25 DEC 2012 by ideonexus
Condorcet's Final Days
Condorcet,proscribed by a sanguinary faction, formed the idea of addressing to his fellow-citizens a summary of his principles, and of his conduct in public affairs. He set down a few lines in execution of this project: but when he recollected, as he was obliged to do, thirty years of labour directed to the public service, and the multitude of fugitive pieces in which, since the revolution, he had uniformly attacked every institution inimical to liberty, he rejected the idea of a useless just... 1 
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notesFrom the preface of Condorcet's book, describing his life and virtue in his final days and how he dedicated himself to the task of writing for the greater good.
14 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
The Benefits of Alchemy
But there is another alchemy, operative and practical, which teaches how to make the noble metals and colours and many other things better and more abundantly by art than they are made in nature. And science of this kind is greater than all those preceding because it produces greater utilities. For not only can it yield wealth and very many other things for the public welfare, but it also teaches how to discover such things as are capable of prolonging human life for much longer periods than ... 1 notes
notesAlchemy produces medicines and ways to produce useful compounds. It's not, as Bacon argues, just the frivolity.
