor's house, where 
 words were spoken, and some acts occurred, slightly violent, 
 not to say seditious, which being reported to the Cardinal 
 de Eichelieu, he ordered the chief actors to the Bastile. My 
 father was supposed to be one of their number, and search 
 was accordingly made at his residence for him, but he 
 effected his escape, while three of the others were taken. 
 Meantime he remained in concealment at the houses of 
 different friends, without daring to come home at all. He 
 was very much comforted under this affliction by Jaque- 
 line's endearing ways, for he loved her with unusual tender- 
 ness. But this consolation did not last long, for in Septem- 
 ber of that same year she became most dangerously ill of 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 23 
 
 the small-pox. My father then forgot his fears, and said 
 that, let the risk be what it might, he must be at home, in 
 order to watch with his own eyes the course of her illness. 
 And he really never left her for a moment, not even sleep- 
 ing out of her room. She recovered, but her countenance 
 was quite disfigured, and being then thirteen, she was old 
 enough to value beauty and to regret its loss. And yet 
 this mischance did not in the least trouble her ; on the con- 
 trary, she considered it as a mercy, and in some verses com- 
 posed as a thank-offering, she said that her pitted face 
 seemed to her the guardian of her innocence, and these 
 traces of disease certain signs that God would keep her from 
 evil. All this was done of her own accord." 
 
 A translation of this little poem is here given. Dr 
 Eeuchlin remarks that there is something about it painfully 
 precocious for one of her years, yet her precocity does not 
 seem to have made her unhappy; as her sister goes on to 
 say, " She did not leave the house during the whole winter, 
 not being fit to appear in company ; but her time did not 
 hang heavily, for she was very busy with her trinkets and 
 dolls." 
 
 STANZAS 
 
 THANKING GOD FOR RECOVERY FROM THE SMALL-POX. 
 
 Ruler of earth and skies ! 
 Bid thou my hymn arise 
 
 As from an angel's tongue; 
 I sound no mortal's praise, 
 To thee my voice I raise, 
 And at thine altars chant my grateful song. 
 
 Thou, from thy throne ahove, 
 Hast look'd, in sovereign love, 
 
 On a poor earth-worm's trail ; 
 Thy hand my fever broke, 
 And shielded from death's stroke 
 A rack'd and restless frame, than glass more frail. 
 
24 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 All men, great God, may see 
 Thy pure benignity 
 
 To one so weaic and worn ; 
 Without thy loving aid 
 Thus wondrously display*d, 
 My life had faded in its April morn. 
 
 When, in the mirror, I 
 Scars of mine illness spy, 
 
 Those hollow marks attest 
 The heart-rejoicing truth, 
 That I am thine, in sooth, 
 For thou dost chasten whom thou lo vest best. 
 
 I take them for a brand 
 That, Master, thy kind hand 
 
 Would on my forehead leave, 
 Mine innocence to shew : — 
 And shall I murmur ? No. 
 While thy rod comforts me, I will not grieve. 
 
 But, Lord, my work is vain, 
 No human heart or strain 
 
 To praise thee hath the skill. 
 To tell thy bounties here 
 That charm the eye and ear, 
 Passes my power, but cannot pass my will. 
 
 Nwember 1638. 
 
 Cardinal Richelieu had an unfortunate idea that his taste 
 in poetry and the fine arts was fully equal to his vast political 
 genius; and in February 1639, he took a fancy to have some 
 children act a play, selecting for that purpose not one of 
 Corneille's masterpieces, but a tragedy by Mademoiselle 
 Scuderi, entitled Tyrannic Love, which suited his own false 
 taste. His niece, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, undertook to 
 find the little girls who should perform it, and asked 
 Madame de Saintot if she would allow her younger daughter 
 to act, sending at the same time an invitation for Jaque- 
 line Pascal to take a part. Gilberte, who in Etienne Pascal's 
 absence was mistress of the house, proudly answered : " The 
 Cardinal has not been kind enough to us to make us take 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 25 
 
 any pains to give him pleasure;" alluding to her father's 
 constrained exile. The Duchess was an excellent woman, 
 who often sought to remedy instances of individual suffering 
 occasioned by her uncle's political measures, and knew well 
 how to effect this by humouring his weak points. She 
 therefore requested Gilberte to withdraw her refusal, adding 
 that she thought there was a possibility of obtaining her 
 father's recall, if his little girl were to petition the Cardinal, 
 and promising to use her own influence in his behalf both 
 with her uncle and the Chancellor. Gilberte then asked 
 leave to consult her friends, to whom advice coming from so 
 high a quarter seemed of such moment that they thought 
 the opportunity must by no means be let pass. A celebrated 
 actor of those days, called Mondory, who came from Cler- 
 mont, and had assumed the name of Mondory, because it had 
 belonged to his godfather, an Auvergnese of rank, was 
 accordingly engaged to teach the child her allotted part, and 
 took great pains with her. " She performed," says Madame 
 Perier, whose modesty did not allow her to chronicle her 
 own spirited reply, not unworthy of a Cornelia, "so char- 
 mingly that she delighted everybody, especially as she was 
 very small, and had a childish face, more like that of a girl 
 of eight than of thirteen. After the play, she stepped down 
 from the stage, that Madame de Saintot might lead her to 
 Madame d'Aiguillon, who wished to present her to the 
 Cardinal ; but, seeing that something delayed Madame de 
 Saintot, and that the Cardinal was rising to withdraw, she 
 went up to him all alone. When he saw her coming, he 
 sat down again, took her on his knee, and, caressing her, 
 perceived that she was weeping. He asked what was the 
 matter, and she then repeated to him the following ad- 
 dress : — 
 
 ' Deem it not strange, thou prince without a peer, 
 If I have fail'd to hold thine eye and ear ; 
 
26 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 My trembling frame seems palsied with dismay, 
 
 And trouble steals my very voice away. 
 
 If thou wouldst have me win thy gracious smile, 
 
 Call back a banish' d father from exile. 
 
 Of clemency oft proved this boon I crave, 
 
 From perils vast the innocent to save. 
 
 Thus wilt thou set soul, voice, and gesture free 
 
 To task their utmost skill in pleasing thee ' 
 
 Madame d'Aiguillon added many obliging entreaties, and the 
 Cardinal at length told Jaqueline that he would grant her 
 request, and her father might return whenever he chose. 
 And then this mere child, without any prompting, said to 
 him : ' My lord, I have still another favour to ask of your 
 eminence.' The Cardinal was so enchanted both with her 
 graceful behaviour and the slight freedom that she had 
 taken, that he said to her, 'Ask what you like, and I will 
 grant it.' She answered : ' I entreat your eminence to allow 
 my lather the honour of paying his respects to you on his 
 return, so that he may himself thank you for the kindness 
 you have done us all to-day.' The Cardinal said: 'Not 
 only granted, but it is just what I wish. Tell him, that he 
 need have no apprehension in coming, and let him bring 
 his whole family with him.' " Margaret Perier, in relating 
 the above scene, says that her mother, then about nineteen, 
 and Blaise Pascal, then fifteen, were standing near, both in 
 the full bloom of youthful beauty, and that the Cardinal 
 expressed pleasure at the idea of restoring a father to so 
 lovely a family. He then committed Jaqueline to Madame 
 d'Aiguillon's care, and requested her to see that all the young 
 actresses were supplied with refreshments, which was done 
 magnificently. 
 
 On his arrival in Paris, M. Pascal lost no time in paying 
 his respects to the Cardinal at Ruel. The latter, when his 
 name was announced, asked if the gentleman were alone, and 
 on being told that he was, sent him word that he could not 
 have an audience until he came accompanied by his family. 
 
THE PASCAL FAMILY. 27 
 
 Next day he took with him all three of his children, and the 
 Cardinal received him very graciously, saying that he felt 
 great gratification in restoring a man of so much merit 
 to a family deserving his tenderest care, and bade him watch 
 over his children, promising to make something great of 
 them in the future. 
 
 Mademoiselle Scuderi testified her gratitude for Jaque- 
 line's aid in the performance of her tragedy, by addressing 
 to her some complimentary lines, which M. Cousin cha- 
 racterises as commonplace, and yet full of bombast. The 
 little girl, whom she had styled Cassandra, politely re- 
 plied : — 
 
 " Were I Cassandra, famed of yore 
 
 For beauty that could burn 
 The Sun's bright heart to ashes, I would spurn 
 
 Her prophet-dowry, and implore 
 From the Parnassian god a better spell, — 
 The wished-for knowledge, how to praise you well." 
 
28 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 %\t gnmg Urctess at gjirara. 
 
 Cardinal Richelieu soon, proved the sincerity of his ex- 
 pressions of good-will, by selecting Etienne Pascal as one 
 of the commissioners appointed to discharge the duties of 
 Intendant for the province of Normandy, in the district of 
 Eouen, where, in an insurrection of the peasantry occasioned 
 by the introduction of a new system of taxation, the rebels 
 had defied the local authorities, destroyed the Receipt-office, 
 and murdered some of the collectors. The government, 
 convinced that the Parliament of Rouen had not done its 
 duty, sent thither two independent commissioners, armed 
 with full power to enforce the laws. To one of these, M. 
 de Paris, was committed the oversight of the military ; to 
 his colleague, M. Pascal, that of the finances. A body of 
 troops supported them, under command of the fierce soldier 
 Gassion, a Calvinist, in company with whom Pascal com- 
 menced his journey, and who had to force his way through 
 the streets of Rouen, and to put down the obstinate resistance 
 of the peasants, nicknamed the Barefooted, with fire and 
 sword. Pascal performed the troublesome task of setting a 
 large part of the records and accounts to rights, with exem- 
 plary resolution and probity, forbidding his subordinates 
 to accept the smallest gratuity, and even discharging his own 
 secretary, though a relative, because he had received a louis- 
 
THE YOUTO POETESS AT BOHEN. 29 
 
 d'or. The interest which his son Blaise took in the regula- 
 tion of this business, led him to invent his extraordinary 
 calculating machine, which was patented in 1649. 
 
 As soon as it was practicable, Etienne Pascal summoned 
 his family to their new home. Corneille, the creator of 
 the French classic drama, was then living in Eouen, his 
 birthplace ; he frequently visited the new-comers, and aided 
 in the cultivation of Jaqueline's taste and the development 
 of her poetic talent. By his advice she became a competi- 
 tor for the prize which an old custom of Rouen awarded 
 to the writer of the best poem on the Church holiday of 
 the Conception of the Virgin ; but when the festival was 
 celebrated, and the president of the ceremony announced 
 that the prize was hers, she was absent. Corneille, however, 
 rose and improvised a brief address of thanks in her name. 
 The prize was brought to her with drums, trumpets, and a 
 grand procession ; " Yet," says Mad. Perier, " she received it 
 with wonderful composure. Though she was then fifteen, 
 she was as frolicsome as a little child, and still found much 
 amusement in her dolls. We used to scold her for this, 
 but had great difficulty in getting her to give up childish 
 plays, which she much preferred to the distinguished society 
 of the town, although she received general admiration. She 
 took no pleasure in fame or applause, and I never saw any 
 one care less for them. 
 
 " The reputation she had acquired from early childhood, 
 instead of lessening as she grew older, increased, because she 
 possessed those noble qualities that suit every age, so that 
 she was invited everywhere, and those who did not know her 
 intimately, were anxious for her acquaintance. When she 
 went into company without being expected, every one was 
 rejoiced at her entrance ; but it was most remarkable that 
 she was never in the least puffed up, and received such 
 attention with an indifference that only made her the more 
 
30 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 beloved : her daily companions not being at all jealous, but 
 doing, on the contrary, all they could to increase the esteem 
 felt for her, by making known her private excellences, her 
 gentleness, her kindness, and her lively yet equable temper." 
 In 1641, Gilberte Pascal married Florin Perier, a distant 
 cousin of her father's. They lived two years in Eouen, and 
 then went back to Clermont. Jaqueline's life, for the next 
 few years, seems to have been pleasant and uneventful. 
 " During this time," continues her sister, " there were many 
 opportunities for her marriage, but Divine Providence always 
 interposed some obstacle. On these occasions she never 
 shewed either like or dislike, being perfectly submissive to 
 my father's will, though as yet uninfluenced by religion, 
 towards which, indeed, she felt alienation, and even a little 
 contempt, believing that many of its practices could not 
 satisfy a person of reflection." Poor Jaqueline ! was it 
 strange that a mind like hers should be perplexed in view 
 of the many puerilities that overload the truths of the 
 Gospel, in the corrupted system of Christianity under which it 
 was her misfortune to be born ? It appears that some of her 
 associates must have been of the Reformed faith, since, in 
 1645, we find her addressing a poem of mingled regret and 
 affection to one friend on the decease of another. The piece 
 is entitled — 
 
 CONSOLATION FOR THE DEATH OF A HUGUENOT LADY. 
 
 Phillis, calm your dreadful grief; 
 Let the anguish find relief 
 That bewails your buried friend, 
 Or your days must swiftly end, — 
 And to lose you were such pain, 
 That I could not life sustain. 
 
 Vain are all your bitter cries ;— 
 Death, alas ! is deaf to sighs, 
 And to tears is also blind. 
 Were his nature less unkind, 
 
THE YOUNG POETESS AT ROUEN. 31 
 
 He had reverenced the charms 
 Wither^ in his wintry arms. 
 
 Nought escapes him here below, 
 For his stern impartial blow 
 Heeds not happiness or woe. 
 Homely features, beauty's broWj 
 Guilt and innocence, must bow, 
 And the might of Death allow. 
 
 Change is mark'd on all we see; 
 
 Our most firm felicity, 
 
 As we grasp it, fades away. 
 
 Even you, some dreary day, 
 
 Will be mourn'd by those who now 
 
 Seek your love with tearful vow. 
 
 I pretend not, by discourse 
 
 To arrest the rapid course 
 
 Of the thoughts that vex you so. 
 
 All their bitterness I know, 
 
 And your grief I cannot blame 
 
 While my soul partakes the same. 
 
 Friendly tears were never shed 
 O'er a lovelier lady dead : 
 Cloris was, in form and face, 
 Gifted with angelic grace ; 
 But, in youth's enchanting bloom, 
 Fate has laid her in the tomb. 
 
 You have deeper cause to groan ! 
 O'er her state a shade is thrown, 
 Anxious doubts your spirit chafe, 
 As you ask, " Can she be safe? — 
 She who died, remaining still 
 A heretic in act and will ? " 
 
 Doubt not, in the dying hour, 
 
 That her strengthen'd soul had power, 
 
 By afflictions purified, 
 
 Every weight to cast aside: 
 
 Light celestial entering in, 
 
 That she meekly own'd her sin. 
 
 And, O Lord, if earthly love 
 
 Can thy tender pity move, 
 
 Hear the prayers we'll henceforth make 
 
 In thy temple, for her sake 
 
 Whom thou didst create so fair, 
 
 But who never worshipp'd there. 
 
32 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Her ill-fated birth alone 
 Caused the errors we bemoan ; 
 Blinded by her zeal's excess, 
 And her filial tenderness, 
 To the last she persevered 
 In the faith her sire revered. 
 
 Thou didst on her spirit shower 
 Heavenly gifts, the precious dower 
 Of the souls that love thee best : — 
 Calm devotion fill'd her breast, 
 And the flame of sacred love 
 Raised her hopes to thee above. 
 
 Day by day her dearest care 
 "Was to serve the Lord by prayer. 
 Could her faith so fruitful be 
 If it were not given of thee? 
 Shall the zeal thou didst bestow 
 Sink her in eternal woe ? 
 
 In my dim and sinful state, 
 Lord, I dare not penetrate 
 Secrets that thy wisdom hides ; 
 But thy goodness yet abides, 
 And thine equitable will 
 Is with mercy tempered still. 
 
 Therefore, Phillis, weep no more ; — 
 Since the God whom we implore 
 Chides your grief, and bids you hope 
 In his love's unbounded scope ; 
 Following thus th' example set 
 By the friend whom you regret. 
 
 One or two minor poems, written during her re- 
 sidence in Rome, may be inserted here. 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SONNET. 
 
 glorioxts Architect of earth and sea, 
 Yet of frail man the Maker and the stay, 
 Here at thine altar's foot I humbly pray, 
 
 Let thy world-sheltering love encircle me. 
 
 Well may my every hope be built on thee, 
 For I can hear unmoved the thunder's growl, 
 Can brave e'en demons, and their whispers foul, 
 
 When my heart trusteth in thy sure decree. 
 
THE YOUNG POETESS AT ROUEN. 33 
 
 But all 1 the power of sin o'erwhelms my frame, 
 Frustrates my wishes, makes my spirit tame, 
 And dims the lustre of its zealous flame. 
 Its languor pardon, Lord 1 My strength uphold, 
 Make my weak nature in thy service bold, 
 Let not thy love in my faint heart wax cold. 
 February 1640. 
 
 SERENADE. 
 
 pure and lovely Clarice, rise, 
 
 Bid sleep depart from those sweet eyes ! 
 
 "We blame thee not, that through the day 
 
 Thy charms should drive our peace away ; 
 
 Then is it just for thee to sleep 
 
 "While they who love thee, vigil keep ? 
 
 mark the sorrows of my soul, 
 List to my sighs, and then console ; 
 Or if thy heart I cannot gain, 
 Lend me thine ear while I complain, 
 And since thy frowns forbid my sleep, 
 Share thou the weary watch I keep. 
 
 In 164:6, the elder Pascal, while absent from home on a 
 charitable errand, slipped upon some ice, fell, and dislocated 
 his thigh. This occurrence occasioned an increase of intimacy 
 between his family and two noblemen living in the environs 
 of Rouen, who were often called upon to remedy similar 
 accidents. They were brothers, belonging to the numerous 
 family of Bailleul, one having the title De la Bouteillerie, and 
 the other that of Deslandes. From childhood they had 
 shewn peculiar skill in the setting of broken or dislocated 
 bones, and had made anatomy and medicine their favourite 
 studies, at first by way of amusement, until they became 
 attracted by the preaching of a worthy servant of God, 
 named Guillebert, the pastor of Rouville, who had shared 
 the captivity of St Cyran. The eloquence of this man was 
 so great, that people came from all parts to hear him preach, 
 and members of the parliament of Rouen were accustomed 
 to hire lodgings at the village of Rouville, and spend their 
 
34 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Saturday nights there, in order to be ready for his Sabbath 
 discourses. The two noblemen placed themselves under this 
 clergyman's spiritual guidance, and each soon had a small 
 hospital erected in his own park. Deslandes, who had ten 
 children, furnished his building with ten beds ; his brother, 
 who was childless, provided twenty, and both spent much 
 time in attendance on the sick. 
 
 They replaced Etienne Pascal's dislocated limb, and were 
 kind enough to remain three months with him for the sake 
 of effecting a perfect cure. " The whole family," says 
 Madame Perier, " was benefited by their residence in it." 
 Hitherto the Pascals had been regarded as not only upright, 
 but pious people. Gilberte assures us that the fear of God 
 had always kept her brother Blaise from yielding to youth- 
 ful temptations ; " and what, for a mind like his, was still 
 more extraordinary," continues she, " he had never been in- 
 clined to become a freethinker in matters of religion, but 
 had confined his researches within the limits of natural philo- 
 sophy. He often told me, that he felt deeply grateful to my 
 father for having led him from earliest childhood to rever- 
 ence religion, and impressed on his mind the fundamental 
 truth, that matters of divine revelation are not to be tried, 
 much less condemned, at the tribunal of human reason. This 
 maxim, often repeated by a father whom he deeply rever- 
 enced, and whose teachings on other subjects were always 
 sustained by clear and powerful arguments, became so firmly 
 rooted in his soul that, even in early youth, he looked upon 
 infidels as men whose assertion of the universal sovereignty 
 of human reason places them on a false foundation, and be- 
 trays their entire ignorance of the nature of faith. His 
 noble, expansive spirit, while it eagerly thirsted for know- 
 ledge, and made diligent search into the mysteries of science 
 -was yet, in the concerns of religion, humble as a little child. 
 This principle of unquestioning faith governed his whole 
 
THE YOUNG POETESS AT ROUEN. 35 
 
 life, and when in after years his thoughts were completely 
 engrossed with spiritual realities, to the exclusion of every 
 other topic, he never busied himself with curious or enticing 
 questions of theology, but bent his soul's full strength to the 
 attainment of Christian holiness, dedicating to this object 
 every talent he possessed, and meditating day and night upon 
 the law of his God." 
 
 Up to this time, however (1646), the piety of the family, 
 though sincere and active, was not enlightened (eclairee). 
 " This expression," says Eeuchlin, " so characteristic of Port 
 Royal, while, on the one hand, it comprehends a careful ob- 
 servance of Church rules, frequent confession and communion, 
 and the practice of good works, — on the other, includes the 
 truth, that God's service and the world's can never be united, 
 and that man can only obtain eternal salvation as the free 
 gift of God's grace." The experience of renewed hearts, how- 
 ever differing in minor details, however alloyed with more or 
 less of error, is everywhere substantially the same. " Not by 
 works of righteousness which we have done, but according to 
 his mercy he saved us," had been the watchword of the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, and of Luther in his fierce battle 
 with Rome ; and now these obscure members of that apos- 
 tate communion, having grasped the same blessed truth, were 
 treading in the footsteps of their Lord, and causing others to 
 take knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. 
 " The edifying discourse and exemplary lives of their visi- 
 tors," says Madame Perier, " made my father, brother, and 
 sister wish to read the books which had aided them in attain- 
 ing to so great a degree of holiness, and this was their first 
 acquaintance with the works of Jansenius, M. de St Cyran, 
 Arnauld, and others that were of great service to them." 
 Blaise was the first to set the example of holiness and self- 
 denial, to taste the happiness of solitary communion with 
 the Lord of angels and of men, and to rest his whole hope 
 
36 JAQtTELINI! PASCAL. 
 
 of salvation on the righteousness of his Redeemer. He at 
 once endeavoured to make his sister Jaqueline a partaker 
 of this new-found joy, and she, although, as we have seen, 
 *her genius and amiability made her the darling of society, 
 could not long withstand his loving entreaties and example. 
 Thenceforth she called herself his spiritual daughter. Her 
 father, in like manner, became the child of his children, 
 learning from them to give himself, heart and life, to God. 
 M. and Madame Perier visited Eouen that same year, and 
 became the subjects of a similar change. The whole family 
 placed themselves under the tuition of Pastor Guillebert, who 
 made no half work with his converts. Margaret Perier, in 
 her Memoirs, gives us a specimen of his dealings and their 
 effect : " My father and mother sat under the ministry of M. 
 Guillebert, Doctor of the Sorbonne, a very holy and discreet 
 man. He counselled my mother, who was then twenty-six 
 years old, to lay aside all her ornaments, and wear no trim- 
 mings on her dresses, which she cheerfully did. After she 
 had stayed at Eouen for two years, wearing the most unpre- 
 tending attire, she was obliged to return to Clermont. M. 
 Guillebert then told her that he had an important piece of 
 advice to give her, and it was this : That ladies whose piety 
 prevented them from wearing ornaments, often took pleasure 
 in decorating their children, and that she must be careful to 
 avoid doing so, gay dress being far more injurious to children, 
 who are naturally fond of it, than to grown persons, who, 
 knowing its frivolity, care but little for it. Accordingly, 
 on her return to Clermont, in the fall of 1648, where she 
 had left my sister, then a little over four years old, and my- 
 self, then not quite three, she found that my grandmother, 
 who had charge of us in her absence, had dressed us both in 
 frocks embroidered with silver, and fully trimmed with rib- 
 bons and lace, as was then the fashion. My mother took 
 everything off and clad us in gray camlet, without lace or 
 
THE YOOT& POETESS AT ROUEN. 37 
 
 ribbon. She forbade our nurse to let us play with, two little 
 girls of our own age in the neighbourhood, whom, before our 
 mother came, we had seen every day, lest we should acquire 
 a love for the gay garments they usually wore. She was so 
 particular on this point, that in 1651, when my grandfather 
 Pascal died, and she was obliged to be present in Paris at 
 the settlement of his estate/ she chose to incur the expense 
 of taking us with her, for fear that my grandmother would 
 make us dress in finer clothes, if we were left under her care. 
 She always taught us to wear the most simple and modest 
 clothing, and I can say with truth, that since I was be- 
 tween two and three years old, I have never worn either gold, 
 silver, coloured ribbons, curls, or laces." 
 
 "About the close of that year (1646), M. de Bellay, 
 the Bishop of that See, was holding an ordination at Rouen, 
 and my sister,'' says Mad. Perier, " who had not yet been 
 confirmed, wished to receive that sacrament. For this 
 she prepared according to the hints she had found in the 
 writing's of M. de St Cyran, and we may believe that she 
 then really received the influences of the Holy Ghost, 
 since her character from thenceforward was completely 
 changed." 
 
 To this period of her life, Dr Eeuchlin is of opinion 
 that the following letter, addressed to her sister, belongs, 
 although its date, as found in the Jansenist collection of 
 manuscripts, is two years earlier.* It seems to express the 
 state of mind with which Jaqueline for the first time partook 
 of the communion, and breathes, throughout, the unmingled 
 rapture of a new-born soul : — 
 
 * These manuscripts are not so remarkable for accuracy in dates as they are for 
 rough outlines of characters and events. The letter itself refers to the works of 
 Singlin, and Jaqueline was unacquainted with the Jansenist authors before her 
 father met with his accident. 
 
38 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " March 24, 1644 (1646). 
 " My deae Sistbe, — I only received yours of January 
 22d last evening, but it brought me no small comfort. 
 I am heartily glad of the happy meeting you speak of; it 
 really seems a special favour vouchsafed to me, and all the 
 greater because so entirely undeserved. If you were my 
 confessor, I might explain this more fully, but as it is, you 
 must not fail to plead earnestly in your devotions, that our 
 Lord and his Mother may obtain for me, by the merits of his 
 death, that grace I so greatly need. And you will not forget 
 all our family, nor yet the nation, so that I shall not speak 
 of them here. Only I beg that one of your subjects of prayer 
 next Thursday may be the public manifestation, or at least 
 a private manifestation to certain persons, of an important 
 fact now concealed, though its effects are wonderful. You 
 must say, as did Jesus, ' Father, if it be possible,' which 
 means, 'if it be for thy glory,' adding, at the same time, 
 ' Thy will be done,' and implore that God would deign to 
 send his own light into their hearts rather than their intel- 
 lects. This has for some time past been the burden of many 
 of my prayers ; I mean of those prayers which are only, as 
 M. de St Cyran says, the heart's desire. I repeat my request 
 for you to join me in supplicating for this thing, about which 
 my anxiety is excessive, though chiefly lest anything should 
 be said or done contrary to God's command. If you were 
 here, what a relief it would be to open my whole heart to 
 you ! God has denied me this consolation. Blessed be his 
 holy name ! I will try not to wish for that which he does 
 not see fit to grant. One advantage, certainly, belongs to 
 Christians. If they are prohibited from joining in this 
 world's pleasures, they are also forbidden to grieve over its 
 misfortunes, and even told to rejoice in them. Now, as the 
 latter are of far more frequent occurrence than the former, 
 the believer's joy must necessarily be more uninterrupted. 
 
THE YOUNG POETESS AT EOUEN. 39 
 
 Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ says, ' Your joy no man. 
 taketh from you j ' and we are bound to feel with the Apostle 
 who, on another topic, exclaims, 'How can he be afflicted 
 whose very sorrows turn into joy V 
 
 " When I perceive that this looks like an attempt at giving 
 you instruction, which God forbid that I, having neither 
 right nor qualification, should presume to do, I remember 
 that M. Singlin remarks, ' That our prayers to God are not 
 meant to remind him of our wants, which, as our Lord says, 
 "are all known to him before we ask," but are offered in 
 order that we may ourselves remember them.' I say the 
 same to you, once for all, so do not forget it. Pray to God 
 for me, with your whole heart, and give him thanks for his 
 mercies to us all, but offer up special prayers and praises on 
 my brother's account. I am writing just what comes into 
 my head. Once more, pray for me ; I need it. Ask of 
 God that he would, so to speak, pass a sponge over the time 
 I have wasted, the opportunities I have neglected, and the 
 favourable moments I have let slip, for they are innumerable. 
 Entreat him to accept the obedience I render him by receiv- 
 ing blessings of which I am unworthy." 
 
40 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The intense industry with which Blaise Pascal applied him- 
 self to study was a great injury to his health. He him- 
 self said that from the age of eighteen he had never known 
 what it was to be free from pain for a single day, although 
 his sufferings were not always equally severe. His sister, 
 Mad. Perier, has given us some idea of what he had to bear : 
 " Besides other inconveniences, he was unable to swallow any 
 liquid unless it was made lukewarm, and allowed to trickle, 
 drop by drop, down his throat. In order to relieve his intol- 
 erable headaches, the great inward fever, and other ailments 
 to which he was subject, his physicians ordered him to take 
 certain medicines every alternate day for three months. 
 These had to be swallowed in the same tedious, lukewarm 
 way — a process which seldom failed to nauseate all who wit- 
 nessed it, though the patient never once complained. For 
 a long period his lower limbs were paralysed, and he could 
 not move without crutches ; his feet were cold as marble, and 
 to procure any warmth in them he had to wear stockings 
 dipped in brandy. 
 
 The Fifteen Prayers in which Pascal pleads for grace to 
 make a right use of sickness, were probably composed at this 
 time. A few sentences have been translated as specimens of 
 the rest. 
 
PORT ROYAL. 41 
 
 " Lord, who art in all things so good and compassionate, 
 that not only the prosperity but the humiliations of thine 
 elect ones, are the effects of thy mercy, keep me by thy 
 grace from behaving like a heathen in the low estate to which 
 thou hast most justly reduced me; and may I, as a true 
 Christian, always acknowledge thee to be my Father and my 
 God. For the changes in my condition affect not thee. 
 Whatever vicissitudes befall me, thou art the same, and none 
 the less God when thou dost afflict and punish, than in my 
 seasons of ease and indulgence. And since the strong cor- 
 ruption of my nature has rendered thy former blessings (of 
 health) injurious, grant, Lord, that thy all-powerful grace 
 may now make thy chastenings the means of restoring my 
 spiritual health. Either through bodily weakness, or the 
 strength of divine love in my soul, may I become incapable 
 of enjoying the world, and find in thee my chief delight. 
 Cause me, Lord, to adore in silence the way in which thy 
 gracious providence has meted out my days; let thy rod 
 comfort me ; and having, in my prosperity, tasted the bit- 
 terness of sin, may I, in this season of salutary affliction, 
 experience the heavenly sweetness of thy grace. Open thou 
 my heart, and take possession of that rebellious place which 
 sin has occupied ; bind thou the mighty enemy who rules 
 there, and then appropriate his treasures ; seize my affec- 
 tions now stolen by the world ; rob thou the robber, or 
 rather reclaim what is thine own by right of creation and 
 redemption. my God, how happy is the heart that loves 
 an object so attractive as thyself, so blessed in its influence 
 on the worshipper, so incapable of shaming trust ! Far, 
 Lord, from pretending that there is any merit in my prayers, 
 Or any necessity compelling thee to grant them, I desire 
 to bless thee for the right emotions thou dost inspire, and 
 even for the wish to ascribe their origin to thee. Teach me, 
 I pray thee, that bodily pains are at once the emblem and 
 
42 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 consequence of spiritual disease. that they might also 
 be its remedy, by leading me to consider the far more dan- 
 gerous though invisible ulcers of my soul, and to look unto 
 thee for help and healing! Enable me to feel that deep 
 repentance without which physical suffering is but a new 
 occasion of sin ; graciously mingle thy consolations with my 
 pains, and help me to bear them in a Christian spirit. I 
 ask not exemption from trial, which is the recompence of 
 glorified saints, but oh, let not my natural anguish be un- 
 soothed by the comforts of the Holy Ghost, for this is the 
 curse of Jews and pagans; and while I suffer, may I ex- 
 perience that sorrow for sin, and that satisfaction in thy 
 supporting grace, which are among the privileges of the true 
 Christian. — Grant, Lord, that with a continual and calm 
 serenity I may submit to every event, in the conviction that 
 I know not what to pray for as I ought, and that, by pre- 
 sumptuously demanding any special favour, I must become 
 responsible for results which thou hast in thy wisdom 
 hidden. Lord, I know myself to be certain of but this one 
 thing : it is good to follow thee, — it is evil to offend thee. 
 Beyond this, I am ignorant of what is best or worst for me, 
 whether sickness or health, poverty, wealth, or any earthly 
 allotment. Such discernment passes the power of man or 
 angel, and belongs to those secrets of thy providence which 
 I adore, but seek not to fathom. Make me, therefore, 
 always content with thy will ; — being now sick, may I 
 glorify thee in my sufferings, knowing that without them I 
 cannot attain unto glory, and that thou, my Saviour, 
 didst choose to be made perfect thereby. The marks of 
 thine agony once revealed thee to thy waiting disciples, 
 and thou dost still set on thy followers the seal of tribula- 
 tion. Number me among them ; and since nothing can be 
 acceptable to the Father unless offered by thee, blend, Mas- 
 ter, my will with thine) and my pains with those thou didst 
 
PORT EOYAL. 43 
 
 endure. Unite me to thyself, and fill me with thy Holy 
 Spirit. Enter into my heart and soul, there to share my 
 sorrows, and to complete in me the measure of thy sufferings 
 which yet remains to be endured by thy members, until the 
 perfect consummation of thy body the Church, so that, 
 being one with thee, I shall no longer live or suffer of my- 
 self, but thou, my Saviour, wilt live and suffer in me ; 
 and having thus endured but a small part of thine anguish, 
 thou wilt one day fill me with the glory it has won for thee, 
 wherein thdu livest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
 world without end. Amen." 
 
 As soon as Pascal's health was a little improved, he deter- 
 mined to make a visit to Paris, and consult the physicians 
 there. Jaqueline accompanied him. During their stay, his 
 reputed attainments in science gained him attentions from 
 many distinguished men, among whom was the celebrated 
 Descartes, well known as one of the greatest mathematicians 
 and thinkers of his age.* He was also an amateur physi- 
 cian, and hopes were entertained that his skill might be 
 useful in the treatment of Pascal's complicated ails. 
 
 Jaqueline sent Mad. Perier an account of the interview. 
 A brief sketch of Pascal's experiments on the weight of the 
 atmosphere may not be out of place here. 
 
 The mechanical properties of the atmosphere had engaged 
 the attention of Galileo, who recognised its weight, but 
 
 * Descartes was a wonderful example of patient self-denial and love of truth. 
 He devoted thirty years of his life to philosophic investigations, and lived in the 
 midst of Paris like a hermit, till, imagining that the air of the capital was unfa- 
 vourable to thought, he withdrew to Holland, and there spent many years in the 
 discovery and promulgation of what he believed to be truth. Being driven thence 
 on a charge of atheism, he returned to Paris, where new persecutions awaited him, 
 and he died, at the age of fifty-four, in exile, under the patronage of Queen Chris- 
 tina of Sweden. The celebrated axiom, Je pense, dmcjesuis, "I think, therefore 
 I am," became the foundation of his vast system of philosophy, which was con- 
 structed by dint of persevering labour, and long regarded with reverence, although 
 inconsistent with after-discoveries, and in some respects with Revelation. 
 
44 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 failed to discover that that weight, joined with its fluidity 
 and elasticity, opposed a definite force to any agent by which 
 the removal of the atmosphere from any space was at- 
 tempted. This resistance had long been observed, and was 
 expressed, but not explained, by the term, " Nature's abhor- 
 rence of a vacuum." Galileo, however, being aware of the 
 fact that suction-pumps would not raise water more than 
 about thirty feet high, expressed it by saying, that thirty- 
 five feet was the limit of " nature's abhorrence of a vacuum," 
 since above that height a vacuum still remained. Torri- 
 cello, Galileo's pupil, gave this problem his careful attention. 
 " He argued that if the weight of the atmosphere were the 
 direct agent by which the column of water is sustained in 
 a pump, the same agent must needs exert the same amount 
 of force in sustaining a column of any other liquid, and 
 therefore, that if a heavier liquid were used, the column 
 sustained would be less in height exactly in the same pro- 
 portion as the weight of the liquid forming the column was 
 greater. Mercury, the heaviest known liquid, appeared the 
 fittest for this purpose. The experiment was eminently 
 successful. The weight, bulk for bulk, of mercury was 
 fourteen times greater than that of water, and accordingly 
 it was found that, instead of a column of thirty-five feet 
 being supported, the column was only thirty inches, the 
 latter being exactly the fourteenth part of thirty-five feet." * 
 Torricello's death prevented his pushing the inquiry fur- 
 ther, but the particulars of it were communicated to Pascal, 
 who at once applied himself to the discovery of some experi- 
 mental test of a nature so unanswerable as to set the ques- 
 tion at rest for ever. " He argued,+ that if the weight of the 
 incumbent atmosphere were the real agent which sustained 
 the mercury in Torricello's tube, as it was inferred to be by 
 
 * See Lardner'a Cabinet Cyclopedia, article Pascal, 
 t Ibid, page 193. 
 
POET KOYAL. 45 
 
 that philosopher, anything which would diminish that weight 
 ought to diminish in the same proportion the height of the 
 mercurial column. To test this, he first conceived the idea 
 of producing over the surface of the mercury in the cistern 
 wherein the end of the tube was immersed, a partial vacuum, 
 so as to diminish the pressure of the air upon it. But appre- 
 hending that this experiment would hardly be sufficiently 
 glaring to overcome the prejudices of the scientific world, he 
 proposed to carry the tube containing the mercurial column 
 upwards in the atmosphere, so as gradually to leave more 
 and more of the incumbent weight below it, and to ascertain 
 whether the diminution of the column would be equal to the 
 weight of the air which it had surmounted. No sufficient 
 height being attainable in Paris, the experiment was con- 
 ducted, under Pascal's direction, by his brother-in-law, M. 
 Perier, at Clermont, on the Puy de D6me, a hill of consi- 
 derable height near that place. The experiment was com- 
 pletely successful. The mercurial column gradually fell until 
 the tube arrived at the summit, and as gradually rose again 
 in descending. Bigotry and prejudice could not withstand 
 the force of this, and the maxim of ' nature's abhorrence of 
 a vacuum ' was thenceforth expunged from the code of 
 natural science. Pascal's invention and patience, and his 
 admirable plan of verifying all his opinions by facts and 
 actual experiments, entitle him to the highest praise. Yet 
 the honour of his discovery was disputed, both by the Jesuits, 
 who accused him of plagiarism from the Italians, and by 
 Descartes, who declared that he had himself suggested the 
 experiment, possibly in the very interview which Jaqueline 
 narrates. But Pascal took no notice of either, and published 
 the account of his experiments without alluding to their 
 attacks. He certainly deserves the credit of having pursued 
 the hints of Torricello with hesitation and care, not 
 attempting to build up a theory of bis own, and deciding 
 only when decision was self-evident.'' 
 
46 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " Paris, September 25, 1647. 
 
 " Mr vert dear Sister, — I have deferred writing to you, 
 because I wished to send a full account of my brother's in- 
 terview with M. Descartes ; and had not leisure yesterday to 
 tell you that M. Habert called here on Sunday evening, 
 accompanied by M. de Montigny, of Bretagne, and as my 
 brother was at church, the latter informed me that his fellow- 
 townsman and intimate friend, M. Descartes, had expressed 
 a great wish to see my brother, on account of the high 
 esteem in which he heard that my father and Blaise were 
 both held; and had requested him to come and see if it 
 would be inconvenient to my brother (whom he knew to be 
 an invalid) to receive a visit from M. Descartes next morn- 
 ing at nine o'clock. When M. de Montigny made this pro- 
 posal, I was puzzled what to say, knowing the difficulty which 
 Blaise finds in exerting himself or talking, especially in the 
 forenoon, and yet not thinking it right to decline the call. 
 Finally, it was agreed that M. Descartes should delay coming 
 until half-past ten, and accordingly he came at that hour, in 
 company with M. Habert, M. de Montigny, a young ecclesi- 
 astic whom I do not know, M. de Montigny's son, and two 
 or three other little boys. M. de Eoberval, to whom my 
 brother had sent word, was also there. After the usual 
 civilities, the calculating machine* was mentioned, and being 
 displayed by M. de Eoberval, was very much admired. They 
 then began to discuss the theory of the Vacuum, and M. 
 Descartes, on being told of an experiment, and asked what 
 he thought it was which expelled water from a syringe, 
 
 * The calculating machine, invented by Blaise Pascal, at the age of nineteen, 
 was hailed by mathematicians as a most ingenious and wonderful invention, but 
 it was very complex, costly, and easily deranged. It was completed only by 
 intense application, not merely to the mental combinations requisite, but to the 
 mechanical part of the execution, for the stupidity of the workmen he employed 
 was a constant source of vexation, and the tax upon his brain so increased his ill- 
 ness as to oblige him for a time to leave the machine unfinished. 
 
PORT ROYAL. 47 
 
 replied, with perfect seriousness, that it was subtile matter ; 
 to which my brother made what answer he could, and M. de 
 Eoberval, thinking that it hurt him to talk, began to argue 
 rather warmly, though not rudely, with M. Descartes. But 
 the latter told him, somewhat sharply, that he was willing 
 to talk with my brother as long as they liked, because he 
 spoke rationally, but not with him (M. de Eoberval), for he 
 was prejudiced. Then, perceiving by his watch that it was 
 noon, and having an invitation to dine in the Faubourg St 
 Germain, he took leave, and so did M. de Eoberval, who rode 
 back with M. Descartes in a carriage, where, being quite 
 alone, they sang merry songs, and were rather wild ; that is, 
 according to M. de Koberval's account, who returned after 
 dinner, and found M. d'Alibrai here. I had almost forgotten 
 to add that M. Descartes, sorry that he could only stay so 
 short a time, promised my brother to come back the next 
 morning at eight o'clock. M. d'Alibrai, hearing of this the 
 evening before, wished to be present, and tried to bring M. 
 Lepailleur, to whom my brother sent an invitation through 
 him; but he was too lazy to come, although M. d'Alibrai 
 and he were both engaged to dine in our neighbourhood. M. 
 Descartes made this second call partly on account of my 
 brother's illness, concerning which, however, he said but 
 little, merely recommending him to remain in bed every day 
 as long as he could do so without weariness, and to take 
 strong broths. They conversed on many other subjects, for 
 he stayed until eleven, but I cannot tell you what they were, 
 for I was not present, and could not inquire, having been 
 very busy the rest of the day in superintending his first bath. 
 He thought that it made his head ache, but the water's being 
 too warm perhaps caused this. I think that having his feet 
 bled on Sunday night did him good, for he was able to speak 
 on Monday quite forcibly, — in the morning to M. Descartes, 
 and in the afternoon to M. de Eoberval, with whom he held a 
 
48 JAQUELEJE PASCAL. 
 
 long argument on many points of equal importance in 
 theology and physics, without any further inconvenience than 
 a heavy night sweat, and but little sleep, for he escaped the 
 severe headache which I apprehended after such an effort. 
 
 " Tell M. Ausoult that my brother wrote the other day to 
 Father Mersenne, as he wished, in order to inquire what 
 arguments M. Descartes had brought forward against the 
 column of air. The answer was very badly written, for the 
 poor man has had the artery of his right arm cut, while 
 being let blood, and will perhaps be maimed for life. I 
 found out, however, that it was not M. Descartes who op- 
 posed the theory (for, on the contrary, he believes it firmly, 
 though on grounds which my brother disapproves), but M. 
 de Eoberval. The letter also mentioned M. Descartes' wish 
 to see my brother, and his instrument as well, but of course 
 we understand this as mere politeness. Tell M. Dumesnil, 
 if you see him, that a person who is a mathematician no 
 longer, and others who never have been, send their compli- 
 ments to him, who has just become one. M. Ausoult will 
 explain to you what this message means : I have neither 
 time nor patience. Farewell, my dear sister. 
 
 " J. Pascal." 
 
 Superscribed — "To Mademoiselle* Perier, at M. Pascal's 
 house, King's Counsellor, behind the walls of St Ouen, 
 Rouen." 
 
 The preaching of M. Singlin in Paris was greatly frequented 
 and discussed at this period. That ecclesiastic was one 
 of the pupils of M. de St Cyran, the leader of the Jansenist 
 
 * The title of Madame was at this period confined to the nobility. All untitled 
 ladies were addressed as Mademoiselle, even after marriage. The Pascal family 
 had been ennobled by Louis XI., as a reward for services rendered him, but 
 hitherto had not availed themselves of the privilege. 
 
POBT ROYAL. 49 
 
 party in France, and had succeeded him as confessor and 
 chaplain to the convent of Port Royal. During their stay 
 in Paris, Blaise and Jaqueline Pascal went frequently to hear 
 him. " Finding," says Madame Perier, " that his ideas of a 
 Christian's life were in accordance with those she had formed 
 since God first touched her heart, and considering that he 
 was the spiritual director of the House of Port Royal, my 
 sister came to the conclusion that in that nunnery one 
 might, to use her own expression, be wisely pious. She 
 imparted her thoughts to my brother, who, far from dissuad- 
 ing, encouraged her, for he was imbued with similar views. 
 His approbation so strengthened her, that thenceforth she 
 never wavered in the design of devoting herself to God. 
 
 " My brother, who loved her with especial tenderness, was 
 delighted with her project, and thought of nothing but how 
 he should aid her to accomplish it. As neither he nor she 
 had any acquaintance at Port Royal, he bethought himself 
 of M. Guillebert, a mutual friend, and took Jaqueline to see 
 him. This gentleman was so well satisfied with the inter- 
 view, that he himself introduced her to the Abbess An- 
 gelique, who received her very kindly. From that time 
 my sister went to Port Royal as often as the great distance 
 of her dwelling would permit, and the Abbesses told her to 
 place herself under the charge of M. Singlin, in order that 
 he might judge if she were truly called to a cloistered life. 
 She did not fail to obey ; and from the very first time that 
 M. Singlin saw her, he told my brother that he had never 
 known so strongly-marked a vocation. This testimony was 
 a great comfort to my brother ; and it made him doubly 
 anxious for the success of a design which he had every 
 reason to believe was of God. All this occurred in the early 
 part of the year 1648, when my brother and sister were at 
 Paris, and my father at Rouen." 
 
 Some account of the history and regulations of Port Royal 
 
 D 
 
50 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 must here be given, in order to render Jaqueline's succeeding 
 history intelligible. 
 
 Port Royal des Champs was a nunnery founded in crusad- 
 ing times, by Matilda, wife of Matthew de Marli, in the hope 
 of ensuring her husband's safe return from the Holy Land. 
 It stood in a pleasant valley on the road from Versailles to 
 Chevreuse, about six leagues from Paris, and belonged to 
 the Reformed Cistercian branch of the Benedictine Order. 
 The rule of that order, it is well known, was instituted by 
 Benedict in the sixth century. While yet young, he had 
 been distinguished by his endurance of the most fearful 
 temptations in the desert of Subiaco, forty miles distant 
 from Rome ; and chancing to hear that a knot of Pagans 
 still conducted their idolatrous worship on the summit of 
 Monte Casino, in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, his 
 spirit was stirred within him ; he at once hastened thither, 
 and by dint of alternate preaching and persuading, succeeded 
 in overthrowing the altar and converting its votaries. He 
 then took up his abode on the scene of conquest, and there, 
 the fame of his piety soon attracting other devout men to 
 the spot, the first Benedictine monastery was built, and the 
 rule of St Benedict promulgated. To the usual obligations 
 of poverty, chastity, and obedience, it added two others, 
 viz., manual labour for seven hours of each day, and per- 
 petual vows. These, however, were to be preceded by a 
 year's noviciate, during which the entire code was daily read 
 over to the novice, ending with the exhortation, " This is the 
 rule under which thou art to live and strive for salvation : if 
 thou canst follow it, enter ; — if not, go, thou art free ! " But 
 the vows, once taken, were irrevocable, and any infraction of 
 them was severely punished. The sister of St Benedict, St 
 Scholastica, who soon after retired with a few pious women 
 to a solitude not far from Monte Casino, was usually revered 
 as the first Benedictine nun. 
 
PORT ROYAL. 51 
 
 In the course of succeeding centuries, the Order of St 
 Benedict ramified into various branches. Among the most 
 important was that of the Reformed Cistercians, so named 
 from the Abbey of Citeaux, one of their earliest foundations. 
 They revived the Benedictine rule in its primitive rigour, 
 and insisted much on the necessity and advantages of silence, 
 were especially devoted to the worship of the Virgin, and 
 wore white garments, white being her consecrated colour. 
 Their favourite saints were St Augustine, St Joseph, and St 
 Bernard. St Augustine, it will be recollected, was the child 
 of many prayers, the champion of orthodoxy, and under his 
 banners the Port Royalist defenders of the faith were after- 
 wards ranged. St Bernard was a learned and devout theolo- 
 gian, the opponent of Abelard — the eloquent preacher of the 
 second crusade. 
 
 For a long period the convent of Port Royal grew in 
 wealth and reputation, but towards the close of the sixteenth 
 century, the general relaxation of manners which pervaded 
 the court of Henry IV. found its way into the cloister. 
 Benedictine rules and Cistercian commentaries were alike 
 forgotten, the vow of seclusion was tacitly disregarded, and 
 the religious habit formed the chief, almost the only, dis- 
 tinction between its youthful wearers and the gay frequenters 
 of the Louvre. Nor was this to be wondered at, since 
 their ignorance of religion was deplorable, and that of their 
 confessors scarcely less ; sermons were almost unknown ; the 
 communion was only administered on festival days, and a 
 masquerade sometimes took its place. The old chronicles of 
 Port Royal sum up the sad record of derelictions by stating 
 that the nuns wore gloves, masks, and starched linen, just 
 like other ladies, and allowed their hair to peep out in most 
 becoming fashion. 
 
 Very different was the state of things when Jaqueline 
 Pascal first went to Port Royal, The sisterhood, once noted 
 
52 jaquelihe pascal. 
 
 for unrestrained levity, had become a pattern, of devotion, 
 purity, and self-denial, besides doing much, both by prayer 
 and effort, to reclaim the moral wastes of other convents, 
 left by the long licence of civil war in a condition even more 
 disastrous and seemingly more hopeless than their own. 
 This salutary reform was the work of a woman — the cele- 
 brated M§re AngSlique. She belonged to the family of 
 Arnauld, and her maternal grandfather, M. Marion, a dis- 
 tinguished advocate, and a friend of Henry IV., obtained 
 from that monarch the Abbey of Port Eoyal for Ang61ique, 
 then only eight years old, and that of St Cyr for her sister 
 Agnes, who was but five. Forged certificates of the chil- 
 dren's ages were sent to Eome, and a papal bull, confirming 
 the nomination, soon instated the tiny Abbesses in their new 
 dignities, while the king, on learning the truth, merely 
 laughed to think how his Holiness had been tricked. Some 
 years afterwards, when, hunting in the neighbourhood, he 
 chanced to trespass on the abbatial grounds, the little Ang<§- 
 lique, then about eleven, went forth to meet him. Crosier 
 in hand, and followed by a long train of nuns, " she rebuked 
 her sovereign with all the majesty of an infant Ambrose,'' 
 and the king obeyed her mandate. This early triumph was 
 but an earnest of others more lasting. 
 
 The childhood of Angglique passed happily enough. She 
 was much petted by the nuns, and enjoyed the advantage of 
 a mother's watchful care. Madame Arnauld, although the 
 mother of twenty children, felt it her duty to make frequent 
 visits to the convent, and to look after its interests and 
 welfare. This oversight must have been no small addition 
 to her many anxieties. The yoimg Abbess grew up tolerably 
 steady, but did not scruple to engage in worldly amusements 
 and excursions whenever she could, and much preferred a 
 novel to her Breviary. The childish ignorance which had 
 led her to assume unhesitatingly the irrevocable vows was 
 
PORT ROYAL. 53 
 
 now bitterly regretted, and she would have given worlds to 
 cancel them. But in her seventeenth year she was startled 
 from this state of feeling by the sermon of a Capuchin monk, 
 who, in passing by Port Royal, obtained permission to preach 
 before the nuns. This man, Father Basil* by name, had 
 left his own convent for the purpose of " apostatising in a 
 foreign land," to use the words of Jansenist historians, who, 
 however, own that " the miserable being spoke so forcibly on 
 the blessedness of a holy life, and on the infinite love and 
 humiliation of the Lord Jesus in his incarnation, as to pro- 
 duce a deep effect on the young Abbess.'' Thenceforward her 
 resolution was taken to devote her whole life to God's ser- 
 vice, and she was only withheld from resigning the office to 
 which conscience told her she had no right, by the hope of 
 inducing a better mode of conduct and feeling in those who 
 were under her charge. Accordingly, she was careful not to 
 alarm them by any sudden measures, trusting rather to the 
 silent influence of example and earnest prayer ; and these 
 after a time succeeded. Her next step was to rebuild the 
 Abbey walls, and to exclude all visitors. To this her father 
 and brothers, whom she made no exception to the rule, were 
 vehemently opposed, and their reproaches gave AngSlique 
 such intense pain, that she swooned in the contest, which, 
 however, ended triumphantly for her, and took away all hope 
 of admittance from less hallowed guests. Within five years 
 from the time of her conversion, all the austerities of St 
 Benedict's rule were re-established at Port Royal, while those 
 who observed them were taught to consider every instance of 
 self-denial or devotion as worthless, unless it arose from love 
 to God. 
 
 Angelique was extremely attached to her sister Agnes, 
 and could not rest until she had inspired the latter with her 
 
 * The fact was that the Capuchin had become convinced of the errors of Roman- 
 ism, and declared himself a Protestant soon afterwards. 
 
54 JAQTJELINB PASCAL. 
 
 own spirit of reform. Agnes, -who was naturally sedate, 
 soon yielded, and renouncing the Abbacy of St Cyr, became 
 a simple nun of Port Eoyal, where she was speedily distin- 
 guished by her progress in piety, and was appointed mistress 
 of the novices during her own noviciate. She was the 
 authoress of several devotional works, among them of The 
 Portrait of a Perfect and an Imperfect Nun, a book displaying 
 so much spiritual acumen, that if entitled " The Portrait of 
 a Consistent and a Half-hearted Christian," it would not be 
 unworthy of a place beside the soul-searching treatises of 
 her Puritan contemporaries. It draws a vivid picture of 
 the blessedness felt by those who devote themselves entirely 
 to God, and consecrate every thought and faculty to his 
 service, as well as of the misery and evil consequent upon 
 serving him with a divided mind. 
 
 In consequence of her fame as a reformer, Angelique was 
 appointed to the management of other religious houses, 
 whose inmates were so utterly refractory, and even vicious, 
 that it needed all the power of her mingled strength and 
 purity — that rare union, which has been said to constitute 
 the " nature of angels" — and all the lowly, winning kindness 
 of companions whom she had trained into like-mindedness 
 with herself, to gain the mastery over their stubborn hearts. 
 Very beautiful are the instances of evil overcome with good 
 — of patience silently but surely fulfilling her perfect work 
 —recorded by Angelique's biographers ; yet, as most of 
 these occurred before Jaqueline Pascal's birth, more light 
 may be thrown on her character and history by leaving 
 them untold, and stating in their stead some of the observ- 
 ances which the ladies of Port Eoyal were bound to fulfil. 
 
