,note3  ,greek words_/phrases in the    
text are noted as ,greek text4 ,,oe_/oe 
ligatures have not been retained in this
 version4     ,,critical ,,miscellanies 
,,by  ,,john ,,morley   ,,vol4 ,,ii4    
,essay #c3 ,condorcet     ,london       
,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,limited ,new  
,york3 ,the ,mac,millan ,company #aije  
,,condorcet4     ,condorcet's peculiar  
position and characteristics            
#afc  ,birth1 instruction1 and early    
sensibility                     #aff    
,friendship with ,voltaire and with     
,turgot                 #agj1 #aga      
,compared with these two great men      
#agb  ,currents of ,french opinion and  
circumstance in #aggd           #agg    
,condorcet's principles drawn from two  
sources                 #ahj  ,his view 
of the two ,english ,revolutions        
#aha  ,his life up to the convocation of
 the ,states-,general          #ahc     
,energetic interest in the elections    
#ahi  ,want of prevision                
#aia  ,his participation in political   

activity down to the   end of #agib     
#aic  ,chosen one of the secretaries of 
the ,legislative ,assembly     #aih     
,elected to the ,convention             
#bjj  ,resistance to the ,jacobins1     
proscription1 and death           #bja  
,condorcet's tenacious interest in human
 welfare               #baj  ,two       
currents of thought in ,france at the   
middle of   the eighteenth century      
#bae  ,quesnay and the ,physiocrats     
#baf  ,montesquieu                      
#bai  ,turgot completed ,montesquieu's  
historical conception          #bbb     
,kant's idea of a ,universal or         
,cosmo-,political ,history         #bbf 
,condorcet fuses the conceptions of the 
two previous   sets of thinkers         
#bbi  ,account of his ,tableau des      
,progrs                          #bcj   
,omits to consider history of moral     
improvement                #bcc  ,and   
misinterprets the religious element     
#bcd  ,his view of ,mahometanism        
#bch  ,of ,protestantism                

#bdj  ,and of philosophic propagandism  
#bda  ,various acute remarks in his     
sketch                           #bdc   
,his boundless hopes for the future     
#bdd  ,three directions which our       
anticipations may take3--   7#a7        
,international equality                 
#bdf   7#b7 ,internal equality          
#bdg   7#c7 ,substantial perfecting of  
nature and society            #bdh      
,natural view of the formation of       
character                    #beb       
,central idea of all his aspirations    
#bec     ,,condorcet4   ,of the         
illustrious thinkers and writers who for
 two generations had been actively      
scattering the seed of revolution in    
,france1 only ,condorcet survived to    
behold the first bitter ingathering of  
the harvest4 ,those who had sown the    
wind were no more2 he only was left to  
see the reaping of the whirlwind1 and to
 be swiftly and cruelly swept away by   
it4 ,voltaire and ,diderot1 ,rousseau   
and ,helvtius1 had vanished1 but        

,condorcet both assisted at the         
,encyclopdia and sat in the ,convention2
 the one eminent man of those who had   
tended the tree1 who also came in due   
season to partake of its fruit2 at once 
a precursor1 and a sharer in the        
fulfilment4 ,in neither character has he
 attracted the goodwill of any of those 
considerable sections and schools into  
which criticism of the ,revolution has  
been mainly divided4 ,as a thinker he is
 roughly classed as an ,economist1 and  
as a practical politician he figured    
first in the ,legislative ,assembly1 and
 then in the ,convention4 ,now1 as a    
rule1 the political parties that have   
most admired the ,convention have had   
least sympathy with the ,economists1 and
 the historians who are most favourable 
to ,turgot and his followers1 are       
usually most hostile to the actions and 
associations of the great revolutionary 
chamber successively swayed by a        
,vergniaud1 a ,danton1 a ,robespierre4  
,between the two1 ,condorcet's name has 

been allowed to lie hidden for the most 
part in a certain obscurity1 or else has
 been covered with those taunts and     
innuendoes1 which partisans are wont to 
lavish on men of whom they do not know  
exactly whether they are with or against
 them4  ,generally the men of the       
,revolution are criticised in blocks and
 sections1 and ,condorcet cannot be     
accurately placed under any of these    
received schools4 ,he was an ,economist1
 but he was something more2 for the most
 characteristic article in his creed was
 a passionate belief in the infinite    
perfectibility of human nature4 ,he was 
more of a ,girondin than a ,jacobin1 yet
 he did not always act1 any more than he
 always thought1 with the ,girondins1   
and he did not fall when they fell1 but 
was proscribed by a decree specially    
levelled at himself4 ,isolation of this 
kind is assuredly no merit in political 
action1 but it explains the coldness    
with which ,condorcet's memory has been 
treated2 it flowed from some marked     

singularities both of character and     
opinion which are of the highest        
interest1 if we consider the position of
 the man and the lustre of that         
ever-memorable time4 ',condorcet1' said 
,d',alembert1 'is a volcano covered with
 snow4' ,said another1 less             
picturesquely3 ',he is a sheep in a     
passion4' ',you may say of the          
intelligence of ,condorcet in relation  
to his person1' wrote ,madame ,roland1  
'that it is a subtle essence soaked in  
cotton4' ,the curious mixture disclosed 
by sayings like these1 of warm impulse  
and fine purpose with immovable reserve1
 only shows that he of whom they were   
spoken belonged to the class of natures 
which may be called non-conducting4     
,they are not effective1 because without
 this effluence of power and feeling    
from within1 the hearer or onlooker is  
stirred by no sympathetic thrill4 ,they 
cannot be the happiest1 because         
consciousness of the inequality between 
expression and meaning1 between the     

influence intended and the impression   
conveyed1 must be as tormenting as to   
one who dreams is the vain effort to    
strike a blow4 ,if to be of this        
non-conducting temperament is impossible
 in the really greatest characters1 like
 ,st4 ,paul1 ,st4 ,bernard1 or ,luther1 
at least it is no proper object of      
blame1 for it is constantly the         
companion of lofty and generous         
aspiration4 ,it was perhaps unfortunate 
that ,condorcet should have permitted   
himself to be drawn into a position     
where his want of that magical quality  
by which even ,marat could gain the     
sympathies of men1 should be so         
conspicuously made visible4 ,the        
character of ,condorcet1 unlike so many 
of his contemporaries1 offers nothing to
 the theatrical instinct4 ,none the less
 on this account should we be willing to
 weigh the contributions which he made  
to the stock of science and social      
speculation1 and recognise the fine     
elevation of his sentiments1 his noble  

solicitude for human wellbeing1 his     
eager and resolute belief in its        
indefinite expansion1 and the devotion  
which sealed his faith by a destiny that
 was as tragical as any in those bloody 
and most tragical days4     ,i4   ,until
 the outbreak of the ,revolution1 the   
circumstances of ,condorcet's life were 
as little externally disturbed or       
specially remarkable as those of any    
other geometer and thinker of the time4 
,he was born at a small town in         
,picardy1 in the year #agdc4 ,his father
 was a cavalry officer1 but as he died  
when his son was only three years old1  
he could have exerted no influence upon 
the future philosopher1 save such as    
comes of transmission through blood and 
tissue4 ,condillac was his uncle1 but   
there is no record of any intercourse   
between them4 ,his mother was a devout  
and trembling soul1 who dedicated her   
child to the ,holy ,virgin1 and for     
eight years or more made him wear the   
dress of a little girl1 by way of       

sheltering him against the temptations  
and unbelief of a vile world4 ,so long  
as women are held by opinion and usage  
in a state of educational and political 
subjection1 which prevents the growth of
 a large intelligence made healthy and  
energetic by knowledge and by activity1 
we may expect pious extravagances of    
this kind4 ,condorcet was weakened      
physically by much confinement and the  
constraint of cumbrous clothing2 and not
 even his dedication to the ,holy       
,virgin prevented him from growing up   
the most ardent of the admirers of      
,voltaire4 ,his earliest instructors1 as
 happened to most of the sceptical      
philosophers1 were the ,jesuits1 then   
within a few years of their fall4 ,that 
these adroit men1 armed with all the    
arts and traditions which their order   
had acquired in three centuries1 and    
with the training of the nation almost  
exclusively in their hands1 should still
 have been unable to shield their       
persons from proscription and their     

creed from hatred1 is a remarkable      
instance how little it avails           
ecclesiastical bodies to have a monopoly
 of official education1 if the spirit of
 their teaching be out of harmony with  
those most potent agencies which we sum 
up as the spirit of the time4 ,the      
,jesuits were the great official        
instructors of ,france for the first    
half of the eighteenth century4 ,in     
#agfd the order was thrust forth from   
the country1 and they left behind them  
an army of the bitterest enemies that   
,christianity has ever had4 ,to do them 
justice1 they were destroyed by weapons 
which they had themselves supplied4 ,the
 intelligence which they had developed  
and sharpened1 turned inevitably against
 the incurable faults in their own      
system4 ,they were admirable teachers of
 mathematics4 ,condorcet1 instructed by 
the ,jesuits at ,rheims1 was able when  
he was only fifteen years old to go     
through such performances in analysis as
 to win especial applause from          

illustrious judges like ,d',alembert and
 ,clairaut4 ,it was impossible1 however1
 for ,jesuits1 as it has ever been for  
all enemies of movement1 to constrain   
within prescribed limits the activity   
which has once been effectively stirred4
 ,mathematics has always been in the    
eyes of the ,church a harmless branch of
 knowledge1 but the mental energy that  
mathematics first touched is sure to    
turn itself by and by to more complex   
and dangerous subjects in the scientific
 hierarchy4  ,at any rate1 ,condorcet's 
curiosity was very speedily drawn to    
problems beyond those which geometry and
 algebra pretend to solve4 ',for thirty 
years1' he wrote in #agij1 ',i have     
hardly ever passed a single day without 
meditating on the political sciences4'#a
 ,thus1 when only seventeen1 when the   
ardour of even the choicest spirits is  
usually most purely intellectual1 moral 
and social feeling was rising in        
,condorcet to that supremacy which it   
afterwards attained in him to so        

admirable a degree4 ,he wrote essays on 
integral calculus1 but he was already   
beginning to reflect upon the laws of   
human societies and the conditions of   
moral obligation4 ,at the root of       
,condorcet's nature was a profound      
sensibility of constitution4 ,one of his
 biographers explains his early         
enthusiasm for virtue and human welfare 
as the conclusion of a kind of          
syllogism4 ,it is possible that the     
syllogism was only the later shape into 
which an instinctive impulse threw      
itself by way of rational entrenchment4 
,his sensibility caused ,condorcet to   
abandon the barbarous pleasures of the  
chase1 which had at first powerfully    
attracted him4#b ,to derive delight from
 what inflicts pain on any sentient     
creature revolted his conscience and    
offended his reason1 because he         
perceived that the character which does 
not shrink from associating its own joy 
with the anguish of another1 is either  
found or left mortally blunted to the   

finest impressions of humanity4  ,it is 
thus assured that from the beginning    
,condorcet was unable to satisfy himself
 with the mere knowledge of the         
specialist1 but felt the necessity of   
placing social aims at the head and     
front of his life1 and of subordinating 
to them all other pursuits4 ,that he    
values knowledge only as a means to     
social action1 is one of the highest    
titles to our esteem that any           
philosopher can have4 ,such a temper of 
mind has penetrated no man more fully   
than ,condorcet1 though there are other 
thinkers to whom time and chance have   
been more favourable in making that     
temper permanently productive4 ,there is
 a fine significance in his words1 after
 the dismissal of the great and virtuous
 ,turgot from office3 ',we have had a   
delightful dream1 but it was too brief4 
,now ,i mean to apply myself to         
geometry4 ,it is terribly cold to be for
 the future labouring only for the      
gloriole1 after flattering oneself for a

 while that one was working for the     
public weal4' ,it is true that a        
geometer1 too1 works for the public     
weal2 but the process is tardier1 and we
 may well pardon an impatience that     
sprung of reasoned zeal for the         
happiness of mankind4 ,there is         
something much more attractive about    
,condorcet's undisguised disappointment 
at having to exchange active public     
labour for geometrical problems1 than in
 the affected satisfaction              
conventionally professed by statesmen   
when driven from place to their books4  
,his correspondence shows that1 even    
when his mind seemed to be most         
concentrated upon his special studies1  
he was incessantly on the alert for     
every new idea1 book1 transaction1 that 
was likely to stimulate the love of     
virtue in individuals1 or to increase   
the strength of justice in society4 ,it 
would have been in one sense more       
fortunate for him to have cared less for
 high social interests1 if we remember  

the contention of his latter days and   
the catastrophe which brought them to a 
frightful close4 ,but ,condorcet was not
 one of those natures who can think it  
happiness to look passively out from the
 tranquil literary watch-tower upon the 
mortal struggles of a society in        
revolution4 ,in measuring other men of  
science--as his two volumes of loges    
abundantly show--one cannot help being  
struck by the eagerness with which he   
seizes on any trait of zeal for social  
improvement1 any signal of anxiety that 
the lives and characters of our fellows 
should be better worth having4 ,he was  
himself too absolutely possessed by this
 social spirit to have flinched from his
 career1 even if he had foreseen the    
martyrdom which was to consummate it4   
',you are very happy1' he once wrote to 
,turgot1 'in your passion for the public
 good and your power to satisfy it2 it  
is a great consolation1 and of an order 
very superior to that of study4'#c  ,in 
#agfi1 at the age of six-and-twenty1    

,condorcet became connected with the    
,academy1 to the mortification of his   
relations1 who hardly pardoned him for  
not being a captain of horse as his     
father had been before him4 ,about the  
same time1 or a little later1 he        
performed a pilgrimage of a kind that   
could hardly help making a mark upon a  
character so deeply impressible4 ,in    
company with ,d',alembert he went to    
,ferney and saw ,voltaire4#d ,to the    
position of ,voltaire in ,europe in     
#aggj there has never been any other    
man's position in any age wholly        
comparable4 ,it is true that there had  
been one or two of the great popes1 and 
a great ecclesiastic like ,st4 ,bernard1
 who had exercised a spiritual          
authority1 pretty universally submitted 
to1 or even spontaneously invoked1      
throughout western ,europe4 ,but these  
were the representatives of a powerful  
organisation and an accepted system4    
,voltaire filled a place before men's   
eyes in the eighteenth century as       

conspicuous and as authoritative as that
 of ,st4 ,bernard in the twelfth4 ,the  
difference was that ,voltaire's place   
was absolutely unofficial in its origin1
 and indebted to no system nor          
organisation for its maintenance4       
,again1 there have been others1 like    
,bacon or ,descartes1 destined to make a
 far more permanent contribution to the 
ideas which have extended the powers and
 elevated the happiness of men2 but     
these great spirits for the most part   
laboured for the generation that        
followed them1 and won comparatively    
slight recognition from their own age4  
,voltaire during his life enjoyed to the
 full not only the admiration that      
belongs to the poet1 but something of   
the veneration that is paid to the      
thinker1 and even something of the glory
 usually reserved for captains and      
conquerors of renown4 ,no other man     
before or since ever hit so exactly the 
mark of his time on every side1 so      
precisely met the conditions of fame for

 the moment1 nor so thoroughly dazzled  
and reigned over the foremost men and   
women who were his contemporaries4      
,wherever else intellectual fame has    
approached the fame of ,voltaire1 it has
 been posthumous4 ,with him it was      
immediate and splendid4 ,into the secret
 of this extraordinary circumstance we  
need not here particularly inquire4 ,he 
was an unsurpassed master of the art of 
literary expression in a country where  
that art is more highly prized than     
anywhere else2 he was the most brilliant
 of wits among a people whose relish for
 wit is a supreme passion2 he won the   
admiration of the lighter souls by his  
plays1 of the learned by his interest in
 science1 of the men of letters by his  
never-ceasing flow of essays1           
criticisms1 and articles1 not one of    
which lacks vigour and freshness and    
sparkle2 he was the most active1 bitter1
 and telling foe of what was then the   
most justly abhorred of all             
institutions--the ,church4 ,add to these

 remarkable titles to honour and        
popularity that he was no mere declaimer
 against oppression and injustice in the
 abstract1 but the strenuous1           
persevering1 and absolutely             
indefatigable champion of every victim  
of oppression or injustice whose case   
was once brought under his eye4  ,it is 
not difficult to perceive the           
fascination which ,voltaire1 with this  
character and this unrivalled splendour 
of public position1 would have for a man
 like ,condorcet4 ,he conceived the     
warmest attachment to ,voltaire1 and    
,voltaire in turn the highest respect   
for him4 ,their correspondence          
7#aggj-aggh7 is perhaps as interesting  
as any letters of that period that we   
possess3 ,voltaire is always bright1    
playful1 and affectionate2 ,condorcet   
more declamatory and less graceful1 but 
full of reverence and loyalty for his   
'dear and illustrious' master1 and of   
his own peculiar eagerness for good     
causes and animosity against the        

defenders of evil ones4 ,condorcet was  
younger than the patriarch of ,ferney by
 nearly half a century1 but this did not
 prevent him from loyal remonstrances on
 more than one occasion against conduct 
on ,voltaire's part in this matter or   
that1 which he held to be unworthy of   
his character and reputation4 ,he went  
so far as actually to decline to print  
in the ,mercure a letter in which the   
writer in some fit of spleen placed     
,montesquieu below ,d',aguesseau4 ',my  
attachment1' he says1 'bids me say what 
will be best for you1 and not what might
 please you most4 ,if ,i loved you less1
 ,i should not have the courage to      
thwart you4 ,i am aware of your         
grievances against ,montesquieu2 it is  
worthy of you to forget them4' ,there   
was perhaps as much moral courage in    
doing this as in defying the ,men of the
 ,mountain in the days of the ,terror4  
,it dispels some false impressions of   
,voltaire's supposed intolerance of     
criticism1 to find him thanking         

