texte qu'on a oublie d'inserer dans le livre des loix | name--which was not told her till some time le mode de le juger ?”—xii. p. 324.

afterward by Condorcet himself. He was conveyed to her house during the evening And all this truckling and twisting was in sitting of the Assembly, and in such hurry vain. They had but sharpened the knife for that he had with him no money whatever. their own throats. The framing of the new It would have been imprudent for his friends constitution, the proper business and express to venture on any subsequent communication object of the Convention, could be no longer with him-so he remained for weeks utterly deferred-and on this the parties were final- ignorant as to what had become of his wife. ly forced to join issue-Condorcet again Her noble family were, like most of the class, being prominent, for he was one of the com- in suspicion and difficulty. Her attached mittee named for drawing the programme by brother, the young Marquis de Grouchy, had the Girondins, and among the various been expelled from the army, in which he ulschemes suggested within that committee timately attained the highest rank, and was his was the one adopted by the party. The wandering in anxious obscurity. She herself Jacobins produced their still more extrava- was reduced to extreme difficulty; but she gant plan and the tumult at the gates and was a woman of gallant spirit, and by and in the galleries having driven away many by found means to provide for herself and voters and overawed others, the majority was, her child. She took a lodging in a village for the first time, on the side of the Jacobins near town, and began practice as a miniaas directly against the Gironde. The victory ture-painter, the chief employment of her was followed up forthwith by the proscrip- pencil being, according to the Biographie tion of Brissot and a long list of Girondins des Contemporains, among the political vicwho had been forward in the debate. Their tims with whom the prisons were crammed. subsequent history is well known. Condor-"The relations of these unfortunates were cet, not having spoken, was in the first instance spared. But soon afterward a letter of his to his constituents of the Aisne was intercepted in the hands of the post-office-on the 8th July, 1793, the apostate Capuchin Chabot read it in the Assembly-pointed out some passages in which the writer asserted the notorious fact that the late decision had been come to under the influence of terror--expatiated on his insolence passim as daring to criticise the Constitution !--and, loudly denouncing all aristocrats, moved the arrest (among others) of "Caritat ci-devant Marquis de Condorcet"--which was carried by acclamation.

Some of his friends received intelligence in the morning of Chabot's intentions for the evening, and, foreseeing all the consequences, they instantly went in search of a retreat for him. The house they fixed upon was No. 24 in the Rue Servandoni, near the Luxembourg--a lodging-house chiefly for students, where one of themselves had occupied a chamber not long before-kept by a Madame Vernet, the widow of an architect nearly related to the celebrated painters. The widow had married again, but privately, and retained Vernet's name. Her new husband was a cousin of her own, Sarret, who passed merely for one of her lodgers. When she was asked if she would give shelter to un proscrit, she asked, "Is he a man of virtue ?--is he an honnete homme ?" and being satisfied with her friend's assurances, declined to hear the

eager for parting memorials, and her skill in catching a likeness was very remarkable." We only wonder by what influence she got access to the prisoners. When she had collected some money she set up a small haberdashery shop, and the back shop was her studio. She also employed her pen in leisure hours on a series of Notes to Adam Smith's

Theory of Moral Sentiments," which were subsequently appended to the translation of that work by Roucher.*

Meanwhile Madame Vernet, on finding who her guest was, exerted all the influence which her most generous kindness gave her in persuading him to undertake some work of literature which would divert his thoughts

Ne vous étonnez pas, objets chéris et doux,
Si quelque air de tristesse obscurcit ce visage;
Lorsqu'un crayon savant dessinait cette image,
J'attendais l'echafaud et je pensais à vous.

Roucher had some reputation as a poet. He had been an exalted Jacobin, and celebrated in verse the 10th of August-which, however, proved as fatal to him as to M. de la Rochefoucauld, or, we may add, to M. de Condorcet. He was included in the last but one of Robespierre's batches.