 St Francois de Sales,* the Bishop of Geneva, and his 
 
 * A saying of this prelate is quoted in the Memoirs of Halyburton, the Scotch 
 saint and scholar, " That as a man, covered with vermin, instead of vainly at- 
 tempting to detach them one by one, plunges into a bath, and rises thence 
 refreshed and clean, so the believer, -when discouraged by the sense of his own 
 
PORT ROYAL. 55 
 
 disciple Mad. de Chantal, foundress of the Order of the 
 Visitation, and grandmother of Mad. de Sevign6, were among 
 Angelique's most intimate friends, and materially aided in 
 the development of her Christian character. One of his 
 letters thus exhorts her not to be weary in well-doing : " 
 my daughter, do not imagine that the work of your 
 sanctification will be an easy one. Cherry-trees bear fruit 
 soon after they are planted, but that fruit is small and 
 perishable ; while the palm, the prince of trees, requires, it 
 is said, a hundred years before it is mature enough to bring 
 forth dates. A lukewarm degree of piety may be acquired 
 in a year, but the perfection to which we aspire, oh ! my 
 dear daughter, must be the growth of long and weary years." 
 
 Under Angelique's government, the number of nuns and 
 novices greatly increased. The want of funds never made 
 her hesitate in admitting any of whose vocation she was 
 assured, neither was her confidence in God's good providence 
 ever disappointed. But the lack of accommodation for so 
 many persons, together with the dampness of the marshes 
 around Port Eoyal, which was very injurious to health, 
 induced Mad. Arnauld to purchase a large house in the Fau- 
 bourg St Jacques, Paris, and fit it up as a convent. Thither 
 her daughter and the community removed in 1626 ; and 
 soon afterwards Angelique, who had always felt that the 
 fraud practised in order to secure her nomination rendered 
 it null and void in the sight of God, obtained permission to 
 resign, and succeeded in making the office of Abbess elective 
 and triennial. 
 
 About 1631, the Duke de Longueville's first wife, wishing 
 to found a nunnery in honour of the Holy Sacrament, selected 
 Mere Angelique as its Abbess. Two prelates, the Archbishop 
 of Sens and the Bishop of Langres, took charge of the insti- 
 
 exceeding sinfulness, should at once have recourse to his Saviour, remembering 
 that ' the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' " 
 
56 JAQUEL1NE PASCAL. 
 
 tution, but did not long agree concerning its management. 
 They quarrelled over a little book of devotion written by 
 Mere Agnes for the use of the new sisterhood, called Ze 
 Ghapelet Secret du Saint Sacrement, which was accidentally 
 made public and excited much discussion. An appeal to 
 Eome was the result. The Pope, without censuring the 
 work, suppressed it for the sake of peace. Among its de- 
 fenders, however, had been M. de St Cyran,* a man of emi- 
 nent holiness, at the head of what was afterwards termed the 
 Jansenist party in France; and this fact, which led to his 
 more intimate acquaintance with Angelique, had the most 
 beneficial effect on her whole after-life. In many respects 
 they were alike, both being unfeignedly humble and self- 
 denying, reverent and sincere ; but St Cyran knew more of 
 the glorious truths of the gospel, and, while deeply conscious 
 of personal unworthiness, had also learned that in the Lord 
 Jesus there was righteousness and strength more than suffi- 
 cient to cancel every sin, and to give support in every need. 
 Ang61ique could not associate with a man of such ardent 
 piety, and not reflect something of its glow. Under his 
 guidance, all her good impressions were deepened, and she 
 learned that " looking unto Jesus " is the great secret of reli- 
 gious progress as well as hope. Not, however, that either 
 teacher or pupil perceived the uselessness and inconsistency of 
 those superstitious rites with which man's wisdom had de- 
 formed, while pretending to decorate, the fair foundations of 
 their faith. They could rest their own hope of salvation on 
 the merits of Christ, and Christ alone ; — they could not se- 
 parate his teachings from those of the false Church which 
 
 * It was in reference to this ecclesiastic, then confined in the donjon of Vin- 
 cennes, by order of Cardinal Richelieu, that the German General, Jean de Werth, 
 while on a visit to Paris, and present at a magnificent ballet composed by Richelieu 
 himself, where a Bishop did the honours of his reception, remarked, " That of all 
 the sights he had beheld in France, nothing astonished him so much as to see 
 bishops at a play-house and saints in prison. '* 
 
PORT ROYAL. 57 
 
 they believed to be his true representative, nor abandon the 
 "voluntary humility and worshipping of angels'' enjoined by 
 her, though denounced by an apostle. Towards the close of 
 Jaqueline Pascal's Regulations for Children, which in their 
 rigid purity seem like a polished shield, so constructed as to 
 ward off from the wearer every possible form of evil, except 
 its own weight, it is painful to find the before-unspotted 
 lustre marred with the rust of mariolatry and saint-worship. 
 After denning prayer in one sentence as " the turning to God 
 in every need, and especially in seasons of weakness and 
 temptations," and adding that " a single glance lifted to him 
 in faith, humility, and constancy, will do more to sustain us 
 than the strongest resolutions, which are useless unless God 
 writes them on the heart by his grace," &c, it seems in- 
 credible that on the next page she should proceed to recom- 
 mend frequent addresses to the Virgin, St Benedict, and the 
 other patron-saints of the convent. 
 
 " It may be asked," says Tregelles,* " how could men 
 possessed of so much light as Jansenius, St Cyran, and their 
 many followers, live and die in acknowledged fellowship with 
 the Church of Rome 1 To explain this strange inconsistency, 
 we may refer to Martin Luther. He had learned the gospel 
 of Christ, but it was the actings of Eome against him that 
 taught him the depth of evil which is found in the Eomish 
 system. Thus, in his earlier preaching, it is said of him by 
 Melancthon, ' He explained that sin is freely pardoned on 
 account of God's Son, and that man receives this blessing 
 through faith. He in no way interfered with the usual cere- 
 monies. The established discipline had not in all his order a 
 more faithful observer and defender. But he laboured more 
 to make all understand the grand and essential doctrines of 
 conversion, of the forgiveness of sins, of faith, and of the true 
 
 * The Jansonists, a chapter in Church History, by S. P. Tregelles. 
 
58 JAQtTELINB PASCAL. 
 
 consolations of the cross.' This may explain an inconsist- 
 ency, which in itself can never be defended. The accusation 
 of Protestantism was in after-years one great hindrance to 
 the Jansenists in looking simply to revealed truth." 
 
 The later persecutions of Port Eoyal did much to emanci- 
 pate its adherents from their slavish subjection to the tyranny 
 of Eome. The flail of persecution performed its old office of 
 parting the chaff from the wheat, and this may be one reason 
 why God in infinite wisdom permitted it to fall so heavily. 
 Mysterious as the complete crushing of the Port Royalists 
 under the might of Jesuit hatred appears, it was none the 
 less a fulfilment of prophecy. They would not obey the 
 command, " Come out of her, my people, lest ye be par- 
 takers of her plagues," and Eome was suffered to drive them 
 from her bosom by injustice and oppression, although in so 
 doing she identified herself with Jesuitism — the worst and 
 most repelling phase of Eomanism — and compelled its un- 
 happy victims to take a stand apart from her. What, for 
 instance, can be more beautiful than the reply of the captive 
 nun, Gertrude de Valois, to the Bishop who told her, that 
 unless she consented to sign the formulary against Jansenism, 
 she should be deprived of the last sacraments, and her body 
 should be thrown on a dunghill 1 — " I do not think your 
 lordship will be able to discover any place to cast my body 
 where my Saviour cannot find and raise it up at the last 
 day." And the modern Jansenists of Holland — a pious, 
 though not a numerous body — still contend, as did their pre- 
 decessors, that the condemnation of Quesnel in the notorious 
 bull Unigenitus was unjust, — that the authority of a general 
 council is superior to that of the Pope — and that, could an 
 honest council be convened, it would unquestionably reverse 
 the papal decision in regard to Quesnel's work. Thus their 
 union with Eome is virtually severed, although, whenever 
 the elect a new bishop or archbishop, notice of the fact is 
 
POET EOTAL. 59 
 
 regularly sent to Rome, and the approval of the Holy See 
 demanded, which as regularly returns the compliment by a 
 decree of excommunication issued against them as schismatics. 
 The notification is of course a mere matter of form, and like 
 the Spanish hidalgo, who places house and property at the 
 disposal of his guest, the Jansenists would be greatly aston- 
 ished were the offer accepted. But Eome has not the grace 
 to imitate their courtesy ; she, on the contrary, denies that 
 they have the right to own a house at all without a lease 
 from her, and her answer to their invitation is a notice to 
 quit.* 
 
 To resume the history of Angelique and Port Royal. The 
 want of a sufficient endowment and the death of Mad. de 
 Longueville, caused her scheme to be abandoned. The nuns 
 of the Holy Sacrament returned to their old home in Port 
 Royal, and the Abbess took her place among the lowest of 
 the lowly, as if she had never known what it was to com- 
 mand. In 1642 she was re-elected, and continued at the 
 head of the convent for the next twelve years, aided by her 
 sister Agnes, both being regarded with the most enthusiastic 
 affection by the nuns, and exercising all the influence and 
 talents bestowed upon them with a single eye to God's glory. 
 
 In 1646, Mere Ang61ique undertook the building of the 
 Church of Port Royal de Paris. Before its commencement, 
 she and her nuns offered up prayers for the space of one 
 entire year, that God would be pleased to manifest his will 
 concerning it. This was in accordance with one of M. de St 
 Cyran's maxims, " Never to undertake anything of import- 
 ance without first presenting it one hundred times to God in 
 prayer, because of the slowness with which his vast designs 
 
 * This interchange of civilities and rebuffs having lasted for a century and a 
 half, has lately been stopped by the Pope's appointment of a Catholic Archbishop 
 of Utrecht, "whose claim, however, "was obstinately resisted by the heretics of 
 Holland. 
 
60 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 are ordinarily evolved." The way of duty, then, seemed 
 plain before her, and after the church was finished, she ob- 
 tained permission to incorporate the two institutions of Port 
 Eoyal and the Holy Sacrament into one. The changes neces- 
 sary were few and unimportant ; some additional prayers had 
 to be daily offered, and the black scapulary (a garment worn 
 over the shoulders by monks and nuns, hanging down before 
 and behind, emblematic of the yoke of Christ) usual in Cis- 
 tercian houses, was exchanged for a white one, having a large 
 scarlet cross upon the breast, to signify the two colours of 
 bread and wine. This habit was assumed in 1647, and the 
 convent ever afterwards bore the name of Port Eoyal du 
 Saint Sacrement. 
 
 Before the death of M. de Saint Cyran, which occurred 
 eight months after that of Cardinal Kichelieu, in 1643, had 
 released him from prison, he had persuaded Angelique that it 
 was hardly right to have allowed the consideration of bodily 
 health to occasion the complete removal of the community from 
 a place so well calculated for holy meditation and perfect isola- 
 tion from the world as was Port Eoyal des Champs. Thither, 
 accordingly, in 1648, she returned with a dozen or more nuns, 
 and was welcomed back by the tears and blessings of the 
 poor whom her charity had formerly succoured. The deserted 
 convent had during her absence been occupied by a company 
 of recluses, disciples of M. de Saint Cyran, but they gladly 
 retired to a farm in the vicinity, and her admirable powers of 
 methodical arrangement soon placed the affairs of the house 
 on a better footing than before her departure. Both this 
 convent and that of Paris had the same internal laws, and 
 received the same instructions ; the latter, however, being the 
 larger, took the lead, and the inmates of both made their pro- 
 fession there. 
 
 It now only remains to give some idea of the Constitutions 
 of Port Eoyal, which, about 1648, were for the first time 
 
POET ROYAL. 61 
 
 embodied and printed. The body of the work was written by 
 Mere Agnes, and, as the volume itself is now very rare, a slight 
 sketch of its requirements will shew the nature of that 
 "rational piety'' which so fascinated Jaqueline Pascal. These 
 rules, it is stated in the preface, were no ideal picture of un- 
 attainable virtues, but the actual result of many years' 
 experience and practice. 
 
 " The Convent was placed under the jurisdiction of the 
 Archbishop of Paris, and he had the privilege of appointing 
 a Superior, whose office was to visit it from time to time, 
 examine into its condition, and aid the Abbess in enforcing 
 the laws. These visitations were always preceded and closed 
 by the prayers of the sisterhood for the divine blessing ; and 
 on his arrival, they were all assembled at the grating of the 
 church, that he might greet and bless them. He then gave 
 private audience to every nun, beginning and ending with 
 the Abbess ; and each was bound to inform him of her own 
 failures in duty, and, in a meek and kindly spirit, of anything 
 that might be amiss in the Convent. In listening to these 
 complaints, great discretion and discernment were of course 
 needed on his part. Having taken the keys from the Abbess, 
 he next passed into the interior, and made a tour of inspec- 
 tion through its various apartments. Then came a general 
 assembly or chapter, in which he exhorted or commended 
 his hearers, as the case might require, and a solemn service 
 in the church closed the whole. The particulars were then 
 recorded for future reference, but no remarks were ever 
 allowed on what had taken place during the visit. 
 
 " The confessors of the nuns were selected with great 
 caution, and attended to them weekly. Each sister had the 
 privilege of demanding what confessor she chose, subject to 
 the approval of the Abbess and Archbishop, but this was 
 seldom done. All who wished to confess were exhorted to a 
 rigid self-examination, and deep repentance, and told to judge 
 
62 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 of their guilt, less by its outward appearance than by the state 
 of heart that prompted the transgression, remembering that 
 neither confession nor absolution could avail them, unless 
 their secret sins were sincerely hated, searched out, and for- 
 saken. 
 
 " The choice of an Abbess, which, after Ang€lique's resig- 
 nation, occurred every three years, was always preceded by a 
 long season of supplication for grace to choose aright. The 
 office was looked upon as far from desirable, on account of the 
 weighty responsibilities attached to it, and indeed it was the 
 custom of the nuns to shrink from every distinction, unfeign- 
 edly preferring the lowest place, and only accepting a higher 
 with the deepest humility and self-distrust. They were taught, 
 both by example and precept, that 'a constant fidelity in 
 little things forms the true grandeur and solidity of the 
 Christian character ; '* that, 'as to its effects, the perfection 
 of saints on earth is perhaps more perceptible in what they 
 do not than in what they do ;'t and, therefore, there was 
 among them comparatively little of that striving after power, 
 which, to quote the words of a modern thinker, will make 
 ' many people astonished, when they get to heaven, to find 
 the angels laying no schemes to be made archangels.'^ The 
 novices and lay-sisters, who bad no vote, spent the time of 
 the election in prayer ; — the professed nuns gave their votes 
 in writing, and the person chosen never knew who voted for 
 her, nor by what majority she was elected. ' No Abbess,' say 
 the Constitutions, ' has any reason to hope that her election 
 is of God, unless she sincerely desires to take the lowest place 
 and to escape the highest, knowing that no situation is so 
 exposed to perils and evils, as that of one who has to conduct 
 others, unless God himself be her guide. She must distin- 
 guish herself by an excess of charity rather than by authority, 
 
 * M. de St Cyran. t Ibid. { Guesses at Truth. 
 
POST KOY.AL. 63 
 
 and veil her power with all a mother's tenderness, excusing 
 the faults of others as much as possible, strengthening the 
 weak, and bearing long and patiently what is amiss ere she 
 corrects it. Is her disposition naturally mild % let her strive 
 to acquire force of character : is it energetic 1 let her tem- 
 per it with gentleness. She must neither flatter nor accept 
 flattery, but use her authority in moderation ; teach less by 
 word than by example ; and serve her companions in every 
 office of charity with a zeal proportioned to the height of her 
 position, remembering our Saviour's words, ' Whosoever is 
 chief among you, let him be the servant of all.' It was, more- 
 over, her duty to provide preachers for all suitable occasions ; 
 to watch over the bodily welfare of her charge ; to allow 
 slight indulgences to the infirm ; and forbid the practice of 
 austerities that might be injurious, while the sisters were 
 bound to yield an unmurmuring obedience to her behests, 
 and to aid her with their sympathies and prayers. Her per- 
 sonal accommodations were not at all superior to theirs ; she 
 had a cell in the common dormitory, without either fire or 
 attendance, except in case of extreme age or infirmity. She 
 was also required to avoid mingling with worldly society ; to 
 seek strength for her onerous duties by constant intercourse 
 with Heaven ; and to possess a greater love for solitude and 
 silence than was usual even in that silent convent, which 
 sought to rival the old monastery of Clairvaux, where, in St 
 Bernard's time, the only sounds to be heard by day or 
 night were the clatter of monkish tools and the voice of 
 psalms. 
 
 " Next in rank to the Abbess came the Prioress, chosen by 
 her to fill her post during absence ; to arrange the nuns' 
 duties, and inspect their performance ; to watch over the 
 Abbess's health, and relieve her from all unnecessary care. 
 Various inferior offices were filled by other sisters. One had 
 charge of the refectory, another of the wardrobe, a third of 
 
64 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 provisions, <fcc. ; but there is no need of enumerating the 
 duties of any except the Sub-prioress and Mistress of the 
 Novices, both of which posts were afterwards filled by Jaque- 
 line Pascal during part of her stay at Port Koyal. 
 
 " The Sub-prioress assumed the duties of the Prioress in 
 the latter's absence, but was not allowed to use the same 
 freedom in reproving faults, her business being to note what 
 was wrong, and report it on the Abbess's return, not in any 
 spirit of suspicion or exaggeration, but in a truthful and lov- 
 ing manner. She had also to visit the dormitories at night, 
 to put out the lights, and ascertain that every sister was safe 
 in her own cell. 
 
 " The responsibility of the Mistress of the Novices was 
 much greater. She took charge of the sisters of the white 
 veil for three years after their entrance ; taught them what 
 outward observances were enjoined, and frequently explained 
 to them the solemn nature of their obligations, and the need 
 of continued prayer and effort, if they desired to grow in 
 grace, — striving to imbue them with a delight in silent 
 communion with God, and a true submission to his holy 
 will. 
 
 " Great discrimination was exercised in the reception of 
 inmates. The sisters were strictly forbidden all attempts 
 at attracting persons of wealth or distinction ; and if any 
 such presented themselves, they were admitted with reluc- 
 tance, and only on exhibiting the most decided marks of 
 piety. Only a moderate pension was ever accepted, no mat- 
 ter how rich the candidate might be, and she was advised to 
 distribute the rest of her possessions among the poor, select- 
 ing her beneficiaries according to the counsel of some com- 
 petent persons unconnected with Port Eoyal. In case of 
 poverty there was seldom any difficulty to be encountered.* 
 
 * The Abbess Angelique once admitted two sisters as candidates for the veil. 
 One was penniless; the other possessed a thousand crowns, her godmother's legacy. 
 
POET ROYAL. 65 
 
 Bodily weakness formed no disqualification, only the prelimi- 
 nary probation was made more severe ; because it was deemed 
 that greater piety was necessary in order to support patiently 
 long hours of solitude or sickness in an infirmary, than to 
 join in the social worship or active pursuits of the com- 
 munity. Novices were admitted by vote of the nuns. They 
 were not to be fed with milk and honey by being humoured 
 and treated gently, but with the strong meat of self-denial and 
 humiliations. For instance, one of Angelique's own sisters, 
 Anne Eugenie by name, a young lady of very refined and 
 fastidious tastes, was ordered to clean out the poultry-yard 
 and wash dishes in the kitchen. One of her former friends, 
 an ecclesiastic named PSre Suffrant, called to see her, and, as 
 his time was limited, she hastened to the grate in her working- 
 dress, with a large apron, and a knife hanging from her girdle. 
 He remarked that he had never seen her so well dressed, and 
 asked if she had quite given up the use of pomatum for her 
 hands, referring to her old fondness for such articles of 
 luxury. She answered, laughing, that the hot dish-water 
 did quite as well, and she needed nothing better. 
 
 " Another novice was sent to occupy a cell supposed to be 
 furnished, but which really contained only a few bundles of 
 fagots. Presuming that she was to have no other couch, 
 and not daring to complain, the poor girl wrapped herself in 
 her mantle, and lay on the fagots for many nights, until the 
 mistake was accidentally discovered and remedied. 
 
 " The sisters were never allowed to receive presents either 
 for themselves or the church, nor to ask for aid on any pre- 
 text whatever, under penalty of excommunication. But if, 
 as sometimes happened, their lavish charities left them in 
 
 After a time, the vocation of the heiress seemed a true one, but her sister's failed. 
 Angelique sent the latter away, after presenting her with the thousand crowns 
 that had belonged to the other, whom she admitted into the community without 
 any dowry at all. 
 
 E 
 
DO JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 actual want of the necessaries of life, the Abbess might, after 
 a season of patience and privation, mention the fact to some 
 confidential friend, and accept what was required for the 
 passing emergency, but nothing further. Their legal diffi- 
 culties were few, since the renunciation of every superfluity, 
 and the sturdy independence which led them to refuse large 
 endowments, cut the roots of lawsuits, while it was their 
 maxim to bear much injustice rather than seek for judicial 
 redress. Yet, in extreme cases, after every measure of con- 
 ciliation had been tried, they were not forbidden to defend 
 the rights of the convent. Every effort was made to destroy 
 the esteem of secular advantages, and to teach the nuns to 
 love poverty, because Jesus Christ was poor. ' My 
 daughters,' often said Angelique, ' we have taken a vow of 
 poverty, 'but we can hardly call ourselves poor, when so 
 many kind friends are always ready to share with us their 
 abundance.' The exquisite delicacy and disinterestedness 
 which marked all the pecuniary transactions of the convent, 
 are beautifully displayed in Jaqueline Pascal's narrative of 
 the trials preceding her own profession. 
 
 " The Constitutions provide, in the first place, for the per- 
 petual adoration of the Holy Sacrament — a term which, 
 though startling to Protestant ears, was less formidable in 
 reality than in name. It signified that every nun was re- 
 quired to spend a portion of the day in silent prayer before 
 the high altar of the church ; and to wait there until relieved 
 by one of her companions. They had no set form of prayer 
 for the occasion, but were to invoke the special aid of the 
 Holy Spirit to bring their wishes into accordance with God's 
 will ; and, not dwelling on their own personal wants or sins, 
 were to forget self, and plead earnestly for the good of the 
 Church universally, and the extension of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 " They were taught to hope that, by thus endeavouring to 
 imitate the angels who rest not day nor night from God's 
 
PORT ROYAL. 67 
 
 service, and expelling, as far as they could, all earthly 
 interests from the heart, Christ would fill it with the precious 
 balm of his grace, and perfume their poor prayers with the 
 much incense of his own merits. The remembrance of this 
 hallowed hour was also to accompany them through the rest 
 of the day. Their motto was to be, ' I sleep, but my heart 
 waketh,' — meaning that no occupation ought to distract their 
 minds from continued prayer and communion with Jesus. 
 
 " They observed the routine of fasts, festivals, and observ- 
 ances common to all Eomanists, and were allowed opportu- 
 nities of private devotion besides, being often reminded of St 
 Bernard's saying, ' that true prayer is not a human, but a 
 celestial gift, the fruit of the Holy Spirit praying in us and 
 with us.' With these views of prayer, need it be added that 
 the Holy Scriptures were highly prized ? The Bible was daily 
 read aloud, and the nuns were advised to learn portions of it 
 by heart. ' Let them try to fill the treasury of their minds 
 with God's Word, which is more desirable than gold or pre- 
 cious stones, so will the languishing flame of devotion in their 
 souls be quickened by contact with that divine truth, for the 
 Word of the Lord is full of fire.' 
 
 " Strict silence was enjoined on them for many hours of each 
 day, except in case of absolute necessity, and even then the 
 use of signs was recommended. The Abbess Agnes was once 
 summoned from the Refectory, where all the sisters were 
 assembled, to learn the fact of Cardinal richelieu's death, 
 and M. de St Cyran's release from prison. It was an hour 
 of silence, and she felt equally unwilling to infringe the rule 
 or withhold the tidings. In this strait, she bethought her- 
 self of taking off her girdle and rending it in twain ; the 
 emblem of recovered freedom was at once understood, and 
 every face in the assembly grew radiant, though every tongue 
 was mute. 
 
 " The nuns were allowed an hour every day in which to 
 
68 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 make confession of losses or accidents, to own slight failures 
 in duty, and receive directions for the morrow. This was 
 followed by an hour of conference, frequently spent in the 
 open air, and each sister was then permitted to speak freely, 
 provided she did so with discretion and grave politeness, as 
 well as care not to interrupt others, or put herself unduly 
 forward. But no approaches to mirth or raillery were for a 
 moment tolerated. St Benedict's rule never allowed the bow 
 of thought to be unbent ; all play of wit, all lively speech, 
 was reckoned sinful, and the souls consecrated to God were 
 bidden to seek recreation in discussing topics of a serious 
 nature, not likely to undermine their religious gravity and 
 strength. The nuns of Port Eoyal usually spent their con- 
 ference hour in speaking of texts of Scripture, or questions of 
 conscience ; they never referred to their own personal feel- 
 ings, views, or temptations, lest the sympathy of others 
 should induce a craving for human praise. 
 
 During AngSlique's life, she was often consulted in regard 
 to the meaning of Scripture, and her remarks being both in- 
 teresting and original, some of the nuns undertook, at the 
 suggestion of her nephew Lemaitre, to write them down, and 
 after her death they were published. Had she known what 
 was going forward, she would probably have declined speak- 
 ing at all j for her dislike of notoriety was strong and real. 
 When on her death-bed, she noticed a nun taking down some 
 of her observations, and bade her burn the paper. She was 
 reminded that the dying words of Madame Suireau des Agnes, 
 a former Abbess, had been made very useful to survivors. 
 ' Ah,' said she, ' that dear Mere was very humble and very 
 simple-minded — but I am neither.' 
 
 " Industry was a positive duty, each sister being expected 
 to perform a certain amount of work daily, the more humili- 
 ating the better, and to love her task, because the Saviour 
 stooped to practise a lowly trade, and so did his apostles. 
 
PORT ROTAL. 69 
 
 They made their own habits and shoes, as well as linen and 
 ornaments for the church (which, however, were remarkable 
 for simplicity of form and material), and the wafers and wax 
 candles. Bookbinding was also one of their occupations, and 
 they made lanterns, candlesticks, and other useful articles of 
 tin, but neither embroideries nor artificial flowers were ever 
 introduced. When at work, they were to be silent and medi- 
 tative ; the example of a certain sister Isabelle Agnes de 
 Chateau-Neuf being often quoted, who passed an entire Lent 
 in the kitchen, where all the sisters were continually coming 
 and going, without speaking a single word. The stewardess 
 took charge of every article as it was finished, and afterwards 
 distributed what was wanted in the various cells. 
 
 " Many of the nuns were occupied in the education of 
 children. Only twelve, however, were admitted into the 
 classes under the age of ten, lest the incessant care required 
 by very young children should distract the attention of their 
 teachers from other duties. Little orphans were gladly 
 welcomed, and treated with especial tenderness ; and the 
 sisters were taught that it was their duty to bear with meek 
 patience the fatigue and anxiety inseparable from the over- 
 sight of the young, out of love to that Saviour who for their 
 sakes became a child. 
 
 " Those possessing good voices were carefully trained to sing 
 in the choir, under the direction of a leader, who had to 
 strain every nerve to prevent the possibility of a mistake or 
 failure in the worship of the sanctuary ; yet was not to 
 assume undue authority, or permit her own voice to be 
 heard above the others, unless in attempting to supply a 
 deficiency in their performance. The nuns were exhorted to 
 subdue all vain complacency in their musical knowledge, or 
 in the sweet accord of their voices, and to desire only the 
 perfection of God's service and the edification of his wor- 
 shippers. In case of cold or other illness, the singers were 
 
70 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 excused, and the infirm were allowed to keep their seats, 
 since, ' although an irregularity of posture offends the eye, it 
 edifies the mind, by teaching that Christian unity consists 
 less in outward uniformity than in a spirit of kindness and 
 consideration for the weak.' 
 
 " Each nun had her own cell, where, when not otherwise 
 engaged, she passed her time in reading, work, or prayer ; but 
 to enter the cell of another, unless by permission of the 
 Abbess, was strictly forbidden. Their food was simple, but 
 sufficient in quantity; they were neither encouraged in 
 extraordinary fastings, nor in finding fault with the viands 
 set before them, which were served on earthenware, with 
 pitchers and mugs of brown stone, and wooden spoons. One 
 of the nuns read aloud from some devotional work during the 
 repast. 
 
 " Their clothes, though marked with their own names, 
 were not kept under their own care, and were made of very 
 coarse materials. Friends were allowed to make occasional 
 visits, but the nuns might not testify any anxiety to receive 
 them, nor any curiosity in regard to secular affairs ; neither 
 could they reveal what was going forward in the convent, — to 
 prevent which, another sister always accompanied them to 
 the parlour, and heard what passed during the interview, but 
 never made any comment, unless something very wrong 
 called for the Abbess's interference. Letters were rarely 
 written, and never sent without inspection ; nor were they 
 ever very affectionate, the best mode of expressing love being 
 held to consist in constant prayer for its object. 
 
 " Their faults were divided into four classes. The first would 
 now-a-days hardly be deemed faults at all, such as words 
 spoken at random, hasty answers, momentary impatience, 
 trivial curiosity, the non-improvement of time, giving way to 
 sudden laughter, talking in too loud a tone, or making a 
 noise so as to disturb others. The usual penance consisted in 
 
PORT ROYAL. 71 
 
 the offender's asking pardon on her knees. The Abbess 
 Angelique was once asked in conference, if she remembered 
 passing through the dormitory late at night, when one of the 
 nuns, not knowing who it was, called out, ' What can you be 
 thinking of, my sister, to make such a noise ? ' on which the 
 Abbess promptly knelt down and begged forgiveness, while 
 the poor nun, startled at the discovery, had not sufficient 
 presence of mind to excuse herself for the mistake. The 
 Abbess replied that she had forgotten the circumstance, 
 but no excuse was needed, since she had merely done her 
 duty. 
 
 " Faults of the second degree consisted in coming late to 
 divine service, or behaving with irreverence when there ; 
 speaking rudely, thoughtlessly, or unkindly to others ; shew- 
 ing anger in harsh or hasty speech ; bearing malice for an 
 offence, or deliberately breaking the law of silence, &c. 
 They were punished by the offender's eating off the 
 ground, repeating prayers with her arms crossed or stretched 
 out, wearing a bandage over the eyes, kissing the sisters' 
 feet, &,o. 
 
 " Grave faults, or those of the third degree, comprehended 
 all violations of the rule of obedience, especially if persisted 
 in ; all murmuring, or rude speeches made to the superior ; 
 also the manifesting aversion to another sister, or criticising 
 her imperfections in a contemptuous spirit. To raise false 
 reports, to hide from the Abbess what she ought to know, to 
 remain too long in the parlour, to invite the visits of secular 
 persons, or write letters without permission, to speak so low 
 to a visitor that the sister present could not hear what was 
 said, to shew a distaste for religious exercises before persons of 
 the world, and to cherish a spirit of worldliness, levity, and 
 mockery, were all grave faults, which the Abbess was to 
 repress as best she might, and to punish when necessary. If 
 deliberately persisted in, or if the guilty person proceeded to 
 
72 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 beat or abuse her companions, and to break her solemn vows, 
 ' which,' say the Constitutions, ' may God forbid,' she was 
 then to be separated from the rest of the community, and 
 the degree of her punishment left to the discretion of the 
 Abbess and Superior, who might not restore her to favour 
 until fully satisfied of her repentance and amendment. 
 
 " Great care was taken of the sisters in case of sickness, 
 the office of nurse being eagerly coveted, and every reason- 
 able indulgence allowed to the patients, who nevertheless 
 were not encouraged to be fretful or talkative, but exhorted 
 to endure with patience the will of God, and seek by silence 
 and submission to increase their spiritual vigour, according 
 to the promise, ' In quietness and confidence shall be your 
 strength.' They remained in the infirmary till. convalescent, 
 and were not suffered to recommence their duties until their 
 former strength was fully regained. 
 
 " Every religious consolation was granted to the dying. 
 The entire sisterhood were always summoned to witness a 
 death, and if the confessors were absent, it became the 
 Abbess's duty to recite the last prayers, and soothe the 
 departing spirit. Deceased nuns were buried in the cemetery 
 with great simplicity, and a short sketch of their lives was 
 inserted in the monthly necrology of Port "Royal." 
 
 The body of the Constitutions closes as follows : — 
 
 " Let not the nuns build any confidence on their daily ob- 
 servances and good works, but let them hope in God and in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ ; and whatever be the good they have 
 effected or the progress they have made in religious perfec- 
 tion, let them feel with St Benedict that these things are but 
 a commencement, and cry with the Psalmist, ' I have sought 
 thee with my whole heart, let me not wander from thy 
 commandments.' Let them work out their salvation with 
 fear and trembling, knowing that unless their good works, 
 however numerous, be prompted by true faith in God, and 
 
PORT ROYAL. 73 
 
 they are clothed with humility, they cannot hope for security 
 against their great enemy, who, being himself proud, has 
 especial power over the children of pride, so that in imagin- 
 ing themselves to have succeeded in defeating him, they do 
 but prove him to have won a more subtle and dangerous 
 victory over them. And since the life of believers upon earth 
 is one long warfare and tribulation, let them continually re- 
 member the advice of St Bernard, ' Never to distrust the 
 mercy of God, but to hope all things from the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we are delivered from the bond- 
 age of sin.' Let them seek to be thus delivered with deep 
 humility, continual sighing, and many tears, feeling that no 
 attendance upon the means of grace will be of any avail 
 unless God looks down and blesses them. ' For if the Lord 
 keep not the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. There- 
 fore let us look unto him until he compassionate us.' 
 
 " Yet, as the husbandman is not satisfied with a bare ac- 
 knowledgment that without the influence of sun and dew his 
 toil must be fruitless, but labours and digs the earth according 
 to God's command, that it may be ready to receive a blessing 
 from above, so is it comparatively easy to confess that human 
 efforts are feeble and futile without God's help. We ought, 
 while owning that neither he that planteth nor he that 
 watereth is anything, to be also diligent in prayer and in the 
 active use of all those means which God and his saints have 
 indicated for our assistance, remembering St Augustine's 
 words : ' We should strive to subdue our corruptions by con- 
 stant effort and earnest prayer, yet maintaining at the same 
 time a conviction that prayers and efforts are alike worthless, 
 unless inspired by God's grace.' Thus, never trusting in our- 
 selves, and always lifting up our hearts to God, we shall ren- 
 der unto him, our Sovereign Master, perpetual thanksgivings, 
 and when we glory, glory in him alone. 
 
 " Let the sisters, therefore, evermore pray for an increase 
 
74 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 of faith, so that in temptation, which is an inward persecu- 
 tion, they may remain firmly bound unto the Lord their God, 
 and give no heed to the suggestions of the adversary. For if 
 they resolutely hold to the obedience of faith, — if the remem- 
 brance of God's great goodness to them in the gift of a Re- 
 deemer, and a sense of the vileness and nothingness of things 
 temporal, compared with the hope that is laid up for us in 
 heaven, be impressed on their minds by a lively yet humble 
 faith, — they will easily repulse the allurements of their great 
 enemy, and quench in the flames of that living faith the fiery 
 darts with which he would fain destroy them. God in his 
 mercy grant it, through the merits of Jesus Christ, and the 
 help of the Holy Spirit ! Amen." 
 
 Bound up with the Constitutions are, Advice to the Mistress 
 of the Novices, Meditations to be used on taking the Veil,* and 
 Jaqueline Pascal's Regulations for Children. There is also a 
 small tract entitled The Spirit of Port Royal, from which a few 
 extracts have been made : — 
 
 " The spirit cultivated in this convent is difficult to de- 
 scribe, for it is in no way founded upon or affected by the 
 wisdom of this world, and therefore does not aim at a mere 
 external perfection. It desires to seek after God, and to 
 obey him in all things ; it teaches the creature to conceive 
 of God as the inconceivable, not only because his infinite 
 greatness is incomprehensible, but because we cannot of our- 
 selves form any idea of God at all, still less can our ideas of 
 him be worthy of his character. And, therefore, the thought 
 that He is God is enough to imbue the believing soul with a 
 sense of reverence and entire dependence on his divine Ma- 
 jesty, and to teach it to expect every needful blessing in 
 
 * In one of these occurs the following quaint comment on the text, " She shall 
 be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework" (Ps. xlv. 14) — " The work 
 of sanctincation carried on in the believer's heart, is a slow and costly one, and 
 cannot be completed without many a severe prick in the process." 
 
POET ROYAL. 75 
 
 accordance with the order of his providence, though not of 
 its own wishes. Eesting on this foundation, the nuns do not 
 expect to attain a high degree of religious perfection, though 
 they eagerly desire it, for they know that God will give them 
 precisely that amount of grace which they need, and which is 
 best for them, while they are themselves incapable of judging 
 whether some long-coveted attainment in piety might not, if 
 attained, be the cause of their ruin, by fostering self-com- 
 placency and leading them to appropriate the credit due only 
 to God. Neither are they taught to wish for great gifts in 
 prayer, or for remarkable fervency of spirit. Such extraor- 
 dinary emotions of mind are more to be dreaded than desired, 
 because of the danger of self-deception. Their devotion 
 rather consists in a continual remembrance of God, in looking 
 to him and referring everything to his will. And if unable 
 at all times to maintain this frame of mind, or if interrupted 
 by distracting thoughts, they are not affrighted, knowing that 
 the grace of God in the heart is subject to many fluctuations, 
 and that our best intentions must be useless, and even worse 
 than useless, unless God restrains our native corruption and 
 defends us from the power of Satan, who is ever trying to sow 
 tares in our hearts, which may choke the good seed of God's 
 Word. 
 
 " The mutual love which we strive to cherish is not kept 
 up by caresses or familiar talk. The nuns know that 
 this divine virtue, being shed abroad in the heart by the 
 Holy Ghost, ought to be treasured there, without external 
 manifestations, except at seasons appointed of God. There- 
 fore, although in consequence of this concealment our love 
 may not be outwardly displayed, its existence may not be 
 doubted. The hidden treasure is there, and will not fail to 
 appear at the fitting moment, since, instead of diminishing, 
 it rather grows in secret, according to our Saviour's words : 
 ' Unto him that hath shall be given, while from him that 
 
76 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 hath not ' (meaning those who possess the semblance but not 
 the reality of virtue) ' shall be taken away even that which 
 he seemeth to have.' 
 
 " The government of the convent is kind, impartial, and 
 firm. Kind, because those in authority do not lord it over 
 the weak, and the latter yield a willing, unconstrained obe- 
 dience. Impartial, because those who do well are not praised, 
 neither are those who fail severely blamed, and thus we 
 endeavour to maintain an evenness of mind, which produces 
 meekness in spiritual prosperity, and patience under the 
 deprivation of those blessings whereof God is the sole dis- 
 tributor and sovereign. And strong, because the superiors 
 have no respect of persons, and do not fear that their firm- 
 ness will be looked upon as harshness, while the honour of 
 God, and the wish to do his will, form the moving springs of 
 all their actions. 
 
 " Although prizing and preferring the privilege of solid 
 religious instruction above every earthly blessing, we are well 
 aware that this is not the chief good, and is not to be de- 
 pended on as sufficient for salvation ; we seek, therefore, 
 to look to God as our Great Taskmaster, and the only source 
 whence is derivable that help which we continually need. 
 
 " We endeavour to cherish a spirit of poverty and in- 
 dustry, and readily renounce all superfluities, and whatever 
 tends to charm the senses. In fact, the history of this 
 convent presents a species of contest between its rulers and 
 the Almighty ; his overruling providence continually supply- 
 ing their every want, while they, not daring to presume upon 
 his bounty, nor to expect their undeserved prosperity to last, 
 strive on the other hand to be prepared for indigence, if it 
 should please him to send it, and, in the exercise of a wise 
 discretion, to relieve the miseries of the poor as far as they 
 can. 
 
 " Above all, we wish to maintain a spirit of prayer, which 
 
PORT ROYAL. 77 
 
 looks to the Saviour for grace, and expects to receive it in 
 answer to the petitions offered, through his mediation, because 
 he made himself the partaker of all our sorrows and the 
 ransomer of those who turn to him — and also a constant 
 devotion to God's Word. We prefer it to every other book, 
 and, instead of being troubled by the mysteries we do not 
 understand, we try to meditate on those we do, and leave to 
 God the rest, never wearying of its blessed truths, but 
 always listening to them with the deepest attention and 
 delight, and finding therein an exhaustless fountain of 
 strength." 
 
 The effect of their intercourse with Port Royal is very 
 visible in the following joint letter addressed by Pascal and 
 Jaqueline to Madame Perier, and written in Jaqueline's hand. 
 She often acted as her brother's scribe, and the letter being 
 characteristic of Pascal, both in sentiment and style, M. 
 Faugere thinks it probable that he dictated it throughout, 
 especially as some of its ideas were afterwards reproduced in 
 the Pensees de Pascal, and elsewhere. But we cannot doubt 
 that the feelings expressed in the letter were shared by her 
 who wrote them down : — 
 
 "Aprill, 1648. 
 
 " We cannot tell whether this letter is destined, like the 
 others, to have no formal close ; but we do know that when 
 writing to you, we never wish to leave off. We are now 
 reading M. de St Cyran's letter, De la Vocation (on calling), 
 which was printed a short time since, without approbation or 
 privilege, and has given great offence. You shall have it as 
 soon as we have finished, and we shall be glad to learn what 
 your opinion of it is, and my father's also. Its tone is very 
 high. 
 
 " We have begun to write you many times, but were 
 induced to break off by the example and conversations, or 
 discouragements, if you choose to call them so, of which you 
 
78 JAQUELINB PASCAL. 
 
 are aware* Yet, after procuring all the light upon this 
 point in our power, I cannot but believe that, while caution 
 is needful, and there are times when topics of a religious 
 nature ought to be shunned, yet this necessity does not affect 
 us. Our perfect mutual confidence, the conviction that our 
 only aim in making such communications is to glorify God, 
 and our slight intercourse with persons not belonging to the 
 family, are reasons strong enough to do away with every 
 scruple in regard to informing one another of the feelings 
 which God has inspired within us. And if to these con- 
 siderations be added the ties of nature between us, now 
 strengthened by those of grace, it appears to me that, far 
 from being forbidden, we are actually bound to rejoice 
 together over God's goodness to us as a household. For the 
 blessing of being thus spiritually united is infinite, and ought 
 to make us both grateful and glad. And, indeed, it is only 
 since our conversion (which M. de St Cyran says should be 
 called the beginning of existence) that we have a right to 
 consider our relationship as perfected ; God, who had before 
 united us by the tie of blood, having now graciously united 
 us in soul, and given us a place among his redeemed. 
 
 " We entreat you never to forget this, or let a day pass 
 without reviewing God's dealings with us. He has not only 
 made us kindred in Christ, but children of one father in a 
 twofold sense, since, as you know, my father's conversion 
 preceded ours. Ought we not to be astonished at God's 
 mercy in thus doubly allying us — both in emblem and 
 reality? for, as we have often remarked when with you, 
 corporeal things are but the types of spiritual, and God 
 employs visible objects to represent those which are invisible. 
 This view of the relation between the things of nature and 
 those of grace takes in a wide range of profitable thoughts, 
 
 * Alluding to the extreme reserve in speaking of personal feeling or religious 
 experience practised by the Jansenists and inculcated on their disciples. 
 
PORT ROYAL. 79 
 
 and demands our frequent and serious attention ; but having 
 formerly discussed it with some minuteness, we will not 
 enlarge upon the theme to-day, for there is not space in a 
 letter to do it justice, neither can you have forgotten a truth 
 of such importance and, as I think, so indispensable. 
 
 " Our sinful nature keeps us, so to speak, entangled 
 among the snares of time and sense ; and this entanglement 
 being at once the cause and punishment of our past offences, 
 as well as a continual temptation to commit new ones, we 
 ought therefore to turn these very accessories of our fall into 
 stepping-stones for our recovery, and to improve the advan- 
 tages afforded us by a merciful God, who in our temporal 
 blessings sets before us an ever-present type of the celestial 
 riches we have lost, and surrounds us, even in the captivity 
 to which his justice has reduced us, with so many objects 
 calculated to yield a perpetual lesson, if we would but 
 learn. 
 
 " We ought to consider ourselves as criminals in a prison 
 hung around with pictures of our Liberator, and the neces- 
 sary instructions for obtaining our freedom. Yet it must be 
 owned that these holy hieroglyphics cannot be deciphered 
 without a supernatural light, for the -very things which speak 
 of God and manifest his glory to them who know and love 
 him, serve to hide him from those who know him not. 
 Persons thus blinded by the darkness of this world grope 
 after earthly things, because they love them, and look upon 
 them as the chief good. But in so doing they are guilty of 
 sacrilege, for God is the sole origin of man's existence, and 
 ought to be its end. Analogies may indeed exist between 
 things created and the Creator, — the least and meanest 
 objects in nature may, by their unity, be emblems of that 
 perfection of unity which is found in God alone, — yet they 
 have no claim on our sovereign regard, nor can we bestow it 
 upon them without incurring the guilt of idolatry, hateful 
 
80 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 alike in the sight of God and man. For what is idolatry 
 but the yielding of such honour to the creature as is due only 
 to the Creator? Scripture is full of instances of God's 
 vengeance upon idolaters, and the first commandments of the 
 decalogue, which include all the rest, particularly forbid the 
 worship of images. Now, since God is far more jealous of 
 our affections than of our external homage, it is plain that no 
 crime can be so wicked and detestable in his sight as supreme 
 love to any creature, no matter what that creature may 
 represent. 
 
 " Those, therefore, to whom God has revealed his own 
 glorious truth, ought to turn earthly blessings into a medium 
 of communion with the Being whose glories they dimly 
 shadow forth, instead of remaining in that state of Jewish 
 and carnal blindness which takes the type for the antitype. 
 And those whom God has, by regeneration, gratuitously 
 withdrawn from their former state of sin (which, being a state 
 of opposition to God, the only Source of true life, is virtual 
 annihilation), are under double obligations to serve and 
 honour him, who not only bestowed on them the boon of 
 existence and a place in his universe at the moment of their 
 creation, but has added to these favours the gift of salvation, 
 and a place in the true temple of his Church. As creatures, 
 they are bound to maintain their rank in the order of crea- 
 tion, not profaning the post they fill ; and as Christians, they 
 should continually aspire to become worthy members of the 
 body of Christ. But while the perfection of everything 
 earthly must of necessity be finite, and therefore a limited 
 degree of perfection is all that can be expected from the 
 lower orders of creation, the children of God should set no 
 bounds to their purity and perfection, because they belong to 
 a divine, an infinitely perfect body ; and Jesus Christ, far 
 from limiting his command of perfection, proposes an infinite 
 model in the words, ' Be ye perfect, even as your Father in 
 
PORT BOTAL. 81 
 
 heaven is perfect.' It is not merely a common, but a danger- 
 ous error which leads some Christians, who nevertheless pro- 
 fess to be very devoted, to persuade themselves that certain 
 attainments in piety insure salvation, and need not be over- 
 passed ; whereas, in reality, there is no point where it is not 
 perilous to halt. We can only escape a fall by climbing 
 continually higher." 
 
82 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 f amrtal ®$pitwtr. 
 
 The elder Pascal was recalled from Normandy in 1648, the 
 Parliament having demanded, at the commencement of the 
 struggles known as the Wars of the Fronde, that all govern- 
 ment commissioners should be removed from the provinces. 
 He was appointed Councillor of State on his return to Paris, 
 which took place in the beginning of May. 
 
 " M. Singlin," says Madame Perier, " thought he ought to 
 be told of my sister's resolution, since she had quite decided 
 to become a nun. My brother undertook to tell him, as 
 there was no one else who could. The proposal surprised 
 and strangely agitated my father. On the one hand, having 
 begun to love the principles of a pure Christianity, he was 
 glad to have his children like-minded ; but, on the other, 
 his affection for my sister was so deep and tender, that he 
 could not resolve to give her up for ever. These conflicting 
 thoughts made him at first answer, that he would see and 
 think about it. But finally, after some vacillations, he told 
 him plainly that he would never give his consent, and even 
 complained that my brother had encouraged the plan with- 
 out knowing whether it would meet his approval. This con- 
 sideration made him so angry with my brother and sister, 
 that he lost his confidence in them, and ordered an old wait- 
 ing woman who had brought them both up to watch over 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 83 
 
 their movements. This was a great restraint upon my sister, 
 for she could not go to Port Koyal except by stealth, nor see 
 M. Singlin without some contrivance and dexterous excuse." 
 
 Our sympathies are strongly enlisted on behalf of the poor 
 father, whose resentment at finding both his children in 
 league to deprive him of Jaqueline's society was perfectly 
 natural and justifiable. Yet it is but fair to add, that the 
 latter's friends at Port Eoyal were very far from advising her 
 to be disobedient. No Jesuitical casuistry was interposed by 
 them between her conscience and the plain command of 
 God : " Obey your parents in all things." Their upright, 
 elevated, self-sacrificing characters, so beautifully developed 
 in Jaqueline's subsequent history, as written by herself, had 
 no affinity with that detestable maxim, " The end sanctifies 
 the means." On the contrary, it was their endeavour to 
 strengthen her faith, and encourage her in patient submission, 
 by assurances like these : — 
 
 " You are already a nun, my dear sister, because you have 
 determined to obey the call which God has given you ; but 
 you will cease to be one, if you wish to forestall the precise 
 moment of your profession, which God has put in his own 
 power ; and until it arrives, he will withhold from you its 
 peculiar mercies." " Yesterday, we had an admirable sermon 
 from M. Singlin ; I could have wished you had been there, 
 but for the fear that it might have excited your desire (of 
 taking the veil), and made your present state of suspense 
 more painful. God is now punishing you for your past 
 indifference to his claims. Our hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness may be long-protracted, but cannot expiate 
 our past distaste for holy things." " God himself often sup- 
 plies the wants for which we have in vain had recourse to 
 creatures." " Your letters, my dear sister, shew us plainly 
 that the hour is not yet come ; it is therefore our duty to 
 wait for it in perfect submission to God's decrees, on which 
 
84 JAQTTELINE PASCAL. 
 
 all our welfare depends. You do not doubt that God is all- 
 powerful ; but we are too apt to long for his power to take 
 precedence of his will, so that we may be indulged in our 
 own will, which we believe to be his also ; but this is Dot 
 always the case. He often suffers us to feel desires which he 
 does not intend to fulfil, and manifests this by the hin- 
 drances that his providence interposes. Therefore we ought 
 to receive such delays with as much satisfaction as if our 
 wishes had been granted. They seem to me, my dear sister, 
 a sign that God is trusting himself in us, or rather trusting 
 the grace which he has given us, and which he knows to be 
 so strong that it will not falter, so persevering that it cannot 
 fail." " It is your duty to follow God's guidance, and to 
 endure with meekness the delays occasioned by his provi- 
 dence. There is quite as much sin in wishing to prevent* 
 the will of God, as there would be in not obeying it at the 
 proper time. If you do not possess your soul in peace and 
 perfect submission, you must cease the repetition of the 
 Lord's Prayer, for the phrase, ' Thy will be done on earth as 
 it is in heaven,' includes the renunciation of every possible 
 wish which does not harmonise with God's will. I do not 
 believe, dear sister, that you can desire to have things ar- 
 ranged in any other way than as God chooses ; for a con- 
 ventual life will not make you what he designs to have you 
 become, unless you enter upon it in accordance with his will, 
 and at the hour of his appointment. Our Saviour now says 
 to you, as he once did to his apostles, — ' It is not for you to 
 know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put 
 into his own power.' You are bound to accept the answer 
 given you by your father, as a decree of God, who sees fit to 
 reserve some other season for the gracious fulfilment of 
 those desires which his grace has inspired within you. There 
 
 * Here used in the old sense of prevent, to go before. 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 85 
 
 are persons who would be unfaithful to God, did they not 
 hasten to obey his inward monitions ; you, on the contrary, 
 would be greatly in fault if you were not to submit to the 
 delays he has ordained for you. And you are to do this, not 
 merely because you must, but willingly, by calmly yielding 
 to God's appointments, and thus making your necessary obe- 
 dience a voluntary one. For the words of Scripture are true, — 
 ' The law is not made for a righteous man,' which means that 
 the will of the just being one with God's will, they obey his 
 laws and precepts in perfect liberty, without any <§>nstraint. 
 And if you are not able to do this fully, try at least to sub- 
 mit in the manner that our Saviour taught us, when, partak- 
 ing of the infirmities of our nature, he said unto his Father, 
 ' Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done,' thereby 
 shewing that he was conscious of a will which shrank from 
 the death appointed for him by God's will." " I have no 
 message for you from our mother (Angelique), but she feels 
 as truly your spiritual mother as if you were already within 
 the convent-walls. Those who love God have the advantage 
 of loving their neighbours with sincerity, and pouring out 
 their heart before him on their behalf. May we be of their 
 number, my very dear sister, and let the dying words of our 
 departed friend be engraved upon our souls, — ' Happy they 
 who know none but God, and who are satisfied with God ! ' " 
 " Neither the life of a nun, nor any other mode of life, can 
 produce this state of heart ; yet, without it all external wor- 
 ship is vain, and even our very prayers are fruitless, if the 
 soul does not submit itself entirely to God, and find its 
 nourishment in doing his will, according to our Saviour's 
 words, — ' My meat and my drink is to do the will of my 
 Father.'"* 
 
 * Letters of the Mere Agnes to Jaqueline Pascal. The extracts in the text are 
 taken from letters of different dates, all referring- to the same subject, but too long 
 to be inserted in full. 
 
86 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Let us now see the effect of these salutary counsels on 
 Jaqueline. " The difficulties she met with," says Madame 
 Perier, " did not lessen her zeal ; and having renounced the 
 world in heart, she no longer took the same delight in 
 amusements as formerly : so that, although for a while she 
 carefully concealed her intention of devoting herself to God, 
 it was easily perceived ; and then, finding that she could no 
 longer hide it, she gradually withdrew from society, and 
 broke off suddenly from all her acquaintance. For this, a 
 favourahU opportunity was offered by my father's changing his 
 residence. She made no acquaintances in her new neigh- 
 bourhood, and escaped from her old ones by never visiting 
 them. Thus she found herself at liberty to live in solitude, 
 which became so pleasant to her that she insensibly retired 
 even from the family circle, and sometimes spent the whole 
 day alone in her own chamber. It is impossible to say how 
 she employed herself in this perfect solitude, but each day it 
 could be perceived that she was visibly growing in grace, and, 
 though under many restrictions, she did not give up her 
 occasional visits to Port Royal, nor her correspondence with 
 its inmates, which she managed with much tact." 
 
 A letter of Jaqueline's to her father, requesting leave to 
 make a fortnight's "retreat"* at Port Royal, has been pre- 
 served. Its eager yet submissive tone shews how ardent 
 was her longing for a monastic life, and probably won the 
 permission requested. 
 
 The next document concerning Jaqueline is another joint 
 letter from herself and Pascal to Madame Perier : — 
 
 " Paws, Nov. 5, Afternoon, 1648. 
 " My dear Sister, — Your letter brought back the remem- 
 brance of a dispute, so fully at an end as to be quite for- 
 
 * The name given to a period of weeks or months passed in a convent by one not 
 of the house, in the seclusion and sharing the services of its regular inmates. 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 87 
 
 gotten. Our explanations did indeed revive old grievances, 
 but at the same time our apologies softened my father's re- 
 sentment. We repeated what you had already said, not 
 knowing that you had said it, and afterwards made verbal 
 excuses, like those which you had written, not knowing that 
 you had sent them. For we were not aware of your proceed- 
 ings until after we had ourselves done the very same, but as 
 we had no secrets from my father, he explained to us the 
 whole, and did away with our suspicions. You know how 
 their misunderstandings interfere with the peace of home, 
 both externally and internally, and how greatly one needs 
 such a warning as you sent us when it was too late. 
 
