CONDILLAC
CONEAD
ing these, he worked on the staff of the
Organisateur (1820), then of the Produc-
teur (1822). In 1822 he published the
first sketch of his ideas, Plan des travaux
scientifiques necessaires pour reorganiser la
societe, and he began in 1826 to lecture on
his system. In 1832 he was appointed
teacher at tho Polytechnic, and in 1837
Examiner. When he lost his position in
1843, Mill and Grote and other English
admirers raised a fund to support him.
Comte rejected theology and metaphysics,
or any attempt to explain the universe by
causes outside it, but strongly opposed
Atheism and deprecated active Eationalism.
His chief work was a reorganization of the
sciences and an insistence on the positive
spirit (regard for realities) in science and
human affairs. D. Sep. 5, 1857.
CONDILLAC, Etienne Bonnot de Mably de, French philosopher. B. Sep. 30, 1715. He entered the clergy, and was conspicuous for virtue in a deeply corrupt body. At one time he was tutor to the Infanta of Parma. The study of Locke s ideas destroyed his belief, and he further developed them into a system which is known as Sensualism. His chief work is the Traiii des sensations (1754). Instead of being a " Materialist," as is often said, Condillac was a Theist, and believed in personal immortality. D. Aug. 3, 1780.
CONDORCET, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de, French mathematician. B. Sep. 17, 1743. Ed. Jesuit College Eheims and College de Navarre. At the age of sixteen he wrote a brilliant mathematical paper, and at twenty-one he presented to the Academy a paper on the Integral Calculus. He was admitted to the Academy in 1769, and became its perpetual secretary in 1777. One of the first scholars of France, he eagerly joined the Encyclopaedists, and in 1774 published Lettres d un theologien, which was so caustic that it was attributed to Voltaire. Condorcet was, like Con dillac and Diderot, a very earnest and high-
minded scholar, an opponent of black
slavery, and an apostle of reform. He
accepted the Eevolution, and in 1792 was
President of the Legislative Assembly ;
but he was arrested by the more violent
authorities, and he ended his own life
Apr. 7, 1794.
CONDORCET, Marie Louise Sophie de Grouchy de, Marquise de, sister of Mar shal Grouchy and wife of preceding. B. 1764. Her father had her and her sisters admitted into a convent of canonesses, though she took no vows. She married Condorcet in 1787, and kept one of the most brilliant salons at Paris during the early Eevolution. She shared her hus band s ideas, and at his death supported herself by painting and writing. She translated Adam Smith s Theory of Moral Sentiments, published Lettres sur la sympa- thie, and assisted Cabanis to edit her husband s works. The Marquise was a woman of great beauty, ability, and high character; and a thorough Eationalist. D. Sep. 8, 1822.
CONGREYE, Richard, M.A., Positivist. B. Sep. 4, 1818. Ed. Eugby and Oxford (Wadham). A pupil of Arnold and a grave-minded student, he met Comte at Paris in 1848 and adopted his views. He resigned his fellowship (Wadham), and founded the Positivist community in Lon don, supporting himself by the practice of medicine. In 1878 he started a separate Positivist Church and acted as its priest. Congreve translated Aristotle s Politics (1855), and wrote a Catechism of the Posi tivist Religion (1858) and other works. D. July 5, 1899.
CONRAD, Joseph (properly Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski), novelist. B. (Poland) Dec. 6, 1857. Ed. Cracow. He spent his early years in Poland, but went to Marseilles in 1874 and took to sea. In 1878 he entered the English merchant service and became a captain. He left the sea in 1894, and in the follow- 178
