184 condokcet: a biogkaphy. 



Wo cau liardly mention in the vast domain of science more than eight 

 or ten important discoveries wliich have not required the successive ef- 

 forts of several generations of savans. Unhaj^pily, inventors, from a mis- 

 taken feeling of self-love, are not ready to acknowledge to the historians 

 of science tbe sources from which they have borrowed; they desire more 

 to astonish than to instruct. They do not see it is far better to confess 

 loyally their indebtedness than to incur the suspicion of bad faith. 



In the sciences of observation every course of stones composing a 

 complete edifice is more or less apparent. Books, academic collections, 

 tell when and by whom these courses have been laid. The ]niblic may 

 count the stages which must be surmounted by him to whom is reserved 

 the ha{)i)iness of laying the cap-stone. Each has his appropriate share 

 of glory in the work of centuries. 



Such is not the case with pure mathematics. The filiation of methods 

 often escapes the most practised eye ; at each step we find processes, 

 theories without apparent connection with any which precede. Certain 

 geometers move majestically in the upper regions of space, while it is 

 not easy to say who prepared the road for their ascent. We may add 

 that this road is usually established upon a scaffolding taken care of 

 by no one when the road is comi)leted. To collect scattered debris is a 

 task unpleasant, ungrateful, and without glory, and, for this triple rea- 

 son, is seldom undertaken. 



The savans who devote themselves to pure mathematics without at- 

 taining the first rank must resign themselves to all these disadvantages. 

 I have not yet mentioned the most important; it results from the neces- 

 sity the historian of mathematics experiences of divesting his mind en- 

 tirely of the light of his own century in judging of the works of former 

 times. To this may be principally attributed the fact that Condorcet 

 has never taken his true rank among geometers, and it is also on 

 account of this difficulty that I have shrunk from the obligation of de- 

 scribing in a few lines the numerous mathematical works of our former 

 secretary . Happily, as I have already said, I have in my hands unpub- 

 lished articles of Lagrange, of d'Alembert, in which the memoirs of Con- 

 dorcet ate noticed at the time of their publication. Condorcet was thus 

 judged by men of the utmost competence; an advantage by no means 

 always secured to mathematical workers in the appreciation they receive 

 from their contemporaries. 



The first work of Condorcet, his Integral calculus, was examined by 

 an academical committee, in May, 1765. The rei)ort of it, presented by 

 d'Alembert, ends thus: "This work indicates great talent and deserves 

 the approbation of the Academy." 



Certain superficial critics, who scarcely looked at the work of Condor- 

 cet, spoke of it with ridicule and contempt, undoubtedly considering that 

 the reporter of the academical committee treated it with culpable indul- 

 gence; and they seemed to have referred the matter to Lagrange, for 

 this great geometer wrote to d'Alembert the 6th day of July, 1765 : "The 