,condorcet for one of these friendly    
protests4 ,he showed himself worthy of  
such courageous conduct4 ',one sees     
things ill1' he writes1 'when one sees  
them from too far off4 ,after all1 we   
ought never to blush to go to school if 
we are as old as ,methuselah4 ,i repeat 
my acknowledgments to you4'#e ,condorcet
 did not conceive that either to be     
blind to a man's errors or to compromise
 them is to prove yourself his friend4  
,there is an integrity of friendship as 
in public concerns1 and he adhered to it
 as manfully in one as in the other4    
,throughout his intercourse with        
intimate friends there is that happy and
 frank play of direct personal allusion1
 which is as distinct from flattery when
 it is about another1 as it is from     
egoism when it refers to the writer     
himself4  ,perhaps we see him most      
characteristically in his correspondence
 with ,turgot4 ,what ,turgot loved in   
,condorcet was his 'simplicity of       
character4'#f ,turgot was almost as much

 less vivacious than ,condorcet1 as     
,condorcet was less vivacious than      
,voltaire4 ,they belonged to quite      
distinct types of character1 but this   
may be a condition of the most perfect  
forms of sympathy4 ,each gives support  
where the other is most conscious of    
needing it4 ,turgot was one of those    
serene1 capacious1 and sure             
intelligences whose aspirations do not  
become low nor narrow by being          
watchfully held under the control of    
reason2 whose ideas are no less vigorous
 or exuberant because they move in a    
steady and ordered train2 and who1 in   
their most fervent reactions against    
abuses or crimes1 resist that vehement  
temptation to excess which is the       
besetting infirmity of generous natures4
 ,condorcet was very different from     
this4 ,whatever he wished he wished     
unrestrainedly4 ,as with most men of the
 epoch1 the habit of making allowances  
was not his4 ,we observe something      
theological in his hatred of            

theologians4 ,even in his letters the   
distant ground-swell of repressed       
passion sounds in the ear1 and at every 
mention of false opinion or evil-doing a
 sombre and angry shadow seems to fall  
upon the page4 ,both he and ,turgot     
clung to the doctrine of the infinite   
perfectibility of human nature1 and the 
correspondingly infinite augmentation of
 human happiness2 but ,condorcet's      
ever-smouldering impetuosity would be   
content with nothing less than the      
arrival of at least a considerable      
instalment of this infinite quantity now
 and instantly4 ,he went so far as to   
insist that by and by men would acquire 
the art of prolonging their lives for   
several generations1 instead of being   
confined within the fatal span of       
threescore years and ten4 ,he was       
impatient of any frittering away of life
 in scruple1 tremors1 and hesitations4  
',for the most part1' he once wrote to  
,turgot1 'people abounding in scruple   
are not fit for great things3 a         

,christian will throw away in subduing  
the darts of the flesh the time which he
 might have employed on things of use to
 mankind2 or he will lack courage to    
rise against a tyrant for fear of his   
judgment being too hastily formed4'#g   
,turgot's reply may illustrate the      
difference between the two men3 ',no    
virtue1 in whatever sense you take the  
word1 dispenses with justice2 and ,i    
think no more of the people who do great
 things--as you say--at the expense of  
justice1 than of poets who fancy they   
produce great beauties of imagination   
without regularity4 ,i know that        
excessive exactitude tends slightly to  
deaden the fire alike of composition and
 of action2 but there is a mean in      
everything4 ,it has never been a        
question in our controversy of a        
capuchin who throws away his time in    
quenching the darts of the flesh 7though
 by the way1 in the total of time thrown
 away the term that expresses the time  
lost in satisfying these lusts is most  

likely far greater72 no more is it a    
question of a fool who is afraid of     
rising against tyrants for fear of      
forming a rash judgment4'#h  ,this      
ability to conceive a mean case between 
two extremes was not among ,condorcet's 
gifts4 ,his mind dwelt too much in the  
region of excess1 alike when he measured
 the possibilities of the good1 and     
coloured the motives and the situation  
of those whom he counted the bad4 ,a    
,christian was one who wasted his days  
in merely resisting the flesh2 anybody  
who declined to rise against a tyrant   
was the victim of a slavish             
scrupulosity4 ,he rather sympathises    
with a scientific traveller1 to whom the
 especial charm of natural history      
resides in the buffets which1 at each   
step that it takes1 it inflicts upon    
,moses4#i ,well1 this temper is not the 
richest nor the highest1 but it often   
exists in alliance with rich and high   
qualities4 ,it was so with ,condorcet4  
,and we are particularly bound to       

remember that with him a harsh and      
impatient humour was not1 as is so often
 the case1 the veil for an indolent     
reluctance to form painstaking          
judgments4 ,few workers have been so    
conscientious as he was1 in the labour  
that he bestowed upon subjects which he 
held to be worthy of deliberate scrutiny
 and consideration4 ,his defect was in  
finding too few of such subjects1 and in
 having too many foregone conclusions4  
,turgot and ,montesquieu are perhaps the
 only two eminent men in ,france during 
this part of the century1 of whom the   
same defect might not be alleged4       
,again1 ,condorcet's impatience of      
underlying temperament did not prevent  
him from filling his compositions with  
solid1 sober1 and profound reflections1 
the products of grave and sustained     
meditation upon an experience1 much of  
which must have been severely trying and
 repugnant to a man of his constitution4
 ,while recognising this trait1 then1   
let us not overstate either it or its   

consequences4  ,the main currents of    
opinion and circumstance in ,france1    
when ,condorcet came to take his place  
among her workers1 are now well         
understood4 ,the third quarter of the   
century was just closing4 ,lewis ,,xv4  
died in #aggd2 and though his death was 
of little intrinsic consequence1 except 
as the removal of every corrupt heart is
 of consequence1 it is justly taken to  
mark the date of the beginning of the   
,french ,revolution4 ,it was the        
accidental shifting of position which   
served to disclose that the existing    
system was smitten with a mortal        
paralysis4 ,it is often said that what  
destroyed the ,french kingdom was       
despotism4 ,a sounder explanation       
discovers the causes less in despotism  
than in anarchy--anarchy in every       
department where it could be most       
ruinous4 ,no substantial reconstruction 
was possible1 because all the evils came
 from the sinister interests of the     
nobles1 the clergy1 or the financiers2  

and these classes1 informally bound     
together against the common weal1 were  
too strong for either the sovereign or  
the ablest minister to thrust them      
aside4 ,the material condition of       
,france was one of supreme embarrassment
 and disorder1 only curable by remedies 
which the political and social condition
 of the country made it impossible to   
employ4  ,this would explain why a      
change of some sort was inevitable4 ,but
 why was the change which actually took 
place in that direction rather than     
another8 ,why did not ,france sink under
 her economical disorders1 as greater   
empires than ,france had done8 ,why1    
instead of sinking and falling asunder1 
did the ,french people advance with a   
singleness of impulse unknown before in 
their history to their own deliverance8 
,how was it that they overthrew the     
system that was crushing them1 and      
purged themselves with fire and sword of
 those who administered and maintained  
it1 defying the hopes of the nation2 and

 then successfully encountered the      
giant's task of beating back reactionary
 ,europe with one arm1 and              
reconstructing the fabric of their own  
society with the other8 ,the answer to  
this question is found in the moral and 
spiritual condition of ,france4 ,a      
generation aroused by the great social  
ideas of the eighteenth century1 looking
 round to survey its own social state1  
found itself in the midst of the ruin   
and disorder of the disintegrated system
 of the twelfth century4 ,the life was  
gone out of the ancient organisation of 
,catholicism and ,feudalism1 and it     
seemed as if nothing but corruption     
remained4 ,what enabled the leaders of  
the nation to discern the horror and    
despair of this anarchic dissolution of 
the worn-out old1 and what inspired them
 with hope and energy when they thought 
of the possible new1 was the spiritual  
preparation that had been in swift      
progress since the third decade of the  
century4 ,the forms and methods of this 

preparation were various1 as the        
temperaments that came beneath its      
influence4 ,but the school of ,voltaire1
 the school of ,rousseau1 and the       
schools of ,quesnay and ,montesquieu1   
different as they were at the roots1 all
 alike energetically familiarised the   
public mind with a firm belief in human 
reason1 and the idea of the natural     
rights of man4 ,they impregnated it with
 a growing enthusiasm for social        
justice4 ,it is true that we find       
,voltaire complaining towards the close 
of his days1 of the century being       
satiated and weary1 un sicle dgout1 not 
knowing well what it wanted4 ',the      
public1' he said1 'has been eighty years
 at table1 and now it drinks a little   
bad cognac at the end of its meal4'#aj  
,in literature and art this was true2   
going deeper than these1 the public was 
eager and sensitive with a freshness far
 more vital and more fruitful than it   
had known eighty years back4 ,sitting   
down with a keen appetite for taste1    

erudition1 and literary knowledge1 men  
had now risen up from a dazzling and    
palling board1 with a new hunger and    
thirst after social righteousness4 ,this
 was the noble faith that saved ,france1
 by this sign she was victorious4 ,a    
people once saturated with a passionate 
conception of justice is not likely to  
fall into a ,byzantine stage4 ,that     
destiny only awaits nations where the   
spiritual power is rigorously confined  
in the hands of castes and official     
churches1 which systematically and of   
their very constitution bury justice    
under the sterile accumulations of a    
fixed superstition4  ,condorcet's       
principles were deeply coloured by ideas
 drawn from two sources4 ,he was a      
,voltairean in the intensity of his     
antipathies to the ,church1 and in the  
depth and energy of his humanity4 ,but  
while ,voltaire flourished1 the         
destructive movement only reached       
theology1 and ,voltaire1 though he had  
more to do than anybody else with the   

original impulse1 joined in no attack   
upon the ,state4 ,it was from the       
economical writers and from ,montesquieu
 that ,condorcet learned to look upon   
societies with a scientific eye1 to     
perceive the influence of institutions  
upon men1 and that there are laws1      
susceptible of modification in practice1
 which regulate their growth4 ,it was   
natural1 therefore1 that he should join 
with eagerness in the reforming movement
 which set in with such irrestrainable  
velocity after the death of ,lewis ,,xv4
 ,he was bitter and destructive with the
 bitterness of ,voltaire2 he was hopeful
 for the future with the faith of       
,turgot2 and he was urgent1 heated1     
impetuous1 with a heavy vehemence all   
his own4 ,in a word1 he was the         
incarnation of the revolutionary spirit1
 as the revolutionary spirit existed in 
geometers and ,encyclopdists2 at once   
too reasonable and too little           
reasonable2 too precise and scientific  
and too vague2 too rigorously logical on

 the one hand and too abundantly        
passionate on the other4 ,perhaps there 
is no more fatal combination in politics
 than the deductive method worked by    
passion4 ,when applied to the delicate  
and complex affairs of society1 such    
machinery with such motive force is of  
ruinous potency4  ,condorcet's          
peculiarities of political antipathy and
 preference can hardly be better        
illustrated than by his view of the two 
great revolutions in ,english history4  
,the first was religious1 and therefore 
he hated it2 the second was accompanied 
by much argument1 and had no religion   
about it1 and therefore he extolled it4 
,it is scientific knowledge1 he said1   
which explains why efforts after liberty
 in unenlightened centuries are so      
fleeting1 and so deeply stained by      
bloodshed4 ',compare these with the     
happy efforts of ,america and ,france2  
observe even in the same century1 but at
 different epochs1 the two revolutions  
of ,england fanatical and ,england      

enlightened4 ,we see on the one side    
contemporaries of ,prynne and ,knox1    
while crying out that they are fighting 
for heaven and liberty1 cover their     
unhappy country with blood in order to  
cement the tyranny of the hypocrite     
,cromwell2 on the other1 the            
contemporaries of ,boyle and ,newton    
establish with pacific wisdom the freest
 constitution in the world4'#aa ,it is  
not wonderful that his own revolution   
was misunderstood by one who thus loved 
,english ,whigs1 but hated ,english     
,republicans2 who could forgive an      
aristocratic faction grasping power for 
their order1 but who could not          
sympathise with a nation rising and     
smiting its oppressor1 where they smote 
in the name of the ,lord and of ,gideon1
 nor with a ruler who used his power    
with noble simplicity in the interests  
of his people1 and established in the   
heart of the nation a respect for itself
 such as she has never known since1     
simply because this ruler knew nothing  

about principes or the ,rights of ,man4 
,however1 ,nemesis comes4 ,by and by    
,condorcet found himself writing a piece
 to show that our ,revolution of #afhh  
was very inferior in lawfulness to the  
,french ,revolution of the ,tenth of    
,august4#ab  ,,footnotes3  #a ,oeuv4 de 
,condorcet 7#ab vols4 #ahdg-di71 ix4    
#dhi4  #b ,ib4 i4 #bbj4  #c ,oeuv4 i4   
#bja4 ,see ,turgot's wise reply1 p4     
#bjb4  #d ,sept4 #aggj4 ,voltaire's     
,corr4 vol4 lxxi4 p4 #adg4  #e ,oeuv4 i4
 #da4  #f ,oeuv4 de ,turgot1 ii4 #hag4  
#g ,oeuv4 i4 #bbh4  #h ,ib4 i4 #bcb4  #i
 ,oeuv4 i4 #bi4  #aj ,letters to        
,condorcet 7#aggd74 ,oeuv4 i4 #ce4  #aa 
loge de ,franklin1 iii4 #dbb4  #ab      
,rflexions sur la ,rv4 de #afhh1 et sur 
celle du #aj ,aot1 xii4 #aig4     ,,ii4 
,the course of events after #aggd is in 
its larger features well known to every 
reader4 ,turgot1 after a month of office
 at the ,admiralty1 was in ,august made 
,controller-,general of ,finance4 ,with 
his accession to power1 the reforming   

ideas of the century became practical4  
,he nominated ,condorcet to be          
,inspector of ,coinage1 an offer which  
,condorcet deprecated in these words3   
',it is said of you in certain quarters 
that money costs you nothing when there 
is any question of obliging your        
friends4 ,i should be bitterly ashamed  
of giving any semblance of foundation to
 these absurd speeches4 ,i pray you1 do 
nothing for me just now4 ,though not    
rich1 ,i am not pressed for money4      
,entrust to me some important task--the 
reduction of measures for instance2 then
 wait till my labours have really earned
 some reward4'#ac ,in this patriotic    
spirit he undertook1 along with two     
other eminent men of science1 the task  
of examining certain projects for canals
 which engaged the attention of the     
minister4 ',people will tell you1' he   
wrote1 'that ,i have got an office worth
 two hundred and forty pounds4 ,utterly 
untrue4 ,we undertook it out of         
friendship for ,m4 ,turgot2 but we      

refused the payment that was            
offered4'#ad ,we may profitably contrast
 this devotion to the public interest   
with the rapacity of the clergy and     
nobles1 who drove ,turgot from office   
because he talked of taxing them like   
their neighbours1 and declined to glut  
their insatiable craving for place and  
plunder4  ,turgot was dismissed 7,may   
#aggf71 and presently ,necker was       
installed in his place4 ,condorcet had  
defended with much vigour and some      
asperity the policy of free internal    
trade in corn against ,necker1 who was  
for the maintenance of the restrictions 
on commercial intercourse between the   
different provinces of the kingdom4     
,consequently1 when the new minister    
came into office1 ,condorcet wrote to   
,maurepas resigning his post4 ',i have1'
 he said1 'declared too decidedly what  
,i think about both ,m4 ,necker and his 
works1 to be able to keep any place that
 depends upon him4'#ae ,this was not the
 first taste that ,maurepas had had of  

