Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. ^ 



contradicting. To see the human mind in one of 

 the most enlightened nations of the world, de- 

 based by such a fermentation of disgusting pas- 

 sions, of fear, cruelty, malice, revenge, ambition, 

 madness and folly, as would have disgraced the 

 most savage nations in the most barbarous age, 

 must have been such a tremendous shock to his 

 ideas of the necessary and inevitable progress of 

 the human mind, as nothing but the firmest con- 

 viction of the truth of his principles, in spite of 

 all appearances, could have withstood. 



This posthumous publication is only a sketch of 

 a much larger work, which he proposed should be 

 executed. It necessarily wants therefore that de- 

 tail and application, which can alone prove the 

 truth of any theory. A few observations will be 

 sufficient to shew how completely this theory is 

 contradicted, when it is applied to the real, and 

 not to an imaginary, state of things. 



In the last division of the work, which treats of 

 the future progress of man towards perfection, M. 

 Condorcet says that, comparing in the different 

 civilized nations of Europe the actual population 

 with the extent of territory, and observing their 

 cultivation, their industry, their divisions of la- 

 bour, and their means of subsistence, we shall see 

 that it would be impossible to preserve the same 

 means of subsistence, and consequently the same 

 population, without a number of individuals who 

 have no other means of supplying their wants than 

 their industry. 



Having allowed the necessity of such a class of 



b2 



