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itic connections, tenets, and zeal. The | He had become so enamored of science that

, not being interfered with at first, de-
d her son by some formal act to the
al service of the Virgin, and, the better
ard his consecrated infancy, had him
ed like a girl. Till his twelfth year he
constantly disguised in a white frock
petticoat, and had little misses for his
playmates-a probation sufficient, in M.
o's opinion, to account for some pecu-
es both in the physique and the morale
smanhood. The abstinence from all
boyish sports, we are told, checked the
er muscular development of his limbs;
ead and trunk were on a large scale,
he legs were so meagre that they seem-
fit to carry what was above them, and
he never could partake in any strong
ses, or undergo the bodily fatigues to
healthy men willingly expose them-
On the other hand, he had imbibed
nder-heartedness of a delicate damsel-
ng to the last, for example, a deep
for inflicting pain on the inferior ani-
M. Arago quotes more than one let-
which he signifies that tyrannical man
free with the life of sheep and bul-
merely in consequence of the want of
ht on the part of those victims ;-the
ce would be that he never ate beef or
—but of such practice the history af-
o trace. As to insects, says M. Arago,
ver would kill them, unless, indeed,
asioned him particulur inconvenience;"
5, we suspect, might be said of every
the world except Caligula and the
ogists.

n he had reached his twelfth summer,
copal uncle protested against the pet-
and the gracility of his lower fabric
the first time revealed to common
en he removed to the Jesuit seminary
ms. The mother wished him to pre-
- a clerical career, but the Caritats
- disapproved of this, and it was set-
t he should follow the paternal pro-
of arms, of which, as the Bishop ob-
many of the most illustrious orna-
Condé, for instance, had been trained
e Company of Jesus. At this school,
et made rapid progress-in mathe-
specially-and being transferred in
the College of Navarre at Paris, he
carried off the highest prizes year
r, and became decidedly the most
shed of ite

he resolved to devote his life to it. No argument was of the least avail. The plan of taking orders was again urged by the mother, and the Bishop now sided with her; but the young gentleman had already adopted liberal notions on the subject of religion, and would Turgot, of 1775, he states that his creed was on no account listen to them. In a letter to settled by the age of seventeen. He appears to have left the college in 1762, and announced his resolution to depend on his own resources-from which it may be inferred that he had seriously displeased the Bishop, though they became good friends afterward. earliest patron was the Duke de la RochefouThe Biographie Universelle states that his cauld, and that through his influence he soon obtained "some pensions:" but M. Arago, though he more than once describes the Duke this circumstance of " as his best friend," makes no allusion to true, is a rather important one. pensions," which, if

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of him, and to his encouragement and adD'Alembert had never, it seems, lost sight vice he now owed much; but his talents next three years he placed his reputation as were early ripened, and in fact within the a man of science as high as it ever was to be. tions were formed, and we think it quite posIt is no wonder that most exalted anticipasible that if he had adhered steadily to his first line of study he might have left a name worthy of ranking with the Lagranges and Laplaces; but there are, we believe, few who now, measuring his actual attainments, place ago evidently does not. him in the first class of mathematicians: Artage of appearing at a season very favorable for the exercise of ingenuity, when the CalHe had the advanwas something for any sharp eye to discover. culus was in rapid development, and there These eras are the Californias of science: first comers gather-and then follows a pea new source of wealth is opened which the fresh and unwrought region is again disclosed. riod of severer toil and slender gains until a found grains rather than lumps, and above Condorcet was an eager adventurer, but he all, he did not persevere. His chief efforts Calculus-to bring it to bear upon cases in were directed to extending the which it had previously proved unmanageascope of the ble. Unfortunately, howe

asserted safely that science would have stood | implored Condorcet to find some sul

at the Academy, and undertake the the invalid during a winter of Italy Secretary agreed to make this sacrific the pair started: but their reception &

passed away there until it was thoug late for crossing the Alps, or the rest of D'Alembert seemed to authorize a to Paris. This introduction to Voltai termined the future career of Con From that time, if he did not lay as abstract science, at least he gave up tion of forwarding its march, and co himself with noting and recording, in of distinguished excellence, the ti erected by steadier enthusiasts. Volta been much struck with his literary f and inoculated him effectually with th sion for philosophical proselytism. In he was now to be one of the most contributors to the Encyclopédie; and rot, &c., became his most intimate co ions at Paris, while his correspondenc Ferney continued to the close of Vo life to be close and confidential. The 1 Prussia in due time honored him with flattering communications. He was nized throughout Europe as among the agents of the Anti-Christian Conspir

