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morals and such the taste of this philosophi- | the doctrine of the perfectibility of man, and cal school! ascribing all social mischiefs and moral defects to bad laws, iniquitous burdens, absurd superstitions, and primarily and finally the want of a universal and of course compulsory system of liberal education-hardly affected to throw any longer a plausible gauze-work over his cacouacquerie.

We need not go deep into Turgot's history after 1774. Amidst the financial perplexities that surrounded the monarchy at the accession of Louis XVI., Maurepas, though personally distrustful of his views and intentions, was induced to invite him into the administration-it was judged necessary to conciliate the rising sect, and Turgot's birth and connections were considered as pledges against his going into an actual revolution. The Biographie Universelle, in mentioning that and some similar appointments, says, "this epoch marks the commencement of our hommes d'état écrirassiers :" and it was truly the commencement de la fin. Turgot, Minister of Marine, immediately nominated Condorcet to a post in his department-an inspectorship of canals-and when he removed by-and-bye to the ministry of Finance, the younger philosopher became "Inspecteur des Monnoies." How soon the rashness and gaucherie of Turgot involved Paris and half France in famine, confusion, revolt, and massacre, we need not remind our readers. His wildest measures had all been defended

in journals and pamphlets by his subaltern; and Condorcet had especially distinguished himself by a bitter answer to Necker's antiTurgot disquisition on corn-laws. The passage that, according to our philosophic biographer, gave the deadliest offence was in the last page, where Condorcet, apologizing for his plain words, said he had the consolation to think they could do M. Necker no harm, and quoted a certain high functionary who published some poem, and being told by his friends to prepare himself for sharp criticism, replied" Make yourselves easy as to the reviewers-I have got a better cook.' This cut the Amphitryon banker was not, it seems, to forgive. He succeeded Turgot as Minister of Finance, and Condorcet wrote to his friend that he also would immediately resign his inspectorship-rather than be dismissed, as he candidly says he had no doubt he must be, on the first decent opportunity. Whether the resignation was actually tendered, or accepted, we have some doubtswhich shall be explained by-and-bye. How ever that may have been, both Turgot and he redoubled their diligence as economical essayists but the Biographie Universelle thinks it needless to spend many words on Condorcet's writings of this class, because, it says, "We have in vain sought for a single particular in which he does not follow the lead of Turgot." Like im, he started from

We may pause for a moment on one eloquent piece of 1776, because, though read at that time before "an academy," it seems never to have been printed until M. Arago recovered the autograph. The subject is— Should popular errors be eradicated?" In this treatise which is perhaps by a shade or two more explicit than those he published at the same period-Condorcet utterly denies that any religious motive whatever is requisite or can be relied on for controlling the moral conduct of men. He says:

"If the people are often tempted to commit crimes in order that they may procure the necessaries of life, it is the fault of the laws; and as bad laws are the product of errors, it would be more simple to abolish those errors than to add Error, no doubt, may do some good: it may preothers for the correction of their natural effects. vent some crimes, but it will occasion mischiefs greater than these. By putting nonsense into the head of the people you make them stupid, and from stupidity to ferocity there is but a step. Consider-if the motives you suggest for being just make but a slight impression on the mind, that will not direct the conduct-if the impressions be lively, they will produce enthusiasm, and enthusiasm for error. Now the ignorant enthusiast is no longer a man: he is the most terrible of wild beasts. In fact," adds our arithmetician, "the number of criminals among the men with prejudices is in greater proportion to the total number of our population, than the number of total of that class. I am not ignorant that, in the criminals in the class above prejudices is to the actual state of Europe, the people are not, perhaps, at all prepared for a true doctrine of morals: but this degraded obtuseness is the work of social institutions and of superstitions. Men are not born blockheads: they become such. By speaking reason to the people, even in the little time they can give to the cultivation of their intellect, necessary for them to know. Even the idea of we might easily teach them the little that it is the respect that they should have for the property of the rich is only difficult to be insinuated among them-first, because they look on riches as a sort of usurpation, of theft perpetrated upon them, and unhappily this opinion is in great part true: secondly, because their excessive poverty makes absolute necessity-a case in which even very them always consider themselves in the case of severe moralists have been of their mind; thirdly, because they are as much despised and maltreated

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"In speaking of the establishment of false religions and of their reform, it is not necessary, for showing how well facts are in accord with our reasonings, that we should assume any one of them in particular to be false. It is clear that there are at least as many false religions, minus ONE, as there are known religions. Now, which

soever it may be that we regard as the true one, the history of the evil which the others have done suffices to prove the truth of our assertion."Ib. 369.

