190 condorcet: a biography. 



Perhaps I may be excused if, in this conDection, I divulge from the 

 manuscript of Condorcet the origin of an article of the first charter of 

 our society relating to the nomination of men of rank : 



" When we introduced," said our confrere, " honorary members in the 

 Academy, for fear that true savans might be troubled by the hauteur or 

 abuse of power of the monks, Fontenelle proposed that the class of 

 honorary members should be the only one to which they could be ad- 

 mitted." 



In the hope of inducing the Spanish authorities not to be influenced in 

 their choice of members by the religious principles of candidates, Con- 

 dorcet proposed to them this question : " In an academy composed of the 

 heathen Aristotle, the Brahmin Pythagoras, the Mussulman Alhasen, 

 the Catholic Descartes, the Jansenist Pascal, the Ultramontane Cassini, 

 the Calvinist Huygens, the Anglican Bacon, the Arian Newton, the De- 

 ist Leibnitz, would there be any question of preference in regard to sect? 

 Think you there would be consideration in such an assembly for any- 

 thing but pure geometry and physics f 



Condorcet aspired at Madrid not only to secure for the director of the 

 academy extended authority and large prerogatives; he desired, to 

 use his own words, " to free the savans from the indignity, especially 

 distasteful to them, of being under the protection of subalterns — an evil, 

 in fact, of all times and all countries." 



If the memoir of Condorcet ever sees the day, i: may be considered that 

 he i^ronouuced too absolutely against the admission of foreigners among 

 the resident members of the academies. If so, history may say in his 

 defense that when he wrote it, the French Government was prodi- 

 gal of its favors to foreigners of moderate ability, while it neglected 

 men of superior talent born in the country. Witness, for example, an 

 Italian, — Boscovich, jjrovided with a large pension by the same ministers 

 who refused to d'Alembert, notwithstanding his genius, and contrary 

 to all rule, the reversibility of 1,200 livres of revenue, proceeding from 

 the succession of Clairaut. See also this same individual, who is men. 

 tioned very slightingly by Lagrange and d'Alembert in the letters I have 

 in hand, attempting to enter the Academy without waiting for a vacancy 

 and on the point of success, thanks to the foolish admiration entertained 

 for any one with a foreign termination to his name.* 



Until 1770 Condorcet seemed desirous of confining his attention ex- 

 clusively to mathematical and economical studies. After this period he 

 threw himself into the world of literature. There will be no hesitation 

 in discerning the cause of this revolution, when we remark that it 

 coincides in date with the journey made by d'Alembert and Condorcet to 

 Ferney, the home of Voltaire. Upon his return the young academician 

 of twenty-seven years wrote to Turgot, intendant of Limousin, " I found 

 Voltaire so full of activity and enthusiasm that one would be tempted 

 to believe him immortal, if a slight injustice towards Rousseau and too 

 *Thi8 paragraph scarcely does justice to the distinguished Italian physicist. 



