ABSTRACT

The aim of this chapter is related to the idea of Condorcet. Let us suppose that an enlightened people inhabits an island with a radius of ten leagues, and let us give this ideal society the following organisation. The nation’s members vote each year, as individuals, to elect the five best physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, physiologists, and authors. The parliament will dismiss from office any functionaries who abuse their authority. It will reward those who further the progress of the sciences, the arts, and industry. It will make regulations to govern the exercise of these powers. The parliament will use the money placed at its disposal, first, to maintain and improve educational institutions, and increase their number; and secondly, to give financial rewards to those who make discoveries useful to the sciences, the arts, and industry.