Pascal’s treatise, while still retaining so much of the old traditional physics, was made an object of lively attack by the Jesuit Rector of the College of Paris, Stephen Noël. Pascal replied to him at first directly; and then in answer to a second attack—and so far also in answer to a treatise by the Jesuit, entitled “Le Plein du Vide,” published in 1648—he made a more elaborate statement in a letter addressed to M. le Pailleur, and in a further letter addressed to Father Noël in the same year. There can hardly be any doubt that this was the commencement of Pascal’s hostile relations with the Jesuits. On their part, they failed not to remember in after years, and in a more serious struggle, that he was an old enemy; whilst he on his part probably drew something of the contemptuous scorn which he poured upon them from the recollection of their obstinate ignorance in matters of science.
Meanwhile, in defending himself from the attacks of page 33ignorance, Pascal did not fail to open his own mind to fuller scientific light. As soon as the explanation of Torricelli was communicated to him, he accepted it without hesitation, and resolved to carry out a further series