M. Pascal was endowed with so retentive a memory, that he said he never forgot any thing which he wished to remember. This tenacity of impressions was remarkably exhibited in his knowledge of the Bible; for he could accurately refer to any chapter and verse it was necessary to quote, and always quoted a text with uncommon precision. He possessed likewise an admirable eloquence of discourse, so that he always expressed himself in society with great cor rectness and facility. He was so great a master of style, that he not only could deliver perspicuousiy whatever he chose to say, but could say it in what manner he pleased: he consequently adapted his language and expressions with such propriety to his company, that his conversation was always luminous, instructive, and delight ful*. His writings exhibit a mind comprehensive, vigorous, and sublime; his reasoning was nervous, mauly, and acute: his style noble, animated, and perspicuous; al ways well adapted to the subjects under discussion; often enlivened by grave humour or elegant wit, and occasionally rising to the majesty and force of an impassioned and irresistible eloquence. His Letters to a Provincial, first published in 1656, may be classed among the finest productions of taste and genius in that or any succeeding age.

Madame Perier, M. Pascal's sister, to whom the world is chiefly indebted for the memorials of her brother's life, introduces a circumstance, which shall be related nearly in her own words." About this time it pleased God to cure my daughter of a fistula lachrymalis, which had made so great a progress in three years and a half, that purulent matter issued not only from the eye, but from the nose and the mouth. The most

Vide Pascal's Addresses to the Duke de Roannez, in the first volume

of the Christian Observer.

eminent surgeons in Paris judged this fistula to be, in its own nature, incurable; but by the touch of a holy thorn, she was cured in a moment. This miracle has been authenticated by the attestations of some of the most celebrated physicians and surgeons in France, and was afterwards authorised by a solemn decision of the church My brother was so sensibly af fected by this instance of the Divine favour, that he regarded it as if conferred upon himself; since she who had received the benefit, besides her proximity of blood, was his spiritual daughter in baptism. His soul indeed was penetrated in so lively a manner with joy and gratitude, that this event engaged his contemplations for a considerable time; and as a fruit of these reflections, he composed some interesting thoughts on miracles."

As the account of this miracle, given by M. Bossut, in his edition of the Works of Pascal, is somewhat different from the relation of Madame Perier, and contains a few additional circumstances, it shall be here subjoined.

"Pascal had been convinced, by the miracles performed at the pe riod of the first establishment of religion, that God has more than once interrupted the ordinary course of the laws of nature, for the purpose of instructing mankind. Being persuaded that the same Providence ceases not to watch over the church, he believed that even now it is sometimes manifested by miraculous interpositions; and he observed, as he thought, an instance of this, in an extraor dinary, event, which occurred whilst he was combating the corrupt morals of the Jesuits. A daughter of M. and Madame Pe rier, named Margaret, a resident in the convent of Port-Royal at Paris, aged between ten and eleven years, had been afflicted during three years and a half with a fistula lachrymalis of the worst

species, which discharged purulent matter by the eye, by the nose, and by the mouth, that was intolerably offensive. On Friday, March 24th, 1656, she was touched with the relic of the holy thorn, which had been sent to the convent of Port-Royal, by M. de la Poterie, an ecclesiastic of great piety; and it is asserted that she was instantly cured. Racine, in bis history of Port-Royal, says, that such was the silence habitually maintained in this convent, that, at a period of more than six days after this miracle had taken place, there were some of the sisters who had not even heard it mentioned. It is not in the ordinary course of events, for those whose faith is the most ardent, to see a miracle performed under their eyes, without being struck with astonishment, and being eager to glorify God by communicating it to others. The reserve of the nuns of Port-Royal, on this occasion, may appear calculated to excite doubts in the minds of some persons respecting the truth of the fact asserted: but to minds more favourably disposed, it will shew that the cure of the young lady was not one of those previously prepared engines, one of those pious artifices, in which the heads of a party too frequently allow themselves, for the sake of drawing over to their side the credulous multitude.

"The directors of Port-Royal, sincerely convinced of the truth of the miracle, did not think them selves permitted to conceal so signal an instance of the favour of Providence, and one which reflected so much honour on the Catholic religion, at the same time that it was so well calculated to render their own cause triumphant. They sought to give the greatest possible authenticity to the fact. Four celebrated physicians, and several surgeons, who had previ ously examined and treated the disease, certified that the cure of it was impossible by human means, and

