182 CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 



the gate of Saint Denis. The father of Condorcet, M. Caritat, a captain 

 of cavalry, originally the Dauphin's, was the younger brother of the 

 prelate whom we see successively from 1741 bishop of Gap, of Auxerre, 

 and of Lisieux. He was also related to the cardinal of Bernis and the 

 famous archbishop of Vienna, M. d'Yse of Saleon, who while bishop of 

 Eodez made himself so prominent in the council of Embrun by his 

 warm support of the Jesuits. 



Condorcet had hardly attained his fourth year when he lost his 

 father. The widow of Captain Caritat was very devotional in her 

 tendencies. As, in her opinion, an infallible means of protecting her 

 only son from the dangers of youth, she dedicated him to the Virgin 

 and to the wearing of white garments. Condorcet accordingly wore 

 for eight years the costume of a girl. This singular circumstance, as 

 an effectual interdiction of all gymnastic exercises, retarded greatly the 

 development of his physical powers. It also i^revented him from enter- 

 ing the public schools, since a boy in petticoats could not fail to be an 

 object of derision. 



When he had attained his eleventh year, his uncle placed him nnder 

 the care of one of the members of that celebrated Society of Jesus, 

 around which began already to gather the political storm. 



Not to trespass upon your time, permit me here a reflection. Madame 

 Caritat de Condorcet, in the excess of her maternal love, subjected the 

 childhood of the future secretary of the Academy to practices tending in 

 more than one respect to superstition. The young Condorcet, as soon 

 as he opened his eyes, was surrounded by a family composed of the 

 highest dignitaries of the church and military ofi&cers, whose ideas were 

 without exception aristocratic ; his first guides, his first instructors, were 

 Jesuits. Behold the result of so unusual a concourse of circumstances. 

 In politics, a complete rejection of all idea of hereditary prerogative ; 

 in religion, scepticism carried to its utmost limits. This reflection con- 

 firmed by many observations of a similar character history can furnish, 

 should it not calm somewhat the ardor with which political and relig- 

 ious parties, setting aside the rights of families, dispute by turns the 

 monopoly of public instruction. Such a monopoly is dangerous only in 

 a country where thought is chained ; with the liberty of the press, 

 reason, whatever may be done, will finally assert itself. 



In the month of August, Condorcet, then thirteen years of age, car- 

 ried off the second prize in the institution the Jesuits had established 

 at Reims. In 1758 he commenced at Paris his mathematical studies, at 

 the College of Navarre. His success was brilliant and rapid, for at the 

 end of ten months he maintained a very difficult analytical thesis with 

 so much distinction, that Clairaut, d'Alembert, and Fontaine, who ex- 

 amined him, saluted him as a future member of the Academy. 



Such a horoscope from persons so eminent decided the future of the 

 young mathematician. In spite of the resistance he foresaw on the 

 part of his family, he resolved to devote himself to the pursuit of science, 



