Some Account of the Life and Writings of Condorce.t. 89 



blamed indiscriminately every thing Avhich took place at a cer- 

 tain period, and every thing which certain persons have written, 

 and wlio think, hesides, that philosophers ought to be awarded 

 the right of separating their theories from the abuses to which 

 they are subject, in the same vray as the truly religious have a 

 right to distinguish bet^^•een the precepts of the gospel and the 

 crimes of fanaticism. They will there find a great number of 

 things which the rational part of the community in all ages 

 ought to approve ; and they will feel with the author, that " to 

 say we are without affections and without prejudices in the 

 midst of the greatest interests which can agitate mankind, is 

 to boast of a virtue which human nature can never attain, it is to 

 confess oneself either indifterent or a hvpocrite." 



If some of his jjolitical opinions seem to have varied with 

 circumstances, his philosophy always remained the same ; and 

 although he lias not drawn up a special Treatise, it would be 

 possible by collecting the results scattered over his various writ- 

 ings, particularly in his Life of Voltaire, in the notes with which 

 he has enriched the complete edition of the works of that great 

 man, and in his reports upon public education presented to the 

 Convention ; it might be possible, I say, to compose a Syllabus 

 which should embrace the most important questions in meta- 

 physics and morals. The foundation of this philosophy is scep- 

 ticism ; but a graduated scepticism, which weighing with ex- 

 actness the various probabilities of our opinions, sliows the true 

 bases upon which they rest, and how these probabilities, in- 

 creasing with the repetition of observations and the frequency 

 of phzenomena, may approach certainty indefinitely in every 

 thing connected with the knowledge and determinations truly 

 essential to our existence and preservation. 



In order to make known the character of Condorcet, and 

 even in some measure his exterior dejjortment, which gives some 

 idea of it, we shall quote a passage from the Correspondence of 

 Grimm (tome ii. p. 430, first edition). " He is a very great 

 genius, full of reason and pliilosophy ; on his visage reside calm- 

 ness and tranquilhty; goodness sparkles in his eyes. He would 

 be the worst man in the world, if he was not an honest man ; 

 for he would deceive every body by his phvsiognomy, which an- 

 nounces the gentlest and most beneficent qualities. But his 

 character does not belie his figure, and his friends call him, pur 

 excellence, the good Condorcet. There reigns throughout his 

 eloges a great deal of mind with much simplicity." To the 

 above we may add, that timid and even much embarrassed in a 

 numerous circle, he displayed a mild and sprightly turn among 

 his friends, and those whom he admitted to be familiar with 

 him. He seemed completely to forget the advantages given 



him 



