200 • CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 



the influence of their century. But I do not know in truth what influ- 

 ence Condorcet would have obeyed if he had substituted elaborate 

 phrases for the technical expressions that I'Hopital, even with his poet 

 hand, employed, if he had used ornamental style apropos of farthingales, 

 of billets of wood, and little patties. 



Voltaire certainly did not agree with La Harpe and his friends in their 

 opinion of Condorcet, for, on the 3d of October, 1777, he writes to M. 

 de Values, '' I have just read, with great satisfaction, I'Hopital, by 

 Condorcet; all that he does bears the mark of a superior mind." I find 

 expressions no less significant in an unpublished letter of Franklin : " I 

 have read with extreme pleasure your excellent eulogy of I'Hopital. 

 I knew before that you were a great mathematician ; now I consider you 

 one of the first statesmen of Europe." Such praise is surely equal in 

 value to an academic reward. 



"The Lettre dhin Theologien to the author of the Dictionnaire des trois 

 Siecles is one of the most piquant articles published for several years. 

 This pamphlet, unaccompanied by the name of the author, has been 

 generally attributed to the illustrious patriarch of Ferney. Never has he 

 been more happy in his criticisms, never more good-natured in his rail- 

 lery." It is in such terms that a correspondence since published and be- 

 come celebrated announced, in 1774, the anonymous i^amphlet of Con- 

 dorcet. 



Voltaire, to whom the authorship was then unknown, thus writes to 

 our (ionfrere on the 20th of August, 1774 : " There are, in the Letter of 

 a Theologian, passages of humor, as well as of eloquence, worthy of 

 Pascal." He then proceeds to prove that, notwithstanding a prevalent 

 opinion, the Abbe de Voisenon could uot be the author of a piece so 

 remarkable. As to himself (Voltaire), he ought not to be suspected of it, 

 for the letter indicates a profound knowledge of mathematics; and, he 

 adds, "In consequence of the trouble I experienced with the elements 

 of Newton, I renounced, forty years ago, that class of studies." 



The audacity of the Letter of a Theologian, since he was suspected of 

 writing it, caused Voltaire great uneasiness, and he took every occasion 

 to disown its authorship. " I do not wish," he said, "at the age of 

 eighty-three to die elsewhere than in my bed." He thus speaks of it to 

 M. d'Argental (August 17, 1774) : " One could not be more eloquent 

 nor yet more foolhardy. This work, as dangerous as it is admirable, 

 will undoubtedly furnish means of attack to the enemies of philosophy. 

 * * * 1 desire neither the glory of having written the Letter of a 

 Theologian nor the punishment which will follow it. I am sorry that so 

 good a cause has been injured by being defended with too much spirit." 

 Again Voltaire writes: "How could any one dare, unless in command 

 of two hundred thousand soldiers, to publish so audacious a work ?" 



If he took every occasion, as we have said, and every waj' to declare 

 that he was not tbe author of the Letter of a Theologian, mark well, this 

 was because he needed repose and feared persecution ; not because his 