 " And now we have a little private scolding for yourself. 
 In the first place, what made you say that you had learnt 
 everything in your letter from me ? For I have no recollec- 
 tion of having spoken to you on the subject, which seemed 
 quite new to me. And were what you say true, I should fear 
 that you had learnt the lesson in a wrong spirit, or else you 
 would have lost the remembrance of the human teacher, in 
 thinking of God, who alone can make the truth effectual. If 
 it has done you any good, that good comes from God alone, 
 without whose aid neither you nor any other person can learn 
 aright. And although in this sort of gratitude, we do not 
 look upon men as the actual authors of the blessings we re- 
 ceive by their means, yet they are too apt to rival God in 
 our esteem, especially if our souls be not thoroughly purified 
 from those carnal tendencies which tempt us to consider the 
 channels of good as its source. 
 
 " Not that we are to be ungrateful or forgetful of those 
 who have instructed us, when duly authorised, as priests, 
 bishops, and confessors are. They are teachers, and other 
 men are their disciples. But it is very different in our case ; 
 and as the angel refused to be worshipped by one who was his 
 fellow-servant, so we must beg you not to pay us such com- 
 
00 JAQUELDJE PASCAL. 
 
 pliments again, nor to use the expressions of human grati- 
 tude, since we are but learners like yourself. 
 
 " And, in the second place, why do you say that it is need- 
 less to repeat these things, because we already know them 
 well ? We are afraid that you do not make a sufficient dis- 
 tinction between the things of which you speak, which are 
 holy, and those of every-day life. Doubtless, when the latter 
 are once fixed in the memory, they need no repetition, but it 
 is not so with divine things. To have comprehended these 
 once, though in a right way, I mean by the help of God's 
 Spirit, is not enough to make us retain the knowledge of such 
 truths, even if we perfectly remember them. It is as easy 
 to learn an epistle of St Paul by heart, and to retain it in the 
 memory, as a book of Virgil ; but the knowledge thus ac- 
 quired, and thus preserved, is but an effort of memory. In 
 order that we may penetrate its hidden meaning, the same 
 grace which first made truth clear to ub, must continue to 
 preserve it in our hearts, by daily writing it anew on those 
 fleshly tablets : just as God perpetually renews the happiness 
 of glorified saints, which is at once the work and the result 
 of grace, — and as the Church holds that the Father continu- 
 ally produces the Son, and maintains the eternity of his 
 being by an effusion of his own substance, without interrup- 
 tion and without end. 
 
 " Thus, the perseverance of the saints is neither more nor 
 less than God's grace, perpetually imparted, and not given 
 once for all in a mass that is to last for ever, which teaches us 
 how completely we are dependent on God's mercy ; for if he 
 should for a moment withhold the sap of his grace, we must 
 of necessity wither away. Therefore, it is plain that we are 
 bound always to make new efforts to gain a newness of heart, 
 because we can only retain the grace we already possess by 
 acquiring new grace. Otherwise, we should lose that grace 
 which we hoped was our own, just as those who would shut 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 89 
 
 in light, find themselves shut up in darkness. And we ought 
 to strive daily to purify the soul, which is daily soiled with 
 fresh spots before the old ones are effaced, and cannot, unless 
 by assiduous cleansing, be made meet to receive that new 
 wine which must not be put into old bottles. 
 
 " Fear not, therefore, to remind us of things we already 
 know. They need to sink deeper into our hearts, and your 
 discourse will be more likely to fix them there, than if the 
 idea remained undisturbed in our memories. And, besides, 
 divine grace is vouchsafed in answer to prayer, and your love 
 for us is one of those prayers which go up without ceasing. 
 For the same reason, we should never decline to hear or read 
 of holy things, no matter how common or familiar they may 
 be, since our memory, like the teachings it retains, is but a 
 lifeless, formal body without God's vivifying Spirit. And 
 it often happens that God makes use of these outward methods 
 to make us comprehend his own truths, and thereby gives 
 less scope to human vanity. A book or sermon of the most 
 ordinary kind may produce more effect on any one who 
 studies them attentively, than the most elaborate discourses, 
 which often please more than they profit. We sometimes 
 see that persons listening to the truth in a right spirit, 
 though ignorant and even stupid, are affected by the simple 
 mention of God and the threat of eternal punishment, 
 which is all they understand, and which they knew very well 
 before. 
 
 " In the third place, you say that you only write on 
 religious subjects, to let us know that you share our feelings, 
 and for this we both praise and thank you. We honour 
 your perseverance, and thank you for having thus proved it. 
 We had already learned as much from M. Perier, and being 
 sure, from what he told us, of the state of your mind, we can 
 only express our gladness by asking you to imagine what 
 
90 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 your own joy would be if you were to hear the same good 
 news of us. 
 
 " We have nothing special to say to you, unless about the 
 plan of your house.* We know that M. Perier is too 
 earnest in what he undertakes, to be able to give full atten- 
 tion to two things at once ; and the whole plan is so exten- 
 sive, that if he carry it out, it must engross his thoughts for 
 a very long time. True, he only expects to rear a part of 
 the edifice, but that, besides being large in itself, pledges him 
 to finish the remainder, in spite of every resolution, as soon 
 as the present obstacles are removed ; especially if he spends 
 the time in building which he ought to employ in over- 
 coming its fascinations. So we have advised him to build 
 on a more moderate scale, and only that which is absolutely 
 necessary ; but to proceed on the same plan already agreed 
 on, so that he may neither be obliged to complete it now, 
 nor yet deprive himself of the power of so doing hereafter. 
 We beg you to think seriously of this, and to make up your 
 mind to second our advice, lest he should be more prudent, 
 and take more care and pains in the erection of a house 
 which he is not obliged to rear, than in the building of that 
 mystic tower, whereof you know St Augustine speaks in one 
 of his letters, which he is solemnly pledged to finish. Adieu. 
 B. P.— J. P." 
 
 Postscript by Jaqueline : — 
 
 " I hope to write soon about my own concerns, and give 
 you full particulars ; meantime, pray to God for my success. 
 If you are acquainted with any pious people, ask them to 
 pray for me too." 
 
 The last line is written in Blaise Pascal's hand. 
 
 " My father," continues Mad. Perier, " was well persuaded 
 that she had chosen the better part, and parental tenderness 
 
 * This refers to the country-house -which M. Perier was then building, and 
 which still stands at Bienasais, near the gates of Clermont. 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 91 
 
 alone made him oppose her project. Finding, therefore, 
 that each day only strengthened her resolve, he told her 
 that he saw plainly the world had no interest for her, that 
 he fully approved her design, and would promise never to 
 listen to any proposals for her settlement in marriage, 
 however advantageous ; but he begged of her not to leave 
 him, that his life would not be very long, and that, if she 
 would only be patient till its close, he would allow her to 
 live as she chose at home. She thanked him, but made no 
 positive answer to his entreaty that she would not leave him, 
 promising, however, that he should never have any reason to 
 complain of her disobedience. This was about May 1649, 
 and at that time my father resolved to visit Auvergne, 
 together with my brother and sister. She greatly dreaded 
 this journey, because of the influx of relatives and company 
 to which one is exposed in a little country town, and 
 accordingly wrote me that, in order to avoid this probable 
 embarrassment, she thought I had better publicly announce 
 her resolution to take the veil, and that her profession was 
 only deferred out of respect for my father's wishes. I did 
 not fail to fulfil my commission, and it succeeded so well, 
 that on her arrival no one was surprised to see her dressed 
 like an old woman, with great modesty; nor that, after having 
 returned the first calls of civility, she shut herself up, not 
 merely in the house but in her room, which she only left to 
 go to church, or to take her meals, and into which none 
 ever intruded. So that, even in my own case, if I had any- 
 thing to tell her, I used to make a little memorandum, or 
 some kind of mark, that I might remember it when she 
 came to table, or on our way to church, whither we always 
 went together. This was my best opportunity of speaking 
 to her, though very short, as we had not far to go. Not that 
 she forbade me or any one else to enter her room, nor that 
 she refused to listen, but we saw that whenever her thoughts 
 
92 JAQUELDJE PASCAL. 
 
 were called off in order to talk on subjects not absolutely 
 necessary, it evidently tired and wearied her so much, that 
 we tried to avoid giving her the annoyance. 
 
 " There was then at Clermont a Father of the Oratory* 
 whose life was exemplary. The good man often came to see 
 my sister, and his edifying conversation gave her pleasure. 
 He one day said to her, that since her talents had been for- 
 merly employed on worldly themes, it was but reasonable 
 that she should now use them in some attempt at honouring 
 God ; that he had heard of her as writing poetry, and had 
 thought of furnishing her with an opportunity of thus glori- 
 fying God, by translating for her some of the Church hymns 
 from Latin into French prose, which she might afterwards 
 versify. She replied most promptly, that she was quite wil- 
 ling. He brought her first the Ascension hymn Jesu Nostra 
 Redemptio, which is chanted every day at the Oratory ; and 
 she put it into rhyme. 
 
 " Her poem has been translated as follows : — 
 
 " Jesus, great Ransom of a world redeem'd, 
 Our hearts' Beloved, and our souls' Desire ! 
 Thy mighty Godhead in creation beam'd, 
 Tet, woman-born, thou didst as man expire. 
 
 " What wealth of mercy to a rebel race 
 Made thee so horrible a death endure, 
 That bearing thus their sins, thy boundless grace 
 Might from eternal death thine own secure ! 
 
 " To the far depths of hell thy splendour shone, 
 
 And roused thy captives from their long despair; 
 Then, glorious Victor ! to thy Father's throne 
 Thou didst ascend, to reign for ever there ! 
 
 * A religious order founded in Italy by St Philip Neri, the intimate friend of St 
 Charles Borromeo, bound by no vows, but devoting its members to the task of 
 reading the Scriptures, praying with the poor, founding and visiting hospitals for 
 the sick. They took the name of Oratorians from the little chapel or oratory in 
 which they used to assemble round St Philip to receive his instructions. The 
 order was introduced into France in 1631. 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 93 
 
 " Oh let the same rich goodness bind thee still 
 To bid the sorrows of thy people cease ! 
 Pardon thou all their guilt, their prayers fulfil, 
 And let them -view thy face in heavenly peace. 
 
 " Be thou our only joy, Christ our King! 
 For thou wilt ever be our sole reward ; 
 And ceaseless anthems to thy praise shall ring, 
 In the bright day of thine appearing, Lord ! 
 
 " The good father thought it so fine, that he urged her to 
 proceed, but her scruples were aroused by the reflection that 
 she had undertaken the work without due consultation, and 
 she wrote to the Mere Agnes, who sent her a beautiful letter 
 in reply, in which, with other things, she said : — 
 
 " ' I have obtained Mons. Singlin's opinion on the ques- 
 tions you ask. To the first (which seems to have been an 
 inquiry into the propriety of some employment) he says 
 that nuns must not work for vanity, and it would be better 
 for you to work on it a little at a time, by way of occupa- 
 tion. As to the second, it is better for you to hide your 
 talents of that nature, instead of making them known. God 
 will not require an account of them, and they must be 
 buried, for the lot of woman is humility and silence.' 
 Again, ' I am very glad that you have yourself anticipated 
 this decision. You ought to hate your genius, and all the 
 other traits in your character which perhaps cause the world 
 to retain you; for where it has sown, it would fain gather the 
 harvest. Our Saviour will do the same in his own good 
 time. He will call for the fruit of that divine seed which he 
 has set in your heart, and which, with patience, will become 
 abundantly multiplied. This is all he now asks of us.' 
 
 " When Jaqueline received this letter, she shewed it to 
 me, and, without giving any reason, begged the good father 
 to excuse her from proceeding farther." 
 
 " This was probably her last poetic effort. Dr Reuchlin, 
 however, ascribes to this period of her life the following lines, 
 
94 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 ■which bear no date in the collection of Jaqueline's pieces. 
 He calls it the Swan-song of the poetess, ere she laid the gift 
 of song, as did Lemaitre * that of eloquence, on the altar of 
 her God, designing to glorify him by the sacrifice. 
 " The little poem has been thus translated : — 
 
 " ye dark forests, in whose sombre shades 
 Night finds a noonday lair, 
 Silence, a sacred refuge ! to your glades 
 
 A stranger worn with care, 
 And weary of life's jostle, would repair. 
 He asks no medicine for his fond heart's pain, 
 He breaks your stillness with no piercing cry ; 
 He comes not to complain, 
 
 He only comes to die ! 
 
 " To die among the busy haunts of men 
 Were to betray his woe, 
 But these thick woods and this sequester' d glen 
 
 No trace of suffering shew. 
 Here would he die that none his love may know. 
 Te need not dread his weeping — tears are vain — 
 Here let him perish, and unheeded lie ; 
 He comes not to complain, 
 
 He only comes to die." 
 
 Madame Perier continues : " She then returned to her 
 ordinary employments, and to her strict solitude, which she 
 never quitted unless necessity obliged her. But she was not 
 idle, for, after regularly reciting her offices,+ and after read- 
 ing, which employed her closely, as she made extracts from 
 the books she read, she spent the rest of her time in working 
 for the poor. She made them thick woollen stockings, 
 under-linen, and other small comforts, which, when finished, 
 she carried herself to the hospital. It was occasion of won- 
 der and edification that this entire separation from the world 
 
 * Lemaitre was a French pleader, brother of De Saci, nephew of Mere Ange*- 
 lique, and celebrated for his eloquence. He became one of the Port Koyalist con- 
 verts, and after a brilliant farewell speech, quitted the bar for ever. So thorough 
 was the self-mortification demanded by his confessor, that he was not even 
 allowed to correct a new edition of his former speeches. 
 
 f The daily stint of reading in a book of devotion. 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 95 
 
 did not make her sour in manners and temper, but, on the 
 contrary, she was always charmingly affable, and ever ready 
 to go out of doors on any charitable errand, as we many 
 times on trial found. During this time I was often indis- 
 posed, and she would sit with me all day, without seeming 
 in the least disconcerted. Several of my children had 
 violent illnesses, and she nursed them with admirable kind- 
 ness. Even when one of my little girls died of confluent 
 small-pox, my sister attended her to the last ; and though the 
 illness continued a fortnight, she only went into her own 
 room to repeat her offices, choosing for that purpose the 
 child's intervals of ease, watching over her night and day 
 with the tenderest care, and passing many nights without 
 once lying down. When there was no more need of her 
 charitable services in this case, she returned to her usual 
 course in her chamber. Jaqueline took great pleasure in 
 occasional visits to poor sick people about the town, accom- 
 panying an excellent young lady who devoted herself entirely 
 to the poor. And to all this she added great bodily austeri- 
 ties. As we had but scanty lodging room, a partition 
 needed to be put up for her accommodation in a place where 
 there was no chimney, at some distance from the other 
 rooms. There she passed a whole winter, without allowing 
 us to do the least thing for her comfort, nor would she be 
 persuaded to come near the fire at meal -times, which made 
 us all very uneasy. Her abstinence also troubled us, for 
 though she partook of our ordinary food, yet it was in such 
 small portions, that, being naturally very delicate, she lessened 
 her strength and ruined her digestion, till, when at last we 
 insisted on her taking more nourishment, she was unable. 
 Her vigils, too, were extraordinary; not that we knew their 
 exact length, except as we perceived by the number of 
 candles she burned, and by similar circumstances. Her 
 admirable foresight made her prepare for a conventual dress, 
 
[)b JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 which, differing as it does from the dress worn generally, 
 troubles the body and so clogs the soul ; and to guard against 
 this, she accustomed herself as much as possible to its incon- 
 veniences. Her shoes were made very low in the heel, she 
 wore no corsets, cut off her hair, and put on head-dresses 
 that were larger and more embarrassing than a veil would 
 have been. These precautions were so effectual, that when 
 she actually entered the convent, her costume was not the 
 least annoyance to her. Thus she passed seventeen months 
 in our house at Clermont. 
 
 " After this, my father took her back to Paris, in Novem- 
 ber 1650. Jaqueline was comfortably lodged there, having 
 her own private parlour and bedroom. My father allowed 
 her all the liberty she could wish in her pious exercises, and 
 she practised them punctually ; but her communication with 
 Port Eoyal was still restricted, and she could only enjoy it 
 by stealth. This did not prevent her from occasionally 
 seeing and often hearing of her friends there. They regu- 
 larly sent her notes every month, including those of the 
 mysteries, with the reflections which they deduced from 
 them. On Ascension Day 1651, the Mere Agnes sent her a 
 note, as if she had been one of the nuns, on the mystery of 
 our Lord's death, and she meditated on it so carefully, that 
 God inspired her with some admirable thoughts thereon, 
 which she wrote down. Monsieur de Eebours* favoured me 
 with a copy, but it was such a secret, that my sister never 
 knew I had even seen them. 
 
 " Not having been at Paris that year, I can give no special 
 account of her mode of life, but I learnt from my brother 
 that it was much the same as at Clermont." 
 
 With regard to the Reflections on the Death of Christ, 
 
 * Anton de Reborns, one of St Cyran's disciples, who, though preferring a life of 
 entire solitude, had been induced by Singlin to enter the priesthood, and share 
 with him the duties of confessor to the nuns and novices of Port KoyaL 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 97 
 
 mentioned by Madame Perierj it may be added, that it was 
 customary at Port Royal to decide by lot, every month, on a 
 motto, or subject of meditation, for each member of the 
 sisterhood. The Mere Agnes, who treated Jaqueline with 
 the same affection as if she had really taken the veil, wrote 
 her on the 20th of May 1651, as follows : — 
 
 " I have drawn for you the mystery of Jesus Christ's 
 death, and the same subject has also fallen to my own lot. I 
 have thereby been led to think that this holy mystery unites 
 in itself all other precedent mysteries, since they were all to 
 terminate in that wonderful death which alone could effect 
 the salvation of the world. And, in like manner, none of 
 those holy desires, emotions, and actions, which God inspires 
 within us, can reach their full perfection, nor aid us in the 
 attainment of holiness, until our self-will is entirely dead, 
 and happily swallowed up in God's will. When this is done, 
 we cannot fail of experiencing that resurrection which gives 
 eternal life to a soul that has renounced the principle of 
 spiritual death, namely, self-will. Let us therefore try, my 
 dear sister, to realise that it is the privilege of our heavenly 
 calling to die daily, and let us not shrink from crucifying 
 our own inclinations many times a day, if we may thereby 
 honour Him whose death has procured for us eternal life.'' 
 
 Jaqueline's reflections on this subject, though not equal in 
 point of style to her brother's writings, display much vigour 
 of thought, and it was at one time proposed to publish them 
 in connexion with Pascal's celebrated posthumous work. 
 They were afterwards issued at the close of the " Conferences 
 of the Venerable Mother Marie Angelique Arnauld." Brussels, 
 1757. 
 
98 JAQUELLNE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ®jtt ffoiJttt. 
 
 " In September 1651," says Madame Perier, " my father was 
 seized with the illness of which he died, and my sister 
 devoted herself to attendance upon him by day and night, 
 with the utmost zeal and assiduity. She may be said to 
 have done nothing else, for, when her presence was not 
 needed in his room, she withdrew to her own apartment, 
 where, as she herself told me, prostrating herself, she prayed 
 for him incessantly with tears. But God, notwithstanding, 
 did according to his own will, and my father died September 
 24. We were at once informed of it (being then at Cler- 
 mont), but my state of health prevented us from reaching 
 Paris before the last of November." 
 
 Jaqueline announced the calamity to Madame Perier, and 
 gave the details of their father's illness, and Blaise soon 
 afterwards wrote a consolatory letter in her name and his 
 own, to their relatives at Clermont. The whole epistle is 
 very beautiful, but too long for insertion here. A few of the 
 more striking passages have therefore been selected for 
 translation : — 
 
 " In our trials, we are not to look for consolation in our- 
 selves, in man, or in any created thing, but in God. And 
 the reason of this is, that creatures are not the primary cause 
 of those events which we call sorrows ; therefore, since God's 
 
THE NOVICE. 99 
 
 providence is the sole cause, arbiter, and sovereign of all that 
 befalls us, we ought unquestionably to trace back every 
 occurrence to its source and origin in God's will, in order to 
 consider it rightly. Following this rule, we should regard 
 this event [his fathers death] not as the effect of chance, not 
 as a fatal necessity of nature, which makes man the football 
 of the elements, or the victim of his own internal structure 
 (for God has not abandoned his elect to caprice or chance), 
 but we should look upon the death that has occurred as an 
 indispensable, inevitable, wise, and righteous consequence of 
 the decrees of God's providence, for the welfare of the 
 Church and the glory of his own great name, which was 
 destined, before the world was, to take place in the fulness of 
 time, in the very year, the very day, the very hour, the very 
 place and manner, foreseen and foreordained of God from all 
 eternity. If, therefore, the power of grace enables us to con- 
 sider this event, not in itself, and apart from God, but in its 
 proper position as one of the mysteries of the divine will — 
 that will which is always righteous in its decrees, and orderly 
 in its arrangements — we shall look upon God as the true 
 cause of our bereavement, since without his will it could not 
 have happened, and his will prescribed the exact time and 
 mode in which it did happen ; we shall adore in humble 
 silence the impenetrable grandeur of his counsels ; we shall 
 reverence the justice of his decrees ; we shall bless the 
 arrangements of his providence ; and, blending our will with 
 God's will, we shall desire, with him, in him, and for him, 
 the things which he has ordained in us and for us from all 
 eternity. 
 
 " Let us view death in the light of those truths taught us 
 by the Holy Ghost. We shall thus gain the infinite advan- 
 tage of knowing that death is the penalty of sin, inflicted 
 upon man originally as the punishment of sin, and now 
 necessary to deliver him from its power. Death alone can 
 
100 JAQUULINE PASCAL. 
 
 set God's people entirely free from that corrupt and carnal 
 nature with which they come into the world. We know also 
 that life — the life of a believer — ought to be a continual 
 burnt-offering. Our Saviour, when on earth, considered 
 himself as a sacrifice, and offered up himself to the Father as 
 a holocaust, and an actual victim. His birth, his life, his 
 death, his resurrection and ascension, his presence with his 
 people, and his continual priesthood at God's right hand, 
 constitute one unique and complete sacrifice. Now, what 
 happened to Jesus as Head of the Church, must necessarily 
 be partaken of by all his members ; we are, consequently, to 
 look upon our lives as a sacrifice, and the accidents of life 
 ought to affect the minds of Christians only by the degree in 
 which they interrupt or accomplish that sacrifice. 
 
 " Let us then view death in Jesus Christ, and not without 
 him. Without Christ, death is naturally an object of detes- 
 tation and dread. In Christ, all is changed, and death be- 
 comes lovely, holy, — the object of the believer's desire and 
 joy. In Christ all things are pleasant, and work together for 
 our good. Death is no exception, for Christ suffered and 
 died, that he might sanctify death and sorrow. As God 
 and man, he experienced the two extremes of majesty and 
 meanness, and in so doing he sanctified everything save sin, 
 and became an example for us in every condition. 
 
 " Therefore let us not mourn as do the heathen who are 
 without hope ; let us not obey the suggestions of nature, but 
 the teachings of Scripture. Not looking upon our father as 
 a man who has ceased to live, but as one who has just begun 
 to live j for his soul has not perished — it is not annihilated — 
 it lives, and is united to the Source of Life. Let the convic- 
 tion of this truth correct the erroneous feelings and the emo- 
 tions of horror at the thought of death, which are so deeply 
 rooted in the nature of man. 
 
 " Not that we are to feel no regret. The blow is too 
 
THE NOVICE. 101 
 
 painful. Without supernatural aid, it would be insupport- 
 able. It is not right for us to be without grief, even as the 
 angels who are unconscious of sorrow ; neither ought we to 
 refuse comfort, as do the heathen in their ignorance of grace. 
 But it is our duty to grieve and to receive consolation in a 
 Christian spirit, to let the comforts of grace overcome our 
 natural sorrow, and to say with the apostle, ' Being afflicted, 
 we give thanks.' Thus grace will not only be in our hearts, 
 but it will rule them, thus hallowing our Father's name. His 
 will shall be done in us, his grace will reign over us, and our 
 very afflictions will become a sacrifice which the flame of his 
 divine love shall kindle, consume, and destroy for his own 
 glory. Thus, too, even our imperfections will form a part of 
 this holocaust ; for sincere Christians endeavour to derive 
 benefit from their past offences, because it is promised that 
 all things shall work together for good to the elect according 
 to God's purpose. ♦ 
 
 " A holy man once told me that one of the most advanta- 
 geous ways of shewing our love for departed friends, is to do 
 as they would advise us were they still living, to follow their 
 holy counsels, and to endeavour to attain that state of holi- 
 ness in which they would delight to see us. We thus cause 
 them, as it were, to revive in us, by obeying their wishes, and 
 doing as they would have done in our place. Let us do this 
 for our beloved father, striving, as in God's sight, to fill his 
 place as far as we can, and let us take comfort in that union 
 of hearts in which I feel as if he were still alive and with us ; 
 so that, when we meet, his presence may appear to be in some 
 degree restored to us, even as Jesus Christ is ever present in 
 the assemblies and hearts of his people. 
 
 " May God awaken and maintain these feelings in us all, 
 and continue in my heart that affection for you and my sis- 
 ter, which seems to me greater at this moment than it ever 
 was before ! I feel as if the love we used to lavish on my 
 
102 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 father ought not to be lost, but to be gathered up and con- 
 centrated on each other. The legacy of love he left us should 
 be invested in a deeper fraternal devotion, if that were pos- 
 sible. His loss is greater to me than to the others. Had I 
 lost him six years ago, I had been ruined ; and though my 
 need of him is not quite so absolute at the present time, it 
 seems as if he were necessary to me for the next ten years, 
 and his presence would have been useful through my whole 
 life. But we are bound to hope that, since God has seen fit 
 to take him away in the present time and manner, the re- 
 moval will prove in the end expedient for our salvation and 
 his own glory. Strange as it may seem, I believe that we 
 ought to look upon every event, no matter how dark or dis- 
 tressing, in this way, and to feel that God will make it an 
 occasion of joy, if we commit it unto him. Let us then 
 place our souls and all our concerns in his keeping, and not 
 suffer ourselves to be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow." 
 
 The strong affection which Blaise here expresses for his 
 sisters, made the idea of parting with Jaqueline exceedingly 
 distasteful to him. Mad. Perier says : " My brother was 
 much comforted in his deep affliction by her society, and he 
 imagined that kindness would induce her to stay with him 
 at least a year, and help him in recovering from this great 
 calamity. He spoke of it to her in a way which plainly 
 shewed he felt sure that she would not dare to refuse him, 
 for fear of enhancing his grief : she was therefore obliged to 
 conceal her intentions until we arrived. She then told me 
 that she meant to take the veil as soon as the estate was 
 divided, and that she should spare my brother's feelings by 
 letting him think she was only going to make a retreat at 
 Port Boyal. She made all her arrangements for this in my 
 presence. The division of property was signed on the last 
 day of December, and she fixed the 4th of January for her 
 departure." 
 
THE NOVICE. 103 
 
 It does not appear that Etienne Pascal left a very large 
 fortune. His resolute probity had prevented him from 
 amassing wealth by unfair means during his administration 
 of affairs at Rouen ; and we learn from Jaqueline herself that 
 she felt it her duty to transfer a considerable part of her own 
 share of the property to her brother. 
 
 Mad. Perier thus describes her sister's departure : — " The 
 evening before, she begged me to mention it to my brother, 
 in order that he might be prepared. I did so with all the 
 precaution I could, but though I told him she was only going 
 to try for a little while how that manner of living would 
 suit her, yet he felt very much hurt, and mournfully shut 
 himself up in his own room, without seeing my sister, who 
 was then in a little ante-room, where she used to say her 
 prayers. She did not leave it till he was gone, fearing that 
 the sight of her would give him pain. I told her the loving 
 words he had said, and then we all retired for the night. 
 But though I heartily approved of her proceedings, because 
 I believed that nothing could be a greater blessing to her, 
 yet her wonderful resolution so astonished me and engrossed 
 my thoughts that I could not sleep. 
 
 " About seven, finding that she did not get up, I was 
 afraid she had not slept any more than I, and might feel ill. 
 So I went to her bed, where she lay sound asleep. The noise 
 I made awaked her, and she asked what o'clock it was. I 
 told her, and inquired how she felt, and if she had slept : she 
 answered that she was well, and had slept well. She rose, 
 dressed, and went away ; doing this, as she did everything, 
 with inconceivable calmness and evenness of spirit. We did 
 not say good-bye, for fear of being overcome, and I turned 
 aside from her path when I saw that she was ready to depart. 
 In this manner she bade the world farewell, January 4, 
 1652, being then twenty-six years and three months old." 
 
 Here ends Madame Perier's sketch of her sister's life. The 
 
104 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 touching simplicity of its close develops her own unselfish- 
 ness, as well as Jaqueline's heroism and the strength of Pas- 
 cal's fraternal love. 
 
 Once within the walls of Port Royal, Jaqueline was eagerly 
 desirous of sealing her fate by the assumption of the veil, but 
 her brother's great reluctance to this step obliged her to write 
 him a letter at once resolute and tender, wherein, while re- 
 minding him that she does not need his approbation, she 
 earnestly implores it, and invites him to be present at the 
 ceremony. M. Cousin thus characterises it : " It is the 
 letter both of a woman and a saint ; it mingles the passion 
 and obstinacy which belonged to the whole family with a 
 charming gentleness, and expresses them in accents of alter- 
 nate command and meek entreaty." A few extracts will give 
 some idea of its tone : — 
 
 " Port Royal du Saint Saceemeht, 
 " March 7, 1652. 
 
 " My vert dear Brother, — I can give no stronger proof of 
 my wish that you may receive the intelligence I have to 
 communicate with joy and calmness of soul, and a ready ac- 
 knowledgment of God's goodness, than by selecting M. Hobier 
 
 as my messenger For although I am now free, and 
 
 God, whose chastenings are favours, and who chastens those 
 he loves, has chosen to remove the only legitimate obstacle* 
 to the vows I desire to take, in the manner you are aware of, 
 and I dare not name, lest a degree of sadness should mingle 
 with my joy ; yet I earnestly wish for your consent and ap- 
 proval, and I now, with the deepest affection, request them. 
 Not that they are necessary for the accomplishment of my 
 design, but, if you should withhold them, I could not fulfil 
 
 it in peace and gladness, nor with a tranquil soul 
 
 God, indeed, by your means, first awa"kened in my soul the 
 
 * Alluding to the death of her father. 
 
THE NOTICE. 105 
 
 stirrings of his grace, but you know very well that he alone 
 is the author of our love and delight in what is good. You 
 have, therefore, the power of troubling my peace, but you 
 cannot restore it, if, through your fault, I should once lose 
 it. And you ought in some measure to judge of my affec- 
 tion by your own, and to consider that if I am strong 
 enough to persevere, despite your resistance, I may not have 
 strength to bear up against the grief it will occasion me. 
 
 I know that nature uses all kinds of weapons in 
 
 such conflicts, and that every means of escaping what she 
 dreads seems allowable. Her suggestions, too, will be 
 
 fomented by your worldly acquaintances Human 
 
 praise is one of our great Adversary's most effectual methods 
 of weakening the power of religion in the soul. When 
 he sees that violence cannot rend it away, he tries to wile 
 it from us by the world's caresses. He formerly inspired 
 persecutors with the idea of thus shaking the faith and 
 constancy of martyrs, and even now suggests it to the best 
 friends of Christ's Church, in the hope of overcoming the 
 constancy of the faithful. Resist this temptation boldly, if it 
 should attack you, and if the world shews some regret at 
 seeing me no more, be you very sure that this regret is an 
 illusion, for the world cannot really love one who is not of it, 
 who never will be, and whose chief desire is to destroy all its 
 
 hold on her by a solemn vow The attractions and 
 
 promises of earth are so vain and narrow, that if we do but 
 exercise a little reason, enlightened by faith and sustained by 
 grace, we shall find no difficulty in relinquishing beforehand 
 the things which in a few brief moments must be wrested 
 
 from our grasp The thought of God's infinite 
 
 love, which passeth understanding, as shewn to a creature 
 so unworthy, so overwhelms me, even while I write, that if I 
 dared, I believe I should here confess the sins of my whole 
 life, in order that we might both better comprehend the 
 
106 JAQUBLINB PASCAL. 
 
 exceeding riches of his mercy. But this is needless, if you will 
 only tax your memory to recall the time when I loved the 
 world, and when my very knowledge and love of God in- 
 creased my guilt, because my heart was so unequally divided 
 between two masters. I blush to remember how often you 
 tried in vain to convince me that I could not unite two things 
 so opposed as is the spirit of religion to that of the world. 
 And oh ! what unceasing gratitude do we not owe to God for 
 having dispelled this dangerous blindness ! . . . . Do 
 from a good motive that which you must do. Give up to 
 God that which he is taking from you, for he loves to have 
 us cheerfully bestow on him that which it is his will to 
 deprive us of. .... I have written to my sister, and now 
 ask you to encourage and console her if necessary. I tell her 
 that, if she wishes it, and thinks it is in my power to fortify 
 her mind, it will delight me to see her, but that if she comes 
 in the hope of changing my resolution, her pains will be 
 
 thrown away. I say the same to you My invitation 
 
 to the ceremony is of course a mere form, for I do not ima- 
 gine you would dream of staying away. If you did, you 
 well know that I should give you up for ever. Now, do 
 with a good grace that which you will be forced to do ; I 
 mean, do it in a spirit of kindness, and do not make me 
 unhappy, for I cannot see that I have ever given you cause. 
 Farewell, my very dear brother." 
 
 Extract of a letter from Jaqueline Pascal to Madame 
 Perier : — 
 
 " Port Eoyal dtt Saint Sacremeht, 
 " May 10, 1652. 
 " There is nothing but sorrow everywhere, yet I am full of 
 joy, for the day when I am to take the veil is fixed for the 
 
 Feast of Trinity, by God's help, which I hope to have 
 
 After so much opposition, it seems like a dream to find 
 myself so near it. I shall fear that it is only an illusion, till 
 
THE NOVICE. 107 
 
 the ceremony is really over. But I will not waste time 
 in expatiating on my happiness, for you cannot doubt it. 
 Enough that the steadfastness of my determination proves 
 that I have not mistaken my calling, and that I can say 
 with David, ' As we have heard, so have we seen in the city 
 of our God.' 
 
 " I sent the news to my brother by M. Hobier, on Ascen- 
 sion Day. He came next morning, nearly wild with the 
 terrible headache it had given him, yet very much softened ; 
 for, instead of the two years' delay he had asked the last time 
 I saw him, he only wanted me to wait until All Saints' Day ; 
 but seeing me determined not to put it off, and yet complais- 
 ant enough to allow him a short time to get reconciled to 
 the project, he gave up entirely, and even pitied me for hav- 
 ing again to defer a thing which I had set my heart upon so 
 long. Still he did not give his consent at once ; but M. 
 d'Andilly,* by my request, was kind enough to send for him 
 on Saturday, and to argue with him so skilfully and cor- 
 dially, that he agreed to everything we wished, and we came 
 to this conclusion. He begged me, if possible, to put it off 
 for a considerable time, but if I would not do this, he was 
 just as willing to have the ceremony take place on the first of 
 Trinity, as a fortnight later. Therefore, that is to be the day, 
 unless hindrances should arise from a quarter with which 
 we have nothing to do." 
 
 Pascal's strong unwillingness to part with his sister, made 
 him eagerly seize every pretext for delay, and to this motive 
 must be ascribed that opposition to her plans which he now 
 offered. Not wishing to be a burden on the convent of Port 
 Royal, which was far from rich, she desired to bring with her a 
 dowry, and thought that her share of her father's property 
 
 * A brother of the Abbesses Angelique and Agnes, M. Arnauld d'Andilly. The 
 younger brothers in a French family often take the name of some estate belonging 
 to the family, to distinguish them from the elder brother, who takes simply the 
 family name, 
 
108 JAQUELDJE PASCAL. 
 
 ought to furnish it. To this her family at first objected, and 
 the high-spirited Jaqueline resented their non-compliance 
 most keenly. The influence of those false views of life and 
 duty, the result of her education in an apostate Church, which 
 led her to break off from all her associates, to bury every talent 
 she had received, and to forsake the kindred dear as her own 
 soul, made her unable to sympathise with their sorrow at 
 losing her, or to brook their, efforts to hold her back. Her 
 sufferings from wounded affection were therefore severe, 
 though perhaps in some degree unreasonable, especially as 
 her brother yielded to her wishes respecting the property, on 
 finding that her being portionless would not prevent her 
 from taking the veil. Jaqueline afterwards explained the 
 details of this affair in a narrative written for the purpose of 
 making known the disinterestedness of Port Royal, and 
 addressed to the Frioress. Its great length prevents the 
 transfer of more than a few paragraphs to these pages. She 
 says, after having excused herself for writing at all : — 
 
 " My resolution, which they thought so unkind, 
 
 gave my friends a fine chance of moralising over the insta- 
 bility of human affection. Had they stopped there, all would 
 have been well, and their minds might have been occupied 
 without disturbing mine ; but there they did not stop. Each 
 wrote to me in the same style, not saying tha£ they felt ag- 
 grieved, but treating me as if they did, and responding to my 
 propositions by an exact statement of my affairs, whereby it 
 appeared that the nature of my property must prevent me from 
 disposing of it under any circumstances, or in favour of any 
 person whatever ; partly because of an agreement made at its 
 division, that all claims upon the estate should be settled from 
 the property as a whole, and partly from other disingenuous 
 reasons, which, had my friends been less irritated, they would 
 doubtless never have named. Not that these reasons were 
 actually untrue, but they were such as we had never been 
 
THE NOVICE. 109 
 
 accustomed to use with one another Just think, my 
 
 dear mother, how these letters made me feel ! written in a style 
 so changed, and imposing on me, besides, the positive necessity 
 of either deferring my profession as a nun some four years 
 longer, in order to obtain the release of my property from the 
 liens that held it in security for the remainder of the estate, 
 and perhaps, after all, not being able to free it entirely ; or, on 
 the other hand, having to endure the mortification of being 
 received into the convent gratuitously, and remaining a 
 burden upon it. My grief became so violent, that it seems 
 wonderful I ever lived through it. Mother Agnes sent for 
 me as soon as she heard that I was in sorrow ; and, discover- 
 ing that what afflicted me most was the apparent necessity 
 of either giving up the cherished hope of many years, or of 
 effecting it in a manner so painful to me, she tried to console 
 me by saying that things eternal ought alone to awaken 
 emotion ; that temporal misfortunes are never irreparable, 
 and do not deserve our tears, which should be reserved for 
 the only true evil — sin ; but require us, when they come, 
 instead of wasting our time in sorrow, to set about devising 
 the readiest means of relief, — adding, with her usual kindness, 
 that my troubles would be soon and easily ended, if her 
 advice were followed, for, leaving all my worldly affairs as 
 they were, my sole care would then be, to begin my cloistered 
 life with a calm spirit. 
 
 " ' We may not always be able,' said she, ' to obtain the 
 privilege of being poor ; but we are always safe in wishing 
 for and delighting in it, and in rejoicing over every event 
 that tends to impoverish us. When we are in prosperity, we 
 should tremble and mourn over it as a snare and a hindrance 
 to piety and lowliness of heart ; and we ought not only to 
 rejoice when the wealth to which we are entitled is kept 
 from us, but also when that which we did possess is snatched 
 away, since we are thus relieved from its responsibility.' 
 
110 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " In feet, dear mother, her various arguments almost com- 
 pelled me to rejoice over my affliction. Could I but have 
 maintained that indifference, I should have become what she 
 wished to see me. But I was too weak and sorrowful to be 
 capable of such fortitude, and I acknowledge with shame 
 that I soon relapsed into my former despondency. 
 
 " She afterwards directed me to inform M. Singlin of the 
 whole affair, while she herself took the trouble of going to 
 relate it to our Mother.* Coming immediately back, she 
 brought me word that, in our Mother's opinion, it was my 
 duty to leave my relatives to manage my whole fortune as 
 they would, and think only of my approaching profession. 
 
 " At first M. Singlin did not entirely agree with her, for 
 he feared that there might be too much generosity and too 
 little humility in the advice. He forcibly said that, ' when 
 we have overcome that insatiable avarice of wealth which is 
 almost universal, we ought to beware of falling into the 
 opposite extreme, and becoming greedy of praise, and ostenta- 
 tious of our generosity, while we despise those who still cling 
 to their property. For if our distinction consists in being 
 above the love of money, as that of others does in its posses- 
 sion, we are likely, without great watchfulness, to perform 
 actions seemingly benevolent, but in reality prompted by the 
 same principle of pride which causes some men to contend 
 too earnestly for their rights, and others to yield them too 
 easily. In all cases of this nature, we ought to be neutral, 
 and endeavour, unbiassed by personal interest, to ascertain 
 what justice demands on both sides.' 
 
 " However, upon reflection, he agreed with our Mother • 
 and, seeing how strenuously I opposed their decision, for I 
 could not bear to let things go in that way, he told me that 
 he knew my friends welL and was sure they were reasonable 
 
 * Angflique, who was then at Port Royal de Paris. 
 
THE NOVICE. Ill 
 
 people. Therefore some misapprehension must undoubtedly 
 have made them unreasonable upon this point, and it was to 
 be hoped that, when we were able to meet and talk matters 
 over, they w ould of themselves act rightly by all parties, and 
 thus I need not disquiet myself. .... There was nothing 
 
 for me but submission to the course prescribed All I 
 
 could do by way of lessening my mortification was to beg 
 earnestly for admission as a lay-sister.* If my reception 
 must be a gratuitous one, I thought that, out of gratitude to 
 the sisterhood for the double favour of welcoming me with- 
 out a dowry, I could do no less than serve them as a menial 
 
 for the rest of my life But God, the Searcher of 
 
 hearts, knew me to be unworthy of an office so honourable 
 in his sight, and that my past and present pride needed a 
 punishment instead of a reward. He therefore restrained 
 M. Singlin from giving his consent. On examination, my 
 strength appeared insufficient for the duties of a lay-sister, 
 and as this would oblige me to take more rest than my 
 companions, they might imagine I was indulged for other 
 reasons ; and since respect of persons is always hateful, and 
 contrary to the spirit of love, which forbids distinctions to be 
 made among sisters, my petition was absolutely refused, 
 and I had to leave everything just as our Mother had 
 arranged it. 
 
 " By order of M. Singlin, I wrote immediately to my 
 friends, stating my decision in words which he chose to dic- 
 tate, lest my own should be too warm. He made me use 
 
 * The lay-sisters were eighteen in number, ten being employed in the convent 
 of Paris, eight in that of Des Champs. They had no vote, were selected for their 
 bodily strength, and employed in hard work, such as cooking, baking, washing, 
 taking care of cows and poultry, &c, but not in the service of the sick or infirm, 
 lest 'they should be treated as inferiors, unless in case of emergency. They were 
 not required either to pray so often or fast so much as did the other nuns. The 
 maxim, " Zaborare est Orare" (Work is prayer), was often repeated to them. They 
 wore a gray dress and scapulary, and a white veil. 
 
112 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 great discretion in my account of the charity which was 
 willing to receive me as a professed nun, without any demur 
 on the ground that my affairs needed supervision, and would 
 allow no expressions which might seem like a bravado or a 
 device to pique their sense of honour. 
 
 " This letter could not be short, and it kept me busy till 
 evening, so that I did not see our mother (Angelique). But 
 on the next day, as was her custom after her returning from 
 Port Eoyal de Paris, she sent for all the novices, and being 
 there, when my turn came to salute her I could not help 
 saying that I was the only sorrowful one among all the 
 sisters who were delighted at her return. ' What ! ' said she, 
 ' is it possible, my daughter, that you are still sad ? Were 
 you not prepared for all you see ? Did you not long since 
 learn that we should never lean on the friendship of crea- 
 tures, and that the world only loves its own 1 And is it not 
 a happy thing that God makes this truth plain to you in the 
 persons of those from whom you had least reason to expect 
 such a lesson, and thus removes all doubt of it from your 
 
 mind t Tour previous resolutions are thus braced by 
 
 a sort of inevitable necessity, and you may, in a certain 
 sense, say that you are alone in the world.' I answered, 
 weeping, that I seemed to myself already so detached from 
 it, as not to need such an experience. ' God is shewing you,' 
 said she, ' that in this thought you are mistaken. If it were 
 so, you would look upon all that has occurred with indiffer- 
 ence, and be very far from grieving as you now do. You 
 ought, therefore, to feel that God is granting you a great 
 favour, and to make good use of it.' She also talked to me 
 for some time on the emptiness of all human affection, keep- 
 ing her arm round me with much tenderness, until I had to 
 leave her and let others approach. 
 
 " Having noticed on the morrow that my looks were 
 unusually sad, she left the choir before mass began, and 
 
THE NOVICE. 113 
 
 sending for me, did her best to give me comfort. Not con- 
 tent with this brief effort of kindness, as soon as mass was over 
 she signed to me to follow her, and then supported my head 
 on her bosom for a whole hour, caressing me the while with 
 all a mother's tenderness. I can truly say that she omitted 
 nothing in her power that could charm away my distress. 
 Would to God, dear mother, my mind had been clear and 
 retentive enough to have preserved the precious cordials dis- 
 tilled by her in the hope of sweetening my heart's bitterness ! 
 Then were my affliction indeed a gain, and I might now give 
 you a rich treat. Since all is not lost, I desire to preserve 
 the little I do remember, by imparting it to you in this 
 letter, as a relic, none the less precious though it be but a 
 fragment rescued from the great whole. 
 
 " She at first said to me with a gentle severity, ' I cannot 
 wonder enough, my daughter, to see you so overcome by a 
 trifle. You so astonished me yesterday by saying you were 
 sad, that I did not know how to answer you ; for I supposed, 
 of course, that you had already forgotten the past, because, 
 things being settled as they are, you have nothing further to 
 do. I assure you that at first I could not tell what you 
 meant, and it took me some little time to guess, and to 
 recall the whole affair to my mind.' 
 
 " My dejection was not deep enough to keep me from 
 secretly admiring her power to forget so soon. But I, who 
 was very far from possessing her rare virtue, could only 
 answer her with tears ; perceiving which, she anticipated the 
 excuse I might have made, by saying, ' Why do you weep 
 over this thing 1 Or else why do you not weep as much 
 over every sin that is committed ? If you are thinking only 
 of God's glory and the spiritual welfare of your relations, 
 why have you never shed as many tears over their graver 
 faults and their more heinous guilt in the sight of God, as you 
 now do over a slight failure in the kindness due to yourself 1 ' 
 
 H 
 
114 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " I told her, what I believed was true, that it was the 
 injustice done to the establishment that troubled me, and 
 that personally I was neither hurt nor angry, but simply 
 indifferent. 'You are mistaken, my daughter,' said she, 
 ' nothing is more painful or hard to bear than wounded affec- 
 tion. I know that you feel deeply the injustice done to the 
 House, but your own share in this gives you a keener pang, 
 for self-love mingles in everything we do, and is the main- 
 spring of this mighty sorrow.' 
 
 " She was then so good as to give me the details of several 
 such histories, without mentioning names. I suppose this 
 was done as much for the sake of affording me that species 
 of comfort derivable from companionship in misery, as to 
 convince me that we never take the interests of justice equally 
 to heart when the injustice committed does not concern us, 
 as when it does. -On my admitting the truth of this, she 
 •continued : ' This occurrence has been a source of real and 
 not unfounded joy to me ; and were the value of the property 
 twice as much, I would not but have had the trial come upon 
 you before your taking the veil, because, while a probationer, 
 you have not been sufficiently tried. You see, my sister, that 
 it was an easy thing for you to renounce the world, God hav- 
 ing enabled you to perceive how vain and trifling are the 
 .amusements and gaieties of life, which please and fascinate 
 ■other girls — not that you were better than they, but that God 
 had given you greater grace. And certainly you were very 
 much detaehed from earth, but there yet remained two 
 things for you to relinquish, of which you had not thought. 
 One was your fortune, small indeed in a worldly point of 
 view, but ample for a nun, whose expenses are next to 
 nothing. The other, and the chief treasure of your family, 
 was the close union and confidence which made all your 
 interests one, and on this you were unconsciously reposing. 
 God sees fit to strip you of both, and to make you poor in 
 
THE NOVICE. 115 
 
 every sense of the word, poorer even in friendship than in 
 possessions, for these you were prepared to renounce. 
 
 " ' You see, my sister,' she went on, ' that whatever is 
 
 done to gratify a recluse seems thrown away There 
 
 is a short story in the lives of the Fathers which illustrates 
 this. A man of the world once went to visit his brother, 
 who, after having long lived the life of a saint, had retired 
 into solitude. He was greatly astonished to find him eating 
 at the hour of nones, because formerly he fasted until vespers. 
 The anchorite, perceiving this, said to him : " Marvel not, 
 my brother ; this meal is a necessity, and not an indulgence. 
 In the world I needed it not, for my ears fed me : the praises 
 earned by my austerities made me so comfortable in mind, 
 that my body was strengthened, and I could, if needful, have 
 borne twice as much. But here — there is nobody to speak 
 a word ; my self-love has nothing to feed upon ; and I am 
 forced, in spite of myself, to satisfy the cravings of nature, 
 since there is no other satisfaction to be had." 
 
 " ' Persons living in the world feel inclined to oblige one 
 another, because they are rewarded by gratitude and praise ; 
 but to render service to a recluse is quite another thing. 
 Make up your mind, therefore, to retain no friends in the 
 world after you have left it, and to expect no great proofs of 
 personal regard.' 
 
 " Among many instances that she related to me of cases 
 like mine within her own knowledge, was one in which the 
 relations of a young lady of rank, after she had taken the 
 veil, failed, most unexpectedly to her, in fulfilling their pro- 
 mises touching her dowry, which ought to have been large, 
 and this at a time when the convent was in great need. ' I 
 assure you,' said she, ' that this injustice surprised and 
 grieved me much; for I had looked upon the thing as 
 certain, judging from the manner in which the parties had 
 always acted towards us. However, the late M. de St Cyran 
 
116 JAQTTELINE PASCAl. 
 
 advised me to endure this hardship, for it really was one, so 
 calmly and patiently as not even to mention the subject to 
 the delinquents, nor to shew that I felt in the least hurt, but 
 to behave as if I had forgotten it. And with a firm faith in 
 Providence, he assured me that if I did so, God would in 
 some other way provide for our wants, and make up the loss. 
 God,' added she, ' helped me to believe this, and to follow his 
 advice, which, indeed, I never felt at liberty to disregard ; 
 and, as you see, I have since found the promise verified by 
 perpetual experience. I therefore entreat you, my daugh- 
 ter, not to feel angry with your friends, not to manifest any 
 resentment, or suffer this to alienate your affection from 
 them. After all, for what are you contending? Only a 
 little lucre, absolutely less than nothing ! True, as we can- 
 not live without money, it is difficult to dispense with it 
 entirely ; but then it rarely happens that we are so destitute 
 as to be in actual want, and luxuries we are forbidden to 
 covet. When God sends us money in a legitimate way, we 
 may receive it as a means of support ; but when he does not 
 send it, and even when he allows us to be deprived of it, 
 truly we ought to rejoice. M. de St Cyran used to say that, 
 in this world, riches, like bodily humours, always settle in the 
 weakest and most easily injured spot. I want you to remem- 
 ber this, because you are young, and may at some future 
 day witness similar events to those now occurring in your 
 own case ; and if you should ever be consulted in a like 
 emergency, you will know what to advise, and can do as you 
 have been done by. Therefore write to your friends once 
 more,' she went on, ' especially to her whose tenderness for 
 you is deepest ; express your own affection without reserve, 
 and let them see that you have, in all sincerity, given up 
 your fortune from the sole fear of paining them, without any 
 after regret. And when he (meaning Pascal) who is shortly 
 expeoted here, comes, speak to him in the same way ; do not 
 
THE NOVICE. 117 
 
 reproach him, nor even look as if aught were amiss, but 
 appear to have forgotten all, which you really ought long ago 
 to have done, and I supposed you had, so that it quite sur- 
 prises me to find you disturbed by an affair so trivial.' 
 
 " She was then silent for a brief space ; and I took 
 occasion to say that one of my great vexations was a fear 
 that the money formerly at my disposal had been misspent, 
 owing to my not giving it away with sufficient discrimina- 
 tion, because at the time I expected to have enough for all 
 claims, and now I felt self-convicted of having been too 
 hasty, to say the least. 
 
 " ' Do not fret about that,' said she, ' for if you had it to 
 do over again, I do not think that you could in conscience 
 give less under the circumstances than you have given. You 
 know that in this matter * you regarded the will of God and 
 the welfare of one dearer to you than the world's wealth, and 
 that you did not give him the money in order to aggrandise 
 him or to render his position more brilliant; for, with all that 
 you have done for him, he has barely enough to keep up an 
 appearance befitting his station. What ground, then, have 
 you for fearing that your money was squandered 1 How 
 could you do less 1 Even were it true,' proceeded she with 
 admirable kindness, ' which, as I have told you, it is not, 
 that you had been hasty and extravagant, and made a dead 
 loss of your money, then your regret should be calmed by 
 remembering that you could not possibly meet with a loss of 
 less importance. For you see, my sister, every external and 
 perishable advantage is in reality valueless ; and the loss of 
 the least particle of God's grace is of more consequence in his 
 sight than the loss of all the world's wealth, use it as we may. 
 God neither needs our possessions, nor cares for them. The 
 grace he implants within us is the only true riches, and we 
 
 * This refers to the property which Jaqueline had previously transferred to her 
 brother. 
 
118 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 ought often to ask ourselves whether we are employing this 
 for our own good and that of others. This, however, we sel- 
 dom think of, grieving but little, or not at all, over a failure 
 in our usual meekness, or gentleness, or any other Christian 
 grace, and having all our scruples aroused if we have mis- 
 spent a small sum of money, though this is the least talent 
 of all those for which we must give account. But the favour 
 of God and the graces of his Holy Spirit are treasures in- 
 deed, and, if we are careful not to lose or misimprove them, 
 will be for ever serviceable to others as well as to ourselves. 
 
 " • Now forget all that is past, and speak and write as if 
 nothing had occurred, merely telling your friends that you 
 will confirm your resignation in their favour. And you must 
 do this in all sincerity, avoiding the appearance either of a 
 spirit of pride, as if you had been more generous than they, 
 or of a wish to coax them into obliging you ; for if our ac- 
 tions do not arise from love, they are worthless. You must 
 seek to be influenced by a wish for peace, especially with her* 
 whom you know to be very sensitive, and likely to take the 
 idea of your displeasure much to heart.' " 
 
 The event proved the wisdom of this counsel. Pascal soon 
 afterwards visited Port Royal, and, perceiving his sister's de- 
 jection, at once tried to remove it by offering to make arrange- 
 ments for endowing the convent with the usual pension, 
 assuming all the risks and charges of the estate himself, and 
 releasing Jaqueline. This was of course a great relief to her 
 feelings, and after describing the interview, she goes on to 
 say:— 
 
 " There was no time lost in trying to persuade him to in- 
 crease the amount, for I was ordered so expressly, and with so 
 absolute an authority, to make his will my law, that I no more 
 dared to stir in the affair than as if it had not concerned 
 
 * Madame Perier. 
 
