, of the French academy and that of Berlin, abbe of Mureaux, preceptor
, of the French
academy and that of Berlin, abbe of Mureaux, preceptor
of the infant don Ferdinand duke of Parma, was born at
Grenoble about the year 1715, and died of a putrid fever
at his estate of Flux near Baugenci, the 2dof August 1780.
Strong sense, sound judgment, a clear and profound knowledge of metaphysics, a well chosen and extensive reading,
a sedate character, manners grave without austerity, a style
rather sententious, a greater facility in writing than in
speaking, more philosophy than sensibility and imagination;
form, according to the opinion of his countrymen, the
principal features in the portrait of the abbe de Condillac.
A collection in 3 vols. 12mo, under the title of his Works,
contains his essay on the origin of human sciences, his
treatise of sensations, his treatise of systems; all performances replete with striking and novel ideas, advanced
with boldness, and in which the modern philosophic style
seems perfectly natural to the author. His “Course of
Study,
” Commerce and Government considered in their mutual relations,
” 12mo, a book which
has been decried by anti-qeconomists, and it is allowed by
his admirers that it might have been as well if the author
had not laid down, certain systems on the commerce
of grain; that he had given his principles an air less
profound and abstracted, and that on those matters that
are of moment to all men, he had written for the perusal of all men. It is observed in some of the abbe Condillac’s works, that he had a high opinion of his own merit,
and thought it his duty not to conceal it. He has also
been more justly censured for having, in his treatise of
“Sensations,
” established principles from which the materialists have drawn pernicious conclusions and that in
his course of study, he has, like an incompetent judge,
condemned several flights of Boileau, by submitting poetry,
which in its very nature is free, irregular, and bold, to the
rules of geometry. His works we may suppose are still in
favour in France, as a complete edition was printed in
1798, in 25 vols. 8vo.