,condorcet's resolute self-respect4 ,the
 ,duke de la ,vrillire1 one of the most 
scandalous persons of the century1 was  
an honorary member of the ,academy1 and 
he was the brother-in-law of ,maurepas4 
,it was expected from the perpetual     
secretary that he should compose a      
eulogy upon the occasion of his death1  
and ,condorcet was warned by friends1   
who seldom reflect that a man above the 
common quality owes something more to   
himself than mere prudence1 not to      
irritate the powerful minister by a     
slight upon his relation4 ,he was       
inflexible4 ',would you rather have me  
persecuted1' he asked1 'for a wrong than
 for something just and moral8 ,think1  
too1 that they will pardon my silence   
much more readily than they would pardon
 my words1 for my mind is fixed not to  
betray the truth4'#af  ,in #aghb        
,condorcet was elected into the         
,academy4 ,his competitor was ,bailly1  
over whom he had a majority of one4 ,the
 true contest lay less between the two  

candidates than between ,d',alembert and
 ,buffon1 who on this occasion are said 
to have fought one of the greatest      
battles in the not peaceful history of  
the ,academy1 for mighty anger burns    
even in celestial minds4 ,d',alembert is
 said to have exclaimed1 we may hope    
with some exaggeration1 that he was     
better pleased at winning that victory  
than he would have been to find out the 
squaring of the circle4#ag ,destiny1    
which had so pitiful a doom in store for
 the two candidates of that day1 soon   
closed ,d',alembert's share in these    
struggles of the learned and in all     
others4 ,he died in the following year1 
and by his last act testified to his    
trust in the generous character of      
,condorcet4 ,having by the benevolence  
of a lifetime left himself on his       
deathbed without resources1 he confided 
to his friend's care two old and        
faithful servants1 for whom he was      
unable to make provision4 ,this charge  
the philosopher accepted cheerfully1 and

 fulfilled to the end with pious        
scrupulosity4 ,the affection between    
,condorcet and ,d',alembert had been    
warm and close as that of some famous   
pairs of antiquity2 a natural attraction
 of character had clothed community of  
pursuit and interest with the grace of  
the highest kind of friendship4 ,even   
,condorcet's too declamatory manner only
 adds a certain dignity to the pathetic 
passage with which he closes the noble  
loge on his lost friend4#ah ,voltaire   
had been dead these five years1 and     
,turgot1 too1 was gone4 ,society offered
 the survivor no recompense4 ,he found  
the great world tiresome and frivolous1 
and he described its pursuits in phrases
 that are still too faithful to the     
fact1 as 'dissipation without pleasure1 
vanity without meaning1 and idleness    
without repose4' ,it was perhaps to     
soften the oppression of these cruel and
 tender regrets that in #aghf ,condorcet
 married4#ai  ,events were now very     
close at hand1 in comparison with which 

even the most critical private          
transactions of ,condorcet's life were  
pale and insignificant4 ,in the tranquil
 seasons of history1 when the steady    
currents of circumstance bear men along 
noiseless1 the importance of the        
relations which we contract seems       
superlative2 in times of storm and      
social wreck these petty fortunes and   
private chances are engulfed and lost to
 sight4 ,the ferment was now rapidly    
rising to its intensest height1 and     
,condorcet was the last man in ,france  
to remain cold to the burning agitations
 of the time4 ,we have already seen how 
decidedly ten years ago he expressed his
 preference for political activity over 
the meditative labours of the student4  
,he now threw himself into the          
,revolution with all the force of an    
ardent character imbued with fixed and  
unalterable convictions4 ,we may well   
imagine him deploring that the great    
ones whom he had known1 the immortal    
,voltaire1 the lofty-souled ,turgot1 had

 been carried away by the unkind gods1  
before their eyes had seen the          
restoration of their natural rights to  
men1 and the reign of justice on the    
earth4 ,the gods after all were kinder  
than he knew1 for they veiled from the  
sight of the enthusiast of '#hi the     
spectres of '#ic4 ,history might        
possibly miss most of its striking      
episodes1 if every actor could know the 
work to which he was putting his hand2  
and even ,condorcet's faith might have  
wavered if he had known that between him
 and the fulfilment of his desires there
 was to intrude a long and deplorable   
period of despotism and corruption4     
,still1 the vision which then presented 
itself to the eyes of good men was      
sublime2 and just as1 when some noble   
and devoted character has been taken    
away from us1 it is a consolation to    
remember that we had the happiness of   
his friendship1 so too when a generation
 awakes from one of these inspiring     
social dreams1 the wreck of the         

aspiration is not total nor             
unrecompensed4 ,the next best thing to  
the achievement of high and generous    
aims is to have sought them4  ,during   
the winter of '#hh and '#hi1 while all  
,france was astir with elections and    
preparation for elections for that      
meeting of the ,states-,general1 which  
was looked to as the nearing dawn after 
a long night of blackness and misery1   
,condorcet thought he could best serve  
the movement by calling the minds of the
 electors to certain sides of their duty
 which they might be in some danger of  
overlooking4 ,one of the subjects1 for  
example1 on which he felt most strongly1
 but on which his countrymen have not   
shown any particular sensibility1 was   
slavery and the slave trade4#bj ,with a 
terseness and force not always          
characteristic of his writings1 he      
appealed to the electors1 while they    
were reclaiming their own rights in the 
name of justice1 not to forget the      
half-million blacks1 whose rights had   

been still more shamefully torn away    
from them1 and whose need of justice was
 more urgent than their own4 ,in the    
same spirit he published a vehement and 
ingenious protest against the admission 
of representatives from the ,st4        
,domingo plantations to the ,national   
,assembly1 showing how grossly          
inconsistent it was with every idea of a
 free and popular chamber that men      
should sit as representatives of others 
who had never chosen them1 and that they
 should invoke natural rights in their  
own favour1 when at the same instant    
they were violating the most elementary 
and undisputed natural rights of mankind
 in their own country4#ba  ,of general  
precepts he never tired2 one series of  
them followed another4 ,to us many of   
them may seem commonplace2 but we should
 reflect that the election of           
representatives was an amazing novelty  
in ,france1 and ,condorcet knew men well
 enough to be aware of the hazards of   
political inexperience4 ,beware of      

choosing a clever knave1 he said1       
because he will follow his own interest 
and not yours2 but at the same time     
beware of choosing a man for no better  
reason than that he is honest1 because  
you need ability quite as much as you   
need probity4 ,do not choose a man who  
has ever taken sides against the liberty
 of any portion of mankind2 nor one     
whose principles were never known until 
he found out that he wanted your votes4 
,be careful not to mistake heat of head 
for heat of soul2 because what you want 
is not heat but force1 not violence but 
steadfastness4 ,be careful1 too1 to     
separate a man's actions from the       
accidents of his life2 for one may be   
the enemy or the victim of a tyrant     
without being the friend of liberty4 ,do
 not be carried away by a candidate's   
solicitations2 but at the same time1    
make allowance for the existing         
effervescence of spirits4 ,prefer those 
who have decided opinions to those who  
are always inventing plans of           

conciliation2 those who are zealous for 
the rights of man to those who only     
profess pity for the misfortunes of the 
people2 those who speak of justice and  
reason1 to those who speak of political 
interests and of the prosperity of      
commerce4 ,distrust those who appeal to 
sentiment in matters that can be decided
 by reason2 prefer light to eloquence2  
and pass over those who declare         
themselves ready to die for liberty1 in 
favour of those who know in what liberty
 consists4#bb  ,in another piece he drew
 up a list of the rights which the      
nation had a claim to have recognised1  
such as the right to make laws1 to exact
 responsibility from the ministers of   
the crown1 to the protection of personal
 liberty1 and to the legal              
administration of justice by regular    
judges4 ,these rights he declared it to 
be the first duty of the ,assembly to   
draw up in a chart that should be the   
chief corner-stone of the new           
constitution4 ,then he proceeded to     

define the various tasks to which he    
conceived that the legislative body     
should forthwith apply itself2 and among
 them1 be it said1 is no mention of any 
of those projects of confiscation which 
circumstances so speedily forced upon   
the ,assembly when it met4#bc  ,though  
many of these precepts designed to guide
 the electors in their choice of men are
 sagacious and admirable1 they smack    
strongly of that absolute and abstract  
spirit which can never become powerful  
in politics without danger4 ,it is      
certain that in the spring of '#hi1     
,condorcet held hereditary monarchy to  
be most suitable to 'the wealth1 the    
population1 the extent of ,france1 and  
to the political system of ,europe4'#bd 
,yet the reasons which he gives for     
thinking this are not very cogent1 and  
he can hardly have felt them to be so4  
,it is significant1 however1 of the     
little distance which all the most      
uncompromising and most thoughtful      
revolutionists saw in front of them1    

that even ,condorcet should1 so late as 
the eve of the assembly of the          
,states-,general1 have talked about     
attachment to the forms of monarchy and 
respect for the royal person and        
prerogative2 and should have represented
 the notion of the property of the      
,church undergoing any confiscation1 as 
an invention of the enemies of          
freedom4#be ,before the year was out1   
the property of the ,church had         
undergone confiscation2 before two years
 had gone he was an ardent ,republican2 
and in less than twelve months after    
that he had voted the guilt of the king4
  ,it is worth while to cite here a     
still more pointed example of the want  
of prevision1 so common and so          
intelligible at that time4 ,writing in  
,july #agia1 he confutes those who      
asserted that an established and limited
 monarchy was a safeguard against a     
usurper1 whose power is only limited by 
his own audacity and address1 by        
pointing out that the extent of ,france1

 its divisions into departments1 the    
separation between the various branches 
of the administration1 the freedom of   
the press1 the multitude of the public  
prints1 were all so many insurmountable 
barriers against a ,french ,cromwell4   
',to anybody who has read with attention
 the history of the usurpation of       
,cromwell1 it is clear that a single    
newspaper would have been enough to stop
 his success4 ,it is clear that if the  
people of ,england had known how to read
 other books beside their ,bible1 the   
hypocritical tyrant1 unmasked from his  
first step1 would soon have ceased to be
 dangerous4' ,again1 is the nation to be
 cajoled by some ambitious general1     
gratifying its desire to be an          
empire-race8 ',is this what is asked by 
true friends of liberty1 those who only 
seek that reason and right should have  
empire over men8 ,what provinces1       
conquered by a ,french general1 will he 
despoil to buy our suffrages8 ,will he  
promise our soldiers1 as the consuls    

promised the citizens of ,rome1 the     
pillage of ,spain or of ,syria8 ,no1    
assuredly2 it is because we cannot be an
 empire-nation that we shall remain a   
free nation4'#bf ,how few years1 alas1  
between this conclusive reasoning1 and  
the pillage of ,italy1 the campaign in  
,syria1 the seizure of ,spain6          
,condorcet was not a member of the      
,assembly in whose formation and        
composition he had taken so vivid and   
practical an interest4 ,the first       
political functions which he was invited
 to undertake were those of a member of 
the municipality of ,paris4 ,in the     
tremendous drama of which the scenes    
were now opening1 the ,town-hall of     
,paris was to prove itself far more     
truly the centre of movement and action 
than the ,constituent ,assembly4 ,the   
efforts of the ,constituent ,assembly to
 build up were tardy and ineffectual4   
,the activity of the municipality of    
,paris in pulling down was after a time 
ceaseless1 and it was thoroughly        

successful4 ,the first mayor was the    
astronomer ,bailly1 ,condorcet's        
defeated competitor at the ,academy4    
,with the fall of the ,bastille1 summary
 hangings at the nearest lantern-post1  
,october insurrection of women1 and     
triumphant and bloody compulsion of     
king1 queen1 and ,assembly to ,paris    
from ,versailles1 the two rivals1 now   
colleagues1 must have felt that the     
contests for them were indeed no longer 
academic4 ,the astronomy of the one and 
the geometry of the other were for ever 
done with2 and ,condorcet's longing for 
active political life in preference to  
mere study was gratified to the very    
full4  ,unhappily or not1 the movement  
was beyond the control of anybody who1  
like ,condorcet1 had no other force than
 that of disciplined reason and         
principle4 ,the ,bastille no sooner     
fell1 than the ,revolution set in with  
oceanic violence1 in the face of which  
patriotic intention and irrefragable    
arguments1 even when both intention and 

arguments were loyally revolutionary1   
were powerless to save the ,state4 ,in  
crises of this overwhelming kind1 power 
of reasoning does not tell and mere     
goodwill does not tell4 ,exaltation     
reaches a pitch at which the physical   
sensibilities are so quickened as to be 
supreme over the rest of the nature2 and
 in these moods it is the man gifted    
with the physical quality1 as mysterious
 and indescribable as it is resistless1 
of a ,marat1 to take a bad example1 or a
 ,danton1 to take a good one1 who can   
'ride the whirlwind and direct the      
storm4' ,of this quality ,condorcet had 
nothing4 ,his personal presence inspired
 a decent respect1 but no strong emotion
 either of fear or admiration or        
physical sympathy4 ,his voice was       
feeble1 his utterance indistinct2 and he
 never got over that nervous            
apprehension which the spectacle of     
large and turbulent crowds naturally    
rouses in the student4 ,in a revolution 
after the manner of ,lord ,somers he    

would have been invaluable4 ,he         
thoroughly understood his own           
principles1 and he was a master of the  
art1 so useful in its place and time and
 so respectable in all places and times1
 of considering political projects point
 by point with reference to a definite  
framework of rational ideas4 ,but this  
was no time for such an art2 this was   
not a revolution to be guided by reason1
 not even reason like ,condorcet's1     
streaked with jacobinical fibre4 ,the   
national ideas in which it had arisen   
had transformed themselves into         
tumultuous passion1 and from this into  
frenzied action4  ,every politician of  
real eminence as a reformer possesses   
one of three elements4 ,one class of men
 is inspired by an intellectual         
attachment to certain ideas of justice  
and right reason3 another is moved by a 
deep pity for the hard lot of the mass  
of every society3 while the third1 such 
men as ,richelieu for example1 have an  
instinctive appreciation and passion for

 wise and orderly government4 ,the great
 and typical ruler is moved in varying  
degrees by all three in modern times1   
when the claims of the poor1 the rank   
and file of the social army1 have been  
raised to the permanent place that      
belongs to them4 ,each of the three     
types has its own peculiar conditions of
 success1 and there are circumstances in
 which some one of the three is more    
able to grapple with the obstacles to   
order than either of the other two4 ,it 
soon became very clear that the         
intellectual quality was not the element
 likely to quell the tempest that had   
arisen now4  ,let it be said1 however1  
that ,condorcet showed himself no       
pedantic nor fastidious trifler with the
 tremendous movement which he had       
contributed to set afoot4 ,the same     
practical spirit which drove him into   
the strife1 guided him in the midst of  
it4 ,he never wrung his hands1 nor wept1
 nor bewailed the unreason of the       
multitudes to whom in vain he preached  

reason4 ,unlike the typical man of      
letters--for he was without vanity--he  
did not abandon the cause of the        
,revolution because his suggestions were
 often repulsed4 ',it would be better1' 
he said to the ,girondins1 'if you cared
 less for personal matters and attended 
only to public interests4' ,years ago1  
in his loge on ,l',hpital1 he had       
praised the famous ,chancellor for      
incurring the hostility of both of the  
two envenomed factions1 the ,league and 
the ,huguenots1 and for disregarding the
 approbation or disapprobation of the   
people4 ',what operation1' he asked1    
'capable of producing any durable good1 
can be understood by the people8 ,how   
should they know to what extent good is 
possible8 ,how judge of the means of    
producing it8 ,it must ever be easier   
for a charlatan to mislead the people1  
than for a man of genius to save it4'#bg
 ,remembering this law1 he never lost   
patience4 ,he was cool and intrepid1 if 
his intrepidity was of the logical sort 

rather than physical2 and he was        
steadfast to one or two simple aims1 if 
he was on some occasions too rapid in   
changing his attitude as to special     
measures4 ,he was never afraid of the   
spectre1 as the incompetent             
revolutionist is4 ,on the contrary1 he  
understood its whole internal history2  
he knew what had raised it1 what passion
 and what weakness gave to it substance1
 and he knew that presently reason would
 banish it and restore men to a right   
mind4 ,the scientific spirit implanted  
in such a character as ,condorcet's1 and
 made robust by social meditation1      
builds up an impregnable fortitude in   
the face of incessant rebuffs and       
discouragements4 ,let us then picture   
,condorcet as surveying the terrific    
welter from the summer of #aghi to the  
summer of #agic1 from the taking of the 
,bastille to the fall of the ,girondins1
 with something of the firmness and     
self-possession of a ,roman ,cato4      
,after the flight of the king in ,june1 

and his return in what was virtually    
captivity to ,paris1 ,condorcet was one 
of the party1 very small in numbers and 
entirely discountenanced by public      
opinion1 then passing through the       
monarchical and constitutional stage1   
who boldly gave up the idea of a        
monarchy and proclaimed the idea of a   
republic4 ,in ,july 7#agia7 he published
 a piece strongly arguing for a negative
 answer to the question whether a king  
is necessary for the preservation of    
liberty4#bh ,in one sense1 this         
composition is favourable to            
,condorcet's foresight2 it was not every
 one who saw with him that the          
destruction of the monarchy was         
inevitable after the royal flight4 ,this
 want of preparation in the public mind 
for every great change as it came1 is   
one of the most striking circumstances  
of the ,revolution1 and it explains the 
violent1 confused1 and inadequate manner
 in which nearly every one of these     
changes was made4 ,it was proposed at   

that time to appoint ,condorcet to be   
governor to the young dauphin4 ,but     
,condorcet in this piece took such pains
 to make his sentiments upon royalty    
known1 that in the constitutional frame 
of mind in which the ,assembly then was1
 the idea had to be abandoned4 ,it was  
hardly likely that a man should be      
chosen for such an office1 who had just 
declared the public will to be 'that the
 uselessness of a king1 the needfulness 
of seeking means of displacing a power  
founded on illusions1 should be one of  
the first truths offered to his reason2 
the obligation of concurring in this    
himself1 one of the first of his moral  
duties2 and the desire not to be freed  
from the yoke of law by an insulting    
inviolability1 the first sentiment of   
his heart4 ,people are well aware that  
at this moment the object is much less  
how to mould a king1 than to teach him  
not to wish to be one4'#bi ,as all      
,france was then bent on the new        
constitution1 a king included1          

