é 
1796.] 
( 64r )> 
ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMAINS 
OF 
EMINENT PERSONS, R 
EThis article is devoted to the reception of Biographical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, St. an€ 
we requeft the Communications of fucb of our Keaders as can affift us in thefe objects. | 
ANECDOTESOF PERSONS CONNECTED 
WEYH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
[ Continued from cur laft.5_ 
ConDORCET 
PPERTAINED to the nobility by 
birth; to the people from fentiment 
—although a Marquis, he {corned not to 
- confider himfelf as acitizen. He was a 
_philofopher alfo. 
The friend and difciple of Voltaire, 
like him too he was the correfpondent of 
Frederick, of Pruilia. Neither his title, 
his fortune, his fituation at the Academy, 
of which he had been declared ‘ perpe- 
tual fecretary,” nor his private friendihip, 
could prevent him from facrificing every 
eonfideration to his prineiples. Suck was 
the efteem in which he was held, that 
before the flight to Varennes, the eye 
of all France were fixed on him, as tutor’ 
to the Prince Royal; but his love of li- 
berty was fo-offenfive in the eyes of 
Royalty, that another perfon was fur- 
reptitioufly appointed by the King and 
Queen, m order to prevent his nomina- 
tion. 
After thirty years of fudy and medt- 
tation, confecrated to the {cYences and his 
native country, or rather to all Europe ; 
after labouring four years exclufvely for 
the revolution and liberty, this great 
man, profcribed under the ‘tyranny of 
Robefpierre, was forced to wander about 
from place to place, to fhelter himfelf in 
woods and caverns, and at length to have 
recourfe to poifon, to put an end to his 
salamities ! 
Without books, without friends, fre- 
quently without. even food, inftead of 
uttering complaints and execrations a- 
gainft his unjutt country, or rather the 
bloody.and victorious faction, that then 
governed it, his whole mind was bent 
on a project beneficial to humanity. This 
is developed in his work, entitled, ‘ E/- 
guiffe din Tableau Hiftorique des progres ce 
2 Efivit Human,’ mn which, confidering 
man under three diftinét points of view, 
he enquires, What he has been? What 
he is } and, What he may be ? 
6 
The Convention, fenfible of the merit 
of this work, on the 13th Germinal, 
1796, decreed as follows: 5 
«< Art. I, La commiffon executive de 
Vinftruétion publique acquerera fur les 
fonds mis a fa difpofttiow 3000 exemplaires 
de l’ouvrage pofthume de Condorcet, mti- 
tulé, ‘ Efquiffe, 8c.” : 
“IT, Le comité d’inftruCtion’ publi- 
que eft chargé de veiller 4 ce que ces 
3000 exemplaires foient diftribues dans 
l'étendwe de la republique, & de la ma- 
niére la plus utile a linitruction. Chaque 
membre de la convention en recevra un 
exemplaire.”” 
It is impoffible 29 contemplate 
‘A brave man ftruggling ’mid{ft the ftorms of fate, 
* And greatly fallingy 

Roman Moralift : i 
* Ecce par Deo dignum, vir fortis 
eum. mala fortuna compofitus! Non 
video, inquam, quid habeat in terris Ju- 
piter pulchrius, fr convertére animum 
velit, quam ut {peter Catonem, jam 
partibus non femel fraétis, nihtlominus 
iter ruinas publicas erectum.”” 
Seneca de Divin. Prov. 
without recolleéting the paffage in the 
From count Tilly's work on the French 
Revolution, an abridged extraét occurs in 
the Monthly Review (vol. xviit. p. 557) in 
which Condorcet is charged with the 
raurder of his friend, benefactor, and po-~ 
litical creator, the duc. de la Rochefou- 
cauld. ‘The Count admits, that perhaps 
he was not privy to the defigns againft 
that nobleman ;, but alleges that his in- 
gratitude is recorded in the courts of law 
of his country. ; hod 
‘When he marricd Madame de 
Grouchy, fhe had no fortune. but that 
vhich fhe derived from the bounty of 
the houfe of La Rochefoucauld: theDuke 
gave her a bond for 100.000 livres, and 
paid the intereft of that fum regularly 
up to the fecond year of the revolution, 
when Condorcet put the bond in force, 
and compelled the Duke to pay the prin- 
cipal.’ Thofe who wiih to eftimate the 
effect of Iiterature upon the moral cha 
Faster, 