Madame de Condorcet lived till 1522. Her last publication, we believe, was a pamphlet in defence of Maréchal Grouchy's conduct in the campaign of Waterloo.

from painful reflection. He began according- | ly the Esquisse d'un Tablean Historique des Progres de l'Esprit Humain, and when he had finished that--an essay of considerable length-proceeded to the Tableau itself, which he seems to have carried to its conclusion, though the MS., as recovered, has many and large gaps. Working as he did without books, that these last of Condorcet's productions should be very open to criticism as to dates and details was inevitable; but certainly, all things considered, they are an extraordinary monument of his mental activity, elasticity, and accumulated knowledge.

assignable limit to the development of agricultural chemistry: but furthermore, you are forgetting the contemporary advancement in the intellect generally. You are not allowing for the universal practical philosophy of the new æra. Supposing it possible that under universal liberty and universal equality of education-and when just laws shall have abolished every restriction upon the commercial intercourse of the human species-there should still occur, from any unforeseen circumstance or accident, a risk in any quarter of population getting beyond the means of subsistence, the organization in its then state of progress will at once apply a remedy. The rate at which the calculating machine usually multiplies will be spontaneously altered:-

He adheres to his old dogmas, that there is no God, and that the admirable organization of the first of earthly animals is, in all its compartments, intellectual, moral, and physical, susceptible of improvement, not, "Les hommes sauront alors que s'ils ont des indeed, to an extent which can in strict obligations à l'égard des etres qui ne sont pas enmathematical language be called infinite, but core, elles ne consistent pas à leur donner l'exisso immeasurably beyond what has ever been tence, mais le bonheur; elles ont pour objet le dreamt of, that it may be pronounced indef-bien-etre général de l'espèce, et non la puérile inite (vi. p. 274). When we bear in mind, idée de charger la terre des etres inutiles ou malheureux."—(ib. 258.) (says he), that out of every fifty whose peculiar organization fitted them for attaining eminence in science, literature, or art, at least forty-nine, on the lowest calculation, have hitherto received such felicity of material structure to no purpose, because its properties were undeveloped by education, it is an easy task of arithmetic to arrive at the sum total of geometricians, economists, poets, sculptors, &c., &c., who will have adorned the world, within the first, the second, the third century--and so on-after a just system of education shall have been applied to the whole mass of these indefinitely perfectible machines (ib. 254). The calculation as to the increased product of illustrious physicians, anatomists, chemists, and botanists, is pregnant with assurance that disease will, within a limited allowance of centuries, have disappeared; so that, while it would be absurd to anticipate immortality, death shall only be occasioned by accident, or--at a gradually but prodigiously extending distance of time-by exhaustion or evaporation of the essential gas or vital principle (ib. 273). It does not escape the author that some may anticipate inconvenience from the reprolongation of human life to the averages of the antediluvian epoch-and first as it respects nutriment. To this he answers that agricultural improvement will keep pace with that in other departments-we shall have fifty high-farmers in every generation for one that we have now, and there is no

In the same style he overthrows all suggestions as to the hazard of political ambitions multiplied in a ratio analogous to that of the breed. Universal education implies universal self-denial and self-devotion. It is not to be questioned that some organizations will still show a certain superiority over others as respects the qualities for government and administration; but, while these varieties will be very willing to perform the functions for which they may be peculiarly adapted, the others will have too clear a perception of this their adaptation not to wish to see it exercised;-the cause of the superiority being recognized as physical or fatal, there will be nothing of that envy and grudging wherewith men now contemplate a superiority ascribed by them to the injustice of social and educational arrangements fairly within the control of human reason.

Woman is a delicate topic. From various peculiarities in her physique, and functions therewith connected, she may be said to be more or less a malade until she has passed the middle stage of existence. It is probable that even when female life reaches to some hundreds of years, the effect of these arrangements may still be discernible; but even so, that weaker division will have partaken in the general march-and there can be no doubt woman will be indefinitely better qualified for the highest intellectual, moral,

Soon after Condorcet's death, the MS. containing all this mass of atheism and insanity was submitted by the Convention to their Committee of Public Instruction--and the printing and diffusion thereof were, at the recommendation of that conclave, unani-him in deciding that when the visible mously decreed.

