COXDORCET. 409 



Here again he seems to take 413 as the whole number of 

 events. 



He proceeds to combine these probabihties with probabilities 

 arising from testimony borne to the first or second event, 



751. Condorcet considers another statement which he finds in 

 Roman History, namely that the augur Accius Nsevius cut a stone 



with a razor. Condorcet takes rv/^rir^rvrv ^s the ordinaiy proba- 

 bility, and then by Art. 745 makes the prohahilite ijropre to be 



2 

 1000000 * 



752. We have spent a long space on Condorcet's memoir, on 

 account of the reputation of the author ; but we fear that the 

 reader will conclude that we have given to it far more attention 

 than it deserves. It seems to us to be on the whole excessively 

 arbitrary, altogether unpractical, and in parts very obscure, 



753. We have in various plaices expressed so decidedly our 

 opinion as to the obscurity and inutility of Condorcet's investiga- 

 tions that it will be just to notice the opinions which other writers 

 have formed. 



Gouraud devotes pages 89 — 101? of his work to Condorcet, and 

 the following defects are noticed : Un style embarrasse, denue de 

 justesse et de coloris, une philosophie souvent obscure ou bizarre, 

 une anatyse que les meilleurs juges ont trouvee confuse. With this 

 drawback Condorcet is praised in terms of such extravagant eulogy, 

 that we are tempted to apply to Gouraud the reflexion which Du- 

 gald Stewart makes in reference to Voltaire, who he says " is so 

 lavish and undistinguishing in his praise of Locke, as almost to 

 justify a doubt whether he had ever read the book Avhich he extols 

 so highly." Stewart's Works, edited hy Hamilton, Vol. i. j)age 220. 



Galloway speaks of Condorcet's Essay as '' a work of gi'eat in- 

 genuity, and abounding with interesting remarks on subjects of 

 the highest importance to humanity." Ai'ticle Prohahilitij in the 

 Encyclopcedia Britan nica. 



Laplace in his brief sketch of the history of the subject does 

 not name Condorcet ; he refers however to the kind of questions 



