At the top was a cross with rays, a similar cross being drawn at the bottom of the text. This began with the following words :
Monday, November 23, the day of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and of others in the martyrology.
The
Eve of St. Chrysogone, martyr, and of others. From about half-past ten
in the evening until about a half-hour after midnight,
FIRE
Then
follow a series of ejaculations and short religious sentences, and
toward the end, after the name of Christ, thrice repeated, the words :
I have separated myself from Him, I have fled from Him, denied Him.
and
finally the prayer that this separation might henceforth cease. The
original text is said to be in thé Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris with
the MS. of the "Pensées."
Pascal
is stated to have always kept this amulet on his person, removing it
carefully from the lining of an old garment and putting in a new one,
when this was assumed. The strange introduction referred to a vision of
fire which he had had on the night in question, and this has been
explained as resulting from a severe nervous shock he had experienced
six months before, when driving along the banks of the Seine. As the
vehicle neared Neuilly the horses took fright and ran away, dashing
toward the edge of the bank; just on the brink the reins broke and the
horses plunged down into the river, leaving the carriage in which
Pascal was sitting on the edge of the precipice. This shock impressed
him so vividly that he would often see the precipice before him as
distinctly as though it were a reality. In any case the matter is of
interest as showing that one of the most gifted men of the seventeenth
century was a believer in amulets.89
"
F. Lalut, " L'amulet de Pascal," in Annales med. psych., I ser., vol.
v, pp. 157-180; and P. E. Littré, " Médecine et médecine," Paris, 1872,
pp. 95-97.
