Paul Valéry on Pascal

Extract

As his contribution to the Pascal tercentenary number of the Revue Hebdomadaire, dated July 14, 1923, Paul Valéry chose to make public an attack on Pascal that was impious in its brevity. He entitled it “Variation sur une ‘Pensée’,” and took for his theme “Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m'effraie.” Valéry's own recent and perhaps fleeting fame as a lyric poet did not in everyone's eyes qualify him for the task. Some even among his admirers felt that so antithetical a spirit must inevitably fail to understand Pascal. For the skeptic confronts the believer, the idolator of the intellect its depreciator.