CONDORCET Encyclopedic of Diderot and D'Alerabert. He was a zealous advocate of the cause of the American colonies, and of the gradual emanci- pation of negro slaves, to be preceded, however, by their education. The French revolution found him, although belonging to the higher ranks of nobility and a friend of the duke de Rochefoucauld, among the defenders of the pop- ular cause. To his fame as a mathematician he now added that of a political writer. The boldness of thought which had distinguished his scientific researches characterized his po- litical pamphlets and speeches. While in his Feuille mllageoise he explained the fundamen- tal principles of politics and public economy in plain and lucid language, adapted to the under- standing of the masses, he rivalled the best orators of his time in his speeches as a member of the legislative assembly. The speech in which, after the attempted escape of the king, he represented monarchy as an anti-social insti- tution, was admired as a model of eloquence and conclusive argument. He was elected sec- retary, and in 1792 president of the legislative assembly. The address of the French people to the nations of Europe on the abolition of monarchy was written by Oondorcet. As a member of the national convention, he sided with the Girondists or moderate republicans. When the king was impeached by the conven- tion, Condorcet voted for the severest penalty short of capital punishment, the total aboli- tion of which fie had always advocated. To him was intrusted the work of preparing a new constitution, but the downfall of the Gi- rondists (May 31, 1793) prevented its comple- tion. Nothing daunted by the reign of terror, he energetically denounced the extreme mea- sures adopted by the committee of public safety. Indicted as an accomplice of Brissot (Oct. 3), he retired from public notice to save his life, and was in consequence declared an outlaw. For months he was secreted by Mme. Vernet. During that time he wrote his Esquisse (Tun tableau Mstorique des progres de T 1 esprit Jiu- main jt &nd. the JUpUre cfcun Polonais exile en Siberie d sa femme. When by a stray news- paper he learned that all who sheltered out- laws were to forfeit their own lives, he left his asylum in spite of the entreaties of Mme. Ver- net, fled from Paris in disguise, and wandered about for some time until starvation compelled him to ask for food in an inn at Olamart (March 27, 1794). Here he met with a member of the local revolutionary tribunal, who had him ar- rested and committed on suspicion without even knowing his name. The next morning he was found in his prison a corpse. The gen- eral opinion is that he voluntarily put an end to his life by a dose of poison which he had carried with him for some time. His complete works have been edited by Garat and Cabanis (22 vols., Paris, 1804). After the establish- ment of the republic in 1870, the lycee impe- rial received the name of the lycee Condorcet. His wife, MARIE LOUISE SOPHIE DE, a sister of CONE 219 Marshal Grouchy and Mme. Cabanis, took a lively interest in his philosophical researches, and wrote herself some works which are not without merit. She also translated into French Adam Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiments" (Paris, 1798). She was born in 1765, and died Sept. 6, 1822. CONDOTTIERI (Ital., conductors), the com- mon designation of adventurers who, principally in Italy, during the 14th and 15th centuries, kept bands of soldiers which they hired out to the party that paid best. The burghers of the Italian municipalities, having by their control of the commerce with Asia become wealthy and prosperous, were slow to take up arms and risk their lives and fortunes for every petty quarrel with neighboring states. Hence they hired others to fight for them, not for a certain term of years, but by the job. The condot- tieri, then, were a kind of contractors, who, when a war was impending, made their bids accordingly. Having underbid one another in price, they not unfrequently increased their pay by plunder and booty. When the job was finished, they were loath to discharge their bands, but in order to keep them together they were compelled to fight and plunder on their own account. There was a kind of good fel- lowship between the condottieri, which they observed even when fighting under different colors. When one party was hired to put down another, the result generally was only a bloodless fight, the peaceable citizens being the only sufferers. Among themselves they had rules of warfare of their own. For instance, when they made a prisoner of their own class, they merely relieved him of the valuables he carried on his person and set him free without requiring ransom, while every outsider was made to pay heavily for his liberation. In the 15th century their wars were frequently mere shams. Thus, at a great battle near Zagonera in 1423, there were only three men killed ; and in 1467 a battle was fought near Molinella be- tween the condottieri of the pope and those of Naples, in which there was not even a sin- gle man hurt. Not infrequently they changed their allegiance on the very field of battle when they were offered better pay by the enemy ; nor did they hesitate to double or treble the price agreed upon after every real or sham victory. CONE, in geometry, a solid figure described by a straight line moving in such a way that it always passes through a given curve enclo- sing a portion of a plane and through a fixed point not in that plane. The fixed point is called the vertex of the cone, and the portion of the plane enclosed by the given curve is called the base o the cone. When the base is a circle, and the line drawn from the vertex to the centre of the circle is perpendicular to the plane of the circle, the figure is called a right cone. If the line drawn from the ver- tex to the centre of the base is not perpen- dicular to the plane of the base, the figure is called an oblique cone. So if a right-angled
