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Show Pascal I l / i i i : E t h i c s •-^ I to the incapacity of enjoying the sweets of health, and the pleasures of th-world." 221 This distrust does not apply to the pleasures of the body only; it ajJ extends even to the sweetest affections. He tried to convince his sister that she she old no longer permit the caresses of her children J He tried to stop others from attaching themselves to him. "As I would be blame-able in causing a falsehood to be believed, ... even so I am blameable ... if I attract persons to attach themselves to me... for they ought to spend their life and their care in pleasing God, or in seeking Him", he wrote*on a paper which he carried with him, within direct reach of his hand, and which he often re-read.222 This is what Pascal called, in the record of his conversion, "Absolute, sweet renunciation"223. And we may say that it has gone too far; we may ascribe it to his Jansenist horror of losing grace; but -hen all this is said, we must not forget t-at Pascal is not here choosing one alternative, and shunning other alternatives, on equal levels of sifnifican.ee and of value: he is rather shun-ing the creature for the Sreator, the finite _j.or the infinite; he is shunning that which iq allied with his misery and sin, lor that which alone can save him therefrom: and if shun he must, he fs fully justified in his choice aid in his rejection! |
