CONDORC E T. 
06 
committee, and thence transferred him to the diftridl of 
Bourg-la-Reine. Having arrived too late for interroga¬ 
tion, he was (hut up in pril'on under the name of Pierre 
Simon, with the intention of being lent to Paris ; but the 
next morning, the 28th of March, he was found dead. 
Thus tnil'erably peri (he d a moftable philofopher, and 
one of the fined writers of thofe that have adorned the 
prefent century. His private charadter is deferibed as 
eafy, quiet, kind, and obliging. Neither his converlation, 
nor his external deportment, befpoke the fire of his ge¬ 
nius. D'Alembert uled to compare him to a volcano co¬ 
vered with i'now. He had a latent weaknefs, however, 
of conftitution, which often made him the dupe of men 
altogether unworthy of his regard. The immediate caufe 
of his death was juftly attributed to poifon, which he 
had long carried about him, and had before attempted to 
take, but was checked by motives of regret for an amia¬ 
ble wife and daughter, whom he tenderly loved. This 
fadt has fince been eitablifned in a memoir, publilhed by 
the minilter D. I. Garaf, who adted with Condorcet, and 
has written the following paffage on the fubjedt : “ Hav¬ 
ing but little doubt of the fate which awaited me, I 
never went unprovided with the means of difpoiing 
quickly of my fate. It was confolatory to me to pofiels 
thefe means, and to have chofen them well; but, after ma¬ 
ture deliberation, I had refolved to decline the ule of 
them. The principles of Socrates on the fubmi/fion due 
to the laws, and to focial order, in the perlon even of 
the molt unjuft judges, had always appeared to me to 
carry virtue and magnanimity to an extravagant and ro¬ 
mantic extreme :—but, when I had to difeufs thefe quef- 
tions anew, and for my own ul'e, his principles Teemed 
to me fublimely j ulf. In the midft ol honors over which, 
for eight months, night had flung a veil only to prepare 
their repetition on the morrow, I thought it would be no 
addition to them to undergo an hour’s proceffion, which 
was to afford the opportunity of firewing to a whole-peo¬ 
ple how innocence can receive death at the hands of in- 
juftice.—O ! thou who halt chofen with that hand, which 
traced the progrefs of the human mind, to lift the mor¬ 
tal beverage to thy lips—Thy farewell libation was 
made with that poifon which we had divided between 
us, as brethren (hare their laft loaf.” 
It was during the period of his concealment at Paris, 
uncertain of a day’s exiflence, that Condorcet wrote his 
Sketch of the Progrefs of the Human Mind ;—a produc¬ 
tion not more interefting by the important matter which 
it contains, than by the cruel circumftances under which 
it was compoled. It will, no doubt, be varioully efti- 
mated : but every perfon mud admire its originality of 
views, and its happy comprefiion of language. 
As this work has been a fubjebt of fome debate among 
the learned in Europe, and as the call of it will give th® 
reader a competent idea of the mental endowments of its 
author, we (hall here copy the excellent ftcetch of it 
given in the eighteenth volume of the Monthly Review. 
This work is a polthumous publication. It divides into 
ten periods the hiftory of lociety, and offers lome re¬ 
marks on each in a diltinft lection. The firft examines 
that condition of the human race in which the individu¬ 
ality of complete favagifm is firft violated by temporary 
affociation, by co-operation for occafional purpofes. It 
conliders man in the hunter-ftatej and notices that the 
progrefs of the fpecies in this ftage is fo exceedingly flow, 
chiefly becaufe, as in the cafe of other animals, the expe¬ 
rience of the individual here dies with him, is loft to the 
community, andmuft-by each be re-acquired. 
The fecond contemplates man in the grazier or fhep- 
herd-ftate: a ftate favourable to the invention of maim- 
failures, from the leil'ure which it affords, and from the 
rapid multiplication of the people, and the confequent 
progrefs of demand: favourable alio to the inftitution of 
hereditary authority, prieftly and royal. The idea of pro¬ 
perty in utenfils and cattle precedes the idea of property 
in land. In this ftage, villages are buiit as a repository 
and defence of accumulating poffeflions. Agriculture is 
a confequence of the foundation of towns, and of the 
ftationary demand which they occaljon. 
