Editing Blaise Pascal (section)

==Last works and death==
[[File:001Paskal.JPG|thumb|[[Death mask]] of Blaise Pascal|alt=]]

[[T. S. Eliot]] described him during this phase of his life as "a man of the world among ascetics, and an ascetic among men of the world." Pascal's ascetic lifestyle derived from a belief that it was natural and necessary for a person to suffer. In 1659, Pascal fell seriously ill. During his last years, he frequently tried to reject the ministrations of his doctors, saying, "Don't pity me, sickness is the natural state of Christians, because in it we are, as we should always be, in the suffering of evils, in the deprivation of all the goods and pleasures of the senses, free from all the passions that work throughout the course of life, without ambition, without avarice, in the continual expectation of death."<ref name="m104-">Muir, Jane. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uV3rJkmnQhsC ''Of Men and Numbers''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411061236/https://books.google.com/books?id=uV3rJkmnQhsC |date=11 April 2023 }}. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1996). {{isbn|0-486-28973-7}}, p. 104.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Périer |first=Gilberte |date=1845 |title=Lettres, opuscules et mémoires de madame Périer et de Jacqueline, sœurs de Pascal, et de Marguerite Périer, sa nièce |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k294479/f69.item.zoom# |website=BnF Galica |pages=41–42}}</ref> Desiring to imitate Jesus’ poverty of spirit, in his spirit of zeal and charity, Pascal said if God allowed him to recover from his illness, he would be resolved to "have no other employment or occupation for the rest of my life than the service of the poor."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Périer |first=Gilberte |date=1845 |title=Lettres, opuscules et mémoires de madame Périer et de Jacqueline, sœurs de Pascal, et de Marguerite Périer, sa nièce |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k294479/f69.item.zoom# |website=BnF Galica |pages=44}}</ref>

Louis XIV suppressed the Jansenist movement at Port-Royal in 1661. In response, Pascal wrote one of his final works, ''Écrit sur la signature du formulaire'' ("Writ on the Signing of the Form"), exhorting the Jansenists not to give in. Later that year, his sister Jacqueline died, which convinced Pascal to cease his [[polemics]] on [[Jansenism]].

=== Inventor of public transportation ===
Pascal's last major achievement, returning to his mechanical genius, was inaugurating one of the first land-based [[public transport]] services, the [[carrosses à cinq sols]], a network of horse-drawn multi-seat carriages that carried passengers on five fixed routes. Pascal also designated the operation principles which were later used to plan public transportation - the carriages had a fixed route, fixed price (five [[French sol|sols]], hence the name), and left even if there were no passengers.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Blinkin |first1=Mikhail |title=Это в моде: почему в мире возрождается общественный транспорт |url=https://postnauka.ru/longreads/156572 |work=Post-Nauka |date=20 August 2021 |language=ru |access-date=15 September 2021 |archive-date=15 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915184104/https://postnauka.ru/longreads/156572 |url-status=live }}</ref> The lines were not commercially successful, and the last one closed by 1675.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Alfred |first1=Randy |title=March 18, 1662: The Bus Starts Here ... in Paris |url=https://www.wired.com/2008/03/march-18-1662-the-bus-starts-here-in-paris/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=17 March 2008 |access-date=15 September 2021 |archive-date=14 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014221608/https://www.wired.com/2008/03/march-18-1662-the-bus-starts-here-in-paris/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Nonetheless, he has been described as the inventor of public transportation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-27 |title=The Inventor of Transit |url=https://www.straphanger.blog/the-inventor-of-transit/?ref=straphanger-newsletter |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Straphanger |language=en}}</ref>

=== Illness and death ===
In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent, and his emotional condition had severely worsened since his sister's death. Aware that his health was fading quickly, he sought a move to the hospital for incurable diseases, but his doctors declared that he was too unstable to be carried. In Paris on 18 August 1662, Pascal went into convulsions and received [[extreme unction]]. He died the next morning, his last words being "May God never abandon me," and was buried in the cemetery of [[Saint-Étienne-du-Mont]].<ref name="m104-" />

An [[autopsy]] performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen, along with [[brain damage|damage to his brain]]. Despite the autopsy, the cause of his poor health was never precisely determined, though speculation focuses on [[tuberculosis]], [[stomach cancer]], or a combination of the two.<ref name="m103">Muir, Jane. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uV3rJkmnQhsC ''Of Men and Numbers''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411061236/https://books.google.com/books?id=uV3rJkmnQhsC |date=11 April 2023 }}. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1996). {{isbn|0-486-28973-7}}, p. 103.</ref> The headaches which affected Pascal are generally attributed to his brain [[lesion]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zanello |first1=Marc |last2=Arnaud |first2=Eric |last3=Di Rocco |first3=Federico |date=2015-04-01 |title=The mysteries of Blaise Pascal's sutures |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-015-2622-9 |journal=Child's Nervous System |language=en |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=503–506 |doi=10.1007/s00381-015-2622-9 |pmid=25697145 |issn=1433-0350}}</ref>