that it must have been supernatural. The miracle was published with the solemn attestation of the Vicars-General, who administered the affairs of the diocese of Paris, in the absence of the Cardinal de Retz. The manner in which it was received by the public, completed the confusion of the Je suits. They denied its reality; and as the ground of their disbe lief, they employed this ridiculous argument: The miracle must be false; since Port-Royal is heretical, and God never performs miracles in behalf of heretics.' It was replied to them: The miracle is undeniable; you cannot call in question an established fast: the Jansenists, therefore, are in the right, and you are calumniators. "A particular circumstance gave weight to this reasoning: the holy relic wrought no miracles, except at Port-Royal: when transferred to the convent of the Ursulines, or the Carmelites, it did not perform any; because these nuns had no enemies, and therefore, as they themselves said, they had no need that God should work a miracle fo prove that he is with them. Pious persons were offended at the Jesu its; men of wit and satire ridiculed them; and nothing was wanting to complete the triumph of the Jansenists. Pascal remained satisfied that the cure of his niece was the work of God; and this young lady had the same conviction;-a conviction that she retained during her life, which was prolonged to a great age. The belief in a parti cular miracle, which is neither related in the Holy Scriptures, nor sanctioned by the decisions of the church, is not a matter in which our faith is concerned: the question reduces itself to a simple point of fact, upon which opinions may vary. But the sincerity and the candour of Pascal do not admit of being called in question: his rectitude and love of truth have never been found defective. Indeed, there are none with whom bie

authority ought not to be of great weight if he was deceived, we must respect him even in his error; and we should reflect that it is natural for a suffering Christian to receive, with humble and grateful faith, the consolations which religion appears to offer him, without first submitting them to the rigorous examination of cold and distrustful scepticism." A few remarks shall be offered on the preceding narratives, as introductory to a more enlarged discussion of the subject of miracles.

This child, we are told, was afflicted with a fistula lachrymalis, which is a disease that affects the soft parts, and sometimes the bone, at the inner angle of the eye. The complaint is usually attended with an obstruction of the ducts that convey the tears into the nose: hence matter forms in the part, which bursts through the skin, and is discharged externally. Mad. Perier informs us, that the matter was discharged by the eye, the nose, and the mouth. These expressions are extremely formidable, when read by a person who is unacquainted with the nature of the complaint; but in reality they are decisive proofs of the mildness of the disease. They shew that the tubes passing from the eyelids into the lachrymal sac, and the duct going from thence into the nose, were free from obstructions; and it is in consequence of the nasal ducts being pervious, that the matter will sometimes fall into the mouth. Thus we may reduce this frightful representation to a disorder of minor importance, which sometimes requires but little medical assistance, and admits of a cure by the natural efforts of the constitution. But we are informed" that the physicians and surgeons judged it to be in its own nature incurable." If Mad. Perier did not misunderstand the opinion they delivered, the decision may be imputed to the imperfection of surgery at that period, or to the unskilfulness of those whom she consulted, with more proba

bility than to the irremediable character of the disease. The most serious part of the difficulty in this narrative, is the suddenness of the cure, which Mad. Perier affirms was completed in a moment.' If we are to receive these expressions strictly and literally, the cure. must be allowed to be a very extraordinary one, and not explicable. according to physical principles, or common experience, Whatever opinions may be formed of the correctness with which this narrative has been detailed, no one would be justified, at this period, in imputing a studied want of veracity to Mad. Perier, or an intentional dishonesty to Pascal and the Jansenists: yet when it is recollected, that, at the time when this event is said to have occurred, the friends of Port-Royal were engaged in discussions which endangered not only the reputation but the very existence of that society, it may be consistent with candour and charity to suppose that the ferment and agitation of mind, connected with a state of daily conflict and persecution, gave a tinge and colouring to some of the circumstances of a story, which might still be substantially true..

(To be continued.)

LETTER OF MR. CUNINGHAME ON THE PROPHECIES. (Concluded from p. 430.) BEFORE I close, I must request your permission to say a few words in reply to some strictures upon my theory of the vials by a writer of the present day. Mr. Frere, in his volume on prophecy, bas undertaken to shew the inconclusiveness of my arguments to prove that the vials are synchronical. The first argument which I have advanced to prove this point, is met, upon the part of Mr. Frere, by a denial that the earthquake in Rev, xi. 19 takes place immediately on the sounding of the seventh trumpet, or, in other words, immediately on the opening

of the temple in heaven. Now Mr. Frere himself admits, that in Rev. xv. 5, 6, the passage which is parallel to chap. xi. 19. the seven angels with the vials come out of the temple as soon as it is opened. But if the language of chap. xv. 5, be thus understood, then the similar language of chap. xi. 19 must also be interpreted on a like principle; and we must infer from it, that the earthquake immediately succeeded the opening of the temple. If, in two parallel and synchronical passages, an expositor be at liberty to interpret similar forms of expression upon dissimilar principles, the Apocalypse is rendered unintelligible.

Instead of directly answering my second reason for the parallelisin of the vials, Mr. Frere attempts to overthrow it by a sort of indirect argument. He first represents it (but without any truth, as I shall afterwards shew) to be "founded upon the supposition, that the period of the sixth seal synchronises with that of the seventh trumpet." He then endeavours to combat the correctness of this synchronism, and infers, that, since my scheme of the vials is only a consequence of another false arrangement, it must be erroneous. That I have here correctly apprehended Mr. Frere's meaning, appears pretty evident from several other passages of his book. Thus, in pages 69 and 70, he says, that I adopted my synchronical view of the vials be cause the consistency of my scheine of the seals and trumpets required it. In page 71, he thus expresses himself, with reference to my scheme: a commentator cannot make the seventh seal to precede the second, third, &c. without discovering that consistency obliges him to make the seven successive vials synchronical."

