Blaise Pascal (16231662). Minor Works. The Harvard Classics.
190914. Of the Geometrical Spirit WE may have three principal
objects in the study of truth: one to discover it when it is
sought; another to demonstrate it when it is possessed; and a
third, to discriminate it from the false when it is examined. I
do not speak of the first; I treat particularly of the second,
and it includes the third. For if we know the method of proving
the truth, we shall have, at the same time, that of
discriminating it, since, in examining whether the proof that is
given of it is in conformity with the rules that are understood,
we shall know whether it is exactly demonstrated. Geometry,
which excels in these three methods, has explained the art of
discovering unknown truths; this it is which is called analysis,
and of which it would be useless to discourse after the many
excellent works that have been written on it. That of
demonstrating truths already found, and of elucidating them in
such a manner that the proof of them sha