THE NOVICE. 119 
 
 me It was an admirable thing to see the differ- 
 ence in the conduct of each, careful as they all were to act in 
 conformity with God's will and the perfect law of love. Our 
 Mother (Angelique) naturally caring for the interests of the 
 convent, was anxious that no shade of meanness, avarice, or 
 self-seeking, should be mingled with the affair. M. Singlin 
 not only shared her zeal for the House, but felt compassion- 
 ately for my relatives, some of whom are under his guidance, 
 while all cherish for him the highest esteem. Mother Agnes, 
 on the other hand, busied herself solely with the endeavour 
 to have me, as a novice under her charge, profit by what was 
 passing, and lose no opportunity of exercising the patience, 
 humility, and forbearance so repugnant to human nature. 
 
 " On the eve of my profession, for which the day had long 
 been fixed, irrespective of the state of my affairs, the papers 
 were all ready, and only waiting to be signed. I begged our 
 Mother to go down for that purpose to the parlour, but, being 
 quite indisposed, she was unable to go ; and, strange to say, 
 this seemed to give her pleasure, ' because,' said she, ' the 
 ceremony of signing may now be deferred till after you have 
 taken the veil, and then your brother need do nothing but of 
 
 his own free-will, or from motives of pure charity' 
 
 When I informed my brother of this, the men of business 
 who accompanied him were excessively surprised, and declared 
 that such conduct was very rare, <fec. My brother, who had 
 long known the ways of Port Eoyal, was less surprised, but 
 he wished for no delay, and shewed that he gave the little he 
 had to give, freely, by returning on the morrow, when our 
 Mother, being in better health, could not excuse herself from 
 seeing him. He told me afterwards that she had said to him 
 with extraordinary emphasis, that she could not tell whether 
 I had acted in this matter as she bade me. ' And lest she 
 may not,' continued our Mother, ' I feel bound to entreat 
 you, sir, in God's name, not to let any earthly consideration 
 
120 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 influence you, and if you do not feel that the spirit of charity 
 prompts you to this deed of charity, to leave it undone. 
 You see, sir, that M. de St Cyran taught us to accept nothing 
 for the House of God which does not come from Him. Alms 
 given from other motives are not the work of his Holy 
 Spirit, and therefore we have no wish to receive them.' In 
 reply, he said everything that was polite and proper, but 
 would not agree to any delay, and thus the affair ended. 
 
 " After this, our Mother, on meeting me, said that all was 
 settled, and I need not torment myself any longer. Then 
 drawing me aside, she added very seriously, that it had 
 really troubled her to see me so anxious to have my brother 
 act liberally, and so annoyed when I fancied that he did not. 
 ' I fear, my daughter,' she said, very kindly, ' that you have 
 thereby offended God. I beg you to reflect on this, and also 
 to consider that you have in fact no reason to complain of 
 your brother, who has given largely, both in proportion to 
 his means, and when compared with many others. I only 
 wish you knew what an advantage is usually taken of a spirit 
 of disinterestedness; it is incredible; but it ought not to 
 make us neglect our own duty.' " 
 
 Jaqueline closes her tale by entreating the Prioress to for- 
 give the appearance of her letter, " full as it is of scratches, 
 blots, omissions, and other blunders," occasioned by the in- 
 terruptions to which, in her occupation of teaching the 
 novices, she was subject, — in these terms : — 
 
 " I would gladly write it over again, out of respecb to you ; 
 but it is doubtful if I could ever find leisure, for I am never 
 able to write above two dozen lines, and often not more than 
 five or six, without being interrupted by some question, un- 
 important, it is true, but quite capable of disturbing such a 
 weak brain as mine, and causing me to spoil whatever I have 
 
 in hand And I must tax your kindness still further 
 
 by asking you to intercede before God, that the many sins 
 
THE NOVICE. 121 
 
 committed by me in this affair may be blotted out, especially 
 my neglect of so much good advice, .... lest the privileges 
 intended for my salvation should serve only to condemn me, 
 and the consolations by which God has designed to dry my 
 tears, should witness against my unfaithfulness." * 
 
 Margaret Perier says of her aunt : — " Although the cus- 
 toms of Port Koyal required a year's probation before the 
 veil could be taken, yet four months after her entrance she 
 was allowed to become a novice." Thenceforward she bore 
 the name of Jaqueline de Ste. EuphSmie, and her world was 
 bounded by the convent walls. 
 
 No details of the ceremony, which took place in May 1652, 
 have been preserved, but it was probably conducted in strict 
 accordance with the formula prescribed in the Constitutions, 
 which allowed very few persons to be present when a novice 
 took the veil, and forbade all attempts to excite public inter- 
 est by the theatrical display common among Romanists on 
 such occasions. It was desired that the dress of the candi- 
 dates should be of inexpensive materials, and simply made. 
 Pearls and other ornaments were prohibited, and instead of 
 the usual entire severance of the novice's hair, the Abbess 
 only cut off a little from the ends, in order that, if the for- 
 mer should afterwards repent of her consecration, and wish 
 to quit the convent, she need not be deterred from re-enter- 
 ing society by a feeling of shame at the loss of that feminine 
 adornment. 
 
 * Her postscript is both curious and characteristic : " I thought, dear mother, 
 that there was no further apology to be made, but I forgot to mention that the 
 gilt-edged paper I have used was found in a casket left me by a friend, and since 
 it is the only relic of worldliness I possess, at least externally, I think it ought to 
 be devoted to God's service, and that the best way of doing this is by using it to 
 commemorate a charity of which he is the source. Although I can but dimly 
 shadow forth the love of which I have been the recipient, I feel that it deserves to 
 be recorded in letters of blood, rather than on gilt-edged sheets." 
 
122" JAQUELDJE PASCAL. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 lead's totesiira. 
 
 In the course of the year 1653, Madame Perierhada danger- 
 ous illness, from which it was at one time supposed that she 
 could not recover. In this distressing conjuncture the Sister 
 Sainte Euphemie addressed a letter to her brother-in-law and 
 his suffering wife, full of affection and sorrow, yet carrying 
 her own devout resignation almost to the pitch of rejoicing 
 over her sister's illness, and urging M. Perier to improve the 
 occasion by completely consecrating himself to God. To do 
 this, in her belief, implied the necessity of separating from 
 his wife, if she lived, of giving up his secular employments, 
 and becoming a recluse like herself. She says : — 
 
 " July 31, 1653. 
 " I write to you both, if God permit the letter to find you 
 both* in a state to read it, which, after your note of the 
 24th, I scarcely dare to hope. You can imagine the state of 
 my own feelings ; I do not pretend to express them, for it 
 would be useless. But I think it my duty, in this extremity, 
 to render all the assistance I can, both to my sister and your- 
 self. I pray for you as often as possible, and our Mothers 
 have frequently reminded the sisterhood to commend her 
 
 * Madame Perier was then very ill, and expecting the birth of her son, Blaise 
 Perier. 
 
pascal's conversion. 123 
 
 case to God ; so that she may be very sure we do not forget her. 
 In fact, they are only too kind to every one here, and espe- 
 cially to her. But I believe that the most efficacious manner 
 of pleading, by which we may best deserve to have the pray- 
 ers of our forefathers come up in remembrance before God, is 
 to prove our own fidelity to her at this important juncture. 
 I speak in the deepest grief and feeling as if there were no 
 hope at all, though I have no doubt that the worst news 
 would produce totally different emotions, should God see fit 
 to consummate our affliction. This obliges me to say, that 
 we cannot have a better opportunity of testing whether we 
 possess real faith, for God appears to be requiring us to hope 
 that in this solemn hour he will have mercy upon my sister, 
 since he graciously inclined her heart to seek and serve him 
 in her days of health. This thought alone can sweeten the 
 bitter cup, for we must neither expect nor desire her to stifle 
 all the feelings of nature. But I think she ought so far to 
 moderate them as not to pray for life herself, though, for the 
 sake of you and her children, I cannot help asking that she may 
 be spared, — and yet, when I remember that our own mother 
 was removed from us when we were much younger than they 
 are, and under circumstances more trying than theirs could 
 be, and that God, notwithstanding, did not forsake us, but 
 proved himself the Father of the orphan and the Comforter 
 of the afflicted, I feel that, instead of setting ourselves in array 
 against his decrees, we are bound to place ourselves and all 
 that we hold dear in his hands. 
 
 " Your children are more his than ours ; let us not fear 
 that he will abandon those whom we have given up to him ; 
 and as for yourself, I certainly believe that if God should 
 deprive you of so great a treasure, it would only be to draw 
 you more closely to himself. .... And if it please him 
 to grant this blessing to my \lear sister in preference to our- 
 selves, why should we oppose her happiness % I see none to 
 
124 JAQTJELfflE PASCAL. 
 
 be found in this world except in retirement, and in giving 
 up all things for the sake of serving God ; but even this is 
 not to be compared with the full possession of God, and the 
 certainty of never losing that felicity. Let us therefor© 
 repress to the best of our power all those natural emotions 
 which are contrary to the spirit of faith and submission ; and 
 as neither effort nor wish on our part can alter the decrees 
 of God, let us do willingly what we must do if he has so 
 ordained it. God knows that I love my sister more beyond 
 comparison than when we were both in the world, and yet it 
 seemed to me then that nothing could increase the affection 
 I felt for her ; but whereas at that time my chief wishes and 
 anxieties were for her life, which always had been and still 
 is dearer to me than my own, they now relate to her salva- 
 tion. Therefore, violent as my grief is, and though I am 
 continually in dread of hearing the fatal news, trembling so 
 that I can scarcely stand if any one looks as though he were 
 going to speak to me, yet, when I take into account the 
 misery and dangers of this present life, especially for a person 
 immersed in worldly occupations, I cannot but accuse myself 
 of selfishly desiring my own benefit rather than hers ; and 
 so my most earnest prayers to God are, that the infant may 
 be an heir of grace, and that the mother's illness may be 
 sanctified, — that she may be weaned from earth, and forget 
 the things she must quit, in contemplating the blessedness 
 awaiting her, which ought to fill her whole soul, and leave no 
 room for any other thought. If her sickness will not permit 
 this, let us, I beseech you, do it for her, and declare before 
 God with heart and lip, that there is nothing upon earth 
 which we desire for ourselves, or for those yet dearer to us, 
 besides his favour. 
 
 " I daily implore him, in my sorrow, that he would enable 
 you and me to prove our entire fidelity to him in this season 
 of trial. My dear brother, we may never have such another ; 
 
pascal's conversion. 125 
 
 let us not endure it without yielding the fruit which God 
 requires at our hands. I think he looks for more than 
 common resignation from us, and that, unless we are ungrate- 
 ful for Mb goodness to the dear patient for so many years, we 
 ought not to be satisfied with merely allowing him to take 
 back his loan, instead of cheerfully offering it up, and rejoic- 
 ing that she should receive the reward of the service she had 
 long striven to render him. Pray for me, as I do for you, 
 that we may have grace so to act. God is near to the 
 afflicted, and ready to hear their cry. I therefore beseech 
 you also to make supplication for my poor brother, that this 
 trial may be the means of winning him back to God, and 
 causing him to see the emptiness of everything earthly. We, 
 as well as my dear sister, have reason to bless God for having 
 made this plain to him, and, through him, to us all, long before 
 we were taught it by experience. I trust that none of us 
 will so faint in the day of adversity as to forget this special 
 favour ; or, if it be graven deeply in our memories, that God 
 will not suffer us ungratefully to refuse to cherish the hope 
 it warrants, nor the consolation it affords. 
 
 " Do not wonder that I write as if recovery were hopeless. 
 It has been, as I have told you, my conviction from the first ; 
 and though I do not give way as I should if certain of the 
 fact, on the other hand I dare not hope, lest the blow may 
 fall more heavily. May God strengthen us all, and implant 
 in our hearts a vigorous faith, so that we may look upon the 
 departure of our beloved ones as a voyage to heaven. They 
 may have got the start of us by a few moments, but we shall 
 be enabled to imitate them now, and follow them hereafter. 
 Let us beware of complaining when God deprives us of what 
 we most prize, instead of thanking him for having lent it so 
 long. Tell my sister, however she may suffer, to remember 
 the beautiful saying of M. de St Cyran — ' The sick should 
 look upon their bed as an altar whereon they continually offer 
 
126 JAQTTELINE PASCAL. 
 
 up to God the sacrifice of their life, for him to accept at his 
 pleasure ; ' and another : ' The pains and various accompani- 
 ments of sickness are noises that serve to warn the virgins of 
 the Bridegroom's approach.' Let her hope to go in with him 
 to that blessed marriage, since she has neither suffered her 
 lamp to become extinct by quitting the ways of God, from the 
 time of her entrance on them, nor has she bought oil from 
 those who sell, by listening to the flatteries of false guides, 
 but has faithfully preserved the true oil of grace, shed abroad 
 in her heart by God's Holy Spirit. Tell her she must not 
 cease to pray for me, that God would be merciful to me, and 
 speedily call me home from exile, if it is for his glory ; not 
 forgetting my brother, the Church, and the land ; for God 
 hears the prayer of the sick, especially when, as in her case, 
 they belong entirely to him." 
 
 Although Jaqueline, happily, did not succeed in convincing 
 M. Perier that he was in duty bound to shut himself up in 
 solitude, yet her prayers and efforts were soon after rewarded 
 by the conversion of one even dearer and nearer to her heart 
 than he. The year 1654 is famous in the history of Port 
 Koyal, as the epoch of Blaise Pascal's final withdrawal from 
 worldly society. 
 
 " In the case of twins,'' says Dr Beuchlin, " it is frequently 
 observable that the death of one is soon followed by that of 
 the other. Blaise Pascal and Jaqueline were twins in soul ; 
 and when the former strove to prevent his sister's complete 
 identification with Port Koyal, he was in reality struggling 
 for the right of his own independence. For when Jaqueline 
 had given up her personal freedom, and the control of her 
 own will to others, this complete death to self on her part 
 involved the forfeiture of her brother's life in the world, and 
 her influence speedily drew him into the charmed circle of 
 monastic seclusion." But how, it may be asked, could 
 Pascal, himself the first of his family to enter upon a life of 
 
pascal's conversion. 127 
 
 devotion to God, and the instrument of Jaqueline's own con- 
 version, require her persuasions to urge him forward in what 
 they both believed to be the way of holiness ? Margaret 
 Perier, in her Memoirs, thus explained the fact : — 
 
 " In consequence of my uncle's miserable state of health, 
 the physicians had to interdict all mental effort ; but a dis- 
 position so lively and energetic as his could not long remain 
 idle. When he was no longer busied in scientific pursuits, 
 or in religious studies requiring close application, he felt the 
 need of amusement, and this drove him into company, 
 where he played cards, and joined in other diversions. At 
 first he did so in moderation, but by degrees his taste for 
 society increased, and though his life was never in the least 
 vicious or irregular, it gradually became gay, frivolous, and 
 useless. After my grandfather's death, the mastery of his 
 own property gave him greater freedom, and he plunged 
 more and more into the world, till at length he made up his 
 mind to follow the common routine of life — to purchase some 
 office, and to marry. 
 
 " He laid his plans accordingly, but consulting with my 
 aunt, who was a nun, and felt deeply grieved at beholding 
 him who first convinced her of the vanity of worldly things 
 again enthralled by them, she frequently advised him to 
 renounce his projected engagements. He listened, but went 
 on with his plans, until, on the Festival of the Virgin's Con- 
 ception, God permitted him to make my aunt a visit, and to 
 stay with her in the convent parlour, during the repetition of 
 nones before sermon. When the church-bell stopped ringing, 
 she left him, and he went into church to hear the sermon, 
 not knowing that God awaited him there. The subject of 
 the sermon was, the commencement of a Christian life and 
 the importance of holiness, the danger of forming secular or 
 matrimonial engagements from motives of habit, fashion, or 
 worldly prudence, the duty of seeking direction from God in 
 
128 JAQUELIOT! PASCAL. 
 
 all such matters, and of examining whether they would be 
 likely to prove hindrances to salvation. The preacher 
 was in the pulpit when my uncle went into church, 
 therefore he knew that my aunt could not have spoken to 
 him ; and as his own state and disposition were delineated 
 with great earnestness and soundness of argument, he became 
 deeply affected, for he felt that the discourse was addressed 
 to him by God, and received it as a message to his own soul. 
 My aunt did all she could to fan the new flame, and in a few 
 days my uncle resolved to break off from the world entirely. 
 With this intention, he went into the country, in order to 
 familiarise himself with his future mode of life, and to cease 
 paying and receiving a general course of visits. In this he 
 succeeded so well, that from that time forward he had no 
 more intercourse with his former worldly acquaintance.'' 
 
 The details of Pascal's conversion are given in two letters 
 from Jaqueline to Madame Perier, and in one to Blaise him- 
 self, in which she appears to have some misgivings concerning 
 the character of her brother's piety, as being more buoyant 
 and mirthful than M. de Saci, his confessor, was likely to 
 approve : — 
 
 TO MADAME PEEIEE. 
 
 " December 8, 1654. 
 " It is not right that you should be ignorant any longer of 
 what God has wrought in the heart of one so dear to us ; but 
 I wish you to learn it from himself, in order that your every 
 doubt may be done away. All that I have now time to tell 
 you is, that God has graciously given him a great wish to be 
 completely devoted to his service, though in what mode of 
 life is not yet determined. For more than a year he has 
 felt a thorough contempt for the world, and an almost insup- 
 portable disgust for its votaries ; and yet, though his excitable 
 temper would naturally lead him to extremes, he behaves 
 with a moderation that encourages me to hope for good. He 
 
pascal's conversion. 129 
 
 has put himself under M, Singlin's direction, I trust with a 
 childlike submission, if the latter will receive him ; for he has 
 not yet consented, but I think in the end he will not refuse. 
 " Though his health is worse than it has been for a long 
 time, it does not in the least affect his resolution, which 
 shews that the reasons he formerly urged were only a pre- 
 tence. I perceive in him a humility and submission, even 
 towards myself, which astonishes me. I have now no more 
 to add, except that it is evident another spirit than his own is 
 striving within him. Farewell : let all this be kept secret, 
 even from him. I am yours entirely, 
 
 " Sister Euphemie.'' 
 
 to m. pascal. 
 
 " January 19, 1655. 
 
 " My very dear Brother, — It gives me as much delight 
 to find you cheerful in solitude, as it used to give me pain 
 when I saw you immersed in the gaieties of the world. I 
 hardly know, however, how M. de Saci* gets along with a 
 penitent so full of happiness, who, instead of expiating his 
 former share in worldly vanities and amusements by unceas- 
 ing tears, has only relinquished them for more rational enjoy- 
 ments, and more allowable play of fancy. For my part, I 
 think your penance very moderate indeed, and there are few 
 people who would not envy it. But if M. de Saci is satisfied, 
 so am I, for I think him worthy of the same deference that 
 you have for our Mother Agnes. She has not mentioned to 
 me the subject on which you asked her advice, so it is not 
 she, but I, who tell you to be wiser in future ; and in this I 
 think her spirit inspires me, which I would to God were 
 always the case. And in order to edify you more by example 
 than precept, I herewith put an end to the wilful nonsense of 
 
 * Who had received Pascal, from the hands of M. Suiglin, as his confessor. 
 
 I 
 
130 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 this letter. Your eager desire to renounce every semblance 
 of worldly distinction is very praiseworthy, and I can only 
 wonder that God enables you to feel it, for it seems to me 
 that you have deserved, in more ways than one, to be annoyed 
 for some time to come by the smell of the mire which you 
 have clung to so fondly. It would be but just, if you were 
 to be still fettered by wordly habits, after fleeing to the wil- 
 derness, since you chose to keep aloof from the means of 
 deliverance so long. But God has in this respect shewn you 
 that his mercy is greater than all his other attributes, and I 
 pray that he will continue his work, and teach you to use 
 the talents he has bestowed on you aright. 
 
 " The same must be said of your wooden spoon and 
 earthen platter, about which you wrote me. These are the 
 gold and precious stones of Christianity, and none but 
 princes should have them on their tables : we must be truly 
 poor in spirit, if we would deserve such an honour, which, 
 according to M. de Eenti,* ought to be denied to common 
 folks. My only comfort is, that this kind of kingship, not 
 being hereditary, it may be acquired after a long period of 
 neglect, as well as lost after long possession. One of the 
 best methods of obtaining it, according to my idea, is to act 
 as if it were already our own ; not indeed through usurpa- 
 tion or hypocrisy, but in order that we may proceed from 
 outward impoverishment to poverty of soul, from bodily 
 humiliation to real humility. God give us grace so to do ! 
 
 " I was before you in the discovery that health depends 
 more on our Saviour than on the maxims of Hippocrates. 
 Spiritual regimen soon cures bodily ailments, unless God sees 
 fit to try and to strengthen us by means of sickness. Cer- 
 tainly it is a great privilege to have sufficient health of body, 
 
 » The Marquis de Eenti, famous for his piety, and whose Memoir was translated 
 for the use of his own people by the celebrated and excellent John Wesley. 
 
pascal's conversion. 131 
 
 enabling us to do what is enjoined upon us for the cure of 
 our souls j but it is none the less a privilege to take chastise- 
 ment from God's own hand. If we are his, we must always 
 be well, whether living or dying. We are not told, ' If any 
 one will come after me,' let him perform very painful tasks, 
 that call for great strength, but, ' Let him deny himself.' 
 It is possible that a sick person may do this better than 
 one in perfect health.'' 
 
 TO MADAME PERIEE. 
 
 " Poet Royal, January 25, 1655. 
 
 " My vert dear Sister, — It is difficult to tell if your 
 impatience to receive intelligence of the person you know 
 (Pascal) has been greater than mine to communicate it ; yet, 
 as I had no time to waste, I was afraid to write too soon, lest 
 I might have to unsay what I had prematurely told you. 
 But now, things are in such a train that you ought to know 
 it, let the result be, by God's good pleasure, what it may. 
 
 " It would, I think, be doing you an injustice if I did not 
 relate the whole story from the beginning, which was some 
 days before I sent you the first news ; that is, towards the 
 close of September last. He came to see me then, and, dur- 
 ing the visit, opened his heart to me in such a way that I 
 felt a deep pity for him, acknowledging that, in the midst of 
 his occupations, which were numerous, and of a nature to 
 excite in him a love for this world, to which every one had 
 cause to think him greatly attached, he still felt admonished 
 to leave it altogether ; that, by reason of his aversion for 
 the follies and amusements of life, and the constant reproaches 
 of conscience, he found himself in a state of detachment from 
 the world, which he had never even approached before ; but 
 that, on the other hand, God seemed to have entirely for- 
 saken him, and he experienced no longings after God, much 
 as he desired to feel them. But this desire he knew was not 
 
132 JAQTJELIKB PASCAL. 
 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, for his own mind and reason 
 prompted him to covet earnestly the things which he was 
 convinced were most desirable ; that, weaned as he now was 
 from earth, he would shrink from no enterprise, did he but 
 have the feelings towards God he once had ; and that the 
 bonds formerly binding him to this world must have been 
 horribly strong, or he could never have so resisted the grace 
 of God and the strivings of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " This confession gave me great surprise and delight, and 
 from that time I began to hope for him as I had never done 
 before, so that I thought it my duty to write you on the sub- 
 ject, that he might have the benefit of your prayers. If I 
 were to describe his other visits as minutely, I should fill a 
 volume, for they were afterwards so frequent and long, that 
 my sole employment seemed to be listening to him and 
 watching his progress, without attempting to persuade him in 
 the least. I have seen him gradually growing in grace till 
 he no longer seems the same being, and you will see it also, 
 if God carries on the work, more especially as he increases in 
 humility, submission, self-distrust, and self-abhorrence, and 
 the wish to sink out of the esteem and memory of man. Such 
 is his present state of mind. God only can foresee what it 
 will become. To resume. There were many visits and many 
 conflicts with himself on the subject of choosing a spiritual 
 guide. He did not question the necessity of a guidance ; but 
 although the person best suited to him was already found, and 
 he could not bear to think of any one besides, yet his self- 
 distrust made him fearful lest his very partiality might lead 
 him astray, not indeed in regard to the qualifications of a 
 confessor, about which, in this case, there could be no doubt, 
 but in selecting one who was not his own natural pastor. I 
 saw clearly enough that this hesitation only arose from the in- 
 dependence yet lingering in his soul, which caught at any ex- 
 cuse for avoiding the complete subjection to which he was 
 
pascal's conversion. 133 
 
 fast tending. But I did not choose to influence him, and 
 merely said that I thought it was our duty to select the best 
 physicians we could find, both for soul and body ; that the 
 bishop was unquestionably our proper confessor, but that, 
 since the Bishop of Paris could not possibly guide all the in- 
 habitants of his diocese, and even his vicars, or parish priests, 
 if they were capable, would find it an overwhelming task, a 
 person like himself, having no establishment, and being at 
 liberty to take up his residence in any parish he chose, was 
 certainly able to choose his own confessor. I added that the 
 Bishop of Geneva (Francois de Sales), in advising us to select 
 a director of ten thousand, meaning one whom we prefer above 
 ten thousand others, did not, though himself a bishop, and 
 very zealous for the hierarchy, pretend to limit any person's 
 choice within the bounds of his parish. I cannot now remem- 
 ber whether this convinced him, or whether grace, visibly in- 
 creasing day by day, dissipated the clouds that had darkened 
 so promising a commencement, without the aid of argument ; 
 but at length his mind was made up. But our task was not 
 over yet ; M. Singlin needed much persuasion to induce him to 
 accept the office, for he had a great dread of such undertak- 
 ings. However, he could not resist our urgent entreaties not 
 to permit a work of such evident sincerity and promise to 
 perish for lack of aid ; and he so far yielded to my impor- 
 tunities as to be willing to take upon him the charge in ques- 
 tion, although, in consequence of a long-continued infirmity, 
 he cannot speak without great pain. Meanwhile, many things 
 occurred, too long and unimportant to be repeated here ; the 
 principal event being that our young convert came of his own 
 accord to the conclusion, that a temporary withdrawal from 
 home would be very serviceable to him on many accounts. 
 M. Singlin was then at Port Boyal des Champs for the benefit 
 of his health ; and therefore, although he (Pascal) was terribly 
 afraid of having it known that he held communication with 
 
134 JAQTTELINE PASCAL. 
 
 any one in the convent save myself, he nevertheless resolved to 
 go thither under pretext that business called him into the 
 country. By changing his name, leaving his servants in some 
 neighbouring village, and proceeding on foot to M. Singlin, he 
 hoped that no one else would recognise him or discover his 
 object, and that he might thus effect a temporary retreat. I 
 advised him not to take such a step without consulting M. 
 Singlin, who, on his part, forbade it altogether, not having yet 
 decided to become his confessor, so that he had to wait pa- 
 tiently for the latter's return, as he did not wish to do any- 
 thing in opposition to the orders given him by M. Singlin, in 
 a very beautiful letter, wherein he constituted me as his (Pas- 
 cal's) directress until God made his own duty plain either to 
 accept the confessorship or not. When M. de Singlin at length 
 returned, I entreated him to release me from my dignity, and 
 said so much, that I obtained my desire, and he took the di- 
 rection upon himself. They then both thought it would be 
 best for him to make a trip into the country for the sake of 
 being more alone than he could be in town, because his par- 
 ticular friend * had returned, and took up nearly all his time. 
 " Accordingly, he made him his confidant, obtained his 
 consent, which was not yielded without tears, and set out on 
 the morrow after the festival of the Epiphany with M. de 
 Luines, intending to stay in one of the latter's houses ; and he 
 has now remained there for some time. But not being so 
 much alone as he wished, he has procured a room, or rather 
 a cell, among the recluses of Port Royal, and thence he writes 
 me that he finds himself extremely happy, being lodged and 
 treated like a prince, but a prince of St Bernard's stamp, 
 dwelling in a lonely spot, where the profession of poverty is 
 carried out to the utmost extent that discretion will allow. 
 He is present at every service from prime to complines, and 
 
 * M. de Roarmez. 
 
pascal's conversion. 135 
 
 does not find the least inconvenience in rising at five o'clock. 
 It seems to be God's will, also, that he should fast as well as 
 watch, though in so doing he must defy all medical rules, 
 which forbid him to do either, for his supper begins to give 
 him pain in the chest, and I think he will leave off taking 
 it. He will not miss his directress. M. Singlin, who has 
 remained in town during the whole time, having provided 
 him a confessor,* with whom he was not before acquainted — 
 a man beyond praise, who has completely charmed him, and 
 is, moreover, of a good race. He (Pascal) was not at all 
 weary there, but some business forced him, against his wish, 
 to return ; and, in order not to lose what he had gained, he 
 has obtained a room here, and lodged in it since Thursday, 
 without making his arrival known at home. He did not tell 
 any one whither he was going when he set out, except 
 Madame Perier and Duchesne, whom he took with him. It 
 was suspected, however, but only on conjecture. Some 
 say he has turned monk ; others, hermit ; others, again, 
 that he is at Port Royal ; and he knows all this, but does 
 not care for it. This is the state of affairs at present. 
 
 " Hitherto he has seemed so much afraid of having all this 
 known, that I dared not even ask him to send you word. 
 But some days before his return I wrote him on the subject ; 
 he answered that if it were enjoined on him to let you know, 
 he would do so, but he should not think of it, for his own 
 part, because his progress in the divine life was so small, that 
 he did not know what to say ; yet, if I thought it was proper 
 to write, he was very willing to have me write, though 
 he could not see what there was to communicate. On this 
 I began my letter at my earliest leisure, the day of its date, 
 but I have not been able to find time to finish it until to-day, 
 February 8. 
 
 * M. de Saoi is here meant, the same who afterwards, during his imprisonment 
 in the Bastile, translated the Holy Scriptures into the French tongue. 
 
136 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " Business now detains him at home, but I think, as soon 
 as he can he will go back to his solitude. Yesterday he told 
 me that he intended to write you, by God's help, and wished 
 me to write. He is anxious to do something for our little 
 cousin, the daughter of Pascal the overseer; and as this 
 convent is very charitable, we hoped to get her received here 
 as a boarder, but I doubt whether mother or child would be 
 willing. Write me word about it, if you please, as soon as 
 you can, and say how we had better manage it. I am very 
 anxious that she should come, for I look upon her as a sister, 
 and cannot look upon her situation, either bodily or spiritual, 
 without shuddering. Besides, she is my father's niece, and I 
 can understand how he would have felt for her, from my own 
 feelings towards your children.'' 
 
 During this retreat of Pascal's at Port Boyal des Champs, 
 there occurred between him and M. de Saci, to whose 
 spiritual care Singlin had consigned him, the celebrated dis- 
 cussion upon Epictetus and Montaigne, in which Pascal 
 passed in review the doctrines of the Epicureans and Stoics, 
 and won from his austere confessor expressions of wonder and 
 admiration. Fontaine, the secretary of De Saci, who was 
 present at the conference, and wrote down its substance, tells 
 us that all the inhabitants of Port Royal des Champs were 
 full of delight at the conversion and the sight of M. Pascal, 
 more especially admiring the almighty power of that grace 
 which in almost unparalleled mercy had thus deeply humbled 
 a mind in itself so elevated, at the foot of the cross. 
 
 After some months spent in the practices of a fervent 
 yet rational piety, Pascal's eager temperament urged him 
 into an extreme of exaggerated devotion, for which even his 
 sister reproached him, in the following note : — 
 
PASOAl'S CONVEBSION. 137 
 
 " December 1, 1655. 
 " I have been congratulated on the great fervour of devo- 
 tion which has lifted you so far above all ordinary customs, 
 that you consider even a broom as a superfluous piece of 
 furniture. It is needful, however, that, for some months at 
 least, you should be as clean as now you are dirty, so that 
 your success may be equally manifest in your lowly and 
 vigilant care of the body, submissive to your spirit, as it 
 has been in a thorough personal neglect. After that, if you 
 find it glorious and edifying to others, to look filthy, you can 
 do so, especially if it be a means of holiness, which I very 
 much doubt. Saint Bernard did not think it was." 
 
 It appears that Pascal had formerly had a taste for the 
 elegancies of life, for handsomely finished houses, furniture, 
 &c. Now, however, he had fallen into the other extreme of 
 indifference. He contends, in his Pensees, that it is the 
 duty of Christians to employ poor artisans rather than skil- 
 ful ones, because the former have more need of help. It was 
 one of the rules of Port Eoyal to do without the aid of ser- 
 vants as much as possible, because " Christ came not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister." 
 
 Jaqueline had a right to reproach her brother for his 
 negligence, as we find, from her next letter to Madame Perier, 
 that she herself, although the spouse of heaven, had recently 
 been employed in the most menial offices of the convent, 
 which, however, were allotted to her merely as a preparation 
 for one of its honourable posts. She was soon afterwards 
 appointed Sub- mistress of the Lesser Noviciate. This de- 
 partment of Port Eoyal included all candidates for admission 
 to the sisterhood, whether they came from without the con- 
 vent, or from its female school ; and, while belonging to it, 
 their patience was tested, their maidenly pride and vanity 
 mortified in every possible way, in order to find out if they 
 
138 JAQUELINB PASCAL. 
 
 were the subjects of a true vocation to the cloister. Madame 
 Perier having accidentally heard of Jaqueline's promotion, 
 which the latter had concealed from her when she visited 
 Port Royal, made some inquiries concerning it, and these 
 were answered in the following letter : — 
 
 " March 23, 1655. 
 
 " I had thought of answering this part of your letter in 
 the same style in which you wrote, but I cannot do it, for 
 all my gaiety leaves me when I approach the topic. And I 
 therefore entreat you most humbly to believe every word of 
 what I shall now tell you, for I am perfectly serious. I dare 
 say that my employment here has been represented to you 
 as much greater than in fact it is, and this is one reason why 
 I write so seriously; for, after all, it is a mere nothing, and I 
 do not think that any one but myself would consider it of 
 consequence. But it is quite a responsibility for me, who 
 would much rather keep in the background, and am fit for 
 nothing but to bustle about in a tiny cell, or to sweep the 
 house ; for this last is an accomplishment I have become 
 quite expert in, as well as in washing dishes and spinning. 
 You see I have learnt to be very handy. 
 
 " The employment assigned me, then, is to remain with 
 the novices, and keep an eye on the newly- arrived candidates, 
 in order to prevent such little mistakes as they are likely to 
 make for want of knowing what are the customs and regula- 
 tions of the house, which last I am to teach them by degrees. 
 I also look after their little external wants, and see that they 
 are provided with shoes, stockings, pins, thread, and so forth. 
 This charge has been given to me, because Mother Agnes, 
 who, as you know, is our mistress (I think that you are 
 aware I still belong to the noviciate), and the under-mistress, 
 are both too much occupied to be able to teach those who 
 are so ignorant as to need instruction, even in the alphabet 
 
pascal's oostvbrsion. 139 
 
 of faith. And that you may have no more cause to com- 
 plain of my reserve, I candidly tell you that it is also my 
 duty to advise them in regard to their behaviour in the con- 
 vent. Their confessor takes charge of the rest. Now you 
 know just what I have to do ; and in order to do it well, I 
 certainly require something more than I possess, though the 
 little mule you speak of would hardly answer the purpose.* 
 You see, however, that the charge is no great thing in itself, 
 since I have only to impart to others what I am myself 
 learning; and my sister Madelaine is always on the spot to 
 correct me if I do wrong, and to oversee my pupils and me 
 too, while the poor girls, who are so badly off for a directress, 
 can apply to her, or even to Mother Agnes, if they choose. 
 But for all that, I cannot help trembling when I consider 
 that I hold the destiny, so to speak, of five or six girls in my 
 hands, and that they in a measure depend on one whose 
 charity and knowledge are so imperfect that she often pre- 
 fers her own ease to the task of searching out and supplying 
 their necessities. 
 
 " I tell you the simple truth, such as it is. And I must 
 acknowledge that when you were here, I often felt that it 
 was scarcely right to keep this a secret from you, to whom 
 my heart has always been open, especially when you fre- 
 quently asked what kept me so busy. I had even made a 
 memorandum to ask our Mother Agnes if this confidence 
 were not due to you, but God permitted me always to forget 
 it, and since you left, it has never occurred to me. Neither 
 have I mentioned it to my brother, and if he knows it, some 
 one else has told him. There is a great advantage in having 
 to teach others the ways of God, and to inspire them with 
 his fear and love ; but you will own that this employment 
 
 * Doubtless Madame Perier, in allusion to her sister's employments, had written 
 that she seemed to he as heavily laden as a little mule; and to this Jaqueline 
 makes answer. 
 
140 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 involves also great peril, for it is very difficult to speak of 
 God in a godly manner, and very dangerous to feed others 
 from our own penury, instead of from his abundance. Pray 
 for me, that my two mites may be as acceptable to God as 
 the large alms of the wealthier, and that he may graciously 
 teach me while I am teaching others. Farewell, dear sister. 
 Yours ever in our Lord, 
 
 " Sister Euphemie, an unworthy nun." 
 
 Jaqueline's next letter to her sister was in answer to some 
 inquiries of the latter relating to the best method of educat- 
 ing her children ; — 
 
 " Pokt Royal, April 25, 1655. 
 
 " My vert dear Sister, — I take a large sheet of paper, 
 because it is my resolution, by God's help, to send you along 
 letter. When I first read the one you forwarded by my 
 brother, I did not intend to answer it at all, for it seemed to 
 me that I was very far from having the requisite ability for 
 such a task, and besides that, I ought not to undertake it. 
 For there is nothing in my opinion so provoking as to see a 
 little novice, whose eyes have scarcely begun to discern the 
 true light, taking it upon herself to enlighten others, and to 
 become their torch-bearer. It is really unendurable. But 
 since, on account of the humility of our mothers, and the ill- 
 ness of M. Singlin, I am totally unable to procure the aid 
 you are seeking elsewhere, and since I was once in the same 
 strait that you describe, I do not know that there is any 
 harm in saying to you what I have said to myself, for I feel 
 as if you and I had but one heart and one soul in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 " When I had written thus far, it occurred to me that M. 
 de Rebours might perhaps be so kind as to give you some 
 advice. I broke off, therefore, in order to consult him, and 
 
pascal's cohvebsion. 141 
 
 by his command I write what he is just now unable to 
 write you himself on account of the weakness of his eyes, and 
 because, moreover, he says it is not his place to dictate the 
 conduct of any one. That, he persists in believing, is M. 
 Singlin's mission, and not his. 
 
 " He bids me say to you, — It is a settled thing, that the 
 care of governing a family is one of the chief and indispen- 
 sable duties of its head, though the care ought certainly to 
 be divided ; that of boys belonging mainly to the husband, 
 and that of girls to the wife. This, however, is not the case 
 in your family ; for M. Perier being too much engaged to at- 
 tend to it properly, the responsibility falls upon you, but 
 this does not release him, because he is bound to fulfil his 
 most important duties first. If you could persuade him to 
 discharge them, you would yourself be free, but if not, the 
 burden rests upon you. You are therefore bound (since you 
 wish to labour for their salvation, and not merely for their 
 external improvement, which would be easy enough) to 
 endeavour, in the first place, to understand their dispositions, 
 and by various little trials to ascertain whether they are 
 inclined to be pious or not, whether they are hypocritical, or 
 bold in the display of naughtiness, what are their besetting 
 sins, and what their tendencies to good. You should also try 
 to make them love you, never reproving them sharply, but 
 always with firm severity. To do this, it is best not to speak 
 to them until all your angry emotions have subsided. Then 
 try to make them ashamed of what they have done, and 
 explain to them that you are far more grieved by their sin 
 than because they have offended you. And this lesson must 
 often be repeated ; for it is a general rule, that uncultivated 
 minds — for instance, those of children and common people — 
 can form no other idea of the persons about them than that 
 which those persons themselves convey. Thus, if we wish to 
 have them love us, we must tell them that we love them, and 
 
142 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 that we should feel we had failed in our most important 
 duty, if we were to fail in affection towards them. And if 
 we are careful to repeat this very often, it would be extremely 
 difficult for others to persuade them to the contrary. It 
 will not do, therefore, to be satisfied with giving them to un- 
 derstand that we dearly love them in a roundabout way, or 
 with shewing this by our tender care of them in sickness or 
 in their little griefs and wants. All these are favourable 
 opportunities of shewing that we love them, and we are not 
 to let such occasions slip ; but it is necessary, in addition, to 
 tell them so plainly and repeatedly, — telling them also, with 
 equal clearness, that we only love them on condition that 
 they remain obedient, and do their duties faithfully, both to 
 God and their teachers. 
 
 " Discretion must dictate when it is best to use oil or 
 vinegar. All that can be said in general is this : — When 
 your private interests alone are in question, it is well to be 
 patient, not concealing the inconvenience they have caused 
 you, but shewing that you forgive it, and that, if they must 
 do wrong, you had rather be the sufferer yourself than have 
 any one else suffer through them. You can be equally in- 
 dulgent when it is a case of inadvertence, such as losing, 
 breaking, or injuring anything, unless through glaring care- 
 lessness. Explain to them that you are willing to pass over 
 faults of such a kind, and to put up with the loss, so long as 
 you perceive that they are careful to avoid what is displeas- 
 ing to God. Make them notice, at the same time, how few 
 persons feel so ; but do this without ostentation ; say some- 
 thing tending to prove that you do not think highly of your- 
 self ; and be careful to insinuate that you had rather be in 
 their position than in your own ; for it is a good plan to point 
 out frequently the advantages and dangers of those of riper 
 years. But whenever they transgress against God, disobey 
 their teachers, or quarrel among themselves, then is the time 
 
pascal's conversion. 143 
 
 to shew yourself severe, and even terrible ; for children and 
 every-day people, like the Jews, can only be influenced by 
 promises and threats. Having thus regulated their outward 
 behaviour, as by force, you may look for God's grace to be- 
 stow on them that inward spirit of penitence, to attain which 
 is the aim of all your discipline. On such occasions it will 
 not do to forbear ; you must inform their tutor, and exhort 
 him to punish them severely, unless there is reason to believe 
 that they are truly sorry, and will do so no more. It is good 
 when the threat of sending them away is their greatest dread ; 
 and in order that it may be, you must always have them 
 treated kindly and equitably, which is the only way of 
 attaching them, until affection has taken the place of self- 
 interest. 
 
 " To bring these imperfect details to a close. You should 
 accustom yourself to take them separately into your chamber, 
 once a week at least, and there from time to time question 
 them as to what they believe and how they pray. Explain 
 to them the articles of faith, but very briefly, and dwell more 
 on the moral to be drawn from them. For instance, if you 
 are speaking of the Unity of God in the Trinity of divine per- 
 sons, you can say that, amidst all the multiplicity of worldly 
 objects and business, we are to have but one supreme love, 
 one wish, and one duty, which must regulate every other. 
 On the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Eucharist, shew 
 them that we are bound to love the Saviour, and to imitate 
 him whom we adore. Teach them the commandments of 
 God and the ordinances of his Church, and make it clear to 
 their minds that these include many more things than is 
 usually supposed. M. de Kebours is also quite of opinion 
 that you should not omit hearing them pray to God together, 
 every evening.'' 
 
 Jaqueline, as mistress of the novices, and charged with the 
 
144 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 oversight of the children who received their education at 
 Port Boyal,* consulted her brother on a new way of teaching 
 persons to read, invented by him, in which the pronunciation 
 of syllables was substituted for that of letters. This method 
 was finally adopted in all the schools of Port Eoyal, and pub- 
 lished in its grammars. In 1657 she also composed a set of 
 Eegulations for Children, which was originally published at 
 the close of the Constitutions of Port Royal, with a preface 
 stating that so severe a discipline necessarily requires occa- 
 sional modifications. 
 
 * In her letter, which is not sufficiently interesting to be inserted here, she re- 
 minds Pascal that she is his daughter in the faith, and asks him to inform her if 
 he still bore the name of M. de Mons, — a title belonging to an old branch of the 
 family, which Pascal had assumed while publishing the Provincial Letters. 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 iajtwmsm snlr \\t f bIj flora. 
 
 Some knowledge of the rise and progress of Jansenism, and 
 of a few of its prominent adherents, is necessary in order to 
 understand its controversy with Jesuitism, and the state of 
 ecclesiastical affairs at the time of that strange occurrence, 
 the miracle of the Holy Thorn. 
 
 Cornelius Jansen, or Jansenius, was born in Holland in 
 1585, received his early education at Utrecht, and finished 
 his studies at the University of Louvain. One of his fellow- 
 students there, Jean du Verger de Hauranne, afterwards bet- 
 ter known as the Abb6 de St Cyran, became very intimate 
 with him, and during their stay at Louvain, which lasted six 
 years, the two friends were brought into contact with some 
 who secretly believed in the doctrine of salvation by grace ; 
 and thus learned many principles of divine truth differing 
 greatly from the teachings usually inculcated by the Church 
 of Eome. They also became acquainted with the system of 
 the Jesuits, and the inroads it was calculated to make on 
 Scriptural truth and practical morality. The works of St 
 Augustine were the favourite study of both, 
 
 St Cyran had in early youth been a companion of him who 
 subsequently became Cardinal de Richelieu, and personal re- 
 gard, as well as the desire of binding a man so eminent for 
 piety and learning to his own service, made the latter shew 
 
 K 
 
146 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 much kindness to his old friend. But St Cyran declined all 
 offers of service, and his want of ambition was ascribed by 
 the Cardinal to secret enmity. It so happened that a cate- 
 chism had once been published by Kichelieu, which taught 
 that sorrow for sin was the only prerequisite for the absolu- 
 tion of a penitent, even if he were entirely destitute of love 
 to God. A priest named Seguenot wrote a reply to this 
 dogma, and the authorship of his book was imputed to St 
 Cyran. The Cardinal, whose vanity was hurt, did not 
 scruple to shut up the companion of his early days in the 
 Chateau of Vincennes, while the University of the Sorbonne 
 completed his revenge by sending Seguenot to the Bastile. 
 Neither was set free till after Bichelieu's death. 
 
 Before his imprisonment, St Cyran's opinions on the sub- 
 ject of salvation by grace, his efforts to diffuse them, and his 
 personal piety, had aroused the enmity of the Jesuits. Their 
 lax casuistry and unprincipled methods of extending their 
 own influence, naturally induced a hatred of all who governed 
 their belief and conduct by the teachings of Scripture. 
 
 St Cyran's character was one of great symmetry and 
 beauty as well as strength, and he was worthy of the rever- 
 ence felt for him by the theologians and nuns of Port Boyal, 
 of whose school of divinity he may be considered as the 
 founder. He died before the persecutions commenced, in 
 consequence of his sufferings while in prison, leaving a greater 
 reputation for holiness than even for learning, and his coun- 
 sels and example were reverently embalmed in the memories 
 and the writings of his disciples. Though intensely self- 
 denying, he manifested the most generous and tender spirit 
 to others. While at Vincennes, he sold some of the most 
 valuable books in his possession, for the purpose of procuring 
 clothes for two of his suffering fellow-prisoners, the Baron 
 and Baroness de Beau Soliel. His directions to the female 
 friend who executed his wishes, were as follows : — " I entreat 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLY THORN. 147 
 
 you to buy cloth which is fine, good, and suitable to their 
 rank. It is, I believe, customary for gentlemen to wear gold 
 lace, and ladies black lace, when in company. If this is true, 
 please to add those decorations to the dresses, and have them 
 made neatly, yet handsomely, so that, in looking at one 
 another, they may forget for a little while that they are in 
 prison." 
 
 Jansen returned from Bayonne to his native Holland, and 
 there became Bishop of Ypres. He devoted himself to the 
 study of St Augustine's writings, reading and collating the 
 whole of them ten times, and certain portions thirty times. 
 The result of twenty years thus spent was a commentary en- 
 titled Augiistinus Cornelii Jansenii ; and on the day of its com- 
 pletion the author died of the plague, leaving his work to the 
 judgment of the Vatican. His executors, however, published 
 it in 1640, without consulting the Pope. It maintained the 
 doctrines known as Calvinistic or Evangelical in England — ■ 
 as orthodox in America — and insisted on the truth that sal- 
 vation is the gift of God's free unmerited grace, yet that the 
 individual called of God to salvation must manifest the 
 validity of his election by unwearied activity in every good 
 word and work. St Cyran had assisted in the composition 
 of the treatise, and used all his influence to disseminate its 
 doctrines. 
 
 Meanwhile the Abbess Angelique, after fulfilling her bene- 
 volent mission as a reformer, had returned to Port Boyal 
 des Champs. There, however, as has before been stated, the 
 diseases engendered by the marshy grounds around the con- 
 vent produced so lamentable an effect upon the health of the 
 sisterhood, that Mad. Arnauld purchased for them a hotel 
 in the Faubourg St Jacques in Paris, whither for a season 
 they removed, and which is spoken of in the present Memoir 
 as Port Boyal de Paris. This removal took place in 1626. 
 
 In 1637, the year before St Cyran's incarceration, which 
 
148 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 lasted until 1643, a set of devout men, followers of that holy 
 ecclesiastic, gradually assembled in the forsaken cloisters. 
 They had renounced the world, and were living in the observ- 
 ance of a rigorous system of bodily and spiritual self-denial, 
 though they took no vows. Penitence, solitude, silence, were 
 required of them ; they hardly allowed themselves food 
 enough to support life, and spent their time in prayer, in 
 works of charity, in the education of youth, and the defence 
 of Christianity. The honoured names Nicole, Fontaine, Le- 
 maitre, the celebrated advocate De Saci, bis brother, who 
 translated the Scriptures into French, and Racine, can only 
 be mentioned here. The great Arnauld, the head of the com- 
 munity after St Cyran's death, was the youngest brother of 
 the MSre Ang61ique, and partook of her indomitable energy 
 and talent. While in the enjoyment of wealth and distinc- 
 tion, the young Antoine Arnauld, already distinguished for 
 genius and learning, paid a visit to St Cyran in his dungeon, 
 and became imbued with his principles. He renounced his 
 preferments and the favour of Richelieu, who endeavoured, 
 but in vain, to prevent him from being made a doctor of the 
 Sorbonne, or University of Paris. From that time, until his 
 death, he devoted himself to the maintenance of truth against 
 all hazards, and his controversial works fill forty quarto 
 volumes. When at the age of eighty he was preparing for a 
 fresh conflict, a friend suggested to him that, having toiled so 
 long and manfully, he was now entitled to rest. " Rest ! " 
 he answered, " will not eternity be long enough to rest in ? " 
 And although this principle was not enunciated till life drew 
 near its close, the spirit of it had animated his whole career. 
 In 1643 he published a book, De la Frequente Communion, in- 
 tended to correct the lax standard of church-membership in 
 bis own day, by reviving the early discipline of the Church, 
 and at the same time to stigmatise the morality of the Jesuits 
 as it deserved, who, instead of strictness in preparing the 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLY. THORN. 149 
 
 penitents for the communion, made its frequent participation 
 the chief means of grace, desecrating the rite and deceiving 
 the recipient. Its appearance commenced the famous quarrel 
 between Jesuits and Jansenists, which, after lasting for seventy 
 years, closed with the destruction of Port Eoyal. The Jesuits 
 were equally amazed and indignant. They could not refute 
 Arnauld, but their influence at Rome caused him to be cited 
 thither to answer for his doctrines, and not choosing to ven- 
 ture his person in Rome, he remained in concealment for 
 some twenty-five years in and about Port Royal. The liber- 
 ties of the French Church were so deeply involved in the 
 controversy as to occasion a universal interest in its progress. 
 
 The origin of M. de St Cyran's connexion with the convent 
 of Port Royal has been narrated. Shortly before his death, 
 which occurred a few months after his release from Vincennes 
 in 1643, he persuaded the Mire Angelique that it was her 
 duty to return to the valley of Chevreuse. Accordingly, she 
 and some of her nuns once more took possession of the con- 
 vent, and the recluses* withdrew to La Grange, a farm in its 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 In both convents a course of almost incredible self-denial 
 and benevolence was pursued. The excess of the nuns' 
 charity sometimes left them without food, and nearly without 
 clothing. The horrors of civil war during the Fronde, drove the 
 poor peasants of the vicinity to seek refuge from marauders 
 within the sacred walls. At one time, the church was 
 piled up to the ceiling with oats, peas, beans, and corn, the 
 dormitory and chapter-house being filled with horses, and the 
 infirmary with sick and wounded. 
 
 When these evils were in a measure subdued, the Jesuits 
 renewed their attacks. Their implacable hostility to Port 
 
 * Those who wish for a more detailed account of the recluses of Port Eoyal are 
 referred to the brilliant essay of Sir James Stephen on the Port Royalists, pub- 
 lished first in the Edinburgh Review, and afterwards reprinted in his Miscellanies. 
 
150 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Boyal had other grounds besides the attachment felt by its 
 inmates for St Cyran and the doctrines of grace. " To the 
 family of Arnauld," says Tregelles, "they appeared to have 
 a hereditary hatred, in the remembrance of the manner in 
 which the father of the Mere Angelique had acted against 
 the Jesuits in the days of their early introduction into France, 
 when, with extraordinary force and eloquence, he attacked 
 their institute, and charged home upon their order the crime 
 of the murder of Henry III." 
 
 They first accused the Port Eoyalists of despising the 
 Eucharist, using no holy water or images in their churches, 
 and praying neither to saints nor the Virgin. Protestant sym- 
 pathy with the accused would be greatly enhanced had the 
 imputations proved true, but, unhappily, there is too much 
 evidence to the contrary, even in the writings of Jaqueline 
 Pascal alone. The next onset was more skilfully managed. 
 One of their number, Father Cornet, drew up five propositions 
 from the work of Jansenius, and denounced them to the Holy 
 See as heretical opinions taught by St Cyran and Arnauld. 
 The Pope pronounced their condemnation, and the Jesuits 
 were triumphant, since the Port Eoyalists could not refuse 
 submission to his authority. But Arnauld, though he did 
 not defend the propositions, refused to abandon Jansenius, 
 and declared that he could not find the objectionable state- 
 ments in the Augustimts. The Jesuits asserted that never- 
 theless there they were, but refused to point out the para- 
 graphs containing them. Cardinal Mazarin, who now held 
 the reins of empire, favoured the Jesuits, to which order the 
 king's confessor also belonged, and the two appointed a com- 
 mittee of doctors, who decided that the propositions con- 
 demned by the Pope were in the book of Jansenius in senti- 
 ment, if not in the precise words. All the ecclesiastics and 
 religious communities in France were at once required to 
 sign an acknowledgment to that purpose. Arnauld, as his 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 151 
 
 enemies had hoped, instead of signing, published a statement 
 of his own belief in regard to the doctrines of grace, drawn 
 from St Augustine, and asserted that Jansenius had written 
 nothing more. Thus arose the question of droit and fait. 
 No one denied the Pope's right [droit) to condemn any doc- 
 trine as heretical : there were many who denied the fact 
 (fait) that the censured propositions could be found in the 
 work of Jansenius. Anne of Austria, the Queen Regent, 
 was completely under Mazarin's influence, and easily per- 
 suaded that heretics, like the Port Royalists, ought not to 
 have the charge of children. She therefore commissioned 
 her lieutenants to break up the entire establishment, and its 
 destruction seemed inevitable, but for an occurrence so extra- 
 ordinary, that one can hardly believe it in spite of the weight 
 of evidence by which it is attested. 
 
