ting the sanatory arrangements of our time, he prophecied on
the gradual extension of longevity, amongst the human race; and with it,
enjoyments increased by better discipline in gustatorial duties. He
has similar views on the softer sex to M. Proudhomme (his immediate
disciple,) and, in the close of the work, Condorcet announced the
possibility of an universal language, which is daily becoming more
assimilated to modern ideas.

The guillotine had not been idle during the few weeks of Condorcet's
retreat. Fancying that (if discovered) he might be the means of injuring
his benefactress, he resolved to escape from the house of Madame Vernet.
Previous to doing this, he made his will. M. Arago, describing this
epoch in his closing days, 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 his hostess. He resolved then (I employ his own words) to
quit the retreat which the boundless devotion of his tutelar angel had
transformed into a paradise. He so little deceived himself as to the
probable consequences of the step he meditated--the chances of safety
after his evasion appeared so feeble--that before he put his plan into
execution he made his last dispositions. In the pages then written, I
behold everywhere the lively reflection of an elevated mind, a feeling
heart, and a beautiful soul. I will venture to say, that there exists
in no language anything better thought, more tender, more touching,
more sweetly expressed, than the '_Avis d'un Proscrit a sa Fill_.' Those
lines, so limpid, so full of unaffected delicacy, were written on that
very day when he was about to encounter voluntarily an immense danger.
The presentiment of a violent end almost inevitably did not disturb
him--his hand traced those terrible words, _Ma mort, ma mort prochaine!_
with a firmness 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 be involved in the bloody catastrophe that threatened him. _Should
my daughter be destined to lose all_--this is the most explicit allusion
that the husband can insert in his last writing."

"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 M