offers itself; but it is pliable in every sense; and thus there is no rule.
275. Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they
are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
276. M. de Roannez said: "Reasons come to me afterwards, but at first a
thing pleases or shocks me without my knowing the reason, and yet it shocks
me for that reason which I only discover afterwards." But I believe, not
that it shocked him for the reasons which were found afterwards, but that
these reasons were only found because it shocked him.
277. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a
thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being,
and also itself naturally, according as it gives itself to them; and it
hardens itself against one or the other at its will. You have rejected the
one and kept the other. Is it by reason that you love yourself?
278. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then,
is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.
Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was a gift of
reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith. They only give
reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not bring them to it.
279. Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was a gift of
reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith. They only gave
reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not bring them to it.
280. The kn
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