and polity. They are to hold any religious | porteress, had a part. Madame Vernet knew how tenets they or the majority of their congre- her. From that day forth he made no movement to impregnate with her virtue all who surrounded gations please, and offer no obstruction to the indoctrinating of children at home in any without being observed. And here I must not particular faith that may find favor with the ligence of Madame Vernet, her profound knowpass an incident which will show the high intelparents. They are to elect one of their own ledge of the human heart. One day, in ascending body to preside over them and the district. the stairs to his chamber, Condorcet rubbed He also is to be chosen without any reference shoulders with Citizen Marcos, a deputy for the to his religious notions-but to obviate hy- [newly created] department of Mont Blanc, and percritical objections, he shall be styled for an who belonged to the section of the Mountain; he indefinite period the Bishop-and he shall had been for some days one of Madame's lodgers. himself be a working teacher-he shall be been recognized; but was it possible to count on Under the disguise he wore Condorcet had not the regular minister of the largest meeting- a continuance of the same luck? The illustrious house in his diocese, and also the head- proscribed imparted his uneasiness to his hostess. master of its chief or normal school. This Stop,' said she, I will soon arrange thisaffair.' work, though published by Mr. Chapman, She mounts to Marcos's room, and without any who deals principally in American articles, preamble says to him, Citizen, Condorcet is seems to be really from an English pen! It lodged under the same roof with you—should he is, we must add, written with considerable him-if he perishes, it will be you that have be arrested, it will be you that have denounced ability in many passages there is a flow of caused his head to fall. You are a man of honor diction which will fairly bear a comparison-I need say no more.' This noble confidence with the Esquisse and Tableau. was not betrayed. Marcos even entered, at the peril of his life, into personal relations with Condorcet. It was he who supplied him with novels, of which our colleague devoured a vast quantity.'

Condorcet appears to have also given some of his solitary days to a work of a different class-a New Method of Accompting-and to this resumption of his earliest studies he may probably have been prompted by Sarret, who was himself the author or compiler of various Elementary Manuals for Youth, among the rest one on Arithmetic.

The recluse seemed for some weeks to be so absorbed in his literary industry as to have almost forgotten his actual situation; but when the newspapers announced the execution of several friends who had been proscribed at the same time with himself, and, further, that the Convention had declared the penalty of death against all who harbored one included in such a vote, his reflections on the risks to which his hostess exposed herself were cruel. He next morning had a communication with her, which, says M. Arago, "I must, under pain of sacrilege, reproduce without the change of a single word:

"Vos bontés, Madame, sont gravées dans mon cœur en traits ineffaçables. Plus j'admire votre courage, plus mon devoir d'honnete homme m'impose de ne point en abuser. La loi est positive : si on me découvrait dans votre demeure, vous auriez la meme triste fin que moi: je suis hors la loi-je ne puis plus rester."

"La Convention, Monsieur, a le droit de mettre hors la loi elle n'a pas le pouvoir de mettre hors de l'humanité. Vous resterez !"

"This admirable answer," continues Arago, "was immediately followed by the organization of a system of surveillance in which most of the inmates of the house, and particularly the humble

pro

Madame Vernet. It seems that another
We may here mention another trait of
scribed Conventionalist besides Condorcet
was at this time sheltered by her, and that,
unlike Condorcet, he remained there until
the fall of Robespierre. When Madame
Madame Vernet the name of this gentleman,
O'Connor, many years afterward, asked
she answered with proud calmness, "I have
never seen nor heard of him since the 9th

Thermidor. Do you expect that I should

now recall his name?"

It appears that among her numberless consolations, Madame Vernet from time to time inscribed to Condorcet copies of verses, and that the philosopher responded, as in duty bound. Of his prison rhymes, however, we shall content ourselves with one sample, which all students of June and August, 1792, and of January and February, 1793, will allow to merit preservation. This couplet occurs in an epistle to his wife :

"Ils m'ont dit: Choisis, d'etre oppresseur ou victime!

J'embrassai le malheur et leur laissai le crime."