In these different passages, it is manifest that Mr. Frere means to represent me as having contrived my scheme of the vials, and de• Frere's Combined View of Prophecy, p. 62. 2d édition.

ranged the vials from their proper order, for the purpose of preserving consistency with my previously formed theory of the seals.

Now to all this, my short and simple reply is, that Mr. Frere has incautiously, and I am persuaded unintentionally, fallen into a mistake. My scheme of the vials was laid before the public in the year' 1808, and is to be found in your 7th vol. p. 759-764. My theory of the seals was adopted by me from the work of Archdeacon Woodhouse on the Apocalypse; and I did not meet with this work till two or three years after my paper on the vials had appeared. It is evident, therefore, that Mr. Frere's conjectures, as to the order and manner in which my inquiries were conducted, are directly the reverse of that which is true. I shall add, that, even if my theory of the scals were overthrown, it would not affect my scheme of the vials, &c.

Since, however, Mr. Frere has said so much against that part of my scheme which makes the sixth seal to synchronise with the seventli trumpet, I shall here point out an error into which he has fallen in his reasoning upon this point.

Mr. Frere thus reasons:-In Rev. vi. 17, the day of wrath is said to be come at the close of the sixth seal; but in Rev. xi. 18 the day of wrath is said to be arrived at the commencement of the seventh trumpet: therefore, since the close of the sixth seal and the commencement of the seventh trumpet both synchronise with the day of wrath, they must synchronise with each other; and it follows, that the sixth seal precedes the seventh trumpet, instead of being parallel with it. Such is Mr. Frere's argument, when reduced to the syllogistic form; and I have no fault to find with the conclusion, if the premises be correct. But, sir, there is a mistake in the premises. In Rev. vi. 17 is expressed, not the coming of the day of wrath, but the tardy and unwilling conviction

the kings and nobles and inhabitants of the earth that the day of wrath is come, from their having already experienced the effects of the Divine wrath in the awful judgments of the sixth seal, described in the preceding verses. This conviction is for a long time resisted, but at length the increasing displays of the Divine wrath force it upon the minds of the highest potentates of the earth, and compel them to use the words put into their mouths in this passage. On the contrary, in Rev. xi. 18, is expressed the thanksgiving of the church in heaven that the day of wrath is come, before any of the judgments of that period are actually inflicted." The preceding argument of Mr. Frere, is, therefore, founded on the palpable mistake of assigning the same date in time to the discernment by the church in heaven of the arrival of the day of wrath, and to the slow unwilling convic tion of the wicked upon earth that this awful period is come.

I cannot follow Mr. Frere through his remaining observations on my theory of the vials. He denies that the events of the last twenty-three years are to be con sidered as a continuation of the earthquake which took place at the French Revolution. 'He admits that Revolution to have been a symbolical earthquake; but thinks that it terminated on the 10th August, 1792, and that the events subsequent to that time are not of a nature to be represented by the symbol of an earthquake. It seems only necessary for me to state this notion of Mr. Frere, and to remark, in answer to it, that even those persons who have spoken of the condition of Europe since the French Revolution, without a reference to prophecy, have not uncommonly described it in the figurative language of its being one cominued convulsion of the elements. In his 63d page, Mr. Frere has made use of an arithmetical argument, against my arrangement of the vials,

which I do not understand. In another place he charges upon my system the effect of blending together the different periods of the Apocalypse," whereby it is deprived of all its authority and evidence." He alleges," that there is a want of character and feature in my system," and that its tendency is to render the "Apocalypse so fusile, as to run into any mould and take any shape the ingenuity of the commentator may devise."

These observations, though abundantly severe, have nothing in them of an argumentative nature; I therefore do not feel myself called upon to answer them.

I shall conclude by assuring Mr. Frere, that though, in my humble opinion, his arrangement of the Apocalypse is erroneous, yet I shall endeavour to divest myself of all prejudice in examining his objec tious to my own system. But I must add, that all the leading points of my scheme were subjected to a severe scrutiny in my own mind, before I adopted them. Indeed, I should not have presumed to offer to the public my first crude and ill-digested thoughts upon such a subject as the Divine word of prophecy.

I am, &c.

WM. CUNINGHAME.

P. S.-In my paper on the vials, and likewise my work on the Apocalypse, I advanced an opinion contrary to the sentiments of almost every modern interpreter-that the eighth form of government of the Bestial empire (see Rev. xvii. 8, and 11) was still future. I yet adhere to this opinion; and indeed recent events confirm me in it more and more. it now seems probable that I entirely erred in sup posing that Bonaparte was to be the instrument of fulfilling this part of the prophecy, contained in Rev. xvii. His power seems at length to be brought to an end. My error in this respect does not, however, affect the accuracy of