Some Account of the Life and Wr'itlngs of Condorcet. S3 



"he endeavoured in the Hoses which issued from his pen, to pro- 

 mulgate those reflections of a general interest, which have not 

 only for their object to diminish tlie dryness of ths matter, b it 

 to form the public ojiinion as to every thing- which might \vx\e. 

 a tendency to improve the state of society. In these produc- 

 tions we may see that philosophic sj)irit which Condorcet had 

 imbibed from the writings of Voltaire, and tlie friendship of 

 D'Alemhert. 



While thus cultivating a talent for composition, he seized upon 

 the species of magistracy which must without fail l)e exercised 

 in the republic of letters by a learned man who acts as a kind 

 of interpreter to the elite of the learned in an enlightcied 

 country, when he unites the charms of st}le and cle;inie.is of 

 detail to grandeur of vie\vs, a magistracy which had been va- 

 cant since the retreat of Fontenelle from public life. The ta- 

 lents of these two celebrated men differ like tlie spirit of the 

 several aeras at which they entered upon public life. When 

 Fontenelle undertook the History of the Academy, the cidtiva- 

 tion of the sciences was still little diffused : fearing; therefore to 

 embark in details which would have been interesting to a small 

 number of auditors, he dissembled under ingenious comparisons 

 rather than elucidated the difficulties of the su))ject. To make 

 friends every where to the new doctrines, by enabling the mass 

 of the people to catch at certain points, to perceive in them 

 some shade of the useful or agreeable, and to adorn their con- 

 vtrsation with some brilliant sallies, these were his objects. He 

 proposed also gradually to sap those prejudices from wliich his 

 o^ni excellent understanding had freed and guarded him ; but his 

 prudence and the period at which he lived permitted him to 

 make indirect attacks only. When the Academy intrusted the 

 office of Secretary to Condorcet, things were greatly altered. 

 The progress of education had considerably increased the num- 

 ber of persons who were acquainted with the sciences : he could 

 therefore explain the new discoveries in language which united 

 elegance with precision. On the other hand, the love of know- 

 ledge, or at least the desire of showing it, had become as it were 

 the national spirit, and public opinion was powerful enough to 

 protect the writer who knew how to express useful truths in an 

 eloquent manner. Nothing, therefore, pre%'ented these truths 

 being clearlv developed as often as occasion presented ; and 

 Condorcet possessed an energy of character which would not 

 allow anything to escape him : this was to him, as it is to every 

 friend of humanity, an imperious duty, as he has most eloquently 

 depicted at the commencement of his t/oge en Chancellor de 

 I'Hdpital. 



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