where it does if he had never lived. Skillful analyst as he was, he discovered no new principle-no great step can be ascribed to him. We observe that considerable importance is still attached by some English wri-ney was so delightful that week afte ters to his Essay on the application of the Calculus to judicial questions. He was not the first who worked on that ground-and if he went much more into detail than the two or three who had preceded him, he has in the sequel been very largely distanced, especially in our own time, by Poisson. His treatise is very ingenious, and we may say amusing, but there is a radical flaw in all tentamina of the class-there are not, and never can be, real data for the application of the mathematical theory of probabilities to judicial decisions, or to any other questions in which allowance must be made for the incalculable variety in the talents, attainments, and moral qualities of men. But we do not presume to dissert on a subject as to which those who wish to pursue it can consult a scientific authority so high as M. Arago's. We merely repeat that at best he exhibited sagacity in a comparatively new application of the theory of probabilities. What immediately concerns us here is, that when hardly beyond the limit of manhood, he had already established a brilliant reputation. The Academy of Sciences soon chose him for their Assistant-Secretary. Having filled up with applause a large hiatus in the academical Eloges, he not long afterward was elected Perpetual Secretary-and in that capacity produced a very extensive series of similar panegyrics, some of which may still have a high degree of interest for a limited class of readers. The emolument of his office was not much, but the position was considered enviable-it gave him every opportunity of familiar intercourse with the lights of philosophy, and through them an easy introduction to the saloons and suppers of the influential ladies who had embraced the doctrines of the sect, and not a few of whom had condescended to form tender connections among its Coryphæi.

Until 1770 he had continued to give his more serious hours to his mathematics; but very unluckily as we believe for his ultimate fame-in the summer of that year his ambition received a new turn. D'Alembert had fallen into a condition of nervous irritability which afflicted all his friends, and griev

ously alarmed his celebrated quie Madamai

Voltaire's letters seem, in Engla least, to be very little read in com with some other classes of his writing we wonder this should be so-for n are they essential to the understand his actual proceedings, but many of are hardly below any productions of in the felicity of execution. When h dressing a friend-not a King, or Pri great lady-we may almost always that we hear him talking at his own f The ease and also the elegance are c mate-they are on a par with the und ed self-esteem, the unwearied self-s the untameable vivacity and the ins malignity of the man. The letters t dorcet, and especially the new ones it is not difficult to account for Cond suppression of during his lifetime), br some peculiar traits-illustrating ver factorily the profound self-control, which no man can maintain himself t a series of years as the head of an er party. Wnat Condorcet says (in a Turgot) of some of his pamphlets, cially true of his letters to the juniors

t was in his pen-he never lost sight of | probable confidants-but the burden is alpurpose. ways the same-"Tolerate the whispers of age! How often shall I have to tell you all that no one but a fool will publish such things unless he has 200,000 bayonets at his back?" Each Encyclopedist was apt to forget that, though he corresponded familiarly with Frederick, he was not a king of Prussia; and by and bye not one of them more frequently exemplified this mistake than Condorcet-for that gentleman's saint-like tranquillity of demeanor, though it might indicate a naturally languid pulse, covered copious elements of vital passion. The slow wheel could not resist the long attrition of controversy, and when it once blazed, the flame was all the fiercer for its unseen nursing. "You mistake Condorcet," said D'Alembert to one of the philosophical dames; "he is a volcano covered with snow."

1. Arago, whose conclusions as to the
rs of stars and their satellites few will
tion, extols the good nature of Voltaire
hown in these documents: we admire
politeness, the good sense-the far-see-
impervertible adroitness of the ven-
ed chief. He had long before this time
mended the saying of a monarch who
iced what he preached-L'esprit des
es puissans consiste à répondre une poli-
à une impertinence ;-but this was not a
matter of manners. He was too wise
o appreciate the importance of such a
ent at Paris as he had hit on in Mr.
tary Condorcet-a sharp, cool-headed
-thoroughly imbued with écrasez l'in-
but certain, unless his own authorly
ove were involved, to see more clearly
even an Argus at a distance could do,
would be the practical effect of any
c publication at any specific time on
ind of the Parisians. In every one in-
-, accordingly, when Condorcet suggests
se or an alteration, the great leader
ies-and that with such apparent
ess and simplicity of tone that we
o doubt many contemporary astrono-
ut the same interpretation that M. Ara-
es now on these astutest of rescripts.
e other hand, as M. le Marquis became
and more deeply engaged in the war-
the Encyclopedists, it was not seldom
rt of "le Vieux de la Montagne "-as
arious coincidence the founders of the
Mountain called him-to whisper cau-
om his remote citadel. When he him-
these latter days was resolved to issue
g that he knew and felt to be pregnant
mbustion, he never dreamt of Paris-
agents enough in other quarters, and
onymous or pseudonymous mischief
nted at London, Amsterdam, or Ham-
from a fifth or sixth copy in the hand-
of some Dutch or English clerk—
by cautious steps smuggled into
-and then disavowed and denounced
self, and for him by his numberless
with an intrepid assurance which down
ist confounded and baffled all official
rs, until, in each separate case, the
1 got cold. Therefore he sympathized
ll with any of these, his subalterns,
ey, in their own proper matters, al-