The third conliders man in the agricultural ftate, no¬ 
tices the increafing diftribution of labour, the commence¬ 
ment of exclulive property in foil, and of taxation. The 
nrft farmers are ul'ually conquered and difpoffeffed by the 
contiguous pallors, (who have more military habits,) and 
are made to work for the vidlors. Succefftve conquelfs 
introduce all the feudal gradations of ftavery. The arts 
and the fciences begin. Pidture-writing is invented, 
and at length alphabetic writing. 
The fourth period comprehends the progrefs of the hu¬ 
man mind in Greece, till the time of the divilion of 
fciences about the age of Alexander. This chapter is 
furprifingly fuperficial and imperfedt, when it is conl't- 
derea how very afliduoufly the French have inquired con¬ 
cerning Greek literature and fcience; and how much 
pains their writers have taken to diffufe and popularize 
an intimate knowledge of that glittering people, to a 
degree which has fenfibly adted on their own national 
charadter. 
The fifth period contemplates the diffufion of Greek 
learning under the fucceflors of Alexander around the 
eallern, and under the emperors of Rome around the 
weltern, confines of the Mediterranean, and the effedf of 
its circulation on the civilization of the ancient world. 
This interefting chapter is much better executed than 
the preceding. It adopts and l'upports the dodlrine of 
Monteiquieu and Gibbon, that Chriftianity was a prin¬ 
cipal caufe of the declenfion of literature, art, and know¬ 
ledge. So far as irrational creeds have a tendency to 
produce intolerance towards reafon, this may be true, at 
lead of fome forms of Chriftianity : but it is finely not 
eafy to prove any eltcntial connedtion between this reli¬ 
gion and bar bar i fin; even granting it to have been of 
late thrown afide by the nations of Europe in exact pro¬ 
portion to their re-civilization. 
The fixth delcribes the long dark age which fucceeded 
the abolition of pagan ifm by The dolius, the age of feu¬ 
dal anarchy. From this Ipedlacle, fo holtile to the doc¬ 
trine of an eternally progreftive improvement in the con¬ 
dition of the human race, the attention is diverted to¬ 
wards Mohammed and the Arabians, and their advances 
in the ufeful arts and ornamental lludies. 
The feventh notices thofe glimmerings of returning 
reafon, which became obiervable in Europe even before 
the invention of printing. It narrates the introduction 
of the compafs, long fince known to the Chirtefe, into 
European navigation. 
The eighth contains philofophical refledtions on the 
sera of the Reformation : an age in many refpedts refem- 
bling the pretent in its zeal for religious and political in¬ 
novation. The confequence to which Sweden fuddenly 
arofe at that time, by patronizing the rifing opinions, 
may be compared with that which France has acquired in 
our day by a iimilar condudt. M. de Condorcet thus 
fptaks of this event, p. 186. “ Till this period, the en¬ 
croachments of the priefthood had been made with im¬ 
punity. The complaints of opprefted nations and of in¬ 
tuited reafon had been ftifled in blood and in flame. The 
fpirit which infpired thefe complaints was indeed not ex- 
tindl : but its (earful (ilence encouraged to new impofi- 
tions. That of farming out to monks the expiation of 
fins, of differing them to hawk about indulgences in 
market-places and at ale-houfes, at length occafioned an 
important explofion. Luther, holding in one hand the 
facred volume, pointed out with the other the pope’s a(- 
fumed claim of pardoning guilt, and felling its pardon— 
the infolent defpotilin which he exerted over biftiops, for¬ 
merly his equals—the fraternal flipper of the firft Chrif- 
tians become under the name of mals a magical operation 
arid an article of commerce—a priefthood condemned to 
the corruptions of irrevocable celibacy, a cruel and fcan- 
dalous law extended to every order of monks and men- 
with 
