fine trappings in comparison with another!
Montaigne is a fool not to see what difference there is, to wonder at our
finding any, and to ask the reason. "Indeed," says he, "how comes it,"
etc….

316. Sound opinions of the people.–To be spruce is not altogether foolish,
for it proves that a great number of people work for one. It shows by one’s
hair, that one has a valet, a perfumer, etc., by one’s band, thread,
lace,… etc. Now it is not merely superficial nor merely outward show to
have many arms at command. The more arms one has, the more powerful one is.
To be spruce is to show one’s power.

317. Deference means, "Put yourself to inconvenience." This is apparently
silly, but is quite right. For it is to say, "I would indeed put myself to
inconvenience if you required it, since indeed I do so when it is of no
service to you." Deference further serves to distinguish the great. Now if
deference was displayed by sitting in an arm-chair, we should show deference
to everybody, and so no distinction would be made; but, being put to
inconvenience, we distinguish very well.

318. He has four lackeys.

319. How rightly do we distinguish men by ex

to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race is to a
horse.

Punishment of those who sin, error.

261. Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed,
and that a multitude deny it. And so their error arises only from this, that
they do not love either truth or charity. Thus they are without excuse.

262. Superstition and lust. Scruples, evil desires. Evil fear; fear, not
such as comes from a belief in God, but such as comes from a doubt whether
He exists or not. True fear comes from faith; false fear comes from doubt.
True fear is joined to hope, because it is born of faith, and because men
hope in the God in whom they believe. False fear is joined to despair,
because men fear the God in whom they have no belief. The former fear to
lose Him; the latter fear to find Him.

263. "A miracle," says one, "would strengthen my faith." He says so when he
does not see one. Reasons, seen from afar, appear to limit our view; but
when they are reached, we begin to see beyond. Nothing stops the nimbleness
of our mind. There is no rule, say we, which has not some exceptions, no
truth so general which has not some aspect in which it fails. It is
sufficient that it be not absolutely universal to give us a pretext for
applying the exceptions to the present subject and for saying, "This is not
always true; there are therefore cases where it is not so." It only remains
to show that this is one of them; and that is why we are very awkward or
unlucky, if we do not find one some day.

264. We do not weary of eating and sleeping every day, for hunger and
sleepiness recur. Without that we should weary of them. So, without the
hunger for spiritual things, we weary of them. Hunger after righteousness,
the eighth beautitude.

265. Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of
what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

266. How many stars have telescopes revealed to us which did not exist for
our philosophers of old! We fr

Jesus Christ is not in the Eucharist, nor on the right
hand of the Father–know that all this is false and, therefore, offer
themselves to God in this state. Vide si via iniquitatis in me est.192 What
happens thereupon? This place, which is said to be the temple of the devil,
God makes His own temple. It is said that the children must be taken away
from it. God heals them there. It is said that it is the arsenal of hell.
God makes of it the sanctuary of His grace. Lastly, they are threatened with
all the fury and vengeance of heaven; and God overwhelms them with favours.
A man would need to have lost his senses to conclude from this that they are
therefore in the way of perdition.

(We have without doubt the same signs as Saint Athanasius.)

842. Si tu es Christus, dic nobis.193

Opera quae ego facio in nomine patris mei, haec testimonium perhibent de me.
Sed vos non creditis quia non estis ex ovibus meis. Oves meae vocem meam
audiunt.194

John 6:30. Quod ergo tu facis signum ut videamus et credamus tibi? (Non
dicunt: Quam doctrinam praedicas?)[195]

Nemo potest facere signa quae tu facis nisi Deus.196

II Macc. 14:15. Deus qui signis evidentibus suam portionem protegit.[197]

Volumus signum videre de coelo, tentantes eum.198 Luke 11:16.

Generatio prava signum quaerit; et non dabitur.199

Et ingemiscens ait: Quid generatio ista signum quaerit?200 (Mark 8:12.) They
asked a sign with an evil intention.

Et non poterat facere.201 And yet he promises them the sign of Jonah, the
great and wonderful miracle of his resurrection.

Nisi videritis, non creditis.202 He does not blame them for not believing
unless there are miracles, but for not believing unless they ar

condition
nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in
order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.

