nt, in Picardy, on the 17th of September 1743. He descended from
the ancient family of Caritat, who took their title from Condorcet, near
Nyons in Dauphine, where they were long settled. His father dying while
he was very young, his mother, a very devout woman, had him educated at
the Jesuit College in Reims and at the College of Navarre in Paris,
where he displayed the most varied mental activity. His first public
distinctions were gained in mathematics. At the age of sixteen his
performances in analysis gained the praise of D'Alembert and A. C.
Clairaut, and at the age of twenty-two he wrote a treatise on the
integral calculus which obtained warm approbation from competent judges.
With his many-sided intellect and richly-endowed emotional nature,
however, it was impossible for him to be a specialist, and least of all
a specialist in mathematics. Philosophy and literature attracted him,
and social work was dearer to him than any form of intellectual
exercise. In 1769 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. His
contributions to its memoirs are numerous, and many of them are on the
most abstruse and difficult mathematical problems.

Being of a very genial, susceptible and enthusiastic disposition, he was
the friend of almost all the distinguished men of his time, and a
zealous propagator of the religious and political views then current
among the literati of France. D'Alembert, Turgot and Voltaire, for whom
he had great affection and veneration, and by whom he was highly
respected and esteemed, contributed largely to the formation of his
opinions. His _Lettre d'un laboureur de Picardie a M. N..._ (Necker) was
written under the inspiration of Turgot, in defence of free internal
trade in corn. Condorcet also wrote on the same subject the _Reflexions
sur le commerce des bles_ (1776). His _Lettre d'un theologien_, &c., was
attributed to Voltaire, being inspired throughout by the Voltairian
anti-clerical spirit. He was induced by D'Alembert to take an active
part in the preparation of the _Encyclopedie_. His _Eloges des
Academiciens de l'Academie Royale des Sciences morts depuis 1666
jusqu'en 1699_ (1773) gained him the reputation of being an eloquent and
graceful writer. He was elected to the perpetual secretaryship of the
Academy of Sciences in 1777, and to the French Academy in 1782. He was
also member of the academies of Turin, St Petersburg, Bologna and
Philadelphia. In 1785 he published his _Essai sur l'applicatio