the night of fire by Blaise Pascal

November 23, 1654, is Blaise Pascal’s night of fire.

Pascal is a 17th century scientist and philosopher.

He is a precocious genius. At only 19, he invented the first calculating machine.

He brings many scientific contributions in the fields of mathematics and physics.

But his work takes a whole different turn at the end of his life.

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In 1654, Pascal was 31 years old.

We do not know the exact date, but we do know that one day, he goes by coach to a friend’s house in Argenteuil. As he crosses the Pont de Neuilly, the horses run wild.

They rush headlong towards the river, where there is no guardrail.

They rush into the water, but luckily for Pascal, the leashes that attached them to the coach break. The vehicle stops a few centimeters from the precipice, so that the scientist finds himself with his head in the air.

He sees it as a first sign from God.

The night of fire.

On November 23 of the same year, between 10:30 am and 12:30 am, he had an experience of ecstasy. It is his “night of fire”.

He sees and feels the presence of God. In a dazzling reflex, he grabs a few sheets which were not far from him and in which he writes everything he is going through.

There is no exact description of what he sees, but rather that of his feelings. He writes for example: “Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy”, “certainty, joy, peace …”.

The next day, he sews the sheets together, this is called Pascal’s “Memorial”.

He constantly keeps his sheets in the lining of his jacket. He absolutely never separates from it.

It was during that night that Pascal truly turned to religion.

He’s even going to start writing a book to convince atheists to believe in God. A work whose original title is “Apologie de la religion chretienne”.

But he died on August 19, 1662 before finishing his project. He is 39 years old.

The notes he wrote in his last venture have been collected in a book. These are Pascal’s “Pensées”.

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