 Margaret Perier, niece of Jaqueline and Blaise Pascal, and 
 youngest daughter of M. and Mad. Perier, a child then 
 about eleven years old, at school in the convent, had for 
 three years and a half endured intense suffering from & fistula 
 lacrymalis of the most obstinate and malignant kind, and her 
 medical attendants were about, as a last resource, to cauter- 
 ise it. In the meantime, a clerical relative of the Mere 
 Angelique, who had a great fancy for collecting relics, M. de 
 la Polterie, had obtained possession of what was considered a 
 veritable splinter from the Redeemer's crown of thorns ; and 
 the ladies of Port Royal being very desirous of seeing it, a 
 day was appointed for the purpose. 
 
 We leave Jaqueline to tell the sequel in her letters to 
 Mad. Perier. She makes hardly any reference to the preced- 
 ing difficulties, or the impending persecution of Port Royal. 
 It is possible that she did not know much about them, for 
 the Constitutions direct the exclusion of worldly topics from 
 general conversation : — 
 
 " As to what is passing in the world, the Abbess can 
 
152 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 impart to the sisters such information as she thinks would be 
 serviceable in leading them to value their own advantages, to 
 feel compassion for persons in affliction, and to pray more 
 for the Church and the kingdom, that God may in mercy 
 restrain the sins and evils which provoke his righteous indig- 
 nation. But it is better for her not to enter into details. 
 These might cause too much distraction of mind, and revive 
 an interest in worldly matters, which, in accordance with our 
 Lord's injunction, ' Let the dead bury their dead,' ought not 
 to be felt." 
 
 If, however, an exception was made in Jaqueline's favour, 
 the knowledge does not seem to have troubled her. After 
 breathing the atmosphere of faith and patience so long, her 
 spiritual strength had become invigorated, and the heart 
 which once throbbed with such painful anxiety in the 
 maternal arms of Angelique, now knew no care but that of 
 performing the duties of each day aright. We are told of 
 the Mere Agnes, that " Eternity was already mirrored in her 
 soul ; for she looked only at the present moment, and neither 
 troubled herself in prospect of the future, nor in retrospect 
 of the past. The impress of eternal realities seemed to efface 
 all past events from her recollection. She was never heard 
 to speak of things that had happened to her, or that she had 
 performed. Forgetting everything that was behind, she 
 aimed only to perfect what was yet lacking in her piety.'' 
 It is more than probable that, during Jaqueline Pascal's 
 noviciate, she acquired from her preceptress the secret of that 
 unruffled composure which nothing could disturb but sin. 
 
 Letter from the nun Jaqueline to her sister Madame 
 Perier :— 
 
 " Pout Eotal, March 9, 1656. 
 
 " My vert dear Sister, — Lent will not hinder me from 
 writing you a few words, although I wrote before on Friday 
 last, since I have only good news to tell you. I think you 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THOBN. 153 
 
 are aware that our Jubilee began yesterday, and will last 
 a fortnight ; and that, among other privileges, there is to be 
 a communion-service on Sunday, April 2. I make this pre- 
 amble in order to increase the joy it will afford you to learn 
 that your eldest daughter is to be confirmed and to receive 
 the sacrament for the first time on that day. She told me 
 so this morning, and asked me to pray for her, so earnestly 
 that she wept. 
 
 " This is good news. But there is other news to be told, 
 not better indeed, but more wonderful. And, to let you 
 know the whole affair, without increase or diminution, I 
 must begin from the beginning. On Friday, March 24, 
 1656, M. de la Polterie, the clergyman, sent hither a very 
 handsome reliquary to our Mothers (having within it a 
 splinter from the holy crown of thorns, set in a little 
 sun of gilt silver), in order that the whole community 
 might enjoy the sight. Before returning it, they had it 
 placed on a little altar in the choir, and when an anthem 
 had been chanted in honour of the holy crown, each sister 
 went up and kissed it on her knees, and so did the chil- 
 dren afterwards, one by one. Sister Flavia, their governess, 
 who stood by, made a sign to Maggie (Margaret Perier), as 
 she drew near, to touch her eye with the relic, and herself 
 took it up and laid it on the sore, hardly thinking what she 
 was about. When all had retired, it was sent back to M. de 
 la Polterie. That same evening, Sister Flavia, who had for- 
 gotten the circumstance, heard Maggie saying to one of the 
 little girls, ' My eye is cured ; it does not pain me at all 
 now.' Not a little surprised, she went to the child, and 
 found that the swelling in the corner of her eye, which in 
 the morning was as thick as her own finger tip, and very 
 long and hard, had quite gone down, and the eye itself ap- 
 peared as healthy as the other, and looked precisely like it, 
 although, before the relic was applied, it was watery and pain- 
 
154 JAQUELOTB PASCAL. 
 
 fill to behold. She pressed it, and instead of discharging 
 matter (a thick water), -which it had always done before, there 
 was nothing more to be seen than in her own eye. You can 
 imagine her astonishment. However, she scarcely dared to 
 hope, and merely mentioned to Mother Agnes how the case 
 stood, waiting for time to shew if the cure were as real as it 
 appeared. Mother Agnes was kind enough to tell me about 
 it next day, and as we could not hope that so great a wonder 
 would be completed in so short a time, she said that, if the 
 child continued well, and it seemed likely that God would in 
 this way heal her, she would willingly request M. de la Pol- 
 terie to repeat the favour he had done us, in order that the 
 miracle might be completed. But hitherto it has not been 
 necessary, and a week having now elapsed (for I could not 
 finish this letter on Tuesday last) without the return of a 
 single symptom, it really needs for more faith for any one 
 who did not see her in her former state to believe that the 
 eye was diseased, than it does for those who did see her to 
 believe that nothing could have wrought so instantaneous a 
 cure, except a miracle quite as great and quite as visible as 
 the restoring of sight to a blind man. Besides the difficulty 
 in her eye, she suffered in many ways proceeding from it ; 
 she could hardly sleep at all for the pain it gave her ; there 
 were two places in her head which could not be touched 
 with a comb, because they seemed to be connected with the 
 nerves of her eye, while, only two days before, it had made 
 my own eyes water merely to look at hers, and the discharge 
 smelt very badly. Now there is nothing of the kind to be 
 seen, no more than if nothing had ailed her. However, not 
 to make too sure of so wonderful a favour without good 
 grounds, it was thought proper to send for M. Delancay, who 
 had seen her a short time before, and indeed had frequently 
 seen her since she left off using the lotion of M. de Chatillon. 
 He thought the eye so diseased that it must inevitably be 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 155 
 
 cauterised, and explained his reasons for this very clearly. 
 He will be here to-day without fail ; and, by God's help, I 
 will send you word what he thinks now, and why he was sure 
 that fire alone could effect a cure ; that is, if he come early 
 enough ; if not, I will write on Tuesday, D. V. 
 
 " It is a double mercy to be both favoured of God and 
 hated of men. Pray for us, that God may keep us from 
 being puffed up by the first, or dejected by the last, and give 
 us grace to look on both as the effect of his mercy. I am 
 particularly glad that I had nothing to do with this miracle 
 personally, because now my joy and thankfulness are un- 
 mingled with fear Farewell. 
 
 " M. Delaucay has now seen Maggie, and considers the cure 
 a perfect and miraculous one. He has appointed a week, to 
 make sure that there is no relapse. Till then, it is not to be 
 spoken of." 
 
 To Madame Perier, on the same subject : — 
 
 " Fkidat Afternoon, March 31, 1656. 
 
 " M. Delancay came this morning. . . . The state of the 
 child's eye when he saw it about two months since,* con- 
 vinced him that she must have it cauterised this very spring, 
 because delay would only allow the bone to decay still 
 further, and the consequences might be so dreadful that they 
 scarcely dared to tell me of them. It was possible that her 
 nose might fall off, and half her face be eaten away. How- 
 ever, he did not despair of curing her by means of fire, 
 neither did he feel very confident of success, but said that no 
 other earthly remedy could avail. 
 
 " When M. Delancay came, she was taken to him without 
 a word. He looked at her in equal silence, turned her 
 
 * Jaqueline enters into details of her niece's sufferings, which are too sickening 
 to bear repetition. 
 
156 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 round, pressed her eye, put his spatula into her nose, and 
 seemed greatly astonished to find nothing there. He was 
 asked if he did not rememher how diseased it was. He 
 answered with much simplicity, ' That is what I am hunting 
 for, but I cannot find it.' I begged him to look into her 
 mouth. He did so, put in his spatula, and began to laugh, 
 saying, ' There is nothing whatever here.' Thereupon my 
 sister Flavia told him what had occurred. He made her go 
 over it again, for he is a very wise and prudent man ; and 
 when he had asked if it went away at once, and the 
 child answered yes, he said that he would at any time furnish 
 a certificate that such a cure could not be wrought unless by 
 miracle. He does not affirm, any more than we do, that the 
 disease will not return, because that is known only to God ; 
 but he declares that she is perfectly free from it now, and 
 quite well. These are his own words, or their equivalent. 
 Nevertheless, he advises us to keep it quiet for the present, 
 and to restrain our grateful emotions within the convent 
 walls as much as we can, for fear of a wrong construction be- 
 ing put upon them. He did not explain himself any further, 
 but we know that he meant to say ' our hour was not yet 
 come ;' and that the words, 'This is your hour,' are appli- 
 cable to others. I earnestly desire that the rest of the verse 
 may not be so suitable as it now seems ; for everything 
 which opposes itself to the light of truth may well be called 
 darkness.* He then exhorted the child to profit by so great 
 a mercy ; and her governess told us that nothing is a more 
 convincing proof of the miracle to her than to see Maggie act 
 as if God really changed her heart, for ever since she has 
 
 been a much better girl Farewell : pray that the 
 
 Lord may graciously make my spiritual eyes very healthy, 
 pure, and clear-sighted." 
 
 * Alluding to the Jesuit persecution of Port Boyal, and their opposition to the 
 doctrine of salvation through the grace of Christ alone. 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 157 
 
 " Poet Royal, October 1i, 1656, 
 " Mt vert dear Sister, — Doubtless my brother's delight 
 has got the better of his indolence, and his account of the 
 conclusion of the miracle has preceded mine, concerning 
 which there is nothing further to be told, except that some 
 eight or ten days ago the child was examined by regular 
 surgeons in presence of the judge of the Bishop's court, 
 whither she was taken by her sister in a secular dress, and 
 that, yesterday or to-day, he pronounced a sentence of appro- 
 bation or verification (I do not know its right name) on the 
 miraculous cure. We are consequently going, on Friday 
 next, by God's help, to perform a solemn Te Deum and a 
 special mass of thanksgiving. The child will hold a lighted 
 taper in the outer church. We shall thus attempt to display 
 in part the gratitude that God enables us to feel at heart 
 for so marvellous an interposition It is the pre- 
 rogative of God alone to act as God, in bringing the greatest 
 good out of the greatest evil, and the deepest joy out of the 
 heaviest cross. Let us implore him to dispose us always to 
 allow ourselves to be led blindfolded by so certain a guide." 
 
 Extract of another letter to Mad. Perier : — 
 
 " Poet Eotal, October 30, 1656. 
 " Mt vert dear Sister, — My brother will not fail to send 
 you several printed copies of the sentence pronounced by the 
 Grand Vicar, and you will thereby see that we were com- 
 manded to chant a mass of thanksgiving on Friday the 27th 
 instant. The celebration began on the evening before, by 
 our singing hymns on the holy crown ; and on Friday the 
 usual services were doubled, and we sang every hour, the 
 choristers remaining in the choir, as is the custom on days 
 of high festival. To complete the whole, my little sister 
 Marguerite (we no longer call her Maggie) was in the choir 
 
158 JAQUELDTE PASCAL. 
 
 among the novices, because the celebration was held on her 
 account, although the little girls are not often admitted. 
 Early in the morning the church was crowded, in spite of a 
 heavy rain. There was a little altar erected in our choir 
 near the grating, which was left open. It was dressed in 
 white, and covered with a handsome calico veil, on which our 
 Mother placed the reliquary containing the holy thorn, with 
 a great many lights around it. From this altar the Grand 
 Vicar came to take it up, carrying the crucifix himself, while 
 sixteen deacons accompanied him, bearing wax tapers. He 
 bore it thence, covered with a canopy, as in the procession 
 of the holy communion, to the High Altar, two deacons 
 carrying incense before it, and there deposited it on a little 
 decorated stand, made expressly for the purpose. Meanwhile 
 all the nuns, with their long veils lowered, chanted the hymn 
 Exite Filice Sion, and the anthem Corona, kneeling behind 
 the grating, and each holding a lighted taper ; so did the 
 child herself, who knelt before the rails in front of our choir, 
 dressed very neatly and modestly in a gray frock and hood. 
 She had two large cushions to kneel on, in order to be high 
 enough for the people to see her, and they crowded and 
 climbed about wherever they could, so as to get a good view. 
 Then the altar was removed from the choir, and the Grand 
 Vicar said high mass. The chanting to the holy crown was 
 very solemn, and the middle of the grating was left open, 
 that the congregation might have the comfort of beholding 
 the child, who was placed in front on a desk covered with a 
 carpet, having a lighted taper before her, and a chair to sit 
 on when she wished. She remained there as calmly as if it 
 had been her accustomed place, and knelt and rose at the 
 proper time, with as much modesty and grace as if she had 
 had long training The weather cleared during the cere- 
 mony, and the church was not empty during the whole day. 
 So many copies of the Vicar's sentence were sold, at a sou 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 159 
 
 each, that a hundred francs were taken merely in the court 
 before the church. I have neither time nor ability to speak 
 of my own feelings on the occasion ; you will appreciate 
 them by your own. That which belongs to God is inexpres- 
 sible, and taught far better by experience than words. Let 
 us beseech him to enable us never to forget this marvellous 
 cure, and not to let time efface its impression from our 
 hearts. It will be no less astonishing ten years hence than 
 it is now, to think of such a disease being instantaneously 
 healed. I am forced to leave off, having but one drop of ink 
 left to say that Madame Daumont, who is very kind to us 
 all, sends you the portrait of our little sister Marguerite in 
 copperplate, feeling sure that it would give you pleasure. 
 It has touched the holy thorn. Adieu,'' &c. 
 
 The question of the origin of the miracle we do not pro- 
 pose to discuss. Its authenticity was folly established, not 
 merely by the surgeons who first witnessed the cure, but by 
 a special investigation, conducted through M. Felix, the king's 
 head surgeon, at the request of Anne of Austria, who, dis- 
 liking the Jansenists, would have rejoiced to see the miracle 
 disproved. But the queen-mother dared not resist the 
 weight of evidence, nor proceed in her designs against a 
 convent on which she was convinced that Heaven had set 
 its approving seal. She therefore recalled her lieutenant, 
 suspended her threatened penalties, and Port Royal remained 
 in peace. The gratitude of its inmates must be left to the 
 imagination, for so inevitable had their destruction appeared, 
 that the then Abbess, Madame Suireau des Agnes, shut her- 
 self up in her cell, and did nothing by day or night but lift 
 up her heart to God, knowing that no hope of human help 
 was left her. 
 
 Jaqueline Pascal vented the exuberance of her joy in a 
 long poem, and Port Royal, relaxing from its severe prohibi- 
 
160 JAQUELQJE PASCAL. 
 
 tion of poetry, permitted the verses to be published. Sir 
 James Stephen remarks that " time must be at some dis- 
 count with any man who should employ it in adjusting the 
 balance of improbabilities in the case of the Holy Thorn." 
 The same may be said of any one attempting to translate the 
 tedious stanzas in which Jaqueline, to use her own expres- 
 sion, " satisfied the impetuosity of a zeal whose warmth for- 
 bade her to be silent." 
 
 The appearance of the Provincial Letters was nearly simul- 
 taneous with the miracle. As Pascal, after his conversion, 
 remained firm in his determination to forsake the world, it 
 soon forsook him. He passed much of his time in prayer,* 
 and in reading the Scriptures with such diligence that he 
 appeared to know the whole Bible by heart, could at once 
 detect any misquotation, and decide whether or not a doc- 
 trine was to be found there, and if so, in what place. He 
 also read good commentaries ; and, while the main object of 
 his studies was personal edification and growth in grace, he 
 was no stranger to the more abstruse questions of predesti- 
 nation and man's free-will. He had but little acquaintance 
 with the tenets of the Reformation, and shared the preju- 
 dices of Port Royal against heretics, being quite unaware 
 how nearly his own belief agreed with theirs. His early 
 reverence for religion had changed into a tender yet glowing 
 love for its truths, and this love urged him into an unflinch- 
 ing contest with everything that opposed them. None, 
 therefore, need marvel at suddenly beholding him on the 
 battle-field, where, with invisible yet potent arm, he dealt 
 out such vigorous blows, that the scattered, down-trodden 
 remnant of JansenistB again rallied, and spread dismay 
 among the ranks of their foes. 
 
 * It is a fact worthy of notice that those Christians who, like Luther, have been 
 most renowned for enduring usefulness in action or in writing, have invariably 
 devoted the best part of the day to prayer and pious meditation on the Word of 
 God. — Reitchlm. 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 161 
 
 Margaret Perier, in her Memoirs, gives the following 
 account of the origin and mode of publication of the famous 
 Letters : — 
 
 " It was M. Pascal who, in 1 656, attacked the Jesuit mor- 
 ality, and this is how he came to do it. He had gone to Port 
 Royal des Champs, for the purpose of passing some time in 
 retirement, as he often did. The Sorbonne was then busy 
 with the condemnation of M. Arnauld, who was likewise at 
 Port Royal. The gentlemen there all begged him to write in 
 his own defence, saying, ' Are you going to let yourself be 
 condemned like a child, that has nothing to say for itself ? ' 
 He wrote, therefore, and read his production to them all, but 
 no one gave it any praise. M. Arnauld, who did not covet 
 applause, then said : ' I see very clearly that you think this 
 a poor performance, and I believe you are in the right ;' and, 
 turning to M. Pascal, he added, ' But you, who are young, 
 ought to do something.' M. Pascal wrote the first Provin- 
 cial Letter, and read it to them. M. Arnauld cried, ' That is 
 excellent ; every one will like it ; it must be printed.' This 
 was done ; the success it had is well known, and the work 
 went on. M. Pascal, who rented a house in Paris, went to 
 an inn where he was not known, and remained there at work, 
 under the name of M. de Mons. It was at the sign of King 
 David, in the Rue des Poiriers, just opposite the College of 
 Clermont, now called the College of Louis the Great. M, 
 Perier, his brother-in-law, who was then in Paris, took lodg- 
 ings in the same inn, as a stranger from the country, not 
 letting the relationship be known. Father Dufretal, a Jesuit, 
 related both to M. Pascal and M. Perier, called on the latter, 
 and told him that, being a relative, he was glad to be able to 
 give him warning, that the Society of Jesuits were firmly 
 persuaded that M. Pascal, his brother-in-law, was the author 
 of those little letters against them which had such a run in 
 Paris, and that M. Perier would do well to warn him, and 
 
 L 
 
162 JAQUBLDTE PASCAL. 
 
 advise him to stop writing them, or he might find himself in 
 trouble. M. Perier thanked him, but said it would be a 
 useless task, for M. Pascal would answer that he could not 
 help their suspicions, since, if he were to disavow the author- 
 ship, they would not believe him, and therefore, if they chose 
 to suspect him, there was no remedy. The Jesuit then went 
 away, repeating that he ought to be warned and to beware. 
 M. Perier was greatly relieved by his departure, for there was 
 at that very time a score of copies of the seventh or eighth 
 letter spread out upon his bed to dry. Luckily the curtains 
 were drawn, and a Jesuit brother, who had accompanied 
 Father Dufretal, and sat near the bed, did not perceive it. 
 M. Perier immediately ran up-stairs to tell M. Pascal, whose 
 room was overhead, though the Jesuits had no idea of his 
 being so near them." 
 
 "The immortal Provincials," called by the exasperated 
 Jesuits " the immortal Ears" were printed in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the Jesuits' College, where it was rightly 
 supposed that no one would dream of discovering the author. 
 Their circulation was immense, and the effect prodigious. 
 The Chancellor, a warm ally of the Jesuits, became so 
 enraged, that it was necessary for him to be let blood seven 
 times ; a remedy applied in those days to all sorts of disease, 
 whether of the mind or body. The secret intrigues of Port 
 Eoyal had long been complained of by their opponents, but 
 the latter now saw themselves the objects of a more danger- 
 ous though an open attack, directed by a chieftain at once 
 skilful and unseen. 
 
 The first letter was dated January 23, 1656. The country 
 friend to whom Louis de Montalte (the assumed name of 
 Pascal*) imparted such lively comments on Parisian Church 
 
 * And an allusion, probably, to the high mountains of his native Auvergne. 
 One of those lofty eminences, the Puy de Dome, was connected with the decisive 
 experiments also as to his own discovery of the pressure of the atmosphere. 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 163 
 
 affairs, is supposed to have been his brother-in-law, Mons. 
 Perier. The Port Boyalists had at first some scruples con- 
 cerning the lawfulness of using the carnal weapons of satire 
 and wit against the enemies of truth. Singlin, in particular, 
 felt that merriment was out of place when applied to reli- 
 gious subjects. Success, however, proved in this case the 
 test of propriety as well as genius, and all at length acqui- 
 esced in the employment of measures both innocent in them- 
 selves, and more than sanctified by the result. " There is 
 something sublime," says Eeuchlin, " in mirth amidst the 
 fearful perils then threatening the little flock of Port Eoyal. 
 The man who can jest when his vessel is foundering, either 
 must be godless — or his confidence in God must be strong 
 indeed." 
 
 Yet Pascal, while relying on God's help and cheerfully 
 doing battle for the right, looked well to the fastenings of his 
 armour. Perfect as was his mastery of style,* he was so 
 anxious that every word should be well chosen and effective, 
 as in one instance to have re- written a letter (the 18th) thir- 
 teen times. The end attained was well worth the labour. 
 
 As to their contents, they are thus characterised by Tre- 
 gelles : — 
 
 " In these remarkable letters, Pascal shewed with extraor- 
 dinary force how narrow the question really was — whether 
 five propositions are in the Augustinus or not — when no one 
 had there pointed them out ; he shewed by what unworthy 
 compromises the condemnation of Arnauld had been obtained, 
 and, besides touching on doctrinal points which were involved, 
 he firmly and manfully attacked the shameless casuistry of 
 the Jesuits. These letters had a wonderful efficiency, for 
 their power was felt even by those who had no apprehension 
 
 * That exquisitely natural style, so identified with the writer's soul, that it may 
 be characterised as Thought herself, robed in her own chaste nudity, like an an- 
 tique statue. — Fatjg£re. 
 
164 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 of the present subjects of controversy. Pascal gave such 
 extracts from the approved writings of the order as filled men 
 with amazement. At first he printed them without referring 
 to the works cited : the Jesuits denied such abominable 
 opinions to be maintained by their approved writers. Pascal 
 then pointed out the places from which he had quoted. The 
 discovery ought to have covered the Jesuits with confusion ; 
 but, by way of answer, they cried out that the writer of the 
 letters was a heretic, and that a heretic must not be believed." 
 
 The epistles of Jaqueline more than once refer to the Pro- 
 vincial Letters. We may therefore conclude that the nuns 
 were allowed to hear them, and perhaps for once, despite St 
 Benedict, to indulge in the luxury of a hearty laugh. 
 
 Before we arrive at the period of the persecution and the 
 stormy close of Jaqueline's life, several interesting letters de- 
 mand attention. One is addressed to her nieces Jaqueline 
 and Margaret Perier, then at Port Royal de Paris, and is be^ 
 lieved by M. Cousin to be the only specimen of her hand- 
 writing now extant. He obtained it from M. Hecquet d'Orval, 
 the descendant of M. Hecquet, a celebrated Jansenist physi- 
 cian of the seventeenth century : — 
 
 " To my dear sisters Marie Jaqueline and Margaret Euphe- 
 mie Perier : — 
 
 " Port Royal des Champs, 
 " February 10, 1660. 
 
 " My vert dbab Nieces, — You have so much reason to 
 complain of me that I cannot find any excuse for myself. It 
 will therefore be a shorter way to ask the forgiveness which 
 I doubt not you will grant; for if I were to bring forward 
 some excuse that was not exactly true, I should both injure 
 myself and set you a very bad example. 
 
 " I hope my delay in writing has not made you forget 
 your promise to pray for me often, for you have been taught 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THORN. 165 
 
 too carefully to be capable of rendering evil for evil. For 
 which reason, though you have cause to imagine I had for-, 
 gotten you, I cannot think that you have wished to do the same 
 by me. If you had, you would have done me a great injus^ 
 tice ; for I can assure you, my dear sisters, that it seems to me 
 as if I could forget myself ere I forget you, and the less I 
 testify my love for you, the more I feel it. For, as love is a 
 fire burning in the heart, it must of necessity be active, 
 and when it has no outward vent, the flame is concentrated 
 within, that is, provided weakness or dulness be not the 
 occasion of its ceasing to appear outwardly. In that case the 
 warmth unquestionably lessens as the flame goes down, like a 
 fire which has no draught, and is suffered to go out for lack 
 of fuel. But I feel as though I could unhesitatingly assure 
 you that my love for you is not of this nature. It rather 
 resembles a fire closely packed together, which diffuses all 
 the more heat, because it does not waste its strength over a 
 large surface. See, my dear sisters, how I have unconsciously 
 allowed my pen to run on in assuring you how much I love 
 you. I pray to our Lord that he may kindle his holy love in 
 all our hearts, and make it the sole source of the love we feel 
 for one another j for, without this, that love would only be 
 a carnal friendship, and would not benefit us. 
 
 " I know that you will try to love me in this way ; but 
 since I do not believe you are as yet sufficiently advanced to 
 obtain from God whatever you ask, I entreat you to procure 
 for me the prayers of my sister Flavia, whom you must 
 assure of my regard, as well as those of your other mistresses, 
 if our Mother is willing to allow you, and also to salute them 
 from me. Good-bye, my dear sisters : I am entirely yours, in 
 Him who is our All, and in whose presence we are nothing. 
 Pray to him that I may be made worthy to pray for you. 
 
 " S. J. de St Euphemie, 
 " Use. Ide. (religieuse indigne), an unworthy nun.'' 
 
166 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 The sister Ang61ique de St Jean was about a year older 
 than Jaqueline Pascal. Being a daughter of Eobert Arnauld 
 d'Andilly, and therefore niece to the Abbesses Angelique and 
 Agnes, she was brought up under their care from early child- 
 hood. Her wonderful genius and penetrating intellect caused 
 them often to recommend her to the prayers of their friends 
 in these terms : " Ask that God may fill her with his Holy 
 Spirit, for if she does not do good, she will do a great deal of 
 harm. She took the veil at the age of seventeen, and became 
 one of the brightest lights of Port Royal, being very pious 
 and lowly-minded as well as intelligent. She seems to 
 have possessed the true artistic temperament, evidenced both 
 by her early skill in modelling, and the glowing, yet life-like, 
 tone in which her contributions to the History of Port Royal 
 are written. Her Character of the Abbess Agnes is almost a 
 poem, and her own history was poetry in action. She stood 
 foremost among those nuns whom the enraged Archbishop of 
 Paris styled " pure as angels, yet proud as devils," and bore 
 a long captivity with dauntless fortitude. Her Memoirs of 
 the Persecution form one of the most touching chapters in 
 the annals of feminine endurance for the sake of truth. 
 After having been twice Abbess, she died in 1684, at the age 
 of fifty-nine, from grief at the death of her cousin and spiri- 
 tual guide, M. de Saci, whom she only survived three weeks. 
 
 In 1659 she was sent to Port Royal de Paris to fill the 
 office of Sub-prioress and Mistress of the Novices there, which 
 was Jaqueline Pascal's post at Port Royal des Champs. 
 During her absence, her younger sister, who had taken the 
 veil under the name of Anne Marie de Sainte Eugenie, died, 
 and Jaqueline on the same day despatched to Ang€lique de 
 St Jean the following account of her last moments : — 
 
 " My vert dear Sister, — You would have a right to com- 
 plain of me, if I did not attempt to give you some comfort 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLY THORN. 167 
 
 in our mutual loss of that poor child. I hardly know any- 
 thing that would pain me more than her past sufferings and 
 the sad separation have done. Yet both are so mingled with 
 consolation, that it is difficult to say which is the stronger 
 and more justifiable feeling, — my grief for the loss of one who 
 seemed nearer to me than if she had been a relative, or my 
 joy and gratitude for the grace of God manifested towards 
 one for whom I was bound to implore it. Her holy frame 
 of mind was more especially displayed when her illness was 
 at its height. It seems as if God had prolonged her life, 
 against all likelihood, for the last week, only to shew us 
 what his grace had effected. She did not really think that 
 she should not recover, until two hours before her death, and 
 this shews that her piety was genuine, and did not arise from 
 a sense of immediate danger. For she expected to recover, 
 though she did not desire it, and indeed rather wished for 
 death than feared it, especially since M. Singlin's last visit. 
 
 " The poor child, feeling very ill, went to the communion 
 as a sick person, a little fearful how so violent an attack 
 might terminate, but otherwise in a very happy frame, for 
 it delighted her to think that her illness was sent as a 
 chastisement ; and her greatest alarm, next to the fear of 
 death, was lest she might not be made better by it, or might 
 not endure it with sufficient patience. God graciously 
 removed from her afterwards all fear of death, and every 
 reason for her other fears, for she was so gentle and good a 
 patient, that all who attended on her were greatly edified. 
 
 " And we may believe this to have been the work of grace 
 rather than the effect of bodily weakness, because on Monday 
 week I perceived that she had strong objections to swallow- 
 ing a drink, which, to all appearance, was the only thing that 
 kept her alive from that time until to-day, and that, while 
 she drank water to quench her thirst very eagerly, she only 
 took the medicine by drops. I said to her, very gently, that 
 
168 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 since God had sent this illness as a chastisement, she ought 
 to aid its effect by -willingly submitting to all the remedies 
 which necessarily accompanied it. 
 
 " This impressed her so forcibly, that ever afterwards she 
 took whatever was offered her, and could not bear to have 
 any one pity her, but would overcome the great pain it gave 
 her to speak, in order to say that her sufferings were no- 
 thing, and not worthy to be compared with those of many 
 other persons. She shewed to the last a deep gratitude for 
 everything that was done for her, and her humility was such 
 that she really felt herself to deserve nothing. She often 
 complained that her weakness prevented her from praying 
 to God ; and yesterday she asked me very earnestly if she 
 ought not to repeat at least one of the daily prayers. I 
 answered that her illness was sufficient excuse ; but she said, 
 with a sigh, ' That would be true if I bore it properly, but 
 I am so sinful;' and then she confessed some trifling 
 impatience. I told her that the illness which produced 
 these faults was their apology, and that, as to her devotions, 
 she need only lift up her heart to God when she remembered 
 it was prayer-time. This gave her peace, or, I should say, 
 kept her in peace, for her peace, thank God, was unin- 
 terrupted. 
 
 " She confessed yesterday evening, but we did not think 
 her so near her end. I believe that her mind was singularly 
 collected during confession. The last time that she saw M. 
 Singlin she spoke quite as freely and intelligently as she had 
 ever done, and this morning she seemed so bright and talked 
 so readily, that I was never more surprised than on hearing 
 after mass that the death-rattle had begun. We hurried to 
 her at once, and found her commencing the last agony, but 
 so conscious, that I was terribly alarmed lest she should be 
 troubled at the approach of death. But God was more 
 gracious to her than I had dared to hope. 
 
JANSENISM AND THE HOLT THOEN. 169 
 
 " Neither the Mother Prioress nor I left her again, and it 
 comforted her greatly when from time to time we repeated 
 something to lift her thoughts to God. About noon, she 
 turned to me, and knowing that I was grieved to see her 
 suffer, she said, ' Your poor child is very sick.' I answered, 
 ' Yes, she suffers greatly,' for she was shivering from head to 
 foot. She replied, ' True, but it is nothing, if I could only 
 hope to be pardoned.' I tried to encourage her, and in a 
 little while she said, ' What a comfort it is to die under your 
 care !' This convinced me that she was aware of her situa- 
 tion, and I told her that the Superior had gone to fetch M. 
 de Saci. She seemed very glad, and soon after said, ' M. de 
 Saci does not come ;' then, correcting herself, she told us not 
 to hurry him, lest it should be inconvenient. However, I 
 sent for him again, seeing that she was rapidly sinking. 
 
 " While they were gone for M. de Saci, she said, ' You had 
 better begin the prayers,' which I did. The poor child made 
 all the responses, kissing the crucifix which she held. Her 
 pulse grew stronger, and thinking that it might continue so, 
 M. de Saci and the community retired. Then I asked her 
 if she had not firm faith in God's mercy. She replied with 
 deep feeling, ' I do not know whether I am worthy to have 
 faith in it.' I told her that we could not trust his mercy 
 too fully, because it is infinite. She understood me perfectly. 
 Afterwards I asked if she were not very glad to die a nun, 
 and she attempted to manifest her great gratitude for such 
 favour. Shortly after, the Mother Prioress repeated a prayer, 
 to which she listened attentively. Seeing her fail so fast, we 
 thought she ought to receive the communion once more, 
 though she had taken it and undergone extreme unction on 
 the fourteenth day of her sickness. She shewed a strong 
 desire to do so, and I believe her last words were on this 
 subject ; for, immediately afterwards, while the room was 
 being prepared, she was struck with death so suddenly, that 
 
170 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 we had hardly time to call M. de Saci and the community, 
 and they had but just entered the room, when her breath 
 ceased so gently that we could scarcely perceive it. 
 
 " These, dear sister, are great reasons for consolation, or 
 they seem so to me. I have no time to add more, because 
 the letters are called for." — From Port Royal des Champs, Oct. 
 7, 1660. 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 171 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 f mmtta n& jpaifr. 
 
 The last letters written by Jaqueline to her brother and 
 Madame Perier are very cheerful in their tone, although, as 
 we see, the multitude of her cares in the Noviciate had 
 prevented her from wishing Pascal a happy new-year until 
 November : — 
 
 " November 16, 1660. 
 " Good morning and a happy new-year to you, my dearest 
 brother, for you will not doubt my having wished you this 
 most cordially when the year began, though I could not tell 
 you so until its close. I dare say you wonder at my men- 
 tioning it at all, but it is right that the wish should end where 
 it began, and I assure you that my complete dedication of 
 this year to God has not robbed you of anything you had 
 reason to expect from me, for I have prayed for you con- 
 tinually. Oh, when I think how peacefully this season of 
 separation, which we naturally expected would prove so pain- 
 ful, has passed away, and how swiftly this year has fled, time 
 seems of such small importance that I cannot help longing 
 for eternity ! But I am not going on with so extensive a train 
 
 of thought, which I indeed commenced unintentionally 
 
 To yourself I say nothing ; you ought to judge of my love 
 by your own, and to be certain that I am entirely yours in 
 Him who has united us more closely in the bonds of grace 
 than in those of nature." 
 
172 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Early in the following year she congratulated Mad. Perier 
 on the youthful piety of her two daughters and her eldest 
 son, Etienne Perier.* The latter was born at Rouen, and 
 educated under the eye of his grandfather Pascal until the 
 latter's death, when he was sent to school at Port Royal. 
 Like the rest of the family, he shewed great precocity of 
 intellect. Margaret Perier relates that when he was hardly 
 five years old, and his mother was one day trying to teach 
 him from the catechism that God is a Spirit, and has neither 
 beginning nor end, he observed, " I can understand how God 
 has no end, but not how it is that he never had a beginning." 
 Madame Perier told him that it was nevertheless a truth 
 which all persons were required to believe whether they 
 understood it or not. " Will the saints understand it in 
 heaven 1 " asked the child. She replied that in heaven the 
 saints are to see God as he is, and to know him perfectly. 
 " What a great reward !" was the answer of the infant meta- 
 physician. 
 
 TO MADAME PERIEB. 
 
 " POKT KoYAL DES CHAMPS, 
 
 " March 24, 1661. 
 " The retirement of this season of the year may prevent me 
 from sending you a full letter, dear sister, but cannot excuse 
 me from writing at all, because I have only to communicate 
 what is holy, namely, the effects of God's mercy, of which we 
 have already had an earnest. For you know that bodily 
 healing is but an instalment of good, a token, so to speak, 
 
 * Etienne Perier did not ultimately fulfil the "wishes and prayers of his aunt, by 
 embracing a monastic life, although his piety was undoubted. Having been 
 driven, together with their other pupils, from the schools of the recluses, when 
 persecution broke these up, he afterwards turned his attention to mathematics 
 and the bar, succeeded his father as Counsellor of the Court of Excise at Clermont, 
 was married in 1678, and died two years afterwards. 
 
 He held all the opinions of his uncle Pascal, took an active part in the arrange- 
 ment of the PmsSes, and wrote the preface. 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 173 
 
 worth far more than it is in itself. This is beginning to prove 
 true in a double sense, for while the wonderful miracle only 
 cured one of your daughters, we have now reason to hope that 
 both will be secured from the evil that is in the world. The 
 elder has spoken admirably to M. de Eebours, and as for the 
 younger, she is so devout, that if her state of mind continues, 
 we shall not be able to help admitting her among the novices 
 at an earlier age than usual, if, as I suppose, you and her 
 father both intend to give her up to God. She says that her 
 miracle is an especial privilege, and we can hardly avoid the 
 same conclusion. And your eldest son, too, has been to see 
 M. Singlin, and opened his mind to him, saying that he is 
 quite disgusted with the world, and only desires to enter upon 
 a religious life. M. Singlin did his best to try him, even telling 
 him that his father was so excellent a man and so great a 
 j udge, that it was to be hoped he would follow in his steps, 
 and that to dispense justice rightly was a service well-pleasing 
 to God. But this consideration did not move him in the 
 least then, and still less afterwards ; for M. Singlin, seeing him 
 so firm, took his part, and encouraged him to the best of his 
 ability in his design, which is very good. He means to live 
 with M. de Tillemont* and M. du Fosse, who are two of the 
 best people that can be found anywhere. M. Singlin ordered 
 me to write you word of this, notwithstanding Lent, that you 
 and his father may both rejoice and give thanks to God," &c. 
 
 While the arrows of the Provincial Letters were penetrat- 
 ing even to the remotest parts of the kingdom, and rousing 
 all who had any ground of complaint against the Jesuits, to 
 take part in the onset against them, headed by Pascal, the 
 new Gideon, that knew not St Cyran ; while the provincial 
 
 * A good Jansenisfc, one of the greatest names among all the writers of ecclesias- 
 tical history, and of whose exact and profound remarks the infidel Gibbon makes 
 large and constant use. 
 
174 JAQUELDfB PASCAL. 
 
 assemblies of clergymen originally convened in opposition 
 to the "fait " of the five propositions, were openly censuring 
 the Jesuit morality ; and while the disciples of Loyola had 
 much ado to stand their ground in the provinces, — in Paris 
 they were already meditating a decisive blow at Port Royal. 
 The brief respite procured by the holy thorn expired with 
 the death of Mazarin and the authority of Anne of Austria. 
 The young king, Louis XIV., had been trained up in the 
 abhorrence of Jansenism, and at his command a synod of 
 French clergy drew up an anti-Jansenist test, to be taken by 
 all ecclesiastics and communities, from which there was no 
 escape. All were required, under penalties of extreme se- 
 verity, to sign a declaration that the five heretical proposi- 
 tions were to be found in the book of Jansenius, with no 
 exception on behalf of those who had never seen the volumes, 
 or who could not read Latin. 
 
 The formulary ran thus : — 
 
 " I sincerely submit to the constitution of Pope Innocent 
 X., of May 31, 1653, according to its true sense, as defined 
 by the constitution of our holy Father, Pope Alexander VII., 
 of October 16, 1656. I acknowledge myself bound in con- 
 science to obey this constitution, and I condemn, from my 
 heart, and with my mouth, the doctrine of the five proposi- 
 tions of Cornelius Jansenius, which are contained in the book 
 entitled Augustinus, which both these popes and the bishops 
 have condemned ; and this doctrine is not of St Augustine, 
 which Jansenius has falsely set forth, but contrary to the true 
 sense of the holy doctor." 
 
 It was of course impossible for the Port Royalists to sign 
 such a document, and their crafty enemies, the Jesuits, were 
 not likely to grant them any quarter. 
 
 " Persecution," says Tregelles, " now commenced in earnest. 
 The dungeons of the Bastile were crowded with those who 
 refused to violate their consciences by subscribing what they 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 
 
 175 
 
 did not believe. The very passages of the fortress were occu- 
 pied by prisoners. M. de Saci, the nephew of the Mere 
 Angelique, carried on during this imprisonment his well- 
 known version of the Holy Scriptures. Henri Arnauld, 
 Bishop of Anjou, and three other bishops, refused to accept 
 the formulary, let the consequences be what they might. 
 But it was upon Port Eoyal that the principal fury of the 
 tempest discharged itself." 
 
 In April 1661, an order from the court enjoined the two 
 recusant convents to send all their scholars and novices back 
 to the families from whence they came. The MSre Angg- 
 lique, then at an advanced age, and suffering from the disease 
 (dropsy) of which she soon afterwards died, took a solemn 
 farewell of the nuns at Port Eoyal des Champs, and removed 
 to Paris, in order to be present at the dispersion, saying, as 
 she stepped into the carriage, to her brother M. d'Andilly, 
 who was standing by, " Farewell, brother, keep up a good 
 heart, let what will happen." He answered, " Fear nothing, 
 sister, I am full of courage." " Yet let us be humble," said 
 she, " remembering that humility without firmness is cowar- 
 dice, but courage without humility is presumption." 
 
 Terrible was the struggle of parting in both houses, 
 although the Abbesses did all they could to inspire faith and 
 fortitude in the hearts of their charge, and set an example 
 of mingled courage and submission themselves. On her 
 arrival in Paris, Angglique had the pain of seeing seventy- 
 five scholars, novices, and postulants, removed by force from 
 the shelter of Port Eoyal. 
 
 Jaqueline and Margaret Perier were sent to their mother, 
 who was then living in the Eue St Etienne du Mont, Paris, 
 and their aunt soon afterwards wrote them a letter of con- 
 solation and warning, advising them to retire as much as 
 possible from society. " I do not," she says, " mean you to 
 be discourteous, nor to seclude yourselves entirely, but to 
 
176 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 seek retirement when not absolutely obliged to mingle in 
 society, and when you are, to snatch a few moments fre- 
 quently for communion with God." 
 
 The nuns were soon exposed to personal trials. One of 
 the Grand Vicars of the Archbishopric of Paris was sent to 
 Port Royal for the purpose of questioning them as to their 
 belief. Jaqueline wrote down the details of her own exami- 
 nation, which were afterwards published in the History of tJie 
 Persecutions of the Port Royalist Nuns : — 
 
 " After asking my name, and praising Saint Euphemia 
 very highly, he (the Commissioner) inquired if I had not 
 perceived a change in the doctrines inculcated in the con- 
 vent since my. residence there. I told him that I had not 
 been an inmate very long, and could only say that nothing 
 had been said to me on matters of faith which I had not 
 learned in my childhood. 
 
 " Question. Did you, when a child, learn that Jesus Christ 
 died for all men 1 
 
 " Answer. I do not recollect that it was so stated in my 
 catechism. 
 
 " Q. Since your residence here, have you been taught any- 
 thing on this subject ? 
 
 "A. No. 
 
 " Q. What is your own opinion 1 
 
 " A. I am not accustomed to dive into matters uncon- 
 nected with duty, but it seems to me that we ought to believe 
 that Christ died for all men, for I remember some lines in a 
 volume of devotion, which I owned before I took the veil, 
 and have kept ever since, where, addressing our Saviour, it 
 says : ' For the salvation of all men, thou didst humble thy- 
 self to be born of a virgin.' 
 
 " He smiled a little at this, and said, ' Very good ; but 
 how comes it then that so many are lost eternally 1 ' 
 
 " A. I confess to you, sir, that this thought often troubles 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH- 177 
 
 me, and when I am praying, especially if kneeling before 
 a crucifix, and it recurs to me, I cannot help saying in- 
 ternally to our Lord, ' my God ! how can it be, after all 
 thou hast done for us, that so many souls should miserably 
 perish ? But when these thoughts come, I repress them, 
 not daring to pry into the secrets of God, and I find satisfac- 
 tion in praying for sinners. He replied : ' That is quite 
 right, my daughter. What books do you read 1 ' 
 
 " A. At present, St Basil on Morality, which has lately 
 been translated, but more often my rule (the rule of St 
 Benedict). 
 
 " Q. How are you occupied ? 
 
 " A. Before the novices and candidates for the veil were 
 removed, I took the charge of those who were here. But 
 now the number is limited to a few nuns, a novice, and some 
 lay sisters. 
 
 " Q. It was a hard trial for you when the novices were 
 removed, was it not ? In answer to this, I enlarged consider- 
 ably, not shewing any resentment, but dwelling on the grief 
 fJiey felt, and the dangers to which they were exposed in the 
 world. This seemed to touch him also, and then he said : 
 ' Do you teach your novices that Christ died for all men, and 
 the reason why some men are holy and others wicked ? ' 
 
 " A. As I avoid puzzling myself with these topics, it is 
 not likely that I should seek to puzzle them. On the con- 
 trary, I try to have them as simple-minded as possible. He 
 answered : ' That is right. And do you teach them that they 
 alone are to blame when they do wrong 1 Or do you not 
 believe this yourself 1 ' 
 
 " A. Yes, sir ; and I know it by my own experience. I 
 assure you that when I commit a fault, I blame no one but 
 myself, and for this reason I endeavour to repent and atone 
 for it. He said, ' You are right, and God be praised for it. 
 I believe you are speaking to me in all sincerity 1 ' 
 
 M 
 
178 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 " A. Yes, sir, as in the sight of God. 
 
 " He added : ' I believe you, and God's name be praised 
 that it is so. My daughter, always maintain this belief, 
 ■whatever you may hear, and teach it to the novices. I thank 
 God with my whole heart for having kept you from error ; 
 for it is really horrible that any man should be found to 
 teach that God draws some from the corrupt mass, and leaves 
 others to perish as it pleases him. It is horrible. God be 
 praised that you have not fallen into this great error. Have 
 you no complaints to make 1 ' 
 
 " A. No, sir ; by God's grace, I am quite contented. He 
 said, ' That is wonderful ; I sometimes meet with nuns who 
 keep me two whole hours listening to their complainings, but 
 I find nothing of the sort here.' 
 
 "A. It is true, sir, that by the grace of God we do live in 
 great peace and harmony. I think it is because each one 
 does her own duty, not meddling with that of others. He 
 exclaimed, ' Ah, that is indeed a blessing, God be praised for 
 it, my daughter. Send me the sister next in order to your- 
 self.' " 
 
 " Every effort that could be devised was put forth to make 
 the nuns sign the formulary. How could they be so obsti- 
 nate in their own opinions — to the matter in question — 
 whether certain propositions are in a book or not — such 
 that it should be treated as one of great importance ? Why 
 should such a point be made about upholding the writings 
 and opinions of one man 1 
 
 " The replies to these considerations were simple and easy. 
 It was not the magnitude of the point at issue, but its truth, 
 that gave it its importance. They did not believe the pro- 
 positions were in Jansenius, they could not therefore declare 
 them to be there : they did not believe that Jansenius had 
 misrepresented St Augustine, nor could they on such grounds 
 say that he had done so. And as to maintaining one person's 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 179 
 
 opinions, they could only say that they had not raised the 
 controversy, but those who had impugned Jansenius. As to 
 themselves personally, the nuns stated that the work of Jan- 
 senius being in Latin, they could not declare on oath what 
 its contents might be, for they had not even read it ; they 
 knew, however, that no one had pointed out the propositions, 
 as condemned, in the work itself." * 
 
 Meanwhile, Arnauld and the other men of note belonging 
 to the Jansenist party held many consultations on the best 
 method of evading the snare so craftily laid for them by the 
 Jesuits. Their dilemma was cruelly painful. If, by signing 
 the formulary, they asserted that the five propositions were 
 in the Augustinus, they would be guilty of falsehood ; and, 
 on the other hand, if they refused to sign, the destruction of 
 the convents was inevitable, and the helpless nuns must 
 become the first victims. 
 
 The suggestion of a compromise was, therefore, eagerly 
 caught at, and a treaty with the Archbishopric of Paris 
 began, for the purpose of obtaining a modified declaration 
 (mandement) that might be subscribed without the signers, 
 becoming guilty of high treason against conscience. Many 
 were the outlines of the desired compact between sincerity 
 and prudence, and great was the division of opinion between 
 the Jansenist leaders on the propriety of signing at all. 
 
 Arnauld and Nicole, for the sake of the nuns, were in 
 favour of a signature to be given with certain reservations, 
 but Pascal, though confined to his bed by illness, had already 
 made his election, and determined at all hazards to abide by 
 the truth. He felt convinced that the Pope, by condemning 
 the work of Jansenius, not only proved that he misunder- 
 stood its meaning, but virtually condemned the doctrines of 
 
 * The Jansenists : their Rise and Sufferings. A Chapter in Church History. 
 By S. P. Tregolles, LL.D. London : 1851, 
 
180 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 justification by faith and salvation by grace, which the 
 apostles taught, and for which the primitive Church and St 
 Augustine had contended. It grieved him, he said, to find 
 himself in a strait between God and the Pope, but he could 
 not sanction the sacrifice of truth to expediency, knowing 
 such a course to be wrong, and believing it to be useless. 
 Arnauld and Nicole urged that it was disrespectful to the 
 Pope and the Bishops to assert that they had condemned the 
 doctrines of grace, as well as prejudicial to the doctrines 
 themselves to have it generally known that they were given 
 up by the great mass of ecclesiastics in authority, and only 
 defended by a small clique. But Pascal was stubborn in his 
 unconscious Protestantism, and would not admit any con- 
 sideration as superior to the duty of maintaining God's truth 
 against all odds. He did not object, however, to the nuns 
 signing the modified formulary, provided they made a dis- 
 tinct exception in favour of the meaning of Jansenius, and of 
 the doctrines of grace. The last conference was held in his 
 chamber, when the majority of those present, yielding to the 
 influence of Arnauld and Nicole, voted for the signature. 
 " Seeing which," says Margaret Perier, " M. Pascal, who 
 loved truth more than all things else, and who, in spite of 
 his weakness, had spoken with great earnestness in order to 
 impress his own convictions upon the others, was so over- 
 come with grief that he became suddenly faint, and lost both 
 voice and consciousness." Great astonishment ensued, and 
 remedies were eagerly applied, after which the gentlemen all 
 went away, except M. de Koannez and M. Domat * (Pascal's 
 most intimate friends), and Etienne Perier. When Pascal 
 had quite recovered his senses, Madame Perier asked him 
 what had occasioned the swoon. He replied : " When 1 be- 
 held so many persons to whom I believe that God has made 
 
 * One of the most eminent of the French writers on the civil law, and a firm 
 Jansenist. 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 181 
 
 known his truth, and who ought to be its defenders, thus 
 giving way, I confess to you, such a feeling of distress came 
 over me, that I could not bear it, nor keep myself from 
 fainting." 
 
 In this conjuncture, Jaqueline Pascal manifested the same 
 intrepid and fiery disposition as her brother. Indeed, 
 the women of Port Royal, as a general thing, displayed 
 more decision and courage than its men. Witness the 
 expressions with which Angelique, though bowed under the 
 weight of age and infirmity, sustained the drooping spirits 
 of the desolate nuns — " What ! do I see you in tears, 
 my children 1 What do those tears mean 1 Have you no 
 faith ? Are you afraid of the wrath of men ? They are but 
 flies who spread their wings and make a little noise. You 
 hope in God, how then can you be alarmed ? Believe me, 
 if we fear him, all will go well;" — or her reply to the 
 Duchess de Luynes, who was congratulating her on the 
 possession of so much courage — " Madame, so long as God 
 continues to be God, I shall hope in him and not be afraid." 
 Public and private seasons of special prayer were of course 
 appointed in both convents, and it was with the utmost 
 reluctance that the nuns at length submitted to the decision 
 of their confessors, and signed the qualified declaration. The 
 Prioress of Port Eoyal des Champs, Marie de Ste Madeline 
 Dufergis, and the Sub-prioress, Jaqueline Pascal, refused for 
 a long time to sign. " Jaqueline, strange to say, though not 
 aware of what had passed in the meetings held at Paris, used 
 the same arguments, and even some of the same words, which 
 Pascal had done. She could not understand, any more than 
 he, how men, claiming to be the defenders of the truth, 
 eould possibly abandon it on any consideration of expediency. 
 Her intrepid heart, brought face to face with danger, broke 
 forth in proud yet pathetic strains, which remind us of some 
 of the finest passages in the Provincial Letters. We ask,'' 
 
182 JAQTIBLINE PASCAL. 
 
 says M. Cousin, "of all who yet retain any sympathy with 
 energy of character, and with the beauty of an unselfish love 
 for truth, if they have ever met with many pages of greater 
 sublimity and strength than these which we are about to lay 
 before them." In June 1661, Jaqueline addressed the fol- 
 lowing letter to the Mere Angelique de Saint Jean. It was 
 afterwards inserted in the History of the Persecutions of the 
 Port Royal Nuns : — 
 
 " Port Royal des Champs, 
 " June 25, 1661. 
 
 " My very dbab Sister, — The little notice that has 
 hitherto been taken of our scruples in regard to giving our 
 assent to the treaty now under deliberation, would prevent 
 me from recapitulating them now, since they seem to be 
 thought of such slight importance, did the thing admit of 
 delay. I think it, however, my duty to tell you that the 
 difficulties stated by me in writing to our Mother, referred only 
 to the ' Mandement,' a copy of which, by a most singular 
 chance, fell into our hands. Had our anxieties been at all 
 regarded, or had our remonstrances produced any effect, I 
 should say it had been sent to us by the providence of God. 
 
 " The feelings of the entire sisterhood upon this subject 
 are now unanimous. Yet we distinctly understand the 
 pretence that the requisition of our signatures only binds us 
 to submission to the Church, that is, to silence on matters of 
 fact, and belief in matters of faith. But the time for this 
 has gone by. Most of us heartily wish that something worse 
 had been demanded (knowing that, in the times wherein we 
 live, it were vain to hope for anything better), because, if it 
 were worse, we should all feel at full liberty to reject it ; 
 while, as it is, many will be almost constrained to accept itj 
 and false prudence or real cowardice will cause many others 
 to embrace it as an easy mode of procuring safety for the 
 conscience, and for the body as well. But for my own part, 
 
PEESBCUTION AND DEATH. 183 
 
 I am convinced that in such, a course there can be safety 
 neither for body nor soul. Truth is the only real Liberator, 
 and she makes none free but those who strike off her own 
 fetters — who bear witness to her with a fidelity that entitles 
 them to be acknowledged as the true children of God the 
 True. 
 
 " I cannot any longer conceal the regret which rives my 
 very soul when I see the only persons to whom God has 
 committed his own truth so unfaithful to it, and, if I may be 
 allowed the term, destitute of the courage necessary to brave 
 suffering and even death by its open confession. 
 
