202 • CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 



utmost abhorrence. Ifl bad timeand space Icould here transcribe a quite 

 recent letter from M. Clarkson,in wliichthis venerable gentleman renders 

 touching homage to the active efforts of Condorcet in behalf of the holy 

 crusade against this cruel practice, which had absorbed his long life. It 

 is therefore very appropriate that our David has placed among the bas- 

 reliefs of his beautiful statue of Gutteuberg the noble figure of the former 

 secretary of the Academy, as one of the most ardent enemies of the 

 shameful brigandage, which for two centuries depopulated and corrui^ted 

 the African continent. 



At the death of Louis XV the public voice called Turgot to the minis- 

 try. First the marine was confided to him ; a month after (August 21, 

 1774), the finances. In his new and brilliant position Turgot did not 

 forget the intimate confidant of his economical and philosophical thoughts; 

 he appointed Condorcet comptroller of currency. Condorcet accepted 

 this favor in terms worthy to be recorded. 



" It is said in a certain quarter that you are very generous with the 

 public funds when you desire to oblige your friends. I should be sorry 

 to give these foolish words any appearance of foundation. I pray you 

 therefore do nothing for me in the way of remuneration just now. 

 Although not rich, I am not pressed. Let me fill the place; trust me 

 with some important work ; wait until my efforts have truly deserved a 

 reward.'' 



Turgot during his ministry conceived, in 1775, a general plan for the 

 interior navigation of the kingdom. This plan embraced a vast system 

 of works for the improvement of the small as well as the large rivers, 

 and for the excavation of canals to unite the natural ways of communi- 

 cation. The celebrated minister, in this important matter, had to defend 

 himself equally from the lovers of display, from those who seeing certain 

 rivers separated on the map by only a little white paper, draw lines 

 from one to the other and call these meaningless scratches their plans; 

 from those, finally, who do not know how to gauge the power of running 

 water, nor how to calculate its effects. Therefore he hastened to attach 

 to the administration three geometers of the Academy of Sciences, 

 d'Alembert, Condorcet, and Bossut. Their mission was to examine 

 plans and to supply any hydrographic information that might be required. 



These operations, undertaken on so grand a scale, were stopped by 

 Turgot's pecuniary inability to pursue them. Notwithstanding their 

 short continuance they have left enduring results, although perhaps in 

 more than one instance the counsel, contained in a memoir of Condorcet, 

 was not sufficiently regarded : " Trust only such men who, could they 

 join the Loire to the Yellow Eiver of China, would feel no vanity on that 

 account, but consider that a little zeal and some knowledge was all that 

 had been necessary to accomplish the work." 



The following extract from a letter of d'Alembert to Lagrange will 

 appropriately end the brief notice just given of the works executed by 

 the three geometers, the friends of Turgot : 



