Monday, April 26, 2021

"When one does not know the truth of a thing, it is good that there be a common error that fixes the mind of men"

"Lorsqu’on ne sait pas la vérité d’une chose, il est bon qu’il y ait une erreur commune qui fixe l’esprit des hommes. . . ."

Trans. W. F. Trotter (GBWW):  "When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is of advantage that there should exist a common error which determines the mind of man. . . ."

     Blaise Pascal (Salomon de Tultie), Pensées, Brunschvicg 18 recto (Faugère I, 252, XXI / Havet VII.17 et 17 bis / Tourneur p. 116-1 / Le Guern 628 / Lafuma 744 et 745 (série XXVI) / Sellier 618).  For the reference to Salomon de Tultie (Pascal), see the verso of this same fragment (Br 18).  "Salomon de Tultie is [an] anagram of Louis de Montalte, [the] pseudonyme assumed by [the] author of the Provinciales.  It is therefore thought that this is how [Pascal] planned to sign his Apologie.  In 1658, he published [some] scientific opuscules under the name of Amos Dettonville, another anagram of Louis de Montalte."  But it could be complicated.  For not only is Salomon de Tultie a pseudonym for Pascal himself (who, on the verson of Br 18, quotes himself); according to some, "This pensée no. 18 must not [(ne doit pas)] be from Pascal; it is a gloss of [his niece] Mme [Marguerite] Périer on the preceding pensée", i.e. Br 17:  "Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us wither we desire to go" (trans. Trotter) (Garnier edition of 1951, edited, with an introduction and notes, by Ch.-M. des Granges, 331n30).  Whether or not that is still (or ever was) the consensus, I have no idea (and, indeed, rather doubt it).  Apparently, though, it arose from the fact that we have these two fragments from the hand of copiest Gilbert Périer, and from the (false) impression that they are unrelated.  My preference would be to assume that "bon" is simply ironical here.