 "I am well aware of the reverence that is due to the 
 authorities of the Church. I would gladly lay down my life 
 in order to preserve that reverence inviolate, just as in the 
 present juncture 1 am prepared, by God's help, to die for the 
 confession of my faith ; but it seems to me that nothing can 
 be easier than to unite the two. What is to prevent us — 
 what is to prevent every ecclesiastic cognisant of the truth, 
 from answering, when the formulary is presented for signa- 
 ture, ' I know that I am bound to respect their lordships 
 the Bishops, but my conscience does not allow me to sub- 
 scribe the statement that anything is contained in a book 
 which I cannot discover in that book,' and then quietly to 
 await the result 1 What' are we afraid of 1 Banishment 
 and dispersion for the nuns, the seizure of property, prison, 
 death if you will, — but are not these things our glory, and 
 ought we not therein to rejoice 1 
 
 " Let us either give up the Gospel, or let us carry out its 
 principles, and esteem ourselves happy in suffering for the 
 truth's sake. But we may perhaps be cast out from the 
 Church ! True, and yet who does not know that no one can 
 be really detached from the Church except by his own will 1 
 The spirit of Jesus Christ is the tie that binds his members 
 to himself and to one another, and though the outward signs 
 
184 JAQUELDJE PASCAL. 
 
 of that union may be taken from us, its effect cannot be taken 
 so long as we retain the spirit of love, without which no one 
 is a living member of that holy body. Is it not plain, there- 
 fore, so long as we do not erect altar against altar, while we 
 are not wretched enough to form a schismatic church, and 
 while we continue within the limits of simple remonstrance, 
 and meek endurance of persecution, that the charity which 
 leads us to love our enemies must of necessity attach us to 
 the Church by inviolable bonds 1 Our enemies alone will 
 have excommunicated themselves, since the divisions they 
 are trying to produce do but sever the bond of charity which 
 once united them to Jesus Christ, and rendered them mem- 
 bers of his body. Alas ! my dear sister, what joy ought we 
 not to feel, if we are permitted to endure some special 
 reproach for Christ's sake ! But there is too much pains 
 taken to prevent this, when truth is so skilfully painted with 
 the colours of falsehood that she cannot be recognised, and 
 the most keen-sighted can with difficulty detect her. 
 
 " Yet I admire the ingenuity of the human mind, as dis- 
 played in the perfection with which the ' Mandement ' is 
 drawn up. It must be a rare thing, I should think, to find 
 a piece of writing composed with equal art and skill. Had 
 it been the work of a heretic, I should consider it worthy of 
 high praise for its adroitness in evading punishment without 
 recanting error ; just as the head of a family might not be 
 able to help marvelling at the ingenuity with which his 
 steward had cheated him, by tacitly consenting to a false- 
 hood, although he may not have actually told one. But for 
 the faithful — for persons who know and maintain truth — for 
 members of the Catholic Church, to stoop to such disguises, 
 and to play fast and loose ! 
 
 " I cannot believe that such a thing was ever thought of 
 in primitive ages, and I pray God this day rather to strike 
 us all dead than to suffer such an abomination to be intro- 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 185 
 
 duced into the Church ! I find it difficult, dear sister, I 
 assure you, to believe that this sort of wisdom comes from 
 the Father of lights, for it seems far more like a revelation 
 of flesh and blood. 
 
 " Forgive me, my dear sister, I beg. I speak in the agony 
 of a grief which I am certain will kill me, unless I have the 
 consolation of seeing that some are willing to come forward 
 as martyrs for the faith, to protest either by refusal or by 
 flight against the acts of others, and to become themselves 
 champions of the truth. Not that I am desirous that any 
 uncalled-for declaration should be made, especially at the 
 present time, when the enemies of truth are so envenomed 
 and powerful. By the way, you are doubtless aware that 
 the condemnation of a holy bishop (Jansenius) is by no 
 means the only question in debate. His condemnation in- 
 cludes that of the doctrine of our Saviour's grace. If, there- 
 fore, our age be so degenerate that none are found willing to 
 die in defence of a righteous man, is it not far more dreadful 
 to think that no one is disposed to suffer for the sake of 
 righteousness itself? 
 
 " However, I do not wish for any one to make a public 
 profession of faith ; for, unquestionably, in the present state of 
 affairs, yes and of persons also, whom God has left to become • 
 the slaves of their own will and passions, nothing short of a 
 miracle could save the truth from condemnation. And the 
 more clearly we explained that truth, the more occasion of 
 sin should we furnish to those who are obstinately bent on 
 condemning it. But what I do desire is, that while strictly 
 observing all proper deference towards the powers that be, 
 and making neither accusations nor reproaches, there should 
 at the same time be a firm determination of giving no reason 
 to believe that the truth itself has been condemned, or even 
 evaded. For I ask you, dear sister, in God's name, to tell 
 me what difference you can find between these evasions and 
 
186 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 the offering of incense to an idol, as defended by the pretext 
 of having meanwhile a crucifix hidden in one's sleeve.* 
 
 " You will perhaps say that this does not concern us, be- 
 cause of our own private formulary. But I have two things 
 to say on that head. One is, that St Bernard teaches us, in 
 his admirable manner, that the most insignificant member of 
 the Church not only may, but ought to cry aloud and spare 
 not, when he sees the bishops and pastors of the Church in 
 such a state as we behold them now. Who, says he, can 
 blame me for calling out, though I am but a feeble sheep, if 
 I try to awaken my shepherd when I see him asleep, and on 
 the point of being devoured by a wild beast ? Even were I 
 so ungrateful as not to do this out of love and gratitude, 
 ought not a sense of my own peril to prompt my utmost 
 efforts to arouse him 1 For who is to defend me when my 
 pastor is devoured 1 I do not say this in reference to our 
 own spiritual fathers and friends ; I know that they them- 
 selves detest every species of duplicity quite as much as I do, 
 but I say it in reference to the general condition of the 
 Church, and to justify the deep interest I take in this matter, 
 both to you and to myself. 
 
 " My other answer is, that hitherto I have not been able 
 to give my thorough approval to your formulary as it is. I 
 should like to have a change made in two places. The first 
 at the beginning, because it seems hard for persons like us to 
 offer so freely to give account of our faith. I would do this, 
 however, with a little preamble, explaining away the conse- 
 quences and the unseemliness of such a confession ; for there 
 is no question but that this whole affair of the required Sig- 
 nature and Declaration of faith is a usurpation of power, 
 
 * See the fifth Provincial Letter. Jaqueline here retorts upon the Jansenists the 
 reproach which Pascal addressed to the Jesuits for having allowed the Christian 
 converts in India and China to pay outward homage to idols, provided that they 
 referred that worship mentally to an image of Jesus Christ hidden under their 
 clothes. 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 187 
 
 which brings very dangerous consequences in its train, more 
 especially as it is demanded by authority of the king. Now 
 I do not consider that private individuals ought to resist that 
 authority, but neither ought they to yield to it without some 
 intimations that they do so, not out of ignorance, or because 
 it is their duty, but as submitting to endure wrong rather 
 than occasion scandal. The second is towards the close, where 
 I would rather not mention the decisions of the Vatican ; for 
 though it is true that we submit to those decisions in matters 
 of faith, yet the vulgar confound fact and right by reason of 
 ignorance, and interested persons choose to confound them by 
 reason of self-will, and thus they are looked upon as one and 
 the same thing. What effect, then, would your formulary 
 produce, except to make ignorance believe and malice assert 
 that we have agreed to everything, and that we condemn 
 the doctrines of Jansenius, for these are plainly censured in 
 the last bull 1 
 
 " I know very well that the defence of truth is not women's 
 business, though, in a melancholy sense, it may be affirmed 
 that when bishops seem to have the cowardice of women, 
 women ought to have the boldness of bishops. And if we are 
 not to be defenders of the truth, we can at least die for it, and 
 suffer everything rather than abandon it. 
 
 " A comparison occurs to me, which may serve to illus- 
 trate my idea upon the decisions of the Holy See. Though 
 every one knows that the mystery of the Trinity is one of 
 the prominent articles of our faith, which St Augustine 
 would unquestionably confess and willingly sign, nevertheless 
 if his native country were in possession of a pagan prince, 
 who wished to have the unity of God denied, and a plurality 
 of deities acknowledged, and supposing that some of the 
 Christians, in order to quiet the commotions excited by such 
 a proceeding, were to compile a formulary of faith on the 
 subject, running thus — ' I believe that there are several per- 
 
188 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 sons to whom we may give the name of God, and address our 
 prayers ' — without any further explanation, would St Augus- 
 tine sign it ? Assuredly I do not believe he would. Still 
 less do I think he ought to sign it, though the truth be 
 one which no true believer would doubt, — but which no true 
 believer ought to acknowledge at such a time, nor in such a 
 way. You ean easily make the application. It may be said 
 that our authority is not of the same weight as St Augustine's, 
 and that, in fact, it is of no weight at all. To this I answer, 
 in the first place, that I have only mentioned St Augustine 
 by way of reference to the reply given by you a few days 
 ago, when I stated my difficulties, which was, that our fears 
 would only be laughed at, and that St Augustine would sign 
 the paper that we were so much afraid of. But what I say 
 of St Augustine, I say also of you and of myself, and of the 
 least important in the Church ; for the feebleness of our in- 
 fluence does not lessen our guilt, if we use that influence 
 against the truth. Every one knows, and M. de St Cyran 
 says it in a thousand places, that the least truth of religion 
 ought to be as faithfully defended as Christ himself. Where 
 is the Christian who would not abhor himself, if it were pos- 
 sible for him to have been present in Pilate's council, and if, 
 when the question of condemning our Saviour to death arose, 
 he had been content with an ambiguous way of stating his 
 opinion, so that he might appear to agree with those who 
 condemned his Master, though his words, in their literal 
 meaning, and according to his own conscience, tended to an 
 acquittal ? 
 
 " Is not the sin of St Peter trivial in comparison of so ex- 
 treme a timidity, and yet how did he regard that sin through 
 his whole after life ? And we are also to note well, that 
 though destined to become the head of the Church, he was 
 not its head then. So that his was only the sin of a private 
 believer, who did not say, as in the present case, ' This man 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 189 
 
 is a sinner, he is worthy of death, crucify him,' who did not 
 even pretend to say it. What he said was, simply, ' I know 
 not the man.' Follow this comparison to its last results, I 
 beseech you. 
 
 " My letter is only too long already. This, dear sister, is 
 what I think about the formulary. I see clearly that it need 
 not contain a full confession of faith, but I should like to 
 have what it does contain, clearly and distinctly expressed. 
 For, ignorant as we are, all that we can reasonably be required 
 to sign is a testimonial to the sincerity of our belief, and to 
 our perfect submission to the Church, to the Pope as its 
 supreme head, and to the Archbishop of Paris as our superior, 
 stating that, although we do not consider it right to demand 
 an account of their faith in this matter from persons who 
 never gave any occasion for that faith to be called in ques- 
 tion, nevertheless, in order to avoid the scandal and the 
 suspicions to which our refusal might give birth, we do 
 hereby testify, that, esteeming nothing so precious as the 
 treasure of a pure and unadulterated faith, and willing to 
 yield our lives for its preservation, we desire to live and die 
 as humble daughters of the Catholic Church, believing what- 
 ever she believes, and ready at all times to die in defence of 
 her least important truths. If they are satisfied with this, 
 well and good ; if not, for my part I shall never sign any 
 other, if it please God. This is all that I think we ought to 
 concede, let what will happen. Poverty, dispersion, imprison- 
 ment, death,. — all these seem as nothing to me compared with 
 the anguish of my whole future life, if I should be wretched 
 enough to make a league with death, instead of profiting by 
 such an opportunity of paying to God the vows of fidelity 
 which my lips have pronounced. 
 
 " Let us pray to God for one another, my dear sister, that 
 he would more and more strengthen us and make us humble, 
 since humility without fortitude, and courage without hu- 
 
190 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 mility, are equally pernicious. Now, more than ever, we 
 should recollect that the fearful have their place with the 
 perjured and the abominable. 
 
 "Do not be shocked at my complaints that so little notice 
 has been taken of our scruples. This gave me no trouble 
 whatever. I am used to be treated as a child, and God 
 grant that it may be so always. But the subject led me 
 thither undesignedly, and I do not regret it, because if simi- 
 lar circumstances should ever occur again, it will be known 
 that we are not to be satisfied with the assurance that our 
 scruples are ridiculous, while no reasons are assigned. Fare- 
 well, dear sister. In the condition of our beloved invalid, if 
 the thing were not so pressing, I should not have written a 
 word on the subject. 
 
 " I believe, my dear sister, that it is needless for me to say 
 I make no objection whatever to the words of your formu- 
 lary, and that I do not care what terms are used, provided 
 no reason be given to think that we censure either the grace 
 of Jesus Christ or him who has so well explained its doc- 
 trines. 
 
 " Therefore, in adopting the words, ' Believe all that the 
 Church believes,' I have omitted ' and condemn whatever she 
 condemns;' though I do in reality condemn what the 
 Church condemns, but I do not believe it a fitting time to 
 say so, lest the Church should be confounded with the pre- 
 sent decisions. Even as M. de St Cyran says, that the 
 pagans having placed an idol on the very spot- where once 
 stood the cross of our Lord, the Christians would not go 
 thither to worship, lest it should be supposed that they were 
 worshipping the idol." 
 
 Jaqueline, on reflection, thought it would be more honour- 
 able as well as truthful to send this letter to M. Arnauld 
 himself, hoping, as the History of the Persecution informs us, 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 191 
 
 that he would not feel hurt at the severe terms in which she 
 had expressed herself, although her remarks touched him 
 more nearly than they did any one else. She therefore 
 enclosed her letter on the formulary in another which ran 
 as follows : — 
 
 " At Eye, Jime 23, 1661. 
 
 " My Father, — The ordinary rules of politeness would re- 
 quire of me many compliments, and the expression of much 
 delight at having an opportunity of writing you, since, as 
 you are aware, it is so rare a pleasure ; but in truth the state 
 of the Church and of our dear Mother deprives me of the 
 heart to attempt such civilities. And, besides, my father, I 
 should be very unjust to your kindness did I imagine that 
 you could think it possible for my regard for you to vary. 
 The command you have sent us in the note received this 
 morning, gives me a suitable occasion of doing something to 
 which I have hitherto been prompted only by internal desire, 
 which is not always a safe guide. Yesterday, my father, 
 after having received the communion with a very sad heart, 
 on account of what has transpired, I felt, while returning 
 thanks, or rather while sighing out my soul before God, a 
 strong desire to write down all my thoughts on the matter, 
 or at least the chief of them, for many quires of paper would 
 not contain the whole. Not knowing whom to address, I be- 
 thought myself of sister Angelique, and to her I at once 
 indited this long letter, first invoking God and his Holy 
 Spirit on behalf of the persons who should answer it, and 
 afterwards writing what I had to say without premeditation, 
 as fast as my pen would move. Your note of to-day enabled 
 me to finish it with more courage, and I send it to you as it 
 is, my father, because I cannot find time to write it over 
 again, and address it to yourself. 
 
 " You will see that it is written with a margin. If you 
 will have the kindness to answer each paragraph upon that 
 
192 JAQHELINE PASCAL. 
 
 margin, I shall feel greatly obliged; but if you prefer to 
 write a separate answer, and if you think fit, after reading it 
 yourself, to send it to Sister Ang61ique, I will inform her 
 that I have asked you so to do. If, however, you write your 
 answers upon the letter itself, please to send it direct to me, 
 for I only wish her to have it in case no one else replies to it, 
 so that she may herself answer it. And whether your 
 response is written on the letter itself, or separately, I will, 
 with your permission, send it to her, but I should be very 
 glad to see it beforehand. You will perceive, my father, that 
 I have felt and expressed no little indignation at the pro- 
 ceedings, for it appeared to me that, apart from the right 
 which each one has to take his own view of things, and sus- 
 tain it with what reasons he can, it was my privilege to 
 speak with more freedom than others, on account of one* 
 who is so mueh concerned in the matter. I am beyond 
 measure delighted with his zeal, and I cannot but think that 
 it is the work of God's Spirit inspiring him to do that which 
 will relieve the consciences of a large number of persons, who 
 would otherwise suffer themselves to be led as sheep to the 
 slaughter. For in times like these, when it were useless to 
 hope that those in authority over the Church at Paris would 
 be courageous enough to set an example of martyrdom to 
 their diocese, it was worthy the piety of some to devise a 
 way, almost unconsciously to most of their number, whereby 
 it became possible to avoid doing anything in opposition to 
 the truth. They have acted like a wise father who blunts 
 the edge of the knife before giving it to his child. In short, 
 to express my idea in one word, the evil that might have 
 been done is prevented ; and this is no slight praise, since 
 the Church itself applies it to the saints, who might have 
 sinned and they sinned not. But it does appear to me, my 
 
 * Doubtless meanii^ her brother Pascal. 
 
PERSECUTION AND DEATH. 193 
 
 father, that what suffices for some would be a terrible falling 
 short in others. It is all very well to have things arranged 
 as they now are, provided that persons possessing more 
 courage are permitted to go further, and provided that it is 
 not pretended we are to be saved by concealing the truth, 
 and being satisfied with not openly censuring it, although we 
 do apparently censure it. Truly, my father, this seems like an 
 imitation of those who say that we are not obliged to love God, 
 and it is enough if we do not hate him. But if I begin 
 to argue again, it will be difficult for me to stop. Forgive 
 me, therefore, my father, and do not imagine, I beg, that 
 though I seem courageous, nature does not dread the con- 
 sequences, — but I trust that grace will support me, and 
 indeed I almost seem to feel its power even now. I entreat 
 you most humbly, my father, to implore this grace on my 
 behalf. I trust these letters entirely to your discretion. I 
 had rather no one should see them but yourself and Sister 
 Angelique. However, if you think proper to shew them to 
 M. de Gournay, you can do it. My sister also could see 
 them, and perhaps my brother, if his health is good. I ask 
 you, my father, to pray for me, in the name of God." 
 
 The increasing illness of the Abbess Angelique exempted 
 her from the necessity of signing. She made, however, one 
 more effort in behalf of Port Eoyal, by addressing a long and 
 eloquent letter of remonstrance to the queen. This was the 
 last act of her eventful life. After several weeks of severe 
 bodily and mental anguish, unsoothed by the presence of 
 those men of God who had for years been her spiritual 
 guides, she expired on the 6th of August 1661, aged seventy. 
 Among her last words were these : — " Jesus ! thou art 
 my God, thou art my righteousness, thou art my strength, 
 thou art my all ! " 
 
 The Prioress of Port Royal des Champs, Madame Dufargis 
 N 
 
194 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 d'Augennes, had no hesitation in telling M. Arnauld that she 
 shared the opinions and scruples of the Sub-Prioress, Jaque- 
 line Pascal That great man, instead of feeling annoyed at 
 the strong objections of the two nuns, did his best to answer 
 them, in a letter which has not been preserved. His high 
 authority had such weight that, in July 1661, all the 
 members of Port Koyal des Champs signed, as the Parisian 
 sisterhood had already done, — the Prioress and Jaqueline 
 adding yet another protest, in order to clear their consciences 
 in some degree. Nbthwithstanding which, the remorse of 
 these two noble women was so great that both became 
 seriously ilL The Prioress was with difficulty restored to 
 health. The Sub-Prioress sank under her sufferings, and, 
 according to the presentiment expressed in her letter, died 
 of a broken heart, after an illness of three months, at the age 
 of thirty-six, on the 4th of October, the anniversary of her 
 birth. 
 
 " The primitive Church was accustomed to style the day 
 of a martyr's death his birthday. Was not the coincidence a 
 seal of Jaqueline's martyrdom, and also of the truth of those 
 doctrines, for the sake of which she died?"* 
 
 * Beuchlin. 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 195 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 %\t Sartoihwrs. 
 
 Madame Perier, in her life of Pascal, informs us how he 
 received the news of Jaqueline's death. " She was assuredly 
 the being most dear to him on earth ; yet when he heard 
 the tidings he merely said, ' God give us grace to die as well !' 
 And he ever afterwards maintained the same admirable spirit 
 of resignation to the appointments of Divine Providence, 
 his reflections on my sister's death being confined to the 
 great mercies vouchsafed to her by God during her lifetime, 
 and the peculiar circumstances under which she died. When 
 thinking of the latter, he often exclaimed, 'Blessed are the 
 dead, provided they die in the Lord ! ' and when he saw me in 
 continual sorrow over a loss that I felt so keenly, he was 
 displeased, and told me that it was not right." 
 
 The melancholy temperament of Pascal, and the austerities 
 to which, under the influence of a perverted view of life 
 common among members of the Romish communion, he 
 addicted himself in his later years, give him a place among 
 the most ingenious of self- tormentors. Many of the learned 
 and pious men of his age, as well as others less distinguished, 
 were accustomed to consult him on matters of importance. 
 His prompt discernment and habit of patient attention 
 made him always a safe and often a successful counsellor. 
 But it was his custom to wear a girdle of iron beneath his 
 
196 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 clothes, set round with sharp points on the inside, and when- 
 ever he felt the risings of complacency at the consciousness 
 of having smoothed the path of some anxious friend, or at 
 the deference paid him by those whose regard he most 
 prized, a stroke of his elbow punished the passing gratifica- 
 tion, and drove the sharp studs into his quivering Bide. 
 
 It must have been a yet harder task to one so naturally 
 affectionate and warm-hearted as he, when, from a sense of 
 duty, he resolutely forbore all expressions of gratitude or 
 kindness to the sister and the friends who were devoted to 
 him, lest their love should degenerate into idolatry. Poor 
 Gilberte, though by no means demonstrative herself — witness 
 her avoiding Jaqueline's farewell, lest the composure of both 
 might be endangered — felt grieved at her brother's seeming 
 coldness. She says : " Meanwhile, as I was completely a 
 stranger to his opinions on this point, I felt quite astonished 
 and discouraged at his occasional rebuffs. I mentioned them 
 to my sister (Jaqueline), and not without complaining that 
 my brother was unkind and did not love me, for it really 
 appeared as if I put him in pain, even when I sought only to 
 please him, and to render him every office of affection in his 
 illness." 
 
 Jaqueline, better used to the sacrifice of even innocent 
 enjoyments, told her sister that she was mistaken, for Blaise 
 loved her dearly, and would take every opportunity of prov- 
 ing by his deeds the affection that he thought it wrong to 
 express in words : " which, indeed," says Madame Perier," he 
 did not fail to do." One of Pascal's Pensees offers some 
 explanation of his conduct : — 
 
 " It is not right for any one to be fond of me (qu'on 
 s'attache a moi), even though that fondness be voluntary and 
 delightful. I should disappoint those in whom I might call 
 forth affection, because I am finite, and have therefore no 
 power to satisfy them. Am I not liable at any moment to 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 197 
 
 death 1 And then the object of their attachment will be 
 dead. As I should be culpable if I were to persuade others 
 of a falsehood, although my manner might be gentle, and the 
 belief of that untruth might afford them pleasure, so also 
 should I be guilty of a great wrong if I were to attract the 
 regard of my friends, and cause them to idolise me. Eather 
 let me undeceive those who are ready to believe what is false, 
 and teach others that they ought not to attach themselves 
 to me, since their lives should be spent in communion with 
 God and endeavours to please him." 
 
 To return to Port Eoyal, where Jaqueline was sincerely 
 lamented as one " whose eminent piety equalled the sub- 
 limity of her intellect, and who was in all respects a perfect 
 Nun,"* — M. Singlin, on the day succeeding that of her 
 decease, addressed the following letter to the community, 
 from his place of concealment : — 
 
 " It would be very difficult for me to say nothing to you 
 on a matter which you, my sister Angelique de St Jean, all 
 who knew her whom you have lost, and the entire sisterhood, 
 feel so deeply. My own grief is solely on your account, 
 since on hers we ought to rejoice, and as to myself, I dare 
 not grieve. She had, as you know, great confidence in me, 
 and I always fear for those who have. And when God takes 
 them hence in so happy and holy a frame of mind as was 
 hers, I have reason to praise him, and therefore to rejoice. 
 My only sorrow is because I know there is a void in your 
 house which it is impossible to fill. Yet nothing is impos- 
 sible with God. Who can tell what is needful for us better 
 than he 1 For some days past I have been struck with the 
 thought of what an impertinence it is for us to desire one 
 thing, or to be afraid of another, to wish that this or that 
 
 * See Lives of the Nuns of Port Royal. 
 
198 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 may or may not happen, that certain persons may live, or 
 others die ! as if God, in his sovereign wisdom and equity, 
 did not behold all things, and we were possessed of some 
 peculiar light or discernment without which he could not 
 in perfect righteousness order and govern our affairs. He 
 understands so well what is within and around him, that we 
 have only to bow down before events which seem to us mys- 
 terious, because we cannot trace in them the wonderful har- 
 mony that is really displayed in all things, even in the lives 
 and actions of wicked men, and which glorified spirits con- 
 tinually admire and adore. This thought often stops me 
 when I am about to wish that God would or would not do 
 anything. The death of the righteous or of the wicked, the 
 prosperity or destruction of the best designs for his own ser- 
 vice, as well as the surrender of our whole being, to be dis- 
 posed of as he shall see fit, are all involved in this one consi- 
 deration. We, therefore, ought only to implore that his 
 holy will may be done in all things, to consult him in order 
 to know that will, and to submit to every event, for fear of 
 placing our own will and plans above his. They are happiest 
 who suffer and bow down before him at all times, and under 
 all circumstances of affliction as well as gladness, knowing 
 that in our imaginations and ignorance we frequently think 
 that evil which in reality is good." 
 
 As to the family, the Abbess Agnes undertook to write to 
 Pascal, and the MSre Angelique de St Jean to Madame 
 Perier. These two, next to the Abbess Angelique, had been 
 Jaqueline's most intimate friends at Port Koyal, and knew 
 her best. 
 
 From the Mere Angelique de St Jean to Madame Perier : — 
 
 " I have no words as yet, my very dear sister, in which to 
 commune with you of our mutual loss. Truly your note of 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 199 
 
 yesterday gave my heart a pang, as unlooked for as the feel- 
 ing of hopelessness with which I this morning waited for the 
 intelligence that crowns all our past afflictions was hitter. I 
 have just seen M. Perier, to whom I only dared mention what 
 he had already learnt from your note of yesterday morning, 
 because Hilary had told me that such was your wish. He 
 seems so grieved, that I pity him for the sadder news he has 
 yet to learn, since the too strong hopes which he still persists 
 in half-flattering himself,, will only serve to make the blow 
 more severe. He had not spoken to M. Pascal. M. de 
 Eoannez * is here, and I am very glad he is ; yet in such 
 trials, if consolation come not from God, and from faith in 
 him, it is quite impossible to obtain it from any earthly 
 source. Alas ! I say this as I feel it, only too sadly, for I 
 had hoped great things in all our present and future trials 
 from her whom God has taken away, lest we should lean on 
 her too much. Let his name be for ever praised for all his 
 mercies ! He has good reasons for all his doings,; and they 
 all tend to the good of his, chosen ones, who are bound to 
 adore his decrees without attempting to penetrate his designs. 
 I cannot tell you, my very dear sister, how much I sym- 
 pathise with your grief, nor yet how much more than ever 
 I feel myself, drawn and bound to you by this sad sepa- 
 ration." 
 
 From the Abbess Catherine Agnes de St Paul, to, M. 
 Pascal : — 
 
 " October 1, 1661., 
 
 " Sie, — Although condolence, is usually an intrusion on 
 great afflictions like yours, yet I promise myself that you will 
 receive this note as a mark of the respect which leads me to 
 offer you my most humble sympathy in a trial which you 
 
 * Pascal's intimate friend. 
 
200 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 cannot but believe that I deeply feel; the loss being common 
 to us both, and, if I dare to say so, even worse for those who 
 had to pass their lives with that dear sister. Our late 
 Mother (Angelique) would have greatly regretted her death, 
 but now she has doubtless greeted her with joy, because her 
 thoughts are no longer our thoughts, and she views our 
 interests in a different light from that in which she beheld 
 them while with us on the earth. Thus, too, the dear sister 
 whom we are now mourning cannot grieve over our bereave- 
 ment ; since her sole desire for us is, that we may lose sight 
 of self, and be completely swallowed up in God's will, as she 
 herself now is. The gospel appointed for the day of her 
 death points out our duty on this occasion and on all others, 
 which to the eye of sense seems so temporary, especially when 
 the sacrifice of our most legitimate affections is demanded. 
 Jesus Christ therein sets us the example of consenting to 
 whatever God does, because it seems good in his sight. This 
 is all that we have now to say, except that, by way of return 
 for the deep love borne to us by the dear departed, we are 
 bound to give God thanks, with her, and for her, since he 
 so taught her to comprehend the mystery of our Saviour's 
 humiliation, and imparted to her such grace, that, although 
 by nature wise and prudent, she was enabled to renounce all 
 the advantages with which he had endowed her, and to take 
 always the lowest place, far beneath others less acquainted 
 with God and their own hearts than she. 
 
 " You knew her worth, sir, much better than we did, and 
 so sincere a Christian as you are will give her up to God as 
 a voluntary offering. It is true, as you are aware, that God 
 lays upon us the necessity of submission, in order that we 
 may not be able to evade the accomplishment of his designs. 
 I entreat of him, sir, that he would give you all the grace he 
 now expects you to manifest, and help me to plead for you 
 in his presence as you deserve, both on account of your own 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 201 
 
 past kindness to me, and for the sake of her who was so near 
 and dear to us both. 
 
 " I remain, sir, your very humble and obedient servant in 
 Jesus Christ, 
 
 " Sister Catherine Agnes de Saint Paul, 
 " An unworthy nun." 
 
 A short sketch of the fortunes of the Pascal family after 
 Jaqueline's death, may not be uninteresting to the reader. 
 
 Blaise Pascal only survived his sister a few months. He 
 died August 19, 1662, aged thirty-nine, worn out with that 
 disease of the head of which his unremitting studies had 
 early laid the foundation. He endured all his pains with 
 exemplary patience, saying that suffering was the natural 
 state of Christians, and that he was ashamed of having so 
 much kindness and attention lavished upon him, while many 
 of Christ's poor members had not where to lay the head. It 
 was even his wish to be carried to an hospital and left to die 
 among the poor ; and when his physicians and confessor posi- 
 tively forbade this, he could only be quieted by the promise 
 that some poor stricken creature should be brought to the 
 house where he lay, and receive the same attendance as he 
 did. He died in full communion with the Church of Rome, 
 although, had he lived, it is doubtful whether so independent 
 and Bible-loving a Christian could have long remained un- 
 molested within her pale. Ten years after, his brother-in-law, 
 M. Perier,* died suddenly, at the age of sixty-seven. His 
 death plunged Madame Perier into a sea of pecuniary em- 
 barrassments, rendered all the more painful from the fact, 
 that her husband's generous and indulgent disposition had 
 been taken undue advantage of by those he had befriended, 
 who, instead of aiding her, did all they could to increase her 
 
 * An interesting account of M. Perier will be found in the next chapter, written 
 by the well-known theologian, M. Vinet. 
 
202 JAQUELDTE PASCAL. 
 
 perplexities. She says, in certain letters, to one of her 
 friends : — 
 
 " M. de Rebergues can tell you something about the hor- 
 rible difficulties into which the attempt to settle my affairs 
 has thrown me. At first, I hoped that after one year I 
 should be extricated, but three years have now gone by, and 
 I find new vexations continually arising. I really think that 
 the success of one rogue encourages others, for all with whom 
 I have to do cheat me in the most barefaced way, and what 
 makes this the more galling is, that it has all occurred in 
 consequence of M. Perier's good-nature, and the extreme 
 leniency he always shewed to those indebted to himu Indeed, 
 sir, it would be impossible to tell you all I have to go 
 through ; but we must submit to God's will. It is not our 
 province to select the sufferings by which he intends to try 
 us. Pray for me, I entreat you, that this trial may be th& 
 means of my sanctification, for you can have no idea how 
 painful it is." 
 
 Her correspondent probably resided at Clermont, since in 
 the next epistle she goes on to say : — 
 
 " Your letter made my heart thrill, sir, when I read in it 
 that I had friends in the faubourg. The very thought of 
 having friends is pleasant to me, for in the place where I 
 now live I have none. I meet with much respect and 
 esteem, and have a great many visitors at all times ; but as 
 for real assistance, counsel, or consolation under my pecuni- 
 ary trials, much as I need them, and fully as every one is 
 convinced of the injustice done me, there is none to be had. 
 People look on with indifference, and I confess to you that I 
 feel this indifference keenly. It is certainly a great mistake 
 to suppose that I am at all attached to my present resi- 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 203 
 
 dence ; on the contrary, I seem as it were bound here with 
 iron chains, and the constraint I suffer is at times indescrib- 
 able. When I say that I have no friends here, I do not 
 mean that I have enemies ; far from it. I meet with innu- 
 merable polite attentions, but the very atmosphere of the 
 place (Paris) inclines people to be civil to others, yet to take 
 no active interest in any affairs that are not their own. If I 
 were moving in worldly society I should have help and sup- 
 port enough, but as it is, no one has any personal concern in 
 my affairs, and therefore no one cares much about them. I 
 believe you know me well enough to be certain that this sort 
 of life by no means pleases me, and I own to you that it 
 makes me feel very sad, especially as I try to hide most of 
 my feelings from my children, who would be quite over- 
 whelmed if they had any idea of what I suffer. For which 
 reason I do not wish you to take any notice of what I now 
 write in your next letter, lest they should perceive that I 
 had been complaining." 
 
 In another letter she enters more into particulars, which 
 serve to shew that the lot of the widow and orphan of the 
 seventeenth century was no more exempt from other burdens 
 beside bereavement than it is at the present day : — 
 
 " You do not know the trouble we have in taking care of 
 our property. We have sold my husband's office for next to 
 nothing, because it was a continual source of annoyance, and 
 while deriving no benefit from it, we had to expend money 
 in order to retain it. I wish I could have found some one 
 who, for the sake of a large share of the property, would 
 have looked well after it, — to whom I might have relin- 
 quished my own unquestionable rights with safety, and thus 
 have freed my sons from the trouble and anxiety they now 
 have, as well as the waste of time which, in my opinion, 
 
204 JAQUELINB PASCAL. 
 
 might be better employed. Day after day it is necessary to 
 carry on lawsuits, and examine into the value of property : 
 but I hope that God will provide, and of his great mercy 
 bring us sooner and more safely through than now seems 
 likely." 
 
 Etienne Perier, Madame Perier's eldest son, died in 1680, 
 and her youngest, Blaise Perier, in 1684. She herself died 
 in 1687, being in her sixty-eighth year, and was buried in 
 the church of St Etienne du Mont, Paris, by the side of 
 Pascal. Nine years afterwards, her eldest daughter, Jaque- 
 line, expired at Clermont. She was educated at Port Royal, 
 and would have taken the veil there but for the dispersion 
 of the novices in 1661. There had been a question of her 
 marriage when about the age of fifteen, but Pascal interfered 
 to break it off, and the young lady herself preferred a clois- 
 tered life. It was on this occasion that Pascal wrote the 
 often-quoted passage : " Marriage is the lowest and most dan- 
 gerous grade of Christianity ; because, though husbands may 
 be thought rich and wise by the world, they are often abso- 
 lute heathens in the sight of God, and to engage a child to a 
 man of the ordinary stamp, is a sort of homicide, and as it 
 were a deicide in her person." Jaqueline Perier led a very 
 secluded life, busied herself with reading and prayer, and 
 endured a complication of diseases. " Her temper," says her 
 sister Margaret, " was very serious, and even rather pecu- 
 liar." 
 
 The Memoirs of this same Margaret, the heroine of the 
 Holy Thorn, close as follows : — 
 
 " My brother, Louis Perier, was the last of our family but 
 me. He was born September 27, 1651. In early childhood 
 he displayed a merry, frolicksome disposition, and made fun 
 
THE STJEVITOBS. 205 
 
 of whatever any one tried to teach him, so that at seven 
 years old he could hardly say his Paternoster. In 1658, my 
 mother took him to Paris, and told my uncle that she could 
 teach him nothing. My uncle (Pascal) then took charge of 
 his education, and the child soon became very grave, but the 
 frequent illnesses to which he was subject prevented him 
 from getting on with his studies till he was between ten and 
 eleven, when, his health being re-established, he diligently 
 improved the good instruction he received from an excellent 
 tutor.* He was successively Dean of St Peter's College, and 
 Canon of Clermont Cathedral. Having always led a very 
 canonical life, and been intensely devoted to his studies, he 
 was in both capacities ' a sweet savour of Jesus Christ.' 
 He left his beautiful seat of Bien Assis, a little way out of 
 the town, to come and inhabit two small houses near the 
 churches where he officiated, and afterwards sold it to one of 
 his relations. He died October 13, 1713, and was buried in 
 the cathedral. 
 
 " Such was the life of all the members of my family. I 
 am left alone. They all died in an immovable love for the 
 truth. I may say, as did Simon Maccabseus, the last of all 
 his brothers : ' All my relatives and brethren have died in 
 God's service, and in the love of his truth ; I am left alone ; 
 and God forbid that I should ever think of renouncing 
 either!'" 
 
 The following memoranda concerning Margaret Perier are 
 found on certain manuscript copies of her Memoirs : — 
 
 " Mademoiselle Perier died yesterday, April 14, 1733, at 
 ten o'clock p.m., aged eighty-seven years and nine days. 
 " She told me that when her mother died she was forty- 
 
 * M. de Eebergue. 
 
206 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 one years old, and her sister more than forty-three. Never- 
 theless, at that age, neither of them dared to stir out of doors 
 without their mother, not even to go to mass. Madame 
 Perier's strictness was such, that if her daughters spoke a 
 ■word to any friend whom they might chance to meet when 
 walking with her in the streets, the speaker had to turn 
 immediately and render an account to her mother, who 
 would ask in a dry tone what had been said. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Perier gave proofs of her persevering love 
 for truth even until her latest breath. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Perier made, at different times, long 
 sojourns in Paris, where she was the admiration of literary, 
 and the consolation of pious, people. She had many 
 acquaintances, and a great number of friends of both sexes, 
 which made her residence there very agreeable. She left Paris 
 altogether in 1695, after the death of her sister, and went 
 to live with her brother, then Dean of St Peter's, who 
 was alone, in order to keep him company and manage 
 his domestic affairs. At first she remained at Bien Assis, 
 which is the most beautiful and pleasant country-seat in 
 all the environs of Clermont, but she would never allow 
 the smallest party of pleasure to assemble there. She had 
 a carriage in which to ride in and out of town, but 
 after a while gave up both house and equipage, and finding 
 that the Great Hospital was in want of a superintendent, 
 offered her own services to the directors. They were 
 accepted, and she separated herself from her brother in 
 order to reside at the hospital, where, however, her health, 
 which was much impaired, did not permit her to make a 
 long stay. She went back to live with her brother, 
 who had been named Canon of the Cathedral ; they 
 bought a house in its neighbourhood, and both lived 
 there in a very simple manner. Mademoiselle Perier 
 was always dressed in black, of the commonest materials ; 
 
THE SURVIVORS. 207 
 
 their furniture was perfectly plain, and their only domestics 
 were a valet who took care of their country property, and 
 two or three maids, who, like their master and mistress, 
 lived a religious life. They did not wear black veils, but 
 little white hoods. One of them, whom she had brought 
 from Paris, and who survived her, had been in her service 
 fifty years. 
 
 " Some years before her death Mademoiselle Perier lost 
 the use of her limbs, which compelled her to remain within 
 doors, except on Festival days and Sundays, when she was 
 carried to the cathedral in a chair, that she might hear mass 
 and perform her devotions there. She usually passed the 
 day upon a couch, and occupied herself with prayer and 
 reading, scarcely ever seeing any but pious persons, who were 
 always ' charmed with her conversation. Her mind and 
 memory, which was excellent, endured to the very last ; and 
 by her will she made the poor people in the General Hospital 
 of Clermont her legatees. It may be said of her, that she 
 ' died in a good old age, being full of days.' " 
 
 After having traced the history of Jaqueline Pascal, M. 
 Victor Cousin proceeds to sum up her character and that of 
 her brother, and to offer some general remarks on Jansenism. 
 His position, however, as a leader of the Eclectic school of 
 philosophy in France, the fundamental principles of which, 
 as its name implies, is an endeavour to blend certain features 
 of various and widely differing systems of philosophy into 
 one harmonious whole, renders him in some respects incapa- 
 ble of sympathising with the religious convictions of Pascal 
 and his sister, even while doing justice to their natural genius 
 and heroic resolve. M. Cousin, though a nominal Catholic, 
 is more allied to rationalism than to Romanism, " for the 
 ligament that binds him to Kome is dry as summer-dust ; it 
 has no life-blood, and hardly a nerve." And on the other 
 
208 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 hand, the very points of belief which make Pascal so dear to 
 the hearts of evangelical Christians — for which he unflinch- 
 ingly contended and his sister died — are those that strike 
 M. Cousin as erroneous and fanatical. The austerities with 
 which brother and sister, in common with other Jansenists, 
 overlaid the foundations of their faith, may well be charac- 
 terised as superfluous and often absurd ; but however dispro- 
 portioned might be the edifice, beneath it lay the sure 
 corner-stone, whereon whosoever buildeth, be he Lutheran 
 or Calvinist, Protestant or Romanist, Jansenist or even 
 monk, shall never be ashamed. 
 
 The lamented Vinet, for so many years one of the noblest 
 lights of Swiss Protestantism, was deeply interested in the 
 writings of Pascal, and made them the subject of several sets 
 of lectures to his theological class. A translation of one of 
 these lectures, which reviewed the works of M. Cousin and 
 M. Faugere on Jaqueline Pascal, has been substituted for the 
 concluding remarks of the former, as giving a more candid 
 and discriminating view of the characters of Blaise and 
 Jaqueline, and of the principles which governed Port Royal. 
 It will be found on the next page. 
 
vinbt's essay. 209 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AN ESSAY BY THE LATE M. VINET, OF LAUSANNE. 
 
 In the modern programme of human life and social progress, 
 the virtue of obedience is a mere blank. We can hardly 
 account for the preservation of the word, unless by supposing 
 it to have acquired a new or improper meaning. Men do not 
 always act as they themselves choose ; — they are not always 
 able to carry into effect their entire will ; — they often act under 
 the influence of the will of others. In this respect there is 
 no change ; and the quality of obedience is still in existence, 
 if to obey mean nothing more than to yield. But where is 
 the real principle of obedience? Who is there now-a-days 
 that looks upon obedience as a duty 1 It may, in a certain 
 sense, be said to have vanished from the present generation. 
 Some have even declared that this loss is of no advantage to 
 the cause of freedom, since liberty — true and useful liberty — 
 depends upon obedience, and always exists in proportion to 
 it ; the principle of both, in the depths of man's soul, being 
 one and the same, and the two currents springing, so to 
 speak, from but one source. 
 
 This consideration enables us to gauge the moral decadence 
 of our times. Obedience is rapidly departing, and she leads 
 her sister Freedom by the hand. They are not yet out of 
 
 o 
 
210 JAQUELmE PASCAL. 
 
 sight, thank God, but he who would overtake them must 
 make haste, for their majestic forms are even now half hidden 
 behind the horizon. 
 
 It is a truth proved by both experience and common sense, 
 that without religion there can be no true obedience. For 
 religion is obedience ; it contains the only principle of obedi- 
 ence ; and all that remains of the latter, in either a world or 
 a heart whence religion has departed, is but the lingering 
 trace of God's old empire over conscience, the ruined frag- 
 ment of an impulse, once mighty, but now exhausted. 
 
 Amidst the too general forgetfulness of this rule, and the 
 failure of this power, it is pleasant to discover in the past, 
 and still more so to meet in the present, examples of this 
 virtue of obedience, be they illustrious or be they obscure. 
 Such instances are more particularly attractive when they 
 display the spirit of obedience at its fountain-head, and in 
 its first, its highest, its most reasonable exercise. The satis- 
 faction we take in them is but slightly impaired by a few 
 aberrations, more or less grave, which, however, leave the 
 principle intact. It is refreshing to catch a glimpse of 
 human beings absorbed by one sole thought — that of self- 
 consecration to God — and more jealous in regard to the 
 minutest thing appertaining to him than the most consum- 
 mate miser is of his wealth, or the most avaricious despot of 
 his power. Such a contemplation lifts the soul, at least for 
 a moment, to its full height, and gives it a vivid, though, 
 perhaps, a fleeting conviction of its unchangeable destiny 
 and its most important relations. 
 
 Of this nature is the impression made on us by every 
 instance of earnest piety, — we mean, of piety steeped in 
 obedience. This, more especially, is the great benefit derivable 
 from those accomplished teachers in the study of spiritual 
 life, the men and women of Port Royal. Perhaps, among 
 them all, not one has this characteristic of obedience more 
 
vinet's essay. 211 
 
 strongly marked than the lowly-minded nun whose memory 
 has been almost simultaneously revived by both M. Cousin 
 and M. Faugere. 
 
 In most of the other Port Royalists, the habit of command 
 was fused with that of obedience ; and although the very ex- 
 ercise of authority was a proof of obedience on their part, yet 
 in their history, pure submission, to a casual observer, is less 
 strikingly displayed. But Jaqueline Pascal is submission 
 personified ; with her, obedience is everything. The vast 
 powers of mind, the remnant of freedom yet left her, and the 
 energy of her will, being all unreservedly devoted to God, 
 and knowing no will but his, the degree of authority which 
 afterwards devolved upon her did but cause this one master- 
 trait of her character and life-obedience to become more and 
 more distinct and dominant. This volume (for, with the ex- 
 ception of a few discrepancies to be noticed hereafter, it is 
 but one work, published by two editors) was needed in order 
 to complete our acquaintance with that great school of Chris- 
 tianity to which the author of the Provincial Letters belonged, 
 and which had its full development, its culminating point, in 
 Port Eoyal. The doctrinal works produced by that school, 
 and the grand outlines of its history, do not tell us all. De- 
 tails and accidental occurrences are a far better revelation 
 of its daily thoughts, its temper, its very life. No one ever 
 thought of doubting that this body of Christians was tho- 
 roughly in earnest ; but in order to learn how far they carried 
 their earnestness, and how consistent, even to an extreme, 
 were the dwellers in those Alpine heights of Catholicism, we 
 must listen at their doors. And this we have an oppor- 
 tunity of doing in the perusal of the Life and Correspondence 
 of Jaqueline Pascal. 
 
 And, in sooth, it is not Jaqueline alone, but all the mem- 
 bers of her noble family, who stand before us, each in turn. 
 It is possible that in the history of certain races there may 
 
212 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 occur an illustrious moment, a unique moment, in which 
 the type of that race, after long elaboration, attains its dis- 
 tinct degree of energy and perfection, sets its distinct and 
 deep imprint on two or three medals, and then is broken for 
 ever. It was so in the case of Blaise and Jaqueline — two 
 precious vases, shattered by the mighty workings of truth, 
 genius, and feeling within them. The covering was too frail 
 to resist the internal pressure, and perhaps if stronger it 
 might have fared no better. Blaise died at the age of thirty- 
 nine ; Jaqueline three years younger. But this brief space 
 sufficed them to set the world a noble, an imperishable 
 example. 
 
 We experience a feeling of more thorough and respectful 
 admiration for her than for him. We doubt whether we 
 have ever met with a character, male or even female, which 
 surpassed Jaqueline's. Had she been a woman endowed with 
 one of those peaceful and innately submissive natures, to 
 which the conviction of duty brings repose, we should not 
 say this. But the history of Pascal's sister displays a 
 struggle and a victory of the most arduous kind, yet at the 
 same time complete in its results. We ask ourselves 
 whether, with a disposition like hers, an obedience so exact 
 might not have been produced by her turning all the passion 
 that would else have found another vent, in the direction of 
 obedience. Passion, however, is insubordinate, and if in- 
 duced to obey at all, its obedience cannot fail of becoming 
 overstrained. Not thus did Pascal's sister obey. That 
 subtle method of effecting her own will, spoken of by the 
 prophet, did not characterise her. She did not disobey by 
 the sheer force of her excessive obedience. No ; she obeyed 
 peacefully, holily, exactly, and yet with energy; in short, 
 she was obedient, and we cannot express the gracefulness (we 
 must be allowed to use this word) with which, on certain 
 occasions, she manifests a power of language that incon- 
 
vinet's essay. 213 
 
 testibly proves her by nature born to command, and shews 
 that she could have exercised her birthright with incompar- 
 able vigour, if divine grace had not endowed her with the 
 better heritage of obedience. 
 
 And yet she is a woman, and nothing allows us to forget 
 this ; she never forgets it herself. None of her sex ever had 
 a more masculine character, Madame Roland could have 
 taught her nothing. Her thoughts are as manly as is her 
 character, and yet we are never tempted to say that she 
 oversteps the boundaries of her sex. No, she does not over- 
 step them j all her strength is penetrated by a womanly ten- 
 derness and grace. In reading her life and letters, we recol- 
 lect the beautiful words addressed by a modern writer to the 
 prince of poets, — 
 
 " And still thou wert a man, 
 We feel it by thy tears." 
 
 We feel also by her tears, or perhaps by something more 
 affecting than even tears, that the sister of Pascal, who might 
 indeed be called his mother, was, in the very depths of her 
 nature, a woman. She is more womanly than any one of the 
 energetic women held up to our just veneration in the his- 
 tory of the Church and the world. Her life is the life of a 
 woman of energy ; her death — that of a woman. She died of 
 grief, because, under the guidance of her brother, of the great 
 Arnauld, and of the distinguished members of Port Eoyal, 
 she had consented to a transaction esteemed proper by them 
 all, but in which the exquisite delicacy of her moral sense 
 detected a slight evasion. How much mingled strength and 
 weakness in such a death ! Yet it was not the Christian, 
 but the woman who sank, overwhelmed by the weight of her 
 own courage. That sorrow, that death, that tender and yet 
 mighty soul, what a subject would they not afford to the 
 poet who could so gently win us to mingle our own tears 
 
214 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 with those of Racine, and who long ago penetrated into the 
 hidden life of Port Royal ! 
 
 To understand the extent and value of the sacrifices made 
 by Jaqueline when she renounced the world and self for ever, 
 it is necessary, after reading the Begulations for Children, to 
 take up her letter to Mother Angelique de St Jean upon the 
 signing of the Formulary. With M. Cousin, we ask all who 
 yet retain any sympathy for energy of character, and for the 
 beauty of a disinterested love for truth, if they are 
 acquainted with many pages of more vigour and excellence. 
 But what we wish more especially to remark, is the 
 authority, let us dare to say the pride of language, which 
 Jaqueline never allowed herself to use in relation to her own 
 affairs, and of which she would always have been thought in- 
 capable, if the imperilment of truth had not caused her to 
 quit the precincts of her inviolable reserve. Under favour 
 of this unlooked-for opening, nature escapes, her native char- 
 acter for a moment re-asserts its rights, and the pride of the 
 Pascal heart fully reveals itself in the words, " I know that it 
 is not for women to defend the truth ; but in the present un- 
 happy juncture may it not be said that when bishops have 
 the cowardice of women, women ought to have the courage 
 of bishops?" Such a nature as hers, long buried amid the 
 shades of idleness, illness, or devotion, is awakened, like the 
 Great Condi* by a battle of Senef ; but an opportunity was 
 
 * Conde'. — Loiiis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde", born in 1621, known in history 
 as the Great Conde", defeated the Spaniards at the battle of Rocroy, when only 
 twenty-one years old. He persisted in carrying out his own plans of attack 
 against the advice of older generals, and thereby succeeded in crushing the Spanish 
 infantry, till then deemed invulnerable. Such was the pride of these old bands, 
 celebrated all over Europe, that a French officer having the nest day asked a 
 Spaniard what were their numbers before the battle — " You have only," replied he, 
 " to count the dead and the prisoners." The military reputation of the young 
 conqueror was at once established by this victory. 
 
 Conde" was afterwards opposed to the court party in the war of the Fronde • was 
 arrested and imprisoned, together with some of his relatives, by order of Mazarin. 
 He only regained his freedom through the heroic efforts of his wife, Claire Cle- 
 
vinbt's essay. 215 
 
 requisite, and without it we should have had neither waking 
 nor discovery, for it is not the fate of every gallant spirit to 
 begin its career with a Rocroy, that shall at once put its 
 greatness beyond the pale of doubt for ever. What was 
 Jaqueline Pascal's Rocroy ? An internal victory witnessed 
 by God alone, and owing more than half its grandeur to the 
 clouds in which it is enshrouded. To annihilate self, and 
 then to efface the most minute traces of that very annihila- 
 tion, had been the task of this heroic girl for years. She 
 had deemed it her especial duty to mortify her noble intellect, 
 but she was unable to destroy it ; it still clung to her ; and 
 though everything which she achieved or wrote bears the 
 stamp of mental superiority, there is nothing comparable in 
 this respect to the Letter on the Formulary. Closeness, 
 sagacity, vigour of argument, energy of language, every in- 
 gredient of eloquence is there, and stands out in fine relief 
 from an admirable background of humility. 
 
 From this scene of agitation, on which her appearance is 
 brief and scarcely discernible, we gladly follow Pascal's sister 
 into her daily sphere of thought and action. It is a world 
 even more extraordinary than the situation in which we 
 have just admired her. This world beyond the world, is 
 not merely the convent, but a group of individuals and 
 of families, a distinct part of French society at that epoch. 
 
 menee de Maine", a niece of Cardinal Richelieu, yet he repaid her devotion with 
 neglect and ingratitude. After the final defeat of the Frondeurs, he took refuge 
 with Spain, and turned his sword against France ; but was at length pardoned and 
 restored to the royal favour. 
 
 In 1674 he fought in the battle of Senef, on the Flemish frontier, against the 
 Prince of Orange, afterwards William III. of England, remaining, though in feeble 
 health, seventeen hours in the saddle. In this bloody contest, 27,000 men were 
 left dead on the field. Both sides claimed the victory; and when Conde", on his 
 return to Paris, went to Versailles, Louis XIV. advanced to meet him as far as 
 the great staircase. The Prince, who had nearly lost the use of his limbs from 
 gout, was ascending it very slowly : "Sire," exclaimed he from a distance, "I 
 crave your Majesty's pardon if I keep you waiting." " My cousin," replied the 
 king, " do not hurry yourself; when one is so laden with laurels, one can hardly 
 walk fast." — Lord Mahon's Life of CondS, pp. 14-25, 282. 
 
