Blaise Pascal

====''Memorial''====
On the 23 of November, 1654, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal had an [[Christian mysticism|intense religious experience]] and immediately wrote a brief note to himself which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars..." and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems to have carefully sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death.<ref name="oc618">Pascal, Blaise. ''Oeuvres complètes''. (Paris: Seuil, 1960), p. 618</ref> This piece is now known as the ''Memorial''. The story of a carriage accident as having led to the experience described in the ''Memorial'' is disputed by some scholars.<ref>MathPages, [http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath558/kmath558.htm Hold Your Horses.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229162655/https://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath558/kmath558.htm |date=29 February 2024 }} For the sources on which the hypothesis of a link between a carriage accident and Pascal's second conversion is based, and for a sage weighing of the evidence for and against, see Henri Gouhier, ''Blaise Pascal: Commentaires'', Vrin, 1984, pp. 379ff.</ref>
His belief and religious commitment revitalized, Pascal visited the older of two convents at [[Port-Royal-des-Champs|Port-Royal]] for a two-week retreat in January 1655. For the next four years, he regularly travelled between Port-Royal and Paris. It was at this point immediately after his conversion when he began writing his first major literary work on religion, the ''Provincial Letters''.