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Posted by Friendly Neighborhood Vote Wra on January 15, 2008, 3:27 pm
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other. One says, "He is not born for this end,
for all his actions are repugnant to it." The other says, "He forsakes his
end, when he does these base actions."
416. For Port-Royal. Greatness and wretchedness.--Wretchedness being deduced
from greatness, and greatness from wretchedness, some have inferred man's
wretchedness all the more because they have taken his greatness as a proof
of it, and others have inferred his greatness with all the more force,
because they have inferred it from his very wretchedness. All that the one
party has been able to say in proof of his greatness has only served as an
argument of his wretchedness to the others, because the greater our fall,
the more wretched we are, and vice versa. The one party is brought back to
the other in an endless circle, it being certain that, in proportion as men
possess light, they discover both the greatness and the wretchedness of man.
In a word, man knows that he is wretched. He is therefore wretched, because
be is so; but he is really great because he knows it.
417. This twofold nature of man is so evident that some have thought that we
had two souls. A single subject seemed to them incapable of such sudden
variations from unmeasured presumption to a dreadful dejection of heart.
418. It is dangerous to make man see too clearly his equality with the
brutes without showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to make his
see his greatness too clearly, apart from his vileness. It is still more
dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. But it is very advantageous to
show him both. Man must not think that he is on a level either with the
brutes or with the angels, nor must he be ignorant of both sides of his
nature; but he must know both.
419. I will not allow man to depend upon himself, or upon another, to the
end that, being without a resting-place and without repose.
420. If he exalt himself, I humble him; if he humble himself, I exalt him;
and I a
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