y educated and developed in their physical frame, and then
they would be more feminine in proportion as they approach the character
of Mary Wollstonecraft. They have no right to domineer as tyrants, and
then fall into the most abject of slaves. In each of the characters of
Pascal and Rousseau, was an excess of sensibility, which overbalanced
their other qualities, and rendered their otherwise great talents
wayward, and, to a certain extent, fruitless. The peculiarity of man
is physical power, and intellectual force; that of woman is an acute
sensibility. Condorcet, then, was justified in expressing the opinions
he avowed upon the subject.

In a paper, in the year 1766, read before the "Academy," on "Ought
Popular Errors to be Eradicated!" Condorcet says, "If the people
are often tempted to commit crimes in order that they may obtain the
necessaries of life, it is the fault of the laws; and, as bad laws are
the product of errors, it would be more simple to abolish those errors
than to add others for the correction of their natural effects. Error,
no doubt, may do some good; it may prevent some crimes, but it will
occasion mischiefs greater than these. By putting nonsense into the
heads of the people, you make them stupid; and from stupidity to
ferocity there is but a step. Consider--if the motives you suggest
for being just make but a slight impression on the mind, that will not
direct the conduct--if the impressions be lively, they will produce
enthusiasm, and enthusiasm for error. Now, the ignorant enthusiast is
no longer a man; he is the most terrible of wild beasts. In fact, the
number of criminals among the men with prejudices (Christians) is in
greater proportion to the total number of our population, than the
number of criminals in the class above prejudices (Freethinkers) is to
the total of that class. I am not ignorant that, in the actual state of
Europe, the people are not, perhaps, at all prepared for a true
doctrine of morals; but this degraded obtuseness is the work of social
institutions and of superstitions. Men are not born blockheads; they
become such. By speaking reason to the people, even in the little time
they give to the cultivation of their intellect, we might easily teach
them the little that it is necessary for them to know. Even the idea of
the respect that they should have for the property of the rich, is
only difficult to be insinuated among them--first, because they look
on riches as a sort o