"The time will therefore come when the sun will shine only on free men who know no other master but their reason; when tyrants and slaves, priests and their stupid or hypocritical instruments will exist only in works of history and on the stage; and when we shall think of them only to pity their victims and their dupes; to maintain ourselves in a state of vigilance by thinking on their excesses; and to learn how to recognize and so to destroy, by force of reason, the first seeds of tyranny and superstition, should they ever dare to reappear among us."
Condorcet, an aristocrat, supported the revolution of 1789, but became a victim of the revolution
during the Radical period. Soon after the completion of this Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, he was arrrested. He killed himself rather than wait for execution.
No comments:
Post a Comment