Among the inedited essays is one on the constitution of scientific bodies, which our secretary (still a young man) was good enough to compose for the enlightenment and direction of the Spanish government of that day. Chiefly noticeable in our eyes as a specimen of French presumption, M. Arago lauds it for profound wisdom and dexterous logic, especially in arguing against any inquiry about the religious tenets of members. Here the biographer finds nothing but cause for admiration in his hero's brave contempt for the whole system of opinion as well as law beyond the Pyrenees. He condescends, on the other hand, to allege consideration for the rooted prejudices of Spain as a sufficient excuse for Condorcet in advocating the admission into the proposed new Academy of a class of noble amateurs. would have been merely absurd," he says, "to plan a Spanish institution from which Dukes of Osuna and Medina-Celi were to be hopelessly excluded." hopelessly excluded." M. Arago, while on this topic, reports a saying of Louis XIV., which we are tempted to repeat :-" Do you know why Racine and M. de Cavoye, whom you see down there, like so well to be together? Racine, with Cavoye, fancies himself a gentleman; Cavoye, with Racine, fancies himself a genius."

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the kindred classes now so esteemed and hour. These seem sensible arra the Patriarch of Ferney countenanced them. "A grand reputation," he says in one of these letters to Condorcet, "is not to be acquired more easily than by demonstrating how the globe was constructed, or describing a new species of bug."

We understand better the importance which Voltaire's immediate disciples attached to their Academies than the revelation of the same sort of feeling in Condorcet's new biographer. In those days the philosophers had a serious battle to fight, and it was of vast consequence that the troops should know each other, have confidence in their officers, and omit no art to inveigle follies or neutralize influences. At present, as against the great original objects of hostility, the battle has been fought out and won-or if anything in the nature of a prejudice ecclesiastical, aristocratical, or monarchical, still shows a sign of life, there are facilities enough for assailing such obstinate remnants elsewhere than in assemblies professedly devoted to the advancement of scientfic researches. At all events, it was sufficiently so in France when M. Arago wrote this Life. Here no motives of the class now alluded to have ever been even suspected; nor, until rather recently, were any of the educated classes of Englishmen apparently much given to those appetites for garrulous congregation and pompous exhibition that have from Julius Cæsar's time to President Buonaparte's distinguished the theatrical nation so near to us in locality and in everything but thought, sentiment, taste, and manners. We are at a loss to account for the change so visible, and not doubting that there is a mixture of good in almost every novelty, we own we on the whole continue to regret this one. You hear and read eternal vituperation of the Royal Academy in Trafalgar Square; but, whatever may be the defects in its construction, we could wish to see certain great features of its practical system imitated by bodies which assume to be of statelier importance, and, unlike it, reserve their chairs for Caroyes. The R. A.'s work each at home in his own studio; once a year they allow each other and all the world to see what they have been doing, and the Exhibition is opened with a dinner, to which they invite such grandees as have acquired a reputation for what our antique friend Sir Thomas Urquhart calls "an emacity" in the department of modern master-pieces, or for being likely, in case of any narliamentary caviling, to indicate a just

What good could come of meeting every week in the season to parade and models? Does anybody suppo really fine statue or picture would such a process? Does any body de at the end of the year there wo fierce and degrading clamor abo hints? The system of hebdomadal tations and speechifications, with the nal interludes of provincial starr mountebanking before women and will never, we hope, be emulated Michael Angelos, Bramantes, and R The inevitable waste of time, worry per, lowering of tone, craving for exc exacerbation of shabby grudges and o of childish vanity, would not be ato by an endless chorus of newspaper ap nor even by a profuser participation scientific honors of knighthood."

The camaraderie of the learned was, as we have said, a matter of business in the earlier period of Cond and the female society in which he a friends mingled, was animated by the spirit and conducive to the same ends. the more bustling whirl of fashionable soon withdrew utterly. "I had no relis neatly says, " for dissipation without ple vanity without motive, idleness witho pose."

