Condillac s important work Le Commerce et le Gouverne- ment was published in 1776, the same year in which the Wealth of Nations appeared. The best European econo mists are said to be now gravitating to the opinion that Condillac s is the true conception of economic science. His work treats economic science as the science of commerce or exchanges. It was originally intended to consist of three parts, but the last never appeared. In the first part he develops the principles of economic science, and treats of the phenomena of commerce or exchanges. The second part considers the relations of commerce and government, and their reciprocal influence. The third part was to have contained a number of examples, to show that his theories had facts to rest upon as well as argument. His great merit was to have fixed upon the wants and desires of the human mind as the source of value. Hence he did not look on labour as a cause of value. In an exchange both parties are gainers, for each gives what is comparatively superfluous to him for what is necessary. Therein, he thinks, lies the spring of all commercial activity. He is a strong free trader, and answers by anticipation Saint Simon, Fourier, and their followers regarding the right of inheritance.
Condillac was a most voluminous writer. A collected edition of his works was published in 23 volumes at Paris in 1798, and was followed by another in 32 volumes in 1803. Several partial editions, contain ing those of his works which form the Cours d Etudes for the young duke of Parma,[1] were published at different times. The following is a list of his works : Essai sur I origins des connaissances humaines (1746); Traitt des systemes (1749); Traite des sensa tions (1754); Cours d 1 etudes, published in 13 volumes in 1755, comprising the "Grammaire, " "1 Art d ecrire," "1 Art de raison- ner," "1 Art de penser," "1 Histoire ancienne " and "1 Histoire moderne," "1 lLtude de 1 histoire," and "Traite des animaux;"a sequel to the Traite des sensations (1775); Le commerce ct le goitverne- ment (1776). La Logique, written as an elementary treatise at the request of the Polish council of public instruction, appeared in 1780, a few months before the author s death. La langue des et/tculs was not published till 1798. An English translation of the Essai sur torigine by Thomas Nugent was published in 1756, avowedly as a supplement to Locke s Essay on the Human Understanding.
References—Louis Robert, Les Theories logiques de Condillac (Paris, 1869) ; F, Rethori, Condillac on VEmpirisme et le Rationalistic (Paris, 1864) ; Laromiguiere, Lemons de Philosophie, Paradoxes de Condillac; George H. Lewes, History of Philosophy, -vol. ii. (1871); Whewell s Philosophy of Discovery (1860) ; Mill s Logic, book ii. chap. 2, sec. 2. There is an excellent account of Condillac s economic doctrines in Macleod s Dictionary of Political Economy. See also Dugald Stewart s "Preliminary Dissertation" in the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. i. p. 172.
CONDOM, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissement, in the department of Gers, 26 miles from Auch, on the Bayse, a tributary of the Garonne, there crossed by two stone bridges. The church of St Peter, formerly a cathedral, if included among the historic monuments of France, and deserves notice for the height of its vaulted roof. The manufactures of the town include woollen fabrics and porcelain ; and its trade is mainly in rural produce and brandy. The nucleus of the place was furnished by an abbey, founded in the 1 Oth century ; in 1317 it was made a bishopric by Pope John XXII., and in 15 i9 the monks were appointed canons of the cathedral. In the 18th century it was the centre of a district called Condomois, which contained the towns of Nerac, Gabaret, and Mont de Marsan; and it possessed three convents and two nunneries. Among its celebrities are Dupleix the historian, and Montluc the leader of the crusade against the Albigensians. Bossuet was bishop of Condom in 1669. Population in 1872, 5205.
CONDOR (Sarcorhamphus gryphus), a New World vulture, and the largest of existing birds, although by no means attaining the dimensions attributed to it by early writers. It usually measures about 4 feet from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail, and 9 feet between the tips of its wings, while it is probable that the expanse of wing never exceeds 12 feet. The head and neck are destitute of feathers, and the former, which is much flattened above, is in the male crowned with a caruncle, or comb, while the skin of the latter in the same sex lies in folds, forming a wattle, dilatable at pleasure. The adult plumage is of a uniform black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck, and certain wing feathers which, especially in the male, have large patches of white. The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the third but slightly developed, while the talons of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt, and are thus of little use as organs of prehension. The female, contrary to the usual rule among birds of prey, is smaller than the male.
confined to the region of the Andes, from the Straits of Magellan to 4 north latitude, .the largest condors, it is said, being found about the volcano of Coquimba, situated on the equator. It is often seen on the shores of the Pacific, especially during the rainy season, but its favourite haunts for roosting and breeding are at elevations of 10,000 to 16,000 feet. There, during the months of February and March, on inaccessible ledges of rock, it deposits two white eggs, from 3 to 4 inches in length, its nest consisting merely of a few sticks placed around the eggs. The period of incubation lasts for seven w y eeks, and the young are covered with a whitish down until almost as large as their parents. They are unable to fly till nearly two years old, and continue for a considerable time after taking wing to roost and hunt with their parents. The white ruff on the neck, and the similarly coloured feathers of the wing, do not appear until the completion of the first moulting. By preference the condor feeds on carrion, but it does not hesitate to attack sheep, goats, and deer, and for this reason it is hunted down by the shepherds, who, it is said, train their dogs to look up and bark at the con dors as they fly overhead. They are exceedingly voracious, a single condor of moderate size having been known, according to Orton, to devour a calf, a sheep, and a dog in a single week. When thus gorged with food, they are exceedingly stupid, and nray then be readily caught. For this purpose a horse or mule is killed, and the carcase surrounded with palisades to which the condors are soon attracted by the prospect of food, for the weight of evidence seems to favour the opinion that those vultures owe their knowledge of the presence of carrion more to sight than to scent. Having feasted themselves to excess, they are set upon by the hunters with sticks, and being unable, owing to the want of space within the pen, to take the run
without which they are unable to rise on wing, they are
- ↑ Condillac s opinions about education, which he carried out in the instruction of the young duke of Parma, are interesting and important. He declares his method to be the same as that by which men have created the arts and sciences. He is very severe upon the error of cultivating only the memory until a supposed "age of reason" has been reached. The young child begins to reason, he thinks, in learn ing to use its senses, and no delay should be made in encouraging him to observe his own mental processes and the facts around him. So long as he is unable to make observations for himself he should be informed about those of others. The teacher s great object should be to train his pupil to think, to find pleasure in mental exercise, and to frame just ideas. Condillac took the hint as to the right order of studies from the experience of nations, First he directed his pupil s attention to those objects and studies which meet the primary wants of man. Then he cultivated his taste. Finally, he directed his thoughts to speculation. He characteristically regarded the arts of speaking, writing, reasoning, and thinking as fundamentally the same, and reduced them all to that of speaking. Condillac had perfect con fidence in his method, and boasted of its success, although it does not seem very appropriate for a child of seven years, the age of the prince. His ideas on the importance of early attention to the cultivation of the reasoning powers and the educational uses of observation and experiment are far from being obsolete.