I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness and who
make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I would make such a
different use.

230. It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is
incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to
the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should be created,
and that it should not be created, etc.; that original sin should be, and
that it should not be.

231. Do you believe it to be impossible that God is infinite, without parts?
Yes. I wish therefore to show you an infinite and indivisible thing. It is a
point moving everywhere with an infinite velocity; for it is one in all
places and is all totality in every place.

Let this effect of nature, which previously seemed to you impossible, make
you know that there may be others of which you are still ignorant. Do not
draw this conclusion from your experiment, that there remains nothing for
you to know; but rather that there remains an infinity for you to know.

232. Infinite movement, the point which fills everything, the moment of
rest; infinite without quantity, indivisible and infinite.

233. Infinite–nothing.–Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds
number, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity,
and can believe nothing else.

Unity joined to infinity adds nothing to it, no more than one foot to an
infinite measure. The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite,
and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before
divine justice. There is not so great a disproporti

is what happened in the time of
Arius. (Miracles under Diocletian and under Arius.)

833. Miracle.–The people concluded this of themselves; but if the reason of
it must be given to you…

It is unfortunate to be in exception to the rule. The same must be strict,
and opposed to exception. But yet, as it is certain that there are
exceptions to a rule, our judgment must though strict, be just.

834. John 6:26: Non quia vidisti signum, sed quia saturati estis.188

Those who follow Jesus Christ because of His miracles honour His power in
all the miracles which it produces. But those who, making profession to
follow Him because of His miracles, follow Him in fact only because He
comforts them and satisfies them with worldly blessings, discredit His
miracles, when they are opposed to their own comforts.

John 9: Non est hic homo a Deo, quia sabbatum non custodit. Alii: Quomodo
potest homo peccator haec signa facere?189

Which is the most clear?

This house is not of God; for they do not there believe that the five
propositions are in Jansenius. Others: This house is of God; for in it there
are wrought strange miracles.

Which is the most clear?

Tu quid dicis? Dico quia propheta est. Nisi esset hic a Deo, non poterat
facere quidquam.[190]

835. In the Old Testament, when they will turn you from God. In the New,
when they will turn you from Jesus Christ. These are the occasions for
excluding particular miracles from belief. No others need be excluded.

Does it, therefore, follow that they would have the right to exclude all the
prophets who came to them? No; they would have sinned in not excluding those
who denied God, and would have sinned in excluding those who did not deny
God.

So soon, then, as we see a miracle, we must either assent to it or have
striking proofs to the contrary. We must see if it denies a God, or Jesus
Christ, or the Chu

inefficiency.

287. Those whom we see to be Christians without the knowledge of the
prophets and evidences, nevertheless judge of their religion as well as
those who have that knowledge. They judge of it by the heart, as others
judge of it by the intellect. God himself inclines them to believe, and thus
they are most effectively convinced.

I confess indeed that one of those Christians who believe without proofs
will not, perhaps, be capable of convincing an infidel who will say the same
of himself. But those who know the proofs of religion will prove without
difficulty that such a believer is truly inspired by God, though he cannot
prove it himself.

For God having said in His prophecies (which are undoubtedly prophecies)
that in the reign of Jesus Christ He would spread His spirit abroad among
nations, and that the youths and maidens and children of the Church would
prophesy; it is certain that the Spirit of God is in these and not in the
others.

288. Instead of complaining that God had hidden Himself, you will give Him
thanks for not having revealed so much of Himself; and you will also give
Him thanks for not having revealed Himself to haughty sages, unworthy to
know so holy a God.

Two kinds of persons k

devote a hundred
years.

205. When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the
eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and even can see,
engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and
which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished at being here rather
than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now
rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have
this place and time been allotted to me? Memoria hospitis unius diei
praetereuntis.[27]

206. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

207. How many kingdoms know us not!

208. Why is my knowledge limited? Why my stature? Why my life to one hundred
years rather than to a thousand? What reason has nature had for giving me
such, and for choosing this number rather than another in the infinity of
those from which there is no more reason to choose one than another, trying
nothing else?