"We conclude, then, that the truth is always useful to the people, and that, if the people holds by errors, it is expedient forthwith to remove them. We will only state four exceptions."

At the head of these excepted errors is—

"1mo. La croyance d'un Dieu rémunérateur et vengeur-qu'il ne faudrait pas attaquer chez un peuple dont la morale serait fondée sur une religion fausse, a moins que cette religion ne fût detruite"

and what substituted for that false religion?— -"et qu'une morale fondée sur la raison seule ne fut bien etablie."-Ib. 382.

It is known to all that Voltaire had written and published in his later days some Notes on the Pensées de Pascal, intended to attenuate the authority of the Christian philosopher. They appeared, however, too moderate in the eyes of Condorcet, who prepared a new edition of the Pensées, garnished with copious notes of a far more audacious character, and transmitted the MS. to Ferney. Voltaire was delighted-"You have laid open the head of Serapis," he writes, " and shown us the rats and the spiders." The old man volunteered to have the work printed in Switzerland under his own eye-and this was done in 1778. He died a few months afterwardand the gay young Count d'Artois (Charles X.) pronounced his epitaph: La France a perdu un grand homme et un grand coquin.

In 1782, the secretary of the Academy of

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he had extolled all defunct Cacouacs. mense importance was attached to the canvass. He beat his rival, Bailly, only by one vote. "This victory," writes D'Alembert,

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W delights me as much as if I had discovered the quadrature of the circle." Grimm says, "The science of M. de Condorcet had been sufficiently rewarded by the Academie des Sciences. His literary claims are nothing beside M. Bailly's. But the government had recently named a man of distinguished piety to the archiepiscopate, and the philosophers felt the urgency of a demonstration. Hence this successful struggle in favor of a candidate more than usually atheist." We need hardly observe that Baron Grimm, in his earlier letters, used to extol Condorcet in the warmest terms.

In 1783, his constant friend and supporter, D'Alembert, died, and left him the whole of his property. In the same year died also the aged Bishop of Lisieux-and his nephew no doubt inherited whatever remained of the family estates in Dauphiny. Of this succession not a word occurs in any life of Condorcet that we have met with; but among other remarks in a pamphlet "sur Condorcet," published at Lausanne in 1792, by "Chas, homme de Loi," it is said that "till the Revolution was at hand, he seemed to attach as much consequence as any one of his class to his titles and his fiefs." That he had no fiefs prior to 1783, is apparent from the whole course of his proceedings.

Not long afterward the volcano made a most unlooked-for eruption. The flame was suddenly kindled by the bright eyes of a young and well-born beauty, Mademoiselle. de Grouchy, and the Secretary, now turned of forty, married her in a great hurry—even, remarks M. Arago, without having brought her family to book on the weighty question of dower. M. Arago becomes unusually animated here, and is not ashamed to place his hero's proceedings in favorable contrast with those of Lagrange. D'Alembert heard from a third party at a distance that that brother sage had made "le saut perilleux," and wrote to express some surprise at not having the intelligence from head-quarters. "For the rest," said he, "it is no doubt the

one.

