condorcet: a biography. 235 



seemed inexplicable. To-day I find the explanation in an nnpnblished 

 letter addressed to Turgot. The secretary of tbe Academy would not 

 pay even the semblance of respect to a man whom he was far from 

 respecting. 



Condorcet acknowledged his faults and the errors he committed with 

 a frankness of which the following brief ilicideiit is an example: "Do 

 you know," said some one to him, " the circumstances which caused the 

 rupture between Jean Jacques and Diderot I" "No," he answered, "I 

 only know that Diderot is an excellent man, and whoever involved him 

 in dissension was wrong!" "But it was yourself"?" "Then I was 

 wrong!" 



In the edition of Pascal's thoughts, by the author of Merope, I find 

 this note ofCondorcet: "The expression, 'honest men,' signified originally 

 men of probity' ; in the time of Pascal, it indicated men of good society; 

 now it is applied to men of title or of money." "No," said Voltaire, 

 addressing himself to the annotator, "the honest men are those at 

 whose head you stand." 



To justify this exclamation, since it seemed to me the expression of 

 truth, has been my object in writing these pages. 1 shall be happy if 

 the portrait I have traced of the illustrious perpetual secretary of the 

 ancient Academy of Sciences has dissipated the very cruel prejudices, 

 neutralized the effects of the more detestable calumnies which have in- 

 jured his memory ; if, with those who enjoyed the intimacy ofCondorcet, 

 I have made you see in him a man who has honored science by his 

 labors, France by his high qualities, humanity by his virtues. 



