CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 213 



the right to give immutable hiws. We h<ave lost the art of working 

 miracles and of making oracles speak. The Pythoness of Delphos and 

 the thunders of Sinai have for ages been reduced to silence. The legis- 

 lators of to-day are but men, who can give to men — their equals, only 

 laws as fleeting as themselves." 



The first functions of a political order exercised by Condorcet were 

 those of member of the municipality of Paris. In this capacity he 

 was the author of the celebrated address presented by the city to tlie 

 constituent assembly, to demand the reform of a very important law, 

 the law which had just been passed, and which made the right of citi- 

 zenship and the other political rights to depend upon the quota of its 

 contributions. The remonstrances of Condorcet and his colleagues 

 were not without effect. 



Condorcet was still exercising his municipal functions when he de- 

 manded, this time in his own name, that the King should always select 

 his ministers from a list of those qualified, the formation of which 

 should be one of the principal prerogatives of the representative as- 

 sembly. Would such a process prevent a bad selection ? I certainly 

 hesitate to affirm it. I am certain that the list of candidates would 

 be very difficult to make, and would compel laborious investigation. 



Condorcet was much more in sympathy with the actual world when he 

 pointed out the dangers attached to the creation of assignats, when he 

 indicated almost infallible means for obviating all the inconveniences of 

 this paper money. 



The flight of the King and the circumstances of his return threw dis- 

 couragement over the minds of the most decided partisans of the mon- 

 archial system. La Kochefoucauld, Dupont de Nemours, and others, 

 even held meetings where the means of establishing a republic without too 

 great violence were very seriously discussed. This project was after- 

 wards completely abandoned. Condorcet, an active member of these 

 extra-parliamentary debates, did not consider himself bound by the 

 decisions of the majority to keep secret the opinions he had given ; 

 he allowed his speeches to be read at the Cercle Social, and this assem- 

 bly caused them to be printed. From this time dates the unhappy 

 rupture which suddenly, and without hope of restoration, separated 

 him from his best, his oldest friends, and in particular from La Eoche- 

 foucauld. 



When the questions which the arrest of Varennes inevitably raised 

 reached the national tribune, Condorcet, although he was not a 

 member of the assembly, became in it an object of attacks and of 

 violent personal abuse. The illustrious publicist admitted without 

 hesitation that his opinions might be in part erroneous; but con- 

 sidering the character of those who made such fierce war against 

 him, their disdain excited his surprise. "Was it excessively ridicu- 

 lous," he asked himself (1 copy here a passage from a manuscript), 

 " that a geometer of lorty-eight years, who lor nearly a third of a cen- 