duty of a mathematician to calculate son bonheur-you have, I presume, made that calculation, and found the solution to be marriage." Lagrange answered "I know not whether I have calculated ill or well, or rather I believe I have not calculated at all, for if I had, I should probably have been like Leibnitz, who by dint of reflecting never resolved. I will confess to you that I have never had any taste for marriage; but circumstances decided me to invite one of my cousins to take care of me and all my concerns-and if I did not write, it was because the thing appeared to me too indifferent to be worth mentioning to you." Condorcet's marriage was a happy After a little observation of the young lady, even the Duchesse d'Enville said to the secretary, nous vous pardonnons. And no wonder, for Madame de Condorcet was eminently an esprit fort. The Biographie des Contemporains adorns the wedding with some romantic details, which Arago rejects. It tells us that the lady had formed a passion which incurred the paternal veto-that when Condorcet addressed her, though she did not conceal her admiration for his talents and society, she avowed her unaltered feelingand that the philosopher, on his part, having been smitten mainly with her mind, proposed that they should be united "upon a Platonic understanding," to which the fair one agreed. We concur with M. Arago in preferring dates on this occasion to the Biographie. The philosopher's wedding was in 1786, and the future Madame O'Connor, whether she was the first-born or not, is mentioned as a girl between five and six years of age in 1793. We are approaching graver events. From the first, Condorcet proclaimed himself enthusiastically for the cause of our American colonists; and when Franklin arrived in Paris, none welcomed him with more zeal-not even Turgot; who, however, reached a felicity of compliment never approached by Condorcet in his famous Inscription:

Eripuit cælo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis."

As that war advanced, Condorcet's language became more and more violent, and as soon as the first streaks of fire appeared on the domestic horizon, he threw himself with equal force into that more interesting

movement.

* The merit of this is hardly lessened by its being only a singularly fortunate imitation of a line in the Cardinal de Polignac's Anti-Lucretius:

Eripuitque Jovi fulmen Phœboque sagittas.

It is stated in various accounts of our philosopher that, liberal as he had always been, his conversion to the Republic was the result of his personal intercourse with Mr. Thomas Paine. But that gentleman did not honor France with his presence until the revolution had passed through several important stages; and M. Arago, though without naming Paine, is anxious to prove a much earlier date for the final orthodoxy of his hero. Turgot died in 1781-and Condorcet's Life of him, though not published till 1786, had probably been in hand all the intervening years. From the date of its appearance, however, there could be little doubt of Condorcet's extreme politics. M. Arago quotes and eulogizes many prominent passages, which, as he tells the Academy, prove that notre confrere's full illumination far preceded the events of 1789. He dwells with particular zeal on the lofty denunciation of nobility in this performance; and we think he is quite warranted in inferring that the Marquis, who condemned aristocracy in 1786, had become in his heart an enemy of monarchy before 1789. Furthermore, if he did not openly proclaim his hostility to the Crown in 1786, or even in 1789, we hope to be pardoned for suspecting that M. Arago (had it pleased him) might have explained that circumstance on sound principles of calculation. ticed Condorcet's share in the grand battle between Turgot and Necker on the cornlaws, and his announcement of his intention to resign the office which Turgot had given him, when that minister was replaced in the Finance department by Necker in 1776. Neither in his Introductory Eloge nor elsewhere does M. Arago intimate the least doubt that the resignation took place accordingly; nor does he drop the remotest hint that Condorcet was ever again connected with the administration of finances. observe-M. Arago reprints five "Mémoires sur les Monnoies which were published in 1790, but he does not reprint the original title-pages (now before us) on which the author designates himself as "M. de Condorcet, Inspecteur-Général des Monnoies." We find him in like manner officially recorded in the "Almanac Royal" for 1789 (prepared of course in 1788) as "InspecteurGénéral des Monnoies "—and his residence is thrice given in that volume as at the "Hôtel des Monnoies." Another authority shall be quoted presently. We suppose, then, there can be no doubt that if he ever did resign the post which he owed to Turgot, Condorcet had found means to reconcile