209. Art thou less a slave by being loved and favoured by thy master? Thou
art indeed well off, slave. Thy master favours thee; he will soon beat thee.

210. The last act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the play is; at
the last a little earth is thrown upon our head, and that is the end for
ever.

211. We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as
we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone. We
should therefore act as if we were alone, and in that case should we build
fine houses, etc. We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if we
refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for
truth.

212. Instability.–It is a horrib

free from all these evils
by the power of His grace, to which all the glory of it is due, as of myself
I have only misery and error.

551. Dignior plagis quam osculis non timeo quia amo.[94]

552. The Sepulchre of Jesus Christ.–Jesus Christ was dead, but seen on the
Cross. He was dead, and hidden in the Sepulchre.

Jesus Christ was buried by the saints alone.

Jesus Christ wrought no miracle at the Sepulchre.

Only the saints entered it.

It is there, not on the Cross, that Jesus Christ takes a new life.

It is the last mystery of the Passion and the Redemption.

Jesus Christ had nowhere to rest on earth but in the Sepulchre. His enemies
only ceased to persecute Him at the Sepulchre.

553. The Mystery of Jesus.–Jesus suffers in His passions the torments which
men inflict upon Him; but in His agony He suffers the torments which He
inflicts on himself; turbare semetipsum.95 This is a suffering from no
human, but an almighty hand, for He must be almighty to bear it.

Jesus seeks some comfort at least in His three dearest friends, and they are
asleep. He prays them to bear with Him for a little, and they leave Him with
entire indifference, having so little compassion that it could not prevent
their sleeping even for a moment. And thus Jesus was left alone to the wrath
of God.

Jesus is alone on the earth, without any one not only to feel and share His
suffering, but even to know of it; He a

on the
heart. And thus the clear prediction of the time, and the obscure prediction
of the blessings, deceive the wicked alone.

759. Either the Jews or the Christians must be wicked.

760. The Jews reject Him, but not all. The saints receive Him, and not the
carnal-minded. And so far is this from being against His glory, that it is
the last touch which crowns it. For their argument, the only one found in
all their writings, in the Talmud and in the Rabbinical writings, amounts
only to this, that Jesus Christ has not subdued the nations with sword in
hand, gladium tuum, potentissime.[153] (Is this all they have to say? Jesus
Christ has been slain, say they. He has failed. He has not subdued the
heathen with His might. He has not bestowed upon us their spoil. He does not
give riches. Is this all they have to say? It is in this respect that He is
lovable to me. I would not desire Him whom they fancy.) It is evident that
it is only His life which has prevented them from accepting Him; and through
this rejection they are irreproachable witnesses, and, what is more, they
thereby accomplish the prophecies.

By means of the fact that this people have not accepted Him, this miracle
here has happened. The prophecies were the only lasting miracles which could
be wrought, but they were liable to be denied.

761. The Jews, in slaying Him in order not to receive Him as the Messiah,
have given Him the final proof of being the Messiah.

And in continuing not to recognise Him, they made themselves irreproachable
witnesses. Both in slaying Him and in continuing to deny Him, they have
fulfilled the prophecies (Is. 60; Ps. 71).

762. What could the Jews, His enemies, do? If they receive Him, they give
proof of Him by their

what made her feel better. She answered, God makes me. That
evening, as she lay a-bed, she called one of her little cousins to her,
who was present in the room, as having something to say to him; and when
he came, she told him, that heaven was better than earth. The next day,
her mother asked her what God made her for? She answered, To serve him;
and added, Every body should serve God, and get an interest in Christ.

The same day the elder children, when they came home from school, seemed
much affected with the extraordinary change that seemed to be made in
Phebe. And her sister Abigail standing by, her mother took occasion to
counsel her, now to improve her time, to prepare for another world. On
which Phebe burst out in tears, and cried out, Poor Nabby! Her mother
told her, she would not have to cry; she hoped that God would give Nabby
salvation; but that did not quiet her, she continued earnestly crying
for some time. When she had in a measure ceased, her sister Eunice being
by her, she burst out again, and cried, Poor Eunice! and cried
exceedingly; and when s