society, his divine wings remained unsoiled.”18
A more interesting point than any, however, still remains in connection with this period of his life. It was now, or soon after, that Pascal must have composed the “Discours sur les Passions de l’Amour,” one of the most exquisite fragments which have come from his pen,—remarkable both in itself and in the circumstances of its discovery by M. Cousin about thirty years ago. M. Cousin has himself related these circumstances in minute detail, and with a certain self-elation. 19 According to M. Faugère, there was no particular difficulty, page 68and therefore no particular merit, in the discovery. The fragment was clearly indexed in a catalogue of the Pascal MSS. in the well-known State library of Paris as follows: “Discours sur les Passions de l’Amour, par M. Pascal,” and again in the body of the volume the fragment was entitled, “Discours, etc., on l’attribue à M. Pascal.” The genuineness of the fragment seems admitted on all hands. “In the first line,” says Cousin, “I felt Pascal, and my conviction of its authorship grew as I proceeded—his ardent and lofty manner, half thought, half passion, and that speech so fine and grand, an accent which I would recognise amongst a thousand.” 20 “The soul and thought of Pascal,” says Faugère, “shine everywhere in the pages, steeped in a melancholy at once chaste and ardent.” 21