"Unquestionably, the great Revolution draws near to its final completion — à pas de géant, as Montesquieu said of his own immortal work."
Then there rushed from all — wit and noble, courtier and republican — a confused chorus, harmonious only in its anticipation of the brilliant things to which "the great Revolution" was to give birth. Here Condorcet is more eloquent than before.
"II faut absolument que la Superstition et le Fanatisme fassent place à la Philosophie.[O 1] Kings persecute persons, priests opinion. Without kings, men must be safe; and without priests, minds must be free."
"Ah," murmured the marquis, "and as ce cher Diderot has so well sung —
'Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre
Serrez le cou du dernier roi.'"[O 2]
"And then," resumed Condorcet — "then commences the Age of Reason! — equality in instruction — equality in institutions — equality in wealth! The great impediments to knowledge are, first, the want of a common language; and next, the short duration of existence. But as to the first, when all men are brothers, why not a universal language? As to the second, the organic perfectibility of the vegetable world is undisputed, is Nature less powerful in the nobler existence of thinking man? The very destruction of the two