216 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 It is that portion of the Catholic Church on which the 
 name of a man or of a book was afterwards imposed, but 
 which in reality did not originate with either man or book ; 
 it is, so to speak, a spiritual and ascetic school, disowned by 
 Catholicism, yet obstinately refusing to retaliate that dis- 
 avowal. The life of Jaqueline Pascal, the memoirs of her sister 
 and niece, enable us to enter that school, and make us quite 
 as familiar with it, as do the devout writings of the Nicoles, 
 the St Cyrans, the Quesnels, and the Dugnets. We learn not 
 only what was thought, but what was practised, within that 
 little Church, born of the Spirit. Can it be true that it is 
 not possible for men to examine themselves and to watch 
 over their daily lives without exaggeration ? and is this ten- 
 dency to extremes the weakness of the strong ? Many facts, 
 individual and collective, seem to rise up and testify that 
 thus it is. And among their number is the asceticism of 
 that religious school to which the sisters of Pascal and Pascal 
 himself belonged. No other band of Christians has more 
 loudly professed or more sincerely practised the voluntary 
 and deliberate yielding of the creature's will to that of the 
 Creator. No other has felt a deeper repentance and horror 
 of sin. It seems, in these pious and vigorous minds, as if 
 there was a struggle between love of God and hatred of self, 
 and though we cannot without injustice say that the latter 
 prevailed over the former, yet we may reasonably conclude 
 that the latter — self-abhorrence — is the peculiar. tone of Jan- 
 senist piety. It would appear that, according to their idea, 
 God was not sufficiently avenged, and that the Christian, 
 though hopeless of completing that vengeance (mark this 
 point), was yet bound to carry it on and to attempt its con- 
 summation. If life was in itself a punishment, they must try 
 to aggravate it, and, if not, they must make it become such. 
 The apostolic maxim, " Use the world as not abusing it," will 
 not satisfy the members of this school, for their device is, 
 
vinet's essay. 217 
 
 "Use it not at all." Too spiritually-minded not to be aware 
 that it is useless to renounce the world unless self be first 
 crucified, they do not admit of the one renunciation without 
 the other, and the life of the believer must become, in every 
 sense, a long adieu to life. St Paul, while duly honouring 
 Christian celibacy, had pronounced marriage honourable in 
 all, but Pascal declares it " the most perilous and the lowest 
 of Christian stations," and on this ground alone dissuades 
 one of his nieces from marrying. His brother-in-law, M. 
 Perier, always wore a girdle lined with iron points, but his 
 humility always kept this fact a secret. He used also to 
 have a plank in his bed, which he always made himself, in 
 order to prevent its discovery. Mental enjoyment was looked 
 upon by some of these Christians as a different kind of sen- 
 suality or luxury, and they rigorously declined it, as a super- 
 fluity, only permissible to persons who had no taste for it. 
 To sum all up in a word, they have no tie to earth nor to 
 its inhabitants, save charity. This one cable fastens them 
 to its shore, but all the rest are cut. In their eyes, every 
 one belongs to the world who lives in it, no matter how 
 genuine, humble, or practical his piety ; and to quit the 
 world entirely, is the true, the only conversion. A single 
 aim, a single thought, a single work— such is the rule, and 
 such the spirit of Port Eoyalist piety. And if you would 
 gain a clear yet freezing intuition of that mode of life, you 
 have only to read, in Jaqueline Pascal, the sketch of the little 
 girls' education who were committed to her care. The 
 recital of one day's occupations will excite your reverence, 
 and at the same time make you shudder. 
 
 M. Cousin has made some very just remarks on this head, 
 which we have no desire to gainsay. Rather would we say, in 
 addition, that what is imperfect as a model, may be perfect 
 as a type. We think it a matter of congratulation that such 
 examples have come down to us in spite of all their short- 
 
218 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 comings and excesses. And as far as we ourselves are con- 
 cerned, evil is less apparent than good, and falsehood than 
 truth, throughout the whole. Whatever may be said to the 
 contrary, truth and excellence are in the ascendant. If man- 
 kind must of necessity be self-deceivers, this mode of self- 
 deception is the best ; and if it be the occasion of scandal, the 
 blame rests not so much with them as with their accusers. 
 For the life of the recluses of Port Eoyal vividly represents, 
 in spite of some confusion in the metaphor, the true rela- 
 tions of man, the true emotions caused by repentance, and 
 the true dignity and beauty of human existence. I should 
 not speak thus did I perceive in the asceticism of Port Royal 
 those two errors of which I agree that asceticism is, by turns, 
 both the cause and the effect. I mean a mercenary spirit, 
 and that fatal prejudice which places the principal of sin in 
 matter, or in the flesh. Nothing of the kind is here to be 
 found. Jansenism may have neared the brink of that abyss, 
 but it never began the descent. Its piety was altogether 
 spiritual, actual, and sincere. It had no toleration for 
 sublime phantasies ; the virtues it practised were useful and 
 salutary ; it aimed at justice and charity in its relations with 
 mankind ; and its morality is no exact, ingenious mechanism, 
 but a living, pliant reality. In a word, these extraordinary 
 beings were only, in their daily life, devoted friends to God 
 and to their neighbour. 
 
 Having mentioned M. Perier's austerities, I should like to 
 shew his character in a different light. The following trait 
 will, I doubt not, make up for the girdle and the wooden 
 couch. I leave his daughter, Marguerite Perier, to narrate 
 it:— 
 
 " Two days before his death he performed an action 
 worthy of record. There lived at Clermont a treasurer of 
 the French Government, whose family was considerably 
 
tinet's essay. 219 
 
 indebted to M. Perier, and my father, knowing this debt to be 
 nearly outlawed, wished to take some steps to secure his own 
 rights. He therefore called upon the treasurer, and requested 
 him not to take it amiss if he did so. The man behaved in 
 a very improper manner, and made the most bitter and 
 abusive complaints of my father in company. My father 
 ■was told of this, but only said, ' One must make allowances 
 for a man whose affairs are deranged.' About a week after, 
 there came news from Paris that every treasurer would be 
 obliged to pay a tax of ten thousand francs, or otherwise 
 must lose his office. My father told my mother of this, and 
 said, ' That man will be ruined. I should like to offer him 
 some money.' My mother said, ' Do just as you please, only 
 recollect what a sum is already due you from that family.' 
 He made no answer, but went on the morrow to the trea- 
 surer, and asked him if he had heard the news, and what 
 were his intentions. ' I shall be obliged to resign my office,' 
 replied the treasurer, ' for it is very plain that I cannot raise 
 ten thousand francs.' My father said, ' No, sir, you will not 
 resign it. I have ten thousand francs. I will lend them to 
 you.' The man was so astonished, that he sobbed out, ' You 
 must certainly be a true Christian, sir, for I have said very 
 harsh things of you, and I know that you have heard of 
 them.' My father did not mention this. It took place 
 on Monday, February 21, and on Wednesday, the 23d, he 
 died suddenly at seven in the morning. The treasurer, 
 hearing of his death, ran to the house, shrieking, weeping, 
 and exclaiming, ' I have lost a father ! ' and then he related 
 the conversation of the Monday previous." 
 
 No one can fail to remark the almost biblical simplicity of 
 this narrative. What I wish to point out in it, is the ex- 
 treme moderation and reserve of its style. This is the char- 
 acteristic of that piety. Towards God alone it flows out 
 
220 JAQUELOTE PASCAL. 
 
 freely. On every other subject it is incommunicative, and 
 this habit once formed, there is no longer anything to 
 impart — the barrier is never threatened, either by the 
 dearest interests or the most profound emotions. This 
 devout and holy sobriety in the expression of natural feeling 
 is not merely a discipline worthy of being reverenced for its 
 motive, it is a judicious and salutary economy. The expres- 
 sion of feeling always weakens that feeling. Never, without 
 an evident and an impracticable miracle, can the words of 
 the poet respecting a magic cup be spoken of the soul : — 
 
 " And still the- more the vase pourM forth, 
 The more it seem'd to hold."" 
 
 Every vase is emptied by the act of pouring, and, up to a 
 certain point, that which is true of a vase is no less true of a 
 heart. The soul has its excesses, and is weakened by them, 
 just as excesses of another kind weaken the body. Eeserved 
 men, when that reserve is not the mask of sterility, preserve 
 their strength of soul just as temperate men preserve their 
 bodily vigour. Nay, this very reserve is usually a pledge and 
 a foundation of mental strength. And what we have said of 
 individuals is equally true of epochs and of literatures ; for 
 in these also, when the sap runs out, the tree is weakened. 
 Were all this denied, it would still be undeniable that 
 nothing moves us so deeply as a single word from the heart 
 of one whose words are, from a sense of duty, few. We are 
 affected both by what he says and what he leaves unsaid. 
 When Margaret Perier concludes the memoirs of her family 
 with these simple words — " Such was the manner of life of all 
 my relatives. I am left alone. They all died in an un- 
 changeable love to the truth : God forbid that I should ever 
 think of deserting it ! " — the heart is stirred to its pro- 
 foundest depths, and we feel grateful that she inclined the 
 vase so slightly. 
 
tinet's essay. 221 
 
 In giving an account, last year, of Pascal's system of 
 theology, which, seems to us more mild than any other 
 system, we excepted the inhumanity of a part of his morality, 
 essentially the same as that of Jaqueline and of Port Eoyal. 
 And having made this exception, we may be allowed to say 
 that the natural affections were deeply rooted in those noble 
 hearts that made the love of God a foundation for every 
 other love. Ah, yes ! it is true there is something heart- 
 rending in the particular regulation whereby Jaqueline 
 forbids poor little girls, brought up together, to interchange 
 the slightest caress or even touch ; and we will allow those 
 who confess that such severity is in principle sublime, to 
 condemn it as excessive. But where must be the eyes of 
 those who can read the Eegulations, and not discover them 
 to be full of the most considerate tenderness, and that they 
 dictate attentions of the most delicate charity ? Who could 
 read, I do not say without respect, but without tears, 
 Jaqueline's narrative of the difficulties attending her entrance 
 on a religious life, especially from her brother and her 
 family. The letter on the Formulary is not more admirable 
 of its kind than this, and the one shews up the value of the 
 other. Not wishing, nor indeed able, to dwell upon it as a 
 whole, let us quote a single sentence. Speaking of the 
 " disingenuous reasons" (raisons de chicane) by which the 
 relatives of Jaqueline opposed her intention of offering to the 
 community of Port Eoyal the just and customary remunera- 
 tion for the expenses of her maintenance, " I know," she 
 says, " that these arguments were true in the main, but they 
 were such as we had never been accustomed to use with one 
 another." Never was complaint more reserved, more tender, 
 nor, for that very reason, more sorrowful. But this long 
 letter ought to be read, for its very length, occasioned by 
 holy veneration and gratitude, completes the picture of 
 Port Eoyal, and it is, moreover, in some places, full of a 
 
222 JAQTJELINE PASCAL. 
 
 solemn grace. The form of Christianity which we are now 
 studying is there in its richest bloom, and with the full 
 fragrance of its refreshing perfume. 
 
 We attempt, with a painful sense of our own incompetency, 
 to supply that which, without contesting their correctness, 
 seems to us wanting in the moral reflections of M. Cousin. 
 When he seeks to discover for the nineteenth century a 
 middle path between the sublime but extravagant devotion 
 of the seventeenth and the liberal but impious philosophy of 
 the eighteenth, he perhaps does not wish to keep us equi- 
 distant from the two ; but it seems as if he did. The 
 devotion of the seventeenth century is not sublime merely. 
 It is true to its heart's core ; and if it were not true, it 
 would not be sublime. Allowing that it gives too much 
 scope to error, even upon points that M. Cousin could not 
 indicate, its truth, we repeat, is far greater than its falsehood. 
 Among the multitude of religious revivals whose memory is 
 recorded in ecclesiastical history, this is assuredly one of the 
 loveliest. In saying this, we yield to the wish of giving 
 expression to a truth which we deeply feel, and to which M. 
 Cousin has not accorded the aid or the homage of his 
 eloquence. But it was not necessary ; M. Faugere had 
 preceded us. We find at the close of his preface this passage, 
 excellent both in thought and style : — 
 
 " This zeal, it is true, was not always so enlightened as it 
 was fervent and sincere. They (the Jansenists) not unseldom 
 pursued the principles and practices of religion beyond the 
 bounds of reason, forgetting that man's proper destiny upon 
 earth is to unite the life of action to the life of contemplation ; 
 that the duty of a sincere Christian does not consist in sacri- 
 ficing the one to the other, but in regulating the one by the 
 other, and uniting both in that just proportion, the quest of 
 which is the quest of perfection. But all passions, even those 
 
vinbt's essay. 223 
 
 of the purest kind, are liable to excess, and it is better to re- 
 spect an exaggerated virtue, than to set about the easy task 
 of discovering its absurdities, for the mere sake of enjoying 
 an idle pleasure in triumphing over them. Men's hearts are 
 not apt to incline so far heavenward as to place morality in 
 any danger on that score. And, besides, is it not in the order 
 of Providence, that certain towering intellects should, in all 
 ages, devote themselves to the worship of truth, of beauty, of 
 holiness, of an ideal perfection 1 Yes, and it is good that 
 they should do this, in order to remind humanity of the 
 origin of all its dignity and moral grandeur, and, as the 
 sceptic philosopher Bayle expressed it, ' to prevent the spirit 
 of the world from ostracising that of the gospel.' " 
 
 The two works which we are now reviewing are similar, 
 and yet different. They relate to the same subject, and are, 
 for the most part, composed of the same materials. Madame 
 Perier's sketch of her sister Jaqueline, the latter's poetry, her 
 rules for the management of the young girls educated at 
 Port Koyal, her He/lections on the Mystery of Jesus Christ 's 
 Death, her examination, and her letters, are given in full in 
 both volumes. Now, let us look at their differences. M. 
 Cousin does not make his appearance as an editor alone. 
 His work, though much of it consists of Jaqueline Pascal's 
 writings, is none the less a book written upon that admirable 
 woman ; — a book in which the citations are like facts or 
 articles of proof, framed in some of the finest and most 
 glowing pages which we have ever obtained from M. Cousin's 
 eloquent pen. The publication of M. Faugere is a complete 
 collection of the writings of three female members of Pascal's 
 family, viz., his two sisters Gilberte and Jaqueline, and his 
 niece Margaret Perier. This noble volume is a natural and 
 indispensable companion to M. FaugSre's edition of Pascal's 
 Thoughts. His own part in it consists of a preface, well worth 
 
224 JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 reading, a large number of notes, and, in particular, the exact 
 restoration of the text. This restoration, the importance of 
 which is more than merely bibliographic, is by no means the 
 sole advantage distinguishing this edition. It is more rich 
 and ample than M. Cousin's, who, in fact, only set out to 
 write a book on Jaqueline Pascal, and has, as usual, written 
 it well. M. Faugere's volume contains many long pieces, we 
 might call them entire works, from which M. Cousin simply 
 extracts a few pages, the plan of his work not including their 
 complete republication.* In saying that Madame Perier's 
 Life of Pascal (52 pages), and the Memoirs of Margaret Perier 
 concerning her family (about 50 pages), are the principal 
 though not the only pieces which M. FaugSre has introduced 
 into his enlarged frame, and M. Cousin has left out, we note 
 one of the peculiar merits of the former's work. But, in 
 strict justice, we ought to add that the illustrious academi- 
 cian's book has in it certain other pieces, hitherto inedited, 
 though of no very great value or length. Madame Perier's 
 Life of Pascal has more than once been prefixed to his 
 Thoughts, yet many of his admirers are still unacquainted 
 with that fine fragment, and its reprint by M. Faug^re is a 
 true boon to the public. Nor do we think that the Memoirs 
 of Margaret Perier will be greeted with less pleasure. For, 
 apart from her belonging to the Pascal race (which is a 
 self-evident, indisputable fact), her sketches are intrinsically 
 curious and useful. They let in new light upon a state of 
 society and manners of which it is impossible to form a cor- 
 rect idea from the general outlines of history. We always 
 find, in evil, as well as in good, some facts which never could 
 be taken for granted. Who, for instance, could be prepared 
 
 * In the present yolume an attempt has been made to blend what was most 
 interesting in the works both of M. Cousin and M. Faugere with the information 
 requisite to make them intelligible to persons not familiar with that period of 
 French history to which they refer. 
 
vinet's essay. 225 
 
 to see the pious and learned Etienne Pascal, the father of 
 Blaise, giving ear to a -witch, and following, in some respects, 
 her advice 1 * Parental love caused him to listen to counsels, 
 which, in truth, he never sought. But the same depth of 
 affection would not be likely now-a-days to lead many persons 
 
 * Margaret Perier thus relates the episode of Pascal's infancy to which M. Vinet 
 here refers: "When my uncle was a year old, something very marvellous hap- 
 pened to him. My grandmother, though quite young, was very pious and charit- 
 able, and there was a great number of poor families whom, she was accustomed to 
 relieve. Among them was a woman generally believed to be a witch, but my 
 grandmother, who was very intelligent and by no means superstitious, laughed at 
 the warnings she received, and continued to give the woman alms. Her little boy 
 about that time fell into a state of languor resembling consumption, but attended, 
 however, with two very unusual symptoms. He could not endure the sight of 
 water without falling into violent convulsions, and what was even more astonish- 
 ing, neither could he bear to see his father and mother draw near each other. He 
 would seem pleased when one or the other caressed him separately, but they no 
 sooner approached him together than he began to cry and struggle with frantic 
 vehemence. This malady increased for more than a year, and at length became so 
 severe that his life was despaired of. 
 
 " Every one told my grandfather and his wife that this witch had certainly cast 
 a spell over the child, but the idea only amused them, for they supposed it to be pure 
 imagination on the part of their friends, who could find no other way of account- 
 ing for the child's illness, and paid no attention to it, allowing the woman free 
 admission to their house, and relieving her wants. My grandfather, however, grew 
 tired of hearing so much said on the subject, and one day sent for the woman into 
 his room, intending to talk to her in a manner that would make her put a stop to 
 the reports. She answered him at first very mildly, saying that they were all 
 false, and only arose from envy at the kindness shewn her. He then pretended to 
 be very angry, and to believe that she really had bewitched his child, and he 
 threatened to have her hanged if she did not confess the truth. Upon this she 
 became alarmed, and, falling on her knees, promised to acknowledge all, if he would 
 only agree to save her life. My grandfather, very much astonished, demanded 
 what she had been doing, and what were her motives. She answered that she 
 had once asked him to conduct a lawsuit for her, and he had refused, on the 
 ground that he did not consider her claim a just one, that therefore she had thrown 
 a spell over his child by way of revenge, knowing how tenderly he loved it, and 
 that she was sorry to tell him the sickness was unto death. My grandfather 
 exclaimed in sorrow, ' What I must my child die?' She told him there was a 
 remedy, but it was necessary that another should take his place, and become a 
 victim to the enchantment. My grandfather said, ' Oh, I had rather my son died 
 than to have any one killed in his stead.' She said that the enchantment could be 
 laid upon an animal. My grandfather then offered to give her a horse, but she 
 said that a cat would answer the purpose, and be less costly ; so he gave her one, 
 and she carried it off; but as she went down-stairs two Capuchin friars met her, 
 who had called to condole with my grandfather upon his son's illness. They told the 
 
 P 
 
226 JAQTIELINE PASCAL. 
 
 into a similar temptation, especially if they were Christians. 
 While gathering up this trait of manners, we blush less, 
 however, for Etienne Pascal, than for human nature. 
 
 "We, too, have our superstitions and manias. We, of the 
 
 woman that she was going to perform some new witchcraft with the cat ; upon 
 which she threw it out of a window not more than six feet from the ground, and 
 the cat fell dead. She then asked for another, which my-grandfather gave her, 
 never once thinking that it was of any consequence how many cats she had, or 
 what she did with them, provided anything could be done for his darling ehild. 
 The idea that she was going to invoke the devil again, in order to alter the spell, 
 did not occur to him till long afterwards, and then he was very sorry to have 
 countenanced the proceeding. 
 
 '* In the evening the woman came back and told him that she wanted a child 
 under seven, who should gather, before sunrise, nine leaves of three kinds of herbs, 
 three of a kind. He told his apothecary, who promised that he would himself 
 accompany his own little daughter on the morrow, which he did. The herbs being 
 procured, the woman made a cataplasm of them, which she brought to my grand- 
 father at seven in the morning, and bade him lay it on the child's stomach. This 
 was done, but when he came back from court at noon, he found the servants 
 crying, and they told him that the child was dead. He went up-stairs, and beheld 
 his wife in tears, while the baby lay in the cradle seemingly dead. He turned 
 away, and meeting the woman who brought him the plaster on the staircase, 
 which application he was convinced had killed the child, he gave her a box 
 on the ear that pitched her down the whole flight of stairs. The woman picked 
 herself up, and told him she knew he was enraged because he thought his child 
 was dead, but that she had forgotten in the morning to say thatitwould appear as 
 if it were a corpse until midnight, but that, if it were left quietly iu its cradle until 
 that time, it would recover. My grandfather went back, and declared that the 
 child should not be buried for the present, although it seemed quite dead, having 
 neither pulse, voice, nor feeling, being cold, and looking precisely like a corpse. 
 People were amused at my grandfather's credulity, especially as he had never 
 before been known to give any heed to such things, but he and my grandmother 
 did not leave the room where the baby lay, being afraid to trust any one but them- 
 selves. They heard the clock strike every hour till midnight, without perceiving 
 any change in the child, but towards one o'clock it began to yawn. This aston- 
 ished them greatly, they took it up, warmed it, gave it wine and sugar, which was 
 swallowed, and then its nurse fed it, but the child gave no sign of consciousness, 
 and did not open its eyes until six o'clock in the morning. Then seeing its father 
 and mother standing together, it began to cry as usual, which shewed that the 
 cure was not complete ; but they nevertheless felt comforted to think the child 
 was alive, and in about six or seven days after, he began to bear the sight of 
 water. My grandfather, on coming home one day from mass, found his son 
 amusing himself on his mother's lap by pouring water out of one glass into 
 another, and came towards them, but the child could not bear his approach 
 for several days longer. At length, however, this symptom disappeared, and in 
 three weeks the child was perfectly cured, and as fat as ever. 
 
vinet's essay. 227 
 
 nineteenth century also believe in occult powers. Shall I 
 add, that we have no fears of incurring a debt to the Prince 
 of Darkness 1 Gross errors are growing refined. Prejudices 
 yield to systems, which, after all, are but prejudices under a 
 new name. We do exploits against error, though we no 
 longer individualise it. Many reflections might be made 
 upon this state of things. But we prefer to say, that the 
 bright light which has already swallowed up so many shadows 
 is not yet extinct, — it has not paled. And from the eternal 
 East a new morning dawns, while the Everlasting Sun of 
 humanity is rising for us anew ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 $*galsti0n*! fat &\il)ittu> 
 
 BY JAQUELINE PASCAL. 
 
 Reference has repeatedly been made in the preceding pages to Jaqueline Pascal's 
 Regulations for Children. In consequence of their allusions to the practices of 
 the Romish Church, which are so deservedly objectionable to Protestants, it 
 was at one time intended to give only a brief abstract of their contents, but, on 
 reflection, it seemed scarcely fair to remove all the traces of a superstition 
 which was blended with so much unselfishness and heartfelt piety. While 
 presenting, therefore, this picture of education at Port Royal, the translator 
 hopes that no injury may accrue to the reader of this curious relic of a by- 
 gone age. It is not likely that so severe a discipline will win for itself any 
 imitators in the present day. Even Pascal himself mentions in his 
 Thoughts, that the children of Port Royal, deprived of the spur of emula- 
 tion, could with difficulty be made to take sufficient interest in their studies to 
 insure a moderate improvement. And it was deemed necessary, when the 
 Regulations were first published, to add a preface, qualifying their extreme 
 severity. 
 
 " These Regulations," remarks M. Cousin, "contain many beautiful passages. 
 He gives them, entire, with the advertisement of the editors, which points out 
 the errors of a discipline so austere." 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Although these Regulations for Children are not imaginary, 
 but, on the contrary, are an embodiment of the system pur- 
 sued for many years at Port Royal des Champs, it must, 
 
232 APPENDIX. 
 
 nevertheless, be owned, that in other places it may not al- 
 ways be easy, or indeed advisable, to carry them out in every 
 particular. For it is quite possible, on the one hand, all 
 children may not be capable of enduring so long a silence, 
 and so monotonous a life, without becoming a prey to dis- 
 couragement and ennui, which ought carefully to be avoided. 
 Or, on the other hand, all governesses may not be able to 
 maintain a discipline so strict, and at the same time to win 
 the love and confidence of their charge, which is all-import- 
 ant, in order for the result of education to be successful. It 
 is the part of prudence, therefore, to moderate all these 
 things, and, in the words of one of the Popes, to unite the 
 strength which rules children without alienating them, and 
 the kindness that gains their affection, yet does not spoil 
 them. 
 
 KEGULATIONS FOE CHILDEEN. 
 
 April 17, 1657. 
 My vert dear and honoured Father,* — I humbly entreat 
 your forgiveness for having so long deferred rendering you 
 an account of my conduct towards the children. My reason 
 for not doing this when you first mentioned it to me, was 
 this. I thought you wished me to write down the manner in 
 which they ought to be trained up, and I did not deem it 
 possible for one possessing so little light as I do, to undertake 
 a task of such difficulty without great presumption. For I 
 can assure you that obedience is my only inducement to 
 begin at all, and if I do not make a complete failure, it may 
 be attributed to the force of our Mother's words, who told 
 me, when she laid the charge of these children upon me, 
 that I need feel no anxiety, for God would himself do 
 
 * Jaqueline is here addressing her spiritual father, her confessor, most probably 
 the Abb« Singlin. 
 
AprENDix. 233 
 
 everything. This so completely quieted the trouble occa- 
 sioned by my own impotence, that I became full of confidence, 
 and as calm as if God had actually made me the promise. 
 And I own, that when I look at myself and begin to feel 
 discouraged, as you know to my shame I often do, then these 
 brief words, God will do everything, pronounced in faith, are 
 able to restore peace to my soul. You, however, have lately 
 removed my previous anxiety by telling me that you did not 
 require me to give you a sketch of education as it ought to 
 be conducted, but simply to state my own method of guiding 
 children, in order to observe my frequent faults, which not 
 only undo the work of God, as effected by my instrumen- 
 tality, but greatly hinder the progress of his grace in their 
 souls. 
 
 In order to maintain some degree of order in the account 
 thus rendered, I shall begin by telling you, in the first place, 
 how I have parcelled out the hours of the day, and, in the 
 second, what I do for their guidance both spiritual and bodily. 
 
 DIVISION OF THE DAY. 
 
 OF THE CHILDREN'S RISING. 
 
 1 . The eldest rise at four ; the next in age, at half-past 
 four ; those partly grown, at five ; and the youngest, according 
 to their size and strength. For you know that we have 
 pupils of all ages, from four years to seventeen and eighteen. 
 
 2. The person awaking them says Jesus, and they answer, 
 Maria, or Deo Gratias. 
 
 3. They must rise promptly, not allowing themselves time 
 to get thoroughly awake, for fear of yielding to idleness. If 
 they feel ill, they must mention it to the person awaking 
 them, so that they may be allowed to rest. If any of the 
 
234 APPENDIX. 
 
 elder ones usually requires more rest than the others, it is 
 allowed her, so that, when the hour prescribed for her arrives, 
 she may get up at once, because it is dangerous to get 
 accustomed to be idle in the early morning. 
 
 4. As they wake, they repeat a short prayer, suitable to 
 that hour. 
 
 5. Immediately after rising, they worship God and kiss 
 the ground. Then they pass into the dressing-room, and 
 again worship God, kneeling on both knees before the 
 oratory, and speaking aloud, lest any one should forget the 
 duty. 
 
 6. The elder ones then comb each other's hair. This must 
 be done in perfect silence, because it is but right that their 
 first words should be those of prayer and thanksgiving to 
 God. If any of them find it necessary to speak, they must 
 address their governess, in order that she may herself procure 
 what they need from whoever takes charge of it. This pre- 
 vents them from saying a word to one another during the 
 deep morning silence, and also saves them from temptation, 
 since they might otherwise whisper low on some unnecessary 
 topic, and then, if asked what they were saying, might 
 answer by a falsehood. This rigid silence continues until the 
 Pretiosa of Prime, and is also observed after the evening 
 Angelus, even in summer, when they walk in the garden. 
 
 OF THE PERIOD OF DRESSING. 
 
 1. They are exhorted to comb and dress themselves as 
 quickly as they can, in order to acquire the habit of spend- 
 ing the least possible time in adorning a body which must 
 one day become pasturage for worms, and also to compensate 
 for time wasted by women of the world in dressing, and in 
 arranging their hair. 
 
 2. As soon as the great girls are dressed, they are to comb 
 
APPENDIX, 235 
 
 and dress the little ones with the same silence and despatch. 
 We endeavour to have the whole business over by a quarter 
 past six at the very latest, which is about the time when the 
 bell rings for early mass. 
 
 3. Each elder girl is careful to have the little ones repeat 
 prayers while she is dressing them. 
 
 OP MORNING PRATERS. 
 
 1. At the last stroke of Prime, or Pretiosa at the very 
 latest, they kneel down and begin prayers when their gover- 
 ness gives the word. She, or the sister who aids her, is 
 always present. They first repeat their own special prayers, 
 and then the Morning Service. Every week a child is 
 appointed to begin the prayers which are repeated up-stairs. 
 I shall therefore call her hereafter la Semainiere (Monitress). 
 
 2. Prime and Compline prayers are said in a moderate 
 tone, neither too high nor too low, and accompanied with 
 slight intervals of meditation. Meanwhile, all the children 
 remain standing. 
 
 3. They are told that they maintain this attitude in order 
 to testify that they are ready to perform God's holy will. 
 
 4. All the common prayers repeated up-stairs are said 
 slowly, distinctly, and with right emphasis. 
 
 5. At the close of Prime, a short space, about two 
 Miserere, is allotted them to reflect before God on the duties 
 of the whole day, and on the chief faults committed the day 
 before, in order that they may implore him for grace to fore- 
 see and avoid temptations to do the like. 
 
 OP THE CHILDREN'S BEBS, AND BREAKFAST. 
 
 When prayers are over, they all go together to make their 
 
236 APPENDIX. 
 
 own beds and those of the little ones, doing this in couples 
 as directed. No one may leave a room until all the beds in 
 it are made, unless the sister who accompanies them should 
 allow others to be commenced in an adjoining room, and 
 place herself where she can keep watch over both apart- 
 ments. Even then she must be careful what children are 
 sent, and only select those whom she knows to be prudent 
 and trustworthy. 
 
 2. While the beds are being made, one girl prepares 
 breakfast, and the requisite things for washing the hands, 
 with wine and water to wash the mouth. 
 
 3. The beds being made, they wash their hands, and then 
 breakfast. Meanwhile, one of them reads the Martyrology 
 of the day, so that they may know what saints the Church 
 on that day remembers, and may honour them and implore 
 their protection. 
 
 OP WORK. 
 
 1. After breakfast, which is over by half-past seven at the 
 very latest, all withdraw into the work-room, where they 
 must diligently improve their time, and keep a strict silence. 
 If it is necessary to speak, they must do it softly, so as not 
 to interrupt those who are old enough to hold communion 
 with God. 
 
 2. Even the little ones are taught not to speak, though 
 they are allowed to play when their work has been well and 
 silently done ; but in their brief intervals of play, each must 
 play by herself, so that there may be no noise. I have 
 found that this solitude does not trouble the children, for 
 when they are used to it, they seem to amuse themselves very 
 merrily. 
 
 3. The children are taught that their work is not to be 
 unprofitable, but that they may consecrate it to God by doing 
 
APPENDIX. 237 
 
 it from love to him. Subjects of meditation are presented to 
 them, according to the season or festival; and when their 
 governess is present, she from time to time repeats passages 
 of Scripture calculated to strengthen the mind, and keep it 
 from vain and wandering thoughts. We are careful, how- 
 ever, to avoid extremes, and do not seek to render them too 
 spiritually-minded, unless God himself have made them so, 
 because their youth might occasion two evils, if we did ; — 
 either they might set too close a watch upon themselves, 
 and so weary the mind and fancy, instead of communing 
 with God ; or, on the other hand, might feel too much dis- 
 couraged at finding it impossible to attain the perfection 
 demanded of them. 
 
 i. We try to accustom the children to deny themselves, 
 and not to indulge their preferences for any particular kind 
 of work. For this reason we tell them that the less their 
 occupation pleases them, the more it will please God, and 
 therefore they ought to perform disagreeable tasks with more 
 industry and good-humour, and learn to work with a spirit 
 of penitence. But, nevertheless, we do really humour their 
 tasks as far as we can, without allowing them to perceive the 
 condescension. 
 
 5. They are not suffered to work in pairs, unless in case of 
 necessity, and then a very good girl is placed with one more 
 imperfect, in order that the strong may support the weak. 
 
 6. They are exhorted not to be too fond of their work ; 
 and to leave off as soon as the bell rings, either to go to 
 divine service, or to repeat it in private, because they ought 
 always to be ready for their religious duties, and to care only 
 for those. 
 
 7. When the governess is present, she may take the oppor- 
 tunity of inquiring how they understood mass, and of explain- 
 ing its meaning more particularly, teaching them how to 
 profit by it. 
 
238 APPENDIX. 
 
 8. When any one does wrong, she must be reproved in 
 presence of the rest, and occasion may thence be taken to 
 expatiate on the ugliness of vice and the beauty of virtue. I 
 have found nothing so useful and well remembered by chil- 
 dren as instructions thus given. 
 
 9. We avoid talking too much to them, for fear of over- 
 loading the mind. I find that instruction does much more 
 good when they are not wearied with it. For this reason, 
 I think it well sometimes to let several days pass without 
 giving them any instructions, and to make them as it were 
 hunger for spiritual nourishment. They thus receive better 
 what may afterwards be said to them. 
 
 10. We are careful not to have them untidy, careless, or 
 negligent, and to see that they put things away, and do not 
 lose them, but are neat and diligent in everything they do. 
 
 11. We accustom them also to love work, and to carry its 
 materials always with them, so as not to hinder time if any 
 unexpected detention occurs. They also work during their 
 recreation, those, at least, who are grown up, though they are 
 not obliged to do this. We merely advise them to form a 
 habit of never being idle, and this once done, there is no 
 more difficulty ; on the contrary, it answers instead of 
 amusements, as I see, by God's grace, is the case with our 
 girls, who find nothing so tiresome as holidays. I find it a 
 good way of forming this habit of industry, to allow them to 
 do some work which they like, and cannot do at any other 
 time. I taught them, for instance, to make worsted gloves, 
 and as they can only do this during their recess, they are 
 very eager after it. 
 
 12. At every hour during the day, one of them repeats 
 aloud a prayer suitable to the season and time, during Lent, 
 on the Passion, &c. All continue sitting, except her who 
 recites the prayer, and she kneels down as soon as the clock 
 strikes. 
 
APPENDIX. 239 
 
 13. We are careful to have them ask and receive the 
 materials for their work politely, to make them hold them- 
 selves uprightly and gracefully, and curtsey when they enter 
 or leave the room. Therefore, though they wear a veil, 
 they only make a nun's obeisance when they approach the 
 Holy Sacrament. 
 
 14. In the interval between breakfast and eight o'clock, 
 the elder ones, who have rooms to sweep and cells to arrange, 
 do it expeditiously and silently. We never allow two to be 
 together except we are convinced of their discretion. 
 
 15. At eight o'clock, all who have been busied in this way 
 up-stairs must leave everything and return to the work-room, 
 in order to hear the governess read until Tierce, which is 
 repeated at half-past eight. This reading is selected from 
 the subject of the Church services at the time : during 
 Advent, it relates to the mystery of the Incarnation ; from 
 Christmas to Candlemas, to the birth of our Saviour and the 
 Adoration of the Magi ; in Lent, to the Passion j and so on, 
 through the year. And at the same time, when any remark- 
 able saint's day comes, a selection is made from the saint's 
 life. This reading is intended to aiford a subject of thought 
 and conversation through the day. Some remarks are always 
 added by way of application or of instruction, so that they 
 may better comprehend it. 
 
 OP DIVINE SERVICE. 
 
 1. When the Tierce-bell rings, they kneel down to ask a 
 blessing of our Lord, saying, Benedicat nos, Deus Deus noster, 
 henedictus noster Deus, et metuant eum omnes fines terras, which 
 they do whenever they go out to attend church ; in order 
 that God may graciously keep them from wandering thoughts, 
 and enable them to behave properly in presence of the sister- 
 hood. 
 
240 APPENDIX. 
 
 , 2. We usually allow all who are fourteen years old, and 
 healthy, to attend the whole of the divine service on festival 
 days, and even Matins, if they are anxious to go, and have 
 deserved the permission. They go to the services of Tierce 
 and Vespers on double and half-double days, and on the 
 octave of every principal feast-day. On special festivals and 
 Sundays they are also allowed to attend Prime, and on those 
 days, too, the whole of them, great and small, usually go to 
 Tierce and Vespers. They also do this on Thursdays and on 
 the festivals of some of the holy doctors, and others whom 
 the children reverence, though festivals are not held in their 
 honour. 
 
 3. However, this rule of going to divine service on the 
 above-named days is not observed as indispensable. Each 
 must ask to attend, according to the degree of her devotion, 
 and permission is granted as a great favour. We exhort 
 them not to go unless they feel devout ; for it is better to 
 have them wish to go to church more frequently than they 
 are allowed, because then we have the right not to suffer any 
 inattention. 
 
 4. We are careful to have them behave with great modesty, 
 not permitting any looking about ; making them sing when- 
 ever they can, obliging them to attend to their books even 
 if they know the whole service by heart, to make deep 
 obeisances, and to stand upright. 
 
 5. Those who are allowed the privilege of singing anything 
 in the choir must strain every nerve to do it well, remembering 
 that they are doing the work of angels, and that it is a great 
 privilege to be thus employed. They must know the solo 
 parts perfectly ; if they make a mistake they are punished 
 for it, and have to sing over what they missed in the refec- 
 tory, sometimes for many days together, in order to cure 
 them of timidity, if that happened to be the cause of their 
 failure. 
 
APPENDIX. 241 
 
 6. A sister must always remain with those who do not 
 attend church, to watch them, even if there are only two, 
 
 7. Whenever they go among the sisterhood, they are to 
 walk in file as in a procession, no matter how few in num- 
 ber, and care must be taken not to place those together who 
 would be likely to speak. They never go anywhere without 
 an attendant. 
 
 8. They are not usually suffered to go about the convent 
 alone, still less in twos or threes ; but if it chance to be 
 absolutely necessary to send thither on an errand, one of the 
 most discreet and least prying is selected ; but this rarely 
 happens. 
 
 OF THE HOLT MASS. 
 
 1. After Tierce, all go to mass, except the very small chil- 
 dren, or those who are still giddy and foolish. A sister 
 remains to watch these, and causes them to listen to mass 
 with the same reverence as at church. 
 
 They are early accustomed to hear mass on their knees ; 
 it is found that the posture is less painful when practised in 
 youth. 
 
 2. It is thought far better, when the children are very 
 young or giddy, to keep them in a room, when it is not posi- 
 tively necessary for them to attend church, rather than to 
 let them acquire the bad habit of talking or jesting when 
 there. 
 
 3. At the beginning of the Sub tuum presidium, which is 
 an anthem chanted to the Holy Virgin immediately before 
 mass, they all kneel down in pairs within the choir, having 
 their ungloved hands folded over the scapulary. They ought 
 to maintain great reverence of demeanour, and to lift up their 
 hearts to God. To this end we try to instruct them in all 
 the ceremonies and observances of the holy mass, using the 
 Explanations of M. de St Cyran on that subject, and teaching 
 
 Q 
 
242 APPENDIX. 
 
 them to seek God's aid in every prayer they offer, because no 
 prayer can be acceptable to him unless inspired by the 
 Holy Spirit that groans and pleads within us. 
 
 4. I cannot help saying that it is impossible to be too 
 particular in teaching children to reverence the sanctuary, 
 especially during divine service, nor in punishing severely 
 the faults they commit there, even forbidding them to attend 
 church at all, except on high festival days, for as long a 
 space of time as seems necessary for their good, though they 
 be the eldest of all. For the older they are, the wiser they 
 ought to be. 
 
 OF WRITING. 
 
 1. On leaving mass, they all write in the same place, after 
 offering a short prayer that God would aid them to perform 
 that duty aright. For we try to impress their minds gently 
 with a holy habit of never commencing or closing an action 
 of any importance without prayer. They offer such prayers 
 as they choose, and as God inspires. The smallest are 
 taught to say an Ave Maria when they begin or end any 
 duty. 
 
 2. Silence during the writing-lesson is strictly enforced. 
 They are not allowed to shew each other their papers, nor to 
 write according to their fancy. They simply write after 
 their copy, or transcribe something if they are further ad- 
 vanced and allowed so to do. 
 
 3. They may not write to each other letters, notes, or sen- 
 tences, without permission from their governess, and if this 
 is granted, they must hand it to her, that she may give it to 
 the person for whom it was meant. The writing-lesson lasts 
 three quarters of an hour. 
 
 4. The remaining time before Sexte is spent in learning to 
 sing by note, with silence and deep reverence. 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 OP PRAYER BEFORE DINNER, 
 
 1. When Sexte is rung, one of them, to wit, the semainiere 
 (monitress), kneels down in the middle of the room, in order 
 to recall their thoughts to God, and enable them in heart to 
 participate in the service then going on in the choir. 
 
 2. Although the little sisters are required to be silent 
 through the whole day, except at conference timej yet there 
 are two special seasons when it is requisite to observe a more 
 rigid stillness — the first at morning and evening, of which I 
 have already spoken, and the second during the service and 
 masses which are said in the convent when they are not 
 present. They must put things in order, and provide for 
 their wants, so that they need not apply to their governess 
 for directions about their work, nor, if they can avoid it, speak 
 at all j that thus they may themselves commune with God, 
 and allow their mistresses time to recite the prayers. At 
 other times they can prefer their requests with more freedom. 
 
 3. If one of their exercises, in singing or repeating the cate- 
 chism, occurs during a time of divine service, it is not broken 
 off, but we desire them to carry it on more quietly than usual, 
 and to say the little prayer at the beginning of each service 
 that is said in the choir, though it may interrupt the lesson. 
 This makes them remember to turn their thoughts to God. 
 
 4. At eleven they all examine themselves, after repeating 
 the Confiteor as far as mea culpa, 
 
 5. Sometimes, during the evening and morning self-exami- 
 nation, we remind them of some fault, which they may not 
 have noticed, but which was committed in public, in order 
 gently to accustom them to a thorough self-examination. 
 
 6. When this examination is over, they all repeat the rest 
 of the Confiteor aloud, and then the semainiere asks God to 
 pardon the sins already committed, and to give them grace 
 to employ the remainder of the day better. 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 7. At the close of the examination, some repeat their Sexte 
 in private ; this is allowed to the elder ones who seem pious 
 enough to recite it properly. They are permitted to say from 
 Laudes to Complies. 
 
 OF THE REFECTORY. 
 
 1 . The dinner-bell rings immediately after Sexte, and they 
 proceed to the dining-room as modestly as to church. On 
 reaching it they curtsey in pairs, and do the same in passing 
 before any of the sisters. They stand in their places meekly 
 until grace is said, which they repeat -with the sisters, mo- 
 destly, their sleeves falling over their hands. 
 
 2. After grace they sit down, not according to rank, for it 
 is judged best to mix those who have most discretion among 
 the others, so that there may be no talking. 
 
 3. We are careful not to encourage them in any daintiness, 
 but exhort them to eat whatever is given them, beginning by 
 the things they like least, in a penitent spirit, and taking 
 sufficient food to keep them from faintness. For this reason 
 we watch what they eat. 
 
 4. They "must keep their eyes always down, not looking on 
 either hand, but quietly listening to what is read. They then 
 say grace with the sisters, and go out in the same order as 
 they came in. 
 
 OF RECREATION. 
 
 1. On leaving the dining-hall, they have a recess. The 
 little ones are kept apart from the elder ones, so that the 
 latter may converse more quietly and discreetly, which they 
 cannot do when small children are present, whose age permits 
 them to amuse themselves with games that would only weary 
 the others. 
 
 2. If the recess is held in a room, the elder ones gather in 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 a circle round the mistress, and talk modestly and sociably, 
 according to their ability. 
 
 3. They are not required to talk seriously nor of holy 
 things all the time, though profitable discourse may be 
 discreetly thrown in, and carried on if they appear to like it. 
 
 4. They may be allowed to play at innocent games, such 
 as battledore and shuttlecock, or others of a like kind. Not 
 that our girls avail themselves of this permission, for all of 
 them, except the very youngest, work on without losing a 
 moment, and are so fond of work, that, as I have already 
 said, an entire holiday is irksome to them. 
 
 5. We do not allow them to sit apart, even in the same 
 room, still less to form groups of two or three together, or 
 to speak in under-tones. The governess must hear whatever 
 is said, and we strictly observe a rule of making them repeat 
 aloud what they may have whispered, no matter in what 
 place, unless they humbly entreat to be allowed to say it to 
 the mistress alone. And as it might possibly be something 
 improper to be spoken aloud, they are taught in that case to 
 be silent, and on no account to repeat what would be 
 injurious or uncharitable, or they will be punished in the 
 same way as if they had concealed something they were 
 bound to tell. 
 
 6. Though young people are rarely discreet, we try to 
 make them so at all times and in all places, more especially 
 at recess, when it seems as if they had a right to say what 
 they choose, and to amuse themselves. And therefore their 
 governesses are careful to converse with them, and to 
 introduce rational discourse by way of improving their minds. 
 
 7. They are never allowed to repeat what may be said to 
 them in private or at the confessional, no matter how edify- 
 ing it may be, because those who have never had anything 
 special said to them might feel jealous. 
 
 8. They must not speak of the singing of the sisterhood, 
 
246 APPENDIX. 
 
 remarking that one sister sings better than another, or 
 noticing mistakes made in the choir. They must not talk of 
 the sisters receiving the sacrament, and we carefully teach 
 them not to observe this, nor to consider those who take the 
 sacrament often as more holy than those who commune less 
 frequently. They are told that each obeys the leadings of 
 God's Spirit and the commands of the Abbess, and that we 
 must neither condemn nor praise the conduct of any in this 
 matter, but leave all to God that judgeth. 
 
 9. They must not comment on any occurrence in the 
 dining-room, such as the penance of a nun or of one of their 
 own number. 
 
 10. They are also forbidden to speak of the penances 
 imposed on themselves, for fear of making light of such 
 things, or of frightening one another. 
 
 11. Nor are they allowed to relate their dreams, be they 
 ever so beautiful or holy. 
 
 12. They may not repeat what they have heard in the 
 parlour. If it be anything edifying, and fit to be generally 
 known, the mistress does not fail to impart it, and thus 
 gratifies their wish of making it public. 
 
 13. They are sometimes told any trivial piece of news, 
 such as the profession of a novice, the contents of a note sent 
 by some one asking the prayers of the choir, or any religious 
 anecdote, in order to remove the wish of gaining such infor- 
 mation in an improper way. 
 
 14. They are never reproved during recess, unless it is 
 unavoidable ; nor are any new regulations ever mentioned to 
 them then, lest they should feel at liberty to give their 
 opinion more freely, and thus incur a reprimand, which is 
 always to be, as far as possible, avoided. 
 
 15. Not that any grave fault is passed over if committed 
 during play-time ; on the contrary, it would be reproved 
 more sternly than at any other hour, lest the offender should 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 give free way to her passions, under pretence of amusement. 
 I merely mean that slight faults are not noticed, and past 
 offences are never referred to then. 
 
 16. They are exhorted not to speak all at once, for fear 
 of noise, but to hear each other ; and when one begins to 
 speak, not to interrupt her, which they are told would be 
 very rude. 
 
 17. Uncharitable conversation is specially prohibited, and 
 they are taught never to say what might possibly be un- 
 pleasant to one of their number, though in itself harmless, 
 because it is enough to know that any one present would 
 prefer some other topic of discourse. 
 
 18. We try to make them yield precedence to one another, 
 from that holy politeness which charity alone produces. 
 
 19. The children are to avoid every kind of personal 
 familiarity, and never to caress, to kiss, or even touch one 
 another, on any pretext whatever. Neither must the elder 
 ones pet the little children. If these things are forbidden in 
 play-time, much more at other times, when they may not 
 speak but in presence of their governess, except to procure 
 what they need. 
 
 20. The recess closes with a prayer, asking for grace to 
 enable them to pass holily the remainder of the day. 
 
 OP INSTRUCTION. 
 
 1. Recess being over, they range themselves in two rows 
 along the middle of the room, ready to be taught ; then, 
 kneeling down, they all repeat the Vent Creator Spiritus, 
 and their instructress recites a prayer and a short verse of 
 Scripture. 
 
 2. After prayer, all sit down, and those who choose to 
 confess their faults aloud can do so, but this is in nowise 
 
248 APPENDIX. 
 
 imperative. On the contrary, they know it to be a privilege, 
 and are accustomed to do it with a very good will. 
 
 3. They must respectfully listen to every caution, and we 
 try to reprove as kindly as possible, that they may be con- 
 vinced we do so for their good, not shewing any partiality. 
 
 4. They are made to understand that no improper feeling, 
 Buch as passion or self-interest, leads us to speak of their 
 faults, which does not prevent our reproving them with 
 severity, so that they may be truly humbled and ashamed. 
 For if they made a practice of confessing faults, in order that 
 others might think them very conscientious, it would become 
 a hypocritical mockery, which we are beyond all things 
 anxious to avoid. And, therefore, we make them do penance 
 for every important fault which they confess, but I do not 
 see that this makes them less candid. 
 
 5. They never confess such faults before their companions 
 on Sundays or festival days. 
 
 6. As soon as this confession is over, which lasts about a 
 quarter of an hour, we spend the rest of the hour in teaching 
 and hearing them repeat the lesson of the day before. Three 
 or four children are made to repeat what was then taught 
 them. Sometimes one is questioned, and sometimes another, 
 because it would take too long to catechise them all. If the 
 confession of faults took up a whole half-hour, we continue 
 for another quarter, needing that space to hear the re- 
 petitions. 
 
 7. On days for which there is a special Gospel, as in Lent, 
 Quatre-temps, and on Saturdays or Sundays, all rise, and 
 with folded hands reverently listen to both , Epistle and 
 Gospel. 
 
 8. After the Gospel is read, we explain it with the utmost 
 simplicity. On days for which there is no Gospel, we in- 
 struct them in the catechism, or expatiate on some religious 
 virtue. They are also taught the proper mode of confessing, 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 taking the communion, examining themselves, and praying 
 to God aright. We do not pass hastily from one topic to 
 another, but give them time to understand what has. been 
 said. 
 
 9. When the catechism is explained, it takes a long time : 
 for we begin with the sign of the cross, and go on to the 
 articles of belief, and the commandments of God and the 
 Church, leaving the chief mysteries to be explained on those 
 days which the Church has set apart for their commemora- 
 tion. 
 
 10. I will now tell you what has been my method for the 
 last four years. The first year, I explained the creed, the 
 sign of the cross, and the commandments. The second 
 year, I tried to make them understand the meaning of the 
 holy mass as it is laid down in the New Choir, for, though 
 they had the book, they understood nothing, because they 
 read by rote without reflection, or at least the greater part 
 did so, more especially those lately come. 
 
 11. I explained, in like manner, the evening and morning 
 prayers, self-examination, and other duties of a good Christian. 
 Afterwards I spoke of the Christian graces, using the text-book 
 of St John Climacos.* 
 
 12. During the present year, I have taught them the 
 nature of repentance out of the Tradition of the Church. 
 My intention is now, by God's help, to explain the catechism 
 by M. de St Cyran very minutely, and thereby shew them 
 their duty to God and their neighbour, and how to behave. 
 
 13. Their instruction closes with the prayer Confirma hoc 
 Deus, &c. The whole exercise occupies about two hours and 
 a half. They may work while it goes on, unless they need to 
 ask questions about their work ; in that case, they must sit 
 
 * This was a work entitled TJie Holy ladder, or Steps on tlie Way to Heaven. 
 Arnauld d'Andilly translated it into French from the Greek. The second edition 
 appeared in 1661. 
 
250 APPENDIX. 
 
 still, in order not to distract their own or their companion's 
 attention. 
 
 EMPLOYMENT OF THE INTERVAL BETWEEN 
 NONES AND VESPEES. 
 
 COLLATION. 
 
 1 . From Nones to Vespers a lesson from the catechism is 
 recited, one questioning, the next responding, one day, and 
 reversing the order on the morrow. They finish by repeat- 
 ing a hymn, either in Latin or French. These repetitions 
 are not troublesome, and waste no time, because each child 
 remains in her seat, and goes on with her work. 
 
 2. It is necessary to exercise the memory of children 
 often ; for this opens their minds, gives them occupation, 
 and keeps them out of mischief. 
 
 3. The remainder of the time, from instruction to Vespers, 
 is passed in working silently. Meanwhile, some of the half- 
 grown girls, who do not read well, practise reading, as they 
 also do at suitable opportunities through the day. Those 
 who read aloud in the work-room ought to read intelligibly, 
 that others may profit by what is read. 
 
 4. As to the little ones, we find that they learn to read 
 best alone ; therefore the elder girl who is appointed to teach 
 them, does so at intervals through the day in another room. 
 One who intends to be a nun is chosen for this office, and 
 besides, we are careful to select no one who is not perfectly 
 discreet, well-behaved, and gentle, and willing to teach them 
 out of love to God. 
 
 5. About half-past three there is a luncheon for the half- 
 grown and little girls. The elder ones are readily excused 
 from eating it, if they wish it, because they do not so much 
 need it, for we dine late and sup early, and those who do not 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 eat between meals usually enjoy better health. Therefore, 
 after they are fourteen, we allow them to omit luncheon, 
 except in cases where it seems necessary, and then they must 
 be made to eat something. We do not readily excuse the 
 younger ones, when they ask it, lest they should do so from 
 hypocrisy, or from a wish to act like great girls. 
 
 6. Meanwhile, if the more pious of the elder ones wish to 
 pray, we go aside with them for that purpose, and remain 
 until their prayers are over. 
 
 7. Those only are allowed to pray at this time who appear, 
 as far as we can judge, to desire it as a means of pleasing 
 God, and benefiting their own souls. 
 
 OP THE VESPER HOUR, AND THE OCCUPATION OP TIME UNTIL 
 SUPPER. 
 
 1. At four o'clock the elder ones go to Vespers, if they 
 have deserved the indulgence. 
 
 2. In the meantime the little girls are catechised, for, 
 although they are present while the others are taught, yet 
 they do not understand what is going forward, and can only 
 be made to comprehend when each is talked to separately. 
 
 3. From the close of Vespers to supper-time, one of the 
 great girls reads aloud. If possible, the head-mistress must 
 be present. When the bell rings, this reading ceases, and 
 they all proceed to the refectory, as they do in the morning. 
 
 OF EVENING RECREATION, PRATERS, AND GOING TO BED. 
 
 1. A recess follows the meal, as in the morning, only that 
 in summer they go into the garden in the evening, and in 
 winter in the morning. 
 
 2. The children are kept apart with the same care. We 
 try to have two nuns walk with the great girls, if any of 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 these are at all ill-disposed or unruly, so that one nun may- 
 walk behind and discover whether any fall back under pre- 
 tence of weariness, in order to whisper together. 
 
 3. This evening recess lasts till the first stroke of Complies, 
 except in the extreme heat of summer, when they remain 
 longer out of doors for the sake of fresh air. But it must 
 not be prolonged beyond half- past seven, when evening 
 prayers begin. In extreme heat, they may be recited in the 
 garden, the children kneeling down in some quiet spot, and 
 repeating Complies with the same tone of voice as in the 
 morning prayers at Prime. They can walk while repeating the 
 Psalms, provided they stop when it is necessary to perform 
 the ceremonies of the service. 
 
 4. When the weather is not so warm, they begin prayers 
 at the first stroke of Complies, so as to be ready for the 
 Salve, at which they are present in the choir throughout the 
 year, except during the three summer months, from the 
 octave of the holy sacrament until the end of August, and 
 then they are not summoned from a walk which we think 
 beneficial at that hour. 
 
 5. On leaving the choir or the garden, they go straight 
 up-stairs, undress with silence and despatch, and in winter or 
 summer are all in bed by a quarter past eight, each in her 
 separate bed. This rule is without exception. 
 
 6. As soon as they are in bed, each is visited, either in 
 her cell or couch, to see if she is properly covered, and suffi- 
 ciently warm in winter. 
 
