214 CONDORCET: A BIOGRAPHY. 



tury had studied political science, who was the first perhaps to apply 

 mathematical calculation to this science, should be permitted to have a 

 personal opinion upon questions debated in the constituent assembly?" 

 Parliamentary customs were not yet fully developed. Condorcet could 

 not divine that a day would come when, in order to be allowed to speak 

 upon all subjects, it should be imperatively necessary to have made no 

 special study of any. 



In 1791, after quitting the municipality of Paris, Condorcet became one 

 of the six commissioners of the national treasury. The memoirs which 

 he published at this period would occupy a prominect place in the eulogy 

 of an author less fruitful and less celebrated. Embarrassed by want of 

 time and abundance of material, I cannot even mention their titles. 



Condorcet, having renounced towards the latter months of 1791 the 

 place of commissioner of the treasury, went to Paris as candidate for the 

 legislative assembly. Never was there a candidate more violently op- 

 posed, never did the venal press indulge in more libels. It was my duty 

 to investigate and weigh these emanations of party spirit; but I should 

 weary my audience if I attempted to gi%'e an analysis of them. I must 

 confess that, amidst the torrent of calumnies and absurd accusations, 

 there was one assertion made in such a clear and categorical manner 

 that in the absence of an equally formal denial, which I could nowhere 

 find, the wrong attributed to our confrere made me really uneasy. 

 Thanks to the respectable M. Cardot, for a long time Condorcet's secre- 

 tary, all clouds of doubt have di sappeared. Condorcet, said his accuser, 

 visited the court nightly, and especially Monsieur, brother to the King, 

 even at the time when he was attacking them in his writings, and then 

 follow the names of persons who could testify to these clandestine com- 

 munications. "Yes! yes!" cried the chief clerk of our secretary, when 

 I consulted him, " I remember that grave imputation, but I remember 

 also that it was proved that the mysterious nocturnal visitor was not 

 Condorcet, but Count d'Ursay, master of the household of MonsienrP 

 You see, gentlemen, in times of political animosity, how easily the repu- 

 tation of the most honest man may be compromised. 



Hardly had he been nominated to the legislative assembly when he 

 became one of its secretaries. Later he was raised to its presidency. 

 Timidity, great feebleness of the lungs, the impossibility of preserving 

 his sangfroid and presence of mind amidst the noise, agitation, and 

 tumultuous movements of a large concourse kept him away from the 

 tribune, which he mounted only on rare occasions, but whenever the 

 assembly wished to make a serious and impressive address to the French 

 people, the army, to interior factions, or foreign nations, it was always 

 Condorcet who became its ofiQcial organ. 



During his legislative career Condorcet gave especial attention to the 

 organization of public instruction. The fruit of his reflections upon 

 this important subject are recorded in five memoirs, published in the 



