Note 227 — Chapter X
Reading edition
"On a vu des femmes très savantes, comme en fût des guerrières, mais il n'y en eut jamais d'inventrices." Dictionnaire Philosophique, sub voce Femmes. Condorcet, in commenting on this statement, remarks that "if men capable of invention were alone to have a place in the world, there would be many a vacant one, even in the academies."