,condorcet's republican assurance was   
hardly warranted1 and it was by no means
 well received4  ,,footnotes3  #ac      
,oeuv4 i4 #ga4  #ad ,ib4 i4 #gc1 #gd4   
#ae ,oeuv4 i4 #bif4  #af ,ib4 i4 #gh4   
#ag ,oeuv4 i4 #hi4 ,condorcet had #af   
votes1 and ,bailly #ae4 ',jamais aucune 
lection1' says ,la ,harpe1 who was all  
for ,buffon1 'n'avait offert ni ce      
nombre ni ce partage4'--,philos4 du     
#ah;ime ,sicle1 i4 #gg4 ,a full account 
of the election1 and of ,condorcet's    
reception1 in ,grimm's ,corr4 ,lit4 xi4 
#ej-ef4  #ah ,oeuv4 iii4 #aji1 #aaj4    
#ai ,his wife1 said to be one of the    
most beautiful women of her time1 was   
twenty-three years younger than himself1
 and survived until #ahbb4 ,cabanis     
married another sister1 and ,marshal    
,grouchy was her brother4 ,madame       
,condorcet wrote nothing of her own1    
except some notes to a translation which
 she made of ,adam ,smith's ,theory of  
,moral ,sentiments4  #bj ,montesquieu1  
,raynal1 and one or two other writers1  

had attacked slavery long before1 and   
,condorcet published a very effective   
piece against it in #agha 7,rflexions   
sur l',esclavage des ,ngres2 ,oeuv4 vii4
 #fc71 with an epistle dedicated to the 
enslaved blacks4 ,about the same time an
 ,abolition ,society was formed in      
,france1 following the example set in   
,england4  #ba ,au ,corps ,electoral1   
contre l',esclavage des ,noirs4 #c ,fv4 
#aghi4 ,sur l',admission des ,dputs des 
,planteurs de ,saint ,domingue4 #aghi4  
ix4 #dfi-dhe4  #bb ,lettres d'un        
,gentilhomme aux ,messieurs du ,tiers   
,etat1 ix4 #bee-bei4  #bc ,rflexions sur
 les ,pouvoirs et ,instructions  donner 
par les ,provinces  leurs ,dputs aux    
,etats-,gnraux1 ix4 #bfc1 #bhc4  #bd    
,ib4 ix4 #bff4  #be ,rflexions sur les  
,pouvoirs et ,instructions  donner par  
les ,provinces  leurs ,dputs aux        
,etats-,gnraux1 ix4 #bfd4  #bf          
,rflexions sur les ,pouvoirs et         
,instructions  donner par les ,provinces
  leurs ,dputs aux ,etats-,gnraux1 xii4 

#bbh1 #bbi1 #bcd4  #bg ,oeuv4 iii4 #ecc4
 ,as this was written in #aggg1         
,condorcet was perhaps thinking of      
,turgot and ,necker4 ,of the latter1 his
 daughter tells us repeatedly1 without  
any consciousness that she is recording 
a most ignominious trait1 that public   
approbation was the very breath of his  
nostrils1 the thing for which he lived1 
the thing without which he was          
wretched4--,see vol4 i4 of ,madame de   
,stal's ,considerations4  #bh ,oeuv4    
iii4 #bbg4 ,it was followed by a letter1
 nominally by a young mechanic1 offering
 to construct an automaton sovereign1   
like ,kempel's chess-player1 who would  
answer all constitutional purposes      
perfectly4--,ib4 #bci-bda4  #bi ,oeuv4  
xii4 #bcf4     ,,iii4   ,when the       
,constitution was accepted and the      
,legislative ,assembly came to be       
chosen1 ,condorcet proved to have made  
so good an impression as a municipal    
officer1 that the ,parisians returned   
him for one of their deputies4 ,the     

,declaration of ,pilnitz in ,august     
#agia had mitigated the loyalty that had
 even withstood the trial of the king's 
flight4 ,when the ,legislative ,assembly
 met1 it was found to contain an        
unmistakable element of republicanism of
 marked strength4 ,condorcet was chosen 
one of the secretaries1 and he composed 
most of those multitudinous addresses in
 which this most unfortunate and least  
honoured of all parliamentary chambers  
tried to prove to the ,french people    
that it was actually in existence and at
 work4 ,condorcet was officially to the 
,legislative what ,barre afterwards was 
to the ,convention4 ,but his addresses  
are turgid1 labouring1 and not effective
 for their purpose4 ,they have neither  
the hard force of ,napoleon's           
proclamations1 nor the flowery eloquence
 of the ,anacreon of the ,guillotine4   
,to compose such pieces well under such 
circumstances as those of the ,assembly1
 a man must have much imagination and   
perhaps a slightly elastic conscience4  

,condorcet had neither one nor the      
other1 but only reason--a hard anvil1   
out of which he laboriously struck      
flashes and single sounds4  ,perhaps1   
after all1 nobody else could have done  
better4 ,the situation of the ,assembly1
 between a hostile court and a          
suspicious and distrustful nation1 and  
unable by its very nature to break the  
bonds1 was from the beginning desperate4
 ,in ,december #agia the ,legislative   
through its secretary informs ,france of
 the frankness and loyalty of the king's
 measures in the face of the menaces of 
foreign war4#cj ,within eight months1   
when the king's person was in captivity 
and his power suspended1 the same       
secretary has to avow that from the very
 beginning the king had treated the     
,assembly with dissimulation1 and had   
been in virtual league with the national
 enemies4 ,the documents issued by the  
,assembly after the violent events of   
the ,tenth of ,august #agib are not     
edifying1 and imply in ,condorcet1 who  

composed them1 a certain want of eye for
 revolutionary methods4 ,they mark the  
beginning of that short but most        
momentous period in the history of the  
,revolution1 when formulas1 as ,mr4     
,carlyle says1 had to be stretched out  
until they cracked--a process truly     
called1 'especially in times of swift   
change1 one of the sorrowfullest tasks  
poor humanity has4' ,you might read the 
,exposition of the ,motives from which  
the ,national ,assembly have proclaimed 
the ,convention1 and suspended the      
,executive ,power of the ,king1#ca      
without dreaming that it is an account  
of a revolution which arose out of      
distrust or contempt for the ,assembly1 
which had driven the king away from his 
palace and from power1 and which had    
finally annihilated the very chamber    
that was thus professing to expound its 
motives for doing what the violence of  
,paris had really done in defiance of   
it4 ,the power1 in fact1 was all outside
 the chamber1 in ,danton and the        

,commune4 ,under such circumstance it is
 of no interest to men to learn that 'in
 the midst of these disasters the       
,national ,assembly1 afflicted but calm1
 took its oath to maintain equality and 
liberty1 or to die at its post2 took the
 oath to save ,france1 and looked about 
for means4'#cb ,still more impotent and 
hollow1 because still more pompous1 is  
the address of six days later4#cc ,a few
 days after this1 occurred the massacres
 of prisoners in ,september--scenes very
 nearly1 if not quite1 as bloody and    
iniquitous as those which attended the  
suppression of the rebellion in ,ireland
 six years afterwards by ,english       
troops4  ,when the ,convention was      
chosen1 the electors of ,paris rejected 
,condorcet4 ,he was elected1 however    
7,sept4 #f71 for the department of the  
,aisne1 having among his colleagues in  
the deputation ,tom ,paine1 and--a much 
more important personage--the youthful  
,saint-,just1 who was so soon to stupefy
 the ,convention by exclaiming1 with    

mellow voice and face set immovable as  
bronze3 ',an individual has no right to 
be either virtuous or celebrated in your
 eyes4 ,a free people and a national    
assembly are not made to admire         
anybody4' ,the electors of the          
department of the ,aisne had            
unconsciously sent two typical          
revolutionists3 the man of intellectual 
ideas1 and the man of passion heated as 
in the pit4 ,in their persons the       
,encyclopdia and the ,guillotine met4   
,condorcet1 who had been extreme in the 
,legislative1 but found himself a       
moderate in the ,convention1 gave wise  
counsel as to the true policy towards   
the new members3 ',better try to        
moderate them than quarrel4' ,but in    
this case1 not even in their ruin1 were 
fire and water reconciled4  ,on the     
first great question that the           
,convention had to decide--the fate of  
the king--,condorcet voted on the two   
main issues very much as a wise man     
would have voted1 knowing the event as  

we know it4 ,he voted that the king was 
guilty of conspiring against liberty1   
and he voted for the punishment of exile
 in preference to that of death4 ,on the
 intermediate issue1 whether the        
decision of the ,convention should be   
final1 or should be submitted to the    
people for ratification1 he voted as a  
wise man should not have done1 in favour
 of an appeal to the people4 ,such an   
appeal must inevitably have led to      
violent and bloody local struggles1 and 
laid ,france open to the enemy4 ,it is a
 striking circumstance that1 though     
,condorcet thus voted that the king was 
guilty1 he had previously laid before   
the ,convention a most careful argument 
to show that they were neither morally  
nor legally competent to try the king at
 all4 ,how1 he asked1 without violating 
every principle of jurisprudence1 can   
you act at the same time as legislators 
constituting the crime1 as accusers1 and
 as judges8 ,his proposal was that      
,lewis ,,xvi4 should be tried by a      

tribunal whose jury and judges should be
 named by the electoral body of the     
departments4#cd ,with true respect for  
,condorcet's honourable anxiety that the
 conditions of justice should be        
rigorously observed--for1 as he well    
said1 'there is no liberty in a country 
where positive law is not the single    
rule of judicial proceedings'--it is    
difficult to see why the ,convention1   
coming as it did fresh from the         
electoral bodies1 who must have had the 
question what was to be done with the   
imprisoned king foremost in their minds1
 why the members of the ,convention     
should not form as legitimate a tribunal
 as any body whose composition and      
authority they had themselves defined   
and created1 and which would be chosen  
by the very same persons who less than a
 month before had invested them with    
their own offices4 ,reading this most   
scrupulous and juristic composition1 we 
might believe the writer to have        
forgotten that ,france lay mad and      

frenzied outside the hall where he      
stood1 and that in political action the 
question what is possible is at least as
 important as what is compatible with   
the maxims of scientific jurisprudence4 
,it was to ,condorcet's honour as a     
jurisconsult that he should have had so 
many scruples2 it is as much to his     
credit as a politician that he laid them
 aside and tried the king after all4    
,it is highly characteristic of         
,condorcet's tenacity of his own view of
 the ,revolution and of its methods1    
that on the ,saturday 7,january #ai1    
#agic7 when the king's fate was decided 
against ,condorcet's conviction and     
against his vote--the execution taking  
place on the ,monday morning--he should 
have appealed to the ,convention1 at all
 events to do their best to neutralise  
the effect of their verdict upon        
,europe1 by instantly initiating a      
series of humane reforms in the law     
among them1 including the abolition of  
the punishment of death4 ',the ,english 

ministers1' he cried1 'are now seeking  
to excite that nation against us4 ,do   
you suppose that they will venture to   
continue their calumnious declamations1 
when you can say to them3 ,we have      
abolished the penalty of death1 while   
you still preserve it for the theft of a
 few shillings8 ,you hand over debtors  
to the greed or spite of their          
creditors2 our laws1 wiser and more     
humane1 know how to respect poverty and 
misfortune4 ,judge between us and you1  
and see to which of the two peoples the 
reproach of inhumanity may be addressed 
with most justice4'#ce ,this was the eve
 of the ,terror4 ,well may ,comte       
distinguish ,condorcet as the one       
philosopher who pursued in the midst of 
the tempest his regenerating            
meditations4  ,but let us banish the    
notion that the history of the          
,convention is only the history of the  
guillotine4 ,no chamber in the whole    
annals of governing assemblies ever     
displayed so much alertness1 energy1 and

 capacity1 in the face of difficulties  
that might well have crushed them4      
,besides their efforts1 justly held     
incomparable1 to hurl back the enemy    
from the frontiers1 they at once in the 
spirit of ,condorcet's speech1 made at  
so strange a season1 set vigorously     
about the not less noble task of legal  
reforms and political reorganisation4   
,the unrivalled ingenuity and fertility 
of the ,french character in all the arts
 of compact and geometric construction  
never showed itself so supreme4 ,the    
civil code was drawn up in a month4#cf  
,constitutions abounded4 ,cynical       
historians laugh at the eagerness of the
 nation1 during the months that followed
 the deposition of the king1 to have a  
constitution2 and1 so far as they       
believed or hoped that a constitution   
would remedy all ills1 their faith was  
assuredly not according to knowledge4   
,it shows1 however1 the fundamental and 
seemingly ineradicable respect for      
authority which their history has       

engendered in the ,french1 that even in 
this1 their most chaotic hour1 they     
craved order and its symbols4           
,condorcet1 along with ,tom ,paine1     
,siyes1 and others1 was a member of the 
first committee for framing a           
constitution4 ,they laboured assiduously
 from ,september to ,february #agic1    
when the project was laid upon the      
table1 prefaced by an elaborate         
dissertation of ,condorcet's            
composition4#cg ,the time was           
inauspicious4 ,the animosities between  
the ,girondins and the ,mountain were   
becoming every day more furious and     
deadly4 ,in the midst of this appalling 
storm of rage and hate and terror1      
,condorcet--at one moment wounding the  
,girondins by reproaches against their  
egotism and personalities1 at another   
exasperating the ,mountain by declaring 
of ,robespierre that he had neither an  
idea in his head nor a feeling in his   
heart--still pertinaciously kept crying 
out for the acceptance of his           

constitution4 ,it was of no avail4 ,the 
revolution of the second of ,june came1 
and swept the ,girondins out of the     
,chamber4 ,condorcet was not among them1
 but his political days were numbered4  
',what did you do all that time8'       
somebody once asked of a member of the  
,convention1 during the period which was
 now beginning and which lasted until   
,thermidor in #agid4 ',i lived1' was the
 reply4 ,condorcet was of another       
temper4 ,he cared as little for his life
 as ,danton or ,saint-,just cared for   
theirs4 ,instead of cowering down among 
the men of the ,plain or the frogs of   
the ,marsh1 he withstood the ,mountain  
to the face4  ,hrault de ,schelles1 at  
the head of another committee1 brought  
in a new constitution which was finally 
adopted and decreed 7,june #bd1 #agic74 
,of this1 ,siyes said privately1 that it
 was 'a bad table of contents4'         
,condorcet denounced it publicly1 and1  
with a courage hardly excelled1 he      
declared in so many words that the      

arrest of the ,girondins had destroyed  
the integrity of the national           
representation4 ,the ,bill he handled   
with a severity that inflicted the      
keenest smarts on the self-love of its  
designers4 ,a few days later1 the       
,capucin ,chabot1 one of those weak and 
excitable natures that in ordinary times
 divert men by the intensity1           
multiplicity1 and brevity of their      
enthusiasms1 but to whom the fiercer air
 of such an event as the ,revolution is 
a real poison1 rose and in the name of  
the ,committee of ,general ,security    
called the attention of the ,chamber to 
what he styled a sequel of the          
,girondist ,brissot4 ,this was no more  
nor less than ,condorcet's document     
criticising the new constitution4 ',this
 man1' said ,chabot1 'has sought to     
raise the department of the ,aisne      
against you1 imagining that1 because he 
has happened to sit by the side of a    
handful of savants of the ,academy1 it  
is his duty to give laws to the ,french 

,republic4'#ch ,so a decree was passed  
putting ,condorcet under arrest4 ,his   
name was included in the list of those  
who were tried before the ,revolutionary
 ,tribunal on the ,third of ,october for
 conspiring against the unity and       
indivisibility of the ,republic4 ,he was
 condemned in his absence1 and declared 
to be hors la loi4  ,this1 then1 was the
 calamitous close of his aspirations    
from boyhood upwards to be permitted to 
partake in doing something for the      
common weal4 ,he had still the work to  
perform by which posterity will best    
remember his name1 though only a few    
months intervened between his flight and
 his most cruel end4 ,when the decree   
against him was enacted he fled4        
,friends found a refuge for him in the  
house of a ,madame ,vernet1 a widow in  
moderate circumstances1 who let lodgings
 to students1 and one of those          
beneficent characters that show us how  
high humanity can reach4 ',is he an     
honest and virtuous man8' she asked2 'in

 that case let him come1 and lose not a 
moment4 ,even while we talk he may be   
seized4' ,the same night ,condorcet     
intrusted his life to her keeping1 and  
for nine months he remained in hiding   
under her roof4 ,when he heard of the   
execution of the ,girondins condemned on
 the same day with himself1 he perceived
 the risk to which he was subjecting his
 protectress1 and made up his mind to   
flee4 ',i am an outlaw1' he said1 'and  
if ,i am discovered you will be dragged 
to the same death4' ',the ,convention1' 
,madame ,vernet answered1 with something
 of the heroism of more notable women of
 that time1 'may put you out of the law2
 it has not the power to put you out of 
humanity4 ,you stay4' ,this was no      
speech of the theatre4 ,the whole       
household kept the most vigorous watch  
over the prisoner thus generously       
detained1 and for many months ,madame   
,vernet's humane firmness was successful
 in preventing his escape4 ,this        
time--his soul grievously burdened by   

anxiety as to the fate of his wife and  
child1 and by a restless eagerness not  
to compromise his benefactress1 a bloody
 death staring him every moment in the  
face--,condorcet spent in the           
composition1 without the aid of a single
 book1 of his memorable work on the     
progress of the human mind4 ,among the  
many wonders of an epoch of portents1   
this feat of intellectual abstraction is
 not the least amazing4  ,when his task 
was accomplished1 ,condorcet felt with  
more keenness than ever the deadly peril
 in which his presence placed ,madame   
,vernet4 ,he was aware that to leave her
 house was to seek death1 but he did not
 fear4 ,he drew up a paper of directions
 to be given one day to his little      
daughter1 when she should be of years to
 understand and follow them4 ,they are  
written with minute care1 and though    
tender and solicitous1 they show perfect
 composure4 ,his daughter is above all  
things to banish from her mind every    
revengeful sentiment against her        

father's enemies2 to distrust her filial
 sensibility1 and to make this sacrifice
 for her father's own sake4 ,this done1 
he marched downstairs1 and having by an 
artful stratagem thrown ,madame ,vernet 
off her guard1 he went out at ten       
o'clock in the morning imperfectly      
disguised into the street4 ,this was the
 fifth of ,april #agid4 ,by three in the
 afternoon1 exhausted by fatigue which  
his strict confinement for nine months  
made excessive1 he reached the house of 
a friend in the country1 and prayed for 
a night's shelter4 ,his presence excited
 less pity than alarm4 ,the people gave 
him refreshment1 and he borrowed a      
little pocket copy of ,horace1 with     
which he went forth into the loneliness 
of the night4 ,he promised himself      
shelter amid the stone quarries of      
,clamart4 ,what he suffered during this 
night1 the whole day of the sixth of    
,april1 the night1 and again the next   
day1 there is no one to tell4  ,the door
 of the house in the ,rue ,servandoni   