After copious comments on the severer labors of his hero's closet, M. Arago says:

"When he at last paused, and the feverish excitement of authorship was at an end, our colleague rested all his thoughts anew on the danger incurred by Madame Vernet. He resolved then

(I employ his own words) to quit the retreat | from D'Alembert, and whatever the Bishop which the boundless devotion of his tutelary angel of Lisieux had to leave-having been (to had transformed into a paradise. He so little deceived himself as to the probable consequences of say nothing of the early pensions stated by the step he meditated-the chances of safety afone authority) in receipt of one salary ever ter his evasion appeared to him so feeble-that since 1764, and of another during most, if not before he put his plan into execution he made his all, the years from 1774-and having been last dispositions. In the pages then written, I be- certainly a most industrious and popular author hold everywhere the lively reflection of an elevated and journalist,-it might have been expected mind, a feeling heart, and a beautiful soul. I will that he should refer to considerable funds as venture to say that there exists in no language confiscated under the vote of the Convention. anything better thought, more tender, more touching, more sweetly expressed, than the Avis d'un It may be surmised therefore that, notwithProscrit à sa Fille. Those lines, so limpid, so standing his usual gravity of demeanor and full of unaffected delicacy, were written on the regularity of personal habits, he had been the very day when he was about to encounter volun- reverse of a prudent man in respect of pecutarily an immense danger. The presentiment niary affairs. He had, probably, got rid of of a violent end almost inevitable, did not dis- 'his fiefs" before he renounced his title. turb him-his hand traced those terrible words, Ma mort, ma mort prochaine with a firmness

The Conseils à sa Fille occupy thirteen printed pages; and we agree with M. Arago in admiring their language, as well as the tender affection so elegantly expressed. Many sentences, when we consider the writer's position and antecedents, are eminently curious. Throughout this document-per

which the stoics of antiquity might have envied. Sensibility, on the contrary, obtained the mastery when the illustrious proscribed was drawn into the anticipation that Madame de Condorcet also might possibly be involved in the bloody catastrophe that threatened him. Should my daughter be destined to lose all--this is the most explicit al-haps it is needless to mention it-there is no lusion that the husband can insert in his last writing."

66

The testament is short. It was written on the fly-leaf of a History of Spain. In it Condorcet directs that his daughter, in case of his wife's death, shall be brought up by Madame Vernet, whom she is to call her second mother, and who is to see her so educated as to have means of independent support either from painting or engraving. Should it be necessary for my child to quit France, she may count on protection in England from mylord Stanhope and mylord Daer.* In America, reliance may be placed on Jefferson and Bache, the grandson of Franklin." She is, therefore, to make the English language her first study. He intimates that she may expect pecuniary assistance by and bye from the Grouchy family, and that "perhaps, when the day of justice returns, she may also derive benefit from her father's writings." From these words we must infer that there was no other property of which he could contemplate the

restoration-and this is a circumstance of some importance, though, as usual, the biographers take no notice of it. Having inherited (apparently) a considerable fortune

M. Arago constantly writes Dear. This friend of Condorcet's, Basil Douglas, Lord Daer, elder brother of the late Earl of Selkirk, was endowed with extraordinary talents, but died yourg in October of this very year, 1794. He is lamented both in the

verse and the prose of Robert Burns.

allusion whatever to religion-not the slightest hint to warrant us in hoping that Condorcet, in the immediate contemplation of death, had been shaken in his old conclusions that there is no God, and no future life for man. Whether what we have quoted may or may not indicate any touch of misgiving as to the most painful passages in his political conduct—our readers will form their own opinion.

These papers were both, it seems certain, written on the morning of 5th of April, 1794, At 10 o'clock he left his chamber in an artisan's jacket and large woolen cap, his usual disguise, came down to Madame's little parlor on the ground floor, and entered into conversation with her husband. He chose a subject in which Madame could take no interest, but seemed as if he meant to say a vast deal upon it, and plied Sarret with Latin quotations-but Madame, like a good sentinel, stuck to her post de pied ferme— till he was on the point of despair. the good-natured woman, observing that he missed his snuff-box, forgot her caution and ran up stairs to fetch it. He seized the moment and rushed into the street. It was

At last

unusually crowded. At the first turning Sarret was at his elbow-"Your disguise is incomplete-you don't know your way-you will never escape the numberless agents of the Commune. I will not quit you till you reach your point, wherever it may be." They "all but miraculously" escaped the police at the Barrière du Maine, and pro