4 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii. 



men, and adverting afterwards to the precarious 

 i-evenue of those famihes that would depend so 

 entirely on the life and health of their chief,* he 

 says very justly, " There exists then a necessary 

 " cause of inequality, of dependence, and even of 

 " misery, which menaces without ceasing the most 

 " numerous and active class of our societies." The 

 difficulty is just and well stated; but his mode of 

 removing it will, I fear, be found totally ineffica- 

 cious. 



By the application of calculations to the proba- 

 bilities of life, and the interest of money, he pro- 

 poses that a fund should be established, which 

 should assure to the old an assistance produced in 

 part by their own former savings, and in part by 

 the savings of individuals, who in making the 

 same sacrifice die before they reap the benefit of 

 it. The same or a similar fund should give as- 

 sistance to women and children who lose their 

 husbands and fathers ; and afford a capital to those 

 who were of an age to found a new family, suffi- 

 cient for the developement of their industry. These 

 establishments, he observes, might be made in the 

 name and under the protection of the society. 

 Going still further, he says, that by the just ap- 

 plication of calculations, means might be found of 

 more completely preserving a state of equality, by 

 preventing credit from being the exclusive privi- 



* To save time and long quotations, I shall here give the sub- 

 stance of some of M. Condorcet's sentiments, and I hope that I 

 shall not misrepresent them ; but I refer the reader to the work 

 itself, which will amuse, if it do not convince him. 