was left on the latch night and day for 
a whole week4 ,but ,madame ,vernet's    
generous hope was in vain2 while she    
still hoped and watched1 the end had    
come4 ,on the evening of the seventh1   
,condorcet1 with one of his legs torn or
 broken1 his garments in rags1 with     
visage gaunt and hunger-stricken1       
entered an inn in the hamlet of         
,clamart1 and called for an omelette4   
,asked how many eggs he would have in   
it1 the famishing man answered a dozen4 
,carpenters1 for such he had given      
himself to be1 do not have a dozen eggs 
in their omelettes4 ,suspicion was      
aroused1 his hands were not the hands of
 a workman1 and he had no papers to     
show1 but only the pocket ,horace4 ,the 
villagers seized him and hastened to    
drag him1 bound hand and foot1 to       
,bourg-la-,reine1 then called for a     
season ,bourg-l'galit4 ,on the road he  
fainted1 and they set him on a horse    
offered by a pitying wayfarer4 ,when    
they reached the prison1 ,condorcet1    

starving1 bleeding1 way-worn1 was flung 
into his cell4 ,on the morrow1 when the 
gaolers came to seek him1 they found him
 stretched upon the ground1 dead and    
stark4 ,so he perished--of hunger and   
weariness1 say some2 of poison ever     
carried by him in a ring1 say others4#ci
 ,so1 to the last revolving supreme     
cares1 this high spirit was overtaken by
 annihilation4 ,his memory is left to   
us1 the fruit of his ideas1 and the     
impression of his character4         99 
99     99     99     99  ,an eminent    
man1 who escaped by one accident from   
the hatchets of the ,septembriseurs1 and
 by another from the guillotine of the  
,terror1 while in hiding and in         
momentary expectation of capture and    
death1 wrote thus in condemnation of    
suicide1 'the one crime which leaves no 
possibility of return to virtue4' ',even
 at this incomprehensible moment'--the  
spring of #agic--'when morality1        
enlightenment1 energetic love of        
country1 only render death at the       

prison-wicket or on the scaffold more   
inevitable2 when it might be allowable  
to choose among the ways of leaving a   
life that can no longer be preserved1   
and to rob tigers in human form of the  
accursed pleasure of dragging you forth 
and drinking your blood2 yes1 on the    
fatal tumbril itself1 with nothing free 
but voice1 ,i could still cry1 ,take    
care1 to a child that should come too   
near the wheel3 perhaps he may owe his  
life to me1 perhaps the country shall   
one day owe its salvation to him4'#dj   
,more than one career in those days1    
famous or obscure1 was marked by this   
noble tenacity to lofty public ideas    
even in the final moments of existence4 
,its general acceptance as a binding    
duty1 exorcising the mournful and       
insignificant egotisms that haunt and   
wearily fret and make waste the remnants
 of so many lives1 will produce the     
profoundest of all possible improvements
 in men's knowledge of the sublime art  
of the happiness of their kind4 ,the    

closing words of ,condorcet's last      
composition show the solace which       
perseverance in taking thought for      
mankind brought to him in the depths of 
personal calamity4 ,he had concluded his
 survey of the past history of the race1
 and had drawn what seemed in his eyes a
 moderate and reasonable picture of its 
future4 ',how this picture1' he         
exclaims1 with the knell of his own doom
 sounding full in the ear while he      
wrote1 'this picture of the human race  
freed from all its fetters1 withdrawn   
from the empire of chance1 as from that 
of the enemies of progress1 and walking 
with firm and assured step in the way of
 truth1 of virtue1 and happiness1       
presents to the philosopher a sight that
 consoles him for the errors1 the       
crimes1 the injustice1 with which the   
earth is yet stained1 and of which he is
 not seldom the victim6 ,it is in the   
contemplation of this picture that he   
receives the reward of his efforts for  
the progress of reason1 for the defence 

of liberty4 ,he ventures to link them   
with the eternal chain of the destinies 
of man3 it is there that he finds the   
true recompense of virtue1 the pleasure 
of having done a lasting good4 ,fate can
 no longer undo it by any disastrous    
compensation that shall restore         
prejudice and bondage4 ,this            
contemplation is for him a refuge1 into 
which the recollection of his           
persecutors can never follow him2 in    
which1 living in thought with man       
reinstated in the rights and the dignity
 of his nature1 he forgets man tormented
 and corrupted by greed1 by base fear1  
by envy2 it is here that he truly abides
 with his fellows1 in an elysium that   
his reason has known how to create for  
itself1 and that his love for humanity  
adorns with all purest delights4'#da    
,it has long been the fashion among the 
followers of that reaction which        
,coleridge led and ,carlyle has spread  
and popularised1 to dwell exclusively on
 the coldness and hardness1 the excess  

of scepticism and the defect of         
enthusiasm1 that are supposed to have   
characterised the eighteenth century4   
,because the official religion of the   
century both in ,england and ,france was
 lifeless and mechanical1 it has been   
taken for granted that the level of     
thought and feeling was a low one       
universally2 as if the highest moods of 
every era necessarily clothed themselves
 in religious forms4 ,the truth is that1
 working in such natures as             
,condorcet's1 the principles of the     
eighteenth century1 its homage to reason
 and rational methods1 its exaltation of
 the happiness of men1 not excluding    
their material wellbeing1 into the      
highest place1 its passion for justice  
and law1 its large illumination1 all    
engendered a fervour as truly religious 
as that of ,catholicism or of ,calvinism
 at their best1 while its sentiment was 
infinitely less interested and personal4
 ,the passage just quoted is as little  
mechanical1 as little material1 as the  

most rapturous ejaculations of the      
,christian saints and confessors4 ,read 
in connection with the circumstances of 
its composition1 it may show that the   
eighteenth century was able at any rate 
to inspire its sons with a faith that   
could rob death of its sting and the    
grave of its victory1 as effectually as 
if it had rested on a mystery instead of
 on reason1 and been supported by the   
sanctions of eternal pain and eternal   
bliss1 instead of moving from a         
confident devotion to humanity4         
,,footnotes3  #cj ,dclaration de        
l',assemble ,nationale1 #bi ,dc4 #agia4 
,oeuv4 xii4 #be4  #ca #acth ,august     
#agib4 ,oeuv4 x4 #edg4  #cb ,ib4 x4     
#efj4  #cc #aith ,august4 ,ib4 x4 #efe4 
#cd ,opinion sur le ,jugement de ,louis 
,,xvi4 ,nov4 #agib ,oeuv4 xii4 #bfg-cjc4
  #ce #aith ,jan4 #agic4 ,oeuv4 xii4    
#caa4  #cf ,see ,m4 ,edgar ,quinet's    
remarks on this achievement4 ,la        
,rvolution1 ii4 #aaj4  #cg ,oeuv4 xii4  
#ccc1 #dag4 ,m4 ,louis ,blanc has       

contrasted the principles laid down as  
the basis of this project with          
,robespierre's rival ,declaration of the
 ,rights of ,man1 printing the two side 
by side in parallel columns4 ',les voil 
donc face  face1 aprs leur commune      
victoire sur le principe d'autorit1 ces 
deux principes d'individualisme et de   
fraternit1 entre lesquels1 aujourd'hui  
mme1 le monde balance1 invinciblement   
mu6 ,d'un ct la philosophie du          
rationalisme pur1 qui divise2 d'un autre
 ct la philosophie du sentiment1 qui    
rapproche et runit4 ,ici ,voltaire et   
,condorcet1 l ,j4 ,j4 ,rousseau et      
,robespierre4' ,hist4 de la ,rvol4      
,fran4 bk4 ix4 ch4 v4  #ch ,extrait du  
,moniteur4 ,oeuv4 xii4 #fgg4  #ci ,the  
,abb ,morellet1 in his narrative of the 
death of ,condorcet 7,mmoires1 c4       
xxiv471 says that he died of poison1 a  
mixture of stramonium and opium4 ,he    
adds that the surgeon described death as
 due to apoplexy4 ,see ,musset-,pathay's
 ,j4 ,j4 ,rousseau1 ii4 #db4  #dj       

,dupont de ,nemours4 ,les ,physiocrates1
 i4 #cbf4  #da ,progrs de l',esprit     
,humain4 ,oeuv4 vi4 #bgf4     ,,iv4     
,the shape of ,condorcet's ideas upon   
history arose from the twofold necessity
 which his character imposed upon him1  
at once of appeasing his aspirations on 
behalf of mankind1 and of satisfying a  
disciplined and scientific intelligence4
 ,he was of too robust an understanding 
to find adequate gratification in the   
artificial construction of hypothetical 
utopias4 ,conviction was as             
indispensable as hope2 and distinct     
grounds for the faith that was in him1  
as essential as the faith itself4 ,the  
result of this fact of mental           
constitution1 the intellectual          
conditions of the time being what they  
were1 was the rise in his mind of the   
great and central conception of there   
being a law in the succession of social 
states1 to be ascertained by an         
examination of the collective phenomena 
of past history4 ,the merit of this     

admirable effort1 and of the work in    
which it found expression1 is very      
easily underrated1 because the effort   
was insufficient and merely preparatory1
 while modern thought has already       
carried us far beyond it1 and at least  
into sight of the more complete truths  
to which this effort only pointed the   
way4 ,let us remember1 however1 that it 
did point the way distinctly and        
unmistakably4 ,a very brief survey of   
the state of history as a subject of    
systematic study enables us to          
appreciate with precision what service  
it was that ,condorcet rendered2 for it 
carries us back from the present        
comparatively advanced condition of the 
science of society to a time before his 
memorable attempt1 when conceptions now 
become so familiar were not in          
existence1 and when even the most       
instructed students of human affairs no 
more felt the need of a scientific      
theory of the manner in which social    
effects follow social causes1 than the  

least instructed portion of the literary
 public feels such a need in our own    
time4 ,it is difficult after a subject  
has been separated from the nebulous    
mass of unclassified knowledge1 after it
 has taken independent shape1 and begun 
to move in lines of its own1 to realise 
the process by which all this was       
effected1 or the way in which before all
 this the facts concerned presented     
themselves to the thinker's mind4 ,that 
we should overcome the difficulty is one
 of the conditions of our being able to 
do justice to the great army of the     
precursors4  ,two movements of thought  
went on in ,france during the middle of 
the eighteenth century1 which have been 
comparatively little dwelt upon by      
historians2 their main anxiety has been 
to justify the foregone conclusion1 so  
gratifying alike to the partisans of the
 social reaction and to the disciples of
 modern transcendentalism in its many   
disguises1 that the eighteenth century  
was almost exclusively negative1        

critical1 and destructive4 ,each of     
these two currents was positive in the  
highest degree1 and their influence     
undeniably constructive1 if we consider 
that it was from their union into a     
common channel1 a work fully            
accomplished first in the mind of       
,condorcet1 that the notion of the      
scientific treatment of history and     
society took its earliest start4  ,the  
first of the two movements1 and that    
which has been most unaccountably       
neglected1 consisted in the remarkable  
attempts of ,quesnay and his immediate  
followers to withdraw the organisation  
of society from the sphere of           
empiricism1 and to substitute for the   
vulgar conception of arbitrary and      
artificial institutions as the sole     
foundation of this organisation1 the    
idea that there is a certain ,natural   
,order1 conformity to which in all      
social arrangements is the essential    
condition of their being advantageous to
 the members of the social union4       

,natural ,order in the minds of this    
school was no metaphysical figment      
evolved from uninstructed consciousness1
 but a set of circumstances to be       
discovered by continuous and methodical 
observation4 ,it consisted of physical  
law and moral law4 ,physical law is the 
regulated course of every physical      
circumstance in the order evidently most
 advantageous to the human race4 ,moral 
law is the rule of every human action in
 the moral order1 conformed to the      
physical order evidently most           
advantageous to the human race4 ,this   
order is the base of the most perfect   
government1 and the fundamental rule of 
all positive laws2 for positive laws are
 only such laws as are required to keep 
up and maintain the natural order that  
is evidently most advantageous to the   
race4#db  ,towards the close of the     
reign of ,lewis ,,xiv4 the frightful    
impoverishment of the realm attracted   
the attention of one or two enlightened 
observers1 and among them of            

,boisguillebert and ,vauban4 ,they had  
exposed1 the former of them with        
especial force and amplitude1 the       
absurdity of the general system of      
administration1 which seemed to have    
been devised for the express purpose of 
paralysing both agriculture and         
commerce1 and exhausting all the sources
 of the national wealth4#dc ,but these  
speculations had been mainly of a fiscal
 kind1 and pointed not much further than
 to a readjustment of taxation and an   
improvement in the modes of its         
collection4 ,the disciples of the ,new  
,science1 as it was called1 the         
,physiocrats1 or believers in the       
supremacy of ,natural ,order1 went much 
beyond this1 and in theory sought to lay
 open the whole ground of the fabric of 
society4 ,practically they dealt with   
scarcely any but the economic           
circumstances of societies1 though some 
of them mix up with their reasonings    
upon commerce and agriculture crude and 
incomplete hints upon forms of          

government and other questions that     
belong not to the economical but to the 
political side of social science4#dd    
,quesnay's famous ,maxims open with a   
declaration in favour of the unity of   
the sovereign authority1 and against the
 system of counterbalancing forces in   
government4 ,almost immediately he      
passes on to the ground of political    
economy1 and elaborates the conditions  
of material prosperity in an            
agricultural realm4 ,with the           
correctness of the definitions and      
principles of economic science as laid  
down by these writers1 we have here     
nothing to do4 ,their peculiar          
distinction in the present connection is
 the grasp which they had of the        
principle of there being a natural1 and 
therefore a scientific1 order in the    
conditions of a society2 that order     
being natural in the sense that they    
attached to the term1 which from the    
circumstances of the case is most       
beneficial to the race4 ,from this point

 of view they approach some of the      
problems of what is now classified as   
social statics2 and they assume1 without
 any consciousness of another aspect    
being possible1 that the society which  
they are discussing is in a state of    
equilibrium4  ,it is evident that with  
this restriction of the speculative     
horizon1 they were and must remain      
wholly unable to emerge into the full   
light of the completely constituted     
science of society1 with laws of        
movement as well as laws of equilibrium1
 with definite methods of interpreting  
past and predicting future states4 ,they
 could account for and describe the     
genesis of the social union1 as ,plato  
and ,aristotle had in different ways    
been able to do many centuries before2  
and they could prescribe some of the    
conditions of its being maintained in   
vigour and compactness4 ,some of them   
could even see in a vague way the       
interdependence of peoples and the      
community of the real interests of      

different nations1 each nation1 as ,de  
la ,rivire expressed it1 being only a   
province of the vast kingdom of nature1 
a branch from the same trunk as the     
rest4#de ,what they could not see was   
the great fact of social evolution2 and 
here too1 in the succession of social   
states1 there has been a natural and    
observable order4 ,in a word1 they tried
 to understand society without the aid  
of history4 ,consequently they laid down
 the truths which they discovered as    
absolute and fixed1 when they were no   
more than conditional and relative4     
,fortunately inquirers in another field 
had set a movement afoot1 which was     
destined to furnish the supplement of   
their own speculation4 ,this was the    
remarkable development of the conception
 of history1 which ,montesquieu's two   
memorable books first made conspicuous4 
,bossuet's well-known discourse on      
universal history1 teeming as it does   
with religious prejudice1 just as       
,condorcet's sketch teems with prejudice

 against religion1 and egregiously      
imperfect in execution as it must be    
pronounced when judged from even the    
meanest historical standard1 had perhaps
 partially introduced the spirit of     
,universality1 as ,comte says1 into the 
study of history4 ,but it was impossible
 from the nature of the case for any    
theologian to know fully what this      
spirit means2 and it was not until the  
very middle of the following century    
that any effective approach was made to 
that universality which ,bossuet did    
little more than talk about4 ,then it   
came not from theology1 but from the    
much more hopeful sources of a rational 
philosophy4 ,before ,montesquieu no     
single stone of the foundation of       
scientific history can be said to have  
been laid4 ,of course1 far earlier      
writers had sought after the            
circumstances which brought about a     
given transaction4 ,thucydides1 for     
example1 had attributed the cause of the
 ,peloponnesian war to the alarm of the 

,lacedmonians at the greatness of the   
power of ,athens4#df ,it is this sense  
of the need of explanation1 however     
rudimentary it may be1 which            
distinguishes the great historian from  
the chronicler1 even from a very        
superior chronicler like ,livy1 who in  
his account of even so great an event as
 the ,second ,punic ,war plunges        
straightway into narrative of what      
happened1 without concerning himself why
 it happened4 ,tacitus had begun his    
,histories with remarks upon the        
condition of ,rome1 the feeling of the  
various armies1 the attitude of the     
provinces1 so that1 as he says1 'non    
modo casus eventusque rerum1 qui        
plerumque fortuiti sunt1 sed ratio etiam
 causque noscantur4'#dg ,but these and  
the like instances in historical        
literature were only political          
explanations1 more or less adequate1 of 
particular transactions2 they were no   
more than the sagacious remarks of men  
with statesmanlike minds1 upon the      

origin of some single set of            
circumstances4  ,the rise from this to  
the high degree of generality which     
marks the speculations of ,montesquieu1 
empirical as they are1 was as great as  
the rise from the mere maxims of worldly
 wisdom to the widest principles of     
ethical philosophy4 ,polybius1 indeed1  
in the remarkable chapters with which   
his ,histories open1 uses expressions   
that are so modern as almost to startle 
us4 ',people who study history1' he     
says1 'in separate and detached         
portions1 without reference to one      
another1 and suppose that from them they
 acquire a knowledge of the whole1 are  
like a man who in looking on the severed
 members of what had once been an       
animated and comely creature1 should    
think that this was enough to give him  
an idea of its beauty and force when    
alive4 ,the empire of ,rome was what by 
its extent in ,italy1 ,africa1 ,asia1   
,greece1 brought history into the       
condition of being organic 7smatoeids74'