 7. After this the lamps are put out, except one which is 
 left burning in case of its being needed in the night. 
 
 8. A nun sleeps in every room, or else a great girl whom 
 we can thoroughly trust. 
 
 9. Such is the order of each day. Not that no changes 
 are ever made in the hours of special employment, for this 
 
APPENDIX. 253 
 
 is done on fast-days and in Lent, when the mornings are 
 longer than the afternoons. 
 
 RULES FOR FEAST-DATS. 
 
 1. On feast-days the whole day is spent in. little exercises, 
 to improve the time and prevent ennui or jesting, which 
 would be unavoidable if they were not kept busy, since chil- 
 dren have not power to consecrate every hour of the day to 
 God's service. 
 
 2. They rise and dress at the same hour as on working 
 days. 
 
 3. At six o'clock, if the children are nearly dressed, the 
 elder ones who wish to attend Prime can do so, provided 
 they have permission, which is only granted when, their 
 motive appears to be a love to God and a wish to sing his 
 praise. It is the same with every service through the day. 
 Afterwards early mass is said, at which all are present, great 
 and small. 
 
 4. After mass, they make the beds and breakfast, till eight 
 o'clock, when they all assemble to hear the lecture, as on 
 working days. 
 
 5. At half-past eight nearly all go to Tierce, and all attend 
 high mass. 
 
 6. Between high mass and Sexte there is about three quar- 
 ters of an hour, in which they commit to memory important 
 truths, such as familiar theology, the exercise of holy mass, 
 the treatise on confirmation. Afterwards, they learn all the 
 French hymns in their Prayer-book, and then the Latin ones 
 in the Breviary. Those who enter the convent young, often 
 learn the whole Psalter by heart. They do it readily enough, 
 with a little pressing and stimulating from us. 
 
 7. At Sexte they examine their conscience, and then those 
 who are allowed attend Sexte. 
 
254 APPENDIX. 
 
 8. After Sexte comes dinner, and then a recess of an hour. 
 
 9. From one to two, the great girls leam arithmetic ; 
 the younger write copies, and the little ones say their cate- 
 chism. 
 
 10. From two to half-past, the elder teach arithmetic to 
 the younger, and from half-past to three, repeat Nones. 
 
 11. Every hour the elder ones repeat their chants by 
 note, and one shews the little ones how it is done. Even 
 if they only say the notes, it fills up the time, keeps them 
 from getting tired, and thus by degrees they learn to sing. 
 
 12. At four o'clock, all attend Vespers and the ensuing 
 worship. 
 
 13. After Vespers, the elder ones who greatly wish, and 
 have gained permission so to do, remain at prayer until 
 supper-time. The others are taken back to the room, and 
 spend the intervening half-hour or less as they please, either 
 in reading the Imitation of Jesus Christ, or in repeating 
 something that they know by heart. 
 
 14. The remainder of the day is spent as usual. 
 
 SECOND PART OF THE RULES FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 Having thus stated to you the manner in which the chil- 
 dren's days are spent, it remains for me to proceed to the 
 second thing you require of me, namely, my method of sup- 
 plying their spiritual and bodily necessities. Not that I am 
 able always to fulfil my own ideas of duty, for which reason 
 you are bound to implore of God that he would make me 
 what I ought to be, in order to benefit the immortal beings 
 committed to the care of one so incapable of serving them. 
 There are many things which, for lack of suitable terms, 
 cannot be exactly explained, but obedience forces me to sur- 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 mount my own repugnance to the task, and I therefore go on 
 to state not only what I do, but what I think ought to be 
 done, for their education. 
 
 I. 
 
 In what spirit we ought to attend to children. — Harmony of the mistresses. — 
 Some general advice on their behaviour, especially to small children. 
 
 1 . I think that, really to do children any good, we ought 
 never to speak or act for their benefit without first looking 
 to God, and asking his holy aid, that we may thus obtain 
 from him the power of guiding them in his fear. 
 
 2. We ought to be very kind and tender towards them, 
 never neglecting either their internal or external wants, and 
 shewing them, on every occasion, that we grudge nothing to 
 serve them. We do this from love, and heartily, because 
 they are God's children, and we spare no pains to make them 
 worthy of that high dignity. 
 
 3. It is very necessary to give ourselves entirely up to 
 them without any reserve, not leaving their part of the 
 house except it is unavoidable ; always staying in the room 
 where they work, unless we are busy in teaching them, visit- 
 ing them in sickness, or providing for their wants. 
 
 4. We must not regret the privation of attending divine 
 service, except for the sake of the elder girls, for it is so im- 
 portant to watch children constantly, that every other duty 
 must give way to this, if it be laid upon us, and much more 
 our own comfort even in spiritual things. The charity which 
 leads us to deny ourselves for their sakes, will not only cover 
 many of our own defects, but will stand instead of much that 
 we should, under other circumstances, find conducive to our 
 growth in grace. 
 
 5. There must be a sister associated with us, whom we can 
 trust, without devolving our own responsibility on her. This 
 
256 APPENDIX. 
 
 sister must remain as much as possible in the room. It 
 would be very desirable to have two, prompted by the same 
 spirit of zeal and love to children, who could usually stay in 
 the room together, even when the first mistress was present, 
 because the propriety of the children's behaviour before her 
 would give them both a right to exact the same respect in 
 her absence. 
 
 6. We ought to let the children see that we are living in 
 perfect union, trust, and confidence with the sister allotted as 
 our assistant. It is best not to countermand any order she 
 may have given, even when it is wrong, that the children may 
 not perceive any disagreement, but to wait and tell her of it 
 in private. For it is important, and almost necessary, if we 
 would bring children up well, that the sister selected as our 
 aid should take what is said to her in good part. If this is 
 not the case, the superior ought to be told. But if her oppo- 
 sition is of a kind that does not hurt the children, but only 
 annoys us, it is better to ask God to make us thankful that 
 our inclinations are in this manner crossed. 
 
 7. We must pray often that God would make the children 
 feel a deep reverence for the sisters who are with us. We 
 ought also to strengthen their authority, especially hers, who 
 stands next to ourselves. Therefore it is well to shew the 
 children, and even to tell them occasionally, that she has 
 great charity for them, that she loves them, and \t is we who 
 oblige her to render us an account of all that goes on in the 
 room. And it is also well to say to herself, in presence of the 
 children, that she is bound, in duty and charity, to tell us not 
 only of their important faults, but even of their lighter ones, 
 so that we may endeavour to correct them. 
 
 8. We place confidence in the sisters who assist us, so far 
 as to inform them of the children's dispositions, especially 
 those of the little ones, and of the elder girls, if these are 
 likely to cause trouble, so that they may keep better watch. 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 Yet we are not to be ready to repeat to them what the chil- 
 dren say to us in private, unless it seems necessary for the 
 good of the latter, lest they might, through some inadver- 
 tence, discover that we had done so. I believe it to be very 
 important for children to be able to rely on our secrecy, for 
 though their communications may be unimportant now, yet 
 hereafter, when they are older, more particularly, they may 
 have something of importance to confide, which they would 
 hesitate to tell, if they knew that we had not been faithful to 
 them in little things. 
 
 9. And important as it is that we should have perfect 
 union and intelligence with the sisters who assist us, it is 
 still more important that these sisters should only act in 
 accordance with the rules they find in operation, and should 
 so yield to the wishes of the head-mistress, as to speak with 
 her mouth, and see with her eyes, in order that the children 
 may never perceive any want of harmony between their 
 teachers. If the sisters find any fault in the first mistress's 
 plans, they ought to tell her of it, provided they feel sufficient 
 confidence in her, and the Abbess gives permission. If God 
 does not inspire them with such confidence, they must men- 
 tion it to the Superior, lest they should inadvertently betray 
 their lack of it before the children. 
 
 10. When two nuns are present in the work-room, and the 
 bell for prayers rings, one can repeat those prayers while the 
 other keeps an eye upon the children, but she is not to notice 
 any trivial faults till her companion has finished, which will 
 teach them to be reverent when other persons are at prayer. 
 But when the office is over (and when repeated softly it does 
 not take long), they are to be punished in proportion to tire, 
 fault, even more severely than they would be at another 
 time. 
 
 11. If the sister is alone with the children, she must not 
 hesitate to keep an eye on them, but had better say nothing 
 
 R 
 
258 APPENDIX. 
 
 till her prayer is quite over. We find by experience that 
 this course makes them more reverent in their own prayers, 
 and much more afraid of interrupting others. We cannot 
 inspire children with too great a fear of God, either by word 
 or example. Therefore we are very careful always to say our 
 prayers at the precise time when they are said in the choir, 
 quitting our occupation at the second stroke of the bell, and 
 never allowing ourselves to finish what we have begun. But 
 if the children are in need of any special service, we must per- 
 form it in preference to our prayers ; still it is good both for 
 the children and our own conscience, to be sure that our only 
 motive is to please God, because example is the most effective 
 method of teaching ; for the devil helps them to remember 
 our slightest failures, and hinders them from remembering 
 the little good we do. 
 
 12. For this reason we cannot be too earnest in prayer, too 
 humble nor too vigilant in the discharge of our duties to the 
 children. Our vow of obedience binds us to do this. It is 
 one of the most important occupations in the convent, and 
 we cannot be too fearful of failing to discharge it aright; 
 though we are not to be pusillanimous, but to put our 
 trust in God, and to compel him by our continual crying to 
 grant us that aid which, though undeserving, we implore 
 through the blood of his Son, shed for the innocent beings 
 confided to our care. We ought always to consider the little 
 creatures as sacred deposits, placed by God in our hands, for 
 which we must render an account to him. Therefore it is 
 best to say little to the children, and much to God on their 
 behalf. 
 
 13. And as we are obliged to be always among them, we 
 must so conduct ourselves that they may never see any un- 
 evenness of temper in us ; and not treat them at times too 
 indulgently, and at others too severely. These extremes 
 usually meet ; for if we suffer ourselves to notice and pet 
 
APPENDIX. 259 
 
 them, or to let them follow the bent of their own wills, re- 
 proof must inevitably follow, and this inequality is harder for 
 children to bear than the strictest maintenance of discipline. 
 
 14. We must never be too familiar with them, or put too 
 much confidence, even in the great girls, but we are to treat 
 them with true charity, providing whatever they require, and 
 often anticipating their wants. 
 
 15. They ought to be treated politely, spoken to with re- 
 spect, and always yielded to where it is possible, for this wins 
 upon them greatly. It is well sometimes to indulge them in 
 things of slight importance, so as to gain their love. 
 
 16. When it is requisite to reprove their follies or awk- 
 wardnesses, we must never mimic them or push them roughly, 
 no matter how naughty they are ; but, on the contrary, speak 
 to them gently, and use good arguments to convince them 
 they are in the wrong. This will keep them from sulkiness, 
 and be likely to do them good. 
 
 17. We must often pray that God would make the children 
 truthful, and also try to keep them free from artifice and 
 finesse; but this requires discretion, lest our warnings against 
 deceit should make them artful. I think it well not to let it 
 appear that we think them deceitful, because sometimes they 
 become so by dint of being suspected, and then employ all the 
 disingenuous tricks of which they may have been wrong- 
 fully accused, to screen themselves from deserved punishment. 
 
 18. We ought, therefore, to keep unremitting watoh over 
 the children, never leaving them alone for a moment, sick or 
 well, but it is best not to let them perceive this, lest they 
 should cherish a spirit of distrust, and be continually on their 
 guard against us j for they would thus get a habit of doing 
 wrong in secret, especially the little ones. I believe that we 
 ought to maintain guard in a spirit of kindness, and even 
 trust, so that the children may feel that we love them, and 
 
260 APPENDIX. 
 
 find pleasure in going everywhere with them. They thus 
 learn to love rather than to dread our presence. 
 
 19. As to the very little children, they more than all the 
 others require to be fed like little doves. It is best to say 
 but little when they have done something so wrong as to 
 require punishment ; or, indeed, if we are sure of their guilt, 
 it is quite as well to chastise them without saying why, till it 
 is done. Then we can ask if they do not know the reason, 
 which they generally do. Correction administered in this 
 summary manner hinders their telling any falsehoods by way 
 of excuse for their faults, and I find that they are thus more 
 easily cured of them, because they are always afraid of a sur- 
 prise. 
 
 20. As to their trivial defects, I think it best seldom to 
 notice these, because they otherwise gradually get accustomed 
 to be found fault with. When the same transgression has 
 been repeated three or four times, they may be suddenly 
 punished for the whole at once ; and the effect is better than 
 continual seolding. 
 
 21. When there are .children thoroughly obstinate and 
 rebellious, it is well to force them to repeat the same slight 
 penances three or four times. They beeome completely 
 daunted on finding that we do not get weary of punishing 
 them. But to correct a fault one day, and pass over or ex- 
 cuse it the next, makes no impression on the mind, and we 
 are obliged ultimately to use stronger remedies than would 
 have been necessary, had we been more consistent. 
 
 22. Lying is a common fault with small children. We 
 must therefore do all we can to prevent their forming so bad 
 a habit, and try to prevent it by gently urging them to own 
 when they have done wrong, and, if they make confession of 
 their own accord, by forgiving them or lessening the punish- 
 ment. 
 
 23. Even when children are very young, say four or five 
 
APPENDIX. 261 
 
 years old, they must not be allowed to be idle all day long. 
 It is better to divide their time, making them read for a 
 quarter of an hour, and then play for another, and then work 
 for a little while. The change amuses them, and keeps them 
 from forming a bad habit to which children are much addicted, 
 namely, folding their book and playing with it, or with their 
 work, twisting round, and turning their heads every moment. 
 But if we ask them to be diligent for a quarter or half-hour, 
 and promise that, if they mind their book or their work, they 
 shall then be allowed to play, they will do it well and will- 
 ingly for the sake of the reward. And when this promise 
 was made before they began to work, and they play mean- 
 while, it is best to say nothing, but as soon as the time is up, 
 and they expect to go and play, we can make them sit down 
 to work again, and tell them that we have no desire to be 
 always talking, and since they have only amused themselves, 
 they must now begin to work. This astonishes them, and 
 makes them on their guard another time. 
 
 II. 
 
 Our aim in General Conversation, or on Special Occasions of Exhortation 
 and Warning. 
 
 1. We make them understand that perfection does not lie 
 in doing many extraordinary things, but in performing daily 
 duties well, that is, willingly, and from a love to God, with a 
 great desire of pleasing him, and of always doing his will with 
 delight. 
 
 2. We teach them to value any little opportunities of en- 
 during vexations calmly and out of love to God ; such as a 
 slight from their companions, and unmerited accusation, the 
 crossing of their inclinations and wishes, or the yielding of 
 their own will in submission to that of their governess or of 
 
262 APPENDIX. 
 
 some other person. They are told to consider these every-day 
 trials as the gifts of God, and tokens of his special love and 
 care, which thus furnish them with daily opportunities of 
 growth in grace. 
 
 3. They should often be told of the pleasure and satisfac- • 
 tion there is in thoroughly consecrating one's self to God, and 
 serving him in simplicity and truth, without any reserves ; 
 that no service prompted by love is painful ; that diligence in 
 obeying the movements of the Holy Spirit always obtains 
 fresh supplies of grace ; that the same action may win heaven 
 in some cases, and only deserve punishment in others, accord- 
 ing to the state of our hearts and the purity or impurity of 
 our motives. It is well to explain this by comparison, shew- 
 ing, for instance, that to do right for the love of God, because 
 we wish to please him, and to fulfil his holy will, prepares us 
 for heaven ; while, on the contrary, the very same deed, if 
 done out of hypocrisy, vanity, or a wish to be highly esteemed 
 by our fellows, only deserves punishment, since it is not done 
 to God, and we have no right to expect that he will reward 
 instead of chastising our hypocrisy. 
 
 4. Children should be frequently exhorted to examine 
 themselves, their dispositions, vices, and passions, and, as it 
 were, to dig up the hidden roots of their faults. It is well, 
 too, that they should know whither they naturally incline, so 
 that they may lop off whatever is displeasing to God, and en- 
 graft holiness in its stead. For instance, if of an affectionate 
 disposition, we may tell them it is their duty to change the 
 love of self and friends into the love of God, and so forth. 
 
 5. We may sometimes shew them that one of the besetting 
 Bins of young people is stubbornness, and that this sin, to 
 which they are naturally so prone, will be their ruin, by hin- 
 dering them from attending to the warnings they receive, for 
 it only belongs to persons of a proud spirit. They must, 
 therefore, learn to love stern treatment, and to shew, by their 
 
APPENDIX. 263 
 
 meek reception of advice, that they desire the destruction of 
 everything in their natures that is displeasing to God. 
 
 6. We exhort them not to be afraid of doing right, for 
 those who have formerly been disobedient are sometimes 
 ashamed of doing right before persons who witnessed their 
 naughtiness. These must be taught to ask God to strengthen 
 them, so that they may willingly do right ; and though at the 
 commencement they may often relapse into sin, yet they are 
 to rise again all the oftener and the more valiantly. These 
 instructions should be general, and given at a time when all 
 are behaving well, in order that those who are sufficiently 
 advanced may apply them in time of need. 
 
 7. We tell them that all the difficulty of doing right arises 
 from the fact, that when they have a vice to overcome, or a 
 virtue to acquire, they look to themselves and consult temper, 
 inclination, self-love, their own weakness, and the trouble of 
 controlling self ; whereas, instead of weakening their powers by 
 these human considerations, they ought to look to God, be- 
 cause their weakness may be made strength in him ; and they 
 distrust his goodness, when they do not hope to be delivered 
 by the power of his grace ; that they would have a right to 
 be discouraged, if they were told to overcome their own infir- 
 mities and sins without his aid, but since God has himself 
 promised to remove the obstacles out of their way, they have 
 only to pray, to hope, and to rejoice in him from whom their 
 help cometh. 
 
 8. They must be led to thankfulness for the help we give 
 them in overcoming the weakness of their corrupt nature, by 
 not yielding to it, but by inducing them willingly to endure 
 little mortifications and public reproofs, which, by degrees, 
 make them less sensitive, and less afraid to own their faults 
 in public, and thus accustom them to penitence and humility. 
 
 9. We try to impress on their minds, that a mere wish to 
 do right is nothing in the sight of God, unless it be carried 
 
264 APPENDIX. 
 
 into practice at every opportunity; and that when we come to 
 die, a life spent in good intentions will be of no avail unless 
 we have striven to execute them, since, far from being rewarded 
 for those intentions, we shall be punished for leaving them 
 undone. 
 
 10. We are not to prejudice their minds in favour of a con- 
 ventual life, nor to let them know what we believe in regard 
 to the small number of persons who obtain salvation while 
 living in the world. It is enough to shew them the difficulty 
 of salvation, their obligations as Christians, and what were 
 the vows made for them in baptism. They must also be 
 exhorted on the things they are to avoid if they re-enter the 
 world. It is likewise well to speak occasionally of our own 
 personal feelings in regard to a worldly life, and not to con- 
 ceal from them our joy, contentment, and repose. 
 
 11. If they of their own accord begin a conversation upon 
 the subject of religion, we can improve the opportunity by 
 speaking of the happiness enjoyed by a good nun who truly 
 lives up to her profession, of the perpetual comfort she finds 
 in meditating upon the means afforded her of loving God, and 
 of becoming eternally happy through obedience and humility, 
 which are the only roads to heaven for all Christians, but 
 more especially for nuns, making them understand that a 
 religious life is not burdensome, but one of the greatest com- 
 forts to persons who wish to keep their baptismal vows ; 
 because God does not grant the privilege of entire consecra- 
 tion to himself to all persons, nor even to all who are de- 
 sirous of it, and therefore we ought humbly to entreat him 
 to bestow on us this excellent gift, and prepare ourselves by 
 holy behaviour to receive it. 
 
 12. It is well to tell them occasionally that our love to God 
 makes us love them, and that the severe reproofs we some- 
 times administer to them are occasioned by a tenderness 
 which makes their faults visible and painful to us, through 
 
APPENDIX. 265 
 
 its very warmth. At the same time we can assure them, 
 that whatever we do for them is prompted by love, and by a 
 wish to make them well-pleasing to God, that we feel kindly 
 towards them, even while punishing their faults, for it does 
 violence to ourselves to correct them, and we would far 
 rather treat them gently than severely. 
 
 III. 
 
 How Children snould be Talked to in Private. 
 
 1 . It is easier to guide children aright if we adopt the cus- 
 tom of talking to them alone. In these private interviews, 
 we can soften their troubles, incline their minds to subdue 
 their own faults, and shew them the radical origin of their 
 follies and sins. And I may say there is great reason to hope 
 for good, when God inspires the children with confidence in 
 their governess, for I never yet saw one that had it who did 
 not improve. 
 
 2. In these interviews we must be very serious, treating 
 them kindly, but not at all familiarly. If we perceive that 
 a child finds amusement in the conversation, she must be 
 treated with less gentleness than the others. Much discre- 
 tion is needed in the interview as well as in the time of its 
 taking place. Once a fortnight I should think often enough, 
 except in special cases, for which no rules can be given. 
 
 3. We must guard against being deceived, and it is well to 
 let the children know that we understand all their tricks, for 
 then they are more likely to leave them off, and to acquire 
 insensibly that frankness and simplicity of character without 
 which it is vain to hope they will improve. 
 
 4. It is also very necessary not to be taken by surprise, 
 and this can only be avoided by the help of God. Therefore 
 we ought not to talk with them until we have prayed to him, 
 
266 APPENDIX. 
 
 and thought over in his presence what they are likely to say, 
 and what it is his will that we should answer. We must 
 implore with tears and sighs that his divine majesty may 
 illumine our darkness, and that the light of his grace may 
 discover to us what the children seek to hide. And if they 
 say anything to which we are not prepared to give a reply, 
 we can tell them that we will take time to ask wisdom of 
 God, and they, on their parts, may pray that God would 
 incline them to receive all that we say for their good into 
 hearts entirely free from all human bias. We must also use 
 this delay whenever we find them displeased at what we may 
 already have said, or taking some of our warnings amiss. 
 We can then say that we perceive they are not disposed to 
 listen, or that perhaps we may be mistaken, and that if we 
 pray to God in humility, he will doubtless have pity upon us 
 both. This slight condescension is not to be universal, but 
 it is often of great use to the elder girls, and to those who 
 are intelligent. Therefore I repeat again, for it cannot be 
 too often said, that it is better to pray than to exhort ; and I 
 feel that our hearts and minds should be continually lifted 
 up to heaven, and asking God to put words into our mouths 
 that we may speak aright. 
 
 5. Continual vigilance is requisite in order to discover 
 what are their tempers and dispositions, and to find out 
 for ourselves that which they may not have courage to 
 confess. It is well to be beforehand with them, when 
 we perceive that they are ashamed to own their misconduct, 
 and to induce them to speak more freely by concealing from 
 them at first many truths that would be too pungent for 
 their imperfect condition. 
 
 6. By degrees, if God open their hearts to speak with 
 sincerity, we can talk to them more sternly, and shew them 
 that they are bound to do penance, in case they seem to 
 require it. We must also convince them how narrow is the 
 
APPENDIX. 267 
 
 path that leads to heaven, and that only the courageous and 
 violent take it by force. 
 
 7. If they ask to perform many special acts of devotion, 
 permission must only be granted for very few, or none at all ; 
 and they must be told that such actions only please God 
 when they spring from a heart truly touched by love to him, 
 and by a sincere wish to please him and to repent of sin ; 
 that our opinion of them will not be formed from these 
 actions, but from their faithful observance of our minutest 
 regulations, from the aid they render to their sisters, and the 
 careful correction of their own faults ; that these are the 
 things which make us think they wish to serve God, and not 
 a number of unusual acts of devotion, therefore they must 
 not take it ill that we do not allow the latter, since our 
 aim is to do them good, and not to encourage them in 
 self-deception. 
 
 8. We can, however, at times, grant the desired permis- 
 sion, without appearing to take any special notice of what is 
 going forward, though in reality we keep a closer watch than 
 usual over every movement. This method of conduct will 
 soon discover whether or not they are acting hypocritically, 
 for in that case they will stop on finding that they are 
 unobserved, and their piety will gradually diminish. We 
 ought also for the same reason to be very rigid in requiring 
 the fulfilment of the engagements they make, reserving all 
 comment until some future time when they seem better 
 disposed, and then shewing them the sin and peril of seeking 
 to perform extraordinary deeds of devotion in their own 
 carnal strength. 
 
 9. If there are any disobedient children whom the Abbess 
 thinks it right to retain, we ought, in their better moments, 
 to beg them to be willing that we should try to correct their 
 faults, shewing them, as gently and kindly as we can, that 
 they are bound to live as Christians. And if they do not 
 
268 APPENDIX. 
 
 mend, we must make them understand that we will not put 
 up with their misdeeds, and that, though our endeavours 
 seem fruitless, we shall not cease to warn and to punish 
 them, in order to clear our own consciences, to prevent them 
 from being confirmed in their evil ways, and to do away the 
 effects of their bad behaviour on their companions. It is 
 well to shew them that we are bound in conscience to act 
 thus. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Of General and Special Penances that maybe Imposed! 
 
 1. They must be made to ask forgiveness of any of the 
 nuns, or their companions, to whom they may have spoken 
 ungraciously, or given cause of dissatisfaction, or set a bad 
 example. 
 
 2. This pardon may be asked in various ways, accord- 
 ing to the degree of offence, either in private or in public^ 
 in the refectory or the school-room. They may also be 
 directed to kiss the foot of the injured party. We must take 
 special care, if only two or three or four persons witnessed 
 the offence, to have the reparation made privately, unless the 
 fault was very trivial, because it is dangerous to inflict 
 punishment in the presence of those ignorant of its necessity. 
 I say the same of certain grave faults, even when committed 
 by a number. It is better to wait and administer a separate 
 reproof to each or to all of the guilty ones together, than to 
 harm the weak. 
 
 3. We can make them wear a gray cloak, or go to dinner 
 without veil or scapulary, or stand without them at the 
 church-door. 
 
 4. We may forbid their attending church for one day, or 
 even several days, according to the offence, or make them 
 stand at the door or in a separate place from the others, 
 
APPENDIX. 269 
 
 taking care, however, that the privation is not a matter of 
 indifference. 
 
 5. The little and half-grown girls may be made to wear a 
 placard with the name of their offence written in large 
 characters, a word or two being sufficient, as idle, careless, 
 untruthful, &c. Or they may be made to wear a red tongue. 
 
 6. Making them ask the prayers of their sisters in the 
 refectory, and mention the sin they have committed, or the 
 duty in which they have failed. 
 
 7. The elder ones must be restrained, if possible, by the 
 love of God and the fear of his judgments, and occasionally 
 we can impose on them the same punishments as on the 
 younger, such as going without a veil, or asking the prayers 
 of the sisterhood in the dining-room ; but we must judge 
 whether a penance of the kind would be likely to do good or 
 only to irritate. We are therefore bound to pray much that 
 He would enlighten and guide us in all things, for his own 
 glory and the salvation of those he has committed to our 
 care. 
 
 Of Confession. 
 
 1. We often tell the children, both in public and private, 
 how extremely important it is for them to make their con- 
 fessions truthfully and without disguise, because children are 
 so apt to conceal their faults or to cloak them, and thereby 
 we are hindered from ascertaining the real state of their 
 minds. 
 
 2. They must therefore be exhorted to ask of God a lowly 
 and contrite heart, in order that they may acknowledge their 
 offences meekly, and rejoice in being humbled and punished 
 as they deserve. 
 
 3. Telling them frequently that it is their duty to confess 
 
270 APPENDIX. 
 
 their most shameful transgressions, with every aggravation, in 
 spite of their own repugnance. It is well often to describe 
 to them the horrible condition of a dying soul, when it finds 
 itself for ever banished from God, and left to everlasting 
 contempt, because it chose to avoid a momentary and slight 
 mortification in this world ; that the whole world will then 
 witness the confusion of unpardoned sinners ; while the shame 
 experienced in the confessional is confined to the knowledge 
 of one person, is kept secret, and lasts but a little while. 
 
 4. When they appear to have gained a great degree of 
 strength and courage, we can advise them to spare no pains 
 in order to recover the friendship of God, if they have lost 
 it j and thus gently lead them to perform both inward and 
 outward penance, more especially the former. They can be 
 told with advantage, that an improvement in behaviour gives 
 the best evidence of a good confession, that it is a great sin 
 to be always confessing and falling anew into the same snares, 
 for it shews that they do not confess in a right spirit, nor 
 truly regret that they have offended God. 
 
 5. When we find any of the children doing wrong contin- 
 ually if they have the chance, we ought to tell them that in 
 God's sight they are more guilty than they suppose, for he 
 imputes to them all the evil designs they form in heart or 
 communicate to their companions, though they may not be 
 able to execute them. They must be told that it is their 
 duty to confess all these things, and to make bare the wind- 
 ings of their hearts, so that nothing may be kept back from 
 him who fills the place of Jesus Christ ; that men may easily 
 be deceived, but they cannot deceive God; and that the blood 
 of Jesus Christ only cleanses those who sincerely and faith- 
 fully confess their sins. They thus are made to comprehend 
 that it is only themselves whom they are deceiving. 
 
 6. It is good for them not to be too familiar with the dis- 
 tinctions between venial and mortal sins, lest they should 
 
APPENDIX. 271 
 
 lose their horror of sin, and yield more readily to temptation. 
 They should be told that nothing is unimportant to those 
 who love God, but that all sin is an evil, and we are to avoid 
 everything, without exception, that we think might displease 
 him who did not spare the blood of his Son to wash away our 
 trespasses. 
 
 7. The younger ones had better not be sent early or often 
 to confession. We may wait till they are old enough to wish 
 to correct their little faults, because it is bad for them to 
 confess unless they amend, and at any rate they ought not to 
 go until they have perseveringly tried to improve. 
 
 8. When very young, we can by degrees accustom them 
 to own their faults, teach them how to accuse themselves 
 without telling tales of their sisters, and help them to recol- 
 lect the chief faults they have forgotten, that they may thus 
 learn to confess aright. 
 
 9. We must observe whether confession has been of service 
 to the children, before allowing them to go thither again ; 
 and if they have been very naughty, we must advise them to 
 do penance beforehand, that is, if they confide in us, propos- 
 ing a reparation suited to the degree and nature of the offence. 
 As, for instance, if they have been unkind to a companion, 
 let them do her service, and fulfil every charitable office 
 towards her more earnestly and kindly, let them ask pardon 
 of the offended party, and of all who were present when the 
 offence was given, and repeat prayers for her benefit. We 
 must not suffer them to go again to the confessional until 
 their hearts be truly contrite and full of sorrow for having 
 displeased God. In this way we can guard against a mere 
 confession by rote, which is to be dreaded for all persons, but 
 especially for children. 
 
 10. We teach them, that it is not enough to own five or 
 six faults, and no more ; but that they must acknowledge 
 their temper and behaviour ever since the last confession, 
 
272 APPENDIX. 
 
 because a confession of separate offences does not shew the 
 state of the heart. Therefore, if pride is their besetting sin, 
 they ought to say whether they have yielded to it more or 
 less since the last confession, and how often, particularising 
 the day and hour, &c. 
 
 11. It is best that they should feel no delicacy about 
 naming the person with whom they may have done wrong, 
 because they all have the same confessor, and he needs 
 thoroughly to know each child's behaviour and disposition, 
 in order to judge of the degree of its guilt. Without this 
 knowledge he cannot serve them aright. 
 
 12. We are here presupposing that which is indispensable, 
 namely, that the mistress should make the confessor com- 
 pletely acquainted with all that concerns the children before 
 they attended confession, so that he may judge of the 
 sincerity of their self-accusations. The confessor and the 
 mistress ought, if these measures are to succeed, to be 
 thoroughly agreed — the mistress not allowing anything of 
 importance, such as the holy communion, prayers, or penances, 
 to take place without consulting the confessor ; and the con- 
 fessor, in his turn, informing her of what is requisite for the 
 children's good, so that she may neither do nor say aught 
 that he would disapprove. The children ought never to 
 perceive any difference in the directions given them by the 
 confessor and mistress. 
 
 13. If one of the children objects to the confessor selected 
 for her, she must not speak of this to her companions, but 
 she may represent her repugnance to her governess, who will 
 set matters right by permission of the Abbess, provided the 
 objection be reasonable, and not a mere caprice. 
 
 14. We do not here speak of the tempers requisite for 
 confession, nor for the holy communion and other exercises, 
 because our present design is only to notice some things of 
 special importance in the government of children. 
 
APPENDIX. 273 
 
 VI. 
 
 Of the Holy Communion. 
 
 1. We ought often to pray that God would inspire the 
 children with a dread of partaking the communion unworthily 
 and uselessly, imploring him to bestow on them his fear, 
 without which all our exhortations must be vain. We try 
 also to impress upon them the feeling, that one communion 
 alone ought to work some new change in them, perceptible 
 to others ; because those who feed on the body of the Son. of 
 God should be known by their words and actions, as differing 
 from others, and ought to set a watch over the tongue that 
 has had the privilege of tasting the bread of heaven. We 
 must also teach them, that after so great a favour, they 
 ought to lead a new life, very different from their former life, 
 and that this solid nourishment ought to make them resolute 
 in self-denial and in the practice of every virtue. 
 
 2. The period of communion is to be regulated by their 
 conduct. Those who are in bondage to some favourite sin, 
 and do not like to be reproved for it, must rarely receive 
 permission to commune. We must take care that they do 
 not receive the sacrament carelessly, or merely because others 
 do it. Some even may wish to receive it from pride, or the 
 desire of being praised or considered as great girls. Children 
 are capable of all these defects and of many others besides, 
 unless we axe very careful. It is well to startle them by our 
 strong terms of expressing the peril of taking the communion 
 without we really love and fear God, because it is a matter 
 of life or death, and cannot be too much reverenced. These 
 things should be spoken of generally, and special application 
 can be afterwards made to those who need it. 
 
 3. If there should be any among them too timid or 
 scrupulous, which is seldom the case with children, she must 
 be comforted and strengthened in private as she most needs. 
 
 s 
 
274 APPENDIX. 
 
 4. If one girl should appear very pious and careful in cor- 
 recting her faults, it will not do to let her commune more 
 frequently than those who behave better in the school-room, 
 but make no special pretensions to piety ; for this apparent 
 goodness may be only pretence, and it is therefore better not 
 to notice it, but to treat all alike. They must never be 
 allowed to praise one another for any reason, and particularly 
 not for communing often. It is well not to praise them in 
 presence of others, even in the hope of doing them good, or 
 exciting a holy emulation, except in the case of children 
 two or three years old ; for if they find out that we notice 
 their piety, some will be likely to behave well for the sake of 
 being praised and esteemed, and will wish to receive the 
 communion more frequently for the same reason. 
 
 5. We must beware of those children who only amend 
 their conduct on the approach of sacramental seasons, and 
 afterwards return to their old follies and misdeeds. These 
 must be made to feel that such occasional reformations are 
 not enough, and that we shall not allow them to go to 
 communion until they have behaved properly for a very long 
 time, and striven to regulate their actions by God's law. 
 
 6. We must also observe the spirit in which they perform 
 penance, for there are some children very ready to repair 
 their faults, who object to nothing of the kind, yet it all 
 arises from pride and fear of punishment, and if we watch 
 them closely and continually, we find them insincere. We 
 must rarely permit such children to go to communion, for 
 they do not deserve so great a favour. 
 
 7. When it is thought proper to debar them from it, we 
 must be careful not to make the privation a matter of 
 indifference, but, on the contrary, to remind them that they 
 have sustained a great loss, and to shew them that they ought 
 to give God no rest until he restore to them his lost favour, 
 
APPENDIX. 275 
 
 and grant them the necessary qualifications for partaking of 
 the holy sacrament. 
 
 8. Very young, giddy, or thoughtless children ought not 
 to be communicants, nor those who are liable to any grave 
 fault. We must wait until God has in some degree wrought 
 a change in them, and allow a considerable space of time, 
 say a year or six months at the least, to see if their actions 
 are consistent. I have never regretted keeping children 
 back, for by so doing the well-disposed advance in virtue, 
 and others shew their true character. The first communion 
 cannot be too carefully prepared for, because on it often 
 depend the rest. 
 
 9. After the communion, we must exhort them not to for- 
 get the God who has thus given himself to them, but to 
 render him continual thanks, and to be much in prayer ; 
 watching over themselves, lest they do anything unworthy 
 of his holy presence, and being assured that God will dwell 
 in their hearts so long as they give him no cause of dis- 
 pleasure, because he never withdraws from us until we have 
 first withdrawn from him by our sins. It is well to watch 
 them on communion days, and to notice whether they feel 
 the presence of God, and lift up their souls to him, and also 
 if their behaviour is more subdued. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Of Prayer. 
 
 1. As prayer has been mentioned in the foregoing rules, I 
 need here only speak of it in general. We try to inspire 
 the children with a wish of turning to God in every need, 
 and especially in seasons of weakness or temptation. 
 They are taught that a single glance lifted to him in faith, 
 humility, and constancy, will do more to sustain them than 
 
276 APPENDIX. 
 
 all the strong resolutions which they could form in their own 
 strength, and which are useless, unless God writes them on 
 the heart by the power of his grace ; for we cau only effect 
 our own perdition, while God is able to save us. 
 
 2. We do not overload their memories with a great 
 number of mental or vocal prayers, but seek to implant 
 within the heart a sincere desire of God's presence, and a 
 habit of looking to him in all places and in every occupa- 
 tion, and of praising and adoring him, as every created and 
 even inanimate thing does in its degree. 
 
 3. We explain to them that all their errors arise from not 
 having prayed to God aright, which they cannot do while 
 their hearts cling to self, to their own pleasures, or to any 
 creature, no matter how lovely or holy. 
 
 4. We must be careful that morning and evening prayers 
 be properly offered up, and if the children perform those 
 duties negligently and lukewarmly, they ought not to go to 
 mass for several days. They must be told that we cannot give 
 them pious emotions, but that we can and will force them to 
 behave rightly and reverently in God's presence. They 
 must understand that there are punishments for the frivolous 
 and giddy, and these must be inflicted, such as standing 
 apart from the rest, and only having permission to repeat 
 one Ave or one Pater, with the assurance that they shall not 
 say any more prayers until they are more devout. 
 
 5. Those to whom permission is given for half-hourly 
 prayer, as remarked in the first part of these rules, ought to 
 be noticed as delighting in prayer, and to be well instructed 
 how to pray. If the indulgence does not make them more 
 humble, charitable, and silent, it must be taken away ; and 
 even when they seem to derive benefit from it, we should 
 occasionally keep them back, in order to see how they feel 
 under the privation, and if they are equally willing to pray 
 or to let it alone. 
 
APPENDIX. 277 
 
 6. We recommend the children to take the Virgin Mary 
 as their mother and mediatrix,* in their various troubles and 
 wants. They are taught that she dwelt in the temple from 
 early childhood, just as they live in houses dedicated to God, 
 in order that they may become good Christians ; that their 
 present dwelling is dedicated to the Virgin, and called Notre 
 Dame de Port Eoyal ; that she must be their model of 
 prayer, meekness, silence, modesty, industry, and, in short, in 
 every action. They are exhorted to keep her solemn festi- 
 vals, which are greatly honoured in the Cistercian order, to 
 repeat her chaplet often, and her litanies every day. 
 
 7. We also recommend devotion to the holy angels, espe- 
 cially to their guardian angel, whom, we tell them, God 
 bestows on them as a shield from the snares of Satan, the 
 world, and the flesh ; who watches over them continually, 
 knows their spiritual, and even bodily wants, and joyfully 
 bears the fragrance of their good deeds heavenwards ; while, on 
 the contrary, if the happy angels could be sad, they would 
 grieve when those whom they are serving do wrong, or fall 
 into conduct which is improper and unworthy of a 
 Christian. 
 
 8. We tell them, moreover, that the saints are appointed 
 
 * It may seem almost superfluous to repeat an observation already made, on 
 the strange mixture of truth, and error which could lead a mind, penetrated as 
 Jaqueline Pascal's was with the conviction that they who worship God must do 
 it in spirit and in truth, to seek for herself, or teach others to seek, the mediation 
 of any created being between the soul of a sincere penitent and his God. With 
 regard to the Eosary, it is not improbable that, were the fact of its origin gene- 
 rally known, the very name would be as hateful as that of the Inquisition, since 
 both originated from the same quarter. The Chaplet or Rosary was invented by 
 St Dominick, during his stay in Languedoc. A chaplet of beads has been used as 
 a memento of prayers to be recited, by the early Egyptian anchorites, and also by 
 the Benedictines ; but Dominick invented a new arrangement of the chaplet, and 
 dedicated it to the honour and glory of the Virgin. A complete Rosary has fifteen 
 large and a hundred and fifty small beads; the former being the number of Pater- 
 nosters, the latter that of Ave Marias. Any one who knows the fact of its author- 
 ship can hardly avoid associating the Rosary with the remembrance of the fearful 
 cruelties practised upon the unhappy victims of the Albigensian crusade. — Tk. 
 
278 APPENDIX. 
 
 of God to intercede for us with himself, and teach them to 
 turn to these saints, beseeching them to obtain from the 
 divine goodness the graces they need. Each day they 
 implore the protection of St Joseph, St Bernard, St Augustine, 
 and St Benedict, the patrons of the house, the saints whose 
 name they bear, those who are the patrons of the year and 
 month, and those whose festival it is. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Of Beading. 
 
 1. The books we use for the children's instruction are, the 
 Tradition of the Church j the Letters of M. de St Cyran ; the 
 Imitation of Jesus Christ, by Thomas a Kempis ; St Louis of 
 Grenada ; Philothea, or Introduction to a Devout Life, by St 
 Francis de Sales ; St John Climacus ; Familiar Theology ; 
 Christian Principles, in the Prayer-book ; the Letters of a 
 Carthusian Monk, lately translated ; the Meditations of St 
 Theresa ; the Lord's Prayer, and other books intended for the 
 improvement of true believers. 
 
 2. I have indicated what is to be read in the morning at 
 eight o'clock, in the daily rules. 
 
 3. In the reading after Vespers, other books can be used ; 
 the Letters of St Jerome ; Christian Almsgiving ; certain pas- 
 sages of the Way to Perfection, by St Theresa, and also of 
 the Lives of the Fathers of the Egyptian Desert, and of other 
 holy biographies. 
 
 4. We ourselves read aloud in general, except after Vespers, 
 and are always present to explain and enforce what is read. 
 We should try to accustom them not to listen merely as a 
 means of gaining amusement, but with a desire of self-appli- 
 cation, and our efforts at explanation should be directed more 
 towards the making them good Christians and correcting their 
 faults, than to the rendering them learned. They must be 
 
APPENDIX. 279 
 
 urged to pray that God would enable them to profit by what 
 they hear, and also aid us in giving them suitable and useful 
 expositions. 
 
 5. When we do not ourselves read, we mark what is to be 
 read, and they are not allowed to alter either the place or the 
 book ; for we meet with but few volumes in which it is not 
 necessary to pass over something. 
 
 6. During the evening reading, they are allowed and even 
 requested to ask questions on every point which they do not 
 understand, with respect and humility, and in our answers we 
 try to teach them how to apply what is read for their own 
 benefit. If we see that no questions are asked upon subjects 
 which they are not likely to comprehend, we can inquire 
 whether they understand what is read, and if they have 
 nothing to say, we must reprove them for remaining in 
 ignorance, when it is their duty to obtain instruction. 
 
 7. When the reading is over, the book must be taken away, 
 for the only books they are allowed to keep are the Prayer- 
 book, Familiar Theology, the Words of our Saviour, the 
 Imitation of Jesus Christ, and a Psalter in Latin and French. 
 The governess takes charge of all other books, and they are 
 very willing it should be so ; for they acknowledge it does 
 them more good, and that the holiest books profit them not 
 when read from curiosity, which is usually the case if they 
 keep them in their own care. 
 
 8. They are never suffered to open a book which does not 
 belong to them, nor to borrow books from one another, with- 
 out permission of their governess, which is rarely given, on 
 account of the confusion often occasioned by loans of the 
 kind. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Of Illness and Bodily Wants. 
 
 1. Those children who are ill must be tended very care- 
 fully, having their wants supplied very comfortably, and at 
 
280 APPENDIX. 
 
 the precise time, calling in the aid of a physician, if neces- 
 sary, and punctually obeying all his directions for obtaining 
 relief. 
 
 2. We try, if possible, to be present during the physician's 
 visits, and it is well to see him beforehand, for the purpose 
 of describing the illness, and the patient's behaviour in 
 regard to taking medicine or nourishment, and of requesting 
 him to say but little in the sick-room, for fear of causing 
 alarm or sorrow in the child's mind. After the physician 
 has seen his patient, we must inquire what he thinks ought 
 to be done. 
 
 3. We accustom them to make no fuss about swallowing 
 even very distasteful remedies. We administer these in per- 
 son, and comfort them with words of Scripture, leading them 
 to offer up their sufferings as a sacrifice to God. 
 
 4. We exhort them to find no fault with the doctor's pre- 
 scriptions, because during their illness he stands in the place 
 of God to them. They therefore ought to obey him as they 
 would obey God, yielding up life, health, and illness to the 
 disposal of Divine Providence, which ordains that the reme- 
 dies employed shall be efficacious or not, according as our 
 best interests require. Consequently, let the event be never 
 so painful, we are not to blame the physician or his remedies, 
 but to bow in silence and humility before the allotments of 
 divine goodness ; and, in order that the sick may be better 
 able to do this, we must endeavour to procure the assist- 
 ance of persons who are at once good physicians and good 
 Christians. 
 
 5. There must be a room set apart for invalids, into 
 which the other children cannot go, unless by necessity or 
 the mistress's permission. During play-time, one of the 
 more discreet girls may be allowed to amuse the sick one, but 
 the sister who is acting as nurse must not leave the room, 
 unless in case one of the elder girls intending to take the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 28l 
 
 veil, and in whom we feel entire confidence, is present, who 
 knows how to help and even to nurse children that are not 
 dangerously ill. 
 
 6. Whenever there are many ill, and the services of 
 another sister are required, she ought to be chosen for her 
 discretion and her kindness. Discretion is needful to watch 
 their behaviour, and to see that they do not lose in sickness 
 the good habits so painfully acquired in health ; and also to 
 prevent the indulgence of their fancies, or their repugnance 
 to swallow the proper medicine, or their longing for things 
 that would be injurious. And kindness is needed in order to 
 soften the refusal of what might hurt them, by gentle words 
 and an affectionate manner. 
 
 7. We pay great attention to those who are ill, even more 
 than we do the healthy, both in order to provide for their 
 wants and to keep them in good order, and teach them to 
 bear suffering in a Christian spirit, for then they are not so 
 likely to become disobedient. 
 
 8. Besides this general oversight and attendance, each sick 
 one is visited in private, and treated as kindly and cordially 
 as possible ; we either listen to what they may wish to say, 
 or entreat them to be good, and to bear pain patiently, offer- 
 ing it to God in remembrance of and gratitude for the 
 sufferings of our Lord and Saviour. And though we are to 
 be very gentle and patient with them, we must not encourage 
 a delicacy that might make them hard to please, or cross ; 
 but, on the contrary, teach the sufferer to submit to every 
 inconvenience from a holy motive. 
 
 9. If the illness should be dangerous, we must consult the 
 Mother Abbess and the physicians about the administration 
 of the sacraments, according to the age and capacity of the 
 children, redoubling at the same time our cares and atten- 
 tions, so that, having no bodily wants unsupplied, they may 
 be free to think of holy things as much as illness, strength, 
 
282 APPENDIX. 
 
 and age permit ; though we are not to weary them, but, on 
 the contrary, to take especial pains that our visits may not 
 overtax their energies. At times, we can endeavour to amuse 
 them by our visits ; and at others, if they seem inclined to 
 speak of God, we can introduce pious discourse. 
 
 10. As soon as the children are recovered, they must 
 resume their usual duties, lest they become ungovernable, 
 which is to be feared, for very young persons like nothing 
 better than liberty. But after their return to the work- 
 room, we must be careful to give them the food and rest 
 necessary for the perfect restoration of their health. 
 
 11. In slight cases of indisposition, they are to have what 
 is requisite, but are not to be greatly petted, because there 
 are some children who make a pretence of being sick. I 
 have had such children to deal with, though it is very long, 
 thank God, since anything of the sort has occurred among 
 our own pupils. It is best, in these cases, not to appear as 
 though we knew they were deceiving, but to pity them, and 
 say that they are ill, and must go to bed at once ; to put 
 them in a separate room with one sister as nurse, who re- 
 fuses to speak to them, saying that talking will only make 
 them worse, and that they need rest ; and to keep them for 
 a day or two on broth and eggs. If really ill, the regimen 
 will be of service, and if not, they will say that they are 
 better on the morrow ; and in this way they will be cured of 
 hypocrisy, without our having given them any ground of 
 complaint, which might occur if we were to say that they 
 were not actually ill, and they might even be tempted to tell 
 falsehoods, and feign more suffering than before. 
 
APPENDIX. 283 
 
 No. II. 
 
 BY SISTER JAQUELINE DE SAINTE ETJPHEMIE PASCAL. 
 
 Among the writings of Jaqueline Pascal are some reminiscences of the Ahbese 
 Angelique. They have no date, but were probably written down soon after 
 Angelique left Port Eoyal des Champs. A few of these will close the Ap- 
 pendix, and finish the present volume. Jaqueline Pascal's Tlwughte on the 
 Death of Jems Christ, having been written for the especial benefit of a nun in 
 her cell, will be omitted altogether, as not being likely to interest the general 
 Protestant reader. 
 
 I was once speaking to our Mother AngSlique of a person 
 whose father had kept a gambling-table, when she said, in her 
 usual emphatic manner, that wealth so obtained was more 
 unrighteously acquired, and ought to be more scrupulously 
 restored to the former owners, than if its possessor had been 
 a robber on the highway ; for this reason : robbers only 
 injure the passengers whom they attack, while gamesters are 
 the authors of all the innumerable sins of their victims, such 
 as blasphemy, knaveries, the ruin of families, with all its 
 ensuing disasters, quarrels, murders, and, in fact, an infinity 
 of crime. For of all these evils they are the primary cause ; 
 and if the person in question does not feel ashamed of his 
 parentage, he is just as guilty as his father, and ought to be 
 looked upon with the same abhorrence. True, children are 
 not to bear the iniquity of their fathers ; that is, provided 
 they hate and forsake it ; but if for these sins they do not 
 humble themselves before God, condemning such practices 
 
284 APPENDIX. 
 
 from the heart, and being thoroughly ashamed of them, then 
 the guilt of their fathers becomes their own. 
 
 The judgments of God are fearful things, but, because men 
 do not think of them or dread them sufficiently, they do not 
 strive to avoid them. You, see, my daughter, there is no way 
 of escape except in humbling ourselves deeply before God, on 
 all accounts, and more especially because of the sins commit- 
 ted in our respective families-; but, instead of this, what vain- 
 glory we everywhere behold ! We ought often to think 
 upon those things that lower us in our own estimation, 
 whether in nature, in fortune, or in grace ; but, instead of 
 this, if any little circumstance is calculated to increase our 
 importance, we are very adroit in seizing the right moment 
 to make it known ; or, on the other hand, if, as is often the 
 case, there be something disgraceful to hide, we are equally 
 ready to pass it over. Now, does not all this really spring 
 from our excessive pride 1 Not that there is any need of 
 disparaging one's family — no one is called upon to do this j 
 but neither are we to publish what is creditable, while we 
 conceal what is the reverse. The best way is to be quite 
 silent, but we are not to keep silence merely because we are 
 ashamed of the truth, but because we dare not speak out of 
 vanity. It seems a great effort to say nothing on the subject, 
 but this is really no more than our simple duty. 
 
 At another time, when we were talking of some one whom 
 errors in religion had so infatuated that it was very difficult 
 to undeceive her, the Mere Angelique said to me, " It is not 
 only difficult, but actually impossible to effect this, unless 
 God himself should enlighten her mind, and he will do this 
 in his own time and way. We are not to leave any means 
 untried, since we do not know whether or not our efforts 
 may be the appointed instrumentality for bringing his will to 
 pass ; but we are not hastily to assume the task of obliging 
 others to understand truths for which their souls are not yet 
 
APPENDIX. 285 
 
 ripe. This would be like seeking to make the sun rise at 
 midnight. All the princes and most puissant kings of earth 
 would be powerless, if they were to strive with united forces 
 to compel the sun to rise an hour earlier than his wont ; 
 neither can any human beings, however endowed with elo- 
 quence or persuasive power, cause one of their fellows to 
 apprehend the truths not yet revealed to him by God's 
 illuminating Spirit.'' 
 
 Some one having once said in her presence that she should 
 refuse to take any part in some business that had arisen, in 
 which a person greatly afflicted, and at the same time sus- 
 pected of glaring faults, implored her to help her out ; our 
 Mother commented upon this speech, declaring that she 
 scarcely knew an individual, except, perhaps, M. Singlin, who 
 would not act in the same way, and avoid, if it were possible, 
 assuming the care of business that involved risk of any kind. 
 It was answered, that she ought also to make herself an ex- 
 ception, since she had never been known to refuse a call upon 
 her attention and aid. " No," said she; "as for me, I am only 
 a miserable sinner, and never did one good deed. But on 
 such occasions I always recollect that, supposing any one 
 whom we dearly love — for instance, my sister Catherine de St 
 Jean — were to be lost, so that we could not tell if she were 
 dead or alive, nor where to find her, and there should come to 
 our door a wretched stranger, asking for us ; how quickly we 
 should run to see if, by any possibility, it might be our poor 
 sister, and with what eager tenderness we should aid her ! 
 It makes one weep even to fancy such a scene. Well, then, 
 if the person in distress be one of God's people, unjustly per- 
 secuted, ought we not to feel as much sympathy as if he or 
 she belonged to our own family 1 How do we know that it is 
 not one of our sisters, sent to us by the Lord Jesus? — I mean 
 one of his flock, for whom he requires us to feel kindly, and 
 to assist as far as we can. Therefore we should never refuse 
 
286 APPENDIX. 
 
 to listen to an application, and acquaint ourselves with its 
 merits. Not that we are to act foolishly, or to relieve every 
 one without discrimination ; for if our sister were really lost, 
 we should not be likely to mistake the first comer for herself, 
 but we should hasten to see if we could recognise her. We 
 are, therefore, carefully and affectionately to examine whether 
 the persons asking relief are sent to us of God, but not to en- 
 gage inconsiderately in such a work." 
 
 It was then explained to her that the person who had de- 
 clined to take any share in the business above mentioned, did 
 not do so out of unkindness, but because she did not wish to 
 incur the responsibility, and did not believe her assistance to 
 be really indispensable, because she would not willingly be 
 mixed up with the affair, nor encumber herself with super- 
 fluous care. Our Mother approved of this, saying that the 
 motive was a good one, provided she held herself in readiness 
 to come forward if her presence should really be requisite. 
 
 One of the nuns having opened on a verse in the Testament 
 which greatly alarmed her, our mother said : " When God 
 threatens us, he does it in order that we may humble our- 
 selves before him. Even the most wicked, when they do 
 this, escape the execution of his menaces, as in the case of 
 the Ninevites, whose penitence induced him to spare their 
 city from destruction, and to forgive their sins. This, it is 
 true, was only a temporal pardon, but then it was all that 
 they desired. God is now threatening you, my daughter, 
 therefore be contrite before him, and pray that he would 
 grant you those blessings which are eternal. He will grant 
 your prayer." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BALLANTYHE, PRINTER, EDINBURGH. 
 
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