204 CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 



With the mind free from prejudice I have asked myself if, under the 

 circumstances, our confrere overstepped the bounds of proper criticism. 

 I suppose no one will contest his right, which he used, conscientiously, 

 to call the work of Keeker a mere translation of the celebrated dia- 

 logues of the Abbe Galiani into prosy 'and pompous language, or to 

 refer in this connection to the Greek statue, graceful and beautiful, 

 which an emperor caused to be gilded and so ruined its beauty ; but this 

 aside, in going over the work of tbe former secretary of the Academy I 

 find only one note that could have excited the auger of the warmest 

 partisans of Keeker. This note mentions a certain nobleman, designated, 

 however, only by his initials, who had made a bad translation of Tibullus. 

 The friends of Condorcet, uneasy lest the criticism they foresaw would 

 trouble him, endeavored to console him. " Do not fear for my reputa- 

 tion as an author," he said to them ; " I have just taken a better cook." 



Such in substance was the terrible epigram which disturbed the court 

 and the city, which brought discord even into the bosom of the two 

 Academies, and which endangered the liberty of our conirere. I was 

 disposed to blame Condorcet. It seemed to me that his hostile atti- 

 tude was assumed on insuflicient grounds; that Keeker and his adher- 

 ents had not used in regard to him or Turgot injurious language, but I 

 was mistaken. 



Buffbn wrote to the celebrated banker " I do not understand this 

 liospital jargon — these beggars whom we call economists." Keeker ac- 

 cused the same writers " of seeking to deceive others, and of imposing 

 even upon themselves." He described them as imbeciles, and even for- 

 got his dignity so far as to call them ferocious beasts. 



It is for the reader to decide whether any one has a right to complain 

 who, after using a dagger upon his adversary, received in return only 

 the prick of a pin. 



I have told how Condorcet entered into the administration of the cur- 

 rency ; his manner of leaving this important post was not less noble. 

 As soon as Keeker became comptroller-general of the finances, our confrere 

 wrote to M. de Maurepas, " I have pronounced my opinion too posi- 

 tively of the works of Keeker and of his character to retain any place 

 which depends upon his disposal. I should dislike to be dismissed, but 

 still more to be retained in office, by a man of whom I have spoken as 

 my couseience has forced me to speak of M. Keeker. Permit me to place 

 in your hands my resignation." 



Condorcet did not so exhaust his ire agaiust contemporary heresies, 

 as to have none left to combat the errors of ancient writers, even the 

 most illustrious. 



Ko one is ignorant that Pascal was occupied a few years before his 

 death with a work intended as a defense of the truth of the Christian 

 religion. This work was not finished. D'Arnaud and Kicole published 

 extracts from it under the title of Pascal's Thoughts upon Religion and upon 

 other Subjects. Condorcet, suspecting that this work had been brought 