 ,his object was to examine the general 
and collective ordering of events2 when 
it came into existence2 whence it had   
its source2 how it had this special     
completion and fulfilment--the universal
 empire of ,rome4#dh ,striking as this  
is1 and admirable as it is1 there is not
 in it any real trace of the abstract   
conception of social history4 ,polybius 
recognises the unity of history1 so far 
as that could be understood in the      
second century before ,christ1 but he   
treats his subject in the concrete1     
describing the chain of events1 but not 
attempting to seek their law4 ,it was   
,montesquieu who first applied the      
comparative method to social            
institutions2 who first considered      
physical conditions in connection with  
the laws of a country2 who first        
perceived and illustrated how that      
natural order which the ,physiocrats    
only considered in relation to the      
phenomena of wealth and its production1 
really extended over its political      

phenomena as well2 who first set the    
example of viewing a great number of    
social facts all over the world in      
groups and classes2 and who first       
definitely and systematically inquired  
into the causes of a set of complex     
historical events and institutions1 as  
being both discoverable and             
intelligible4 ,this was a very marked   
advance upon both of the ideas1 by one  
or other of which men had previously    
been content to explain to themselves   
the course of circumstances in the      
world2 either the inscrutable decrees of
 an inhuman providence1 or the          
fortuitous vagaries of an eyeless       
destiny4  ,it was ,turgot1 however1 who 
completed the historical conception of  
,montesquieu1 in a piece written in     
#agej1 two years after the appearance of
 the ,esprit des ,lois1 and in one or   
two other fragmentary compositions of   
about the same time1 which are not the  
less remarkable because the writer was  
only twenty-three years old when these  

advanced ideas presented themselves to  
his intelligence4 ,vico in ,italy had   
insisted on the doctrine that the course
 of human affairs is in a cycle1 and    
that they move in a constant and        
self-repeating orbit4#di ,turgot1 on the
 contrary1 with more wisdom1 at the     
opening of his subject is careful to    
distinguish the ever-varying spectacle  
of the succession of men from generation
 to generation1 from the circle of      
identical revolutions in which the      
phenomena of nature are enclosed4 ,in   
the one case time only restores at each 
instant the image of what it has just   
caused to disappear2 in the other1 the  
reason and the passions are ever        
incessantly producing new events4 ',all 
the ages are linked together by a       
succession of causes and effects which  
bind the state of the world to all the  
states that have gone before4 ,the      
multiplied signs of speech and writing1 
in supplying men with the means of an   
assured possession of their thoughts and

 of communicating them to one another1  
have formed a common treasure that one  
generation transmits to another1 as an  
inheritance constantly augmented by the 
discoveries of each generation2 and the 
human race1 looked at from its origin1  
appears in the eyes of the philosopher  
one immense whole1 which1 just as in the
 case of each individual1 has its       
infancy and its growth4'#ej  ,pascal and
 others in ancient and modern times#ea  
had compared in casual and unfruitful   
remarks the history of the race to the  
history of the individual1 but ,turgot  
was able in some sort to see the full   
meaning and extent of the analogy1 as   
well as the limitations proper to it1   
and to draw from it some of the larger  
principles which the idea involved4 ,the
 first proposition in the passage just  
quoted1 that a chain of causes and      
effects unites each age with every other
 age that has gone before1 is one of the
 most memorable sentences in the history
 of thought4 ,and ,turgot not only saw  

that there is a relation of cause and   
effect between successive states of     
society2 he had glimpses into some of   
the conditions of that relation4 ,to a  
generation that stands on loftier       
heights his attempts seem rudimentary   
and strangely simple1 but it was these  
attempts which cut the steps for our    
ascent4 ,how is it1 he asked1 for       
instance1 that the succession of social 
states is not uniform8 that they follow 
with unequal step along the track marked
 out for them8 ,he found the answer in  
the inequality of natural advantages1   
and he was able to discern the necessity
 of including in these advantages the   
presence1 apparently accidental1 in some
 communities and not in others of men of
 especial genius or capacity in some    
important direction4#eb ,again1 he saw  
that just as in one way natural         
advantages accelerate the progress of a 
society1 in another natural obstacles   
also accelerate it1 by stimulating men  
to the efforts necessary to overcome    

them3 le besoin perfectionne            
l'instrument4#ec ,the importance of     
following the march of the human mind   
over all the grooves along which it     
travels to further knowledge1 was fully 
present to him1 and he dwells repeatedly
 on the constant play going on between  
discoveries in one science and those in 
another4 ,in no writer is there a fuller
 and more distinct sense of the         
essential unity and integrity of the    
history of mankind1 nor of the multitude
 of the mansions into which this vast   
house is divided1 and the many keys     
which he must possess that would open   
and enter in4  ,even in empirical       
explanations ,turgot shows a breadth and
 accuracy of vision truly surprising1   
considering his own youth and what we   
may venture to call the youth of his    
subject4 ,the reader will be able to    
appreciate this1 and to discern at the  
same time the arbitrary nature of       
,montesquieu's method1 if he will       
contrast1 for example1 the remarks of   

this writer upon polygamy with the far  
wider and more sagacious explanation of 
the circumstances of such an institution
 given by ,turgot4#ed ,unfortunately1 he
 has left us only short and fragmentary 
pieces1 but they suggest more than many 
large and complete works4 ,that they had
 a very powerful and direct influence   
upon ,condorcet there is no doubt1 as   
well from the similarity of general     
conception between him and ,turgot1 as  
from the nearly perfect identity of     
leading passages in their writings4 ,let
 us add that in ,turgot's fragments we  
have what is unhappily not a            
characteristic of ,condorcet1 the       
peculiar satisfaction and delight in    
scientific history of a style which     
states a fact in such phrases as serve  
also to reveal its origin1 bearings1    
significance1 in which every successive 
piece of description is so worded as to 
be self-evidently a link in the chain of
 explanation1 an ordered term in a      
series of social conditions4  ,before   

returning to ,condorcet we ought to     
glance at the remarkable piece1 written 
in #aghd1 in which ,kant propounded his 
idea of a universal or cosmo-political  
history1 which contemplating the agency 
of the human will upon a large scale    
should unfold to our view a regular     
stream of tendency in the great         
succession of events4#ee ,the will      
metaphysically considered1 ,kant said1  
is free1 but its manifestations1 that is
 to say1 human actions1 'are as much    
under the control of universal laws of  
nature as any other physical phenomena4'
  ,the very same course of incidents1   
which taken separately and individually 
would have seemed perplexed and         
incoherent1 'yet viewed in their        
connection and as the action of the     
human species and not of independent    
beings1 never fail to observe a steady  
and continuous1 though slow1 development
 of certain great predispositions in our
 nature4' ,as it is impossible to       
presume in the human race any rational  

purpose of its own1 we must seek to     
observe some natural purpose in the     
current of human actions4 ,thus a       
history of creatures with no plan of    
their own1 may yet admit a systematic   
form as a history of creatures blindly  
pursuing a plan of nature4 ,now we know 
that all predispositions are destined to
 develop themselves according to their  
final purpose4 ,man's rational          
predispositions are destined to develop 
themselves in the species and not in the
 individual4 ,history then is the       
progress of the development of all the  
tendencies laid in man by nature4 ,the  
method of development is the antagonism 
of these tendencies in the social state1
 and its source the unsocial sociality  
of man--a tendency to enter the social  
state1 combined with a perpetual        
resistance to that tendency1 which is   
ever threatening to dissolve it4 ,the   
play of these two tendencies unfolds    
talents of every kind1 and by gradual   
increase of light a preparation is made 

for such a mode of thinking as is       
capable of 'exalting a social concert   
that had been pathologically extorted   
from the mere necessities of situation1 
into a moral union founded on the       
reasonable choice4' ,hence the highest  
problem for man is the establishment of 
a universal civil society1 founded on   
the empire of political justice2 and    
'the history of the human species as a  
whole may be regarded as the unravelling
 of a hidden plan of nature for         
accomplishing a perfect state of civil  
constitution for society in its internal
 relations 7and1 as the condition of    
that1 in its external relations also71  
as the sole state of society in which   
the tendencies of human nature can be   
all and fully developed4' ,nor is this  
all4 ,we shall not only be able to      
unravel the intricate web of past       
affairs1 but shall also find a clue for 
the guidance of future statesmen in the 
art of political prediction4 ,nay more1 
this clue 'will open a consolatory      

prospect into futurity1 in which at a   
remote distance we shall observe the    
human species seated upon an eminence   
won by infinite toil1 where all the     
germs are unfolded which nature has     
implanted within it1 and its destination
 on this earth accomplished4'  ,that    
this conception involves an assumption  
about tendencies and final purposes     
which reverses the true method of       
history1 and moreover reduces what ought
 to be a scientific inquiry to be a     
foregone justification of nature or     
providence1 should not prevent us from  
appreciating its signal merits in       
insisting on a systematic presentation  
of the collective activity of the race1 
and in pointing out1 however cursorily1 
the use of such an elucidation of the   
past in furnishing the grounds of       
practical guidance in dealing with the  
future and in preparing it4 ,considering
 the brevity of this little tract1 its  
pregnancy and suggestiveness have not   
often been equalled4 ,we have seen      

enough of it here to enable us to       
realise the differences between this and
 the ,french school4 ,we miss the       
wholesome objectivity1 resulting from   
the stage which had been reached in     
,france by the physical sciences4       
,condorcet's series of loges shows      
unmistakably how deep an impression the 
history of physical discovery had made  
upon him1 and how clearly he understood 
the value of its methods4 ,the peculiar 
study which their composition had       
occasioned him is of itself almost      
enough to account for the fact that a   
conception which had long been preparing
 in the superior minds of the time1     
should fully develop itself in him      
rather than in anybody else4            
,,footnotes3  #db ,quesnay2 ,droit      
,naturel1 ch4 v4 ,les ,physiocrates1 i4 
#eb4  #dc ,economistes ,financiers du   
#ah;ime ,sicle4 ,vauban's ,projet d'une 
,dime ,royale 7p4 #cc71 and             
,boisguillebert's ,factum de la ,france1
 etc4 7p4 #bdh et seq47  #dd ,de la     

,rivire1 for instance1 very notably4    
,cf4 his ,ordre ,naturel des ,socits    
,politiques4 ,physiocrates1 ii4 #dfi1   
#fcf1 etc4 ,see also ,baudeau on the    
superiority of the ,economic ,monarchy  
,ib4 pp4 #ghc-gia4  #de ,ordre ,nat4 des
 ,soc4 ,pol4 p4 #ebf4  #df ,bk4 i4 #bc4 
#dg ,hist4 i4 #d4  #dh ,polyb4 ,hist4   
,i4 iii4 #d2 iv4 #c1 #g4  #di ,the      
well-known words of ,thucydides may     
contain the germ of the same idea1 when 
he speaks of the future as being likely 
to represent again1 after the fashion of
 human things1 'if not the very image1  
yet the near resemblance of the past4'  
,bk4 i4 #bb1 #d4  #ej ,discours en      
,sorbonne4 ,oeuv4 de ,turgot1 ii4 #eig4 
7,ed4 of #ahdd74  #ea ,cf4 ,sir ,g4 ,c4 
,lewis's ,methods of ,observation in    
,politics1 ii4 #dci1 note4  #eb ,oeuv4  
de ,turgot1 ii4 #eii1 #fde1 etc4  #ec   
,ib4 ii4 #fja4  #ed ,esprit des ,lois1  
xvi4 cc4 #b-d4 ,and ,discours sur       
l',histoire ,universelle1 in ,turgot's  
,works1 ii4 #fdj1 #fda4 ,for a further  

account of ,turgot's speculations1 see  
article ,turgot in the present volume4  
#ee ,idea of a ,universal ,history on a 
,cosmo-,political ,plan4 ,it was        
translated by ,de ,quincey1 and is to be
 found in vol4 xiii4 of his collected   
works1 pp4 #acc-aeb4     ,v4   ,the     
,physiocrats1 as we have seen1 had      
introduced the idea of there being a    
natural order in social circumstances1  
that order being natural which is most  
advantageous to mankind4 ,turgot had    
declared that one age is bound to       
another by a chain of causation4        
,condorcet fused these two conceptions4 
,he viewed the history of the ages as a 
whole1 and found in their succession a  
natural order2 an order which1 when     
uninterrupted and undisturbed1 tended to
 accumulate untold advantages upon the  
human race1 which was every day becoming
 more plain to the vision of men1 and   
therefore every day more and more       
assured from disturbance by ignorant    
prejudice and sinister interests4 ,there

 is an order at once among the          
circumstances of a given generation1 and
 among the successive sets of           
circumstances of successive generations4
 ',if we consider the development of    
human faculties in its results1 so far  
as they relate to the individuals who   
exist at the same time on a given space1
 and if we follow that development from 
generation to generation1 then we have  
before us the picture of the progress of
 the human mind4 ,this progress is      
subject to the same general laws that   
are to be observed in the development of
 the faculties of individuals1 for it is
 the result of that development1        
considered at the same time in a great  
number of individuals united in society4
 ,but the result that presents itself at
 any one instant depends upon that which
 was offered by the instants preceding2 
in turn it influences the result in     
times still to follow4'  ,this picture  
will be of a historical character1      
inasmuch as being subject to perpetual  

variations it is formed by the          
observation in due order of different   
human societies in different epochs     
through which they have passed4 ,it will
 expose the order of the various        
changes1 the influence exercised by each
 period over the next1 and thus will    
show in the modifications impressed upon
 the race1 ever renewing itself in the  
immensity of the ages1 the track that it
 has followed1 and the exact steps that 
it has taken towards truth and          
happiness4 ,such observation of what man
 has been and of what he is1 will then  
lead us to means proper for assuring and
 accelerating the fresh progress that   
his nature allows us to anticipate still
 further4#ef  ',if a man is able to     
predict with nearly perfect confidence1 
phenomena with whose laws he is         
acquainted2 if1 even when they are      
unknown to him1 he is able1 in          
accordance with the experience of the   
past1 to foresee with a large degree of 
probability the events of the future1   

why should we treat it as a chimerical  
enterprise1 to trace with some          
verisimilitude the picture of the future
 destinies of the human race in         
accordance with the results of its      
history8 ,the only foundation of belief 
in the natural sciences is this idea1   
that the general laws1 known or unknown1
 which regulate the phenomena of the    
universe are necessary and constant2 and
 why should this principle be less true 
for the development of the moral and    
intellectual faculties of man than for  
other natural operations8 ,in short1    
opinions grounded on past experience in 
objects of the same order being the     
single rule of conduct for even the     
wisest men1 why should the philosopher  
be forbidden to rest his conjectures on 
the same base1 provided that he never   
attributes to them a degree of certainty
 beyond what is warranted by the number1
 the constancy1 and the accuracy of his 
observations8'#eg  ,thus ,condorcet's   
purpose was not to justify nature1 as it

 had been with ,kant1 but to search in  
the past for rational grounds of a      
belief in the unbounded splendour of    
men's future destinies4 ,his view of the
 character of the relations among the   
circumstances of the social union1      
either at a given moment or in a        
succession of periods1 was both accurate
 and far-sighted4 ,when he came actually
 to execute his own great idea1 and to  
specify the manner in which those       
relations arose and operated1 he        
instantly diverged from the right path4 
,progress in his mind is exclusively    
produced by improvement in intelligence4
 ,it is the necessary result of man's   
activity in the face of that            
disproportion ever existing between what
 he knows and what he desires and feels 
the necessity to know4#eh ,hence the    
most fatal of the errors of ,condorcet's
 sketch4 ,he measures only the          
contributions made by nations and eras  
to what we know2 leaving out of sight   
their failures and successes in the     

elevation of moral standards and ideals1
 and in the purification of human       
passions4  ,now even if we hold the     
intellectual principle only to be       
progressive1 and the moral elements to  
be fixed1 being coloured and shaped and 
quickened by the surrounding            
intellectual conditions1 still1 inasmuch
 as the manner of this shaping and      
colouring is continually changing and   
leading to the most important           
transformations of human activity and   
sentiment1 it must obviously be a       
radical deficiency in any picture of    
social progress to leave out the        
development of ethics1 whether it be a  
derivative or an independent and        
spontaneous development4 ,one seeks in  
vain in ,condorcet's sketch for any     
account of the natural history of       
western morals1 or for any sign of      
consciousness on his part that the      
difference in ethical discipline and    
feeling between the most ferocious of   
primitive tribes and the most           

enlightened eighteenth-century          
,frenchmen1 was a result of evolution   
that needed historical explanation1     
quite as much as the difference between 
the astrolatry of one age and the       
astronomy of another4 ,we find no       
recognition of the propriety of         
recounting the various steps of that    
long process by which1 to use ,kant's   
pregnant phrase1 the relations born of  
pathological necessity were             
metamorphosed into those of moral union4
 ,the grave and lofty feeling1 for      
example1 which inspired the last words  
of the ,tableau--whence came it8 ,of    
what long-drawn chain of causes in the  
past was it the last effect8 ,it is not 
enough to refer us generally to previous
 advances in knowledge and intellectual 
emancipation1 because even supposing the
 successive modifications of our moral  
sensibilities to be fundamentally due to
 the progress of intellectual           
enlightenment1 we still want to know in 
the first place something about the     

