216 condorcet: a biography. 



liberty, ratber tban to suppress armorial bearings, to permit every one, 

 the plebeian, the artisan, the beggar, as well as the noble, to assume 

 them if so inclined. 



The law for the abolition of titles of nobility contained notbing spe- 

 cific concerning the penalties attached to its infringement. Sucb a law, 

 a law without proper sanction, is never observed in any country, and 

 soon falls into disuse. It was, no doubt, to recall to mind its existence, 

 that on the anuivers.iry of the day on which it was passed by the con- 

 stituent assembly, the I9tb of June, 1792, the legislative assembly at 

 Paris caused to be burned a large quantity of brevets or diplomas of 

 dukes, marquises, vidames, &c. The flame was still burning at the foot 

 of the statue of Louis XIV ; the last contribution to it was, perhaps, 

 tbe original title of the Marquis Caritat de Condorcet, when the heirs 

 of this family demanded of the national tribune tbat the same measure 

 should be extended to all France. Tbe proposition was unanimously 

 adopted. 



This proposition has been textually inserted in tbe Moniteur* It 

 evidently relates only to titles of nobility. A decided partisan for unity 

 in tbe legislative power, Condorcet hoped to defeat his adversaries 

 (who still meditated tbe creation of two chambers,) by tbe destruc- 

 tion of certain parchments which they seemed inclined to consult when 

 composing tbe personnel of tbeir senate. The artifice was perbaps 

 shabby, puerile. Still it does not authorize an illustrious writer, the 

 bouor of our literature, to present it as the immediate cause of tbe 

 abandonment of certain historical works, because these works had 

 ceased entirely a year before, in 1791. It still less authorizes a serious 

 journal, and of recent date, to tell us tbat tbe new Omar, Condorcet, 

 caused to be burned tbe extensive records of the learned associations, 

 for these records were not burned; tbe proposition can be read as 

 Condorcet made it, and it refers absolutely only to titles of nobility; 

 for (and this moral argument is in my eyes even stronger tban pos- 

 itive facts and dates) there never could have existed a French cham- 

 ber, whether created by a monarch or by tbe populace, with elections of 

 any order, which would have sanctioned by a unanimous vote tbe bar- 

 barous, anti-literary, anti-historic, anti-national act, so lightly attrib- 

 uted to the former secretary of the Academy. 



It is at about this epoch, and not after tbe condemnation of Louis 

 XVI, as has erroneously been supposed, tbat, by the formal order of 

 Catherine and Frederick William, tbe name of Condorcet was effaced 

 from tbe list of members composing tbe academies of St. Petersburg and 

 of Berlin. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I have not been able to dis- 

 cover whether these two acts of disapproval distressed to any great de- 

 gree our secretary. Not a line, not a single word of bis numerous man- 

 uscripts and printed works refers to this event. Condorcet imagined 

 perhaps, tbat as tbe imperial and royal confirmations added little to tbe. 

 * See the discourse oi Condorcet, of tbe 19th of June, 1792. 



