CONDORCET CONDOTTIER1. 



389 



of one of the oldest families in Dauphiny. By the 

 assistance of his uncle Jacques Marie de Condorcet, 

 bishop of Lisieux, he was educated in the college of 

 Navarre, at Paris. At a public examination, which 

 was attended by D'Alembert, Clairaut and Fontaine, 

 the manner in which he solved a mathematical pro- 

 position gained their applause, and the youth of six- 

 teen was so much excited by their praises, that, from 

 that time, he resolved to devote himself entirely to 

 the exact sciences. The duke of Rochefoucault was 

 his patron, and introduced him into the world at the 

 age of nineteen. But its allurements could not 

 render him unfaithful to the severe studies which he 

 had chosen. At the age of twenty-one, he presented 

 to the academy of sciences an Essai sur le Calcul In- 

 tegral, which caused Fontaine to observe, that he was 

 jealous of the young man. His Memoire sur le Prob- 

 lems des Trois Points appeared in 1767. Both works 

 were afterwards united under the title of Essais 

 d 'Analyse. The merit of this work gained for him, 

 in 1769, the distinction of a seat in the academy of 

 sciences. With astonishing facility and versatility, 

 Condorcet treated the most difficult problems in ma- 

 thematics ; but his genius inclined him rather to lay 

 down beautiful formulas than to pursue them to use- 

 ful applications. Condorcet also wrote academical 

 eulogies, as Fontenelle's talents in this department 

 were very much missed. Although his Eloges des 

 Academiciens morts avant 1699 (Paris, 1773) leave 

 much to be desired, yet they were received with so 

 much applause, that the place of secretary of the 

 academy, in 1777, was not refused to him even by his 

 rivals. This office imposed on him the necessity of 

 investigating the various departments of the sciences 

 (the most distinguished promoters of which he was 

 obliged to eulogize), in order to be able to exhibit the 

 latest discoveries ; but he did not allow himself to be 

 drawn away from his mathematical studies. His 

 theory of comets gamed, in 1777, the prize offered by 

 the academy of Berlin, and he enriched the transac- 

 tions of the learned societies of Petersburg, Berlin, 

 Bologna, Turin, and Paris with profound contribu- 

 tions in the department of the higher mathematics. 

 The aversion of the minister Maurepas to Condorcet 

 delayed his entrance into the French academy till 

 1782. His inaugural discourse was on the advan- 

 tages which society may derive from the union of the 

 physical and moral sciences. Being intimately con- 

 nected with Turgot, he was led into a thorough 

 examination of the system of the economists, and his 

 acquaintance with D'Alembert made lu'm take an 

 active part in the Encyclopedic, for which he wrote 

 many articles. He was die friend of most of the 

 contributors to this great work. In all his writings 

 he displays an exalted view of human nature a 

 circumstance much to his honour, considering the 

 character of those with whom he was associated. 

 This feeling determined him in favour of the cause 

 of. the American colonies during their contest with 

 Britain. He was also a friend of the enslaved 

 negroes, and was anxious for their restoration to free- 

 dom (Reflections sur I'Esclavage des Negres). In 

 1787, Condorcet published Voltaire's Life, a sort of 

 sequel to the complete edition of Voltaire's works, 

 which he had given to the world with notes and 

 illustrations, and therein expressed the admiration 

 which the versatility of talent and the zeal in the 

 cause of humanity of tins great man liad awakened 

 in him. Meanwhile his opinions of the rights of citi- 

 zens and of men, estranged lu'm from the duke of 

 Rochefoucault, his former benefactor. His enemies 

 have asserted that the refusal of the post of instructor 

 to the dauphin induced him to join the popular party. 

 The real cause was his enthusiasm for the great and 

 good. He wrote in favour of the popular cause, 



Stir les Assemblies provinciates, subsequently in the 

 Bibliotheque de f Homme public and the Feuilte villa- 

 geoise. Under a cold exterior, he possessed the most 

 ardent passions. D'Alembert compared him to a 

 volcano covered with snow. His Feuille villageoise, 

 in which he simply stated the first principles of poli- 

 tical economy, and of the relations of states, exerted 

 considerable influence. On the intelligence of the 

 flight of the king, he represented, in a speech which 

 was highly admired, the royal dignity as an anti-so- 

 cial institution. The royal treasury, of which he 

 was appointed, hi 1791, commissary, received, at his 

 suggestion, the name of national treasury. He was 

 finally elected a deputy of Paris to the legislative, as- 

 sembly, and very soon, though his bodily strength 

 seemed inadequate for the office, he was chosen 

 secretary of the assembly. In February, 1792, he 

 was appointed president; composed the proclama- 

 tion addressed to the French and to Europe, which 

 announced the abolition of the royal dignity ; spoke 

 in the national convention, where he liad a seat as 

 deputy of the department of Aisne, for the most part , 

 indeed, with the Girondists ; but, on the trial of 

 Louis, he was in favour of the severest sentence not 

 capital ; at the same time, he proposed to abolish 

 capital punishments, except in case of crimes against 

 the state. This participation in the proceedings 

 against the king was the reason why his name was 

 struck off from the list of members of the academies 

 of Petersburg and Berlin. The revolution of May 

 31, 1793, prevented the constitution which Condor- 

 cet had drawn up from being accepted. The consti- 

 tution then adopted he attacked without moderation 

 or reserve, and was, in consequence, denounced at 

 the bar, July 8. He was accused, October 3, of 

 being an accomplice of Brissot. To save his life, he 

 concealed himself, and was declared out of the pro- 

 tection of the law. Madame Verney, a woman ot 

 noble feelings, secreted him for eight months. She 

 procured him the means of subsistence, and even 

 wrote little poems to enliven his spirits. While in 

 this retreat, without the assistance of others, and 

 surrounded by all the horrors of his situation, Cou- 

 dorcet wrote his excellent Esguisse d'un Tableau his- 

 torique des Progres de V Esprit hutnain, full of enthu- 

 siasm for that liberty, the degeneracy of which caused 

 him so much suffering. In answer to the encourag- 

 ing words of his protectress, he wrote the Epitre 

 d'un Polonais exile en Siberie a sa Femme, full of 

 those noble sentiments which had been the rules of 

 his life. He at last learned from the public papers, 

 that death was denounced against all those who con- 

 cealed a proscribed individual. In spite of the 

 prayers of the generous woman who had given him 

 refuge, he left her, and fled in disguise from Paris. 

 He wandered about for a long time, until, driven by 

 hunger, he entered a small inn at Clamar, where he 

 was arrested as a suspicious person, by a member of 

 the revolutionary tribunal of Clamar, and thrown into 

 prison, to undergo a more strict examination. On 

 the following morning, March 28, 1794, he was 

 found dead on the floor of his room, apparently hav- 

 ing swallowed poison, which he always carried about 

 him, and which nothing but his love for his wife and 

 daughter had prevented him from using before. A 

 collection of his numerous writings, complete with 

 the exception of his mathematical works, appeared 

 in Paris in 1804 (CEuvres completes, publics par Ga- 

 rat et CaLanis, 21 vols.). An excellent historical 

 notice of them is to be found in the Notice sur la Vie 

 et les Ouvrages de Condorcet, par Antoine Dianenyere, 

 1796. The Memoires de Condorcet sur la Revolution 

 Francaise is a poor work. 



CONDOTT1ERI (leaders); the captains of those 

 bands of soldiers which were frequent in Italy to- 