influences which harness one process to 
the other1 and in the second place1     
something about the particular          
directions which these modifications of 
moral constitution have taken4  ,if this
 is one very radical omission in        
,condorcet's scheme1 his angry and      
vehement aversion for the various       
religions of the world 7with perhaps one
 exception7 is a sin of commission still
 more damaging to its completeness4     
,that he should detest the corrupt and  
oppressive forms of religion of his own 
century was neither surprising nor      
blamable4 ,an unfavourable view of the  
influences upon human development of the
 ,christian belief1 even in its least   
corrupt forms1 was not by any means     
untenable4 ,nay1 he was at liberty to go
 further than this1 and to depict       
religion as a natural infirmity of the  
human mind in its immature stages1 just 
as there are specific disorders incident
 in childhood to the human body4 ,even  
on this theory1 he was bound to handle  

it with the same calmness which he would
 have expected to find in a pathological
 treatise by a physician4 ,who would    
write of the sweating sickness with     
indignation1 or describe zymotic        
diseases with resentment8 ,condorcet's  
pertinacious anger against theology is  
just as irrational as this would be1    
from the scientific point of view which 
he pretends to have assumed4 ,theology1 
in fact1 was partly avenged of her      
assailants1 for she had in the struggle 
contrived to infect them with the bitter
 contagion of her own traditional       
spirit4  ,from the earliest times to the
 latest it is all one story according to
 ,condorcet4 ,he can speak with respect 
of philosophies even when1 as in the    
case of the ,scotch school of the last  
century1 he dislikes and condemns       
them4#ei ,of religion his contempt and  
hatred only vary slightly in degree4    
,barbarous tribes have sorcerers1       
trading on the gross superstitions of   
their dupes3 so in other guise and with 

different names have civilised nations  
to-day4 ,as other arts progressed1      
superstition1 too1 became less rude2    
priestly families kept all knowledge in 
their own hands1 and thus preserved     
their hypocritical and tyrannical       
assumptions from detection4 ,they       
disclosed nothing to the people without 
some supernatural admixture1 the better 
to maintain their personal pretensions4 
,they had two doctrines1 one for        
themselves1 and the other for the       
people4 ,sometimes1 as they were divided
 into several orders1 each of them      
reserved to itself certain mysteries4   
,thus all the inferior orders were at   
once rogues and dupes1 and the great    
system of hypocrisy was only known in   
all its completeness to a few adepts4   
,christianity belonged to the same      
class4 ,its priests1 we must admit1 'in 
spite of their knaveries and their      
vices1 were enthusiasts ready to perish 
for their doctrines4' ,in vain did      
,julian endeavour to deliver the empire 

from the scourge4 ,its triumph was the  
signal for the incurable decay of all   
art and knowledge4 ,the ,church may seem
 to have done some good in things where 
her interests did not happen to clash   
with the interests of ,europe1 as in    
helping to abolish slavery1 for         
instance2 but after all 'circumstances  
and manners' would have produced the    
result necessarily and of themselves4   
,morality1 which was taught by the      
priests only1 contained those universal 
principles that have been unknown to no 
sect2 but it created a host of purely   
religious duties1 and of imaginary sins4
 ,these duties were more rigorously     
enjoined than those of nature1 and      
actions that were indifferent1          
legitimate1 or even virtuous1 were more 
severely rebuked and punished than real 
crimes4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 a      
moment of repentance1 consecrated by the
 absolution of a priest1 opened the     
gates of heaven to the worst            
miscreants4#fj  ,in the opening of the  

last of these remarks there is much     
justice4 ,so there is in the striking   
suggestion made in another place1 that  
we should not bless erroneous systems   
for their utility1 simply because they  
help to repair some small part of the   
mischief of which they have themselves  
been the principal cause4#fa ,but on the
 whole it is obvious that ,condorcet was
 unfitted by his temper1 and that of the
 school to which he most belonged1 from 
accepting religion as a fact in the     
history of the human mind that must have
 some positive explanation4 ,to look at 
it in this way as the creation of a     
handful of selfish impostors in each    
community1 was to show a radical        
incompetence to carry out the scheme    
which had been so scientifically        
projected4 ,the picture is ruined by the
 angry caricature of what ought to have 
been one of the most important figures  
in it4 ,to this place the ,christian    
,church is undeniably entitled1 however 
we may be disposed to strike the balance

 between the undoubted injuries and the 
undoubted advantages which it has been  
the means of dealing to the civilisation
 of the west4 ,never perhaps was there  
so thorough an inversion of the true    
view of the comparative elevation of    
different parts of human character1 as  
is implied in ,condorcet's strange hint 
that ,cromwell's satellites would have  
been much better men if they had carried
 instead of the ,bible at their         
saddle-bows some merry book of the stamp
 of ,voltaire's ,pucelle4#fb  ,apart    
from the misreading of history in       
explaining religion by the folly of the 
many and the frauds of a few1           
,condorcet's interpretation involved the
 profoundest infidelity to his own      
doctrine of the intrinsic purity and    
exaltation of human nature4 ,this       
doctrine ought in all reason to have led
 him to look for the secret of the      
popular acceptance of beliefs that to   
him seemed most outrageous1 in some     
possibly finer side which they might    

possess for others1 appealing not to the
 lower but to the higher qualities of a 
nature with instincts of perfection4    
,take his account of ,purgatory1 for    
instance4 ,the priests1 he says1 drew up
 so minute and comprehensive a table of 
sins that nobody could hope to escape   
from censure4 ,here you come upon one of
 the most lucrative branches of the     
sacerdotal trafficking2 people were     
taught to imagine a hell of limited     
duration1 which the priests only had the
 power to abridge2 and this grace they  
sold1 first to the living1 then to the  
kinsmen and friends of the dead4#fc ,now
 it was surely more worthy of a belief  
in the natural depravity than in the    
natural perfectibility of the sons of   
,adam1 thus to assume without parley or 
proviso a base mercenariness on the one 
hand1 and grovelling terror on the      
other1 as the origin of a doctrine which
 was obviously susceptible of a kinder  
explanation4 ,would it not have been    
more consistent with belief in human    

goodness to refer the doctrine to a     
merciful and affectionate and truly     
humanising anxiety to assuage the       
horrors of what is perhaps the most     
frightful idea that has ever corroded   
human character1 the idea of eternal    
punishment8 ,we could in part have      
pardoned ,condorcet if he had striven to
 invent ever so fanciful origins for    
opinions and belief in his solicitude   
for the credit of humanity4 ,as it is1  
he distorts the history of religion only
 to humanity's discredit4 ,how1 if the  
people were always predisposed to       
virtue1 were priests1 sprung of the same
 people and bred in the same traditions1
 so invariably and incurably devoted to 
baseness and hypocrisy8 ,was the nature 
of a priest absolutely devoid of what   
physicians call recuperative force1     
restoring him to a sound mind1 in spite 
of professional perversion8 ,in fine1 if
 man had been so grossly enslaved in    
moral nature from the beginning of the  
world down to the year #aghi or         

thereabouts1 how was it possible that   
notwithstanding the admitted slowness of
 civilising processes1 he should        
suddenly spring forth the very          
perfectible and nearly perfected being  
that ,condorcet passionately imagined   
him to be8#fd  ,it has already been     
hinted that there was one partial       
exception to ,condorcet's otherwise     
all-embracing animosity against         
religion4 ,this was ,mahometanism4      
,towards this his attitude is fully     
appreciative1 though of course he       
deplores the superstitions which mixed  
themselves up with the ,arabian         
prophet's efforts for the purification  
of the men of his nation4 ,after the    
seven vials of fiery wrath have been    
poured out upon the creed of ,palestine1
 it is refreshing to find the creed of  
,arabia almost patronised and praised4  
,the writer who could not have found in 
his heart to think ,gregory the ,great  
or ,hildebrand other than a mercenary   
impostor1 nor ,cromwell other than an   

ambitious hypocrite1 admits with        
exquisite blandness of ,mahomet that he 
had the art of employing all the means  
of subjugating men avec adresse1 mais   
avec grandeur4#fe ,another reason1 no   
doubt1 besides his hatred of the        
,church1 lay at the bottom of           
,condorcet's tolerance or more towards  
,mahometanism4 ,the ,arabian            
superstition was not fatal to knowledge1
 ,arabian activity in algebra1          
chemistry1 optics1 and astronomy1 atoned
 in ,condorcet's eyes for the ,koran4   
,it is fair to add further1 that        
,condorcet showed a more just           
appreciation of the effects of          
,protestantism upon western development 
than has been common among ,french      
thinkers4 ,he recognises that men who   
had learnt1 however imperfectly1 to     
submit their religious prejudices to    
rational examination1 would naturally be
 likely to extend the process to        
political prejudices also4 ,moreover1 if
 the reformed churches refused to render

 to reason all its rights1 still they   
agreed that its prison should be less   
narrow2 the chain was not broken1 but it
 ceased to be either so heavy or so     
short as it had been4 ,and in countries 
where what was by the dominant sect     
insolently styled tolerance succeeded in
 establishing itself1 it was possible to
 maintain the tolerated doctrines with a
 more or less complete freedom4 ,so     
there arose in ,europe a sort of freedom
 of thought1 not for men1 but for       
,christians2 and1 'if we except ,france1
 it is only for ,christians that it     
exists anywhere else at the present     
day1' a limitation which has now        
fortunately ceased to be altogether     
exact4#ff  ,if we have smiled at the    
ease with which what is rank craftiness 
in a ,christian is toned down into      
address in a ,mahometan1 we may be      
amused too at the leniency that         
describes some of the propagandist      
methods of the eighteenth century4      
,condorcet becomes rapturous as he tells

 in a paragraph of fine sustention with 
what admixture of the wisdom of the     
serpent the humane philosophers of his  
century 'covered the truth with a veil  
that prevented it from hurting too weak 
sight1 and left the pleasure of         
conjecturing it2 caressing prejudices   
with address1 to deal them the more     
certain blows2 scarcely ever threatening
 them1 nor ever more than one at once1  
nor even one in its integrity2 sometimes
 consoling the enemies of reason by     
pretending to desire no more than a     
half-tolerance in religion and          
half-liberty in politics2 conciliating  
despotism while they combated the       
absurdities of religion1 and religion   
when they rose against despotism2       
attacking these two scourges in their   
principle1 even when they seemed only to
 bear ill-will to revolting or          
ridiculous abuses1 and striking these   
poisonous trees in their very roots1    
while they appeared to be doing no more 
than pruning crooked branches4'#fg      

,imagine the holy rage with which such  
acts would have been attacked1 if       
,condorcet had happened to be writing   
about the ,jesuits4 ,alas6 the stern and
 serene composure of the historical     
conscience was as unknown to him as it  
is always to orthodox apologists4 ,it is
 to be said1 moreover1 that he had less 
excuse for being without it1 for he     
rested on the goodness of men1 and not1 
as theologians rest1 on their vileness4 
,it is a most interesting thing1 we may 
notice in passing1 to consider what was 
the effect upon the ,revolution of this 
artfulness or prudence with which its   
theoretic precursors sowed the seed4    
,was it as truly wise as ,condorcet     
supposed8 ,or did it weaken1 almost     
corrupt1 the very roots8 ,was it the    
secret of the thoroughness with which   
the work of demolition was done8 ,was   
it1 too1 the secret of the many and     
disastrous failures in the task of      
reconstruction8#fh  ,there are one or   
two detached remarks suggested by       

,condorcet's picture1 which it may be   
worth while to make4 ,he is fully alive1
 for example1 to the importance to      
mankind of the appearance among them of 
one of those men of creative genius1    
like ,archimedes or like ,newton1 whose 
lives constitute an epoch in human      
history4 ,their very existence he saw to
 be among the greatest benefits         
conferred on the race by ,nature4 ,he   
hardly seems to have been struck1 on the
 other hand1 with the appalling and     
incessant waste of these benefits that  
goes on2 with the number of men of      
,newtonian capacity who are undoubtedly 
born into the world only to chronicle   
small beer2 with the hosts of high and  
worthy souls who labour and flit away   
like shadows1 perishing in the          
accomplishment of minor and subordinate 
ends4 ,we may suspect that the notion of
 all this immeasurable profusion of     
priceless treasures1 its position as one
 of the laws of the condition of man on 
the globe1 would be unspeakably hard of 

endurance to one holding ,condorcet's   
peculiar form of optimism4  ,again1 if  
we had space1 it would be worth while to
 examine some of the acute and ingenious
 hints which ,condorcet throws out by   
the way4 ,it would be interesting to    
consider1 as he suggests1 the influence 
upon the progress of the human mind of  
the change from writing on such subjects
 as science1 philosophy1 and            
jurisprudence in ,latin1 to the usual   
language of each country4 ,that change  
rendered the sciences more popular1 but 
it increased the trouble of the         
scientific men in following the general 
march of knowledge4 ,it caused a book to
 be read in one country by more men of  
inferior competence1 but less read      
throughout ,europe by men of superior   
light4 ,and though it relieves men who  
have no leisure for extensive study from
 the trouble of learning ,latin1 it     
imposes upon profounder persons the     
necessity of learning a variety of      
modern languages4#fi ,again1 ground is  

broken for the most important           
reflection1 in the remark that men      
preserve the prejudices of their        
childhood1 their country1 and their age1
 long after they have recognised all the
 truths necessary to destroy them4#gj   
,perhaps most instructive and most      
tranquillising of all is this1 that the 
progress of physical knowledge is       
constantly destroying in silence        
erroneous opinions which had never      
seemed to be attacked4#ga ,and in       
reading history1 how much ignorance and 
misinterpretation would have been       
avoided1 if the student had but been    
careful to remember that 'the law as    
written and the law as administered2 the
 principles of those in power1 and the  
modification of their action by the     
sentiments of the governed2 an          
institution as it emanates from those   
who form it1 and the same institution   
realised2 the religion of books1 and    
that of the people2 the apparent        
universality of a prejudice1 and the    

substantial adhesion that it receives2  
these may all differ in such a way that 
the effects absolutely cease to answer  
to the public and recognised causes4'#gb
  ,,footnotes3  #ef ,tableau des ,progrs
 de l',esprit ,humain4 ,oeuv4 vi4 #ab1  
#ac4  #eg ,oeuv4 vi4 #bcf4  #eh ,ib4 vi4
 #ba4  #ei ,oeuv4 vi4 #ahf4  #fj ,oeuv4 
vi4 pp4 #ce1 #ee1 #aja1 #ajb1 #aaa1     
#aag1 #aah1 etc4  #fa ,dissertation sur 
cette question3 ,s'il est utile aux     
hommes d'tre tromps8--one of the best of
 ,condorcet's writings4 ,oeuv4 v4 #cfj4 
#fb ,see ,condorcet's vindication of the
 ,pucelle in his ,life of ,voltaire4    
,oeuv4 iv4 #hh1 #hi4 ,see also ,comte's 
,phil4 ,pos4 v4 #dej4  #fc ,oeuv4 vi4   
#aah4  #fd ,as ,m4 ,comte says in his   
remarks on ,condorcet 7,phil4 ,pos4 iv4 
#ahe-aic73 ',le progrs total finalement 
accompli ne peut tre sans doute que le  
rsultat gnral de l'accumulation spontane
 des divers progrs partiels             
successivement raliss depuis l'origine  
de la civilisation1 en vertu de la      

marche successivement lente et graduelle
 de la nature humaine2' so that         
,condorcet's picture presents a standing
 miracle1 'o l'on s'est mme interdit    
d'abord la ressource vulgaire de la     
,providence4' ,comte's criticism1       
however1 seems to leave out of sight    
what full justice ,condorcet did to the 
various partial advances in the         
intellectual order4  #fe ,oeuv4 vi4     
#abj-abc4  #ff ,oeuv4 vi4 #adi1 #aec4   
#fg ,ib4 #ahg-ahi4  #fh ,it is worth    
while to quote on this subject a passage
 from ,condorcet as historically        
instructive as it is morally dangerous4 
',la ncessit de mentir pour dsavouer un 
ouvrage est une extrmit qui rpugne      
galement  la conscience et  la noblesse 
du caractre2 mais le crime est pour les 
hommes injustes qui rendent ce dsaveu   
ncessaire  la sret de celui qu'ils y    
forcent4 ,si vous avez rig en crime ce  
qui n'en est pas un1 si vous avez port  
atteinte1 par des lois absurdes ou par  
des lois arbitraires1 au droit naturel  

qu'ont tous les hommes1 non seulement   
d'avoir une opinion1 mais de la rendre  
publique1 alors vous mritez de perdre   
celui qu'a chaque homme d'entendre la   
vrit de la bouche d'un autre1 droit qui 
fonde seul l'obligation rigoureuse de ne
 pas mentir4 ,s'il n'est pas permis de  
tromper1 c'est parceque tromper         
quelqu'un1 c'est lui faire un tort1 ou  
s'exposer  lui en faire un2 mais le tort
 suppose un droit1 et personne n'a celui
 de cherche1  s'assurer les moyens de   
commettre une injustice4' ,vie de       
,voltaire2 ,oeuv4 iv4 #cc1 #cd4         
,condorcet might have found some        
countenance for his sophisms in ,plato  
7,republ4 ii4 #chc72 but even ,plato    
restricted the privilege of lying to    
statesmen 7iii4 #chi74 ,he was in a     
wiser mood when he declared 7,oeuv4 v4  
#chd7 that it is better to be imprudent 
than a hypocrite1--though for that      
matter these are hardly the only        
alternatives4  #fi ,oeuv4 vi4 #afc4  #gj
 ,ib4 vi4 #bb4  #ga ,ib4 p4 #bbj4  #gb  

