ABSTRACT
Towards the end of 1658, at the invitation of the 'messieurs de Port-Royal,' Pascal travelled down from Paris to Port-Royal des Champs to give a lecture on his vast project. Etienne Perier writes: 'The messieurs did not want him to write down what he had in mind, but to deliver it viva voce. In very few words he developed the plan of the entire work; he presented to them what he had to do with the subject and the material; he gave them an abridgment of the reasons and the principles, and he explained to them the order and the plan of the things which he wanted to treat. And these persons, who were as capable as one can possibly be to judge of these sorts of things, avowed that they had never heard anything so beautiful, so powerful,
SO moving, or so convincing.' The scholars of Port-Royal were well known and admired for their acuity and discipline; by the time of their meeting with Pascal he must have had the entire structure of the Apology worked out in his mind, and certain important parts already written. This mode of composition - working out a subject entirely in the mind and then setting it down on paper at break-neck speed - can be traced throughout all of Pascal's works - scientific, mathematical, and philosophical. Luckily, another Jansenist, Filleau de la Chaise, was also present at the meeting, and left an eye-witness account. He included this account, written under the pseudonym Debois de la Cour, in 1672 under the title 'Discourse on the Pensees of Monsieur Pascal in which one tries to show what was his plan ... ' Filleau de la Chaise included in his 'Discourse' two short treatises by Pascal: 'Discourse on the Proofs of the Books of Moses' and 'That there are demonstrations of another type, but as certain as those of geometry.' These two methods - treating the Scriptures like any other historical document, and ordering philosophical and theological ideas in order to achieve certain demonstrations - are the guiding principles of the Pensees. Moreover, there are a few notes in Pascal's own hand entitled 'A.P.R. Pour demain' - 'To Port-Royal, for tomorrow.'