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himself with Necker before that minister resumed his power in 1788. It is possible enough that he may have been restored to his office by De Brienne: it is certain that he held it under Necker, whose name appears as Finance minister-in-chief on the same page with his own in this Almanac of 1789. Whether he had ever in fact lost connection with the Finance department between 1776 and 1789, we cannot at this moment decide; but even on the former supposition, he had all along, it is to be inferred, retained hopes of recovering such a connection; and, therefore, could hardly be expected to denounce the Crown while the Crown was still the patron. As to the sequel-the office of Inspector of the Mint was abolished in 1790-but Condorcet was immediately afterward appointed a Commissioner of the Treasury-which place he retained to the last, and we have evidence before us that he also continued in his old official residence at least as late as January 1st, 1792. M. Arago may think it absurd to dwell on matters so small as these; but we are at present in a sublunary sphere, and it seems to us not wholly unworthy of note that the philosopher was also a placemanheld a lucrative office under the Crown before the Revolution began, and continued-with a very short, if any, interval-in the enjoyment of it until he incurred the mortal violence of the power which he had aided in the abolition of the Monarchy and abetted in the murder of the King.

If we may trust Madame de Genlis and M. Grimm, the Life of Turgot had at the time but little success.* The Life of Vol

*The Life of Turgot was published at Amsterdam and London in October, 1786. In April, 1787, appeared La Religion considérée comme l'unique base du bonheur et de la véritable Philosophie: ouvrage fait pour servir à l'éducation des Enfants de S. A. S. Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, et dans lequel on réfute les principes des prétendus Philoso phes modernes. Par Mad. la Marquise de Sillery,

ci-devant Mad. la Comtesse de Genlis. In this com

prehensive volume the lady offers the following benevolent remarks on M. de Condorcet's new performance:-"The author, cold, serious, starched, proposes calmly the total overthrow of laws and customs, religious, political, social. He is wild, yet never animated; his madness never rises to delirium--it comes not in fits-it is continual, uniform, phlegmatic-alike extravagant and dull-so monotonous that it excites neither curiosity nor surprise. The fate of the book has been as odd as the book itself: it attacked everything-and it made no noise." Grimm treats the work with equal disrespect; but is fair enough to quote, a few pages lower, part of a new Eloge by Condorcet, in which he amused the Academy by glancing at "the at

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taire, first printed at Geneva in the following year (1787), was, on the contrary, read with universal curiosity and very general approbation. This skillful and noxious specimen of the art which Condorcet had so assiduously cultivated was, in the course of a few months, amalgamated into the great Kelh edition of the works of Voltaire, the Notes to which were chiefly by Beaumarchais (the editor), Decroix, and Condorcet. These last are now printed by themselves, and fill, as we mentioned, a considerable space in Arago's fourth volume. We think it right to copy one of them--"On the Condemnation of Charles I. King of England :”

"The minutes of this procedure have been preserved. A legitimate tribunal which upon such grounds should condemn a ragamuffin to a month of the house of correction, would commit an act of tyranny; and if we add, that neither according to the particular law of England, nor (supposing the English to have been at that time absolutely free) according to any principle of public law which a man of good sense can recognize, could that tribunal be regarded as a legitimate one, we shall have a just idea of this extraordinary judg

ment.

"Charles replied with a moderation and a firmness which do honor to his memory, and contrast with the harshness and the bad faith of his judges.

"It is said that highway robbers, when magistrates fall into their hands, have occasionally had the fancy to subject them to a formal mockery of trial before perpetrating their murder. Nothing can more resemble the conduct of Cromwell and his friends. Nothing but the full atrocity of fanaticism could have hindered that sentence from

producing a rising of all parties, to prevent by general indignation the possibility of its execution; and fanaticism alone has ever ventured to make its apology.”—vol. iv. 172.

How soon after Voltaire's death the commentator began his labor, or in how far he might have been restrained in it by the scruples of others, we cannot say; but this passage--which subsequent incidents invest with a singular importance-does not well harmonize with the ultra-liberalism of the apparently contemporaneous Life of Turgot

and the Notes contain many other things on which we should have expected M. Arago to offer some little explanation. We are, for instance, somewhat scandalized by the contrast between Condorcet's respectful eagerness at the opening of the revolution for the co-operation of the clergy with the tiers état,

tractive orthodoxy of certain admired authoresses who know how to reconcile rigidity of dogma with laxity of manners.”

and a Note of 1787 on the reforms of Joseph | known-nowhere described with such clearII., where, especially praising the reduction of marriage to a civil contract, and the making divorce attainable on the mere request of the married couple, he says, "this great example will be followed by the other nations of Europe when they shall begin to feel that, in matters of legislation, it is not more rational to consult divines than ropedancers."-Ibid. 445.