,oeuv4 p4 #bcd4     ,,vi4   ,we have now
 seen something of ,condorcet's ideas of
 the past1 and of his conception of what
 he was perhaps the first to call the   
,science of ,man4 ,let us turn to his   
hopes for the future1 and one or two of 
the details to which his study of the   
science of man conducted him4 ,it is    
well to perceive at the outset that     
,condorcet's views of the ,tenth ,epoch1
 as he counts the period extending from 
the ,french ,revolution to the era of   
the indefinite perfection of man1 were  
in truth not the result of any          
scientific processes whatever1 properly 
so called4 ,he saw1 and this is his     
merit1 that such processes were         
applicable to the affairs of society2   
and that1 as he put it1 all political   
and moral errors rest upon error in     
philosophy1 which in turn is bound up   
with erroneous methods in physical      
science4#gc ,but in the execution of his
 plan he does not succeed in showing the
 nature of the relations of these       

connected forces2 still less does he    
practise the scientific duty1 for       
illustrating which he gives such        
well-deserved glory to ,newton1#gd of   
not only accounting for phenomena1 but  
also of measuring the quantity of       
forces4 ,his conception1 therefore1 of  
future progress1 however near conjecture
 may possibly have brought him to the   
truth1 is yet no more than conjecture4  
,the root of it is found in nothing more
 precise1 definite1 or quantified than a
 general notion gathered from history1  
that some portions of the race had made 
perceptible advances in freedom and     
enlightenment1 and that we might        
therefore confidently expect still      
further advances to be made in the same 
direction with an accelerated rapidity1 
and with certain advantageous effects   
upon the happiness of the whole mass of 
the human race4 ,in short1 the end of   
the speculation is a confirmed and      
heightened conviction of the indefinite 
perfectibility of the species1 with     

certain foreshadowings of the direction 
which this perfectibility would         
ultimately follow4 ,the same rebellion  
against the disorder and misery of the  
century1 which drove some thinkers and  
politicians into fierce yearnings for an
 imaginary state of nature1 and others  
into an extravagant admiration for the  
ancient republics1 caused a third       
school1 and ,condorcet among them1 to   
turn their eyes with equally boundless  
confidence and yearning towards an      
imaginary future4 ,it was at all events 
the least desperate error of the three4 
,our expectations for the future1       
,condorcet held1 may be reduced to these
 three points3 the destruction of       
inequality among nations2 the progress  
of equality among the people of any     
given nation2 and1 finally the          
substantial perfecting 7perfectionnement
 rel7 of man4  ,i4 ,with reference to   
the first of these great aspirations1 it
 will be brought about by the           
abandonment by ,european peoples of     

their commercial monopolies1 their      
treacherous practices1 their mischievous
 and extravagant proselytising1 and     
their sanguinary contempt for those of  
another colour or another creed4 ,vast  
countries1 now a prey to barbarism and  
violence1 will present in one region    
numerous populations only waiting to    
receive the means and instruments of    
civilisation from us1 and as soon as    
they find brothers in the ,europeans1   
will joyfully become their friends and  
pupils2 and in another region1 nations  
enslaved under the yoke of despots or   
conquerors1 crying aloud for so many    
ages for liberators4 ,in yet other      
regions1 it is true1 there are tribes   
almost savage1 cut off by the harshness 
of their climate from a perfected       
civilisation1 or else conquering hordes1
 ignorant of every law but violence and 
every trade but brigandage4 ,the        
progress of these last two descriptions 
of people will naturally be more tardy1 
and attended by more storm and          

convulsion4 ,it is possible even1 that  
reduced in number1 in proportion as they
 see themselves repulsed by civilised   
nations1 they will end by insensibly    
disappearing4#ge ,it is perhaps a little
 hard to expect ,esquimaux or the       
barbaric marauders of the sandy expanses
 of ,central ,asia insensibly to        
disappear1 lest by their cheerless      
presence they should destroy the unity  
and harmony of the transformation scene 
in the great drama of ,perfectibility4  
,,ii4 ,the principal causes of the      
inequality that unfortunately exists    
among the people of the same community  
are three in number3--inequality in     
wealth2 inequality of condition between 
the man whose means of subsistence are  
both assured and transmissible1 and him 
for whom these means depend upon the    
duration of his working life2 thirdly1  
inequality of instruction4 ,how are we  
to establish a continual tendency in    
these three sources of inequality to    
diminish in activity and power8 ,to     

lessen1 though not to demolish1         
inequalities in wealth1 it will be      
necessary for all artificial            
restrictions and exclusive advantages to
 be removed from fiscal or other legal  
arrangements1 by which property is      
either acquired or accumulated3 and     
among social changes tending in this    
direction will be the banishment by     
public opinion of an avaricious or      
mercenary spirit from marriage4 ,again1 
inequality between permanent and        
precarious incomes will be radically    
modified by the development of the      
application of the calculation of       
probabilities to life4 ,the extension of
 annuities and insurance will not only  
benefit many individuals1 but will      
benefit society at large by putting an  
end to that periodical ruin of a large  
number of families1 which is such an    
ever-renewing source of misery and      
degradation4 ,another means to the same 
end will be found in discovering1 by the
 same doctrine of probabilities1 some   

other equally solid base for credit     
instead of a large capital1 and for     
rendering the progress of industry and  
the activity of commerce more           
independent of the existence of great   
capitalists4 ,something approaching to  
equality of instruction1 even for those 
who can only spare a few of their early 
years for study1 and in after times only
 a few hours of leisure1 will become    
more attainable by improved selection of
 subjects1 and improved methods of      
teaching them4 ,the dwellers in one     
country will cease to be distinguished  
by the use of a rude or of a refined    
dialect2 and this1 it may be said in    
passing1 has actually been the result of
 the school system in the ,united       
,states4 ,one portion of them will no   
longer be dependent upon any other for  
guidance in the smallest affairs4 ,we   
cannot obliterate nor ignore natural    
differences of capacity1 but after      
public instruction has been properly    
developed1 'the difference will be      

between men of superior enlightenment1  
and men of an upright character who feel
 the value of light without being       
dazzled by it2 between talent or genius1
 and that good sense which knows how to 
appreciate and to enjoy both4 ,even if  
this difference were greater than has   
been said1 if we compare the force and  
extent of faculty1 it would become none 
the less insensible1 if we compare their
 respective effects upon the relations  
of men among themselves1 upon all that  
affects their independence and their    
happiness4'#gf  ,,iii4 ,what are the    
changes that we may expect from the     
substantial perfecting of human nature  
and society8 ,if1 before making this    
forecast1 we reflect with what feeble   
means the race has arrived at its       
present knowledge of useful and         
important truths1 we shall not fear the 
reproach of temerity in our             
anticipations for a time when the force 
of all these means shall have been      
indefinitely increased4 ,the progress of

 agricultural science will make the same
 land more productive1 and the same     
labour more efficient4 ,nay1 who shall  
predict what the art of converting      
elementary substances into food for our 
use may one day become8 ,the constant   
tendency of population to advance to the
 limits of the means of subsistence thus
 amplified1 will be checked by a rising 
consciousness in men1 that if they have 
obligations in respect of creatures     
still unborn1 these obligations consist 
in giving them1 not existence but       
happiness1 in adding to the wellbeing of
 the family1 and not cumbering the earth
 with useless and unfortunate beings4   
,this changed view upon population will 
partly follow from the substitution of  
rational ideas for those prejudices     
which have penetrated morals with an    
austerity that is corrupting and        
degrading4#gg ,the movement will be     
further aided by one of the most        
important steps in human progress--the  
destruction1 namely1 of the prejudices  

that have established inequality of     
rights between the two sexes1 and which 
are so mischievous even to the sex that 
seems to be most favoured4#gh ,we seek  
in vain for any justification of such an
 inequality in difference of physical   
organisation1 in force of intelligence1 
or in moral sensibility4 ,it has no     
other origin than abuse of strength1 and
 it is to no purpose that attempts are  
made to excuse it by sophisms4 ,the     
destruction of the usages springing from
 this custom will render common those   
domestic virtues which are the          
foundation of all others1 and will      
encourage education as well as make it  
more general1 both because instruction  
would be imparted to both sexes with    
more equality1 and because it cannot    
become general even for males without   
the aid of the mother of the family4#gi 
,among other improvements under our     
third head will be the attainment of    
greater perfection in language1 leading 
at once to increased accuracy and       

increased concision4 ,laws and          
institutions1 following the progress of 
knowledge1 will be constantly undergoing
 modifications tending to identify      
individual with collective interests4   
,wars will grow less frequent with the  
extinction of those ideas of hereditary 
and dynastic rights1 that have          
occasioned so many bloody contests4 ,the
 art of learning will be facilitated by 
the institution of a ,universal         
,language2 and the art of teaching by   
resort to ,technical ,methods1 or       
systems which unite in orderly          
arrangement a great number of different 
objects1 so that their relations are    
perceived at a single glance4#hj        
,finally1 progress in medicine1 the use 
of more wholesome food and healthy      
houses1 the diminution of the two most  
active causes of deterioration1 namely1 
misery and excessive wealth1 must       
prolong the average duration of life1 as
 well as raise the tone of health while 
it lasts4 ,the force of transmissable   

diseases will be gradually weakened1    
until their quality of transmission     
vanishes4 ,may we then not hope for the 
arrival of a time when death will cease 
to be anything but the effect either of 
extraordinary accidents1 or of the      
destruction1 ever slower and slower1 of 
the vital forces8 ,may we not believe   
that the duration of the middle interval
 between birth and this destruction has 
no assignable term8 ,man will never     
become immortal1 but is it a mere       
chimera to hold that the term fixed to  
his years is slowly and perpetually     
receding further and further from the   
moment at which his existence begins8#ha
         99     99     99     99     99 
,the rapidity and the necessary         
incompleteness with which ,condorcet    
threw out in isolated hints his ideas of
 the future state of society1 impart to 
his conception a certain mechanical     
aspect1 which conveys an incorrect      
impression of his notion of the sources 
whence social change must flow4 ,his    

admirable and most careful remarks upon 
the moral training of children prove him
 to have been as far removed as possible
 from any of those theories of the      
formation of character which merely     
prescribe the imposition of moulds and  
casts from without1 instead of carefully
 tending the many spontaneous and       
sensitive processes of growth within4#hb
 ,nobody has shown a finer appreciation 
of the delicacy of the material out of  
which character is to be made1 and of   
the susceptibility of its elementary    
structure2 nor of the fact that         
education consists in such a discipline 
of the primitive impulses as shall lead 
men to do right1 not by the constraint  
of mechanical external sanctions1 but by
 an instant1 spontaneous1 and almost    
inarticulate repugnance to cowardice1   
cruelty1 apathy1 self-indulgence1 and   
the other great roots and centres of    
wrong-doing4 ,it was to a society       
composed of men and women whose         
characters had been shaped on this      

principle1 that ,condorcet looked for   
the realisation of his exalted hopes for
 humanity4#hc  ,with machinery and      
organisation1 in truth1 ,condorcet did  
not greatly concern himself2 probably   
too little rather than too much4 ,the   
central idea of all his aspirations was 
to procure the emancipation of reason1  
free and ample room for its exercise1   
and improved competence among men in the
 use of it4 ,the subjugation of the     
modern intelligence beneath the         
disembodied fancies of the grotesque and
 sombre imagination of the ,middle      
,ages1 did not offend him more than the 
idea of any fixed organisation of the   
spiritual power1 or any final and       
settled and universally accepted        
solution of belief and order would have 
done4 ,with ,de ,maistre and ,comte the 
problem was the organised and systematic
 reconstruction of an anarchic society4 
,with ,condorcet it was how to persuade 
men to exert the individual reason      
methodically and independently1 not     

without co-operation1 but without       
anything like official or other         
subordination4  ,his cardinal belief and
 precept was1 as with ,socrates1 that   
the bios anexetastos is not to be lived 
by man4 ,as we have seen1 the freedom of
 the reason was so dear to him1 that he 
counted it an abuse for a parent to     
instil his own convictions into the     
defenceless minds of his young children4
 ,this was the natural outcome of       
,condorcet's mode of viewing history as 
the record of intellectual emancipation1
 while to ,comte its deepest interest   
was as a record of moral and emotional  
cultivation4 ,if we value in one type of
 thinker the intellectual               
conscientiousness1 which refrains from  
perplexing men by propounding problems  
unless the solution can be set forth    
also1 perhaps we owe no less honour in  
the thinker of another type to that     
intellectual self-denial which makes him
 very careful lest the too rigid        
projection of his own specific          

conclusions should by any means obstruct
 the access of a single ray of          
fertilising light4 ,this religious      
scrupulosity1 which made him abhor all  
interference with the freedom and       
openness of the understanding as the    
worst kind of sacrilege1 was            
,condorcet's eminent distinction4 ,if1  
as some think1 the world will gradually 
transform its fear or love of unknowable
 gods into a devout reverence for those 
who have stirred in men a sense of the  
dignity of their own nature and of its  
large and multitudinous possibilities1  
then will his name not fail of deep and 
perpetual recollection4  ,,footnotes3   
#gc ,ib4 p4 #bbc4  #gd ,ib4 p4 #bjf4    
#ge ,oeuv4 pp4 #bci-bdd4  #gf ,oeuv4 pp4
 #bdd-bea4  #gg ,oeuv4 pp4 #beg1 #beh4  
#gh ,condorcet had already assailed the 
prejudices that keep women in subjection
 in an excellent tract1 published in    
#agij2 ,sur l',admission des ,femmes au 
,droit de ,cit4 ,oeuv4 x4 #aba-acj4  #gi
 ,oeuv4 p4 #bfd4 ,the rest of the       

passage is not perfectly intelligible to
 me1 so ,i give it as it stands4 ',cet  
hommage trop tardif1 rendu enfin  l'quit
 et au bon sens1 ne tarirait-il pas une 
source trop fconde d'injustices1 de     
cruauts et de crimes1 en faisant        
disparatre une opposition si dangereuse 
entre le penchant naturel le plus vif1  
le plus difficile  rprimer1 et les      
devoirs de l'homme ou les intrts de la  
socit8 ,ne produirait-il pas1 enfin1 des
 moeurs nationales douces et pures1     
formes non de privations orgueilleuses1 
d'apparences hypocrites1 de rserves     
imposes par la crainte de la honte ou   
les terreurs religieuses1 mais          
d'habitudes librement contractes1       
inspires par la nature1 avoues par la   
raison8' ,can these habitudes be the    
habitudes of ,free ,love1 or what are   
they8 ,condorcet1 we know1 thought the  
indissolubility of marriage a           
monstrously bad thing1 but the grounds  
which he gives for his thinking so would
 certainly lead to the infinite         

dissolubility of society4 ,see a truly  
astounding passage in the ,fragment on  
the ,tenth ,epoch1 vi4 #ebc-ebf4 ,see   
also some curious words in a letter to  
,turgot1 i4 #bba1 #bbb4  #hj ,oeuv4 pp4 
#bfi-bgb4  #ha ,oeuv4 pp4 #bgb-bge4     
,also p4 #fah4  #hb ,see ,fragment de   
l',histoire de la ,xe ,epoque4 ',il ne  
faut pas leur dire1 mais les accoutumer 
croire1  trouver au dedans a'eux-mmes1  
que la bont et la justice sont          
ncessaires au bonheur1 comme une        
respiration facile et libre l'est  la   
sant4' ,of books for the young3 ',il    
faut qu'ils n'excdent jamais l'tendue ou
 la dlicatesse de la sensibilit4' ',il  
faut renoncer  l'ide de parler aux      
enfans de ce que ni leur esprit ni leur 
me ne peuvent encore comprendre2 ne pas 
leur faire admirer une constitution et  
rciter par coeur les droits politiques  
de l'homme quand ils ont  peine une ide 
nette de leurs relations avec leur      
famille et leurs camarades4'  ,still    
more objectionable1 we may be sure1     

would he have found the practice of     
drilling little children by the hearth  
or at the school-desk in creeds1        
catechisms1 and the like repositories of
 mysteries baleful to the growing       
intelligence4 ',aidons le dveloppement  
des facults humaines pendant la         
faiblesse de l'enfance1' he said        
admirably1 'mais n'abusons pas de cette 
faiblesse pour les mouler au gr de nos  
opinions de nos intrts1 ou de notre     
orgueil4'--,oeuv4 vi4 #edc-eed4  ,cf4   
also v4 #cfc-cfe1 where there are some  
deserved strictures on the malpractice  
of teaching children as truth what the  
parents themselves believe to be        
superstition or even falsehood4  ,the   
reader may remember the speech of the   
,patriarch1 in ,lessing's play1 against 
the ,jew3      ,der mit ,gewalt ein     
armes ,christenkind     ,dem ,bunde     
seiner ,tauf' entreisst6  ,denn ist     
,nicht alles1 was man ,kindern thut1    
,gewalt8     ,zu sagen3 ausgenommen1 was
 die ,kirch'1     ,an ,kindern thut4    

#hc ,his ,mmoires sur l',instruction    
,publique1 written in #agia-agib1 and   
printed in the seventh volume of the    
works1 are still very well worth turning
 to4   ,transcribers' ,notes3  ,minor   
printer errors 7omitted or incorrect    
punctuation7 have been amended without  
note4 ,other errors have been amended   
and are listed below4  ,list of         
,amendments3  ,page #bja3 colleages     
amended to colleagues2 444 among his    
colleagues in the deputation 444  ,page 
#bdj3 added missing footnote anchor #ff 
to paragraph ending 444 ceased to be    
altogether exact4