Another philosopher who had as turn for the tumult and glitter of the monde was by twenty years his senio among the most intimate, and, ere lon most influential of his friends, M. T He was of a far more important family Condorcet, but, being a third brother, h better off at the outset in point of for Turgot was brought up at the Sorbonne inspired all his teachers there with the fidence that he would be one of the distinguished lights of the Gallican ch The first performance that attracted n beyond the walls was a Discourse on Evidences of Christianity; it was ext gantly lauded by the clerical party, moved in a correspoding proportion the of the wise men. But, whereas Dr. C mers appears, after being for several yeɛ parish minister, to have first imbibed belief in revealed religion while preparin article on the evidences for Sir D. Brews Encyclopædia, there seems reason to i that a similar course of study had ende a very different manner with Tur Shortly afterward, to the confusion of

a

ns, he announced that he had changed | though he has reasons for not avowing itla Cucouaquerie ne mene pas à la fortune." To which Voltaire replies by-and-bye-“I have been charmed with Turgot-if you have three or four sages like this among you, I tremble for l'infame." After having performed his kotow at Ferney, he redoubled his zeal in the ecclesiastical direction, but still observed as to his cacoraquerie a prudent reticence, which Voltaire now appreciated and often recommended to the Parisian conclave as exemplary. "Your friend Turgot is admirable," says he to Condorcetno man understands better how to shoot the arrow without showing the hand."

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ind, and would not enter into holy . He alleged to them modest distrust own qualifications, but to intimates andidly-"I cannot walk through all ys of my life with a mask on my face." rned to the law-in due time obtained tion-and for a course of years acted usly with the government minority in rliament of Paris, and in opposition to fractory majority, which was headed e of his own elder brothers, the PresiTurgot. This conduct led to the Incy of the Limousin, in which office he made himself remarkable by some exadministrative reforms, but in the We may pause for a moment to say that still more so by the audacity of his in general Condorcet's letters to Voltaire, sals and plans for sweeping changes in like all the rest of the sect, are characterized hole department of taxation and inter- by a humility of submission, an extravagance onomy. He was among the first that of adulation, worthy of the Cadis and Muftis ed in France the new science of political of a Commander of the Faithful. But bemy, and he pushed its doctrines to ex- hind his back, in their epistles to each other, s that never found favor with Adam it is somewhat different. All alike-the himself. Among the rest, he was a grave D'Alembert, the austere Turgot, and us church reformer-indicating more the snowy Condorcet-are in raptures when more distinctly his opinion not only that Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse communicates urch property should be fairly taxed to them, and insists on their handing over ate purposes, but that the property to their prime patroness, whom Arago styles ought to be redistributed, small sees "la respectable Duchesse d'Enville," the in, the emoluments of great ones cut telligence she, Mademoiselle, had just remonastic establishments of all sorts ceived from Geneva of a visit paid to Ferney I of, and-decent provision being made by a "Messaline de cette ville," with some isting lives-the general surplus con- alarming consequences. It is like the merri1 and dealt with as at the command of ment of a set of young monks on discovering ancial minister of the crown. These a lapse of father Abbot. Again, Condorcet, stions were in the beginning accom- when on a tour, writes to Turgot that he by constant professions of Turgot's had been gratified in a country-house with > respect for religion and the church, the perusal of a Commentary on the Bible real interests were, he continually by Emilie (Mad. du Chatelet-" Venus ted, nearer to no man's heart than to Newton ") in ten volumes; and adds that The true sentiments of the he thought he could detect here and there er, however, could hardly escape de- the assistance both of the "Vieux de la -provincial eyes are close watchers, Montagne" and "son jeune amant "—i. e., all men Turgot was the most awkward St. Lambert. To which Turgot answers ything but the use of his pen. None that he had himself many years ago seen ss command over his countenance-"Emilie's Bible," but that it was then in four could less bear the trouble of affecta- volumes. "However," adds he, "there is small habits and daily things. The no doubt that between le Vieux and son about him soon understood the man, jeune amant Emilie was likely enough to exey, as rural churchmen usually are, pand her dimensions." A cruel enough oo much in earnest to control their joke, when we recall the circumstances of tion. People at a distance, even the her death in childbed, on which occasion her est of the Anti-clericals, seem to have disconsolate husband, whom Lord Brougham ken in at first. When the Intendant calls "a respectable man" (they are all out to visit Switzerland, D'Alembert honorable men), finding Voltaire and St. Lam

wn.

im an introduction to Voltaire in bert in teore tomath-

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