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ness as in Bailly's own Memoirs. Condorcet's zealous behavior here, together with his activity in pamphlets and journals, especially the success of La Feuille Villageoise, a paper set up and conducted by him in company with the notorious Cerutti, advanced him rapidly in popular favor; and in 1791 both he and Cerutti were elected to the Legislative Assembly by the department of Paris-among the earliest of the triumphs of journalism, afterward so frequent, and so fatal to successive governments.

Condorcet considered himself as having inherited much of the authority of the dead masters whom he had celebrated. When the expectation of an assembly of the States- We have already noticed that he had been General became universal (early in 1788), appointed Commissioner of the Treasury in he published a lofty and detailed conspectus 1790-and we shall not here go into any of of his views as to the proper construction of the small scandal connected with that aplegislative bodies-intimating very distinctly pointment by Rivarol and other censors. that the government of the country was to But the office, having been conferred by the be thenceforth a strictly representative one. Crown, was, under a law of the former AsA large space is given to the needlessness sembly, incompatible with a seat in the new and inconvenience of two chambers! This one. He therefore had to resign his office. publication was of course an announcement But to copy the words of the Lausanne of his own willingness to occupy a place in critic already quoted, who here at least says whatever congregation might result from the nothing but what the public documents conferment of the time. Such pretensions in a firm-"Our philosophical calculator, desirsavant were somewhat contemptuously criti- ous of satisfying at once his pride, his ambicised in certain higher circles where he had tion, and his cupidity, had been making it formerly been patronized. "And is it so the object of his researches to discover some very absurd," writes Condorcet, that a means by which he might sit on the Legislageometrician of 45 should offer his conclu- tive bench and yet be a Commissioner of the sions and his services to his fellow-citizens?" Treasury; and to attain this double result "We have lived certainly," says Arago-in he moved resolutions-1st, that the Legisla1845-"to see it considered as quite a set- torial body should deprive the Crown of the tled point that a man may not only be a fit nomination of all officers connected with the senator, but a fit minister, without having administration of the national treasure; and fait ses preuves in any line of study what- 2ndly, that deputies might hold offices of ever." And we have lived to see M. Arago that class when bestowed by the people”— himself holding at once the two ministries of i. e. by the same usurping Assembly. the Army and the Navy--the least fitted, one should have thought, for a theoretic geometrician. Nay, we have seen the Government, of which he was a member, issue an authoritative circular, signed by another eminent_savant, M. Carnot, as Minister of Public Instruction, proclaiming (March 6, 1848) to the universal constituencies of the French Republic, that ignorance should be no objection to a candidate for the National Assembly!

Condorcet, however, was not selected by any constituency of 1789. He had to console himself with a seat in the Municipality of Paris, whose Mayor was also a savant, his own old competitor at the Academy, the astronomer Bailly. What an active and influential part the civic body took in political discussion while the representatives of the nation were sitting at Versailles, is well

He therefore preserved his place at the Treasury with his seat in the Assembly. They at their first sitting appointed him and his co-journalist Cerutti as two of their Secretaries and he was called to the chair as President, by a majority of near 100, on the 5th February, 1792-the very day that Cerutti's death was announced to the Assembly. In this new dignity his first act was to sign the celebrated Letter to the King, in which the Assembly demanded that the words Sire and Majesty should be dropped, and that when the Chief Magistrate came into the Assembly or received a deputation from it, if he chose to sit or to be covered, these citizens also should be seated and wear their hats on their heads. The composition of this illustrious state-paper was intrusted to a special committee, but there is no doubt that they had called to their assistance the

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