224 condorcet: a biography. 



army upon her dwelling-place of Auteuil. Upon the demand of the sol- 

 diers she reproduced their features with the pencil or the brush. She 

 exercised over them the fascination of her talents, and almost converted 

 them into protectors. As soon as i)ainting ceased to be remunerative, 

 Madam Condorcet, exempt from prejudices, did not hesitate to open a 

 store for lingerie. Later she became the skilful translator of the work 

 of Adam Smith upon the moral sentiments, and published, herself, some 

 letters upon sympathy equally worthy of esteem on account of their 

 delicacy of perception and their elegance of style. 



The first steps, the first successes, of Madam Condorcet in the career 

 of personal abnegation and courageous devotion we have just described 

 were a balm to the almost fainting heart of the unhappy proscript. He 

 felt himself inspired for jiersevering and laborious work. The force, 

 the clearness of his mind were not less perfect in the retreat guarded by 

 the heroic humanity of Madame Vernet than they were twenty years 

 before, when he was secretary of the Academy, of Sciences. 



The first work written by Condorcet in his seclusion has never been 

 printed. I will quote the opening lines: 



"As 1 cannot know whether 1 shall survive the present crisis," writes 

 the illustrious philosopher, " I consider it a duty to my wife, my child, 

 and my friends, who may sutler from the calumnies attached to my 

 memory, to give a simple exposition of my priucii)les and my conduct 

 during the revolution." 



Cabanis and Garat were mistaken when they affirmed in the introduc- 

 tion to the Sketch of the progress of the human mind that their friend wrote 

 only a few lines of this exposition. The manuscript consists of forty- 

 one closely-written pages, and embraces nearlj- the whole of the public 

 career of Condorcet. As secretary of the Academy of Moral and Polit- 

 ical Sciences, I should perhaps transcribe the whole of this writing, in 

 which the candor, the good faith, and the sincerity of our confrere are so 

 brilliantly manifested ; but the specialties of the Academy of Sciences 

 exclude such details. Nevertheless, as it is the manifest duty not only for 

 all academicians but all citizens to free our national history, our common 

 patrimony, from the miserable stains the action of a limited party have 

 impressed upon her, I will give the opinion of Condorcet in regard to 

 the massacres of September : 



" The massacres of the 2d of September," he writes, " a stain upon our 

 revolution, were the work of the folly, the ferocity, of a few men, and 

 not of the people, who endeavored not to see what they were unable to 

 prevent. The factious party, few in number, to whom these deplorable 

 events ought to be attributed, were artful enough to paralyze the public 

 power, to deceive the citizens and the national assembly. They were 

 resisted feebly and without system, because the true condition of affairs 

 was not understood." 



Is it not a pleasure, gentlemen, to find the people, the true people of 

 Paris, exonerated from all responsibility in the odious butchery, by a 



