Literature: Tales from Nagasaki

It was a glorious April day and the little valley echoed with the songs of the bird Nagai had loved most since childhood, the uguisu, sometimes called the Japanese nightingale. Something told Nagai that all the beauty around him did not just happen. Wasn’t Pascal’s Creator-God a reasonable hypothesis? Nagai reflected: I am always ready to test a hypothesis in the laboratory. Why not try this prayer that Pascal is so insistent about, even if only as an experiment.

(Ch. 5, ’Tis an Ill Wind… pp.44-45)